Emerald Princess - Live

[lynn21]

wOkie - thanks for fantastic reports but tell me - when do you sleep?? My DH and I are on the Emerald on the 22 June sailing and we hope to do our own thing at each port. Are you able to get city maps on the ship? Several years ago we went to the Baltic with HAL and they had a designated desk with a guy giving info to those who wanted to go out on their own.

 

It seems they have a serious flow problem in the Atrium - I hope they get it sorted soon. Perhaps you should suggest that they sell their tacky chains somewhere else!

[producegirl]

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

I will be in C751 on the 12/26 and 1/5 Cruise. I too am really interested in all the Cabin news.

Thanks for all your hard work!

[spongerob]

Greek coffee in Katakolo was horribly BAD. Beyond bitter. More like mud.

Now we know where Princess gets their Horizon Court coffee.

[Pia1913]

Thanks Michael. As always, enjoying your reports.

 

To those future cruisers, you can use the WC at McDonalds.

[regnig]

Michael I've so enjoyed reading (and laughing) through all 6 pages just now. I've been out of town, e-gad :eek: some place with no internet (well that's not really true - just my choice), and just had to make reading your ***live from*** my 1st order of business now that I'm home.

 

Only Princess can cause a complete stop of foot traffic with just a table or two. :rolleyes: Have you ever seen the likes of some people - HEY look they are selling watches!!!! Now isn't that why you've paid all this money to take a cruise!??! Go figure. Loved the "talking Japanese", hate it when you haven't a clue as to what they are saying. I must admit I'm like your DW as I love to sleep with the balcony doors open as I love the sound of the moving water.

 

I do think there is a job out there for you as a "Quality Control" expert. If Princess had paid you to sail the Emerald prior to her Inaugural Sailing she would probably be in perfect shape right now.

 

Keep your posts coming - provided that is that Princess has enough AAA batteries to keep the link up.

 

Barb

[Princess Chatterer]

First the news about the Inet Cafe as I start typing at 4:30 am. Normally around 5:30 am the Inet Cafe will be starting to fill. At 6:00 am most of the 24 Inet terminals were being used. Let's think about this. Over 3,000 mostly Internet savy, flat earth people and 24 terminals, assuming they all work. What percentage would that be? Over my shoulder I can see one terminal down already. It's now 4:51 am and the Inet users are already starting to shuffle in. I'm now starting to think that the Inet problem on this brand spanking new ship is bandwidth allocation. Right next door to the Inet room is a room full of terminals which only connect to Princess.com. That room sits empty day and night. I wonder how much bandwidth was allocated to that router. Folks on the ship are resorting to searching for Internet Cafes on shore now.

 

As previously mentioned there is a VAP stop in the dock area in Venice. It's one dock over. I haven't actually walked to it but it's on the public water taxi map and I'm sure it's there. Don't know anything about R507. It's on my check out list. Also haven't heard about the ice cream card. That will be easy to check. I sleep from 10 pm to 4 am and nap for an hour or two in the late afternoon. Princess gives you a port guide for every port the day before and it has a very good street map. My Princess cabin is exactly like all previous cabins on Princess with only a few exceptions. The flat screen TV, no drawers on the right side of the desk, no heavy covers on the bed - just a cover strip, refrig door that is not attached to the cabinet, aluminum patio furniture which is very comfortable, sprinkler nozzle on the patio, shampoo in bottles instead of tubes, bedside light switches instead of knobs, more TV channels with flipping Princess logos on most, a safe that you have to hold the door closed to get the lock engaged. Nothing else in the cabin has changed.

 

Food in the dining rooms is excellent. C752 vibrates very slightly when ship has docked caused by diesel engines running electric generators. Washers are $1.50 and take 20 minutes to run. Dryers are $1.50 and take about 40 minutes to run. The attendent told me he heard a rumor that washers and dryers use to be free. Well he heard right. Yesterday we stopped in Mykonos. There is no way you can safely walk to town. Passengers are commenting about the old days when Princess provided a free shuttle. Now you have to pay for a ticket to town at the excusion desk. The cost was 8 euros RT PP. I think the days of free Princess bus rides to town are now history. I spotted two box like contraptions on one side of the ship between the tenders. A security guard told me they are floating docks with passenger slides connected between the dock and the ship for emergency use. The same idea as emergency slides on airplanes.

