AF-1

ONBOARD ACTIVITIES: As most of you know; there is plenty to do. I always say, you can do as much as your want or as little as you want. Here are a few things we did while onboard.

Trivia. We played all versions of this game; music, tv, sports

Shuffleboard: although there are two shuffleboard areas, they are really small. I have been on other cruise ships where shuffleboard is on the main deck and you have the large area to play. Here the two courts are back on sports deck and they are half courts. We still had fun playing and weather was warm.

MUTS: we tried as best we could to watch a movie with blankets; but the weather was just too darn cold. This is a great concept for the Caribbean where its warm year round.

THE ONBOARD SHOWS: All week long Corey the cruise director pushed "Magic to Do". It was colorful, and not a lot of Magic, but I personally do not like show music or any type musical. My wife loved it. "The Voice of the Sea". ***** This is a do not miss show***. Wow we were blown away with this show. The talent that they found with our onboard guests was amazing. We did not see the comedy show or the welcome aboard show;nor did we see the Country singer who was onboard. We did sit in the Piazza and listen to different musciaians. They had two young ladies who played violins. They were amazing and played music from Pirates of the Caribbean; a bunch of James Bond Movies, and other movies. Loved this show. We attended one art auction just to see the hype. When they started out with first painting starting bid of $13,000; we said bye bye.

That is about all we did. Oh wait we did go to library to check out games.

SHORE EXCURSIONS:

1. Ketchikan: We did scenic boat sightseeing tour and bonfire beach tour. This tour consisted of getting on a small boat. The boat could sit 30; we had 10. There are binoculars at every seat. The on boat guide is a naturalist who talked about all the wildlife and floral fauna in the area. As we were riding in the bay are we came across a black bear who was swimming from one side to the other. The captain stopped the boat and we sat and watched the bear cross. As he was swimming I thought how strong he was; just to maintain his balance and swim against the current. We saw quite a few bald eagles. The Beach Bonfire tour was to an island about 20 minutes from Ketchikan. The local Alaskan Indian tribe hosted this. After a 15 minute walk through the woods with the naturalist; she explained different fauna and things we ended up at the bonfire. There they had reindeer hotdogs, regular hotdogs, beer, wine, sodas, water, chips for lunch. Then after lunch we made smore's. Our two grandkids loved this. Our grandkids are outdoor people; camping, rock climbing, etc; so this is why we chose this excursion. If my wife and I were by ourselves without kids; we would not have taken this excursion.

2. Tracy Arm. Like I mentioned about in one of my posts. We were the first ship to enter Tracy Arm this year. It was beautiful; again, if my wife and I were sans kids we would have done the small boat tour inside Tracy Arm. But we took ship into Juneau then hopped on a bus to the airport and then took a chopper to the glacier.

3. Helicopter Tour To Mendenhall Glacier and Dog Sledding on the Glacier: This was the highlight of our trip. The helicopter ride was about 15 minutes to the dog sled camp. The pilot explained Mendenhall glacier, and another glacier which stops at the end of a mountain. The sightseeing was magnificent. We landed on glacier and met our mushers. The director of the camp greeted us and told us what we had to look forward to. They set the summer camp up on the glacier so the dogs can practice mushing prior to the winter sled rides. There are 282 dogs at this camp. All are in training to be sled dogs or are already sled dogs. We had six dogs pulling our sled; and we had musher on our sled; my wife and I, plus our two grandkids. One of the camp mushers goes along with you so you don't get stuck on the ice or snow. The sled dog run is about 30-40 minutes. It is really fun. They as you head back to camp you stop and get to meet and hold and have pictures taken with the puppies. (we did not need to pet puppies in the Piazza at Skagway), we had plenty of puppy pics from the camp. Then we got pics from our visit and headed back to the chopper for the 15 min ride back to the airport. No one is disappointed with this tour. Our sled dog guide said this tour is the most cancelled tour on cruise visits. He said already this year they have cancelled over 20 times; he said last year the weather was much better so they had a lot less cancellations. We asked what happens if weather comes in and guests can't get back to the ship. He said it had happened a few times; and the mushers all have tents they live in; he said they give up their tents to cruise guests; and when the weather breaks they take guests back down to airport and cruise line gets them to the next destination.

SKAGWAY: ROCK CLIMBING AND ROCK REPELLING: We took this excursion for the grandkids. They are outdoor people so they loved this excursion. They are 17 and 14. The rock they climbed was over 70 feet high. It is the same rock formation they repelled from. The camp where they climbed is also where you go ziplining through the woods. We could hear people zipping all over the woods. My wife and I went along as observers; we both had no desire to try and climb a rock straight up into the sky; so we just took pics from different angles. If we were solo with no kids we would have chose the train ride excursion. In town we attended the local show; it was a little hokey and spoke about the man who founded the town; it was like being in a gunsmoke episode where the piano player sings and narrates the show; and the show girls dance and sing; and drag people from the audience to participate in the show. We did some shopping before heading back to the ship.

