friend of Eeyore

Definitely something going around the ship. A lot of coughing going on.

We were told last week that our balcony cabin did NOT have one behind the bed. Luckily, I stretched my cpap cord across the desk, and it was plenty long enough without an extension. Hubby says he didn't think our cabin could go into twin configuration though (side tables seemed pretty fixed), and that could make a difference. I had brought my European adaptor, but didn't need it.found out the odd little e square (in tbe top picture of the plugs above) is a little flashlight that comes out and has a plug behind it; I don't recall whether it was American or European, because we never needed it. The two by the desk and the ones at the old TV spot were enough, since we bring a little USB extension plug.

7 hours ago, memoak said:

We have always found all the menus for the day on the old app once on board. Sometimes we have to log off the app and log back on using name and cabin number

Must have been me then. I was having issues with it. We had troubles finding the Sabatinis menu too, but found it eventually. Only tried once to find the evening menus, so it could have been glitching at that time - seemed to often. And I'm on Android, which I've heard is problemsome also.

11 minutes ago, mrell345 said:

Stateroom tv, not the app

Yes, you found it on the TV. I said I tried the app, and could not. I didn't think of trying the TV.  I'll know next time.

19 hours ago, Itried4498 said:

 

The likelihood of it being a service dog is slim to none.  Princess allows only working service dogs onboard for people with physical disabilities.  Early in the cruise, they had the dog in the MDR and it jumped  on their table, barked at people, etc.  Later they took it to the buffet only.  I saw the dog daily and it sent most of its time cuddling with its owner.  That's a pet, not a working service dog.

 

When we did a transatlantic on Royal last month, there were multiple pets dubbing as service dogs, so definitely not unique to Princess.

 

Some people's antics are disgusting.

Dogs (owners?) like this give real service dogs a bad name, and their owners need to be banned from the line. I got in an argument over on Reddit about how did I "know" this wasn't a real working dog.

Real service dogs are valuable and needed. I coo over them (from a distance - allergies) and call them pupper and doggie. I love to see them.

Fake ones are an abhorance, and spread those allergens all over unnecessarily, just because their owners want to pet them. (Note the quote above "cuddling with its owner".) Luckily I only saw this one twice. 

1 hour ago, mrell345 said:

Reaching back to this one, the menus at the table are paper based.  However I found later in the cruise that I could pull up the days menus on the stateroom TV if I wanted to see what was served for supper that night.

I tried to find the evening menu in the app (old app), and failed miserably. It could have been me, though, and I didn't try the new app.

On 1/2/2024 at 1:40 PM, SaltyDoggg said:

I knew of the reputation of Princess cruises was pretty legendary in the cruise world. They are the Love Boat after all. But I didn't know if they could stand up to the stellar track record I had previously sailing with 2 of the leaders in the industry, Disney and Celebrity. Let me cut to the chase... they do not. They're not even in the same stratosphere.

 

I chose Emerald Princess because it was an older ship, which I love and the Itinerary was epic! I watched every Emerald Princess ship walkthrough video, read all the reviews and I was sold that Emerald Princess was a great ship to try. I ca't begin to tell you how disappointed I was.

 

The food overall was awful, even putrid, but the food at the buffet was just horrific. The crew overall were great but everyone really lacked basic training and that rolls over to a bad guest experience. There is also a major communication problem between the crew and the guests. The language barrier is really frustrating to overcome.

 

Buffet. They were serving powdered eggs for breakfast at the buffet. You had to wait 20 minutes at the omelet station just to place your order, then another 15 minutes to get your omelet. And the Omelet was mediocre at best, not worth the wait. By day 2, I resorted to cereal and fruit for breakfast because everything else was just so awful. Same for lunch and dinner at the buffet. Items on the line looked gray and unappetizing. I ended up eating pizza and burgers outside at the Salty Grill and Slice for lunch because oddly, their pizza was phenomenal and that's coming from a NYC pizza snob.

 

The operation on how they managed that burger line at the salty grill was a joke. The idea of hot dogs and burgers are so you can get a bite quickly. It was literally keystone cops behind that line, trying to get food out to guests waiting 20 minutes for one burger with only 3 guests waiting. I would show up exactly when they opened at 11am, first person in line and still wait 20 minutes for a cheese burger because they were cooking everything to order. Not because they weren't trying, because they had no training and no backup. Management was oblivious. It was a joke. Ridiculous. No idea on how to deal with volume on a grill line.

