JamieLogical's Live from the Emerald Princess 12/18-01/02

[XBGuy]

The backed up situation with the tendering that @JamieLogical reported at Cabo San Lucas is disappointing and must have been frustrating for the passengers.  I have visited Cabo San Lucas several times and have never experienced anything like that--and, yes, our ship was anchored along with one or two other cruise ships.

 

Typically, our ship engaged local tenders to facilitate the transfer of passengers.  I have learned that these local tenders are faster and can carry more passengers than the orange covered rescue craft that the ship carries.

 

My guess is that in the on the day of @JamieLogical's visit the local tenders were all engaged by the other cruise ships that were in port that day, and, so, the Emerald Princess had to rely on their own slower, smaller craft.

[Musky Ike]

32 minutes ago, JamieLogical said:

 

I brought a power block that plugs into an EU outlet as I do on every single cruise. I have never been on a ship that didn't have at least one EU outlet. I always thought I was clever for utilizing the EU outlet for my additional outlets and still being able to use the US outlets in the room as well. Be er even occured to me there wouldn't be at least one EU outlet on Princess ships.

No EU outlet on the wall under the head of the bed? I could be wrong but I think there was when we sailed on the Emerald before. You may need to unplug the nightstand lamp to use it.

[Coral]

1 hour ago, XBGuy said:

The backed up situation with the tendering that @JamieLogical reported at Cabo San Lucas is disappointing and must have been frustrating for the passengers.  I have visited Cabo San Lucas several times and have never experienced anything like that--and, yes, our ship was anchored along with one or two other cruise ships.

 

Typically, our ship engaged local tenders to facilitate the transfer of passengers.  I have learned that these local tenders are faster and can carry more passengers than the orange covered rescue craft that the ship carries.

 

My guess is that in the on the day of @JamieLogical's visit the local tenders were all engaged by the other cruise ships that were in port that day, and, so, the Emerald Princess had to rely on their own slower, smaller craft.

I have always had Cabo use both - local and ship's tender. Yes - Cabo's tenders are larger.

[Homosassa]

1 hour ago, abbydancer said:

Maybe it's because Princess has always. been US based, whereas Celebrity began as a Greek line.  I have an eight or so inch extension cord that I use that gives me use of both outlets on the desk, because it's very annoying how close they are.  I feel your pain.

Princess has not always been US based.

 

While the original Princess was originally a small US based line, it's scope and itineraries sailed broaden when Princess bought Sitmar Cruises.

 

Sitmar was an upscale Italian line  and its purchase by Princess was to hopefully upscale the market demographic. Sitmar sailed itineraries from European and Australian  ports as well as US ports. Princess took over the Sitmar itineraries.

 

Sidenote: the one thing Princess retained from Sitmar besides the Italian bridge staff, was the Neapolitan pizza and excellent pasta and other Italian dishes.  Sadly, with Carnivalization, they have slowly disappeared.

 

Princess later became a subsidiary of British P&O and sailed itineraries around the world from Europe, Australia and the US.

 

Princess was sold to Carnival Corp and the slow Carnivalization started.

 

 

[abbydancer2003]

3 minutes ago, Homosassa said:

Princess has not always been US based.

 

While the original Princess was originally a small US based line, it's scope and itineraries sailed broaden when Princess bought Sitmar Cruises.

 

Sitmar was an upscale Italian line  and its purchase by Princess was to hopefully upscale the market demographic. Sitmar sailed itineraries from European and Australian  ports as well as US ports. Princess took over the Sitmar itineraries.

 

Sidenote: the one thing Princess retained from Sitmar besides the Italian bridge staff, was the Neapolitan pizza and excellent pasta and other Italian dishes.  Sadly, with Carnivalization, they have slowly disappeared.

 

Princess later became a subsidiary of British P&O and sailed itineraries around the world from Europe, Australia and the US.

 

Princess was sold to Carnival Corp and the slow Carnivalization started.

 

 

Yes, I know all that.  My point was that in general they were US based.  And they bought Sitmar.  Although, I suppose, you can make the same comment when RCI bought Celebrity.  

 

Remember, CCL corp is not exactly Carnival cruise line.  Hopefully Princess won't become Carnival because they have, for us in California, some very useful itineraries that Celebrity (which we like a lot better) doesn't.

