Interactive Preview/Review of Emerald Princess Eastern Caribbean May 2 to 9, 2010

[1 HappyCruiser]

Thanks for the airplane schedule.

 

What are the biggest planes that land in St. Maarten?

 

I'm not sure what the biggest plane is but they all look big when you're under them on the beach.

http://inlinethumb56.webshots.com/42871/2567610740103243266S600x600Q85.jpg

[PatriciaF]

Have a wonderful trip. We sail the Emerald from FLL on Oct 29th. Can't wait.

[7x5090g]

Thanks for the airplane schedule.

 

What are the biggest planes that land in St. Maarten?

 

KLM, if they fly there the day you are there will be flying the biggest jetliner B747-400. Corsair also flies the B747 but a slightly smaller version. Air France will be the next biggest as they fly the A340. I don't think Princess Juliana can handle anything bigger than these planes (e.g. A380)

[7x5090g]

Ok I am done. Getting up in 4 hours to pick up in laws then onto airport.

 

Will be back on this board a week Sunday.

 

Thanks for all well wishes.:cool:

[7x5090g]

Got home an hour ago. Back to reality...sigh...

 

It has been a fun filled and sun filled vacation on a beautiful ship and with excellent services. I need a couple of days to gather my notes and the many pictures I'd like to share. The week went by fast and was dramatized even further by a daring rescue in the middle of the Atlantic as an ill passenger needed to be air lifted right off the Emerald by a Coast Guard chopper....

 

More to come.

[rdsqrl]

Welcome back. Can't wait to hear all the details!

[u2cruiser]

Hey!! Welcome back. I followed your webcam and had a sinking feeling (lol) for you when you were homeward bound for Port Everglades. I watched the St Maarten webcam too. Looked like a nice day there.

 

Looking forward to the pictures and your review. :D

[u2cruiser]

This was you returning :(

[teripp]

Looking forward to your review. I am sailing on the Emerald in September....... Thanks for all your links they were great!!

Teri

[BalconyGal]

I'm not sure what the biggest plane is but they all look big when you're under them on the beach.

 

http://inlinethumb56.webshots.com/42871/2567610740103243266S600x600Q85.jpg

Great picture!

[BalconyGal]

Welcome back! :( Can't wait to read your review and hopefully see some pics too!

[7x5090g]

We arrived at the pier at 11:30. A shot was taken on the shuttle bus of this magnificent ship docked at Pier # 2:

 

 

 

We had to line up to get inside the building and were given a number of 11. Security check point was next but I found the company that they hire to do screening is rather easy on the passengers, I handed a bag full of wine bottles all wrapped in individual paper bags and they just put it in the xray machine and the belt never even stopped. Now they might as well be bottles of rums so I guess that means taking on liquor other than wine and champagne is not a problem. I also had a case of beer in one of the checked bags and it also showed up outside my cabin door without any questions asked.

 

Line up to get into building:

 

Cages for checked luggage:

 

 

Once we were screened we were directed to sit in a waiting room. We sat down and take the time to fill out a mandatory health questionnaire (1 per pax). When we just finished filling it out, our numbers were called. We were led into another hall where the actual check in process happened. We need to line up by deck. 2 of our rooms were on Baja and one on Dolphin so we lined up accordingly.

 

Check-in Hall:

 

The check in process was a breeze. I think filling out all pertinent information in your cruise personalizer and all proper documentation really helped. We got our cruise cards in less than 5 minutes at the desk and we proceeded to the gangway. I think also that not having your cruise card photo taken at check in means extra time saved as staff won't need to play with the webcams. In its stead everyone was told to look at the machine once you are on board at which time your picture was taken.

 

So from arriving at the pier to walking in our stateroom was exactly 60 mins. My parents got separated from us during boarding as their stateroom was aft and ours were forward. Now here was my first complaint – the 2 gangways were hooked up to 2 different decks on the ship-one on Deck 5 and one on Deck 6. Once we boarded we were directed to the forward elevator bay but my parents got lost as they entered the ship on a different deck. Apparently 2 different staff members on board tried to direct my parents to stateroom B528. One told him to go to deck 10 and one told him deck 12. Baja is deck 11 for crying out loud. It took me 30 minutes to locate my parents. I would have thought any staff member upon seeing the assigned cabin number would know where to direct the passengers? Or was it too much to expect?

