First Impressions of Emerald…Not Great :/

[JimmyVWine]

6 minutes ago, mamamusings said:

Actually, the pool/tub hours were not on the event sheet, which is why we asked. I even asked if they were printed or posted anywhere, and they said no. Their supervisor was standing right next to them, and also didn’t know. 🤷‍♀️

Wow.  So nobody on the ship knew.  How odd.  

[mamamusings]

Okay, y’all—to clarify, I was not comparing the ships so much as I was comparing the overall experience of the trip. (And we didn’t have a lot of options for ships on this itinerary. )

 

What this reinforces for me is that, as seemed to be implied at the meet and greet, Princess doesn’t seem to place a priority on services and entertainment on these “short” 7-day trips. 
 

It’s still early in the trip, though, so there’s plenty of time for me to change my mind!

 

(Thanks for the explanations on the room number thing—that makes a lot of sense!)

[Cruise Raider]

I believe the naming issue for the Salty Dog will be solved soon .. the Slaty Dog Gastropubs will all be turned into O’Malleys 

 

[Mike45LC]

38 minutes ago, Kay S said:

This is slightly off topic, but I was under the impression that ships with an indoor Salty Dog Gastropub did not also call the grill Salty Dog but still Trident Grill.  Ships without the indoor venue renamed the grill "Salty Dog."  Of course, I could just be imagining the whole thing. 🙂

 

If our friends are happy with NCL, they should continue with them.  The beauty of cruising is that we have choices.  (See you very soon, HAL.)

Kay, on the Emerald P., the Trident Grill was renamed the Salty Dog Grill.  The Emerald also has the Salty Dog Gastropub inside (or adjacent to) the Wheelhouse Bar.    

[californiagirl]

Mamamusings I understand completely where you are coming from.  In 2013 I talked my sisters in law to a girls cruise out of San Pedro.  It was a four day California coastal on Golden Princess (no longer in the Princess fleet).  It felt like, as you said, a second class cruise from the food to the entertainment to the condition of the ship etc.  I regretted not taking them on a seven day cruise on a newer ship.  One of them refuses to cruise to this day because of the poor experience.  
 

My husband and I have been on other shorter Princess cruises that have been wonderful.  I hope you give Princess another try on a longer cruise and a newer Royal Class ship.  

[sunviking90]

22 minutes ago, Mike45LC said:

Kay, on the Emerald P., the Trident Grill was renamed the Salty Dog Grill.  The Emerald also has the Salty Dog Gastropub inside (or adjacent to) the Wheelhouse Bar.    

That is indeed very confusing. Sadly, there is no Nordstroms though 😉 

[snoozecrooze]

2 hours ago, mamamusings said:

What this reinforces for me is that, as seemed to be implied at the meet and greet, Princess doesn’t seem to place a priority on services and entertainment on these “short” 7-day trips. 

I'll be honest, this statement you were told by an officer, and the reinforcement of this, really confuses me. We've done the usual 7-day jaunts that Princess does and by no means did we feel entertainment offerings were being sacrificed compared to what we've had on longer itineraries, especially on the larger Royal-class vessels (which would be a more appropriate 1:1 comparison to the Bliss). I'm curious to know what specific plans you were looking forward to that were advertised but are essentially not happening?

[JGmf]

18 hours ago, mamamusings said:

when the officers kept answering questions by saying that on “short cruises” like this one they just weren’t able to do some of the entertainment people like

 

How many days is your cruise?  Seven?  If so, I'm kind of stunned that it's considered 'short'. 

 

(...and rather concerned as we're doing the 7 day California Coastal in mid-June...).

 

[Kay S]

3 hours ago, Mike45LC said:

Kay, on the Emerald P., the Trident Grill was renamed the Salty Dog Grill.  The Emerald also has the Salty Dog Gastropub inside (or adjacent to) the Wheelhouse Bar.    

Well, that's confusing.  Good thing they are renaming the pubs.

[Torfamm]

8 hours ago, Roberto256 said:

Isn't it confusing for princess to have a 'Salty Dog Grill' and a 'Salty Dog Gastropub' ?

