Emerald Princess was an epic disappointment. Never again on Princess

[Host CJSKIDS]

Just a thought... but perhaps we should stop discussing second hand reports from an employee of Princess on the ship as Princess reads the boards and I'm sure they wouldn't be too happy with an employee talking to a guest on board about how things are not that great.  

[azbirdmom]

4 minutes ago, Host CJSKIDS said:

Just a thought... but perhaps we should stop discussing second hand reports from an employee of Princess on the ship as Princess reads the boards and I'm sure they wouldn't be too happy with an employee talking to a guest on board about how things are not that great.  

 

THIS!  It's one thing to provide your experiences of what happened on your cruise.  For folks to say you didn't experience what you experienced is wrong, pretty much everyone has reported issues with their cruises recently (me included).  But that's not what happened in this post.  In quoting the Princess IT person they were going beyond what a review should entail, they were providing second hand information that could potentially get someone into trouble.  And then going on to bash Princess corporate when they have only one cruise with Princess and don't have any comparisons on any other ships is a stretch.  Finally bashing other long time Princess cruisers for being complacent isn't cool.  Maybe these folks were having a nice time and didn't want to engage in negativity?  Whatever the reason I hope the OP moves on to cruise lines that are clearly more to their liking.  It's clear that they won't be back on a Princess ship as the title suggests so why keep hammering away?

[Guest Snaxmuppet]

1 hour ago, Ken the cruiser said:

You can always check out a Crystal cruise. They usually have pretty reasonable solo fares.

Do they sail from the UK because I don't want to fly?

[Guest Snaxmuppet]

55 minutes ago, Itchy&Scratchy said:

considering that we always sail as 3 or 5 people, and none of us ever purchase specialty dining, excursions and/or alcohol packages, spend any time in a casino, it doesn't make any sense to me to charge a poor solo traveler for 3 people.

Good for you but a lot of people do all those things 🙂 

 

For 3 people... no, I don't think that is reasonable. But more than 2, yes, I can see the sense in that.

[Itchy&Scratchy]

48 minutes ago, Snaxmuppet said:

For 3 people... no, I don't think that is reasonable. But more than 2, yes, I can see the sense in that.

well, 3 is more than 2, so....

 

 

[Ken the cruiser]

2 hours ago, SaltyDoggg said:

 

@Ken the cruiser I live in Florida, and because I am fairly new to cruising, I have been focusing on the Caribbean.  That being said, I am looking at a one way Hawaiian cruise from Vancouver on Celebrity in the Fall.   I am also very open to doing Alaska... probably not going anywhere to Europe, gonna stick primarily in the Caribbean and possibly California coast.  I like the idea of being U.S. based.

 

Can I ask you Ken, would you consider Princess a competitor to Celebrity or more of a value brand?  I went into my 2 week Emerald Princess cruise under the impression that they are competitors of Celebrity, thats the vibe I was getting with all of the YouTube vids, but after all the comments on my review thread, and of course my personal experience, I'm wondering if they fall more into a value line?  That would explain allot.

 

Also, what cruise lines would you recommend that would fall more in line with Celebrity's style?  

 

Thanks for your help!

To answer your question, the easy answer is yes, they are competitors. They are all similar, but at the same time unique when it comes to their individual dining and entertainment options. In fact for us, Celebrity, Princess, NCL, and HAL are all competing for our $$$, depending on the uniqueness of their itinerary when compared to their competitors' offerings, if there are any.  

 

They also have their own unique strategies when it comes to enticing someone to book a cruise with them. For example, if you book a HAL cruise within the first 90 days of it becoming available, you get up to $400 in OBC. You also get their HIA "Early Booking" bonus package if you book the cruise at least one year prior to embarkation day. You also get OBC for being an AARP member!

 

The key here is to remember that none of them speak in complete sentences, so you have to do the research and the math to figure out which one offers the better value for the itinerary you are looking to book. The main thing we have learned is not to compare the different cruise lines, but rather to appreciate what each one uniquely has to offer. For example, when we book a NCL cruise with their FAS Plus package, we get 4 free specialty dinners on top of the those we get from being Platinum (except for having to pay the gratuities).

