Just off the Emerald (3/10-3/14)

[Ldyandrea]

Just got back from my little mini-break on the Emerald yesterday, and it certainly wasn't long enough! *sigh*

 

First off, I'll address a couple of issues that had been going around about the Emerald lately:

 

- While the previous 2 sailings on the Emerald were pretty inundated by Spring Break college students, that wave ebbed this sailing, and it seemed to be a pretty standard Princess crowd for short cruises.....lots of people from Florida, just a handful of kids, some family groups, mostly couples in their 30's and older, and a couple of corporate groups as well. Above and beyond the other stories that had gone around, I was told by a bartender that something like 30 people had been "arrested" (which basically means they had their bar privileges suspended, and were confined to their cabins until they sobered up....in other words, they were put into Time Out) on those couple of sailings.

 

- I was in cabin R740, which is an inside cabin. No problems with AC temp not staying plenty chilly, and no issues with wacky water temps.

 

- New bedding/mattresses in place, and they are AWESOME. I'll go more into that later.

 

- First couple of days were windy and a little rocky, but by the time we made it to Grand Cayman, things were calm there and the rest of the way back.

 

Okay, so as I live in West Palm Beach, I drove myself to the port, and parked with Park N Go (I highly recommend them, by the way....good rates when you pay in advance, and excellent service). I arrived at the port around 11:30, bypassed that long line of folks wrapping along side the building, to enter at the preferred entrance (there were, as always on these short sailings, a LOT of blue cards). Completed my health form, and another form on how you wanted to do disembarkation (walk-off with luggage, or have luggage offloaded for you; early or later, etc.), had to wait for about 15 minutes after security screening to get to the desk (even in the elite/suite line), was directed to the elite/suite lounge and waited for another 10-15 minutes before being allowed on board. Whew! The hard part was over!

 

I stopped to purchase my AIBP at a table just inside the gangway, and went directly to the Dining Room for lunch, as I had checked my suitcase, and just had a couple of smaller bags I could easily carry with me. Had a nice lunch, and some bit of conversation with some couples sitting next to me, after which I headed to my cabin. Miracle of miracles! My suitcase was already waiting for me outside my door! I spent some time getting unpacked and settled in....met my cabin steward, Lino.

 

Okay, as mentioned above, the new bedding has arrived! The mattresses are lovely, they have a pillow top on them that are even better than the egg crate foam that has been used in the past. The linens are wonderful, and the pillows are incredibly fluffy. Personally, I love lots of pillows, and I was indeed in Pillow Heaven on this sailing! On the down side, something set off my allergies, which could have just been what happens when new carpeting gets installed, and dust raised from the change out in furnishings...I don't think it was due specifically to the bedding, however. In any case, I took my allergy meds, and enjoyed the heck out of the heavenly new bedding!

 

I tried out the new onboard Princess app on both my iPhone and my iPad for the first time. You can't use them until you're connected to the ship's Wi-Fi. I found them to be quite useful, and am shocked that they've only gotten to this now, frankly. There's no charge to use it, and it allows you to not only see your cabin statement, but also to see the current day's schedule, and to add particular items of interest to your own personal calendar. You also use that page to get external internet access, just make sure that you logout of that when you're finished so that you don't use up all of your minutes.

 

Additionally, assuming you don't wish to use the cell phone service that is apparently now available on board, make sure you put your phone or other mobile device on "airplane mode", and then manually turn on the Wi-Fi to connect to the ship's network. I don't know if your phone would actually start using cellular data automatically from the ship, but I didn't want to take any chances.

 

Went to Club Fusion for Muster Drill, and then zipped out the aft door on Riviera deck to the Terrace pool where I spent sail away on a deck chair, knitting and enjoying the beautiful day. Had a short dinner that evening in the Anytime dining room, and was seated with some nice folks, went into the casino to win and lose a few dollars, wandered around the ship collecting stamps for the treasure raffle (hadn't done that before), and spent most of the evening just familiarizing myself with the layout of the Emerald. I've been on every other ship in this class, but this was my first time on the Emerald, and there were some differences....particularly the location of Crooners, which is on the Starboard side of the ship, rather than on the Port side. Boy, did *that* get me turned around more than once! :p

 

More later!

