Utahbelle

My husband feels the exact same way about cruising. It’s sad because I absolutely love it. He will compromise and take me on a cruise for a special anniversary or my birthday, but it is super hard for him to try and enjoy it.

There are plenty of people who do not enjoy cruising.

Thank you for the info about no jackets necessary. Also about the ticket to the top of the Space Needle. We went to the Chihuly exhibit a few years ago and loved it but no need to go again this time. It has been many, many years though since we went to the top of the Space Needle so I'm looking forward to that.

-just a heads up that they are doing a renovation to the space needle so there is construction at the top and it isn’t open all the way around completly. It Isn’t a problem though, you can still see what has already been completed and it’s really neat. That added glass benches next to new glass walls and it will look so cool when it is finished.

Thanks for your review and I'm glad you enjoyed your cruise. We will be on the Emerald on the 5th and I have a couple of questions. My husband usually takes a suit but we are limited on our luggage this time and I'm wondering if you saw any men with just a dress shirt and tie on Formal Night? I don't want him to feel out of place.

 

 

We are also signed up for this excursion:

 

 

DISEMBARKMENT

 

We had an excursion scheduled through the ship for Seattle. We met at 7:40 and were taken off the ship by 8am. We didn’t have to grab our suitcases so it was nice to just walk off and meet at the bus. Our driver was awesome and really knowledgeable about the area. We went to the space needle and went up it and took pictures. We went next door to the chihuly garden and glass exhibit which was so incredible. Then he took us to Pike Street Market and we got to spend time there and had an amazing blackened salmon sandwich and bought some berries. Then he dropped us off at the airport. It is a great excursion if you have a later flight and don’t want to sit at SeaTac all day!

 

 

Was the ride to the top of the Space Needle included in the tour?

 

 

 

Thank you..... Frances

-so yes, I saw many men with no jacket on. Some with just ties and some with polo shirts! It was a lot more casual. I never saw anyone get turned away!

-yes as you step off the bus at the space needle he hands out tickets to ride to the top. Just to clarify, the chihuly glass exhibit was not included in the excursion. We finished the space needle quickly and had some time before we met the bus so we walked over there. It was $29 a person for that.

Thanks for posting your review. I'd like to go back to Alaska next year. Which glacier did the ship go to?

So we went through Tracy Arm fjords. It was sooo beautiful but I have heard now that glacier bay is better. I didn’t do enough research before on this. I am so glad I got to see Tracy arm though

I'm pretty sure your comedian was Carlos Oscar. He is fantastic! We have seen him several times and love him. :D

Yes I am sure that was his name! He was a riot 😂

"I think i payed $34.99 online and it was $31 on the boat."

Price of the coffee package is $31+ 15% gratuity = $35.65. Same pre-purchased or on board. The menu posted by the International Cafe shows the $31 so you may have thought that was the total price.

Crown Grill has been $29/pp including gratuity for a long time. SHARE has been $39, but the price now being shown on my upcoming Emerald cruise is $29.

-silly me didn’t think about the added gratuity! That makes sense now!

-I’m glad the website updated the price for Share. All before my cruise they had it at 39.99 🙂

Thanks for a great report.

 

 

Please see my comments in red above.

-that makes so much sense about the coffee card lol. Sorry I didn’t even think about the gratuity added to it! We didn’t end up using all 15 drinks and as you all know that it ends with the cruise.

-the gift card for my birthday was such a nice surprise. I ended up using it for the 2 for $20 port T-shirt’s lol. I like to use them to sleep in 😉

-I wish I would have kept the Patter that had the name of the comedian because I have forgotten. I know he is Puerto Rican and he won the best comedy for the princess line in 2011. Not sure if you could look into that. He performed two shows.

How long is the walk from the port to Fisherman's Wharf? and the downtown area?

TIA

They do have a lot of options to get you downtown but we wanted to walk. It took about 12 minutes to get to the Wharf, and then another 10-12 minutes to reach downtown. It’s all flat and a nice walk ☺️

Hello-

So my husband and I just got off the Emerald Princess 7 night sailing to Alaska. First time on Princess and first time to Alaska.