 

Also, learn the rules associated with accruing points in each cruise line's loyalty programs, as they do become quite valuable the more you sail with them. In our case, we are Elite+ on Celebrity, Elite on Princess, 4-star on HAL, and Platinum on NCL. For us free laundry has always been the "carrot" to motivate us to figure out ways to get to the appropriate loyalty level faster. The easiest one was NCL. We surprisingly made Platinum on our 3rd cruise!

 

I could go on as I'm a cruiseaholic and keeping up with the everchanging finer points of booking cruises with the lines we sail with is all part of the fun of cruising for me. BTW did I mention I check the price on each of the 20 cruises we have booked over the next 2 years to see if any have gone down in price so I can then ask to have the booking refared at the lower price! 

 

Edited January 4 by Ken the cruiser

[Ken the cruiser]

1 hour ago, Snaxmuppet said:

Do they sail from the UK because I don't want to fly?

Here's one, but I'm sure there are others.

 

Crystal - Symphony - Dover to Dover - Sep 18, 2024 to Sep 26, 2024 - CSY-008-240918 (crystalcruises.com)

 

[cruisinsince75]

I agree with Ken.  We find both Princess and Holland America to be competitors with Celebrity.  They are all competing for the same dollars.  But, they all have their differences, not only between the lines, but also between individual ships within the line. 

 

When we decide on which line and which ship to sail on, we look at a number of things in making our decision.  Overall value, adding in for various perks, itinerary (less so in the Caribbean since we have been to most of the ports), the length of the cruise (preferring a minimum of 10 days to a maximum of 21), ease of traveling to and from the embarkation and disembarkation points, and time of year the cruise takes place.  We also have a major factor that applies to some.  We have to sail in an accessible suite.

 

Example:  We were looking for a TA cruise for fall of 2025.  All of our favorite 6 star inclusive lines, were all out of our budget and had limited or no accessible suites.  That left Celebrity, Princess, and HAL.  We ended up with HAL.  Celebrity wasn't even close for similar itinerary, number of days, and inclusive packages.  The 20% surcharge for a refundable fare really killed it.  Princess was closer, but the balcony and mini-suites were all sold out.  

[Mississippian]

13 hours ago, Snaxmuppet said:

I would love to solo cruise but simply cannot justify the cost but I can see the business case to charge more than double for a single person. There is only one person to buy speciality dining, to buy excursions, to buy drinks (if not on package), to spend in casino. A single person occupying a 2 berth cabin will mean they are not just losing the fare for one person but they also lose the revenue that would have been generated by the missing person.

Contra, there is not some woman henpecking you for betting at the casino.

[Guest Snaxmuppet]

21 minutes ago, Mississippian said:

Contra, there is not some woman henpecking you for betting at the casino.

My wife is the one nagging me to go to the casino when we cruise!

Edited January 5 by Snaxmuppet

[Mississippian]

Just now, Snaxmuppet said:

My wife is the one nagging me to go to the casino when we cruise!

Contra, the wife is not trying to force you to squander the family fortune!

[Guest Snaxmuppet]

Just now, Mississippian said:

Contra, the wife is not trying to force you to squander the family fortune!

What fortune? 😄

 

Nah... we have a fixed budget on each cruise for the casino. We both stick to that. 🙂 

[TRLD]

As some who was on 6 different cruise lines last year and will be on 7 this year, I also agree with Ken. HAL, Princess,and Celebrity are all 3 mass market cruise lines focused on the north American, primarily adult market. More similar than different, but with some different twists.

 

Celebrity has more class structure, with higher prices than Princess, especially onboard for those that do not buy packages. Of the 3 they have the shortest average itinerary lengths  and least variety in itineraries.

 

HAL has the longest average itinerary lengths and the most itinerary variations (HAL visits nearly 600 unique ports, compared to Celebrities 350, and Princesses 450 range.). HAL also has the smallest average ship size (Celebrity second and Princess the largest). We think that the MDR food on HAL is slightly better than Princess or Celebrity. In all 3 lines the MDR food is basically hotel banquet quality with a wider menu selection. 