 

I remember that at the end of Boogie Shoes our goof ball cruise director James was exhorting the audience to get up on our feet and clap and wave during the final number. Not one single person in the audience paid any attention to James, nor should they have. James doesn't realize that the average age of passengers on this cruise is in the 60's and 70's and that they are not going to jump and shout and wave like crazy 15 year olds during rock shows. In fact one lady on this cruise is 101 years old. The best show on the ship was the Motown show and it's been downhill since then. My wife and I waited in line for the second Princess theater show of the evening last night and heard the main attaction singing his final number. He was so bad that we both immediately decided that we had better things to do.

 

Time to post part one of Today on the Ship before Inet dies. And it will die as the room is starting to fill up as it's now 5:20 am.

[mrspaper]

w0kie

can't believe you are up every am to use the internet. hope you sleep better at home.

thanx for all your info. i just read from someone else's post, someplace here that transfers in mykonos were free, due to how dangerous the walk is. guess it's no so.

thanx for the info on the vap being close to the ship. that's probably what i'll use.

have a great rest of the trip

[Princess Chatterer]

Our port talker is David Toulson. He's an elderly British guy who is very strange. To him every hill on every island looks like an animal. And he goes on and on about hills looking like animals. He is one very odd duck.

 

The island of Mykonos is very dry and rocky. Weather was cool and brisk. Not one Mykonos hill looked like an animal to me. The windmills didn't turn. I think they are there solely for tourist pictures. In some of the ocean side outdoor cafes it was very easy to spot the lifestyle of the island. The back streets in town were very narrow and I mean VERY narrow. You could easily get lost so bring your port guide map and use the windmills as your reference point. Lots of shops but all the cheap foreign made trinkets were exactly the same from one store to the next. You can easily see all you need to see in Mykonos in the morning and be back on the ship by lunch.

 

One of the few young adult passengers on the ship told me he loved the cruise but hated that the swimming pools closed so early. I'm not sure when Princess pools close but I think it's midnight.

 

As I walked to the Inet room around 4:30 am I crossed through the photo gallery. They had flat screen TVs advertising the cruise video with the TVs sound cranked up so loud you could hear them in the Atrium. What was funny is there was nobody around.

 

Last night again MAJOR GRIDLOCK and I mean MAJOR GRIDLOCK in the atrium on deck 7. All of the sales tables were back with the chains, watches, Tshirts what never fit right, - you know - the usual junk. I think it's a safety issue but I guess on board revenue trumps safety on this ship. I shouldn't worry so much because this ship has slides to the ocean if needed. It's just getting to the slides that might be a problem.

 

Today is Kusadasi. Patter says it's only $100 for a private cab to the ruins. No thank you. Already been there. Princess sent us a port guide and a port shopping guide. I remember that to get in the Princess shopping guide the local merchants have to pay Princess a fee. And isn't it interesting that the excursions always seem to end at a store in the Princess shopping guide. At least they do in Kusadasi.

 

Must post as the lights in the Inet room just turned on and the natives in the Inet room are getting restless as they question each other about how to get on Google. It's too early for the coffee machines to be turned on across the way on deck 5 so I guess the natives in the Inet room will just have to be tense a little longer.

 

More Emerald Princess news at eleven.

[Princess Chatterer]

i just read from someone else's post, someplace here that transfers in mykonos were free, due to how dangerous the walk is. guess it's no so.

 

Let me assure you that transfers to town in Mykonos or anywhere else on this cruise are NOT free. Cost us $16 RT for my DW and I to get to town on the Princess bus on Mykonos. The euro price may have be 14 e for two RT and it was money well spent because the road was very narrow and curvy just like the Mykonos pathways inside town.

[Colo Cruiser]

Thanks for the updates,

I don't know why they keep putting James Lay on all the newbuilds or any other Princess ship for that matter. He is a terrible CD. :rolleyes:

[Princess Chatterer]

Thanks for the updates,

I don't know why they keep putting James Lay on all the newbuilds or any other Princess ship for that matter. He is a terrible CD. :rolleyes:

 

My radar goes to full scale when James is near. James has a interesting assistant side kick Lisa who never stops grinning with her big toothy grin continually on the TV morning show. The two of them grinning like cheshire cats, side by side, all during their TV show is way over the top. I may be cruel with these comments but they are true. Lisa may be dyslexic as she correctly read my cabin number C752 on the contest entry on TV then mailed the prize coupon to C725.

