First Time Princess Cruiser; and I am a Happy Campter-Emerald Princess inside passage

[Pierlesscruisers]

The ship docked at 5:30 and they started letting people off at 6:30 or 7am. We left the ship at 9:10

 

It wasn't 6:30 by any means. The earliest any Princess ship has begun debarkation at Pier 91 this season has been a bit past 7:00am. Usually it's been no earlier than 7:15 or so.

 

Tom

[MisterMet]

Thanks for the nice review. The Emerald is a wonderful ship and Alaska sailings should be on everyone's cruise bucket list.:D:D

[Poulsbo Cruisers]

Great review. It's refreshing to read a post in which someone isn't nitpicking every little thing, but rather chooses to focus on the great time they had. We love Princess. Are they always perfect? No. But, we choose to just enjoy the times we are cruising and consider ourselves amongst those fortunate enough to be able to cruise.

[XBGuy]

I'm not speaking terribly knowledgeable, here, because I've never purchased a coffee card, but I thought that I'd read here on Cruise Critic that coffee card holders could use them (the coffee cards) to buy gelato. Can anybody confirm or correct that notion?

[JF - retired RRT]

I'm not speaking terribly knowledgeable, here, because I've never purchased a coffee card, but I thought that I'd read here on Cruise Critic that coffee card holders could use them (the coffee cards) to buy gelato. Can anybody confirm or correct that notion?

I can confirm.

Never been on the Royal/Regal, but one ship (I think it was the Caribbean?), I got gelato with my coffee card.

I've read a couple of posts that said they were refused by the crew and a couple of posts that the punch is better spent on coffee. YMMV

[Astro Flyer]

I can confirm.

 

Never been on the Royal/Regal, but one ship (I think it was the Caribbean?), I got gelato with my coffee card.

 

I've read a couple of posts that said they were refused by the crew and a couple of posts that the punch is better spent on coffee. YMMV

 

I've read the same thing at the IC on larger Grand-class ships such as the Caribbean & YMMV. ;)

 

I can confirm that on the Royal & Regal a coffee card punch is accepted at Gelato's. That includes things such as sundaes (and freshly made crepes on most sea day afternoons) which cost $3.50. Although the sundaes are so large we'd often split one so we would still have some appetite for dinner.

[first time cruising]

Thank you for your post. We are platinum with Princess but have never sailed in a suite with them. We have a cruise booked to sail 30 nights in a suite coming up on the Emerald Princess. I have been worried reading the reviews on the Emerald but feel happier after reading your positive review. We recently sailed on RCL Radiance of the Seas in a suite and it was a wonderful experience. On that cruise, there were several "special events" for suite and Diamond plus guests including lunch on embarkation day. Could you please advise if there were any events for suite guests only?

[amlop]

I'm on 8/6 as well! Can't wait!

 

We will also be on this sailing! So excited!

[indygirl99]

Thank you for your review so far and for posting the Patters.

 

Looking forward to my upcoming cruise on the Emerald and this really helps.

[Iowa Traveler]

Maybe a gift from their Travel Agent?

I was thinking this too. Worried others may be disappointed if they don't receive the same.

[KristyMisty14]

We will also be on this sailing! So excited!

 

Me too! Can't wait! Where are you from?

[friend of Eeyore]

I'm loving the review so far! Thanks for all the details!

 

Sent from my SM-T813 using Forums mobile app

[AF-1]

Thank you for your post. We are platinum with Princess but have never sailed in a suite with them. We have a cruise booked to sail 30 nights in a suite coming up on the Emerald Princess. I have been worried reading the reviews on the Emerald but feel happier after reading your positive review. We recently sailed on RCL Radiance of the Seas in a suite and it was a wonderful experience. On that cruise, there were several "special events" for suite and Diamond plus guests including lunch on embarkation day. Could you please advise if there were any events for suite guests only?

 

The only thing I can say about perks for the suite. We received a letter on day one saying we are invited to Skywalkers lounge every night for cocktails and snacks. They brought canapes and snacks to our suite every afternoon. That was amazing. We would come back onboard and there was something waiting on our coffee table. We ate breakfast every morning in Crown Grill; which was very nice; it was quiet and never crowded.

[AF-1]

SHORE EXCURSIONS:

1. Ketchikan: We did scenic boat sightseeing tour and bonfire beach tour. This tour consisted of getting on a small boat. The boat could sit 30; we had 10. There are binoculars at every seat. The on boat guide is a naturalist who talked about all the wildlife and floral fauna in the area. As we were riding in the bay are we came across a black bear who was swimming from one side to the other. The captain stopped the boat and we sat and watched the bear cross. As he was swimming I thought how strong he was; just to maintain his balance and swim against the current. We saw quite a few bald eagles. The Beach Bonfire tour was to an island about 20 minutes from Ketchikan. The local Alaskan Indian tribe hosted this. After a 15 minute walk through the woods with the naturalist; she explained different fauna and things we ended up at the bonfire. There they had reindeer hotdogs, regular hotdogs, beer, wine, sodas, water, chips for lunch. Then after lunch we made smore's. Our two grandkids loved this. Our grandkids are outdoor people; camping, rock climbing, etc; so this is why we chose this excursion. If my wife and I were by ourselves without kids; we would not have taken this excursion.