 

Princess has the largest ships sizes of the three which gives them a better operational efficiency when it comes to pricing. They are going to more of a class structure with the two new shios then in the past. They are also adding more family friendly features with those ships, while still retaining the primarily adult focus.

[TRLD]

19 hours ago, Ken the cruiser said:

To answer your question, the easy answer is yes, they are competitors. They are all similar, but at the same time unique when it comes to their individual dining and entertainment options. In fact for us, Celebrity, Princess, NCL, and HAL are all competing for our $$$, depending on the uniqueness of their itinerary when compared to their competitors' offerings, if there are any.  

 

They also have their own unique strategies when it comes to enticing someone to book a cruise with them. For example, if you book a HAL cruise within the first 90 days of it becoming available, you get up to $400 in OBC. You also get their HIA "Early Booking" bonus package if you book the cruise at least one year prior to embarkation day. You also get OBC for being an AARP member!

 

The key here is to remember that none of them speak in complete sentences, so you have to do the research and the math to figure out which one offers the better value for the itinerary you are looking to book. The main thing we have learned is not to compare the different cruise lines, but rather to appreciate what each one uniquely has to offer. For example, when we book a NCL cruise with their FAS Plus package, we get 4 free specialty dinners on top of the those we get from being Platinum (except for having to pay the gratuities).

 

Also, learn the rules associated with accruing points in each cruise line's loyalty programs, as they do become quite valuable the more you sail with them. In our case, we are Elite+ on Celebrity, Elite on Princess, 4-star on HAL, and Platinum on NCL. For us free laundry has always been the "carrot" to motivate us to figure out ways to get to the appropriate loyalty level faster. The easiest one was NCL. We surprisingly made Platinum on our 3rd cruise!

 

I could go on as I'm a cruiseaholic and keeping up with the everchanging finer points of booking cruises with the lines we sail with is all part of the fun of cruising for me. BTW did I mention I check the price on each of the 20 cruises we have booked over the next 2 years to see if any have gone down in price so I can then ask to have the booking refared at the lower price! 

 

NCL is a more family focused NA mass market line, more in direct competition with Royal and Carnival, where as HAL, Celebrity and Princess are NA adult focused.

[Itried4498]

Negative reviews in CC draw far more interest than positive.  Last year I wrote a positive review that generated very little attention and a few days later somebody posted a negative review of the same cruise that generated a ton of interest with people wondering what’s up with all the negative reviews lately.

 

Anyway Disney uses powdered eggs too.  So did Royal on my tranatlantic last month.  Reality is, when somebody describes all the food as inedible, there’s probably deeper issues.

 

Disney charges huge premiums for its cruises.  We did a Disney cruise last spring and coud’ve did 2 to 3 Princess cruises for the same price.  It’s like paying $200/night for a solid Hilton near Disney World and then complaining. “Never again” because it didn’t match the Disney experience of one of their hotels charging $600/night.

[TRLD]

2 hours ago, Itried4498 said:

Negative reviews in CC draw far more interest than positive.  Last year I wrote a positive review that generated very little attention and a few days later somebody posted a negative review of the same cruise that generated a ton of interest with people wondering what’s up with all the negative reviews lately.

 

Anyway Disney uses powdered eggs too.  So did Royal on my tranatlantic last month.  Reality is, when somebody describes all the food as inedible, there’s probably deeper issues.

 

Disney charges huge premiums for its cruises.  We did a Disney cruise last spring and coud’ve did 2 to 3 Princess cruises for the same price.  It’s like paying $200/night for a solid Hilton near Disney World and then complaining. “Never again” because it didn’t match the Disney experience of one of their hotels charging $600/night.

If someone identifies a few thing wrong with their cruise from their perspective I usually can find the  information credible. It may not agree with my experiences, but I consider it credible. When someone posts a long list where basically everything is wrong and they tend to fairly over the top description I tend to put it the they are hunting for anything they can think of list and pretty much ignore it. 

 

Sometimes a line is just not a good fit for any number of reasons.