 

The Inet user next to me in the Inet room keeps repeating "It went off" "It went off" "It went off" Guess it's for me to get out of her. I know what's about to happen to my Internet connectivity.

[Colo Cruiser]

My radar goes to full scale when James is near. James has a interesting assistant side kick Lisa who never stops grinning with her big toothy grin continually on the TV morning show. The two of them grinning like cheshire cats, side by side, all during their TV show is way over the top. I may be cruel with these comments but they are true. Lisa may be dyslexic as she correctly read my cabin number C752 on the contest entry on TV then mailed the prize coupon to C725.

 

The Inet user next to me in the Inet room keeps repeating "It went off" "It went off" "It went off" Guess it's for me to get out of her. I know what's about to happen to my Internet connectivity.

 

 

I watch her on that morning show with her facial expressions. They are priceless.

[piper28]

The best show on the ship was the Motown show and it's been downhill since then.

 

That's pretty depressing. I saw that show on the Crown (show might have been new then?), and was thoroughly underwhelmed. Course, with my parents being from the Detroit area, I've been exposed to Motown music for quite some time. I vaguely remember some real curious choices about who sang what part in some of the songs.

 

As for James, yeah, he can definitely be a little over the top. There were times I just kinda wanted to wipe that fake grin off his face. Had him on the Crown, and even then they were saying he'd probably get the Emerald job if he wanted it. Must be high on the seniority list or something. Is Lisa actually his wife? I vaguely remember seeing that somewhere but not positive.

[Alzarine]

Let me assure you that transfers to town in Mykonos or anywhere else on this cruise are NOT free. Cost us $16 RT for my DW and I to get to town on the Princess bus on Mykonos. The euro price may have be 14 e for two RT and it was money well spent because the road was very narrow and curvy just like the Mykonos pathways inside town.

 

 

Hi Wokie,

 

Enjoying reading your posts from Emerald. Do have to let you know that our bus shuttle into Mykonos on the inaugural cruise was free for all the passengers. Maybe it was a special treat for inaugural passengers ?? :confused: It appears Princess found a way for yet another financial gain ;)

 

Also have to agree with you about the port commentator, David.....the CD, James and his sidekick, Lisa .

[Pia1913]

Thanks for the updates,

I don't know why they keep putting James Lay on all the newbuilds or any other Princess ship for that matter. He is a terrible CD. :rolleyes:

 

It could be worse. They could have gotten John Clelford (talks and says nothing) or JJ Ulrich (never seen at all). I wonder who's in charge of personnel; i.e. hiring, for Princess. :confused:

[Princess Chatterer]

DW points out that James Lay is wearing a wedding ring. Lisa goes by the name Lisa Hall. It is now 3:15 pm on the ship. Our steward got chewed out by the hall boss because he wasn't putting the two decorative pillows and the duvet, it that's what it's called, back on passengers beds each day. We just take those items off the bed every time we are in the room. One of the librarians told my DW that there was a ship board charge of $25 for each book checked out and a $25 credit for the book return. This has proven not to be true. Somehow the outage of grapefruit juice in the dining rooms has been solved somewhere between Corfu and Kusadasi. Grapefruit juice is back. Just across the street from the beautiful Kusadasi port building, that contains Starbucks and Burger King, is an very upscale outdoor shopping area. As we walked through the shopping area each and every merchant had one to two guys directly in our path in well taylored suits. Most of them tried to grab our arms in a very friendly but annoying way to try to get us inside their stores. There were large numbers of merchants that came at us which totally creeped out my DW. The hawking was worse than even what we experienced at the Spice market in Istambul. They were all polite but the grabbing of our arms was troubling. One Turkish old timer was working the area near the terminal trying to be hired, in a quiet friendly but persistent way, as a personal port guide. Security near the Kusadasi port building was very tight. Xray in the terminal building and of course xray on the ship. Terminal and local police everywhere. The pursurs desk had no Turkish money but the harbor merchants were more than happy to take euros and American dollars. Weather is cool but warmer than the previously visited Greek Isles. In Venice there is a company that runs a water taxi from the Princess dock direct to San Marco. It is the Alaguna (sp) blue line. This company has speedy gold water taxis. This is the same company that runs a water taxi from the Venice airport to Murono and to San Marco.