Edited March 15, 2016 by Ldyandrea

[Clarea]

Thanks, and looking forward to more.:)

[colonialinnkeeper]

Nice to read about the Emerald. Thanks.

[Brendaleelandry]

Thanks for sharing I loved the details. I am a new cruiser and leaving on Saturday. Worried when you said it was rocky, more details please. I'm worried and we haven't even left yet

[Keith1010]

I enjoyed your report and I look forward to your next installment.

 

Keith

[floridalover5623]

Please post the number of days the top three cruisers had.

[KirkNC]

Bon voyage!

[CRLess]

Look forward to hearing more of your opinion. As you are probably aware, we were also on this cruise, and I hope to find the time to get my thoughts/review posted before the time gets away from me.

[riclop]

Thanks for starting.

[Ldyandrea]

Please post the number of days the top three cruisers had.

 

Per the Princess Patter, the most traveled passengers were at 1092 days....not sure where to find the number of days for any others.

[floridalover5623]

Per the Princess Patter, the most traveled passengers were at 1092 days....not sure where to find the number of days for any others.

 

Thanks. Unless you went to the Capt repeater party you wouldn't find the next 2 posted anywhere.

[Colo Cruiser]

Just got back from my little mini-break on the Emerald yesterday, and it certainly wasn't long enough! *sigh*

 

First off, I'll address a couple of issues that had been going around about the Emerald lately:

 

- While the previous 2 sailings on the Emerald were pretty inundated by Spring Break college students, that wave ebbed this sailing, and it seemed to be a pretty standard Princess crowd for short cruises.....lots of people from Florida, just a handful of kids, some family groups, mostly couples in their 30's and older, and a couple of corporate groups as well. Above and beyond the other stories that had gone around, I was told by a bartender that something like 30 people had been "arrested" (which basically means they had their bar privileges suspended, and were confined to their cabins until they sobered up....in other words, they were put into Time Out) on those couple of sailings.

 

- I was in cabin R740, which is an inside cabin. No problems with AC temp not staying plenty chilly, and no issues with wacky water temps.

 

- New bedding/mattresses in place, and they are AWESOME. I'll go more into that later.

 

- First couple of days were windy and a little rocky, but by the time we made it to Grand Cayman, things were calm there and the rest of the way back.

 

Okay, so as I live in West Palm Beach, I drove myself to the port, and parked with Park N Go (I highly recommend them, by the way....good rates when you pay in advance, and excellent service). I arrived at the port around 11:30, bypassed that long line of folks wrapping along side the building, to enter at the preferred entrance (there were, as always on these short sailings, a LOT of blue cards). Completed my health form, and another form on how you wanted to do disembarkation (walk-off with luggage, or have luggage offloaded for you; early or later, etc.), had to wait for about 15 minutes after security screening to get to the desk (even in the elite/suite line), was directed to the elite/suite lounge and waited for another 10-15 minutes before being allowed on board. Whew! The hard part was over!

 

I stopped to purchase my AIBP at a table just inside the gangway, and went directly to the Dining Room for lunch, as I had checked my suitcase, and just had a couple of smaller bags I could easily carry with me. Had a nice lunch, and some bit of conversation with some couples sitting next to me, after which I headed to my cabin. Miracle of miracles! My suitcase was already waiting for me outside my door! I spent some time getting unpacked and settled in....met my cabin steward, Lino.

 

Okay, as mentioned above, the new bedding has arrived! The mattresses are lovely, they have a pillow top on them that are even better than the egg crate foam that has been used in the past. The linens are wonderful, and the pillows are incredibly fluffy. Personally, I love lots of pillows, and I was indeed in Pillow Heaven on this sailing! On the down side, something set off my allergies, which could have just been what happens when new carpeting gets installed, and dust raised from the change out in furnishings...I don't think it was due specifically to the bedding, however. In any case, I took my allergy meds, and enjoyed the heck out of the heavenly new bedding!

