Live from the Emerald Princess - L.A. to Hawaii - 18 Jan - 02 Feb 2019

[Cathy64]

1 minute ago, Croptop said:

 

Weather-wise, I think we got pretty lucky and had temperatures between 15-18 degrees C (low- to mid-60s F) from day 1 and I was able to hang out in the Sanctuary from the very start. If it got a little too cool, the attendants provided some nice little fleece blankets to keep warm with. 

That sounds nice, thank you Xx

[miss prairie girl]

Hi Croptop, hope you start feeling 100% soon!  If you have your "Sea Days" writeup saved, I, for one, would love to read your observations. Your cruise is one we are considering......and we are in landlocked central prairie Canada with snow and snow and more snow! If the Internet cooperates and you have the time available, I would love to live vicariously !

[Cathy64]

7 minutes ago, miss prairie girl said:

Hi Croptop, hope you start feeling 100% soon!  If you have your "Sea Days" writeup saved, I, for one, would love to read your observations. Your cruise is one we are considering......and we are in landlocked central prairie Canada with snow and snow and more snow! If the Internet cooperates and you have the time available, I would love to live vicariously !

I would also enjoy reading them Xx

[h20skibum]

Apologies for the lack of updates. For some reason, I am finding it virtually impossible to get Cruise Critic to load in a timely manner on Emerald's internet connection. Only now as we're steaming in to Hilo and I'm able to connect my phone to the the cell network and create a hotspot am I able to load CC (man I miss being able to use Tapatalk)

Sounds like you were having the same internet problems we had on our Hawaii cruise, in that we had nothing till we got to the islands.

Cruise critic was down intermittently for a couple days, so maybe that was part of the problem. The good news is Tapatalk is back with the latest update.

Enjoy your day in Hilo.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Centsless_Cruiser]

On the Emerald now and the internet has been basically unusable the last 2 sea days.  Almost all sites time out and when you do connect the speed is so slooooowwwwww😥.  We have a NEST thermostat at home in Upstate NY that was unreachable during the recent snow and cold.  It was a great relief to go off airplane mode this morning and find out all was well.

[Croptop]

On 1/22/2019 at 5:02 PM, ljhershey said:

Would you mind posting the names of the ships officers for us? 

 

Your wish is my command:

 

Captain: Steven Lewis

Staff Captain: Giovanni Mollo

Chief Engineer Officer: Timoth Jenkins

Hotel General Manager: Danilo Portoso

Customer Services Director: Nicolas Almanza

Food & Beverage Director: Leon Sweanepoel

Entertainment Director: Lisa Ball

Cruise Director: Kaylee Ball

Senior Doctor:  Warren Thomas Pretorius

Staff Engineer Officer: Antonello Leone

Chief Electrical Officer: Ferdinando Milano

Executive Housekeeper: Michael Collins

Executive Chef: John Covery

Maitre d'Hotel: Rui Pereira

 

aaaannnndddd Jerry Mathers as... The Beaver. (Sorry. Couldn't resist. Although it's such an old reference that I doubt anyone will even get it.)

[Croptop]

I kept things low key at Hilo today. We crawled into port -- seriously; we were off of the coast of the big island shortly before 7 AM but didn't actually snug up to the pier until almost 9. I felt like I could have swum in faster but it gave me time to "sightsee" from the upper decks on the way in.

 

Once Customs cleared the ship, the masses were let loose and went ashore. I opted to hang back for about a half an hour or so to really let the lines for shuttles and buses and excursions get well established before I opted to head ashore. The port lecture for Hilo kept warning people that nothing was really walkable from the port but I decided to try it anyway. Once you leave the port area, a right turn puts you on the road to downtown Hilo and the walk turned out to take about 45-50 minutes which is either "too far" or "not so bad" depending on your mobility and motivation. 

 

There's really not much to see on the walk in though so unless you like walking along a busy road, you might want to take a shuttle or a cab or an Uber. 

 

Since it's Wednesday, the Hilo Farmer's Market was in full swing by the time I reached the downtown area so I wandered through the market for a bit to check things out and then checked out the various shops in the area as well.

 

Then I made the trek back to the port and then carried on up the road a bit more to a small beach just past the port where I spent a bit of time before heading back to the ship. Spent the remainder of the afternoon just relaxing on the (now quiet) ship.

 

Weather-wise, the day was nice and hot (about 28 degrees C) with a mix of sun and clouds (but mostly sun).

 

Just after 1600hrs local time, an alarm started sounding in the ship and shortly thereafter an announcement was made from the bridge reporting that they are experiencing some technical difficulties with some system or other and warning the crew that any and all fire doors could just close without warning  so they should be cautious. It'll be interesting to see if they get this resolved prior to our departure time from Hilo.

[Kenosha Cruiser]

Croptop, we had Lisa Ball on past cruises as a cruise director and really liked her. I see she has been promoted to Entertainment Director, is the cruise director Kaylee Ball related to Lisa Ball.? Glad your feeling better, now go and enjoy your island stops!

 

Cheers - Ken & Darlene

 

[mjceditor]

27 minutes ago, Croptop said:

Your wish is my command:

 

 

Well if your granting wishes, how about listing or posting a picture of the available Tequilas on board?

