Emerald Princess

[jgd3rdbcfd]

Just completed a 29 night trans Pacific cruise. She is starting to show a little age but the crew has been very busy cleaning and painting everything for its season in Alaska. Cruise Director Steve and ACD Mikey were among the best that I have sailed with. It was a very enjoyable cruise except for 4 days of ruff seas.:D

[OCruisers]

Thanks for reporting back!

Happy is was an overall good one.

Emerald has always been one of our favorite ships. :)

[canusa]

Good to hear, we board her on Saturday.:D

[Colo Cruiser]

29 days and that's all you got? :eek:

[easyboy]

Thanks for the feedback. Nice to know of their maintenance efforts.

 

 

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[Lucky TGO]

Thanks for sharing.

Tony

[TravelingEA]

Thank you. We board tomorrow in Vancouver.

[AF-1]

Hey thanks for update; did you happen to notice in your 29 days if they re-carpeted my stateroom? Was hoping to get something that had little fishes swimming upstream. Thanks.

[AE_Collector]

All common areas are new color schemes but all cabin area hallways still the older blue carpeting. Didn't notice any cabins in new Colors but wasn't paying much attention.

 

A few slightly rough nights but not much really. 1.25-2.5 meter wave range as listed in stateroom tv....and we were right at the pointy end. Only 2 cabins further forward than us. I think she is in good shape, crew excellent (as usual).

 

Emeralds first time to LA and in a couple more hours first time to Vancouver!

 

AE_Collector

[AF-1]

Does anyone who's on the ship now or has been on ship in past 30 days; know how long the cruise director will be onboard? Thanks

[Thrak]

Does anyone who's on the ship now or has been on ship in past 30 days; know how long the cruise director will be onboard? Thanks

 

Interesting question. We are on Emerald for 28 days in October and wondering if the current CD will still be aboard or if it will be someone else. With a cruise that long and with 18 sea days the CD may well have a significant impact - or not. As long as it isn't JJ Ulrich I guess we will be OK.

 

The CD thread shows the current CD on Emerald to be Steve Campbell.

[cruisequeen4ever]

I'm so glad she's back; she's in my top 3!

 

 

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[AF-1]

I'm so glad she's back; she's in my top 3!

 

 

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Hi, which ship are you talking about? I am confused.

[Cootakid]

I was on a New Zealand cruise 31 March this year where CD Steve indicated it was his first on Emerald,,,,

 

So I expect he will onboard for a while yet,,,,,

[kruisey]

I was also on this cruise the 29 days then on to Vancouver.

I hate to be a party pooper but many of us caught the usual Upper Respiratory Chest Infection the same one I caught on a previous cruise.I am not going to argue in any way this enters the vessel but I caught it April 17th five days after boarding then again on May 9th and am still suffering from it and that cough .Being elderly I feel weak so this was the downer on this trip.The medical department was really busy and I heard one morning they had a line up of 100 folks.

Otherwise it was a good trip the food was very good in Traditional Dining and the breakfasts in Horizon Court one was spoilt for choice,great omelettes made to the individuals choice an example.

All employees were wonderful.In the International cafe the staff white uniforms always spotless,wonderful choice of goodies for everyone.

Princess has more shows including passenger participation which everyone enjoyed.I was a passenger in Read my Lips and was a pregnant Madonna when I sang 'Like a Virgin' plus I also joined the second edition of Princess Pop choir with another 109 passenger.The Hula class was alos very strong. The 2 for 1,second $1 drink between 3PM and 4 in Wheelhouse was always very strongly supported.Naturally we had our Bingo fans.Steve and Mikey plus all the entertainment team did a good job by keeping us occupied on sea days.

Another downer was a lack of empathy and concern from Shore Excursion deck for their disability customers which unfortunately now being 81 have a problem with my old knees.I had a feeling they wished us to go away and get lost.Once one managed to get off the ship one was one ones own.OK one has to have some beefs nothing is perfect.

[AE_Collector]

I guess this is turning into a review of the 29/32 day Emerald reposition cruise out of Sydney but it was a pretty wide open subject title from the beginning.