 

I tried out the new onboard Princess app on both my iPhone and my iPad for the first time. You can't use them until you're connected to the ship's Wi-Fi. I found them to be quite useful, and am shocked that they've only gotten to this now, frankly. There's no charge to use it, and it allows you to not only see your cabin statement, but also to see the current day's schedule, and to add particular items of interest to your own personal calendar. You also use that page to get external internet access, just make sure that you logout of that when you're finished so that you don't use up all of your minutes.

 

Additionally, assuming you don't wish to use the cell phone service that is apparently now available on board, make sure you put your phone or other mobile device on "airplane mode", and then manually turn on the Wi-Fi to connect to the ship's network. I don't know if your phone would actually start using cellular data automatically from the ship, but I didn't want to take any chances.

 

Went to Club Fusion for Muster Drill, and then zipped out the aft door on Riviera deck to the Terrace pool where I spent sail away on a deck chair, knitting and enjoying the beautiful day. Had a short dinner that evening in the Anytime dining room, and was seated with some nice folks, went into the casino to win and lose a few dollars, wandered around the ship collecting stamps for the treasure raffle (hadn't done that before), and spent most of the evening just familiarizing myself with the layout of the Emerald. I've been on every other ship in this class, but this was my first time on the Emerald, and there were some differences....particularly the location of Crooners, which is on the Starboard side of the ship, rather than on the Port side. Boy, did *that* get me turned around more than once! :p

 

More later!

 

 

Thanks for the comments.

[Ldyandrea]

Day 2 (Friday) - At Sea

 

I decided to order room service for breakfast, after which I headed to the Treasure Hunt drawing. I didn't win anything there, and I went to Bingo right afterwards. At Bingo (held in the Explorer's Lounge, which was a first for me since I'm used to it being in Club Fusion) I did better in that I actually won the first two games! So did several other people! :rolleyes: I've never seen anything like it, actually....something like 5 winners for the first game, and 3 or 4 for the second game. I ended up with about $64 or so in total....I think I must have blown all of my Bingo Luck for the cruise on those two games!

 

Had a quick Pub Lunch in the Wheelhouse Bar of Fish & Chips along with some cider. They have indeed added a number of plastic high-top tables in there for the Salty Dog Tavern, and they do rather distract from the otherwise lovely furnishings in that venue. I didn't partake of the Salty Dog menu on this sailing, as I wasn't all that thrilled by the menu, and the associated cost. I opted to pay a few more dollars and eat at the Crown Grill instead later on for what I felt was a substantially better meal.

 

This was Formal Night, and after taking a little nap, and a lovely dinner at the Crown Grill, I headed up to the Lido deck to watch The Martian at MUTS. There were comfy lounge chair covers available, and as the night was quite windy, the blankets offered by the deck attendant were very welcome! While it was windy, it was never really cold however....and while it was wavy enough to warrant closing the pool, it wasn't so much so that it was difficult to walk or anything.

 

After the movie, I spent a little more time wandering around the casino, and playing a bit here and there. Spent some more time at Crooners with my favorite bartenders, Chris and Deepak (for those who see them, tell them I said hi!) and had some great conversations with a number of other lovely people (Hi Sue and Todd! *waves*).

Day 3 (Saturday) - Grand Cayman

 

We arrived on time Saturday morning, and I opted to stay on the ship rather than going ashore. Instead, after breakfast, I went to the pool deck where I was able to easily secure a lounger, and watched the movie Minions while I swam in the pool, boiled in the hot tub, and then did some knitting and got some sun.

 

I had a quick lunch in the buffet (btw, I have become obsessed with the balsamic vinaigrette dressing served on Princess). That evening I did attempt to go to the Crab Shack which was advertised in the Patter that morning, but they are NOT kidding when they recommend reservations....in the future, I would suggest calling as soon as you board to make Crab Shack reservations. They are very popular and fill up quickly! :eek:

 

I spent some time at Crooners after dinner in the MDR, and then scampered down to the Explorer's Lounge for that evening's karaoke. These shorter sailings don't hold the new Voice of the Ocean contest, which I was sorry to hear....however, because there's more involved in terms of coaching and rehearsing, which didn't happen at all with the prior Princess Pop Star contest, I can understand why they wouldn't have done so. In any case, there was about an hour for karaoke, and a maximum number of slots for singers. You had to arrive early to get a chance to go through the books, and find something you could sing.