 

Main dining room's food was Tasteless. Presentations were great but the food was just not good. Service was decent and crew were great. I only ate in the main dining room 3 times on a 14 night cruise because I was continually disappointed in the quality of food. I did an up-charge steak one night and it was terrible. You could taste the char on the steak and the vegetable, plus the texture of the steak was like mealy. The kicker??? The mashed potatoes were obviously instant. No butter, no salt. What kind of company does this?

 

Specialty restaurants were better, but bot great. Casual specialty restaurants also were better, but again. Nothing memorable. Thank God I had the Premium package because I could eat at the casual restaurant were were somewhat better but again, they had allot of issues with the quality of the food

 

Does Princess even have a corporate culinary program that ensures consistence across their entire fleet? If they do, they are failing. One ship's mistakes affect how their entire brand is perceived.

 

Entertainment sucked. Steel pan player was trying to play to backing tracks and all you could hear was steel drum with so much treble it was like sticking an ice pick in your ears. This guy was all over the ship too. I was running away from him because it was just not enjoyable. Could not find one band on the ship that played good ole rock and roll. This party band who just joined the ship with us did an 80's night on the pool deck and they were playing air guitar and lyp syncing because they did not know the material. It was pathetic. Even the guys who were mixing the band were embarrassed.

 

The constant upselling. The cruise director is so in love with himself that they have thing they do on the big screen called the wake show. Like a Good Morning America where they are constantly trying to get you to go to the art auctions, the jewelry sales, etc.. It's so in your face and obvious and ruins the chill pool deck vibe Between running from pool deck to pool deck to avoid the steel pan player and having to endure this Wake Show on the other pool deck. It was really annoying.

 

Mechanics. Everything is broken on that ship. Elevators were not working. Auto doors would close on you while you are half way through. Light sensors in the room going off for no reason in the middle of the night. etc. etc. etc.

 

Pool decks. There are 3 of them, each very narrow. It's challenging moving through those areas because all the loungers take up the space needed to walk from one end to another. Why do you need 3 small pool decks? They pack it in so tight, you cant navigate.

The ports were the best part of this cruise. Everything went off without a hitch. The excursions were so great. If it weren't for the ports and excursions, this cruise would be an EPIC fail. It's the only thing that kept me from rating it a 1.

 

In short, I would never sail Princess again. I took a chance and it really disappointed me. This cruise was not cheap either. Traveling as a single, I was paying double occupancy on a 14 night cruise in a balcony cabin. Do the math.

 

Princess does not know who they want to be either. They have this Duffy the bear character that walks around the ship waving to guests. What is that?? You're not Disney and you don't have Mickey Mouse. Plus there are hardly any kids on the ship, by design BTW. What are you doing with this character? Do you really think thats what people are looking for?

 

Also I spent allot of time getting to know some of their Elite guests with 15 or more Princess cruises under their belt. They seem forgiving of the inconsistencies on Princess because of all the rewards they are earning. That's a dangerous place to be for a brand. Princess feels their guests are happy, but they are really just complacent. Most I talked to are so brand loyal they they would never consider sailing with anyone else. Why should Princess try if their legacy guests don't care? I think Princess knows of the complacency and allows the ball to drop. It's so obvious for me where they are failing.

 

But what they are really doing is alienating the new generation of cruisers. Your legacy guests are gonna be gone someday soon and you will be left at the mercy of pulling in new blood, but i think it will already be too late by that time.

 

I'll be back on Celebrity and Disney if you need me... cheers!

Thanks for the review, OP, but I think you let yourself down on a couple of things

1) Going on an older ship, you're going to lose some of the bells and whistles. 

2) Only eating in the main dining room 3 nights - you missed a lot of good food.

3) Not complaining when the upcharge steak wasn't good. (We were on last cruise, so just after yours, i guess? Unless you just got off, unless then i had a greatly different cruise than yours. Hubby got the upcharge steak one night, and his was perfect. Almost as good as the one from Crown Grill.)

4) Sitting through the Wake Show - just why? Lol. This was my 25thnPrincess cruise, and I think I've watched 1 wake show. Maybe 2, and the second one was because our Cruise Critic meet and greet helped film part, lol.