2. Tracy Arm. Like I mentioned about in one of my posts. We were the first ship to enter Tracy Arm this year. It was beautiful; again, if my wife and I were sans kids we would have done the small boat tour inside Tracy Arm. But we took ship into Juneau then hopped on a bus to the airport and then took a chopper to the glacier.

3. Helicopter Tour To Mendenhall Glacier and Dog Sledding on the Glacier: This was the highlight of our trip. The helicopter ride was about 15 minutes to the dog sled camp. The pilot explained Mendenhall glacier, and another glacier which stops at the end of a mountain. The sightseeing was magnificent. We landed on glacier and met our mushers. The director of the camp greeted us and told us what we had to look forward to. They set the summer camp up on the glacier so the dogs can practice mushing prior to the winter sled rides. There are 282 dogs at this camp. All are in training to be sled dogs or are already sled dogs. We had six dogs pulling our sled; and we had musher on our sled; my wife and I, plus our two grandkids. One of the camp mushers goes along with you so you don't get stuck on the ice or snow. The sled dog run is about 30-40 minutes. It is really fun. They as you head back to camp you stop and get to meet and hold and have pictures taken with the puppies. (we did not need to pet puppies in the Piazza at Skagway), we had plenty of puppy pics from the camp. Then we got pics from our visit and headed back to the chopper for the 15 min ride back to the airport. No one is disappointed with this tour. Our sled dog guide said this tour is the most cancelled tour on cruise visits. He said already this year they have cancelled over 20 times; he said last year the weather was much better so they had a lot less cancellations. We asked what happens if weather comes in and guests can't get back to the ship. He said it had happened a few times; and the mushers all have tents they live in; he said they give up their tents to cruise guests; and when the weather breaks they take guests back down to airport and cruise line gets them to the next destination.

SKAGWAY: ROCK CLIMBING AND ROCK REPELLING: We took this excursion for the grandkids. They are outdoor people so they loved this excursion. They are 17 and 14. The rock they climbed was over 70 feet high. It is the same rock formation they repelled from. The camp where they climbed is also where you go ziplining through the woods. We could hear people zipping all over the woods. My wife and I went along as observers; we both had no desire to try and climb a rock straight up into the sky; so we just took pics from different angles. If we were solo with no kids we would have chose the train ride excursion. In town we attended the local show; it was a little hokey and spoke about the man who founded the town; it was like being in a gunsmoke episode where the piano player sings and narrates the show; and the show girls dance and sing; and drag people from the audience to participate in the show. We did some shopping before heading back to the ship.

VICTORIA, BC: We did not book anything for this port. Two reasons. Not a lot of time in port and kids did not want to visit the gardens or castle. We docked at 7pm and you had to be back on board at 11:30. So we walked off the ship and went to a park about five minutes from the port. The grandkids play ultimate Frisbee; so they played Frisbee in the park. We were back onboard at 8:25pm and headed to Explorers lounge to play tv trivia; where btw; we did not do well.

That is all for our shore excursions.

[AF-1]

ONBOARD ACTIVITIES: As most of you know; there is plenty to do. I always say, you can do as much as your want or as little as you want. Here are a few things we did while onboard.

Trivia. We played all versions of this game; music, tv, sports

Shuffleboard: although there are two shuffleboard areas, they are really small. I have been on other cruise ships where shuffleboard is on the main deck and you have the large area to play. Here the two courts are back on sports deck and they are half courts. We still had fun playing and weather was warm.

MUTS: we tried as best we could to watch a movie with blankets; but the weather was just too darn cold. This is a great concept for the Caribbean where its warm year round.

THE ONBOARD SHOWS: All week long Corey the cruise director pushed "Magic to Do". It was colorful, and not a lot of Magic, but I personally do not like show music or any type musical. My wife loved it. "The Voice of the Sea". ***** This is a do not miss show***. Wow we were blown away with this show. The talent that they found with our onboard guests was amazing. We did not see the comedy show or the welcome aboard show;nor did we see the Country singer who was onboard. We did sit in the Piazza and listen to different musciaians. They had two young ladies who played violins. They were amazing and played music from Pirates of the Caribbean; a bunch of James Bond Movies, and other movies. Loved this show. We attended one art auction just to see the hype. When they started out with first painting starting bid of $13,000; we said bye bye.

