AF-1

Hello, I sailed on Emerald Princess in July. We ate in Crown Grill first night complimentary dinner for suites. We had surf and turf(lobster tails); for the $10 extra. It was well worth the price. I disagree with members stating about the size and taste. My grandkids and wife had filet plus two lobster tails. They loved their meals and all was good.

I am sure at some point the mechanical issue will get fixed. I am booked for Feb 2019; if its fixed all is good; if not; we will deal with any changes. No problem. Going on Rock and Roll cruise on this ship. So plan on having fun no matter what.

My My, what great pics you took. Thanks for the link. I was on same ship; same cruise Jul 9th. All your food pics are wonderful.

Hello, I was in 2bedroom family suite on Emerald July 9th to Alaska. Suite is located all the way forward on right and left side of ship. Balcony was unusable at sea. Our room steward had to tie the balcony furniture down. We had dining table, two chairs and two loungers. All would blow from one side of balcony to the other. While in port everything was fine. I would only book a forward suite again if I needed the two bedroom family suite. There are only two per ship so choices are limited

Thanks for posting. I hope you enjoy your cruise

we have booked this cruise for 2018 in a suite on the deck below the Lido and wonder how much use the pool got and the area around the ice cream stand or possible the opposite side by the bathrooms. I have heard so much criticism about the noise and am hoping the pool area is used less in Alaska.

pool was not that busy on my cruise; however, lots of people we using the loungers at the pool. The ice cream bar got heavy use all cruise. I would say Trident Grill, Pizza, and Ice Cream all were used a lot. the pizza parlor seemed busy from time it opened at 11am till it closed at 11pm

There are cabin reviews on CC. You should read them. People use the hot tub and they spend time on deck viewing the beautiful scenery. Lots of folks are on deck when going through Tracy Arm. I believe, Princess has MUTS at night and they give blankets and hot chocolate.

If the reviews say it is noisy then I would be leery.

 

 

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I was on Emerald in Jul 9-16. Not many people used the pools. It was in hi 50's low 60s all cruise

It will be fun to read your comparisons.

Royal Caribbean has been using the touch screens on their ships since 2011. They work well and are easy to use. One of the best features is the restaurant option where you click on any dining venue and it has three colors. Green(open not busy), Orange(open but getting busy), Red(open and very busy). This way you can choose where do dine based on how long of wait there may be.

Your best option may be to arrange with hotel for ride to airport. Here is what I found. We flew into Seattle on 7 Jul two days prior to our cruise out of pier 91. we took shuttle express to the Marriott Waterfront (across from pier 66). Price was $34 for two adults and two kids. We used Lyft all around downtown Seattle. The price was between 5-7 from hotel to Space Needle or back to hotel. Marriott had flat rate of $8 per person for shuttle to port pier 91. We took taxi from port to Space needle on our return to Seattle. Cost was $8. Taxi from Space Needle to airport was $35. Hope this helps

Nope, sorry you are incorrect. Carnival have standard designs which are used across various companies in the group, albeit with slight modifications.

 

For example, the ill-fated Costa Concordia was the same basic design as Carnival Splendour, albeit with a different funnel design and different interior features / colour schemes etc.

Similarly, P&O, Arcadia is the same design as the Holland America Vista class ships and Cunard's Queen Victoria is a stretched variant of the same class,

 

Ventura, the ship, I was referring to is a Grand class ship

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MV_Ventura

 

The Grand class ships fall into a number of sub categories with the first two subgroups (Grand and Gem) consisting of five ships and not having a Riviera deck and not having the noise problem.

 

Caribbean Princess was the first to be constructed with the extra deck and this was followed by the Crown class. P&O's Ventura is fundamentally a Crown class ship and the fundamental design aspects which made Ventura noisy (putting the mid-ship suites in an aluminium deck immediately below the pool area) are also there on Caribbean Princess and the Crown Princess sub class.[/quot

 

 

Thank you for giving me an update. I appreciate that info

This youtube video explains the medallion program to include how the touch screen will work.

Best experience of our lives was to chopper onto glacier and dog sled. Memories for a lifetime

We just got off a ship with the new mattresses and I have never experienced that nice a bed on any ship! It was so comfortable I wanted to take it home with me.

Ditto. My wife and I were on Emerald last month. We wanted to hang out in bed due to the comfort of the entire bedding.