 

I did my first cruise on the P&O Iona this last year. For the first 3 days of the cruise my wife and I thought worst cruise ever. The food was not what we were used to on board ships, the crew was not friendly, it was during a UK school holiday, so a lot of children on board.  After the first few days we adjusted and started to get used to what they did differently. Found some other dining options (the Quays for example) and after the cruise decided that yes we would sail them again. That it really was a good cruise and the differences were ok.

 

Sometimes different equals bad, when really it is just different than what one is used to.

[Cruise Raider]

34 minutes ago, TRLD said:

If someone identifies a few thing wrong with their cruise from their perspective I usually can find the  information credible. It may not agree with my experiences, but I consider it credible. When someone posts a long list where basically everything is wrong and they tend to fairly over the top description I tend to put it the they are hunting for anything they can think of list and pretty much ignore it. 

 

Sometimes a line is just not a good fit for any number of reasons.

 

I did my first cruise on the P&O Iona this last year. For the first 3 days of the cruise my wife and I thought worst cruise ever. The food was not what we were used to on board ships, the crew was not friendly, it was during a UK school holiday, so a lot of children on board.  After the first few days we adjusted and started to get used to what they did differently. Found some other dining options (the Quays for example) and after the cruise decided that yes we would sail them again. That it really was a good cruise and the differences were ok.

 

Sometimes different equals bad, when really it is just different than what one is used to.

I think a lack of sleep for days on end can make some only look for the worst things they can list.  It just builds and builds until you, yourself, pull yourself out of the meltdown mode.  Just mentioning this as we are all most responsible for our own happiness.  As previously noted, we didn’t like the Diamond Princess at all.  Some of our friends had felt the same but a couple of them had wondered what we didn’t like about it.  So, when we sat down to realize the good things about the experience, it made our cruise most memorable and in a good way.  We did have the best entertainment that I could even imagine on that cruise.  Luckily, we weren’t sleep deprived.  While many things lacked, it wasn’t blown out of the water as being the worst cruise ever… however, it was probably not a ship I’d ever book again but wish we could get the same entertainers back together on another cruise ship.  

[KLM3164]

My first cruise with Princess was in 1995 and I can say it was “my worst cruise ever”. At the time I considered Princess to be a one and done. I said I would never sail on another Princess ship again. I eventually did give them another try when my parents booked a cruise on Princess and I really wanted to go with them. I’m happy to say that 2nd cruise did win me over and I’m now Elite with Princess.

 

In contrast to the original post, we are going on our first Celebrity cruise next month and they are really going to have to give me a big wow factor for me to sail on them again. I’m finding Celebrity to be very expensive. Cabins are more expensive, no MDR lunch on embarkation day unless we pay extra for concierge class (no thank you). Steakhouse is over $140 for 2 vs. $78 on Princess. I’m also going to miss the all-inclusive Plus and Premier packages that Princess offers. Everything on Celebrity seems to be a la carte unless sailing in suites which were just way out of line compared to Princess. The only positive thing I have to say so far for Celebrity is we were able to get a Sunset Veranda cabin and book an internet package at 50% off. We like the food on Princess so we will see in just over a month how the food on Celebrity compares. Based on the OP I hope the food on Celebrity is amazing!

[Ken the cruiser]

5 minutes ago, KLM3164 said:

My first cruise with Princess was in 1995 and I can say it was “my worst cruise ever”. At the time I considered Princess to be a one and done. I said I would never sail on another Princess ship again. I eventually did give them another try when my parents booked a cruise on Princess and I really wanted to go with them. I’m happy to say that 2nd cruise did win me over and I’m now Elite with Princess.

 

In contrast to the original post, we are going on our first Celebrity cruise next month and they are really going to have to give me a big wow factor for me to sail on them again. I’m finding Celebrity to be very expensive. Cabins are more expensive, no MDR lunch on embarkation day unless we pay extra for concierge class (no thank you). Steakhouse is over $140 for 2 vs. $78 on Princess. I’m also going to miss the all-inclusive Plus and Premier packages that Princess offers. Everything on Celebrity seems to be a la carte unless sailing in suites which were just way out of line compared to Princess. The only positive thing I have to say so far for Celebrity is we were able to get a Sunset Veranda cabin and book an internet package at 50% off. We like the food on Princess so we will see in just over a month how the food on Celebrity compares. Based on the OP I hope the food on Celebrity is amazing!

