Emeral Princess reviews

[Nana Sea]

I have read 2 bad reviews for the Emerald that sailed this month out of Houston. We are booked to sail early next year. Can I get some positive feed back so I don't feel compelled to cancel. We had been very excited but now are a little nervous.

[Dudleydog73]

I can tell you the Emerald is in pretty good shape after being on the TA that brought her to Houston (although we debarked in Ft Lauderdale). The crew were some of the best we have experienced on all of our Princess cruises.

 

As to the negative reviews, I cannot say much positive about the Bayport terminal in Houston. Were the negative reviews about the Emerald herself or the port?

[Nana Sea]

They complained about both the ship and the terminal. We have always cruised out of Galveston and this would be our first out of Houston so I understand we will experience a big difference. As for the ship and your experience would you recommend her?

[PenguinLife]

We were on the 5 day out of Houston last week, and other than the delays at the terminal in Houston at both the beginning and end it was a VERY good cruise. A good part of the delays were caused by the freak strong early season cold fronts that just happened to pass through Houston 5 days apart timed with the cruise schedule, causing strong north winds that made it very difficult to traverse the narrow 2 or 3 mile long channel out to the main ship channel even with the help of tugs (we had 2 tugs with winds gusting to 35 mph and were delayed a few hours until the winds calmed down, the next cruise which was delayed by almost 24 hours used 4 tugs with gusts to 40 mph).

 

I think the big complaints are coming in from those people that have not allowed enough time for same day departure flights, in the case of this port if I were flying out afterward I would be very concerned if I had an outbound flight before about 4 pm. In our case we did regular disembarkation and were off the ship even with a couple of hours of delays coming in due to light fog just before noon.

 

Again the cruise itself was GREAT, well as great as it could be with it being a 5 day Mexican cruise on an itinerary we have done twice before.

 

Ike

 

p.s. It is true communication and organization both at the port and on the ship at the ends of the cruise could have been better

Edited November 21, 2014 by PenguinLife
ps

[photokay]

They complained about both the ship and the terminal. We have always cruised out of Galveston and this would be our first out of Houston so I understand we will experience a big difference. As for the ship and your experience would you recommend her?

 

I saw those negative reviews, too. We haven't been on the Emerald but loved the Golden Princess. I think we will still take the cruise, Dec.21,2014. We haven't sailed out of Houston. Houston has had some bad weather these past week. A cold front went through, maybe that is what caused the fall. In December, TX and AR can get some warm weather before Christmas. Hoping for that.

[Cathys Cruising]

I'm hoping for a good cruise! We're sailing Sunday. We've gone out of the Houston terminal once before and I wasn't overly impressed then, but do like their parking arrangement at the terminal. Following the threads about weather related departures & arrivals of the Emerald, we're driving in from San Antonio early Sunday morning & will make the best of what happens. I suspect we're going to have a wonderful cruise!

 

 

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

[Dudleydog73]

They complained about both the ship and the terminal. We have always cruised out of Galveston and this would be our first out of Houston so I understand we will experience a big difference. As for the ship and your experience would you recommend her?

 

I would absolutely recommend sailing the Emerald, and would do it again in a heartbeat if it was in another port.

 

This is the second year in a row (note this is only the second year porting out of Bayport) and there have been MANY issues sailing into and out of this port. Yes, some folks get a favorable roll of the dice from Mother Nature, but many more do not. It is because of this that we will not attempt to sail out of Houston unless there is a deep discount in pricing as for us there are much less problematic ports to get our Princess fix.

[PenguinLife]

Sorry about cutting my earlier comment short, but I was busy here, and since the topic everyone seems to be concentrating on is the poor design of the Houston cruise terminal I thought I would give my take.

 

I suspect whoever the architect of the cruise terminal was, had little or no experience designing cruise terminals, and probably based much of their design on layouts for regional airports of similar overall capacities. The problem here is that traffic flow patterns are very different between the two and as a result there are serious issues.

 

1, vehicle traffic flow for drive in passengers loops past luggage drop off then loops around taking up the left lane for entering vehicles and all entering cars have to pass through 2 toll gates, this may be fine for an airport with traffic spread out, but when you are trying to get 1,000 cars into the lot in 2 hours it does not work so well. Also the exiting cars have to cross the line where the entering cars are backed up. (think spiral loop that crosses itself) prepaying online only speeds the process to a limited degree.