We took our grandkids on Helicopter tour of Mendenhall Glacier in Juneau in July. The memories and experience far outweighed the cost.

Here is my take on Crown Grill. Was on Emerald Jul 9th trip; but unlike the OP my family and I loved the food/ the wait staff/ and the ambiance. My two grandkids and my wife all had the surf and turf; two lobster tails plus filet mignon. Everything was cooked to perfection; food came quickly; waitstaff was excellent and we did not mind paying an extra $10 for lobster. It was worth the money just to see the kids loving their dinner. Rolls/butter excellent; Hot rolls and they brought seconds. Dessert Choices were great. We all had dessert. Grandson had the sample platter of desserts. Awesome. We also ate in Crown grill for breakfast every morning. Wait staff was over the top with service; food was cooked to order and the coffee was fresh; and so were the pastries. We had quite a variety of pastry choices each day. So we were happy campers or should I say cruisers.

Here is my take on the upcoming medallion program. I am all for it. If it makes my life onboard easier and simpler then let's do it. I already use my iPhone to access my hotel room when I travel for business. I use my iPhone for my airline boarding pass. I use paypal and apple pay at the store. So to have this service available seems natural. For those who say prices have gone up; (like Princess is charging more to help pay for initial operation of this program); I disagree. I booked a cruise on Caribbean Princess for Feb 2019 and Prices are no more expensive for the Caribbean sailings for my cruise. You have a wrist watch so the medallion with a wrist strap makes it easier to get on and off the ship; not to mention you won't have to store it on a lanyard or in your pocket or purse. Thanks for listening

Just got off Emerald a few weeks ago. They had Norman Love at IC for a fee and they were available every day. They had two of his signature desserts on both formal nights (they were excellent). Hope this helps.

Hi, I just returned from my first cruise with Princess to Alaska Jul 9-16. Dress code was relaxed. Even on formal nights; not a lot of jackets or ties. Most people wore regular shirts and slacks. Shoes were black/brown/sneakers

I would guess do you want the longer drive at the beginning of your cruise or at the end. You airline to Anchorage and drive an hour south to get on ship. You airline to Vancouver and drive ten minutes to cruise port. Or you stay in hotel the day prior to your cruise; and then drive to cruise port.

The good thing about using EZ air; you can book your flight and if you find a better deal or if there are drastic time changes with your flight you can change your flight or cancel.

Most interesting thread.

On Island and Coral we always try to capture one of the four mid-ship suites, and we are fine mid-ships with those in Star/Emerald/Caribbean group which do not a Riviera Deck.

 

However, we would NEVER again book a mid-ship Penthouse suite on those that do have a Riviera deck (you can easily tell, they have the mid-ship suites on Riviera deck.

 

Why? Well in order to keep the wait down, when they added the extra deck to the design they:

a) constructed the extra deck out of aluminium

and

b) sited the suites below the pool area.

 

Massive noise problem, particularly after there has been an event on when staff drag loungers back into position around 2am and every day at 6am when the early risers drag the loungers into their favourite spot around the pool.

 

It was so bad that at 2am one morning I insisted that an officer visit our suite to hear the problem for himself as I intended to make a written complaint when I got home (for the record, I am not normally the complaining type).

 

clearly I had not been the only person complaining and they very quickly offered us £250 each (£500 in total) - it was the P&O ship - Venturia which is built to the same design - to head off the complaint and I decided that I was unlikely to get a better offer, but also decided there and then to avoid mid-ship suites on Riviera deck.

I am not sure that a penthouse suite on P&O would be the same as Penthouse suite on Princess. You mentioned you were on P&O.

Photos from our February Mexican Riviera cruise:

 

The set starts off with photos from the cabin. #412-414 are headshots taken on the balcony. We did a whale watch on a zodiac in Puerto Vallarta, a hike to El Faro lighthouse in Mazatlan, then Ultimate Balcony Dinner (photos 508-518), and a whale watch on a 200-pax boat in Cabo San Lucas.

 

Enjoy!

Wow, nice shots of everything. That is one huge balcony. The room looks very nice too.. Thanks for the link

The July 2008 problem was probably fixed and the current problem is a new one.

 

Chances are you have had a car which had a problem that was fixed and then had a similar problem several years later.

that sounds logical.

Peety3. I look forward to your flickr pics of the cabin and balcony.