EMBARKATION

we decided to fly into Seattle the day of the cruise. I learned this is a no-no, but it was a short flight in the middle of summer so we took our chances there wouldn’t be any delays. We were lucky we were on time and we took an Uber to the port ($65) we arrived around 1:30 and waited in line for a bit but we were on board quickly. Our room was ready and we explored the ship. We thought it was much nicer than the royal Caribbean ship we were on last. We pre ordered the water package and a coffee card. The water was Crystal Geyser brand which was great....I don’t care for arrowhead water and worried it might have been that. The coffee card was loaded onto my husbands sea card instead of a punch card. The only annoying thing about that was trying to figure out how many he had left. After they swiped it he always asked them how many he still had. He enjoyed the international cafe drinks and got me some hot chocolates also. I think when I preordered it online it was more than what it was on the boat. I think i payed $34.99 online and it was $31 on the boat. I noticed that also for the specialty dinning. Share was listed as 39.99 and crown grill 29.99 but on the boat they were both 29.99 *shrugs*

We went to the spa and signed up for their 1-2-3 deal. You sign up for 3 treatments and you get 10% off the first, 20% off the second, and 30% off the third.

All of our treatments were great and while they did try to upsale, we made it clear we were not interested in purchasing anything extra and they were quick to back down and not bother us. We didn’t pay extra for the thermolsuite and instead used the free sauna in the locker rooms.

Ketchikan was our first port and it was pouring rain from the moment we pulled in until we pulled out 😂 got to love Alaska! We had an excursion I booked privately through Shore excursion group. A van took us to see things all over the small town and he filled us in on the history of the place and we saw eagles, totem polls, picked salmon berries, saw waterfalls, looked for bears, saw creek street, the salmon ladder, etc.. it was a nice tour but pretty miserable being so wet and cold. We stopped at the New York hotel cafe for some warm tea and coffee and enjoyed looking out at the port.

This day was also my birthday and I was surprised to see Princess left a sign at my door with some balloons and also a $25 gift card to any of the shops onboard! I wasn’t expecting them to do anything extra so that was very nice!

Juneau was next and we scheduled another tour through shore excursion group. They picked us up and took us to the heliport. We took a helicopter to a musher camp up in the snow and got to meet the dogs and have a sled ride. It was such a neat experience but I have such a soft heart for dogs and It tore at me a little bit. The way they live in a box on the snow and the way they get treated....I just had to keep saying that they don’t know any different, they have never been coddled so they just know they want to work and please their musher. My husband and I were all about the dogs and puppies on this trip 😂 we mugged all over them. Then on the way down the pilot stopped on Sawyer glacier and we got out and walked around. It was very surreal and felt like we were in another world. A total bucket list moment for sure!

The next stop was Skagway and we went up to the musher summer camp! I told you we were obsessed with the dogs and puppies! This was a ship excursion and it was fabulous and had the most beautiful views ever. It was also a sunny warm day and it was our favorite port. After our excursion we walked around town and ate at the red onion saloon and took the brothel tour 😂 it was really silly.

Last stop was Victoria. We didn’t plan an excursion since we were in port for such a short time. We walked downtown and through the fisherman’s wharf and let me tell you we were so impressed with the beauty and cleanliness of this city. I loved the hanging baskets, the architecture, the weather was perfect. It was such a memorable night for us :)

ENTERTAINMENT

We really enjoyed the onboard naturalist Shelly Gill. We went to all of her talks and really got interested in the Iditarod race. Libby riddles was also onboard talking about her Iditarod win. We loved all of the “North to Alaska” entertainment. The comedian on board was the funniest guy we have heard in a long time. We really enjoyed him! They also had the Voice of the Ocean and we followed that and were really impressed with how much work they put into that show! The finals were really cool!

FOOD

We went into this cruise determined not to eat at the buffet and to keep to the main dining room but that didn’t last long. We consider ourselves foodies and like to eat healthy and nice meals. We did hit the buffet here and there and it was actually pretty decent. In the dining room we had anytime dining and preferred a table for two and would only have to wait a minute or two for this. The food was pretty good! The best food of all is when we went to Share...a small 6 corse meal that was so delish. The restaurant is decorated beautiful and the service was top notch.

We never did room service or eat the pizza bar or any other place. We did occasionally grab something at the international cafe but we are not big eaters.

I knew the ship took pictures on formal nights that they would put out for you to View and purchase if wanted. I was surprised to see them take pictures of us leaving the ship at all the ports and all kinds of other pictures you could buy. They know how to make more money this way! I will say by the end of the week there were so many pictures up it was so hard to try to find yourselves!