Which Celebrity ship are you booked on?

[KLM3164]

Just now, Ken the cruiser said:

Which Celebrity ship are you booked on?

Ascent.

[TRLD]

14 minutes ago, KLM3164 said:

My first cruise with Princess was in 1995 and I can say it was “my worst cruise ever”. At the time I considered Princess to be a one and done. I said I would never sail on another Princess ship again. I eventually did give them another try when my parents booked a cruise on Princess and I really wanted to go with them. I’m happy to say that 2nd cruise did win me over and I’m now Elite with Princess.

 

In contrast to the original post, we are going on our first Celebrity cruise next month and they are really going to have to give me a big wow factor for me to sail on them again. I’m finding Celebrity to be very expensive. Cabins are more expensive, no MDR lunch on embarkation day unless we pay extra for concierge class (no thank you). Steakhouse is over $140 for 2 vs. $78 on Princess. I’m also going to miss the all-inclusive Plus and Premier packages that Princess offers. Everything on Celebrity seems to be a la carte unless sailing in suites which were just way out of line compared to Princess. The only positive thing I have to say so far for Celebrity is we were able to get a Sunset Veranda cabin and book an internet package at 50% off. We like the food on Princess so we will see in just over a month how the food on Celebrity compares. Based on the OP I hope the food on Celebrity is amazing!

more like $92 on Princess since the 18% service charge is now an add on instead of included.

[Ken the cruiser]

1 minute ago, KLM3164 said:

Ascent.

Cool! You’re going to have a great time, especially since you’re booked in an aft-facing veranda cabin rather than one of the infinite verandas! Make sure you go to the evening shows, especially all of the production shows, and don’t forget to check out the shows they will also offer in The Club and on occasion back in Eden. 
 

They have 4 MDRs, so make sure you check out each one of them as well. My biggest suggestion is to check out the Daily the night before, plot out what you want to do the next evening and during the day, if it’s a sea day, because there should be plenty to do!!

 

But most importantly, go on your first Celebrity cruise with an open mind and don’t try to compare it with any cruise ship you have ever been on before!! The E-class ships are definitely awesome, and of course, that’s why they charge so much! 😁

[KLM3164]

Thanks Ken. I appreciate your tips as I know you’ve done several sailings on Celebrity as well as Princess. I will keep an open mind (and an open wallet)!

 

One question. From your experience are the shows difficult to get into? How early do you need to be there to get a seat? The shows are important to us and we want to go to as many as possible as this is one thing we love to do in the evening. 

[Ken the cruiser]

3 minutes ago, KLM3164 said:

Thanks Ken. I appreciate your tips as I know you’ve done several sailings on Celebrity as well as Princess. I will keep an open mind (and an open wallet)!

 

One question. From your experience are the shows difficult to get into? How early do you need to be there to get a seat? The shows are important to us and we want to go to as many as possible as this is one thing we love to do in the evening. 

What we do is go check out the theater on the first day to plot out different locations where we might want to sit. Our favorite spots are on the second floor on the side where you are closest to the stage. Where we don’t want to sit is ina place where someone “coughing” cannot sit behind us, as that would be really annoying. Sorry, we’re still a little twitchy from the pando days when we had to test to go on the next leg when we were booked on a B2B which was pretty much always! 😂

 

But we usually try to get there 15-20 minutes early, get one of our favorite seats, and play rummy while we wait for the show. 😁

[d9704011]

1 hour ago, Ken the cruiser said:

But we usually try to get there 15-20 minutes early, get one of our favorite seats, and play rummy while we wait for the show.

I am on the Emerald right now.  Shows are (mostly) scheduled for 1930 and again at 2130.  On this sailing, it has been necessary to show up at least 30 minutes beforehand to get two decent seats together, at least for the early show  Perhaps it's because the ship is chock-a-block with passengers for a Christmas & New Year's cruise.