Emerald Princess - 23 Dec -Panama Canal full transit

[d9704011]

4 hours ago, mrell345 said:

Ok so the transfers to LAX is a bit of a gong show getting people organized on the buses to leave 

I'd say 'gong show' is a polite understatement!  The entire airport transfer was the absolute worst I've ever experienced; uncoordinated, lack of buses, insufficient assistance to mobility-impaired, long delay.  Other than a major PITA for us, no impact as I booked our flight home for tomorrow at 1155 justbincase of disembarkation delays... but I never expected so ething like this.  So, tonight at the airport hotel watching the Bills squish the fish in Miami.

[EDVM96]

The Princess debark ShorEx (Venice & Santa Monica) went pretty smooth as I just heard.


Travel companion in the LAX Star Alliance Lounge

Edited January 7 by EDVM96

[mrell345]

We didn’t checkin till about 4 PM at LAX,  I have never gotten in so fast.  From curb to past security 25 mins.  Normally it is nuts here.

[kcl491]

mrell345, did you take the cruise airport transfer that seems to be a disaster?  How long did it take in total (from being called on the ship, through customs, on the bus and to the airport)?  In March, my travel partner and I expect to take a taxi from San Pedro to the airport, even though I've been warned that it could cost upwards of $100.  In the past I have had very bad luck with the ship transfers. Thanks for any information you can provide and thank you so much for your travelog.

[mrell345]

I wouldn’t say the transfer was a total disaster but it was not well organized, once we got on the bus and we departed we got to the airport in about 30 minutes.  They were trying to organize everybody so the busses had 1 or 2 terminals max to drop at (LAX has 7 terminals).  I would not recommend having flights before 2PM if you do it with the princess transfer.  To note, this was a Sunday morning and traffic was light.  If we had arrived on a weekday with heavier traffic it could have easily doubled the transfer time or more to the airport.  You also have to consider that LAX can be nuts at peak times and you should plan to be at the airport curbside at least 4 hours prior to departure.  They also had some technical issues with customs which delayed disembarkation by about 30 mins.  We have an 8 PM flight so we were not overly worried.

[Itried4498]

48 minutes ago, kcl491 said:

mrell345, did you take the cruise airport transfer that seems to be a disaster?  How long did it take in total (from being called on the ship, through customs, on the bus and to the airport)?  In March, my travel partner and I expect to take a taxi from San Pedro to the airport, even though I've been warned that it could cost upwards of $100.  In the past I have had very bad luck with the ship transfers. Thanks for any information you can provide and thank you so much for your travelog.

We paid $53 for an Uber to West Hollywood, with the driving passing right by LAX on the 405.  So I have to assume LAX would be a few bucks less (though like most airports it has a drop off fee).  It did take about 15 minutes for Uber to “connect” us to a driver.  
 

Note that Uber/Lyft fares generally drop later in the morning as swarms of drivers head to the pier to drop passengers off at the ship.

[Itried4498]

5 minutes ago, mrell345 said:

I wouldn’t say the transfer was a total disaster but it was not well organized, once we got on the bus and we departed we got to the airport in about 30 minutes.  They were trying to organize everybody so the busses had 1 or 2 terminals max to drop at (LAX has 7 terminals).  I would not recommend having flights before 2PM if you do it with the princess transfer.  To note, this was a Sunday morning and traffic was light.  If we had arrived on a weekday with heavier traffic it could have easily doubled the transfer time or more to the airport.  You also have to consider that LAX can be nuts at peak times and you should plan to be at the airport curbside at least 4 hours prior to departure.  They also had some technical issues with customs which delayed disembarkation by about 30 mins.  We have an 8 PM flight so we were not overly worried.

They’ve consolidated the ride share and Princess’ bus transfer into an isolated location.  I think it’s pretty well organized although the confusion seems to be not many people know where to go (although staff was pretty clear with its instructions).  Been this way for awhile it seems.

 

 

[mrell345]

19 minutes ago, Itried4498 said:

They’ve consolidated the ride share and Princess’ bus transfer into an isolated location.  I think it’s pretty well organized although the confusion seems to be not many people know where to go (although staff was pretty clear with its instructions).  Been this way for awhile it seems.

 

 

The problem was some staff were giving contradictory instructions and a couple of baggage handlers were piping up and should not have been saying anything.  They needed to have only a few people giving instructions and better communication amongst themselves.  