That is about all we did. Oh wait we did go to library to check out games.

[amlop]

Me too! Can't wait! Where are you from?

 

We are from Arizona. I see you are from Vancouver? British Columbia is my favorite place in the world! Any fun excursions planned?

 

I'm loving this review and enjoying reading the daily Patters!

[AF-1]

IN CONCLUSION WHAT WOULD I DO DIFFERENTLY:

This is a misnomer; what I liked about this cruise. For being our first Princess cruise, I felt we were pampered beyond our dreams. All staff and crew were friendly and nice. Anything we asked for they accommodated; meaning if we wanted something to eat that was not on the menu; the wait staff accommodated us. When we wanted to change a shore excursion time; they accommodated us. When I had a small issue I went to guest services and they took care of it with no questions. Our final folio bill was correct; no overcharges. Ship was great; layout of the ship was good. I liked that deck 7 went completely around the ship for walking purposes. Food was very very good; and all manner of service was good. Cabin layout and accommodation was excellent. What would we do differently? Well if it was just my wife and myself with no minors; we would have adjusted what shore excursions we booked. Of course we would have booked a different cabin; we would not need 2 bedroom suite. A little background. We take a cruise every two years and land vacation every other year. Since I only book a suite; I do not have to worry about what my loyalty status is. We have sailed Royal Caribbean, NCL, and now Princess. Would we sail Princess again? Absolutely, Would we sail Emerald again? Yes; (although, trying a different ship like Royal is possible), would we book Alaska again; Maybe.(we have been all over the Caribbean, Europe one, Mediterranean twice, and headed back to Europe next year for land tour.I hope I have covered everything and hope you take away something from this review. I do not have anything negative to say about Princess or the Emerald Princess. This is good. My wife and I can have fun no matter where we are or who we sail with. Oh one more thing. I did put a deposit for future cruise; took advantage of low deposit and obc. Three possibilities for 2019. New England and Canada, Rock and Roll Cruise on a Princess ship, or back to the Mediterranean. Want to do Sicily and Naples, along with Kotor. The 2019 schedules for this cruise is not available until this fall. Cheers everyone and see you out there. More patters will get posted

[amlop]

SHORE EXCURSIONS:

We asked what happens if weather comes in and guests can't get back to the ship. He said it had happened a few times; and the mushers all have tents they live in; he said they give up their tents to cruise guests; and when the weather breaks they take guests back down to airport and cruise line gets them to the next destination

.

 

How crazy would it be to have to spend the night on the glacier in a tent?!? I'm so glad you asked this question because it's an interesting tidbit!

 

Thanks for posting the excursion highlights and wether you would do them without the kids. Can't wait to read the next Patters posted. :D

[AF-1]

Day 3 patters

day 3 patters1.pdf

day3 patters2.pdf

day 3 patters3.pdf

day3 patters4.pdf

[Eggfrmr]

Thank you so much for this review! We are on the same ship/itinerary in Sept (last sailing of the season). Also our first time with Proncess and Alaska. This has been extremely helpful and enjoyable to read!

 

Sent from my LG-H812 using Tapatalk

[KristyMisty14]

We are from Arizona. I see you are from Vancouver? British Columbia is my favorite place in the world! Any fun excursions planned?

 

I'm loving this review and enjoying reading the daily Patters!

 

That's so nice! Thanks it's a good city.

 

We are doing some combo tours with the Mendenhall and sites in Juneau

 

The Tracey Arm excursion on the small boat.

 

Skooter Tour in Skagway.

 

How about you?

[AF-1]

Thank you so much for this review! We are on the same ship/itinerary in Sept (last sailing of the season). Also our first time with Proncess and Alaska. This has been extremely helpful and enjoyable to read!

 

Sent from my LG-H812 using Tapatalk

Glad you are enjoying reading my review. Any questions let me know. I will be glad to answer

[AF-1]

I did forget to add one thing about this cruise. Formal nights were Monday and Friday. There were very few people dressed up with suit and ties or tux's. Most people were in regular shirts with no ties for men. And women had dress slacks or skirts/dresses. At no time was anyone denied entrance for wearing jeans. There were jeans worn every night of the week. I am only telling what I saw; I am not saying I agree or disagree with the dress code; just reporting what I saw and when the formal nights were

[phabric]

What day/ city did you change the time?

[AF-1]

What day/ city did you change the time?

You will change one hour back on your first sea day. Actually it is 2am tuesday morning. You will go back to Seattle or west coast time on last sea day which is Friday. Again its actually 2am saturday morning. You really have two sea days at the end. All day friday and all day saturday. You dont dock in victoria until 7pm and leave at 12pm