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Emerald to Alaska Reviews

arb18

By arb18,
in Alaska

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Eaglecw

Eaglecw

Posted
Posted
Hi. Leaving on the Emerald Princess in July and seeing if anyone has any reviews out. Just read one from the Ruby. Thanks!

 

Sent from my SM-G930V using Forums mobile app

 

We are going next week June 4th – June 11th. I'll give a report when we get back. Is there any specific thing you’d like to know? I already know we aren’t going into Tracy Arm due to heavy ice conditions, we are going into Endicott Arm instead.

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KristyMisty14

KristyMisty14

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Posted
We are going next week June 4th – June 11th. I'll give a report when we get back. Is there any specific thing you’d like to know? I already know we aren’t going into Tracy Arm due to heavy ice conditions, we are going into Endicott Arm instead.

 

Yes I'd love to know what nights were the formal for sure. I know usually the 2 days but some times they like to switch it up lol. Thanks! And have a great time!!

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Eaglecw

Eaglecw

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Posted
I have been on the same itinerary in previous years, and the formal nights have always been Monday and Friday.

I have to agree. On our previous Tracy Arm itinerary forum nights have always been Monday and Friday nights. But I'll confirm that next week.

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ccndfw

ccndfw

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Posted

We loved our cruise! Definitely an experience of a lifetime. If you have anytime dining, we loved Jay-R who was a waiter in the midship dining room on deck 6. The North to Alaska programs were great. Our naturalist was Shelley Gill and she was a very good speaker and had a lot of interesting stories. We saw whales from our balcony before we sailed into Endicott arm and also the last morning of the cruise on our way to Victoria. We were supposed to go into Tracy Arm, but it was too icy. We did the small boat excursion into Endicott Arm and it was very good & extremely cold! Our favorite excursion was in Skagway thru Frontier Excursions... and it was also our cheapest with the $7.77 discount. We did their 6 1/2 hour Yukon Discovery tour and it was amazing scenery... even saw a few bears. I took about 300 photos that day! Overall, we had great weather with the exception of Juneau where it rained quite a bit and we had a low cloud cover. That resulted in our excursion getting canceled so instead we went shopping and ate at the Hanger. The seafood there was good, but our favorite meal was the Halibut fish and chips at the Alaska Fish House in Ketchikan... so delicious and I'm dreaming of my return there. The last day felt a little rushed with stopping at Victoria so late in the day and trying to be packed before our arrival in port. For the people who have traditional dining, on the last day it's completely open seating so there are no reservations even if you have traditional dining. We saw a lot of mad people that weren't informed that the dining room actually opened at 4:45 that day and they missed sitting in their assigned a section as others were seated there as part of open seating. In Victoria, we did the Butchart Gardens excursion and it wasn't very well organized. We spent about an hour waiting to get off the ship and onto the bus. By the time we got to the Gardens, we only had 2 hours and only one of those was in the daylight. I wouldn't do that excursion thru the ship. Beautiful gardens, but would probably be better to either hire a driver or take a taxi. Unfortunately we didn't have the best cabin attendant... maybe he was new, but he never left an extra roll of toilet paper and two different nights we ran out. On another day, he didn't leave a single towel, hand towel, or washcloth in the room. Once we went to the front desk to discuss our issues on day 4 of our cruise, we didn't have any more problems. We also got an extra roll of toilet paper and locked it in the safe just in case we ran out again 😃

 

Other than our issues with the cabin attendant, we had an amazing time. Loved it so much, we are trying to figure out when we can go again. Enjoy your trip and let me know if you have any more specific questions.

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KristyMisty14

KristyMisty14

Posted
Posted
We loved our cruise! Definitely an experience of a lifetime. If you have anytime dining, we loved Jay-R who was a waiter in the midship dining room on deck 6. The North to Alaska programs were great. Our naturalist was Shelley Gill and she was a very good speaker and had a lot of interesting stories. We saw whales from our balcony before we sailed into Endicott arm and also the last morning of the cruise on our way to Victoria. We were supposed to go into Tracy Arm, but it was too icy. We did the small boat excursion into Endicott Arm and it was very good & extremely cold! Our favorite excursion was in Skagway thru Frontier Excursions... and it was also our cheapest with the $7.77 discount. We did their 6 1/2 hour Yukon Discovery tour and it was amazing scenery... even saw a few bears. I took about 300 photos that day! Overall, we had great weather with the exception of Juneau where it rained quite a bit and we had a low cloud cover. That resulted in our excursion getting canceled so instead we went shopping and ate at the Hanger. The seafood there was good, but our favorite meal was the Halibut fish and chips at the Alaska Fish House in Ketchikan... so delicious and I'm dreaming of my return there. The last day felt a little rushed with stopping at Victoria so late in the day and trying to be packed before our arrival in port. For the people who have traditional dining, on the last day it's completely open seating so there are no reservations even if you have traditional dining. We saw a lot of mad people that weren't informed that the dining room actually opened at 4:45 that day and they missed sitting in their assigned a section as others were seated there as part of open seating. In Victoria, we did the Butchart Gardens excursion and it wasn't very well organized. We spent about an hour waiting to get off the ship and onto the bus. By the time we got to the Gardens, we only had 2 hours and only one of those was in the daylight. I wouldn't do that excursion thru the ship. Beautiful gardens, but would probably be better to either hire a driver or take a taxi. Unfortunately we didn't have the best cabin attendant... maybe he was new, but he never left an extra roll of toilet paper and two different nights we ran out. On another day, he didn't leave a single towel, hand towel, or washcloth in the room. Once we went to the front desk to discuss our issues on day 4 of our cruise, we didn't have any more problems. We also got an extra roll of toilet paper and locked it in the safe just in case we ran out again 😃

 

Other than our issues with the cabin attendant, we had an amazing time. Loved it so much, we are trying to figure out when we can go again. Enjoy your trip and let me know if you have any more specific questions.