 

2, Exterior awning are of the high arched variety over the walkways and part of the pickup area, which is great for having an open feeling, and ok for sun shade, but not so great for blowing rain.

 

3, There is not enough interior queue area prior to the security check points (which have ample number of x-ray / metal detectors if all were manned), which tends to cause the line to spread outdoors under the limited shelter of the awnings mentioned above.

 

4, once past security the traffic layout for the main ticketing counter and the associated wait seating for ticketed passengers is a similar cross flow spiral mess as the parking.

 

5, Once boarding starts the next bottle neck is the escalators going up to the small second floor which feeds the skywalk style boarding gantry, the port has a rule that passengers must have a free hand to use the escalator otherwise must use the elevator, which is a big problem for walk off passengers at the end of the cruise.

 

6, Then there is the channel going out the main ship channel, ship channel traffic, and weather both fog and winds. This narrow channel runs roughly east / west for about 3 miles before connecting with the much larger HSC ship channel (at one point a few years ago part of this was the 10th busiest shipping channel in the world). In the winter months this means you have cruise ships with large sail areas travelling down a narrow channel broadside to the wind when a cold front blows through. This was the main cause of delay for the first two cruises so far this year, although part of the delay was also caused by fog both times in the morning hours when the ship was coming into port, delaying arrival by about 2 hours each time. Availability of tugs to help under adverse wind conditions may also be part of the cause for delays here.

 

7 In addition to these factors there are a number of human factors going on at this port both on board ship and in the terminal that add to the mess, ranging from poor traffic flow coordination, lack of training and staffing for security check point and possibly the ticketing counter, lack of communication onboard the ship about the state of docking, etc.

 

Can these things be fixed, some probably can, but this would likely require some investment into the port facilities such as moving and adding more toll gates to the parking lot, widening the entry road, etc.

 

Having said all that the other regional ports are not without their own flaws

[Nana Sea]

Thanks for the responses. They were very helpful. I think we have decided to go ahead and experience the cruise for ourselves. We love cruising and I'm sure it will be fine. It sounds like our big obstacle is going to be the terminal. To CathysCruisin' - I would love it if you posted something about the trip when you return.

[spindrift]

We have traveled all over the world, and we found the Houston terminal easy to navigate. Paid for our parking online, arrived finding someone directing us (as well as signs indicating the route), dropped off the luggage, went around and went into the parking entry, parked the car, and walked into the terminal.

 

There were folks to give directions where to check in, and then we were sent to a room to wait.

 

Relative to the channel, we had no problems, but we all know that where ever you go, weather can be a factor.

 

For those going to the terminal, just follow directions and make your own opinions.

[scott4020]

I would absolutely recommend sailing the Emerald, and would do it again in a heartbeat if it was in another port.

 

This is the second year in a row (note this is only the second year porting out of Bayport) and there have been MANY issues sailing into and out of this port. Yes, some folks get a favorable roll of the dice from Mother Nature, but many more do not. It is because of this that we will not attempt to sail out of Houston unless there is a deep discount in pricing as for us there are much less problematic ports to get our Princess fix.

 

MANY? The second cruise is out right now many is a bit nuts. Seriously.

[MGnut]

I have read 2 bad reviews for the Emerald that sailed this month out of Houston. We are booked to sail early next year. Can I get some positive feed back so I don't feel compelled to cancel. We had been very excited but now are a little nervous.

 

As far as the Emerald Princess herself, we have been of 3 recent cruises on her, and she is definitely one of our favorite ships - both ship-wise and crew-wise.

 

As far as the Houston harbor, I can't comment, but haven't heard a lot good about it.

[OCruisers]

While we haven't been on Emerald when she's been going out of Houston, we totally love Emerald Princess and have cruised on her many times.

Happily, Emerald will be back to cruising out of FLL in 2016 and we already have a cruise booked on her. :)

LuLu

[billco]

We sailed on the the recent Transatlantic from Southampton to Houston followed by the 5 day Mexico cruise. We felt it was a good cruise with few outstanding problems. One of the lights in our bathroom flickered a few times when first turned and that was about it for negatives.

 

We are booked again on the Emerald this Spring from Houston to Barcelona. Looking forward to the cruise.

 

Hope they have that light fixed by then, though we will be in a different stateroom.

[JimmyVWine]

MANY? The second cruise is out right now many is a bit nuts. Seriously.

Dudley said that the issues were many, not the number of cruises. And in a follow-up post by PenguinLife, these many issues were detailed. Even on a single cruise there can be numerous issues.