VICTORIA, BC: We did not book anything for this port. Two reasons. Not a lot of time in port and kids did not want to visit the gardens or castle. We docked at 7pm and you had to be back on board at 11:30. So we walked off the ship and went to a park about five minutes from the port. The grandkids play ultimate Frisbee; so they played Frisbee in the park. We were back onboard at 8:25pm and headed to Explorers lounge to play tv trivia; where btw; we did not do well.

That is all for our shore excursions.

Thank you for your post. We are platinum with Princess but have never sailed in a suite with them. We have a cruise booked to sail 30 nights in a suite coming up on the Emerald Princess. I have been worried reading the reviews on the Emerald but feel happier after reading your positive review. We recently sailed on RCL Radiance of the Seas in a suite and it was a wonderful experience. On that cruise, there were several "special events" for suite and Diamond plus guests including lunch on embarkation day. Could you please advise if there were any events for suite guests only?

The only thing I can say about perks for the suite. We received a letter on day one saying we are invited to Skywalkers lounge every night for cocktails and snacks. They brought canapes and snacks to our suite every afternoon. That was amazing. We would come back onboard and there was something waiting on our coffee table. We ate breakfast every morning in Crown Grill; which was very nice; it was quiet and never crowded.

Take your coffee cards with you on your next Princess cruise!! The IC isn't always that crowded. I've never seen a 20 minute wait.

We didn't wait to get food. We would have to wait for specialty coffee and teas. That area was always crowded. We will use coffee cards on next cruise.

I just returned from being in a suite on Emerald. The things that make a suite worth the money. Being pampered. This was my first time on Princess so no status. Did not need to worry. Arrving at the port on day one we were fast tracked onto the ship. We had our sea passes and on the ahip in less than 20 minutes. You get free dinner in crown grill on first night and you have breakfast in crown grill. This is a nice perk. There were maybe one or two couples in crown grill for breakfast. Nice and quiet and food is great. You will have club class dining. You nver wait to eat. Just show up and they seat you. Wait staff is excellent.

Don't stress out. Your room will be fine. I just retuned off Emerald this past Sunday 16july. Ship and crew were awesome.

I just got off Emerald this past Sunday, 16 July. I agree with Crooners it has a good vibe. I also enjoyed Explorers lounge; but there is no view of the ocean. We played a lot of trivia so we hit quite a few bars p,ayning trivia.

That is awesome Peety3. I guess we were fast tracked because of the suite.

FOOD CONTINUED

Horizon Court. Most of you know this was typical buffet. We ate here a few times for lunch and one dinner. I liked that they offered a theme night every day. One day it was german food, the next was seafood with a full raw bar, shrimp, mussels, etc. one day was mexican buffet and one day was Alaskan seafood. Wait staff were very friendly and were always coming around re filling drinks and cleaning tables. We ate all our breakfast in crown grill. It was nice and we liked it because it was so quiet. Never had more then three booths at breakfast every day. Nice and relaxing. The head waiter came by our table with a big tray of fresh pastries. Choices were custard donuts, apple turnovers, croissants, sugar donuts and a few others. After i took a few pastries he would see that i had finished and he would come back with another tray. Breakfast here was great. Not a big selection but there was enough to make me happy

TRIDENT GRILL

They serve burgers, dogs, and bratwurst. French fries. The servers here did not speak english very well so interaction with them was minimal. Food was good

PIZZA

I want you to know that everyone who says the Pizza on Princess ships is very good. I concur. Pizza here was tasty hot and just delicious. This was the busiest place on the ship. From the time they opened at 11am till they closed at 11pm. There was a line. That means the people liked it.

INT'L CAFE

Nice selection of food and always tasty

Ass't pastries in the morning. Sandwichs, salads, and soup for lunch and more goodies the rest of the day

Right next to the cafe is the coffee bar. We bought coffee cards and by the end of the cruise had only used about 7 punches out of four cards. The line here was worse than starbucks. Average wait time for anything was 20 minutes after you placed order. Not worth the wait so next cruise we will not be buying coffee cards.

Cafe had gelato for sale. We did not have any gelato

ROOM SERVICE

We had breakfast delivered twice mainly becasue we had early shore excursions and dining rooms did not open till 7:30. Very nice and order arrived exactly at the time we wanted.

Did not eat at Share, Salty Dog, Or Crab Shack. We felt they had king crab legs, lobster and shrimp on menu in dining room every night. So didnt think we needed to go yo crab shack. If you have any questions about something i ma have left out; let me know.