 

Great review! Thanks for all the info. Did you have to tender in at any of the ports or was the ship given a dock at each?

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suec12

suec12

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Posted

How was the food both in the dining room (evenings) and then the buffet at lunch? I've been reading reviews from a few cruises ago and there is some negativity. Thanks!

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sydney042904

sydney042904

Posted
Posted (edited)
We just got back from our annual Alaska cruise on the emerald. If you have any questions feel free to ask. When I get more time I'll try to do a review.

 

Hello Eaglecw

I hope you had a wonderful cruise. My family will be on the Emerald in 3 weeks. This is our first time cruising on Princess. I would like to know about dining. Overall, how was the food?

What excursions did you choose to do? Were there a lot of activities to do on sea days?

And anything other information you can provide would be great. Thank you

Edited by sydney042904
Misspelled words
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Eaglecw

Eaglecw

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This was our 12th cruise to Alaska and we did enjoy just as much as we did the first time. The food was good, I didn’t have any meals that I didn’t like. I think that the best thing you can do is to not go to the buffet unless you absolutely have to and you like crowds. We always eat in the MDR, since Princess started the Club Class the MDR has changed, it used to be the Da Vinci Dining Room for the embarkation and sea day lunch and breakfast, now it’s the Botticelli Dining Room deck 6 aft. We had a wonderful embarkation lunch there as well as breakfast every day and lunch when it was open. The embarkation lunch is served from 12 to 1:30pm in the Botticelli dining room, we got on the ship around 11:45am or so. Only once did we go up to the buffet and that was after about 1:30 or so. The International Café is a great place to grab a snack or a lite lunch. There is limited seating to eat around the international Café and in the Piazza. What ticks me off in the Piazza is when people play cards, read or sleep at the tables while people are trying to find a place to eat. The ship was clean, the inside temperature was pleasant, not hot and not cold. The ship is in overall good condition, a little rust here and there but it’s a ship on the ocean you’re going to have rust. The staff is excellent everyone from the waiters to the cabin stewards were great. The cruise director Steve Campbell was the best we’ve ever had, funny. There are a lot of things to do on the sea days, just read the Patter. I spoke with a friend of mine at Allen Marine and he said they should start going into Tracy Arm in about a week to 10 days, the ice conditions are starting to improve but it’s a day by day call.

Here are the excursions we enjoyed

Ketchikan - Deadliest Catch Crab KTN-610

Tracy Arm Fjord & Glacier Explorer TA1-660

Juneau - Mendenhall Glacier & Whale Quest JNU-630

Skagway - Yukon Expedition & White Pass Scenic Railway SGY-180

Victoria - Enchanting Butchart Gardens YYJ-310

On our way into Victoria they opened the dining rooms at 4:45pm for open seating, it was absolute chaos. People lined up waiting for them the open the dining rooms and when they did it was a flood of people. Everyone wanted to have dinner before we got into Victoria. On disembarkation day, don’t go the buffet, to crowded, instead go the Botticelli dining room, it opened at 7:00am

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sydney042904

sydney042904

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Posted
This was our 12th cruise to Alaska and we did enjoy just as much as we did the first time. The food was good, I didn’t have any meals that I didn’t like. I think that the best thing you can do is to not go to the buffet unless you absolutely have to and you like crowds. We always eat in the MDR, since Princess started the Club Class the MDR has changed, it used to be the Da Vinci Dining Room for the embarkation and sea day lunch and breakfast, now it’s the Botticelli Dining Room deck 6 aft. We had a wonderful embarkation lunch there as well as breakfast every day and lunch when it was open. The embarkation lunch is served from 12 to 1:30pm in the Botticelli dining room, we got on the ship around 11:45am or so. Only once did we go up to the buffet and that was after about 1:30 or so. The International Café is a great place to grab a snack or a lite lunch. There is limited seating to eat around the international Café and in the Piazza. What ticks me off in the Piazza is when people play cards, read or sleep at the tables while people are trying to find a place to eat. The ship was clean, the inside temperature was pleasant, not hot and not cold. The ship is in overall good condition, a little rust here and there but it’s a ship on the ocean you’re going to have rust. The staff is excellent everyone from the waiters to the cabin stewards were great. The cruise director Steve Campbell was the best we’ve ever had, funny. There are a lot of things to do on the sea days, just read the Patter. I spoke with a friend of mine at Allen Marine and he said they should start going into Tracy Arm in about a week to 10 days, the ice conditions are starting to improve but it’s a day by day call.

Here are the excursions we enjoyed

Ketchikan - Deadliest Catch Crab KTN-610

Tracy Arm Fjord & Glacier Explorer TA1-660

Juneau - Mendenhall Glacier & Whale Quest JNU-630

Skagway - Yukon Expedition & White Pass Scenic Railway SGY-180

Victoria - Enchanting Butchart Gardens YYJ-310

On our way into Victoria they opened the dining rooms at 4:45pm for open seating, it was absolute chaos. People lined up waiting for them the open the dining rooms and when they did it was a flood of people. Everyone wanted to have dinner before we got into Victoria. On disembarkation day, don’t go the buffet, to crowded, instead go the Botticelli dining room, it opened at 7:00am

 

 

Thank you so much for your review and helpful tips. So much appreciated!

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Eaglecw

Eaglecw

Posted
Posted

I forgot to add that we got into some pretty heavy seas on the first sea day and the evening/night that we left Ketchikan, lots of people were sick on both of those days. Other than that the weather was prefect, low - mid 70's, 80 in Skagway.

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