Better Late Than Never, Review of the Emerald Princess

[lovelearnteach]

This is a review of the cruise I took on the Emerald Princess way back in 2010. The Emerald is still my favorite Princess ship that I have thus sailed on, and my first cruise in almost 20 years and my first Cruise Critic Roll Call cruise :). I know this is late in coming and the info may not be useful, but for anyone that just likes to read other's accounts of their vacation, like myself, then perhaps you'll enjoy my recounting to the best of my ability. Luckily I saved all my memorabilia to help jog those memories.

[lovelearnteach]

I have written several reviews now here on CC, and really enjoy doing so. I was way to green behind the ears to write a review at the time I actually sailed on the Emerald. It will take time for me to complete the day to day review of my experiences with pix, so I will give a quick run down of our overall impressions of our sailing.

 

This was my uncle's first cruise and my first cruise in almost 20 years. We got a balcony room on the Riviera deck. The Emerald is a huge ship,and we loved every minute aboard her. The service was on point, the ship was well appointed and in great condition. Food being subjective we enjoyed all our meals. We enjoyed our balcony and liked being the top balcony looking down on everyone. We were never disturbed by any noise from HC above us. This cruise turned us into Princess fans and we enjoy sailing with them :).

[lovelearnteach]

[lovelearnteach]

Sorry that pic was an experiment, so we will have pix, yea :rolleyes::D. This is the Emerald Piazza

[lovelearnteach]

Okay here we go, for those that haven't read any of my other reviews I'm single and travel with my uncle who is also single. Neither of us has children, and my uncle is retired.

 

My uncle had heard me talk for years about how wonderful cruises were. The planets aligned and we finally decided to do it, and thus started my journey to search for the perfect cruise for my uncle's first cruise.

 

That is when I stumbled upon Cruise Critic, and the rest as they say is history. The wealth of information from this site is really astounding and it helped me to decide to settle on a 10-day cruise on-board the fabulous Emerald Princess.

Edited November 18, 2014 by lovelearnteach

[paul929207]

Thanks

[lovelearnteach]

Naturally I joined the Roll Call and OMG what a RC it was. There were many who posted daily, we did a lot of cruise and travel talk other than the cruise we were all taking. We had well over a 150 people on the RC, and we made some life-long friends from that RC and several we have traveled with since. I've never been on another RC quite like it since, it was so awesome. Several of the members planned excursions together, including me.

 

I planned an excursion on Dominica with 3 other fellow CC members joining my uncle and I. I just jumped right in and hit the ground running, planning excursions and stuff :eek::D.

[lovelearnteach]

We had quite a few Meet & Greet's planned for the RC the first being the day before the cruise at a hotel. We decided to go ahead and fly in the day before our cruise Sat, Sept. 18th, 2010.

 

I booked us at the Red Carpet Inn-Port Everglades/Ft. Lauderdale Airport, it was cheap, got good reviews, and had a free shuttle from the airport to the hotel and from the hotel to the cruise terminal. One of the life-long friends we met from the RC told us to call them once we got checked into our room, as they drove to the port, and we could tag along to sight see and go to the first RC get together at a hotel, scheduled for later in the evening.

 

By the time we got in our room and called them they said they were on their way to the beach to watch the Oasis of the Seas leave Port Everglades, they would swing by our hotel and pick us up. So luckily none of us were serial killers looking to hack up their next victim, as we were almost complete strangers to one another. I'll be forever grateful that our paths crossed as they have become such dear friends :).

[lovelearnteach]

OMG was the OOTS huge that thing was massive, sorry didn't get any pix of it :o. We then headed to Bubba Gumps for dinner, which was good and it was fun getting to know our new friends. We strolled around a bit and shopped a bit and then it was time to head to the hotel to meet those that could and that had flew in early, at the hotel, I believe it was the Sheraton.

 

It was nice to meet people I had spent months, getting to know on the RC. After a nice visit, our friends drove us back to our hotel. It was a wonderful start to our holiday and set the tone for a nice relaxing enjoyable vacation. :

[lovelearnteach]

Sun. Sept. 19th, 2014

 

Today is embarkation day, our plan is to have breakfast and catch the hotel shuttle at 10:30a.m. to the port. We eat at the restaurant at the hotel it was fine for breakfast and we catch the 10:30a.m. shuttle to the port.

 

Everything goes fine and we drop off our luggage and as we are walking towards the entrance we are handed number 2's and are told we can board when our number is called.

 

After going through the "process" we go to sit in the waiting area and no sooner than we sit down and our number is called and off we go to board the Emerald.

 

As we are boarding we are handed a treasure hunt thing, but we head right for our cabin to drop off our carry-on's. We have been given the secret that you can have lunch in the MDR before 1:30.m.

 

As we approach the MDR doors a person tells us can I help you, I say we are here for lunch, he says you can have lunch in the HC, no thank-you I say we want to have lunch in the MDR, he was starting to say something else when one of the RC members, we met at the hotel the night before, yells my name and waves to us. He reluctantly sat us next to them, but no matter we had a fabulous lunch with excellent service from the wait staff.