Edited January 8 by mrell345

[friend of Eeyore]

60 bucks plus tip I think for Lyft, but we may have had peak pricing. It was a mess at the transfer area, and the Lyft and Uber drivers aren't well directed, I think. Ours was looking for us in the taxi area at first.

After flight delays and a long drive, we are finally home. 

[Kerry's Girls]

On 12/25/2023 at 6:41 PM, Honolulu Blue said:

@mrell345: thanks for continuing to share these newsletters.

 

A few random comments about your day to come:

 

• Cartagena is an interesting city. I've been there twice and will be heading there in a few weeks (not on Princess)
• Nice to know the Emerald has a library, board games and specific hours for gaming. I'll be on the Emerald in a few months.
• I don't recall any future cruise presentations on my past cruises on Princess. The ones I attended on Carnival were mostly packed.
• The night's theme seems very clear
• 90s music trivia doesn't seem to fit the crowd that I would expect on a cruise line this. But I suspect I'd like it. I won a 90s music trivia contest some years ago - again, not on Princess
• I can't recall seeing a seeing eye dog notice on any of my cruises. I wonder what brought this on?

Sorry for the distraction. Enjoy the rest of your cruise!

Just wanted to note that the library has an amazing variety of really good novels/bestsellers, most with  multiple copies, including many copies of the new Barbra Streisand just as an example of how current and well-stocked it is.  

 

As for the dog - I also saw it a few times and didn't seem to be a trained service dog - had to be pulled on its leash because it would constantly stop to smell or eat something on the ground.  That said, it didn't bother us, just surprising.  This is the second time I've seen a dog on a cruise, but last time it was definitely a trained working dog.  

[Itried4498]

3 hours ago, Kerry's Girls said:

As for the dog - I also saw it a few times and didn't seem to be a trained service dog - had to be pulled on its leash because it would constantly stop to smell or eat something on the ground.  That said, it didn't bother us, just surprising.  This is the second time I've seen a dog on a cruise, but last time it was definitely a trained working dog.  

 

The likelihood of it being a service dog is slim to none.  Princess allows only working service dogs onboard for people with physical disabilities.  Early in the cruise, they had the dog in the MDR and it jumped  on their table, barked at people, etc.  Later they took it to the buffet only.  I saw the dog daily and it sent most of its time cuddling with its owner.  That's a pet, not a working service dog.

 

When we did a transatlantic on Royal last month, there were multiple pets dubbing as service dogs, so definitely not unique to Princess.

 

Some people's antics are disgusting.

[mrell345]

Overall this was a good cruise, the ship though needing some attention is in good shape, we had no major complaints about the food which in general was good.  Our room steward worked hard to keep our room clean and we had no complaints about the service.  We enjoyed our trip through the Panama Canal and the stops we made during the trip.  The shows in general were ok, everyone on board seemed to have shows they liked and others less so.

 

Departure day:

 We booked a private transfer and were dropped off at the terminal at 10:30, everyone on arrival, regardless of Captains circle status were funnelled into the same security line with the exception of handicapped.  After security we went up escalator where blue and green separated.  After green document verification platinum and elite went straight onto ship while everyone else got a group number and had to wait to be called as there were still a large number of people.  We are platinum so went right on.  About 30 mins for us from shuttle to ship.  Rooms were available at 1PM.  We had a quiet lunch in the Botecelli dining room as we didn’t feel like going up to the crowds in the buffet.

 

We had a balcony cabin, A218, forward on the port side, it was in good condition with a comfortable mattress and the flowers I had ordered for my wife were already in the room.  The stewart visited us within about 10 minutes of us getting to our room and introduced himself.  He left a contact card and told us the hours we could expect him for upkeep as he had a lot of cabins to take care of.  Sail away was delayed due to loading of luggage and stores, it was a busy day in Port Everglades with 8 ships in port.  Our luggage was delivered before supper.

 

Food:

Overall we had no complaints about the food on the ship, we mostly used the buffet for breakfast and lunch and ate in the Davinci dining room for supper.  We were generally at the buffet when they opened for breakfast at 06:00.  The food was good all around, yes they used powdered eggs for the scrambled so far as I can see but that is not an issue for me.  I have seen some reviews from others that were highly critical of the food (one went so far as to call it putrid) but honestly, I think most of these people must be used to eating in 5 star Michelin rated restaurants all the time or are very particular about their food.  As stated the food was good in the buffet though not what I would call exceptional. (I am also a veteran so I know what bad slop is)  The Buffet restaurant on Emerald has  filter coffee (very large pots) with both Regular and Decaf coffee offered.  They had a selection of normal Teas (including decaf breakfast tea) along with Splenda, Equal and Sweet and Low.  There were some Vegan and Gluten Free options with every meal at the buffet but not huge amounts of choice.