 

General tip-staterooms with even numbers are on port side and odd numbers are on starboard side. If you are looking at the bow (front) of the ship, port is on your left and starboard is on your right. I always associated the word port as the shorter word between left and right.

 

More to come…

[7x5090g]

One of our staterooms (the one I stayed) was a quad (D234).

Bath Room:

There were 3 of us – me, DW and my 6 yo DS. We found the room to have ample space in terms of storage, as you can see from the pictures below:

The space underneath the beds were also large so you can push in 3 or 4 large suit cases in there after you empty them. We ended up not needing all the shelf space provided and we used the cabinet underneath the desk to store our soiled clothed over the course of the week. There were also plenty hangers in the closet

Here’s a shot after we finished unpacking:

 

[7x5090g]

After we dropped everything off and gathered everyone, we headed over to Horizon court to get some lnch. I found the layout of the buffet station extremely crowded. There are 2 buffet stations but you can’t cross over. Basically the horizon court is split into 2 separate rooms and the only way you can cross over is at either end. While it appears to be designed to let one believe that there are not too many passengers hovering around you as you eat, it feels claustrophobic (especially if you are lining up to get food). Also you need to caution which way you enter the buffet station or you will find yourself swimming upstream.

Shortly after lunch (around 2ish, we wandered back down to the stateroom and met up with our cabin stewart – Florian from Romania. We asked for wine glasses, the bottle of distilled water we ordered and ice AND most importantly, a child life jacket. All requests were met and our bags started to arrive. DS and DW wants to go up top for a swim and I decided to pay the most important man on the ship a visit - maître d’hôtel (a.k.a. maître d’). We had been wait listed for traditional dinning but we didn’t get anywhere by the time we board. I arrived at Michael Angelo Restaurant where the maître d’ was and there was a line up. It felt like we were lining up to see the principal. Each party was allowed in as the previous party got up and left the dinning room. I pleaded my case but there was nothing he could do. Instead, he made a standing reservation for us at 6pm every night at the MA Rest and with the same table. It just happened to be the table with the 2 greatest wait staff members I have ever encountered. (More on that later)

They have a game card in each stateroom and any passengers that were able to obtain stamps from various locations on the boat (by 3:00PM) and drop the completed card in the draw drum by 5PM, you get a chance to win something (e.g. free internet minutes, onboard credit, etc) We did run around like chickens with heads cut off as we started late.

After the game, I went back to the stateroom to unpack. By 3:30PM, all 3 staterooms received all the bags (including the cases of bottled water and soda we bought while in FLL). My duffle bag containing the case of Miller Lite also showed up safely. This is the first time I have ever cruised where all my bags arrived prior to muster drill.

After 30 mins of unpacking, we needed to get ready for Muster Drill (at 4:15PM). I have noticed that Princess does not do any roll call at the muster stations anymore. So if one decided not to show up there really is nothing they will do. I remember once they will not release everyone back to the stateroom until 100% of the passengers on board are accounted for in the muster stations.

Going back up top for the sailaway party at the Neptune pool on Deck 15 (Lido). The first game they played was for a champagne give away, the 1st 4 passengers that jumped into the pool fully clothed would win a bottle of champagne. Since I already was in bathing suit, I didn’t qualify but there were 3 women who didn’t mind being wet without a bathing suit underneath went for it. One even slipped and fell and missed the pool!! They gave her a bottle for effort. As I entered the pool, I found the water to be extremely warm. I guessed it has been out in the sun all day and with 30 + people soaking in it that’s what you will get.

By 5:30PM, we headed back downstairs to change as we have the dinner reservation at 6. We arrived at Michael Angelo and there was already a line. Since we had reservation, we walked in on the right and were led to table 278, where we dined for the next 7 nights. Our waiter was Wisoot and our assistant waiter (heck I forgot his name but I wrote it down somewhere so more to come). Both of them were from Thailand and I will write more about them and their service as I progress through the week.