 

They seem to be phasing out the Gastropub. O’Malley’s Irish Pub has replaced it on the Enchanted 

[Torfamm]

4 hours ago, mamamusings said:

Okay, y’all—to clarify, I was not comparing the ships so much as I was comparing the overall experience of the trip. (And we didn’t have a lot of options for ships on this itinerary. )

 

What this reinforces for me is that, as seemed to be implied at the meet and greet, Princess doesn’t seem to place a priority on services and entertainment on these “short” 7-day trips. 
 

It’s still early in the trip, though, so there’s plenty of time for me to change my mind!

 

(Thanks for the explanations on the room number thing—that makes a lot of sense!)

I’m sorry that your cruise got off to such a bad start! Hoping things improve for you. I’ve had good experiences on 7 night cruises, they are not always lacking.

We did have a back to back on the Caribbean Princess this spring with very limited activities and entertainment on both 7 day itineraries though. I chalked it up to the Norovirus problem they were having, but it was really disappointing. I can imagine your feelings.

[KeepCalmBearOn]

7 hours ago, RNRcruisers said:

We have been on NCL and prefer Princess but of course that is subjective.

 

I've been on NCL and Princess too. I don't prefer either. I choose them for different reasons and expect different experiences.

 

6 hours ago, Roberto256 said:

But, like always, there are posters here who will defend anything princess does.

 

Kind of like always, there are posters here who will attack anything Princess does.

 

4 hours ago, mamamusings said:

Actually, the pool/tub hours were not on the event sheet, which is why we asked.

 

In my experience the pool hours can vary day to day depending on weather and movement of the ship. My guess is they'd get just as many complaints if they published times and then delayed an opening or closed early due to conditions.

 

2 hours ago, snoozecrooze said:

I'll be honest, this statement you were told by an officer, and the reinforcement of this, really confuses me. We've done the usual 7-day jaunts that Princess does and by no means did we feel entertainment offerings were being sacrificed compared to what we've had on longer itineraries..

 

My interpretation of the comments is that on a 7 day cruise, you are not going to get 3 or 4 production shows like you might on a 14-19 day cruise; you are going to get 1, maybe 2.

[snoozecrooze]

25 minutes ago, scottca075 said:

is that on a 7 day cruise, you are not going to get 3 or 4 production shows like you might on a 14-19 day cruise; you are going to get 1, maybe 2

Right, which is also where my mind went to when I first read it, but that hasn't been the case for me in my 7-day jaunts (still got 3 shows). Perhaps this is a ship-specific situation, but regardless, it's a bit appalling that a comment like that was even made and OP is rightfully confused and unhappy that, as a first time cruiser, this is the impression they were being presented. Hopefully things turn out for the better.

[Thrak]

10 hours ago, voljeep said:

you have to scroll after putting the sandwich in your cart and order condiments (mayo) separately

 

Extremely easy to do if ordering from the TV. When in the cabin we always order via the TV as it's much simpler.

[KeepCalmBearOn]

1 hour ago, snoozecrooze said:

Right, which is also where my mind went to when I first read it, but that hasn't been the case for me in my 7-day jaunts (still got 3 shows). Perhaps this is a ship-specific situation, but regardless, it's a bit appalling that a comment like that was even made and OP is rightfully confused and unhappy that, as a first time cruiser, this is the impression they were being presented. Hopefully things turn out for the better.

 

I just looked at two sets of Patters for the Majestic in 2022 and in 2023 and on both 7 Day cruises we had two production shows, Encore and Sweet Soul something. There were shows every night in the Princess Theater, twice a night, but only two were production shows. I'd be pretty surprised if on a 7 Day cruise a third production show were put on.

 

[Mike45LC]

1 hour ago, scottca075 said:

My interpretation of the comments is that on a 7 day cruise, you are not going to get 3 or 4 production shows like you might on a 14-19 day cruise; you are going to get 1, maybe 2.

On every seven day Princess cruise I've taken, if I recall correctly, there have been two production shows.  This month, a 16 day cruise had three production shows -- based on the seven day schedule, we would have been "entitled" to 4 or 5 production shows.  So the seven day cruises won as to number of productions shows per night.

[Roberto256]

13 hours ago, scottca075 said:

Kind of like always, there are posters here who will attack anything Princess does.

 

There are some posters who take the CRITIC past of Cruisecritic very seriously.

 

[Roberto256]

19 hours ago, JimmyVWine said:

The buffet areas on the Royal Class are world's apart from the Grand Class ships, as if Princess was saying: "We know we need to do better here", and they did. 