Next up:SHORE EXCURSIONS

NOW LET'S TALK FOOD

We ate in the following venue's

Crown Grill

Club Class/Davinci Dining Room

Horizon Court

Trident Grill

Pizza Joint

International Cafe

Room Service

CROWN GRILL

This was a free meal for staying in a suite; you had to eat there the first night. Menu was great. My wife had filet mignon and lobster tail. I had filet mignon. Kids had filet and lobster and one had filet and shrimp. Food was excellent and service was excellent. It was not croweded at all.

ClubClass Dining. We ate here twice for lunch and four dinners. Menu was great selections and our wait staff were superb. Head waiter was so knowledgeable about everything. He kept club class waiters hopping. We never had to ask for extra rolls or butter and they were always refilling the water glasses. Chouces ranged from some type of steak every night and some type seafood every night. On left side of menu was an always available Princess Favorites this included fettichini alfredo, salmon, a chicken dish, hamburger and eggplant. Twice they offered Normon Love chocolate desserts which were the best. Creme brulee and NY cheesecake were offered every night along with assorted ice creams.

All of Emerald Princess trips were scheduled for Endicott Arm due to tracy arm having too much ice The patters was already printed for this cruise on the 9th so at that time the captain expected to go to Endicot arm. . The night before the captain came on inertcom and said we would be going into Tracy Arm. We entered the fijord around 6:00 am. We sailed all the way in and the captain stopped the ship so people could get off our ship and onto the small tour boat. We were right at the small island that sits at the end of Sawyer Glacier. The small boat tour took a video team from our ship. The video crew took movies; as we were first ship in this year. The cruise review dvd included a second dvd which was a documentary of Tracy Arm Adventure. The video crew narrated the video. It was an awesome dvd. It shows the glacier calfing; a black bear playing around and a bald eagle flying around. The quality of this dvd is excellent. I bought the cruise dvd just to get the Tracy Arm dvd

Here are day 2 of the Patters. Enjoy

patters day2.pdf

patters day2.1.pdf

patters day2.3.pdf

patters day 2.4.pdf

Thanks for your detailed review.

 

I will be on the Emerald on July 30.

 

Can you tell me what time was self disembarking on the last day?

The ship docked at 5:30 and they started letting people off at 6:30 or 7am. We left the ship at 9:10

Really enjoying the review as we will be on this cruise next month. Did you do the Tracy Arm excursion and if so, would you recommend it? If not, how close does the cruise ship get to the glacier?

We were this first cruise ship this year to get into Tracy Arm. It was magnificent. I am going to try and post pics of Tracy Arm. I will have to downsize my files; because all my pics are in HD.

Thanks for a great report, looking forward to our 2018 Emerald Alaska vacation. What month did the $99 photo package become available? Appreciate all your information.

The photo package promo came out first week of February and lasted a month. So you would need to keep checking your cruise personalizer and see what they have on sale. We bought photo package and internet package for pretty cheap. The internet package added an extra 40 minutes to our package.

Wowzer!!!

We've had both birthday & anniversary on ships and never gotten more than 2 balloons, a door sign, the cake & song.:loudcry:

Maybe cuz you were in a suite??

I really don't know about being in a suite; perhaps; anyway, we were just so happy; it seemed every few days a card would show up in our mailslot outside of cabin. It was just one more reason to book Princess again. Nothing went wrong on this cruise; (excepts maybe a little rain); but it was all so nice

Theo (tayyyyyyy-oooo) is one of my favourites, he was on my last sailing on the Crown.

 

Really enjoying your review so far :)

There you go. I like your spelling of his name better. He was so nice and funny

Wow! Thanks for sharing!

Isn't Alaska beyond words?

Yes Alaska was so beautiful some things were beyond beauty

Hello, I just returned from Emerald Princess sailing on 16 Jul. We used the port valet program. Program worked liked a charm and would use again. On Monday the ship handed out the paperwork and paperwork had to be turned in at guest services by Tuesday 11 Jul. Flight times had to be 11am-1am. Airlines that participate are Delta, American, United, Southwest, and I believe Alaska. We received our boarding passes and bag tags on Sat 15 July around 5pm. Bags had to be outside room by midnight. We set our bags out at 10:15pm. I received an txt msg from Delta telling me our bags had arrived at airport at 10:59pm and would be in holding area. Our flight was 10:55pm on 16 Jul. Around 9:30pm I received a txt from Delta telling me our bags had been loaded on the jet. We got back home to Cincinnati and bags were there. Cost nothing to use this service.