I do have to agree about the buffet. I really did not like the lunch buffet most days. A couple of days I skipped lunch, a couple of days I went to the dining room, and a couple of days I ordered in a sandwich from room service. Pizza and tacos (Salty Dog grill had Street tacos) were good, and the rest of the time I picked through what I could find in the buffet. Last sea day was sushi, finally. Breakfast was almost worse, too - no real toast, no freshly fried eggs, and the supplies for the omelets kept getting lower and lower as the cruise went on.

And the service the last 2 weeks was impeccable. No problems being understood or understanding them, and they were very pleasant and trying to please us.

I'm not a Princess Cheerleader, however. This may be my last Princess cruise, because they've lost me with their trend towards bigger ships. I've tried other lines since 2019 (just haven't updated my signature). And I won't give up on a line before trying them twice. I will say though, OP, your praise of Celebrity has me a little puzzled. I went on two cruises with them, and I'd rate their food below Princess, quite frankly. If I were you, I'd try Princess again, on a newer ship.

On 1/2/2024 at 2:47 PM, Wishing on a star said:

I would shy away from Emerald, after seeing reviews from the last few years...

Perhaps that is why the one person posted that one comment????

But, IT SHOULD NOT MATTER....

All ships should be freshly restored and in good working order.

All ships should have some consistency when it comes to basic dining and service.

I am not a Princess cheerleader.  I was on one cruise with BAD food and dining, where we joked that maybe we should jump off and start swimming home!!!!

Consistency,  or INCONSISTANCY,  is a big issue.

 

I will say that the comments about staffing make me wonder if the difficulties and staffing shortages...  along with MANY now over on the SUN Princess, preparing for her inaugural...  have really had a huge and negative impact on staffing.

 

Our last cruise, on REGAL,  was great!!!!   ( a couple of 'princess shortcoming/embarrasments ). but really good overall !!!

We are looking forward to being on the new ship later this year.

We were on Emerald over Christmas/New Year's. We found the service and staffing to be impeccable. Don't know what Emerald trip the OP was on.

On 1/2/2024 at 5:42 PM, azbirdmom said:

 

Except what is happening with the Wake Show is by design.  They used to bombard folks with fliers in the room about stuff for sale, now they are doing it with the Wake Show.  And thankfully none of us are forced to watch it so it hardly intrudes on our cruise experience.

 

Things like food quality and service are things that they need to hear about.  We take our time doing the after cruise survey letting them know about what worked and what didn't.  And we also will say something on the ship if we are having a problem or if there is something that isn't up to par.  That's all we can do.  And from there we can make decisions weighing what is important to us, cost vs. benefit.

Is that why I had to throw away much less paper trash this cruise? Great improvement! And in 25 cruises, I've watched the Wake Show maybe twice.

60 bucks plus tip I think for Lyft, but we may have had peak pricing. It was a mess at the transfer area, and the Lyft and Uber drivers aren't well directed, I think. Ours was looking for us in the taxi area at first.

After flight delays and a long drive, we are finally home. 

8 minutes ago, mrell345 said:

Sad to be finishing up the cruise but we have had a great time.  Good food, a great cabin Stewart and serving staff.  There is quite the party going in the Piazza right now.  Looking forward to next cruise.  I would definitely sail on Emerald again.

If only I could stay awake for these parties. Lol. I've been tucked in the room with luggage out since 8ish, I think. Waking up early for an early flight.

I'll review later, it was a good cruise, but I'm not keen on big ships, and Emerald is still too big for me. We haven't been on Princess since Covid, and had 250 days before that - but 150 of them were on the R Class ships. We've been trying other lines, and will likely keep exploring.

Had a whole paragraph typed up, but managed to lose it. So not retyping except to say: I hadn't seen escargot on the menu all week so I asked about it yesterday and Claudia (one of the Head Waiters or whatever they're calling them these days) said she could get it for me today. Yummy last dinner.

5 hours ago, mrell345 said:

They also haven’t had honey for a couple of days

For my morning omlette, no egg whites, no red or green peppers, and only Swiss (no mozzarella or chedder) for almost half the cruise I'd say. 

No Leblon for my caipairinia (I know I probably spelled that wrong) all cruise, so they've been using Bacardi Limon, an almost okay substitute. Until they ran out of limes a couple of days ago and tried to substitute lemons.

And I heard they're out of Strongbow, though I never tried.

Service has been almost impeccable (only glitch was having my extra sweet latte swapped with someone's Americano, but that happens, and it got fixed), but the supply issue is something else.