A reasonable response might be to upgrade the grand class ships.

 

They did some of that once, when they changed the layout all the way aft where they typically have deserts.

 

They could certainly better utilize "Cafe Carib" rather than have simply duplicate the horizon court line.

 

[JimmyVWine]

33 minutes ago, Roberto256 said:

A reasonable response might be to upgrade the grand class ships.

Space and kitchen configuration limits how much they can upgrade.  And again, an apples to apples discussion would have us comparing how NCL has upgraded its buffet areas in ships launched in 2006-2009.  Is it fair to whipsaw Princess for not doing what NCL also did not do? (Assuming that they haven't made significant changes.)

[KeepCalmBearOn]

1 hour ago, Roberto256 said:

There are some posters who take the CRITIC past of Cruisecritic very seriously.

 

Perhaps too seriously?

[startedwithamouse]

18 hours ago, mamamusings said:

Okay, y’all—to clarify, I was not comparing the ships so much as I was comparing the overall experience of the trip. (And we didn’t have a lot of options for ships on this itinerary. )

 

What this reinforces for me is that, as seemed to be implied at the meet and greet, Princess doesn’t seem to place a priority on services and entertainment on these “short” 7-day trips. 
 

It’s still early in the trip, though, so there’s plenty of time for me to change my mind!

 

(Thanks for the explanations on the room number thing—that makes a lot of sense!)

You have two production shows on a 7 night cruise. Which entertainment are you missing?

[startedwithamouse]

14 hours ago, scottca075 said:

 

I've been on NCL and Princess too. I don't prefer either. I choose them for different reasons and expect different experiences.

 

 

Kind of like always, there are posters here who will attack anything Princess does.

 

 

In my experience the pool hours can vary day to day depending on weather and movement of the ship. My guess is they'd get just as many complaints if they published times and then delayed an opening or closed early due to conditions.

 

 

My interpretation of the comments is that on a 7 day cruise, you are not going to get 3 or 4 production shows like you might on a 14-19 day cruise; you are going to get 1, maybe 2.

Which ship has 4 production shows?  

[KeepCalmBearOn]

1 minute ago, startedwithamouse said:

Which ship has 4 production shows?  

 

I will check my old Patters, but as I remember they were 17 Day and 19 Day cruises, and get back.

[Cruise Raider]

42 minutes ago, startedwithamouse said:

Which ship has 4 production shows?  

42 minutes ago, startedwithamouse said:

I’ve ever only seen 2 different production shows on any cruise, a couple of which were over 2 weeks.  Like you, I’m finding it hard to believe any ship would actually have 4 .. unless you count each performance, two each of the two nights for a total of 4.  
 

During the low capacity cruises, sometimes they reduced the two shows to one per night and had it at 8:30 PM instead of one at 7:30 and 9:30.  
And, a couple of times, the production team was in quarantine after exposure to CoVid.  I suppose if enough are sick, ethyl have to replace the production shows with other entertainment. We’ve seen that happen in the past.  
 

But, back to the point, like you, I’ve still never seen 4 unique production shows on any single cruise.  
 

[startedwithamouse]

28 minutes ago, Cruise Raider said:

I’ve ever only seen 2 different production shows on any cruise, a couple of which were over 2 weeks.  Like you, I’m finding it hard to believe any ship would actually have 4 .. unless you count each performance, two each of the two nights for a total of 4.  
 

During the low capacity cruises, sometimes they reduced the two shows to one per night and had it at 8:30 PM instead of one at 7:30 and 9:30.  
And, a couple of times, the production team was in quarantine after exposure to CoVid.  I suppose if enough are sick, ethyl have to replace the production shows with other entertainment. We’ve seen that happen in the past.  
 

But, back to the point, like you, I’ve still never seen 4 unique production shows on any single cruise.  
 

We had one production show a night, at 9pm, when ships first returned. Only a couple hundred guests.  This was on the Grand, shows were British Invasion and I think Sweet Soul Music or Colours of the World. We also had the Christmas production show on Christmas day.  Not sure that counts as three as Christmas is unique.

 

The most we've had is three unique ones during a 12 night cruise on the Emerald in 2018, Colours of the World, Magic to Do and Stardust.

Edited May 23, 2023 by startedwithamouse