Emerald recent reviews, YIKES!

Getting ready for our May 28th cruise out of Southampton, so thought I would check out the recent member reviews. Every review over the past few weeks have been below average to bad. Lots of negative comments on the Horizon Court, lack of staff to provide service and even negative comments on the Crown Grill, which is my favorite place! Now, I know one of the recent cruises was a short one to the Canary Islands, and short cruises usually do not get good reviews. However, seems to a theme around the food venues in the recent reviews. Will this impact my attitude -- no. Have enjoyed the Emerald before and will do so on this upcoming cruise. I just hope they get whatever the Horizon Court and other venue issues are worked through before end of May!

We sailed on the Emerald in December and had fantastic food in the dining room, Horizon Court, Crown Grill, Prego, and the grill. Go and enjoy; food is subjective!

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good to hear, cruisequeen!

We sailed on Caribbean Princess last year and the reports were bad prior to our cruise. We had a great time with no problems. We are on the cruise prior to yours and we are not worried at all. We just go with the flow and report any problem to the appropriate member of staff. Always be prepared to escalate the complaint to the Senior Officer in charge of that Department which normally gives the required results.

If I get a chance to do a 'live from' report I will endeavour to do so. All depends how fast the Internet is responding and how many minutes we have left from our Elite package.

I don't know what you would consider 'recent' - but we got off the Emerald just over 2 months ago, and had a great time. The crew (and passengers!) were so friendly, and helpful. I don't care for the layout of the Horizon Court, but the food was fine, service was good, etc.

We had the early seating for traditional dining - two tables of 8 for our party, and we had outstanding service.

I wasn't thrilled with the Crown Grill (service mostly), but it was fine.

The ship is in great shape - our only problem was a burned out bulb in a bedside lamp that was quickly fixed.

I hope you have a wonderful cruise!

It's been about 10 months since we sailed on Emerald Princess, but she quickly became one of our favorite ships. We felt the food and service was incomparable. The friendliness of the crew from the captain on down made for a truly beautiful experience. And the ship.... she's gorgeous!!! To each his own, I guess.

we have sailed the emerald before and loved her. I am sure we will have a great cruise. I have never been accused of having a hard time finding things to eat! One review commented on how poor the pizza was given the thin crust and I love princess pizza. It just seems to be consistently less than stellar reviews since starting to sail from Southampton. Wonder if they changed chefs or something after the transatlantic. Crows Nest, please do post on your experiences. I must admit that my favorite ship EVER is the Grand and she often gets less than stellar reviews. I just thought it was interesting that the reviews were all not so great in the past three weeks.

Getting ready for our May 28th cruise out of Southampton, so thought I would check out the recent member reviews. Every review over the past few weeks have been below average to bad. Lots of negative comments on the Horizon Court, lack of staff to provide service and even negative comments on the Crown Grill, which is my favorite place! Now, I know one of the recent cruises was a short one to the Canary Islands, and short cruises usually do not get good reviews. However, seems to a theme around the food venues in the recent reviews. Will this impact my attitude -- no. Have enjoyed the Emerald before and will do so on this upcoming cruise. I just hope they get whatever the Horizon Court and other venue issues are worked through before end of May!

Can I ask where you checked the member reviews, do you mean CC members or Princess? Is there one place where all reviews are collated?

Thanks

Can I ask where you checked the member reviews, do you mean CC members or Princess? Is there one place where all reviews are collated?

 

Thanks

Yes. Check the "Reviews" section of CC. In addition to that, at the top of the Princess forum, you will find a link to all Emerald-related posts.

Did you check to see if most of the bad reviews came from several sources or possibly just one whose life mission seems to be bashing the Emerald?

While I don't discount the fact that those reviewers probably did encounter some issues on their cruise (to be honest, there is no perfect cruise), we were on the Emerald Princess for two months from January to March and had a wonderful time.

For a different perspective, you can look at my comments in my blog beginning January 4, 2016.

Don't forget...for every bad review (someone who is upset and needs to vent his spleen) there are 1000+ who didn't consider writing to complain because there was nothing to complain about.:eek:

Thanks.

I was on Emerald in Feb for a BTB and loved it! Never ate in the MDR, but Crown Grill was wonderful as always and the IC was great! Bartenders in Crooners at that time were great! No complaints whatsoever...........

Claudia

I was on Emerald's last Caribbean cruise March 27-April 2. When posting my thoughts about the cruise I did use the term "somnambulant" to describe the servers in the Horizon Court and in Skywalker's late at night (but not during the P/E/S cocktail hour). I hope it did not strike the OP or anyone else as being too critical; let me assure you that the food service and quality were all at Princess' usual high standards.