As far as weather went we had to pack for everything. We knew it could be wet, warm, windy, and knew we would be up in the snow on the glacier. It was really hard to keep our suitcases under 50 pounds with the heavy coats, rain jackets, boots, beanies, gloves, etc. at the airport my suitcase was 50 pounds exactly and my husbands was 49 ;) So we decided to take advantage of the port valet service on the last day because with our new purchases we knew we would be over 50 pounds going back home. It was really nice to leave our luggage out and not see it again until we arrived back home. No over weight fees and we get free checked bags with our American Express card.

DISEMBARKMENT

We had an excursion scheduled through the ship for Seattle. We met at 7:40 and were taken off the ship by 8am. We didn’t have to grab our suitcases so it was nice to just walk off and meet at the bus. Our driver was awesome and really knowledgeable about the area. We went to the space needle and went up it and took pictures. We went next door to the chihuly garden and glass exhibit which was so incredible. Then he took us to Pike Street Market and we got to spend time there and had an amazing blackened salmon sandwich and bought some berries. Then he dropped us off at the airport. It is a great excursion if you have a later flight and don’t want to sit at SeaTac all day!

As my husband does not care for cruises I doubt we will cruise again but if I ever talk him into it, it will defiantly be with Princess. The one cruise we sailed before this one was on royal Caribbean and we had such a better experience with Princess. We had a balcony room on deck 10 (caribe) and it was perfect. I defiantly recommend getting a balcony for Alaska.

It was such a nice week and We really enjoyed ourselves. It was a great way to turn 41 ☺️

We are down to 15 days before our first Alaskan cruise and first cruise with Princess! My husband wanted to celebrate my 41st birthday with this cruise which is so sweet of him because he is not a fan of cruising at all! I have tried so hard to convert him but it hasn’t worked, maybe this cruise will? ;)

So back to my question! One morning we will be doing some scenic cruising through Tracy Arm and I know it will be cold, but I thought it would be a beautiful backdrop for a balcony breakfast. Has anyone done this? I am thinking our warm food would get cold really fast and maybe we will have our big coats on? I don’t know.

Has anyone done a balcony breakfast in Alaska? Should we save the extra money and just order room service? I think our balcony is partially covered, we are in cabin C402 on the Caribe deck.

I guess I have one more question! We have never done the spa before but have a couple of massages lined up. What is the etiquette of going to and from the spa? I don’t know how far away our room is but do people wear bathrobes? Or maybe a swimsuit with a coverup over it?

Thank you everyone!

Do you know what post-cruise excursions were offered for Seattle the day you returned? Our flight doesn't leave until 5:45 so we have a good part of the day to do something rather than sit at SeaTac but don't want to rent a car.

 

Thanks.

Our flight doesn’t leave until 4:30. We are doing an excursion through Princess that takes us around Seattle and then drops us at the airport. We go to the space needle, Pike place market, and a few other places. Like you, I did not want to sit at the airport all day! This way we have a ride to the airport, have so where to keep our luggage, and will get to see some highlights of Seattle. I believe the excursion is $85 a person.

You are right about it getting too crowded. I have never been before but looking at pictures it isn’t very big with only a few chairs so it needs to be regulated somehow.

We booked a couples massage when we are on the Emerald this July to Alaska. It says that we are welcome to come 30 min early to relax in the thermal suite but that an additional charge may apply. I could see charging guests to get into the Thermal suite but I think if you have booked something with the spa, it should be complimentary

I booked the Emerald for our Alaskan cruise in July.....I hope the negative reviews don’t hold up! This will be my first princess cruise and I am so excited!

We did this cruise and it was our first cruise ever so I had no idea about disembarkation day and how long it takes to get off the ship. We used Rome in Limo and decided to have them pick us up at 10am. Needless to say, we waited around for a very long time!!! Now I know better and research cruises better.

There are a lot of things I would have done different on our Med cruise.

Good luck and enjoy!!

Sorry to leave everyone hanging. We have been home for two weeks now and I figure I need to get this done.

