Emerald Princess - Live

[t&kwelburn]

I look forward to reading your posts everyday and truly appreciate them. Keep up the good work, you seem to have quite a following. We're sailing the Emerald next March , hopefully all the kinks will be ironed out by then.

[Steven&Tina]

Thanks for checking on the TV for me!

 

You Rule!

[spate]

^^^We're sailing the Emerald next week! I hope all the kinks are worked out by then....lol

[carma7007]

Hi wOkie-

A 4th of July Emerald here. I believe our itinerary is close to yours.

I look forward to reading your post every morning after all leave for school. They are informative, and fun, and I have started a note book to take with me per your experiences and suggestions.

I am traveling with teens. Have you heard anything good/bad about the teen club?

Also, the kids want to know what kind of souviners to get? What have you seen and what is your opinion.

 

Have you tried room service at all? My kids usually ate about half the dinners in the room, loved having the food brought to them and eating in bed. Not allowed at home.

 

Have a wonderful time.

[rockanroll]

;) ;) ;) ;)

 

:p We're leaving on the 5th, have Stateroom L230 on the Lido deck.

What do you hear about the Lido deck Staterooms?

Thanks for all the great info.

[Princess Chatterer]

9:30 pm on ship on way to Athens. Inet is painfully sloooooooow. I mean sloooooooow. But it's free. Laptops have to pay. 5x7 may be 6x8, I'll have to check. Photogs came into dining room tonight (not formal night) asking folks to pose for individual pictures. Not couples, individuals! This was right after waiter was halking cookbooks. Just like first night in dining room when waiters were halking wine tasting tickets. No access to back of ship on Caribe. I'll check Aloha and Baha but I seriously doubt it. Access to pools on back is through decks 15 (lido) 16 and 17. $3 for room service for pizza. All other room service is the same as on Princess ships except now there is a tip line on the room service receipt. Don't know about Lido cabins. Weather is cool. TV has six RCA jacks. One yellow, two white and three red. Menu has A/V option. The yellow jack is closest to the pole that holds the TV. TV also has S video and discrete outputs behind plastic panel. I'm told that Bingo no longer has push out tabs It now needs a stamper which Princess gladly sells for $1.50 or you can use your pen. I'm also told that they had discontinued the $10 bingo set and not only offer the $20 bingo pack. Bent Cave certainly remembers "Love will Keep Us Together" from his wedding 18 months ago. He'll be on Emerald until July then move to the Grand Princess then take a Christmas break. He says Princess wants him back on the Emerald in January. The water taxi stop in Venice nearest the ship is called "Tronchetto" It serves water taxi routes 72, 82 and N. It appears to be at the dock West of the Princess dock which means a brief walk from the ship to find it. To get to Murono and Burono you need to water taxi to the Fond Nuove water taxi dock then walk a short distance to a second Fond Nuove water taxi dock to connect to either Burono or Murono. Cheap, slow and fun. Essence set up watch sales tables which bring the Atrium deck 7 passage accross the Atrium to a complete grid lock before and after shows. I expressed my safety concern directly to Capt. Georgio Pomata who also had a sales table for $275 ship models nearby. He told me he was aware of the situation. Of course his sales table only added to the gridlock.

 

Carnival Freedom was in Katakolon today with us. That meant almost 6,000 people in a 300 resident harbor town with basically two short streets. As the Freedom pulled out beside the Emerald I was able to watch and hear part of the movie Rocky Balboa on their MUTS.

 

Katakolon had a sign near the ship saying the real name of this little port town is Katakono. Greek coffee in Katakolo was horribly BAD. Beyond bitter. More like mud. Good news in C752. The steward is now bringing real TP rolls rather than baby TP rolls. I always have the steward keep one extra roll in the bathroom just in case Noro strikes (not that this ever happens). The second Inet room next to this one is a pretend Inet room. Pretend in that the many computers will ONLY connect with Princess. Nothing else. The line outside this Inet room just has to stare at all the empty pretend Inet computers. Our Port guide yesterday said it was for Barcelona but is actually was for Corfu. At the top of the Atrium over the elevators is some very distictive iron work that looks like awning frames. Very classy. I'm not the only one on this ship that thinks that (con)Fusion art work looks very cheesy. The one show tonight was the Three Tenors. Two guys, dressed like frozen Explorers, on the Princess afternoon TV show told us, jokingly, that the fourth Tenor quit. A single from the U.K. told me her inside cabin for herself only went for 1.75% of the single price and she was being greatly disturbed by band practices in the Princess theater. She claimed that Princess told her she couldn't buy an outside cabin as a single. I don't like the bench seating in the dining room because tables for two have zero privacy. There seems to be plenty of talkative neighbors. Walked by one passenger who had a smelly Depend. Now I know why Depends are banned in the pools.