[Homosassa]

1 hour ago, abbydancer said:

 

 

Remember, CCL corp is not exactly Carnival cruise line.  Hopefully Princess won't become Carnival because they have, for us in California, some very useful itineraries that Celebrity (which we like a lot better) doesn't.

Yes, I know very well that Carnival cruise Lines is a part of Carnival Corporation . I actually was already cruising in the 1970s when Carnival was the cruise line that many travel agents would not sell because of the booze cruise orientation (some things haven't changed). Travel agents who would book a cruise on Carnival keep the brochures tucked away and only did the booking after making sure the clients knew the low  quality of the cruise experience they were paying for.

 

When I refer to Carnivalization, I am referring to the way Carnival Corp has bought various lines and has slowly stripped away the things that made the cruise line unique and special.  Princess and HAL are two examples of the loss of certain unique cruise experiences that made each line special.

[abbydancer2003]

10 minutes ago, Homosassa said:

 

 

When I refer to Carnivalization, I am referring to the way Carnival Corp has bought various lines and has slowly stripped away the things that made the cruise line unique and special.  Princess and HAL are two examples of the loss of certain unique cruise experiences that made each line special.

My first Princess cruise was in 1998, I think Princess was owned by P&O at that time.  The experience was certainly not what it is now, and not in a good way.  On the other hand, I paid about the same back then as I did in 2007 on my 6th Princess cruise (same number of nights).  I was in a better room on the 2007 cruise.

 

So maybe market pressure has led them to reduce the experience (not gonna argue there) maybe because they can't charge as much.  Or it's the CCL culture.  

 

I do miss the head waiter cooking pasta in the dining room.  

 

 

[dreams_of_travel]

6 hours ago, JamieLogical said:

 

I brought a power block that plugs into an EU outlet as I do on every single cruise. I have never been on a ship that didn't have at least one EU outlet. I always thought I was clever for utilizing the EU outlet for my additional outlets and still being able to use the US outlets in the room as well. Be er even occured to me there wouldn't be at least one EU outlet on Princess ships.

Pretty sure if you pull the bed out from the wall there is an EU plug down towards the floor. Though it may not be practical to use with your power block. 

[startedwithamouse]

7 hours ago, XBGuy said:

The backed up situation with the tendering that @JamieLogical reported at Cabo San Lucas is disappointing and must have been frustrating for the passengers.  I have visited Cabo San Lucas several times and have never experienced anything like that--and, yes, our ship was anchored along with one or two other cruise ships.

 

Typically, our ship engaged local tenders to facilitate the transfer of passengers.  I have learned that these local tenders are faster and can carry more passengers than the orange covered rescue craft that the ship carries.

 

My guess is that in the on the day of @JamieLogical's visit the local tenders were all engaged by the other cruise ships that were in port that day, and, so, the Emerald Princess had to rely on their own slower, smaller craft.

Two other mega ships arrived around the same time in Cabo. The Miracle and Joy are both huge. 

[mvaldes140]

11 hours ago, JamieLogical said:

 

I brought a power block that plugs into an EU outlet as I do on every single cruise. I have never been on a ship that didn't have at least one EU outlet. I always thought I was clever for utilizing the EU outlet for my additional outlets and still being able to use the US outlets in the room as well. Be er even occured to me there wouldn't be at least one EU outlet on Princess ships.

On Emerald rn. There is a single EU plug in the room that one of the night stands are plugged into the wall behind the bed. What I did was just unplug it and plug my converter in because I never use the lamps to begin with. It does involved moving the bed out of the way, but then you have an extra plug to use.

[pootsien2]

On 12/19/2022 at 12:03 PM, goldmom said:

Jamie- As a long time cruiser who has had even tinier bathrooms on a cruise ship.  Here's my leg shaving tip,  Put a towel on the closed toilet, prop up leg and use a soapy washcloth on your legs, then shave.  The sink is right there for rinsing.  Good luck!

Enjoying your report.  Happy cruising!

This shower topic/how to shave your legs with so little space, is a dilema that is for sure! I fill the sink partially with warm water to rinse the razor and use the hair conditioner from the shower on my leg instead of shaving cream. Followed by a shower!  Thanks for posting and have a great cruise.