As far as having my teens opinion on this cruise....they were 14,17,and 19 and I had told them that there were going to be a lot of teens on this cruise so they were pretty excited to meet new people. My girls went to the teen club a couple times only to return back to their room saying there were only a couple of 12 year olds running around. So that was it for the teen club. My kids never really saw other teens (except maybe at dinner) and really only met other people on our excursions. My 19 year old really loved spending the days in port but really didn't care for the cruising part, except the food lol.

The sea days were long days with not much to interest them. They really just wanted to be on their phones and the wifi we paid for was hit and miss.

I will review more tonight!

So for our staterooms we didn't want a connecting cabin with our kids. Come on, this is our anniversary! ;) so I booked two balcony rooms both on deck 9. Because my oldest was only 19, I had to put my husband with him in one room and me and my daughters in another. I never thought anymore about that until we got our sail passes and had the wrong keys to the rooms. I went to guest services and the only thing he could do is give us additional room keys for each room. Now some of us had to carry around a room key and the sail pass. And when they dropped off the luggage we were running them back and forth to the right rooms lol. The first night there we realized that the sofa in the kids room was not a sofa bed and our room had the extra bed in the ceiling. We thought about switching rooms but we had already unpacked and the room attendants were already confused with our arrangements lol. So my son has been sleeping on the couch and said it isn't so bad. He has never complained.

I love love love having a balcony (this is my first cruise and can't compare it to not having one though) I love watching the ship coming into port, leaving port, sunrises, sunsets, etc!

My kids got the refreshment package which they have used a ton. We bought the 5 night specialty restaraunt package which I am so glad we did! Chops was amazing and Izumi was even better. We are trying out Giovanni's Table tonight for my daughters birthday. I will let you know how that one is...when I made the reservation I asked to buy a cake to have brought to our table for her birthday. I hope they come through with it! She will love it! We have the my-time dining which we like and Tides dining room has been pretty good.

In Sicily we used the ships excusion to have a shuttle up to Taormina to explore on our own. Then the bus would take us back to the ship. It took longer than I thought it would to get up there, and the roads are very narrow and terrifying. driving around Europe in general has been terrifying....it's not for the weak like me! My husband is cool as a cucumber and you have to scrape me off the roof of the car! I.just.cant.even.

Taormina is sooooo beautiful, we walked, had a delicious pizza lunch, shopped, walked more until the Greek theater. Just amazing! Walked back and got gelato on our way. It was a great day!

The next day we were at sea. This was a rough day for us. I told you we really aren't the cruising type, we don't drink, gamble, or care for large quantities of unhealthy food 😬 I guess you can call us boring. This smaller ship doesn't have enough going on I feel like. My girls were so excited for the teen club, and I did hear of a lot of teenagers coming on this cruise from the roll-call board. Where are all the teens at? Lol, I have two really cute, fun girls here! They are a little disappointed there isn't more for them to do. We sat by the pool and watched the bellyflop contest. The movie theater is cool and there has been some good movies! You have to pay extra for popcorn though.

So my teens are 19,17,14

We flew into Rome a day early and spent the night in a lovey guest house in Via Dei Condotti which is right next to the Spanish steps. Unfortunately no one was able to sleep on our red eye flight and were so exhausted when we landed that the kids just wanted to crash on the beds. I wanted to go explore Rome, but they were all asleep for hours. We had reservations with Dark Rome for underground colosseum tour at 7:00. I really suggest getting into Rome at least 2 days early so you can have a day to just rest and catch up on sleep!

We were all excited about the tour but when we started, we stopped about 25 different places on our way to the colosseum and listened about 10 minutes at each stop. This lost my kids...they just wanted to get in that colosseum, we didn't know about all the tour before it. Again we were so tired and it was so hard to follow along. The tour ended at 9:00 and we walked all the way back stopping for some dinner and went back and crashed! Again, allow an extra day to get that rest in if you will be dealing with jet lag.

We hired Rome Transfers for all of our transfers for this trip and so far they have been perfect. We have not had to deal with trains, buses or shuttles. We will also use them when we get off the ship.

Getting on the jewel was a breeze. We did arrive early, around 11am and there was no lines at all. We walked right in, got our sail pass, our internet codes, and walked on the boat. We went straight to the windjammer and had some lunch. I will admit we are foodies and were disappointed with the food. Look, this is a buffet made to feed a lot of people quickly, there is not going to be farm fresh organic eggs, I understand that. We didn't care for it so we just don't eat there. Done.