 

Enough talk for now. The line waiting for Inet time is growing longer.

 

Michael R.

Live on the Emerald Princess

[Pia1913]

Walked by one passenger who had a smelly Depend. Now I know why Depends are banned in the pools.

 

 

Michael, when you report, you really REPORT! :D :) :D

[seabourndt]

see theres \a couple of you oin the 5/5 sailing. iam doing the ROYAL PRINCESS. guesw we will still both be in santorini? no changes so far i guess. most of you will nopt see the naming i gues as most will be leaving the ship. i am still waiting to hear when our naming willl be as all tjhe actors are not in athens. weell have a great cruise and keep up the good work on the live from!! i will try to do one on my cruise by the way what is the internet rates? you are not uasing your own laptop i guess

dave

[BillandBev]

w0kie - thanks for the continuing updates - had to really laugh over the TP and Depends episodes!

 

Great News on the TV inputs! - to non-techies on this forum, most newer digital cameras (Sony Cypershot, etc.) come with cables that you can hook directly to the video & audio inputs of the TV and see on the screen. Same with the s-video connection from a laptop. Maybe you mentioned this earlier, but for people who don't bring their laptop, does Princess offer a download service to unload digital photos from a camera to a CD for latter printing? I can't imagine they would miss this opportunity!

 

Keep these great reports coming!

 

B&B

[mrspaper]

9:30 pm on ship on way to Athens. Inet is painfully sloooooooow. I mean sloooooooow. But it's free. Laptops have to pay. 5x7 may be 6x8, I'll have to check. Photogs came into dining room tonight (not formal night) asking folks to pose for individual pictures. Not couples, individuals! This was right after waiter was halking cookbooks. Just like first night in dining room when waiters were halking wine tasting tickets. No access to back of ship on Caribe. I'll check Aloha and Baha but I seriously doubt it. Access to pools on back is through decks 15 (lido) 16 and 17. $3 for room service for pizza. All other room service is the same as on Princess ships except now there is a tip line on the room service receipt. Don't know about Lido cabins. Weather is cool. TV has six RCA jacks. One yellow, two white and three red. Menu has A/V option. The yellow jack is closest to the pole that holds the TV. TV also has S video and discrete outputs behind plastic panel. I'm told that Bingo no longer has push out tabs It now needs a stamper which Princess gladly sells for $1.50 or you can use your pen. I'm also told that they had discontinued the $10 bingo set and not only offer the $20 bingo pack. Bent Cave certainly remembers "Love will Keep Us Together" from his wedding 18 months ago. He'll be on Emerald until July then move to the Grand Princess then take a Christmas break. He says Princess wants him back on the Emerald in January. The water taxi stop in Venice nearest the ship is called "Tronchetto" It serves water taxi routes 72, 82 and N. It appears to be at the dock West of the Princess dock which means a brief walk from the ship to find it. To get to Murono and Burono you need to water taxi to the Fond Nuove water taxi dock then walk a short distance to a second Fond Nuove water taxi dock to connect to either Burono or Murono. Cheap, slow and fun. Essence set up watch sales tables which bring the Atrium deck 7 passage accross the Atrium to a complete grid lock before and after shows. I expressed my safety concern directly to Capt. Georgio Pomata who also had a sales table for $275 ship models nearby. He told me he was aware of the situation. Of course his sales table only added to the gridlock.

 

Carnival Freedom was in Katakolon today with us. That meant almost 6,000 people in a 300 resident harbor town with basically two short streets. As the Freedom pulled out beside the Emerald I was able to watch and hear part of the movie Rocky Balboa on their MUTS.

 

Katakolon had a sign near the ship saying the real name of this little port town is Katakono. Greek coffee in Katakolo was horribly BAD. Beyond bitter. More like mud. Good news in C752. The steward is now bringing real TP rolls rather than baby TP rolls. I always have the steward keep one extra roll in the bathroom just in case Noro strikes (not that this ever happens). The second Inet room next to this one is a pretend Inet room. Pretend in that the many computers will ONLY connect with Princess. Nothing else. The line outside this Inet room just has to stare at all the empty pretend Inet computers. Our Port guide yesterday said it was for Barcelona but is actually was for Corfu. At the top of the Atrium over the elevators is some very distictive iron work that looks like awning frames. Very classy. I'm not the only one on this ship that thinks that (con)Fusion art work looks very cheesy. The one show tonight was the Three Tenors. Two guys, dressed like frozen Explorers, on the Princess afternoon TV show told us, jokingly, that the fourth Tenor quit. A single from the U.K. told me her inside cabin for herself only went for 1.75% of the single price and she was being greatly disturbed by band practices in the Princess theater. She claimed that Princess told her she couldn't buy an outside cabin as a single. I don't like the bench seating in the dining room because tables for two have zero privacy. There seems to be plenty of talkative neighbors. Walked by one passenger who had a smelly Depend. Now I know why Depends are banned in the pools.