 

There is no ice cream card. I'm checking on R507 but don't have an answer as of yet. The MUTS is hard to watch in the day time when it is as bright outside as it is today. The ocean water at Kusadasi is a beautiful blue. The water all around the ship is trash free unlike the water around Honolulu.

 

Tonight we have the main entertainer in the Princess Theater - Jeri "My name is not Jerry, it's not Gerry, it's J E R I" We've seen her before on Princess. She's very proud of herself.

 

The question of the day from Lisa is "What is the name of the Emerald Princess sister ship?"

[CruiseKing]

The word on the street is...... Ruby Princess.

Thanks for the updates Mike. If you run into head Waiter Godwin or Maitre'D Generoso please tell them that Bruce & Sharon from Boston say hello.

[Pia1913]

.

 

The question of the day from Lisa is "What is the name of the Emerald Princess sister ship?"

 

Emerald Princess is the sister ship to the Caribbean Princess and the Crown Princess. Can't be Ruby, since that one is not yet an existing ship.

 

Pia

[CruiseKing]

Emerald Princess is the sister ship to the Caribbean Princess and the Crown Princess. Can't be Ruby, since that one is not yet an existing ship.

 

Pia

 

I do agree that these are the existing sister ships. There are plans for another to be named Ruby Princess.

[Pia1913]

I do agree that these are the existing sister ships. There are plans for another to be named Ruby Princess.

 

Just being specific Bruce. :)

[Seal]

I had already forgotten the blah entertainment on the Crown--usually we really like the production numbers--been off the Crown a week and have already forgotten--one the first week Motown or whatever it was-was as good as it got--only downhill after that--there was a Cole Porter show--had to leave about half-way through--and then there was one about traveling--trip to nowhere or something--the next week only one show--Friday I think--Motown--turns out all dancers and singers had been moved to another ship and the new ones performed on Friday--so the second week had only one production show to choose from (which is probably ok)

 

We did have a lot of comics

 

On some ships we plan dinner to fit so we can see both shows--Princess and Vista--no need for that on the Crown--take your good sweet time!!

 

Since its been mentioned on this thread--the chains were out all the time--and it seem like the t-shirts stayed for quite awhile--along with the crystal stuff--I don't think I'll run into that on the TP--not any space at all, as I can remember--will be there in 2 weeks--then on to Alaska in June

 

As I remember there isn't a real theatre on the TP--tables and chairs I believe--rough last August--Art Auctin easels falling all over the place--probably didn't need to be in the room at the front of the ship--hope for smoother sailing this time

 

Nancy:D

[Pia1913]

I had already forgotten the blah entertainment on the Crown--usually we really like the production numbers--been off the Crown a week and have already forgotten--one the first week Motown or whatever it was-was as good as it got--only downhill after that--there was a Cole Porter show--had to leave about half-way through--and then there was one about traveling--trip to nowhere or something--the next week only one show--Friday I think--Motown--turns out all dancers and singers had been moved to another ship and the new ones performed on Friday--so the second week had only one production show to choose from (which is probably ok)

 

:D

 

And they move to another ship and call it Motor City. Same show. I believe they keep their shows running for 5 years.

 

Pia

[CostaRican]

wOKIE,

 

I am new to this CC and can id with the "flame" statement as I posted something for the first time and several seasoned CC's jumped on it. What the heck, this is life. You are unbelievable in writing your review of the Emerald Princess, have you considered doing a Travel Magazine ? Thanks for your concise reports, we will be sailing on May 5th from Rome to Venice on the Emerald and are really getting exicited. Again, many thanks I have gleened lots of information from your reports.

[Guest debbiejohncruise]

w0kie

can't believe you are up every am to use the internet. hope you sleep better at home.

thanx for all your info. i just read from someone else's post, someplace here that transfers in mykonos were free, due to how dangerous the walk is. guess it's no so.

thanx for the info on the vap being close to the ship. that's probably what i'll use.

have a great rest of the trip

 

Ours was free! Don't know why you guys are paying! Debbie

[greendog]

w0kie, I'd like to add my thanks to everyone else's... your info has been really helpful!!

 

My wife and I will be on the Emerald on June 10th from Venice to Barcelona (plus we're spending a few extra days at each of those endpoints). We can't wait!