[JamieLogical]

Pulling the bed out from the wall isn't a viable solution as my power block is just an adapter that turns an EU outlet into a couple of US outlets and USB ports of various types. I would still have to pull the bed out every time I had to plug or unplug something, so not very practical. We have come up with a decent rotation for which devices ger plugged in and charged when. Also, my husband brought a big backup battery pack that has some USB ports so we charge that up while we are out of the room during the day and then he charges his phone from that overnight while we have other devices plugged into the outlets.

[Level six]

Love this review!  Especially since it is from someone who has traveled on other cruise lines and not just princess.  You are spot on with several of your observations since I have also cruised on other cruise lines.  Enjoy your cruise

[JamieLogical]

We have completely given up on room service coffee, so my husband went down to the International Cafe first thing yesterday morning to get us some coffee. We then had a pretty lazy morning getting ready, since we had decided on buffet breakfast and didn't have any activities we were interested in until 11:00. With the time change, we didn't manage to get out the door until almost 10:00!

 

I suffered a grievous shaving injury while showering. Managed to slice the fingernail of my middle finger of my left hand vertically. Now I have to engineer a way for it to not get caught on everything all cruise long. I only have 5 band-aids in the first aid kit I brought.

 

The buffet breakfast was a bit of a disappointment. There was no interesting meat in sauce to put over my egg. I saw some crispy bacon on the back station and was really excited but it tasted awful. Not sure how you make bacon taste bad, but they succeeded! I also got some sauteed mushrooms that were inedible. So I ended up just eating my solitary egg and half a hash brown. Oh well.  Not like I am going to starve on a cruise!

 

We ate our breakfast out on the aft area by Outriggers, which was unsurprisingly closed. What was surprising was that just as we were getting ready to leave, someone was there opening the bar. Apparently it was opening at 11:00?

 

I headed down to the Theater for a enrichment lecture on the Golden State Killer. It was a popular topic, as the place was pretty packed. I was very disappointed in the "lecture" though. The guy actually spoke for a total of about 5 minutes. Really the whole thing was him just showing is news clips and YouTube videos of other people talking. I was also disappointed that he spent almost not time on the various crime sprees attributed to the Golden State Killer and focused entirely on familial DNA, which a topic I have very strong opinions about re: 4th Amendment. He also didn't take any questions at the end.

 

 

 

After the lecture, I stalked my husband with the Medallion app and found him playing his steam deck near the wine bar.

 

We headed to the buffet to scope out lunch options. Nothing looked very appealing aside from the onion rings that were back on the kid's station. So we headed over to the Salty Dog Grill where I got another Carolina BBQ sandwich and then ate out by Outriggers again so I would be close to the onion rings.

 

At 1:00 was a welcome reception for first time Princess cruisers that we had been invited to. They held a gameshow style activity with the officers where you could ask them questions and you had to figure out what job they had on the ship. Since I had already met these same officers at the CC meet & greet, it would have been cheating to participate, so I just observed. After that they did some random drawings for prizes which we did not win, and the. The officers left. So we didn't have an opportunity to ask them any questions.

 

 

I tried to nap some after that, but really couldn't fall asleep. Eventually we went down to International Cafe for some coffee. We didn't have a dinner reservation until 7:40, so we hung out at Explorer's Club for a while where we made friends with the bartender. She just started her current contract when we boarded. Her last contact was on the Ruby. We had a lot of drinks and then headed out to catch the sunset before 6:30 when we needed to head over to the Piazza to observe the champagne fountain and meet up with Matt & Meghann. 

 

 

 

 

After seeing a bunch of random passengers have their photos taken dumping bottles of champagne onto the fountain, we went back to Explorer's Club for another drink before dinner. We also met up with some friends Matt and Meghann had made at some point, Roger and Alicia. We invited them to join us for dinner, even though our original reservation was for 4. The MDR was able to accommodate us by moving us to a different MDR. One of the guys physically walked us over to the other dining room. Sorry I don't remember the names of which one we were originally booked in and which one we were moved to.

 

 

 

For dinner I had the Crab Cake and the Duck. We all decided to skip dessert and head over to karaoke. Several of us signed up, but none of us got to perform because more people signed up than they could squeeze into the hour.