 

Let me take a side bar here, as I'm a bit of a karaoke junkie. I've been singing for most of my life, and have been doing karaoke seriously for probably a dozen years. My regular Karaoke DJ (or my "Karaoke p1mp" as I call him ;)) has an incredible song collection with hundreds of thousands of songs....if he doesn't have it, you've probably never heard of it....and he probably has lots of stuff you never have heard of as well! Cruise ship karaoke generally has very sparse song collections, with gaping holes where some normal mainstay songs should be in evidence. On the Emerald, this was certainly the case, and in fact the song books of their existing collection were only available organized by title (no books by artist were available at all) which made finding a song to sing even more challenging and time consuming. I was told by a member of the crew running the karaoke (Aris?) that they were getting an updated song collection, and new books on the next sailing. I'd love to hear from anyone else on a future sailing if that did indeed happen. (*end karaoke rant*)

 

One of the other things that differs in cruise ship karaoke versus karaoke at home is that a LOT of people show up just to watch karaoke. It's a much larger audience than I'm personally used to, which definitely sets off my stage fright, to be sure. I did manage to find a song that I actually knew well enough to sing, and managed to not shake too badly until after I was done. :rolleyes:

 

I ended the evening by spending some time up at Skywalker's, as it's always an interesting venue.

 

Day 4 (Sunday) - At Sea

 

I went to bed quite late, and due to the time change that night for Daylight Savings Time (not due to the ship's route) I was at first startled to see how late it was when I woke up! I decided to try my luck at the slot machine tournament, but fell short and couldn't make it to the finals unfortunately. Boo.

 

Later, I wandered a bit, found a place to read a book, and knit a little more. I did go play the final round of Bingo, and came *one number away* from winning the final game before someone else took it. Rats!

 

I had dinner in the MDR that evening with some lovely people, and had a nice conversation. Spent a little more time at Crooners with Chris & Deepak, and found that apparently the staff actually likes the AIBP (All Inclusive Beverage Package) quite a bit since it makes it far more efficient and easy to process orders. That being said, I did notice throughout the ship that there are now far fewer waitstaff than I have been accustomed to seeing that circulate to serve drinks either on the pool deck, or at any of the inside venues.

 

Spent that last evening at karaoke again, this time in Club Fusion, before heading back to enjoy my "Heavenly Bed" for one last night. :)

 

Disembarkation Day (Monday)

 

I awoke to find that we were back at Port Everglades, but not at the same terminal we left from (2), but were instead docked at Terminal 19 instead. I opted to walk off with my luggage, but as I am a South Florida local who wasn't having to catch a plane anywhere, I waited until the later groups before disembarking and spent time in the International Cafe nibbling on a croissant with some orange juice. Once off the ship, disembarkation took quite a bit longer of a wait than I recall in previous sailings out of Terminal 2. The common feed line leading up to Customs really seemed to slow things down quite a bit. I was pleased to not be asked by the Customs officer this time why I was traveling alone....something that has been asked of me on the last few cruises I have returned from, and really kind of annoys me.

 

Once out of the terminal, I hopped on the waiting Park N Go shuttle to get delivered back to my vehicle, they gave me a cold bottle of water on my way out, and I headed back home.

 

I really did enjoy myself, but as much as I do love these short cruises, I do still think that it was far too short! :D

[Ldyandrea]

Thanks. Unless you went to the Capt repeater party you wouldn't find the next 2 posted anywhere.

 

Ah. Yeah, I generally don't attend those. :)

[Ldyandrea]

Thanks for sharing I loved the details. I am a new cruiser and leaving on Saturday. Worried when you said it was rocky, more details please. I'm worried and we haven't even left yet

 

It was a bit so the first two days and nights, but not so bad that it was causing problems in terms of walking....just enough to let you know you were on the ocean, and to rock you to sleep at night. :p

[geoherb]

Thanks for posting your review. The Captain's Circle rep can tell you the top numbers of days. I had to ask for a live posting I was doing on our previous cruise since it was a short cruise without a past-passenger party.