 

It is a shame that Princess is suffering negative reviews that stem largely from the bad taste left in the mouths of people who have troublesome departures and/or returns. And this being the second year using Houston, and with both years suffering problems, the cries of "out of the ordinary" or "unique" or "unpredictable" weather conditions is ringing hollow. I live where it snows. When it will snow is unpredictable. That it will snow is not. How many consecutive years do Princess passengers have to endure delays and missed ports before we stop kidding ourselves that these delays are the result of unusual weather conditions?

Edited November 22, 2014 by JimmyVWine

[PenguinLife]

In all fairness last winter was probably the worst winter in 50 years for much of the U.S., and so far this winter is not shaping up much better, with much of SE Texas reporting various record lows the day of or the day after these first 2 Emerald Princess Houston departures this year.

[convertible]

I have been on 20 cruises the emerald is by far my favorite ship .been out of bay port.nevef again will sail the emerald again when it returns. To ft lauderdale

[SLCfirsttimer]

I have read 2 bad reviews for the Emerald that sailed this month out of Houston. We are booked to sail early next year. Can I get some positive feed back so I don't feel compelled to cancel. We had been very excited but now are a little nervous.

 

Keep in mind that these are two reviews out of 6000+ people that have sailed on the two most recent cruises and that reviews are extremely subjective. I would be willing to bet that there are several other cruisers who went on these two cruises who were perfectly happy with how things went.

 

I am sailing next Sunday on the Emerald and am quite excited for the cruise.

[DannyMac]

We have traveled all over the world, and we found the Houston terminal easy to navigate. Paid for our parking online, arrived finding someone directing us (as well as signs indicating the route), dropped off the luggage, went around and went into the parking entry, parked the car, and walked into the terminal.

 

There were folks to give directions where to check in, and then we were sent to a room to wait.

 

Relative to the channel, we had no problems, but we all know that where ever you go, weather can be a factor.

 

For those going to the terminal, just follow directions and make your own opinions.

 

"spindrift" has it nailed, my wife and I have taken two cruises out of Bayport and have had no problems. Weather is a cause for concern especially December to April. Fog is a major problem a few days after a cold front, but that is a concern for all sea ports.

 

Getting out of Bayport is "tricky", the Emerald will have to make a 180 degree turn in a very small turning basin and head east to the Houston ship channel. Steaming time from Bayport to the end of the Galveston jetties is about an hour and a half!

 

The Port Authority needs to put in a cell phone lot near the fencing around the property so we can let our ride know when we are off the ship.

 

I guess people can find something to complain about, its a cruise, chill out and enjoy!!

[PrincessNancy]

We sailed on the the recent Transatlantic from Southampton to Houston followed by the 5 day Mexico cruise. We felt it was a good cruise with few outstanding problems. One of the lights in our bathroom flickered a few times when first turned and that was about it for negatives.

 

We are booked again on the Emerald this Spring from Houston to Barcelona. Looking forward to the cruise.

 

Hope they have that light fixed by then, though we will be in a different stateroom.

 

Thanks--you made me laugh! I share your travel attitude!

 

Actually just realized we'll be on the Emerald cruise before you. I'll check on that light for you!;)

[billco]

We were in cabin C242

[MarElz]

I saw those negative reviews, too. We haven't been on the Emerald but loved the Golden Princess. I think we will still take the cruise, Dec.21,2014. We haven't sailed out of Houston. Houston has had some bad weather these past week. A cold front went through, maybe that is what caused the fall. In December, TX and AR can get some warm weather before Christmas. Hoping for that.

 

I'm on this cruise too, decided not to worry about it! Just happy to be cruising! :)

[GradUT]

I am sailing next Sunday on the Emerald and am quite excited for the cruise.

 

SLC--Can you give us a quick review when you get back? We'll be sailing on December 21st.

 

Thanks!

[divingaggie]

We are due to sail out on Emerald today. I'll post our experiences when we return! I'm crossing my fingers that the weather reports for today are correct--looks like sunny and warmish after a stormy Saturday night.

[MarElz]

We are due to sail out on Emerald today. I'll post our experiences when we return! I'm crossing my fingers that the weather reports for today are correct--looks like sunny and warmish after a stormy Saturday night.

 

Have a great cruise, it's supposed to be a beautiful day! I'll be watching the sail away on the Bayport web cam and looking forward to your review!

Edited November 23, 2014 by MarElz