1 hour ago, Oilers rule said:

Thank you for your posts. On a 15 day Panama Canal cruise, how ofter would the pub lunch be offered? I did not see it on any of the Princess Event listings on this thread but I assume that it is listed and I just missed it. 

Twice that I noticed.

Forgot to take a picture of it, but one of the main dishes was the old appetizer I loved, the goat cheese souffle. I got it for an appetizer, and it was as wonderful as ever. The iced Cointreau soufflé was just a Panna cotta, in my opinion, but good anyway. (I knew it was a cold "soufflé, so wasn't sure what to expect.)

Captain's farewell speech in the Piazza tonight- wine and Blue Lagoons being passed out.

Pub lunch menu for tomorrow. (Allegies gets me menus early.)

Pub lunch tomorrow again. And Chef's dinner tomorrow night.

35 minutes ago, friend of Eeyore said:

Oh, here come some strollers. And they're just strolling along, too.

The strollers turned out to be from the Carnival ship. The first 3 that showed up, they were actually greeted with their passports. I think they were about to be left behind. The last 2 (I don't know what happened to number 6) must have contacted the port agent, because the officials kept pointing to where they came from, and they were not greeted with the passports. All on board about 5:15. Lots of cheers from the promenade. And the Captain didn't waste any time pulling off.

All aboard 4:30. Now 4:53, and still missing 6 people. Waiting for the laggards, but have dinner reservations at 5, so may not see them. Don't know how long the Captain will wait. He's certainly been blowing the horn. And with only 6, it's unlikely it's a tour. They announce the cabins to report, and it sounded like two from Aloha deck.

Oh, here come some strollers. And they're just strolling along, too.

3 hours ago, JF - retired RRT said:

There have been reports that the lunch menu doesn't change from day-to-day. Is this correct? Was there a different menu each day?

I went to the embarkation day lunch, and that was different. All the rest have been this menu, from what I have seen, except for the one day they did the pub lunch.

23 hours ago, Sammikins said:

Thank you so much for your posts! I am doing this exact cruise in 3 weeks and am enjoying the preview and appreciate the info which is reminding me of things I need to do. One question: are you noticing any problems with pesky insects, like mosquitoes?

My husband and I got a couple of bites each around Panama. Nothing too bad, and haven't noticed them otherwise.

21 hours ago, Honolulu Blue said:

@mrell345: 

•  
• I can't recall seeing a seeing eye dog notice on any of my cruises. I wonder what brought this on?

Not @mrell345, but I saw the dog today. It was a little yipper of a dog on a leash without a vest. Later I saw it strolled around in a little suitcase-like dog bag. I assume it's an ESA classified dog, because it wasn't harnessed and providing a visible service such as a guide dog, and wasn't vested as a service dog (which any service dog would be). (I didn't try to interact with it anyway; I wouldn't in any case.)

Oh, and I love the Pacific. We've been on her (or a sister ship) almost 10 times, I think, with another booked.

My live from is here: 

And my post about the suite was on the last page, post 60. I can't figure out how to link it directly. Please note, this was 10 years ago, so the suite amenities have changed. But I'd travel in this suite again in a heartbeat.

I sailed in one of the aft suites on the Old Royal (sister ship to the Pacific), and loved it. We may have been in 6088- it was the port side back. Somewhere in my posts (back in 08), I have a review. I'll see if I can find it.

One of the best excursions I have ever been on was one organized on a roll call. However, one of the worst ones I have been on was also on a roll call. You just have to be aware of what you want, and what the person is offering. I now know to steer clear of people who are organizing a large number of tours, ask for payment to them before the cruise, and don't limit numbers.

4 hours ago, Boatdrill said:

Wait a minute. I was trying to follow your story as you wrote it, so  I responded to your words "junior pilot" and was confused. How am I to know what you really meant ? I "assumed" your words were correct.    

Sorry. I had already corrected myself, and I figured you had read it. Plus, on a cruise ship a pilot is a position on a ship (usually a local area person who comes on temporarily), and so why would I be talking about airplane pilots on a cruise ship thread. I though you were being deliberately obtuse. Tone is so hard to read on the internet after all.

1 hour ago, Boatdrill said:

Confused....so you were on an airplane  ?   

Already corrected above. SO SORRY I made a mistake. I meant to say junior officer. Seriously? At least you could just think I was thinking that the port pilot was still on board (he wasn't). Can't anyone take a mistake at face value and move on? I miss the old days when you couldn't fix mistakes days later (don't know if you can now, and seriously not going to check now).