I just returned from Emerald Princess cruise on Sunday July 16. If you want to avoid all crowds show up to port at 1pm. If you want to be in the thick of crowds show up at 11am. Princess does not open boarding until noon; however, if you are staying in a suite; they have a separate boarding area and will get onboard the ship before anyone else. We had a suite and showed up at 11:20 and were onboard by 11:40. The normal waiting area had over 500 people waiting for noon when they opened the ship. Hope this helps

Here is day one of the patter in four parts

princess patter day1.pdf

princess patter2.pdf

princess patter3.pdf

princess patter4.pdf

Hello Everyone; today I want to discuss the crew and how they made this a wonderful and special cruise. A little background to set things up. My wife and I were celebrating our 35th anniversary and also my wifes birthday on Sat the 15th. I put this into my cruise personalizer before we left; not knowing if Princess would do anything other than say congrats. well they went over the top. When we checked into our cabin on day 1. They had the outside decorated with balloons and two signs on the door wishing us a Happy Anniversary and two drink coupons. Then on Wednesday they sent my wife a bday card. Inside the card were two gift cards one was for $25 to use in the gift shop and one was for $50 off any massage in the spa. Not expecting any big deal, we were truly happy campers. On my wife's birthday the head waiter got all the staff in club dining together and brought her a special cake and sang to her. On other cruise lines they make you buy the birthday cake and will sing to you. On Princess it was all complimentary. Since I am on the subject of head waiter let me tell you; his name was Petros from Poland. He was so knowledgeable of specials, menu items, and he also was the sous chef right in the dining room mixing pastas or Caesar salads. He said he has been with Princess for 19 years. Our cruise director was named Corey. He was very good too. He had a morning "wake show" on tv everyday and provided commentary of the days activities; and also interviewed all the guest performers and the naturalist. When ever I met him around the ship he stopped to talk, and made me feel like I was family. He was quick witted on stage and some really good come back lines for people. All three of the cruise staff I interacted with were great. There was a guy named Theo; but he liked to be called Ta-o. He was from Brazil and then there was Maria from Argentina. All were funny and likable. Next up was our room steward. He was from Mexico and was named Florintino. He proved to be very valuable. Whenever I had a question about something on the ship he had the answers. He kept room spotless and when one of my ironed dress shirts came back from the laundry with two buttons broken (I think the iron melted them); he took my shirt back down and had them replace all the buttons; so that they would all match. Wonderful. Then the guest service desk was wonderful. I used them three times. Twice to replace lost room keys; and once to straighten out our port valet question. In less than three minutes they had my answer. Basically our bag tags flight number did not match our Delta flight number. All was fixed. There were other interactions through the entire cruise and all were positive.. Wait staff in Horizon court were cordial; Crown Grill were very professional and nice. If I can think of any other staff that pop into my head I will list them. I believe our captain was named William Kent. I never did meet him but I am sure he would have been a hoot to talk to. Keep on reading; next up will be "THE FOOD". I will give a little hint. The always Princess Fav; Fettuccini Alfredo in the Parmesan Bowl was available on the menu every night.

Loving this report! We are booked on the same trip and ship in Sept. We have a mini suite with an 18' covered balcony near the aft. This is also our first cruise with Princess.

 

Sent from my LG-H812 using Tapatalk

Good you love my report; I have a few more sections to cover in the next few days

Excellent review!

Thanks I have a few more sections to cover in the next few days; stay tuned!

THE STATEROOM: OUR CABIN 2BEDROOM FAMILY SUITE: D101/D105

This cabin is the most forward two cabins on deck 9 starboard side. They consist of master bedroom; living room area bathroom with one sink and combo bath/shower. 2nd Bedroom two twin beds and two pull down beds. bathroom with shower. Living room area has two pull out couches that make into beds. There are three TV's, one in each bedroom and one in living room. A coffee table and a side table next to one of the couches. Mini frig. We swapped out the booze(we don't drink and didn't want kids being tempted) for sodas. I had already pre-purchased coffee cards for everyone. So they just put a bunch of cokes in frig and restocked when needed. We never paid for anything from the frig. The perks of this suite were awesome. Good size balcony. Two loungers, two regular chairs and a table. Unfortunately because you are so far forward and because we cruised Alaska the balcony was not used. Most days our cabin steward had to tie the furniture down. We did use balcony when in port. The perks were great. Let me list them; we did not know about some of these.

Free Laundry and dry cleaning; not once but when ever we needed

Free shoe polishing

Breakfast in Crown Grill

Dinner on first night in Crown Grill

Club Class Dining(what a great deal this was; more to come in food thread)

Quick embarkation and debarkation

Tons of storage space. Large closet with lots of hangers; and five shelves for clothing. Two drawers next to each side of the bed

Electrical outlets on the desk, in the bathrooms, and behind the TV's

Let me talk for a minute about the ships internet and intranet. I love the Princess at Sea where I could customize my days. I would add all the events I wanted to do each day. People say the wifi is slow. I never thought it was that slow. I bought a 240min package with extra 40 bonus minutes. I was able to upload pictures to one drive and also facebook every day. I have many friends and family who were counting on me for my daily post of pictures. So for me wifi was more than acceptable. If I think of anything more to add about the cabin I will. Next up-The Crew- I have to say wowzer; they amazed us