The Emerald Princess

Now we have left the ship, even though our trip continues, a quick summary of the Emerald is probably in order as we know that many potential cruisers are interested.  Internet connection on board is currently non-existent, so goodness knows when this will be posted.

The Emerald Princess is larger, newer, has more facilities and  carries  more passengers than the 2000 passenger Dawn Princess, yet it a couple of areas it fails to deliver.

As mentioned several times before, we frequented the International café down on deck 5 many times and although it scores highly on the food options, especially at lunch time, the very fact that it is so busy means that the service is possibly a little slower now and again and seating very much at a premium.  It wasn’t until the final disembarkation coffee, that I found that they did indeed do chocolate doughnuts in the mornings – now and again!  There is also a wine bar with complimentary sushi and tapas.

Deck 6 has the two entrances to the casino, behind both sides of the Customer Services desk though somewhat surprisingly, they still allow smoking in one area of the casino and that smell of stale cigarette smoke can still pervade the atrium now and again, as they never close the doors.

The atrium upper floor does have a piano in the corner (Crooners Bar) but we know there was no opportunity for dancing, that was reserved for the Wheelhouse bar.

We didn’t really fully utilise the musical options available on this cruise!  As with the Diamond Princess, there is a central entertainment lounge (Explorers) but its open proximity to the main thoroughfare on deck 7 with a busy bar, tended to interfere with concerts, though it probably added to the game show atmosphere.

The rear lounge – Club Fusion was often blacked out, for Zumba classes for example, and we found it a bit gloomy.

At the front of deck 7, the theatre has a lower floor, but sitting down there means that you can’t see the stage floor at all.  The upper level is much better, but you are of course further away from the entertainment.

Unlike the Dawn for example, the promenade deck is not a full circuit, as it comes to a dead end at the bow of the ship.  Walkers or jogger have to be content with the jogging track up on deck 19, behind the sports court, but at 16 laps to the mile, apparently, dizziness was a problem!

I’m skipping around a bit here but inside the jogging track, there is a ’green astroturf’ area I three sections – putting, croquet and bocce (pity they don’t have lawn bowls available).

As with the Dawn, the nightclub (Skywalkers – also on deck 19) wasn’t exactly busy.

This ship has two main pool areas meaning that they can show their ‘Movies Under The Stars’ in one (or World Cup soccer of course) with about 4 or 5 viewing levels and still leave the other pool area free.  However, neither is as impressive as the large Riviera deck on the Dawn. The Diamond has one pool covered which is great in cool weather but the Emerald, which is similar in many respects, doesn’t.

Food

Opinions may vary here and there are some strange anomalies. For example, the Dawn has a free pizzeria where you can effectively create your own, but on the Emerald, they just do two or three creations a day.

The pay restaurants - $25 Crown Grill; $25 Sabatinis; $20 Crab Shack – we didn’t try so cannot comment on, nor did we try the grill (burgers etc.) not even the ice cream or waffles!

We did eat in the Deck 6 Botticelli fixed dining room second sitting at night and our waiter and assistant were superb. Most meals were fine other than the one night when things seemed overly salty.

A common criticism on Princess is that the main evening meals can vary – particularly in size. For example something billed as a turkey pie with vegetables is in fact a turkey and vegetable pie, which is not the same thing at all.  Getting a main evening meal consisting only of a pie is out of kilter with most mains, served with meat or fish with vegetables.  Some mains were only starter sized and that means knowing the Princess menu helps, so that the correct choices can be made.

Paula particularly, liked the fact that one of the always available dessert options was a crème brulee…

The buffet on the Princess has generally good food, but again, is a conflicting mix.  The number of hot dishes for breakfast is probably larger than on the Dawn, yet the layout in the end section of the three particularly, is very narrow and congested.  Although the staff will probably cook you an omelette and probably a poached egg, they don’t seem to encourage it.

As for the  toast.  What a disaster.  I’m not sure whether or not health and safety have insisted on it being fired by a 40 watt bulb, but by the time the (too thin) toast emerges with any colour, it resembles biscotti, with bits of toast flying everywhere if you dare stab it with your fork.  Whilst the piece of once white bread goes through the machine about five times, changing colour about as fast as getting a sun tan at the North pole – in winter -  the queue grows and usually waits patiently, whilst the rest of their plate of once warm food cools down, meanwhile blocking access to the cabinets.  Getting a hot breakfast therefore demands either careful planning or sacrifices.

We rarely went up for lunch as the temptation to overeat was too great, so we definitely missed out, on speciality lunches and probably curries.

Entertainment

As on all cruises to date, the individual entertainers varied.  The toughest gig these days is being a comedian as with the internet access to jokes being so easy, it is now a rare comedian who can make you laugh out loud without dredging up jokes that haven’t been circulated in one form or another.

Musicians have it slightly easier but again, some seem to have a fairly limited repertoire as they need to provide band parts for a 7 piece orchestra – and that costs them about $1,000 a time.

The Production dancers and singers had a fairly busy time with about four or five shows in the two weeks, but their efforts were almost eclipsed by the stage sets which are very modern and can be quite spectacular, especially compared to the Dawn’s older set up.

The cabin was excellent and on Caribe deck, the balcony is a decent size, with 4 chairs and a table, a wide, glass balcony fence.  Decent wardrobe space and a bathroom just a little larger than the Dawn.  Although it took a few days, we did eventually get a damaged toilet seat replaced.

So to summarise.  Nice ship.  Great crew, a great Cruise Director fairly typical Princess food but so much about the ship when compared to other Princess ships, is a matter of personal choice.  Would we cruise on the Emerald again? Yes.