 

Port Everglades from our balcony.

 

 

This is from our balcony looking straight down.

 

 

This was our awesome balcony.

 

 

Lovely artwork in our cabin.

 

 

My first menu lunch on day of embarkation.

[Woobstr112G]

better late than never. Thanks for posting.....:):):)

 

Bob

[lovelearnteach]

Right after lunch it's straight back to the room to call the MDR to enter the lottery for a chance to dine at the Chef's Table, yet another secret gleaned here on CC ;).

 

We then head out to get all our stamps for the treasure hunt. It's a great way to get to know the ship and where everything is and we got to know some fellow passengers along the way :).

 

About then it's time for muster drill, which is so nice to be inside sitting down comfortable. Princess is aces in my book on muster drill!

 

After muster it's time to head to the bar on the back of the ship for our second RC M&G. Nice to meet more people from the RC and one member has made name tags and magnet signs for everyone, so super sweet of her!

 

We then make our way to midship for the Sail-Away Party. It is well attended and we had fun even if we didn't win any prizes :(:).

[lovelearnteach]

 

Wheelhouse Bar.

 

 

This is the humidor in the cigar lounge.

 

 

All these sculptures are made from sugar.

 

 

More sugar sculptures.

 

 

This is the sail-away party on day of embarkation.

[lovelearnteach]

 

The live band playing "Hot, Hot, Hot", at sail-away party.

 

 

Good ole conga line at the sail-away party.

 

 

Here we go for 10 glorious days in the Caribbean, good-bye FL.

 

.

[lovelearnteach]

Thanks

 

Thank-you so much for the support :).

[lovelearnteach]

better late than never. Thanks for posting.....:):):)

 

Bob

 

Thank-you so much for the support , it's truly appreciated :)!

[Cruisa Loosa]

Thank-you so much for the support :).

 

Nice to hear about your experience on the Emerald. We sailed on her first Carribean trip in 2007, it was our very first cruise and we were lucky to go on her first cruise too. The sail away was exciting and they played that music too! They had fire fighting boats spraying coloured water in the harbour and streamers everywhere. What a wonderful memory and a great way to be introduced to the joy of cruising...ten days in the Carribean. Life is good.

[lovelearnteach]

Nice to hear about your experience on the Emerald. We sailed on her first Carribean trip in 2007, it was our very first cruise and we were lucky to go on her first cruise too. The sail away was exciting and they played that music too! They had fire fighting boats spraying coloured water in the harbour and streamers everywhere. What a wonderful memory and a great way to be introduced to the joy of cruising...ten days in the Carribean. Life is good.

 

Thank-you for the support, and sharing your special experience :). Spoiler alert my uncle loves cruising now also :D:p.

[lovelearnteach]

After sail-away we are getting a little tired and head back to the room for some rest before dinner, we have late traditional.

 

Sorry no pix of dinner I was still green behind the ears and didn't know the importance and joy of food pix.

 

We seem to click with our table mates and have a fabulous dinner.

 

After dinner we wander around and look in the shops that are now open. When we get back to the room there is mail in our mailbox, hmm what could this be. Hooray we have won the Chef's Table lottery and we will be having dinner tomorrow night at the CT :).

 

A great start so far, my uncle is enjoying his time so far and is happy he has finally gone on a cruise. I also am happy with my choice in Princess, and am so grateful for this awesome experience.

[OCruisers]

It was fun to read! Thank you! :)

LuLu

[Grammyluvs]

Enjoying your review although I can’t see some of your pictures.:(

[lovelearnteach]

It was fun to read! Thank you! :)

LuLu

 

Thank-you for the support :).

[lovelearnteach]

Enjoying your review although I can’t see some of your pictures.:(

 

Thank-you for the support :).

 

Oh no, I'm not very techy, not sure what the malfunction is :o:confused:. I'll try to fix but don't hold your breath :eek::D.

[lovelearnteach]

Mon. Sept. 20th, 2010

 

Today we are at Princess Cays from 9:00a.m.-4:00p.m. This was our first time to Princess's private beach front on Eleuthera. My only really must-do was to go off Princess property and go to the little shopping area back there, yet another great tip learned from CC ;).

 

We got up about 7:45a.m. and went to breakfast, which was okay, I got the Maine Blueberry Pancakes and I wasn't wowed by them. As a matter of fact I have never ordered them again on other Princess cruises.

 

After breakfast we head to the room and get ready and packed up for the beach all day. We run into some RC friends and start to head to the MDR to wait for our turn to get on a tender, when we are told to just go down and get on a tender, so we did.

 

We were some of the first cruisers on the island and literally had our pick of the place. After scooping it out a bit we decided to nab this sweet little set-up in some tree's, shady, close to everything we'll need, perfect!

[lovelearnteach]

Edited November 19, 2014 by lovelearnteach