 

After dinner we decided to get some late night pizza up at Slice. Had to wait a while for a pepperoni pizza to be available and then I felt bad because there were a lot of people waiting and our group took most of the pizza.

 

After pizza I went to the casino very briefly then off to bed.

 

 

Day's Drinks: Mimosa, Something With Pimms, Mimosa, Ginger Mojito x3, Lemon Drop x2

[HaveDogWillTravel]

37 minutes ago, JamieLogical said:

so we hung out at Explorer's Club for a while where we made friends with the bartender. She just started her current contract when we boarded. Her last contact was on the Ruby.

Thanks for doing the live from. Do you happen to remember the bartender’s name?

[JamieLogical]

1 minute ago, HaveDogWillTravel said:

Thanks for doing the live from. Do you happen to remember the bartender’s name?

 

Sadly, I don't, but I intend to see her again tonight and commit it to memory this time!

[HaveDogWillTravel]

1 minute ago, JamieLogical said:

 

Sadly, I don't, but I intend to see her again tonight and commit it to memory this time!

If it happens to be Josephine (Jo) give her a huge smile from Jacqueline please (if you remember). I know she just started on the Emerald and her last contract was the Ruby. She’s simply the best person, so caring and truly nice. 

[nini]

We always go to the International Cafe first thing in the morning. Then we determine where we will have breakfast. But, sometimes they also have some good breakfast items.

[XBGuy]

15 hours ago, startedwithamouse said:

Two other mega ships arrived around the same time in Cabo. The Miracle and Joy are both huge. 

 

Yes, I recall that @JamieLogical reported that two other ships were anchored at Cabo San Lucas along with them.  Presumably, the available local tenders were engaged by the Carnival Miracle or the NCL Joy, and none were available for the Emerald Princess. 

 

The puzzling thing is why Emerald Princess used only four of their craft.  The only answer I can come up with, and this is purely speculative, is that they were restricted by the harbor in order to control traffic.

[dfields1814]

 

My wife and  were on the Emerald the cruise prior to the OP, from FLL to LA. .  We would have to agree with most of what the OP has stated. We do not believe that this specific cruise on this specific ship cruise met the high standard for Princess cruises that we always experienced in the previous cruises. . 

 

My wife and I are huge fans of Princess. We have over 40 cruises with them.  All the cruises we had with them I would rate 9 or 10. This one maybe a 7. Still a good cruise and we had a great time. But there were a number of small issues that started to add up. Still I am glad we took the cruise. We have been on five Princess cruises since the start up. Four of the 5 were excellent! This one was just good. 

 

The issue shower size and no sofas on the balcony cabins issues are well known. Ship comedians have been making jokes about it for years.  If you watch Youtube reviews and look at the cabin layout provided by Princess prior to the cruise you would better prepared for it. You have to get a mini suite to solve those problems.  I think the Royal class ships may have larger shower. I maybe be mistaken. But if feels that way.

 

On our Panama cruise one of three MDRs were closed as well as the Salty Dog Pub, most of the buffet  and Planks. This caused long lines at the MDR. We just starting going at 7:30 when there was no lines at all.  Room service accuracy with the orders was questionable. 50% of the time something was missing. Overall the food was mostly pretty good. But I am not picky. I had 1 meal out of 14 that was really bad. My wife had two. The variety of the main dishes is smaller that pre Covid. They kept repeating the same desserts. Many of my favorite dishes disappeared from the menu. I considered the buffet a lost cause and did not eat there at all. My wife had a more generous opinion. She ate there twice.  The production show not as good as shows in the pre Covid . The bar service and drinks were excellent. (I don't use the app. I just order in person. I had no problems and got to meet some interesting employees.) The bar entertainment was pretty good as a whole but I have seen better.  The huge problem with the Wheelhouse Bar was my drinks were so good I kinda over spent my budget there!  The Maitre D at Di Vinci was absolutely great. 

 

The dress code for both causal and formal nights in the MDR was a joke.  I would say on formal night  more than 50% of the men ignored it.  They allowed shorts and tee shirts for dinner on causal nights.  I did see three men in shorts turned away on the first formal night. 