 

I agree, another great Princess cruise. The level of organization on Princess always amazes me. It's almost like they've done it before! Lots of good things to say but I've been accused of being a Princess Cheerleader before so I wont try to list everything.

 

We are big fans of the onboard lecturers on all cruises. We try to get to all these presentations almost no matter what the topic. We love to Learn on sea days. So, that was our biggest disappointment on this cruise. With LOTS of sea days we only had the port lecturer Doug Pearson. We loved his presentations and his enthusiasm.

 

Doug did a couple of talks that weren't port lectures but I am virtually certain that he would have done many more if given the venue. I wrote in to the wake show expresding our appreciation of a Doug's lectures and asked if he could do a couple more from Hawaii to LA (5 sea days). I pointed out that he went into overtime on every talk we were at as he has so much info to share. Frequently he had to skip past dozens of slides to get to the end as another event was about to start in the venue. But, in the end only the LA port talk made the schedule on the last 5 sea days. I think that unfortunately lectures just weren't big on the CD/ED's radar.

 

The one other item that I was a little annoyed about with this 29 day cruise is that we only receive one cruise credit for it. I pointed this out just prior to the cruise on the Roll Call. I know how the system works or at least I thought I did. This cruise was clearly bookable as a 29 day or a 7 day and a 22 day yet there was only one credit point, one mini bar and Inez Internet allotment for the 29 days. I will have to avoid eye contact in the future with this Captains Circle rep, she is tired of my logic. After I first questioned her she indicated she had already informed head office that many people were questioning this. But the next time I spoke with her she was ready with the explanation that Sydney to LA (29 days) was a single "voyage". I reviewed with her how prior to 2014 points were awarded depending how many booking numbers you had not by the number of shortest individual cruises that it could be booked as but that changed in 2014. In this case that didn't matter, it was on the books as a single voyage.

 

To me this is just a confusion of the way it works. In theory they could call a period of say one calendar year a single voyage on a ship and only give one credit even though it may be bookable as 50 different cruises over the year. I know I am being extreme here but we have no idea what "a voyage" is when we book. All we see is how it can be booked and this could be booked as two cruises. Since 2014 this should have been a two point cruise. It doesn't even matter to me really, we've more than doubled the elite requirement by cruises and/or days.

 

Had I known that we would only get one mini bar for the 29 days I would have brought on a bit more of my own soft drinks onboard. I also expected 150 minutes of internet for the first 7 days and then 500 minutes for the final 22 days but only got 500 minutes total for the 29 days. We survived, as I said at the beginning it was a great cruise but I like many on cruise critic are here to figure out how things will work before we start the ship and this part of the cruise didn't work as I expected it would at all.

 

I don't think anything about this was an attempt to slow the progression to Elite or to save money. I think it was just an oversight of some sort. If they wanted to slow the progression to Elite how about some changes on the short cruises such as the 1 night cruise that Emerald does one week from now. People actually book two single occupancy inside cabins on these cruises and leave one cabin empty so they get two points each for a 20 hour cruise.

 

There were 900-1000 Elites on board this cruise and laundry was always 3 days, there was no Suite/Elite line at Passenger Services and no priority tendering. So the larger number of Elites on some cruises is having a negative effect on all Elite passengers. I really think they need to make some changes. Add an Elite Plus level and maybe another level higher still and all future levels need to be based on days only. The only way to improve things a little is going to be to move some of the benefits up the ladder a little. I've commented before on here that they could easily afford to change Elite laundry to a set limit based on total cruise days instead of wide open unlimited. This way they could set a higher limit for Elite Plus passengers and maybe or maybe not unlimited laundry for those at the top level. This should lower overall the amount of passenger laundry they are doing. The percentage of Elites onboard is just going to continue to get higher and they can barely keep up on some of these cruises.

 

Enough said, I dont want to sound ticked about any of this. I just pointed out with quite a bit of detail a couple of items that could have been better in our opinion and may need to be looked at more in the future by Princess.

 

For us this was an excellent cruise!