 

Enough talk for now. The line waiting for Inet time is growing longer.

 

Michael R.

Live on the Emerald Princess

 

HOPE ALL IS WELL ON THE SHIP. WE LEAVE 5/29. REGARDING VENICE, CAN WE WALK FROM THE SHIP TO A VAP STOP. IS IT BEST TO TAKE THE CRUISE TRANSFERS.

[HopSingh]

wOkie-

 

Thanks for all your informative reviews. It's nice to have someone on board who can give a honest review as well as frank! I LOVE IT! :pAlso, It's nice to have someone, like you, who is located on the same floor as I will be on the Emerald in January. We have C 751. So, your reports about the rooms and steward really holds my interest. Enjoy your cruise! I wish I could talk my husband in to flying over to Europe for a cruise! That is my dream!:D

[daisy13]

Thanks for keeping us entertained! We are cruising in June from Barcelona to Venice in an inside cabin:eek: . At least we got an upgrade from L to ii.

Any idea what R507 looks like? It looks like we are right under a pool/spa.

On the ship diagram it shows the room running long ways instead of sideways.

What differences does that make?

 

Thank you very much!

[Princess Chatterer]

I'm up at 4:30 am to repost what I thought got eaten last night when Princess Inet timed out from CC. I was prepared to repost everything except my rude but true Depends comment. Everyone in the Internet room was complaining last night because nobody was getting any bandwidth and everybody was timing out. It is hugely frustrating to all. Why Princess can spend multi-millions of dollars building this ship and can't even get Internet to work in the evening is a complete mystery. I complained about Internet being down to the Canadian girl at the pursur's desk who could barely speak English and she said "Well it must be satellites." I told her that when we sailed the Med. from Istanbul to Barcelona on the Grand the Internet worked perfectly the entire way. It's now about 5 am as I edit this message in this very dark room and the Inet is starting to fill up. It's going to get ugly in here tonight as passengers line up again outside to get no service.

 

I discovered that my cell phone that worked in Italy wouldn't work in Katakolo(n). I'll check again today. We arrived early in Athens this morning and are now at the dock. We left one half hour late yesterday as one person went missing. That one person was found later safe and sound on the ship. I guess the dinger didn't ding. When I talked with the Capt. I didn't think he had much personality. Maybe he was having a bad day not being to sell many of his $275 ship models in the Atrium. In port I asked a young Carnival cruiser guy how he liked his Carnival cruise. His reply went something like "We'll I've got my women and that's what life's all about." He couldn't remember what ports they had been too. I think he must have been was having a "high" time on Carnival. One couple in Katakolo(n) in the early afternoon asked us if we wanted to share a cab to see the Olympic ruins. I said no because the ship leaves at 3:30 pm and there isn't enough time. They said we're not worried about the ship leaving us as we have credit cards and we can always take the train to Athens. Hmmm, I didn't see any train tracks in that dinky harbor town. We saw a few beautiful roses along the harbor as we walked into town. Probably planted by the chamber of commerce. Not long after that we saw that one cruiser lady had picked one of the largest roses and was walking proudly down the street with it. Very disappointing. We also saw two cruisers haggling with merchants over the exchange rate. I felt very sorry for the merchants who said it was their bank that set their exchange rate. Again it was very disappointing to see the attitude of some "It's all about me" cruisers. It's not uncommon for American's on this cruise to try to buy trinkets in U.S. dollars when the local merchants can only take euros. The pursur's desk will exchange euros for dollars anytime. It must be that the Americano's think they can get a better exchange rate by brow beating some local hole in the wall merchant.

 

I met a complaining lady from St. Louis at breakfast who hated everything about this cruise. I asked her if there was anything she liked. She said Yes there is one thing I like. "I like the closet." Some Brits at breakfast were complaining about everthing on this cruise plus complaining about Tony Blair and George Bush. I asked the British gentleman what he didn't like the most about Princess. He said it was that the Princess dining rooms didn't have a second story.

