LIVE: Emerald Princess, Boston to Quebec, August 28, 2024-September 7, 2024. Geoherb

[geoherb]

Relaxing in our cabin now. I've been up since 3 a.m. and did not sleep well before then. Our flight from Raleigh was uneventful. We got to Boston a little after 9. We hung around at the airport until 10 and then walked to the parking garage to call an Uber. It was $25 before tip. Traffic wasn't bad until we got to the port. It took 15 minutes to go the last half mile. It would have been quicker for me to get out and walk. At least we weren't in a taxi watching the meter keep clicking for every minute of waiting time.

 

We got to the port at 10:45. We waited in line about 15 minutes before they let us go through, showing our passports to an officer. And then we waited again for about 30 minutes. Around 11:30, they let us go up the escalators. They stopped the line a few people behind us. I estimate around 100 people were ahead of us. Going through security was fine for those of us who listened. I had an empty plastic water bottle and threw it away. The woman ahead of me had full bottles of "water" that she tried to sneak through. The X-ray picked them up. The security guy told her he'd have to throw them away. I saw several other plastic bottles in the bin underneath his table. I did not see a table to declare wine, but it may have been there. 

 

Checking in was a breeze. We received our medallions in the mail a couple of weeks ago. They had a small area for priority passengers. It was set up with little pastries, water, orange juice, coffee, and hot water for tea. One woman, who is an in-transit passenger, was upset that she couldn't get back on the ship immediately. She got off to do some shopping in an Asian market and had a couple of bags full of things. But she had to wait until they cleared the ship like the rest of us. But she let everyone know how unhappy she was.

 

They started boarding at noon. We had received a notice on the travel summary not to get to the port before noon because of a delay for Immigration. 

 

1. "Please be advised that on Wednesday, August 28, Emerald Princess will be entering the United States for the first time following an international itinerary, and must undergo a full immigration inspection for disembarking guests and crew upon arrival in Boston. As a result, the terminal will be closed to embarking guests until noon on this day.
2.  
3. "Please do not arrive at the terminal earlier than the noon to 3:00 PM boarding period as we cannot begin embarkation until immigration processes are completed, and crowding may slow operations. You can view the check-in start and end times on your OceanReady boarding pass in the Princess Cruises app."

 

 

 

Edited August 28 by geoherb

[geoherb]

Here are photos of the food and beverage in the priority are:

 

 

[geoherb]

We ate lunch in the dining room. It was the Botticelli, at the back of the ship. They told us cabins were not ready, so we took our carry-on bags with us to lunch. It was the standard menu. We had talked with a woman while waiting to board the ship. She had gotten separated from her husband. She invited us to join them and two friends who are traveling with them. They're from Victoria. We enjoyed meeting them. All of us ordered the medallions of beef. Mine was more done than I ordered and also included the sauce, but I did not send it back. I'm glad the woman we met asked for horseradish sauce. That was just what the beef needed.

 

I ordered an appetizer size portion of the ravioli. It's not very photogenic, but it tasted great. I had a fruit plate for dessert. I forgot to take a photo of the beef.

 

 

[geoherb]

We have a standard inside cabin on the Caribe Deck. It's forward of the front stairs but not by much. It's a great location for me since I like to take the stairs. We're three flights up from the Promenade and four flights below the Lido. I booked it as a Cat. IF guarantee. It's a Cat. IE--just a slight upgrade. Someone in the Facebook group said they successfully bid for an upgrade from an inside to an obstructed view. I had bid, but we got a rejection email a couple of days ago. We received our cabin assignment five days ago.

 

Here are some photos of our cabin before we mess it up too much. I included the photos of our free minibar for being Elite. 

 

I will be covering the sensor on my side of the bed.

[LACruiser88]

Enjoy your cruise!  🛳

[travelloverontario]

I am SO happy you are doing a review!!! I board Emerald in QC on the 7th. Are you disembarking or doing a b2b?

 

It will be great to get very recent information...I appreciate that!

[LawDog61]

Looking forward to your review.   I know the Emerald well, and we know geoherb does good reviews.   Have a great cruise.

[geoherb]

14 minutes ago, travelloverontario said:

I am SO happy you are doing a review!!! I board Emerald in QC on the 7th. Are you disembarking or doing a b2b?

 

It will be great to get very recent information...I appreciate that!

 

We are disembarking in Quebec City and spending one more night there before flying home.

 

 

[geoherb]

Here's today's Patter. We're planning on going up for the sailaway party in a few minutes. 

 

Our cabin steward introduced himself. He said we were among the fortunate ones--not waiting for checked bags. We only checked one bag. I'm still amazed we made it sharing, but DH packed a lot in a carry-on bag. 

 

Anyway, our cabin steward is Romeo. We recognized him from five years ago on the Crown Princess transatlantic cruise. It's always nice to see crew members again.

 

 

[andimark]

Looking forward to your review - we get on in Quebec on 9/27.

[Astro Flyer]

Looking forward to sailing vicariously with you on your cruise…have a great cruise! 😃

 

On a future cruise we’ll sail between the same two ports & having never been to the Canadian ports of Charlottetown & Saguenay looking forward to reading about your experiences in these cities.