[floridalover5623]

Ah. Yeah, I generally don't attend those. :)

It's OK for a few drinks after dinner- and not the free ones they hand out either.

[AF-1]

hi, thank your for a great review. I do have a question. How does the Princess app work? You buy internet time and then you log on to use the app? So in order to use app you must be using internet minutes? Also is there a way for me to txt my wife onboard using this app?

[TracieABD]

Thank you for your lovely review- I, too, was traveling solo on this cruise! It was a great length of time to "cut my teeth", as it were! Glad we did not have the 9,000,000 spring breakers for sure!

[floridalover5623]

hi, thank your for a great review. I do have a question. How does the Princess app work? You buy internet time and then you log on to use the app? So in order to use app you must be using internet minutes? Also is there a way for me to txt my wife onboard using this app?

 

You don't have to buy internet time to text among people on the ship.

[Colo Cruiser]

hi, thank your for a great review. I do have a question. How does the Princess app work? You buy internet time and then you log on to use the app? So in order to use app you must be using internet minutes? Also is there a way for me to txt my wife onboard using this app?

 

Just log on through the wifi system onboard but not the one where you use your minutes. No minutes required.

[we3peas]

We also were on this cruise 2 parents and a 17yo girl.

Daughter was disappointed to find there was no one hanging out at the teen club that wasn't playing video games all the time, so she spent most of her time with us.

The bedding was indeed wonderful I wasn't sure they would have done the inside cabins but they did. Temp in our room was always at 65 degrees (lowest setting on wall-I know it for a fact because I brought my own indoor thermometer with me after reading how hot it was).

Food was only so so except for the Crown Grill which we ate at on Formal night even going straight there after boarding we only had a choice of 530pm or 9 pm. So get there early. Salty Dog was never busy-the most I ever saw eating was 5 tables. The menu did not appeal to us.

Disappointed in the machines in the gym could only be used from 8am-8pm. We got up at 630 am to get an early workout in but could not use anything but ellipticals and bikes. Unfortunately with knee problems that is not an option for me. Didn't want to walk outside because it was really breezy.

Also waiter service was slow all over ship and the ship was not full. I wonder if a lot of contracts were up and workers left the ship and were not replaced yet.

Husband was irritated with the disembarkation. We live in Central FL so wanted early to get off ship. He signed up for walkoff early and they put us down for individual tours at 1030 am. He got that changed right away. The buses were a pain at the end. They said we got moved for something going on at convention center so we were pushed to pier 19. It took about 45 minutes in the line just to get on a bus.

 

Overall cruise was great, very relaxing and not crowded. Venues had plenty of open seats, piazza not crowded at all. Only area right around pools were filled but there are plenty of other outdoor seats available if you don't need to be right next to a pool.

I'll add more as I think of it.

[Todd320]

We were also on the same cruise, I joined DW after she did the 5 day cruise with all those college kids. She said it was quite entertaining to watch the carnage. We enjoyed the 4 day cruise on the Emerald Princess. The ships staff was great except for the employee group in the Sanctuary. We found them to be disinterested. We have had wonderful experiences in the Royal Sanctuary, some 27 days this winter with 20 more planned to start next week.

 

The new beds, bedding and pillows on the Emerald are great!. We found the Horizon court to be small and limited on selections in comparison to the Royal. We really enjoyed Crooners and their bartenders.

 

Overall we had a great time.

[caribill]

hi, thank your for a great review. I do have a question. How does the Princess app work? You buy internet time and then you log on to use the app? So in order to use app you must be using internet minutes? Also is there a way for me to txt my wife onboard using this app?

 

Actually, you do not need to use the app.

 

With or without the app you connect to the ship's WIFI system. Once there you have a choice of using the Internet ($$$) or features of the intranet (free). It is with the intranet you can see your onboard account, look at a Patter, message fellow passengers.

 

Please note that if you message your wife, there is no audible (sound or vibration) for her. If she is expecting a message from you, she will need to check her device to see if one was received.

[easyboy]

Thank you to all who shared their experiences.