 

I think the biggest surprise on this cruise so far was the wall tax in Dubrovnik. Nowhere in any travel book did I read that you have to pay to walk on the wall. It seems that there are two stairs to the wall. The stairs near the busses from the port had the scammer money taker. The stairs at the far side of the wall had an honest money taker who told one passenger who was having a hard time walking that they could have their money back. We met some 10 years olds on a class field trip in Dubrovnik who were wearing colorful American T shirts with various American words on their shirts. They understood our English and replied in English. Just inside the wall on the right was a gellato ice cream store. You must try a gellato. It's like a sherbert only the flavor is much more intense. Last time in Italy I found that the cokes taste sweater. Bought a diet coke in Corfu for 2 e at the dock to test for sweetness later in the cruise. Happy days are here again. I finally got my T.A. wine credit after waiting 3 days for it to post. Of course the charge posted instantly. DW wanted the patio door open all night to hear the prop. water fall noise. To me it's just loud noise. While others on the ship are spending big euros for a Princess excursion in Athens we are spending 2 e pp rt for the metro subway to the Plaka, next to the Acropolis. I echo the comment from the first Emerald cruise about wearing non slip shoes in port. Most everywhere we've been have slick marble type walkways.

 

No live report tonight. I just can't bear to face the Inet room no service at prime time any more.

 

Michael R.

[Princess Chatterer]

P.S. The Inet Cafe PCs all have SanDisk ImageMate 12 in 1 memory card readers and web cams. Just don't try to use them at prime time. And you can't read attachments like PDFs and spread sheets from the web in the Inet Cafe. They are all blocked by Princess. This is why I created the Princess port schedule in text format. You can find that by following the link below.

[seabourndt]

fantastic reading your live posts it must be hard if the terminals are not working properly, iam hopuing to do the same on the ROYAL PRINCESS on 8th may. looking forward to some nof the same ports as yopu are doing. still nothibng about the naming of our ship. guess will will still see your ship in santorini.

dave

[JanMD]

Thanks for the live posts.

 

I totally agree witht he bench seats in the dinning room. There is no privacy at all for tables of 2 in the anytime dinning room.

Jan

[JotWorld]

Michael, when you report, you really REPORT! :D

 

Pia, I'll second that! Great reporting Michael, The Good, The Bad & the Ugly!(Depends);)

Could use you over here on the Pacific Princess, we need a Great Reporter!;)

My Best to you & enjoy the rest of your cruise on the New Beautiful Emerald Princess!

Jot:)

(Live on the Pacific Princess at Sea Down Under)

[Princess Chatterer]

The Emerald Princess Internet room was SHUT DOWN all day by the staff because of continuing no Internet service.

 

The only time I can get Internet to work in the Internet room is 4 am to 6 am. What's funny in a very sad situation is the Patter front page advertised laptop Internet service on the ship for $$$$$.

 

Now to Today on the ship - page one

 

The Story is the Premier of Boogie Shoes in the Princess Theatre. Wild surround sound - check, Wild MUTS like video graphics behind the performers - check, songs with lyrics never sung before in the world - check, stage full of light in the loafer cowboys ripping their shirts off revealing their hairless chests - check, stage full of short shorted cheerleader girls making suggestive moves - check, producers and costume designers from California in the audience wildly cheering their production - check, laser like high intensity strobes repeatedly burning the retinas of the entire AARP audience - check, music from one part of the show having nothing to do with music from another part of the show - check, a rockin' Gloria Estafan song that most everyone in the audience knew to conclude the show - check, home boy cruise director James going ape (blank) crazy on the stage cheering on a long list of names of the show producers, stage hands, janitors, everybody just like academy awards - check, Princess turning out all theater lights as the audience was only partly out of the theatre after the show ended - check.

 

Page two of today's news in next post.

[wtevrfltsurbt]

ROFLM_O:D

Too funny!

[Princess Chatterer]

The only hot food you can find on this ship between 4 am and 6 am is a room service hotdog or hamburger from room service. No hot food in the buffet or anywhere else on the ship. Since I've never been on the Crown a lot on this ship is new to me. My biggest discovery was the International Cafe on deck five. From 11 am to 5 pm ALL of their sandwiches, salads, pastries, cakes, cookies is complimentary. Makes a great place to snack after a tiring excursion. Right next door at the little bar I discovered they make same great frothy coffee I found at Sabatini's. Just ask for "Coffee - Americano" It's $1.50 plus 15% a cup. All they have to do is press the button "Coffee" on their expresso machine. That's it. Simply the best coffee anywhere in my opinion.