I got the Internet codes and we got connected right away. So far for us it has not been fast. In the early morning it's okay but day and evening there is a ton of lag. It's pretty cool to be able to be on the Internet in the middle of the ocean though, it is what it is and it's hard to complain about it.

I will review our staterooms and Sicily tomorrow!

My family of 5 is currently on our way to Mykonos Greece aboard the beautiful Jewel of the Seas. This is our first cruise and we decided to do this to celebrate my 20 year anniversary. I always wanted to go to Italy for our 20 years and my husband said go ahead and plan it. I already knew my husband was not the cruising type, but I wanted to make going to Europe as painless as possible and cruising sounded like the perfect way to navigate it. He agreed and saidhewould give it a shot. We have 3 teenagers that were dying to come with us so we booked two superior balcony staterooms. I didn't want the closet to our room lol so we got them both on deck 9 but far apart. This decision was one of many mistakes lol.

I wanted to share my likes/dislikes so far and I will keep it updated throughout the cruise

We will have three teenagers with us also, sounds like there will be plenty of teens on this cruise! Mine are 19,16,14 with the 16 year old turning 17 during the cruise.

We are flying to Rome from the states and I have so much anxiety about that part. Anyone have any tips? I think I might have to visit my doctor for some medication to get through it. So much anxiety!!

I just cannot wait to go to Greece.....two more weeks!!

It wasn't that the cruise we went on was a bad one. We went on a short cruise with carnival to baja/Ensenada Mexico (I believe it was only a 3 day cruise)

It's just my husband hates crowds, hates people, hates to be sea-locked on a boat with a bunch of people lol. He is very into health and fitness so the 24/7 food doesn't not appeal to him. He does not know how to sit still and is always going, going, going. The plane ride is going to be torture to him.

He can handle a cruise, it would never be his first choice of vacationing! I hope to win him over with this cruise and maybe he will enjoy more, I am not sure. He is kind of an introvert.

I could never plan this on my own! I am so glad to be here with you cruise experts!

We wanted a 7 day cruise and fly out 1 day early to Venice to have a day to explore it. I know it's not enough time, but with our budget, we have to make it work with what we have.

Budget: $18,000

Airfare $8,000

Cruise: $8,000

Excursions, shopping, transfers $2,000

I might be able to bump the budget up to $20,000. I am just trying to keep it low......we just did Christmas in Maui and when it was all said and done we spent $30,000 which is ridiculous. My husband would be ever so happy with me if I could get us all on a Mediterranean cruise and get us home spending about half of what Hawaii cost us.

We are flying with Delta with a layover both ways. One stop is Paris and I have read that 2 hours is not enough time there to change planes. The way back its Amsterdam which I have read is easier. I would love to explore both these places also! I am reading about stopovers and I'm not sure Delta offers them. How frustrating to be in those two amazing places and never leave the airport!!

I am not dead set on having balconies and all that for our staterooms, our goal is to only be there to sleep so we can save some money getting the cheaper rooms. I could get the cruise down to 6-7k that way. We will need a hotel in Venice for the night and we will use the trains to get around there......then hire something for the transfer to the port. Since there is 5 of us we might need two rooms in Venice actually. We don't need anything fancy, we will be exhausted from the flights for sure!!

So for our 20 year anniversary I wanted to do something big and have always planned on going to Italy. my husband is not a fan of cruises (we have only been on 1 cruise about 19 years ago) so I have never considered them. But when I got to thinking that we would be traveling so far to just go to one place, it didn't make sense! A cruise lets you visit many places on one trip and that he agreed to! If we are going that far, then we are going to see more than just Venice lol. aldo, as crazy as it is, we plan on bringing our three children with us on this cruise! How could we go see these amazing places and not have them be a part of it? They want to go as bad as we do!

So we are thinking a Mediterranean cruise for 7 nights in June 2016. It is soooooo hard to decide on a ship!! I have read reviews all week and when one person loves a ship, another hates it and it's so frustrating! Here is our info:

Husband and I (40,38)

3 kids (19,16,14) the 16 year old will be turning 17 on the cruise :)

7 nights, want to embark from Venice or Rome

Want two staterooms.

Want balcony for us and just a large window for kids room

We are not drinkers, we might both get 1 or 2 drinks for the whole trip.

The ports we want are Greece, Turkey and Croatia.

The cruise that most interests me is the Norweigen Jade.