The Main Dining room food was generally well presented and of good quality, the service was good most of the time with the exception of it being a bit slower one or two nights which seemed to be caused when a couple of waiters were sharing assistants and were busier.  Only one night did the waiter forget to offer us Pepper.   We had one lady who was lactose intolerant with us for a couple of suppers and she always got to see the next nights menu and was able to discuss options with the chef if required.  They were able to adapt menu items to suit her needs.  The lobster tails they offered with meals a couple of nights were on the small side but not bad, I was able to order a second one those nights without additional charge.

Steamers (Casual dining choice Plus Package or $$):  We ate here twice and liked it both times.  Both times we went it was quiet and never full up.

Planks (Casual dining choice Plus Package or $$):  😞 We did not try it.

Slices:  Good pizza, there are a number of different pizzas of the day the cycle through (we had fun arguing about pineapple on pizza a couple of times)

Salty dog: Good hamburgers and Hot dogs, be ready to wait in line at lunch time as it is popular

Coffee and Cones: The soft serve is included, premium ice cream deserts here if you have a package, they ran out of cones 10 days into our 15 day cruise and just started serving it in the smaller plastic drink cups.  There is an expresso machine up here so if there is a huge lineup in the morning at the International café you can try your luck here. There are also a few coffee/ice cream drinks you can order here for a fee.

International Café:  Great location in the Piazza to sit and have a coffee (Package or $$, only buffet has no charge coffee).  There are meal options here depending on time of day.  Breakfast options include egg, cheese and bacon on English muffin, yogurts, fruit, muffins etc.  Lunch / Supper choices are sandwiches and dessert choices as well as the premium cakes.  There is Gelato $4.00 for 3 generous scoops, you cannot use packages for this.

Sabatinni’s and Crown Grill: Premium dining venues ($$ or Premium package), we didn’t go as we were enjoying the MDR food and didn’t want to pay extra for this.

Vines: Wine bar with crudities or charcuterie platter available ($$ after 4:30 PM), there was a selection of better wines available here by the glass that in the other dining venues.  We would sometimes get the wine here and take it with us to the MDR.  There are good choices that work with both Plus and Premium packages.

Premium Desserts:  For those that are taking the Princess Plus or Premium packages (We had Plus) there are the famous Premium desserts, I tried a couple during the cruise but didn’t make a habit of it because they are just too sugary and calorie rich.  The Premium ice cream deserts are 3 scoops of ice cream or gelato with syrup, candy and  whipped cream on top, good but just too sugary for my taste.  The cakes are not bad but they are huge slices with layers of cake and frosting which were hard for a single person to finish.

Alcoholic/non-alcoholic beverages: There was a good selection of wines, beers, spirits, non-alcoholic beverages and mocktails available ($$ or package) low end to high end choices.  You could order soda in a can with glass against your 15 package drinks no problems, though they started rationing the cans of diet coke after 11 days and ran out the last night.

 

 

Premium packages: (Visit Princess web site for full details of packages)

Princess Plus $60.00 per day, Premium $80.00 per day.

Everyone in the room must have the package, you can’t just have it for one person.

We had the plus package and it was convenient to have everything paid up front, I am not going to get into whether it was worth it or not as there are many threads on this.

We noticed a lot of the wait staff were just putting what we ordered down on a piece of paper with our room number and asking if we had the package instead of using their portable device to scan and check our names.  I heard a couple of people who apparently had things against their package that they did not order.  Suspicion was someone was gaming the system after overhearing a room number and name and was ordering things they were not entitled to.  One lady got pressured into purchasing the package not realizing it would be charged to both people in the room, went back to cancel it later that day and apparently was told there was a $140.00 per person cancellation charge ( I did not get this confirmed).

Ordering things for delivery using the App went well every time I did it, the only time one of the waiters got it wrong was when I ordered 4 bottles of water to be delivered to the room when I was up by the pool and he brought it to me at the pool instead.   