 

Yesterday the ship docked on the far right side of the Athens port which is called "Pier Esss" As we left the cruise ship terminal we were forced to walk through a huge crowd of taxi drivers standing around pleading for you to ride with them to Athens for 20 euros one way. No thank you. My DW and I walked maybe a mile north to catch the green line train to the Plaka area. We weren't the only ones doing this from the ship. Cost on the green line was 70 cents E pp one way. The stop we needed to get off on was in the port guide or Patter but we knew the name of the stop anyway. One of those long greek names that begins with an M. Sounds like Mon es tra ki. The streets in the Plaka area are VERY narrow and crowded and traffic was crazy. There as a W.C. in the Tower of the Winds nearby. The W.C. was free but to get in the ruins with the W.C. was either 2 e or 4 e. I brought along my hand held mapping GPS with an Athens map so navagating was easy except for losing GPS signals in a few of the very narrow streets. On the cross walk going to Hardrians arch in the park my wife saved my life. Really. We were in the median waiting for the green walking man. When the green man sign turned green I started to step into the street just when a racing city bus decided to run the red light and would have squashed me like a bug if she hadn't held on to my arm. I tell you this because extreme traffic danger awaits you in Athens anytime you leave the sidewalk. If you eat at one of those outdoor Athens cafes make double sure you know the price of each menu item you order. The waiter will always recommend the latest greatest selection which just happens to be their most expensive item and of course the price is not in the menu. As in Venice the bread they automatically bring you is added to your bill.

 

I will post Page two now because Internet may die at any given moment on this multi-million dollar ship.

[Princess Chatterer]

Last night they had real burning candles at each table in the dining rooms. In Sabatini's they have little battery candles. Go figure. In Athens when we returned to the ship we had to go through XRay in the port building and again on the ship. Yesterday I was one of the drink winners for answering the question about what part of a ship travels farthest when circumnavigating the globe. Lisa on TV promised that the drink prize coupon would be delivered to my stateroom during the day. Didn't happen. Some things like promised prizes and promised ship board credits seem to take days to arrive on this ship.

 

Gridlock in the Atrium and in the hall to the photo gallery on deck seven after the show reached complete and total blockage levels. Even more shop tables were added last night to the skinny walkway and the shoppers of course had to stop and shop completely blocking the only aisle across the Atrium. The problem is Crooners completely blocks the other side of the Atrium on deck seven. Adding to the gridlock was complete traffic flow stoppage in front of Explorers due to folks wanting to watch a comedian or whatever from the walkway.

 

I mentioned earlier the afternoon TV show with the "Explorers" These were two really funny guys I met yesterday as they were leaving the ship for some other ship. They said they would be back on the Emerald before long.

 

Today we dock in Mykonos. Not one mention in the Patter or the Port guide about the lifestyles of many of the residents on this island. All the guide books talk about that but not word said on Princess. After watching Boogie Shoes I think I've figured out why. No need to go figure. The ship docks far to the north of the city and we have to pay 8 E pp rt at the Princess tour desk to get a ride to town. Princess says we shouldn't walk because there are no sidewalks to town. After nearly getting killed yesterday by walking in traffic I believe I'll take the bus.

 

The lights just came on automatically in the Internet Cafe which means that Internet is about to die so I post. More Emerald Princess news at 4 am tomorrow IF the Internet is working.

[montananan]

sorry double post

[montananan]

Wow, and I thought the people on our cruise were critical. I was on the 4/11 cruise and had a fantastic time. My only comment was that the person who cleaned our bathrooms never learned to clean. He cleaned the inside of the toilet once in 5 days and nothing else in the room. the second to last day, the bathroom was finally cleaned. the food was good, but a bit bland for my tastes, and way too many choices. That really did not stop me from eating way too much. We enjoyed all the ports we went to and had arranged private tours at several of them. Each one of those tours were excellent and would recommend to anyone. In most cases the savings was substantial compared to the ship tours. We are thinking of taking the Pricess cruise Oct 2008 that goes to Cairo. That is how much we enjoyed the ship, the area and all the ports. We had excellent weather everyday. In the evenings it was a bit cool for us to enjoy MUTS, but found enough to keep me awake until 11

 

Nancy

[Aquafit2]

Wookie....I have heard that you can purchase an ice cream card. Is that true? Kind of like the Coke card only there is a limit to how many ice creams you can get?? We are on the June 22nd sailing and my 15 year old is mostly concerned about the ice cream.........LOL!!! Imagine that..

We are spending $30 K on the family trip of a life time and all he cares about is the ice cream!!

 

Keep up the good work! I am really enjoying your posts!1

 

:)

[Kiwi Kruzer]

Thanks for the great reports.

Looking good in Mykonos........