 

AE_Collector

Edited May 14, 2017 by AE_Collector

[Thrak]

Sounds like a single voyage to me. We cruised 17 days from SF to FLL through the canal. We picked up more passengers in LA on the way. That didn't make it two voyages. Some folks started the same cruise in Vancouver. They then picked up our group in SF and the next group on LA. It was sold as a single voyage. I really don't think they got 3 cruise credits. We certainly didn't get 2 cruise credits.

[Colo Cruiser]

Sounds like a single voyage to me. We cruised 17 days from SF to FLL through the canal. We picked up more passengers in LA on the way. That didn't make it two voyages. Some folks started the same cruise in Vancouver. They then picked up our group in SF and the next group on LA. It was sold as a single voyage. I really don't think they got 3 cruise credits. We certainly didn't get 2 cruise credits.

 

 

Because the first 2 (Vancouver-San Fran)(San Fran-LA) were repositioning cruises. (end of Alaska season)

Depending on which one you added or not to the 15 day canal cruise Princess decided to make it 1 cruise regardless.

Edited May 14, 2017 by Colo Cruiser

[kruisey]

I went from Sydney to Vancouver got the second mini bar from LA to Vancouver plus the 150 mins internet. You should have come up to Vancouver.Also travel solo so i got 4 points.There again I pay double.

[AE_Collector]

Well granted there are scenarios where you can get on at different locations. To me the difference is if you can book one part, just the other part or both parts as separate cruises which was the case in this one. 300 people booked just Sydney to Auckland and left with 1 point. 300 more got on at Auckland heading to LA or maybe further and they got 1 point to LA. But Sydney to LA was one point.

 

I did get two points as we did do the three day to Vancouver as well. That was a separate cruise though it too could be booked separately or attached to the 22 or 29 day cruises. Maybe I am missing something but to me this was bookable as two separate cruises to equal 29 days.

 

 

I too have done he Vancouver to FLL Panama Canal cruise that stopped at SF (but not LA) where some passengers left and others boarded. It was available to be booked as a 2 day and a 15 day though we initially booked it as a 17 day all the way but it was back in 2010 so we only got one point for it. Then in 2014 when they began giving two points for such cruises we were given a "zero day cruise credit" for that cruise so we wound up with two points. That is what makes me think that if it is bookable as two separate cruises (not counting the three day to Vancouver), it doesn't matter if you booked it as one longer cruise, they give two points for the cruise. And 4 if single in a cabin and 6 points total if single in a cabin 32 days (3 cruises) through to Vancouver. But that isn't what happened.

 

 

AE_Collector

[AF-1]

Once the elite numbers get too high; that is when Princess will add a tier.; Just like the airlines have done; to many platinum skymiles on Delta so three years ago they added Diamond. American and United have the same thing; only a matter of time for Princess to add another tier. Royal Caribbean did it several years ago.

[AE_Collector]

But adding a tier will do nothing to solve the problem until they move some of the perks up a level which will really start some screaming here on Cruise Critic! It is going to sound as though half of all the Princess passengers will Never cruise on Princess again! And that will be from the passengers that were only two cruises away from finally making it to Ruby Level.

 

AE_Collector

[heddyjan]

I think you mean "rough" seas. Lol

We cruised on Emerald earlier this year around NZ. I found it a little dark. More lighting would have been given the ship a lighter and brighter feel.

 

 

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[AF-1]

I think you mean "rough" seas. Lol

We cruised on Emerald earlier this year around NZ. I found it a little dark. More lighting would have been given the ship a lighter and brighter feel.

 

 

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are you saying the ships décor is dark and It makes the ship feel dark inside?

[skynight]

are you saying the ships décor is dark and It makes the ship feel dark inside?

When we were on the Emerald I did not find the decor dark. As I have found on the Emerald and most Princess ships the lighting is kept very dim in the lounges and especially in the DR's. The DR's are so dark we have to request a table with light so we can read the menu and enjoy the food. We prefer brighter lights. Princess says it is ambiance, I find dining in the dark annoying. We have mentioned same in the end of cruise reviews.