Buon Viaggio! 🎉🥳🍾🥂

 

[dickinson]

Enjoy your cruise!  On my recent cruise I used the decorative pillow from the bed to put on the floor up against the night stand.  Did the trick but steward put it in a bag under the bed when he did the turndown.  I quickly discovered where it was and used it every night.  I can't believe how bright those lights are!

[Coolmama_1]

Looking forward to reading about your cruise. Have a fabulous time!

[geoherb]

Thanks, everyone. The sailaway party on the deck was the usual, but I took DH since he had not seen it before. The ship was scheduled to leave at 4. We were blocked in by the Celebrity Eclipse, though, and ended up leaving around 8. Or at least that's what the captain said. We enjoyed our sailaway drinks at the front of the ship on the Lido Deck, above the bridge. 

 

We went to the Platinum, Elite, and suite event at Skywalkers. It was nice. I talked with one of the future cruise folks. She said the previous cruise had a ton of Platinum and Elite folks. We sent out our first laundry bag last night. We'll see how long it takes to come back.

 

The food at the event was nice. The featured item was guacamole and tortilla chips. The hot item was fried shrimp with a chili sauce. They had the usual selection of cheese, crackers, veggies, a Greek salad, fruit, some dessert I did not pay attention to, and rolls. They were missing the little pretzels that are so good.

 

 

[geoherb]

We enjoyed drinks at Adagio to meet new friends then went back to the cabin to change for dinner. Our reservation was for 7:20 at Michelangelo. They were backed up with people waiting. We stood there around 10 minutes, and probably had another 10 to go. Fortunately, one of our new friends who was on the last cruise invited us to join him. He had a table for four but was dining alone. He is from Durham, just 10 miles away from where we live in Raleigh. Small world. He's living the life. He's staying on for the return to Boston--ending up a total of 47 days on the ship. He said there were quite a few who stayed on the ship after the Greenland cruise. And he said some inconsiderate folks who did not show up was one of the reasons they did not start boarding until noon yesterday.

 

Dinner was good. I had an appetizer size portion of the pasta with clams, the black bean and sweet potato soup, and a main course size portion of the garlic shrimp appetizer.

 

I went to bed after dinner. DH went to the show. I'll find out how much he enjoyed the singer when he wakes up.

 

 

[geoherb]

DH said the singer was great. He said there were plenty of seats available at the second show.

 

Here are some photos of areas around the ship: Crooners, the library, Wheelhouse, piazza, Explorers Lounge, and Sanctuary and spa pool.

 

 

 

 

[geoherb]

I was up early and got an herbal hot tea at the International Cafe. Here are photos of the breakfast items from this morning. We'll eat breakfast in the dining room, so I was tempted but did not get anything other than the tea.

 

 

[geoherb]

I took some photos of the breakfast setup in the World Fresh Marketplace. These were taken right before this side opened up for service.

 

 

[geoherb]

And here's a photo of the sunrise as the ship sailed into Portland Harbor.

 

 

[paddingtonbear]

Looking forward to reading about your cruise - I love reports. Hope you have a fabulous cruise. Thanks for the gluten free food photos. When will the learn to make nice GF bread? 

[whitecap]

geoherb; thanks for doing the live from the Emerald.  Very interested in the ships condition, staffing and service as we are booked for this November.  We last sailed on the Emerald in September 2010, which was our very first cruise and we really enjoyed the ship.  Looking forward to all the pictures and information. Have a great time!

[HotRoot]

8 minutes ago, paddingtonbear said:

Looking forward to reading about your cruise - I love reports. Hope you have a fabulous cruise. Thanks for the gluten free food photos. When will the learn to make nice GF bread? 

Don't know about "nice" but the table next to us always received GF bread.  They ate it.

[geoherb]

7 minutes ago, whitecap said:

geoherb; thanks for doing the live from the Emerald.  Very interested in the ships condition, staffing and service as we are booked for this November.  We last sailed on the Emerald in September 2010, which was our very first cruise and we really enjoyed the ship.  Looking forward to all the pictures and information. Have a great time!

 

Thanks. So far, I have not noticed anything bad about the condition of the ship. But compared to my cruise on the Island Princess in June--when my cabin and four adjacent cabins flooded from a burst fresh water pipe--it would have to be something major. We also had a couple of times on the Island when they had to shut off the water to make repairs and one time when they cut off the HVAC.

[HotRoot]

What is the deal with the library?  I went before breakfast on Day 2 and there were probably 100 books in the library and most were in a language other than English.  I stopped in every time I walked past and that was it the entire cruise.  Do people get onboard and grab a stack of books to keep in their cabin the entire cruise?  I thought the idea of a "library" is to borrow a book; return it; pick out another book.  Where did all of those books in your picture come from?

[geoherb]

11 minutes ago, paddingtonbear said:

Looking forward to reading about your cruise - I love reports. Hope you have a fabulous cruise. Thanks for the gluten free food photos. When will the learn to make nice GF bread? 

 

I never try to gluten free breads. One of our tablemates several years ago was gluten free. She received the menu for the next night at the end of each dinner. She also had a couple of slices of gluten free bread each night in her own little bread basket. She must have thought it was OK.