 

There was very little or no mask wearing or social distancing even in very crowded spaces.  If there were no cases of covid or the flu we were extremely lucky IMHO. 

 

The cruise through the new locks was really interesting. Not good as the old locks, but interesting all the same. 

 

My fear is that first time cruises on this cruise would assume that this cruise is the norm for all Princess cruises. It wasn't.

 

 

. 

 

 

 

 

 

[Level six]

6 minutes ago, dfields1814 said:

My fear is that first time cruises on this cruise would assume that this cruise is the norm for all Princess cruises. It wasn't.

On our last three cruises post covid on Princess(60 days total) it has been this way for us too.  Pretty bad.  So much so, that we just got our 4 Future cruise deposit refunded from Princess.

We kept thinking it was just one of those things, but after the last one........it can't be.  Princess is not what it used to be for us.  We are elite and have over 200+ days, so, we are not first time on Princess. 

Before I get flamed, everyone should do what they feel is best for them.  I am just saying OUR experience was not very good.  We have one more cruise booked with Princess, but after that will probably look else where. 

[catgirl411]

Just now, dfields1814 said:

 

My wife and  were on the Emerald the cruise prior to the OP, from FLL to LA. .  We would have to agree with most of what the OP has stated. We do not believe that this specific cruise on this specific ship cruise met the high standard for Princess cruises that we always experienced in the previous cruises. . 

 

My wife and I are huge fans of Princess. We have over 40 cruises with them.  All the cruises we had with them I would rate 9 or 10. This one maybe a 7. Still a good cruise and we had a great time. But there were a number of small issues that started to add up. Still I am glad we took the cruise. We have been on five Princess cruises since the start up. Four of the 5 were excellent! This one was just good. 

 

The issue shower size and no sofas on the balcony cabins issues are well known. Ship comedians have been making jokes about it for years.  If you watch Youtube reviews and look at the cabin layout provided by Princess prior to the cruise you would better prepared for it. You have to get a mini suite to solve those problems.  I think the Royal class ships may have larger shower. I maybe be mistaken. But if feels that way.

 

On our Panama cruise one of three MDRs were closed as well as the Salty Dog Pub, most of the buffet  and Planks. This caused long lines at the MDR. We just starting going at 7:30 when there was no lines at all.  Room service accuracy with the orders was questionable. 50% of the time something was missing. Overall the food was mostly pretty good. But I am not picky. I had 1 meal out of 14 that was really bad. My wife had two. The variety of the main dishes is smaller that pre Covid. They kept repeating the same desserts. Many of my favorite dishes disappeared from the menu. I considered the buffet a lost cause and did not eat there at all. My wife had a more generous opinion. She ate there twice.  The production show not as good as shows in the pre Covid . The bar service and drinks were excellent. (I don't use the app. I just order in person. I had no problems and got to meet some interesting employees.) The bar entertainment was pretty good as a whole but I have seen better.  The huge problem with the Wheelhouse Bar was my drinks were so good I kinda over spent my budget there!  The Maitre D at Di Vinci was absolutely great. 

 

The dress code for both causal and formal nights in the MDR was a joke.  I would say on formal night  more than 50% of the men ignored it.  They allowed shorts and tee shirts for dinner on causal nights.  I did see three men in shorts turned away on the first formal night. 

 

There was very little or no mask wearing or social distancing even in very crowded spaces.  If there were no cases of covid or the flu we were extremely lucky IMHO. 

 

The cruise through the new locks was really interesting. Not good as the old locks, but interesting all the same. 

 

My fear is that first time cruises on this cruise would assume that this cruise is the norm for all Princess cruises. It wasn't.

 

 

. 

 

 

 

 

 

We are currently on Emerald Princess. Our last cruise was Alaska on Regal Princess in August. We were spoiled because our FCCs allowed us to upgrade to a suite which was amazing.  This time we are in a mini suite which is quite spacious and definitely solves the shower problem.  Last night was the first formal night and I was actually pleased with the number of people who were dressed up. The Alaska cruise was super disappointing from that perspective. The food so far in the MDR is pretty sad. Last night my appetizer was a very mushy crab cake. The other night my husband had scallops with no evidence of searing at all.  The staff are all great however and very accommodating. Mind you some their time with us involved fixing problems with our dining reservations that had been arbitrarily changed by the app.  
 

