Our ten day New Year 2009 cruise on the Emerald Princess Posted on : 2009-02-03 by KeithnRita
Cruise Line :
Princess Cruises
Cruise Ship :
Emerald Princess
Cruise Region :
Caribbean Eastern
Cabin Number :
R507
Ports :
Antigua
, Barbados
, Princess Cays
, St. Kitts
, St. Lucia
, St. Thomas
Days :
10
Departure Date :
12/29/2008
Avg. Price per Pax :
With air, insurance and 2 night precruise = $2,450.00
Tags :
Emerald Princess New Year cruise 2009
The service was fair to mediocre. The servers seemed like they did not understand, and in some cases, did not care to give good service. The one exception was Orlina in the Wheelhouse Bar. She was very friendly and acted as if she enjoyed serving us. She was the only other person we gave an extra tip. There seemed to be a turf war going on in this bar and the other servers had no clue of how to give good service. I would blame poor supervision and training. This was wide spread on the ship. It is a very beautiful ship, however beauty is only skin deep. We would not recommend this ship to anyone. Not sure if we would recommend Princess, as well. The nickel and dimeing on this cruise was the most yet.
We met some great new friends and had a great time with them and our friends from a past cruise. Some times you just have to roll with the punches. We do not let bad service ruin our vacation!
How did I book?:
June Folz of Folz Travel. We only book with her!
Did I get a good price?:
Holiday cruises are typically not at good prices, however it's the only time we can take an extended cruise.
How was my trip to the port?:
We flew AA out of EVV thru Chicago. Only minor delays. Our 4 checked bags cost us $160.00 roundtrip!
We had a two day pre-cruise at the Renaissance on 17th Street in FLL
Port Everglades was only a 5 minute taxi ride from our hotel
Embarkation/Debarkation:
We arrived at the port around 11:15 and dropped our luggage with a porter and picked up our boarding number 4 in the cruise terminal. We sat there about an hour and fifteen minutes before boarding numbers were called. The speculation was the ship was probably being cleaned from an outbreak of the Norwalk Virus from the previous cruise. Once the numbers started being called the process took about 20 minutes until we were aboard and heading to our inside stateroom R507 on the Riviera deck
The ship:
Very clean and very large. Reminded us of our only other Princess Ship--the Caribbean Princess. The decor was very nice.
Cabin:
We were very happy with our inside cabin, which is one of the roomiest we've had. We met our room steward and the service was top notch for the duration of our cruise. We gave him an extra tip on the next to last day
Dining:
Late seating in the Botticelli dining room. Service was outstanding--food was not. It was just okay. Maybe we've become to spoiled!
Horizon Court buffet for breakfast and lunch was like a feeding frenzy. Food was not as good as other lines we've cruised.
Entertainment:
We only attended one show, the comedian. He was top notch. We did enjoy the live music aboard and did a lot of dancing. The three bands, Derringer, Tempo Quatro and Serious Sounds all played good dance music. We even won a trophy and a bottle of champaign for our East Coast Swing in the passenger competition.
Ports & Excursions:
Now as far as excursions went we only booked one--the pirate ship in Antigua. It was a blast. I got to swing out from the rope into the warm sea and jumped in from the plank. We also went to a nice beach, except for the bothersome vendors. The rum flowed freely and we danced and joined the conga line.
In St Thomas our friends and the two of us took the tram to the top of Paradise Point and enjoyed the view of the islands. It make for a great photo opp!
We stayed aboard ship at Princess Cays and did some shopping in St Lucia and Barbados. In St Lucia we were to meet up with our UK tablemates from the Constellation last New Year, however our ship and their ship, the Galaxy, docked in two different cruise terminals and we did not hook up. In Barbados we did run into our UK tablemates from our New Year Zenith cruise two years ago! They were also on the Galaxy.
Overall Experience:
The disembarkation went fast as we were in the first group off the ship. All and all we had a great time with our old friends and our new friends. They all made the cruise special.
Sorry that you had a bad experience with the service staff on the whole. It is unusual to see that with Princess. There are always a few staff persons that have problems with language or show that they are working more that they want, but we have found that the more we engage with them the better the situation gets.
The Emerald is a beautiful ship and its size is appropriate for the itinerary you chose. We hope to be on her in Feb of 2010 when she does the 7 day Eastern Caribbean route.
Favorites
Digg
Del.icio.us
Facebook
Furl
Magnolia
StumbleUpon
Google
Yahoo MyWeb
2
Published 
