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

[7x5090g]

So sorry...I totally messed that one up, didn't I??

 

As for desserts in the pub lunch, on the 3/28/10 sailing, we were offered a pudding with custard on the second sea day's pub lunch, but not the first.

 

Ah I did not go to the second one as the event with the coast guard rescue chopper thingy completely side tracked all of us

[7x5090g]

Great shot; she really was amazing with those hoops! Congrats again on the DSLR and good luck keeping yourself from spending all your money on gear!!! :eek: :D ;)

 

hee hee Here's what I already have in mind

 

http://imaging.nikon.com/products/imaging/lineup/lens/af/dx/af-s_dx_vr_zoom55-200mmf_4-56g_if/index.htm

 

http://imaging.nikon.com/products/imaging/lineup/speedlights/sb-900/index.htm

[Debbierpof]

hee hee Here's what I already have in mind

 

http://imaging.nikon.com/products/imaging/lineup/lens/af/dx/af-s_dx_vr_zoom55-200mmf_4-56g_if/index.htm

 

http://imaging.nikon.com/products/imaging/lineup/speedlights/sb-900/index.htm

 

 

Heehee! I have my Canon Rebel DSLR an LOVE IT!!! I will bring it on the cruise but it will not go to every port (though I wish I could). I've used it for port pix from the ship. I absolutely love your pics of the hula hoop lady! Congrats on your purchase! Enjoy!!! I sure am enjoying your review and I'm so antsy to read more!!! :D

[papeders]

Love your review, Andy! And the pics are great! We'll be on the this cruise in 30 days (6/13).... I can't wait!

 

Looking forward to each day's adventures... keep 'em coming! :D

 

papeders

[7x5090g]

This morning we had half a sea day as we didn’t arrive at Grand Turk until 1PM. At 10:00AM the Executive Chef on board was doing a cooking demo followed by a tour of the Michael Angelo galley. Since we have some time to kill, we went for it. Not much I want to write here. I will just let the pictures speak for themselves.

 

A Frenchman, a Britton and an Italian got on stage:

 

Tiramisu demo:

 

Galley tour:

 

 

 

 

These were all the wines that they served in the MDR:

[7x5090g]

After the tour I had some extra time before lunch, so I took the opportunity to tour the ship one more time. I will let you enjoy these until Grand Turk.

 

One thing I didn’t like about this particular voyage, there was no peek-a-boo-bridge (not sure about the rest of Princess' fleet). This was as close to peeking into the bridge as I could get:

 

 

There they were, the pools for the crew. No one using them this morning:

 

 

What a view up here:

 

 

[7x5090g]

A couple of shots on the art work on the ship:

 

 

 

 

Lunch time – interesting dish up at the horizon this afternoon (some sort of beef pie)

 

 

You have to try the duck breast this afternoon. YUM

 

[7x5090g]

Ahhh Arrival at Grand Turk.

 

 

I heard about this port for so long and finally set foot on this beautiful BWI island. I didn’t have any excursions planned so this was going to be another beach day.

 

 

One thing I like about GT is that the beach and cruise center is right there on the pier. It was almost like being walking downstairs from the hotel room to the pool and beach. It was a hot day today. We found some loungers on the beach but by then our parents were really struggling in the heat. No sooner after we sat down they have decided to retreat back onto the ship. I had a mission – to hunt down where the webcam that I had been tracking the Emerald. After a brief search, I found the it on the second floor of this building:

 

 

Webcam shot from the ground level:

 

Actual webcam shot :

http://www.grandturkcc.com/webcam.aspx

 

On the way back to the beach to meet up with DW and DS, I walked by Magaritaville and here’s a shot of the colourful restaurant sign:

 

 

Back at the beach:

[7x5090g]

One last pic before retiring for the night.

 

More to come tomorrow.

 

 

I am going to bed.

[u2cruiser]

I've got that horrible 'last port' feeling. This is like a good book you don't want to end :(

 

Seems like only yesterday you were asking about those crew pools!

 

All of your food shots look delicious. Great advert for Princess.

 

Andy Hip looks positively glowing on Grand Turk. Not been there but now I want to. Love the weather station. I love this sentence:

 

' It was almost like being walking downstairs from the hotel room to the pool and beach.'

 

Thank you for all the hard work putting this together. Much appreciated. Future Emerald cruisers must be beside themselves with excitement by now :D

[7x5090g]

... I love this sentence:

 

' It was almost like being walking downstairs from the hotel room to the pool and beach.'...

