Anyone sail last cruise before drydock?

[lovevacadays]

We are booked on the last Emerald cruise before drydock. I just read a thread of someone who was on another Princess ship on the last cruise before drydock and it was mentioned that they were starting construction, closing off areas, etc on their cruise. Has anyone else had this experience?

 

What was your experience if you did this type of a cruise?

[Toto2Kansas]

We are booked on the last Emerald cruise before drydock. I just read a thread of someone who was on another Princess ship on the last cruise before drydock and it was mentioned that they were starting construction, closing off areas, etc on their cruise. Has anyone else had this experience?

 

What was your experience if you did this type of a cruise?

 

Friends sailed on the Grand this past December the cruise before it went into wet dock. They said the construction and remodeling started while they were still onboard, before their cruise ended.

 

Thankfully, we didn't join the cruise until the second cruise after she returned from her wet dock.

[Colo Cruiser]

They did...

 

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=972318

[smoosh21]

There is also an issue like this over on the RCI boards, but they were only working on the buffet. I guess the cruise lines are so desperate that they are now going to be doing more work at sea. I guess pretty soon they won't even want to take a few weeks off to get the work done, but will be doing it while passengers are on board.

 

Unless this last cruise was deeply discounted, I find it to be very wrong.

[mauiedin87]

We too were on the Golden Princess April 1-15 cruise before drydock and really only booked it because we got such a "deal" on a Captain's Circle special for a fully obstructed oceanview cabin on Emerald Deck. We were thrilled when we found out it was right above the wedding chapel. Quiet location, right? Yeah right! During the last many days we were on top of a construction site with hammering, ripping, sawing, nail guns, grinding etc. all day long. Since our cabin was the only place where we could adjust the temperature to our comfort level (the rest of the ship was "meat locker" temperature), we were in a Catch 22 situation. We definitely "paid" for this discounted cabin! :eek:

[jfgdbg]

How can you find out when a ship is going into dry dock? I sure wouldn't want to be on one when they had started the work.

[Toto2Kansas]

How can you find out when a ship is going into dry dock? I sure wouldn't want to be on one when they had started the work.

 

I don't know of any site you can check. We have always found asking here on CC about a specific ships dry dock date has always brought great answers.

Only thing with these dry docks anymore, you never know when they may be cancelled and rescheduled. :confused:

[pamcdon]

I'm looking for an email address for Princess Cruise lines. Does anyone have one?

 

I too am on this cruise and paying the money we are for it, I want to be sure we are entitled to all the amenities we are paying for! I'd hate to have to change to another line.

 

Thanks.

[DanJ]

Back in 2001, we were on the second to last sailing of the Carnival Tropicale before it transferred over to Costa and they had done some work to it. We didn't have any closed of areas though, and it was like magic that we would walk through the lobby one morning and the carpet had been changed LOL.

 

It's also not the cruises prior to drydock. There were many reports from the CB in the weeks after the drydock about the construction on the new Piazza, Crown Grill and window suites still going on. I think it was months after that the Crown Grill and WS suites were ready.

[leoandhugh]

Having had the experience of a cruise before drydock, I would never again book one either before or immediately after drydock. They have to make preparations PRIOR to the ship actually entering drydock in order to reduce the number of days the ship will be out of service. And the refit jobs done on drydock such as the massive refitting of the Golden Princess at Victoria is seldom finished on time. So the cruise immediately following drydock, there is work going on and crew are getting familiar with the changes. I have been on TransAtlantic repositioning cruises on which they recarpeted the dining room and the hallways - done at night but the odor remained through the day. Also they have recovered chairs and other upholstery during a TA. So we learned our lesson and just never, never book those:)

[lovevacadays]

Thanks everyone - we are changing to the Nov 15th cruise. We both have flexibility so not a problem and this way no worries.

 

PamCDon - I'm on the 11/29 roll call with you. I did call Princess customer services last night and they did say they had never heard any complaints, etc. But didn't really have an answer for what might be going on on the ship.

[GTO-Girl]

We are booked on the last Emerald cruise before drydock. I just read a thread of someone who was on another Princess ship on the last cruise before drydock and it was mentioned that they were starting construction, closing off areas, etc on their cruise. Has anyone else had this experience?

 

What was your experience if you did this type of a cruise?

 

 

When is the Emerald dry dock????

[CassCruise]

We sailed on the Sun Princess before she went into drydock for a major overhaul and were a little concerned as we had heard some quite negative comments about her leading up to our cruise - it was super - couldn't fault the ship - sure at times we noticed the odd section of worn carpet etc etc but nothing to comment upon.......

 

Jane

[Hulagirl]

From what I've read on the CC board, the Emerald Princess dry dock has been canceled and they added those short cruises in December. So I don't think you would have anything to worry about or a reason to even change your cruise.

[Hulagirl]

Scratch that! Confused the Emerald with the Ruby. My mind just wasn't working. Sorry about that.

 

I would hesitate to take a cruise right before dry dock also after reading the comments about the Golden Princess.

 

We loved the Emerald last December. Hope you have a wonderful cruise.

[sunsetbeachgal]

Wow...we did the Emerald in January (for the second time) and I find it hard to believe that she needs to go into drydock already??

[lovevacadays]

She will be going into drydock after the 11/29 cruise. We went ahead and changed our booking

[LA_FadeAway]

We were on the NCL Jewel before a short dry dock and didn't see or hear anything out of the ordinary.

[jfv379]

This is a little off the post but I think it pertains.

 

We did two weeks in St. Thomas with friends who had previously stayed at a condo in Cowpet Bay. They raved about how quiet and beautiful it was.

 

When we arrived we discovered that they were building the Elysian Resort, which is no longer, next door. Our friends are late sleepers. Every morning at 6:00AM the Komatsu 750 (sp) started up to dig out the 20,0000 sq ft swimming pool.

 

We laughed because our friends who suggested the place, and are late sleepers, picked the bedroom right outside the digging of the resort pool.

 

We laughed the whole two weeks about the disturbance in the morning.

 

It definately didn't ruin our vacation

[pamcdon]

We are just going to take our chances.

 

I already have all my hotel reservations and the "doggie hotel" reservation made. I would hate to have to change everything.

 

Keep your fingers crossed!!! Any cruise is a good cruise in my mind!:)

[DanJ]

If I'm not mistaken, this would be the Emerald's first drydock, so it's probably more for routine maintenance. I don't think they are doing anything dramatic to the ship, since it already has many of the features being installed on the ships that have had recent drydocks. I doubt this would be one that will be disruptive to the cruises immediately before and after.

 

But I could be wrong.