 

Thank you!

Mike

[Croptop]

40 minutes ago, mjceditor said:

Well if your granting wishes, how about listing or posting a picture of the available Tequilas on board?

 

Well just because it's you, Mike, here you go. As written out by one of the Crooners bar staff:

As a non-drinker don't know what any of these brands are nor do I know if any of them are "good".

[QueenofEverything]

On 1/19/2019 at 1:56 PM, grandmacruise said:

How does it work if you reach your plan’s MB limit?  Do you get slowed down or are you done for the day?  I can’t decide whether to take the surf or premium plan.  

The social, surf and premium plans are all unlimited.  I was told on the ship that the speed will slow down once the daily mb allowance has been reached.  Kind of hard to believe, because it is so slow to begin with.  The middle of the crossing sea days it is pretty useless.

[mjceditor]

17 minutes ago, Croptop said:

Well just because it's you, Mike, here you go. As written out by one of the Crooners bar staff:

As a non-drinker don't know what any of these brands are nor do I know if any of them are "good".

Thank you so much for taking the time to do this for me!

As for these being any good everyone has different tastes. These Tequilas are fine for Margaritas but not for sipping or drinking straight.

 

Thanks again,

Mike

[armymom101]

Enjoying your post immensely!  We are boarding on Feb 2.  I did notice your itinerary is opposite of the Feb 2 sailing we do Lahaina, Honolulu,Naeiliwili, and Hilo.  Just curious as to why the difference?  You mentioned that the option to add Lobster is no longer available in the Crown Grill, but is there Lobster on the menu?  I am happy you are feeling much better.  ~Lynn  

[nf5894]

4 hours ago, Kenosha Cruiser said:

Croptop, we had Lisa Ball on past cruises as a cruise director and really liked her. I see she has been promoted to Entertainment Director, is the cruise director Kaylee Ball related to Lisa Ball.? Glad your feeling better, now go and enjoy your island stops!

 

Cheers - Ken & Darlene

 

Yup we met Lisa Ball on the Emerald in December and she was really good. The Cruise Director is Kaylee Lloyd, no relation!

[evo4x4]

Many thanks for these updates Croptop. We’re on this cruise on 2nd Feb - so your information and humour provides a great appetiser on what we can expect. We’re from 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿 Wales, are overnighting pre-cruise in LA and looking forward to the Hawaiian experience.

If you have WiFi and the time - keep the info flowing. 👍

Rhiannon & Keith.

[BonnieJB]

We are also on the Feb 2 cruise and are busy prepacking!  Thank you for your posts and we will be reading! Would love to hear some details about the sea days.

Bonnie

Edited January 24, 2019 by BonnieJB

[mjceditor]

Hi Croptop,

I need your help again, inquiring minds want to know what Premium Vodkas are at Crooners.

No hurry, relax and enjoy your cruise. 

 

Thanks again,

Mike

[Doc & Princess]

Great info!  Curious how bad the nausea got and if you took any otc medication for it?  Looking forward to updates.  Also sailing 2/2 broken arm and all!

[ischeer]

13 hours ago, armymom101 said:

Enjoying your post immensely!  We are boarding on Feb 2.  I did notice your itinerary is opposite of the Feb 2 sailing we do Lahaina, Honolulu,Naeiliwili, and Hilo.  Just curious as to why the difference?  You mentioned that the option to add Lobster is no longer available in the Crown Grill, but is there Lobster on the menu?  I am happy you are feeling much better.  ~Lynn  

And, just for completeness, on our Jan 3 sailing, the port order was Honolulu, Naeiliwili, Lahaina, Hilo.

[Jimtina]

Just having a beer ready for flights to Las Vagas on Monday for 4  nights then to the Queen marry on Friday night then to THE CRUISE TO Hawaii! 

[XBGuy]

32 minutes ago, Jimtina said:

Just having a beer ready for flights to Las Vagas on Monday for 4  nights then to the Queen marry on Friday night then to THE CRUISE TO Hawaii! 

 

A serious vacationer.  Excellent.

[TheSweetLife220]

I LOVED Leave it to Beaver!!!    Any chance that you will post pics of the Patters once you return? We are on the 2/24 sailing. Also curious, if ship departs San Pedro at 4 and dinner is at 5, when is the life boat drill?  Thank you

[jwattle]

I believe that the add lobster is still available, it's just an upcharge.

[XBGuy]

On 1/23/2019 at 5:50 PM, Croptop said:

Your wish is my command:

 

 

Chief Engineer Officer: Timoth Jenkins

 

 

Last April we were on the Emerald Princess round trip Alaska cruise from Los Angeles.  On embarkation day I finally made a point of going to the Guest Services Desk to sign up for the Ultimate Ship's Tour.

 

The UST was outstanding.  The highlight was visiting the Engine Control Room where the presentation was given by the very same Chief Engineering Officer--Timothy Jenkins.

 

The guy was hilarious.

[JStar]

We were on the emerald the cruise before. Internet was definitely unusable. Only contact was my cell while in the islands. At see it was so slow most of the time you couldn’t get anywhere. I had free platinum package, if I had paid for internet I would have felt very ripped off.