I think this thread serves as a healthy reminder that post-cruise comments should be more than just picking at the minute items that we might have found less than perfect at the expense of painting an overall picture of what was good about the cruise.

Well since you asked specifically about the Horizon there were many good meals but there were many that should have never been put out. You certainly won't go hungry but in comparison to other Princess ships there's a big need for some improvement.

In the DR we only had 2 bad meals & both were Curtis Stone choices.

At the rate Princess employees change the cooking staff sine this past Feb has probably shifted ships & things may well have improved.

We had no complains about the Crown Grill at all.

I sailed on Emerald Princess from Southampton 2 weeks ago and enjoyed great food from all of the restaurants & other venues. Lots of choice & good quality. And service overall was excellent - sometimes a wait for bar service but I think this was due to a significant number of passengers with the AIBP. As others have said the buffet layout is not the best but the range of food was very good - quite congested at breakfast time but there are still other options with the restaurants, room service & the 24 hour International Cafe.

We were on the ship for several weeks last November and then again on the April 2 transatlantic crossing last month. We did mostly buffet this time around and had no complaints about staff or food. Was everything absolutely perfect every moment? Probably not but I can't remember one bad thing, but we are go with the flow folks so even if there was a problem we probably wouldn't have worried too much about it.

We've gotten to know several of the crew quite well and we even email back and forth now that we're home.

I'd jump on the Emerald again tomorrow if I could.

Not bothered by negative reviews, if any, on Emerald. Got what we expected before, and confident will be the same on our next in 2 weeks.

I sailed on Emerald Princess from Southampton 2 weeks ago and enjoyed great food from all of the restaurants & other venues. Lots of choice & good quality. And service overall was excellent - sometimes a wait for bar service but I think this was due to a significant number of passengers with the AIBP. As others have said the buffet layout is not the best but the range of food was very good - quite congested at breakfast time but there are still other options with the restaurants, room service & the 24 hour International Cafe.

Great input. As I go back and read the reviews posted, wondering if they were done by people in the same group. The comments are just too similar! Regardless, we will have a great cruise!

I was on the Emerald Princess for four 10 day cruises and it was great. Good service and food. Have a great cruise.

Tony

Great input. As I go back and read the reviews posted, wondering if they were done by people in the same group. The comments are just too similar! Regardless, we will have a great cruise!

You always need to take that attitude when reading reviews. Who, why???

We were on the Emerald for 14 days November 2015. Our only complaint was how hot the Ship was. Many passengers were complaining about the temperature. Two contacts with the maintenance dept. resulted in no improvement. Passenger services confirmed multiple pax complaints. Everything else was OK. MDR was great.

We were also on the Emerald Princess in November, 2015 and of the 30 cruises that we have been on, we thought the food on the Emerald Princess was the absolute best! The variety was outstanding. We had no complaints about anything on the ship. We didn't think the ship was hot in fact, it was right comfortable everywhere we went. So, what some people complain about never crosses the minds of people who just want to have a great vacation.

It wasn't the flashiest, newest, largest, cushiest ship we've ever been on but it was a nice ship and the 20 members of my Miami scuba diving club that were aboard thought the same thing. We're going again next November for the diving in the western Caribbean, although we'll be on the Caribbean Princess next time. Take anything you read on CC with a grain of salt. Some people just complain no matter what.

We were on Emerald end of March. Loved it all. Crown Grill was good, very attentive waiter, delicious food. Michaelangelo dining room with Any Time Dining was very good, the first night Allan was our waiter and couldn't have asked for more; he was very attentive and served us well. Horizon Court good as usual, International Cafe also good. We enjoy Trident Grill quite a bit.

No complaints from us!

Wife and I were on the Emerald in March. It was great.

Not that I'm an experienced cruiser or anything but here's the conclusion I've come to: if you go looking for negatives you will, of course, spot them. People who write the bad reviews probably have legitimate complaints, and its colored their whole experience, but by and large, most people who just go on their cruise without looking to see problems will find it a great experience.

Before we sailed on the Caribbean Princess, we saw bad reviews. It was great.

Before we sailed on the Royal, we saw bad reviews. It was great. Huge and we booked a forward room so it was exhausting to get back to our room, but great.

Before we booked on the Emerald, we saw bad reviews. It was great.

I'm sure if I cared to look I'd find bad reviews of the Star, for our next cruise. And I'm almost certain the cruise will be great.