Pikachui

We were on this sailing too and agree it was pretty crowded. I complained (to no avail) about 2 babies being in the pool. The person I complained to said it was alright as they weren't wearing diapers. I pointed out that they were too young to be toilet trained at which he just shrugged his shoulders and walked away.......... Next day, the pool was emptied 'for technical reasons'. Yuk :eek::eek:.

 

We didn't have any problems with any time dining at 6 pm as we were travelling with a child but there were long queues (lines) a few times when we left the dining room.

 

Our room steward was excellent - in fact probably the best we have had on any cruise line.

 

Our main gripe was the depth of the pools. They are far too deep and there is no paddling pool It's hard work trying to hold a toddler when you can hardly stand up yourself!!

I'm glad it wasn't just me with the pools depth. It is a shame that nowhere in either of the pools that kids can go in, can an average height mum touch the bottom of the pool... On Ventura (same layout!) we also loved the pool at the back of the ship but it's adults only on Emerald. Agreed on room steward, ours was great too.

I was on the same trip and concur with Boycey's views on the dining, and the Patter still stating you can book an anytime dining slot etc.. but then being told you can't.

We also gave up a couple of nights and went to the buffet and other evenings we dined at 6pm so that we didn't have a silly wait. The first three sea days were especially busy.

We had our 5yo in Kids Club and I think the staff said there was approx 750 children. However many they have though, my argument is that it's not a surprise, they KNOW when school holidays are, these extra people don't just rock up at Southampton....:o

Forgot to say, glass of Prosecco (187ml bottle I think, don't think you can buy a glass) was $8, beer was $7 or $8 dollars, remember for all drinks add 15% gratuity. So a bottle of prosecco at dinner was $28, but shows up as $32 on the account

We just got off Emerald Princess, and had only done one previous Princess cruise of 14 nights, but several P&O and so we were Platinum (250 mins each free internet and priority embarking were great!) I called Princess to clarify ours before travelling only because mine and my husband's were showing different on our cruise confirmation but we had done same cruises.

Cocktails are all about $8.95 each. Excursions we found pretty expensive compared to P&O - especially the "on your own trips" which is basically a coach journey. Entertainment we thought was worse this time compared to P&O - one of the headline acts we were pretty underwhelmed with and quite pleased when Kids Club buzzer summoned us!!;) We think Princess is slightly better on food. the International Cafe was lovely and we found the coffee card good value, and also bought the soda package as it included mocktails.

Mainly UK passengers, and our gratuities were £126 each for a mini suite, which we paid in advance in Sterling once Brexit had happened as we were getting $1.52 to £1 based on the rate when we booked back in November

Things we missed about P&O are having the tea and coffee making in the cabin, the sail away parties. Apart from that, it was pretty similar in lots of ways, especially as the footprint of Emerald is almost identical to Ventura. We are thinking we need to spread our wings and try RCI!

Hi bingo queen

I have some older GHDs which are UK voltage only but I have seen that they now do dual voltage. I ended up buying some other straighteners on-line that are dual voltage that I'll keep for holidays that were reasonable (£25ish), that will only need the US adaptor and work pretty well - variable heat etc.

Much appreciated everyone!

Thanks very much - that's really helpful!

Hi there

I know Emerald has US-type sockets and US voltage, but can anyone advise if they are 2 or 3 pin as the website doesn't specify? I was planning to order a US power strip but it looks as though most now are 3 pin, but my old US adaptor is only two.

Also if anyone has any idea of number of sockets in a mini suite that would also be useful (i.e. do I need the power strip? or would a couple of adaptors suffice?). We sailed on Grand Princess in 09 and I'm sure that also had EU style 2 pins as well as the US outlets but I could be muddled with other ships now!:confused:

Thanks in advance!