 

[Coral]

56 minutes ago, dfields1814 said:

 

On our Panama cruise one of three MDRs were closed as well as the Salty Dog Pub, most of the buffet  and Planks. This caused long lines at the MDR. We just starting going at 7:30 when there was no lines at all.  Room service accuracy with the orders was questionable. 50% of the time something was missing. Overall the food was mostly pretty good. But I am not picky. I had 1 meal out of 14 that was really bad. My wife had two. The variety of the main dishes is smaller that pre Covid. They kept repeating the same desserts. Many of my favorite dishes disappeared from the menu. I considered the buffet a lost cause and did not eat there at all. My wife had a more generous opinion. She ate there twice.  The production show not as good as shows in the pre Covid . The bar service and drinks were excellent. (I don't use the app. I just order in person. I had no problems and got to meet some interesting employees.) The bar entertainment was pretty good as a whole but I have seen better.  The huge problem with the Wheelhouse Bar was my drinks were so good I kinda over spent my budget there!  The Maitre D at Di Vinci was absolutely great. 

 

I was on the TA in November on the Emerald. I had mixed reactions. I wish all the dining rooms had been open so we could spread out more as we definitely had a lot of COVID on our ship that people did not report. Our menus were un-inspiring. Planks has been closed since COVID (what they told me). Our entertainment was awful for the TA but I guess it was fine as I hated being in the theatre with everyone coughing. I thought the food was ok - it wasn't great but I didn't starve by any means. Many of my favorite foods were all gone. Service was the bright star in all of this as every employee I encountered was amazing.

[macandlucy]

Jamie, re: the room service coffee and not getting sugar.

 

I have found that it's much better to use Ocean Now (via the medallion app, over regular room service) to order coffee to the stateroom in the morning. Why? When you use your medallion app to order Ocean Now, you can choose your coffee type and then scroll way down to the sweetener section, it gives you options for type of milk, temperature and number of sugar packets (brown or white) or other sweeteners.  In fact, getting a latte delivered to my room, extra hot, three sugars (don't judge) is so unbelievably awesome to me that it really puts a gold star in the Princess column.

 

I only ever ordered coffee via the Ocean Now app, and I found it came in a reasonable amount of time. Plus, you can get a latte or an Americano, which is much better than regular room service coffee I think.

 

If you have been ordering through the app already, and have had this rotten luck,  I have found it seems to take a couple days for the whole system to work. I don't know why, but eventually it does work and things show up as ordered. I do recommend giving it one more chance.  You can also order drinks to your room the same way (via Ocean Now) -- so great when you are getting ready for dinner!. The list is not exhaustive, but if you like frozen drinks, I can recommend the Dirty Banana --yum!

 

[JamieLogical]

15 hours ago, macandlucy said:

Jamie, re: the room service coffee and not getting sugar.

 

I have found that it's much better to use Ocean Now (via the medallion app, over regular room service) to order coffee to the stateroom in the morning. Why? When you use your medallion app to order Ocean Now, you can choose your coffee type and then scroll way down to the sweetener section, it gives you options for type of milk, temperature and number of sugar packets (brown or white) or other sweeteners.  In fact, getting a latte delivered to my room, extra hot, three sugars (don't judge) is so unbelievably awesome to me that it really puts a gold star in the Princess column.

 

I only ever ordered coffee via the Ocean Now app, and I found it came in a reasonable amount of time. Plus, you can get a latte or an Americano, which is much better than regular room service coffee I think.

 

If you have been ordering through the app already, and have had this rotten luck,  I have found it seems to take a couple days for the whole system to work. I don't know why, but eventually it does work and things show up as ordered. I do recommend giving it one more chance.  You can also order drinks to your room the same way (via Ocean Now) -- so great when you are getting ready for dinner!. The list is not exhaustive, but if you like frozen drinks, I can recommend the Dirty Banana --yum!

 

 

We have used the app to order other food and drinks to our room, but have only used the door hanger cards to order room service breakfast/coffee. We like to use the cards because we pre-order and an arranged time and it also serves as our wake-up call. If we wait until we are already awake and order through the app, it's faster just to send my husband down in his PJs.