 

 

Cabins:  Our cabin was kept clean and we had fresh towels twice a day.  No complaints about our cabin steward.   I had put as part of the pre-check in process that we wanted bathrobes in the room but they were not there, my wife used the app to order one for herself and she had to ask the steward but it finally got delivered.  I heard one lady mention that she never got hers.

Internet:  The internet was pretty good for the cruise; it was not as fast as at home. But we were able to get everything done we needed and I was able to regularly upload photos to cruise critic and Facebook.

The App (old):  The princess app got the job done, we were able to locate each other on the ship when needed and order food and items as required.  The first day some people were having issues but it seemed to be when they were on the medallion net wifi and cell service at the same time.  Once they were in airplane mode and on medallion net only it worked better.  I just got alerted the new app was out after disembarkation on the last day.

Laundry:  You can either send out your laundry to be done ($$) or use the self serve laundry machines.  We found it convenient on the longer cruise as we don’t have to bring as much with us.  We ended up doing laundry on one of the sea days $3.00 per washer and $3.00 per dryer load soaps also available in vending machine in laundry room.

Weather:  We had excellent weather for the cruise, hot and humid, only starting to cool down as we sailed up to L.A. on the Pacific side.  We were also getting 3 to 4 meter swells in the Pacific causing the ship to rise and fall at the front and back, this is normal weather conditions for the Pacific and quite a few people were wearing patches behind the ear.  Even with the swells the weather was nice.

Stops and tours:  No complaints from us, we enjoyed our tours and the places the ship stopped, obviously the highlight of the trip was the transit of the Panama Canal (New Locks).  You can look at my thread during the trip to see pictures and comments there.

 

Shows:  Not bad but not fantastic either, we only had two shows we enjoyed, though the audience seemed to be enjoying themselves.  We didn’t get the Humorists jokes but a large part of the audience was laughing.  I imagine its hard for the entertainment staff to have a bunch of non repeating shows on a 15 day cruise, not like Broadway or Vegas where they run the same show for months at a time.

We had an enjoyable cruise and will be sailing with Princess again.  We like the Gem class ships though they are starting to show their age and you get a lot more dining choices on the Royals.  I imagine as the new Globe class (Sun) start coming online we will see them starting to be phased out.  I like the boardwalk.  During most of the cruise when it was hot and humid out most people were on the upper decks and there were lots of quiet locations on the ship, though for some reason they like playing loud music in the Piazza, I do like some ambiance in here but not so loud you can hear it all the way back in Crooners.  Some of the elevators were having issues, not going to certain floors and one of the Piazza glass elevators out the entire cruise.

The Premium packages need to be tweaked, you only get 2 dining and 2 fitness classes per cruise regardless of length (7, 14,15, etc).  I would suggest this should be per 7 days as we are paying the full $60.00/$80.00 per day regardless of the length.

 

The Captains Circle loyalty benefits are being eroded, no priority entry to cruise port and no free internet minutes for Platinum/Elite members.  They need to step up their game for loyal cruisers in the Captains Circle program.

 

[mrell345]

Forgot to mention dress code in MDR. For our cruise and in the Davinci dining room there didnt seem to be any enforced dress code.  Formal nights they were letting in people with T shirts, baseball caps and jeans.

[mrell345]

On 12/24/2023 at 8:15 AM, coldweather said:

 

Thank you for sharing your cruise adventures. Are all of the menus paper based or are they also in the app or a QR code on the table.  Thanks. 

Reaching back to this one, the menus at the table are paper based.  However I found later in the cruise that I could pull up the days menus on the stateroom TV if I wanted to see what was served for supper that night.

[friend of Eeyore]

1 hour ago, mrell345 said:

Reaching back to this one, the menus at the table are paper based.  However I found later in the cruise that I could pull up the days menus on the stateroom TV if I wanted to see what was served for supper that night.

I tried to find the evening menu in the app (old app), and failed miserably. It could have been me, though, and I didn't try the new app.

[friend of Eeyore]

19 hours ago, Itried4498 said:

 

The likelihood of it being a service dog is slim to none.  Princess allows only working service dogs onboard for people with physical disabilities.  Early in the cruise, they had the dog in the MDR and it jumped  on their table, barked at people, etc.  Later they took it to the buffet only.  I saw the dog daily and it sent most of its time cuddling with its owner.  That's a pet, not a working service dog.