Tonight’s menu:

Here were some of the dishes we ordered:

Prime Rib:

Pan-Fried Barramundi:

And of course the standing kids menu:

There were no specialty coffee after dinner (espresso, latte,etc) . Sorry let me re-phrase, no “Free” specialty coffee after dinner. However, at $2 for a latte, the quality is good and it’s still cheaper than Starbucks. The regular coffee really didn’t taste good. It was “brewed” from adding hot water to coffee syrup and that was another big complaint.

After dinner, we headed straight up to the Princess Pelicans on Deck 17 aft to register my 6 yo into the program. The facility was adequate but not a lot of kids on this voyage. I will post some pictures later.

We didn’t catch any shows as we were pretty much beat. We went back to our cabins and saw the room already turned down. No towel animals but more on that later.

More to come…

[u2cruiser]

Woo-hoo! Great pictures. That barramundi looks meaty lol!

 

I can see this review is going to be very detailed and will take almost as long as the cruise did. :D

 

Look forward to the next installment. No rush :cool:

[TowMater]

Thanks for the detailed review. I'm loving it.

 

Question: I know u had dinner in the MDR on embarkation night, but do u know if they had the seafood "Sailaway Buffet" available?

 

I know it's hit or miss, but ..... Does anyone know if they have done the 1st night seafood buffet on the past couple of sailings on the Emerald?

(just curious) Thanks!!

[7x5090g]

Woo-hoo! Great pictures. That barramundi looks meaty lol!

 

I can see this review is going to be very detailed and will take almost as long as the cruise did. :D

 

Look forward to the next installment. No rush :cool:

 

 

lol too. I guess I am really a beef lover and cut and pasted it twice.

 

Here's the barramundi picture:

[7x5090g]

Thanks for the detailed review. I'm loving it.

 

Question: I know u had dinner in the MDR on embarkation night, but do u know if they had the seafood "Sailaway Buffet" available?

 

I know it's hit or miss, but ..... Does anyone know if they have done the 1st night seafood buffet on the past couple of sailings on the Emerald?

(just curious) Thanks!!

 

 

Sorry I didn't know.

[Clutterlady]

Wonderful pictures....can't wait for more:)

[7x5090g]

I thought I might also include the Princess Patter and the Pelican Press (for ages 3 to 7) for Day 1 to complete the review of the first day.

Princess Patter Day 1.pdf

Princess Pelicans Day 1.pdf

[pcrum]

Your review is bringing back great memories!! Your cabin looks just like ours!! Sound like you had a great time. Will you be doing a comparison with the other lines you sailed? We've never done RCL and are curious as to how Princess (or the other lines you've sailed) compare.

 

Looking forward to the rest.

[teamrlk]

We're really enjoying your review and thanks for the Patters and pictures. Lots of great info as we prepare for our cruise on July 4th!

[7x5090g]

Waking up to another beautiful morning as the Emerald pulled into Princess Cays. Got up to the Horizon Court for the first breakfast of the cruise. We found the buffet contained the usual breakfast fare. The bacons were crisp and that was just how I liked it. Omelette stations and eggs prepared in different ways were available. And boy the fruit station contained the freshest and sweetest fruit I have ever tasted. The freshly cut pineapples and the oranges were the sweetest.

 

Note: There are actually two buffet restaurants on Lido deck. If you take the aft elevators to deck 15, Horizon court is in front of you and Café Caribe is behind the elevators. There are no omelette stations in Café Caribe but the food is similar. Finding a table sometimes are difficult but I only found out later in the cruise that you could just go in and get your food first. As you exit the buffet station, there are servers lined up to assist you to find a table.

 

This morning we dined at the very aft of the ship on port side, just in time to watch the launching of the life raft tenders. Since we have no excursion planned, we decided to take it easy and enjoy the view while having breakfast.

 

 

 

 

More to come…

[flimflubin]

Keep it coming this is getting me hyped up for my sept sailing on the emerald!:D

[regg1216]

Great job. I'm really enjoying this. We sail on the Emerald on Sunday. This will be our first Princess