 

When we did a transatlantic on Royal last month, there were multiple pets dubbing as service dogs, so definitely not unique to Princess.

 

Some people's antics are disgusting.

Dogs (owners?) like this give real service dogs a bad name, and their owners need to be banned from the line. I got in an argument over on Reddit about how did I "know" this wasn't a real working dog.

 

Real service dogs are valuable and needed. I coo over them (from a distance - allergies) and call them pupper and doggie. I love to see them.

 

Fake ones are an abhorance, and spread those allergens all over unnecessarily, just because their owners want to pet them. (Note the quote above "cuddling with its owner".) Luckily I only saw this one twice. 

[mrell345]

11 minutes ago, friend of Eeyore said:

I tried to find the evening menu in the app (old app), and failed miserably. It could have been me, though, and I didn't try the new app.

Stateroom tv, not the app

[canadarocks]

Thanks so much for your wonderful review! 

[friend of Eeyore]

11 minutes ago, mrell345 said:

Stateroom tv, not the app

Yes, you found it on the TV. I said I tried the app, and could not. I didn't think of trying the TV.  I'll know next time.

[Ellipooh]

2 hours ago, mrell345 said:

Forgot to mention dress code in MDR. For our cruise and in the Davinci dining room there didnt seem to be any enforced dress code.  Formal nights they were letting in people with T shirts, baseball caps and jeans.

 

Ughhhh.

[memoak]

59 minutes ago, friend of Eeyore said:

I tried to find the evening menu in the app (old app), and failed miserably. It could have been me, though, and I didn't try the new app.

We have always found all the menus for the day on the old app once on board. Sometimes we have to log off the app and log back on using name and cabin number

[friend of Eeyore]

7 hours ago, memoak said:

We have always found all the menus for the day on the old app once on board. Sometimes we have to log off the app and log back on using name and cabin number

Must have been me then. I was having issues with it. We had troubles finding the Sabatinis menu too, but found it eventually. Only tried once to find the evening menus, so it could have been glitching at that time - seemed to often. And I'm on Android, which I've heard is problemsome also.

[TheMichael]

13 hours ago, mrell345 said:

Overall this was a good cruise, the ship though needing some attention is in good shape, we had no major complaints about the food which in general was good.  Our room steward worked hard to keep our room clean and we had no complaints about the service.  We enjoyed our trip through the Panama Canal and the stops we made during the trip.  The shows in general were ok, everyone on board seemed to have shows they liked and others less so.

 

Thank you for the honest review! We'll be on the Emerald in April, and it's good to know that in general it's all in working order. The only thing missing is a review of the "house band" - as someone who spent most of my weekend nights at nightclubs or arenas for music, I find I'm generally disappointed in most cruise bands, but always optimistic in finding a gem at some point and sometimes content to "enjoy" the rough edges.

 

13 hours ago, mrell345 said:

Coffee and Cones: The soft serve is included, premium ice cream deserts here if you have a package, they ran out of cones 10 days into our 15 day cruise and just started serving it in the smaller plastic drink cups.  There is an expresso machine up here so if there is a huge lineup in the morning at the International café you can try your luck here.

 

Did they have espresso in the buffet as well? If not, that will change some of my caffeination strategy.

 

13 hours ago, mrell345 said:

Vines: Wine bar with crudities

 

So the bartender insults you while you drink? (I'm sorry, I can't let a bad autocorrect go by. 😁)

[mrell345]

5 hours ago, TheMichael said:

 

Thank you for the honest review! We'll be on the Emerald in April, and it's good to know that in general it's all in working order. The only thing missing is a review of the "house band" - as someone who spent most of my weekend nights at nightclubs or arenas for music, I find I'm generally disappointed in most cruise bands, but always optimistic in finding a gem at some point and sometimes content to "enjoy" the rough edges.

 

 

Did they have espresso in the buffet as well? If not, that will change some of my caffeination strategy.

 

 

So the bartender insults you while you drink? (I'm sorry, I can't let a bad autocorrect go by. 😁)

I can’t remember seeing an espresso machine in the buffet,  you could always order it on the app for delivery but it would be  quicker to  grab one on the way in.

[d9704011]

15 minutes ago, mrell345 said:

I can’t remember seeing an espresso machine in the buffet,  you could always order it on the app for delivery but it would be  quicker to  grab one on the way in.

I agree; the closest location for espresso is at the soft ice cream/pizza location on the port side between the deck 15 pools.