 

Hope you are really not pointing out of my gramatical mishap on this sentence. It was too late at night when I typed this up:D

[u2cruiser]

Hope you are really not pointing out of my gramatical mishap on this sentence. It was too late at night when I typed this up:D

 

Not at all!! I barely noticed it. Too busy wishing I was getting off that ship walking from my cabin to the beach :D

 

ps grammatical has double m. :cool:

[pcrum]

It looks like you were the only ship in port in Grand Turk that day! It is sooo nice with just one ship!!! We experienced that last June on the Carnival Glory, but on our Princess sailing we were in Grand Turk with the Glory and it was very crowded!!

 

Loving the review!!!

[lorenzod]

Andy

I have been reading and enjoying your review for days now. It is wonderful. I read pcrum's review before and was a fan of her's as well as celebrat from Kissimmee.(Haven't seen a review from her lately. She is the best but by the time I finish reading this one she may lose her place.)

 

Anyway we are going on this same cruise in July for our anniversary # 32.

Have a few questions. First off what is the meaning behind the hippo and your avatar name? Do you work and what is it you do? How do you have time to do all this writing without the threat of divorce?

Marsha:)

[Hollybelle]

Checking in for my daily fix... great update! Just this time last week we were about to set up shop at Margaritaville Grand Turk. Sigh. Why does it have to go by so fast?

 

 

Camera Nerd talk: my next purchase will definitely be a flash, as I can't get good people shots in low lighting otherwise. As for the 55-250, I considered the Canon version, but because I don't like to constantly swap lenses, I settled for the convenience of an 18-135. I tend to use the wide end much, much more frequently than the telephoto and I was afraid I'd constantly be wanting to go wider than 55 when that lens was on.

[BalconyGal]

After the tour I had some extra time before lunch, so I took the opportunity to tour the ship one more time. I will let you enjoy these until Grand Turk.

 

One thing I didn’t like about this particular voyage, there was no peek-a-boo-bridge (not sure about the rest of Princess' fleet). This was as close to peeking into the bridge as I could get:

 

 

There they were, the pools for the crew. No one using them this morning:

 

 

What a view up here:

 

 

You weren't kidding when you said we were in for a treat with the new camera pictures! They are breathtaking. :) Did you take pic 2 above from the platform above the bridge?

[7x5090g]

Have a few questions. First off what is the meaning behind the hippo and your avatar name? Do you work and what is it you do? How do you have time to do all this writing without the threat of divorce?

Marsha:)

 

No meaning at all. I thought I might use an avatar and wrote about his adventure. Found this hippo in a dollar store for $1.25. I am a project manager and I do have a day job. I tried to sneak in a page or two when I had a chance (I had most notes typed up as the cruise went on so it was just a matter of cutting and pasting). No threat of divorce, YET.

 

Checking in for my daily fix... great update! Just this time last week we were about to set up shop at Margaritaville Grand Turk. Sigh. Why does it have to go by so fast?

 

 

Camera Nerd talk: my next purchase will definitely be a flash, as I can't get good people shots in low lighting otherwise. As for the 55-250, I considered the Canon version, but because I don't like to constantly swap lenses, I settled for the convenience of an 18-135.

 

Nikon has a 18 - 200 VR AF (so that basically is a 18 - 55 and a 55 - 200 combined) But the price is steep $800 +

 

You weren't kidding when you said we were in for a treat with the new camera pictures! They are breathtaking. :) Did you take pic 2 above from the platform above the bridge?

 

Yes both picture # 2 and 3 were shot there. And hollybelle your information you provided that afternoon in St Thomas was slightly incorrect To get to this deck you need to go all the way forward on Deck 15 NOT 14. Deck 14 was where the reall bridge was and the door said Crew Only.:mad:

[7x5090g]

Margaritaville

By 3:30 we had enough of the beach and decided to hit the pool inside the margaritaville/cruise center. That place was hopping. The pool was nice and refreshing as we had been soaking in salty water all afternoon. The pool itself was surrounded by these air conditioned bungalows (those that you rent for the day as a shore excursion) Sadly I did not shoot anymore pictures from this point on because I had left my camera with the parents who took the bag back on the ship. DS found his camp mate from Princess Pelican and was playing in the pool with her. That meant DW and I could finally sit down and relax. The pool had a swim up bar, where most people were. I ventured over to the bar to pick up a couple of pina coladas for a whopping $20 ARRHHH!! Now I thought about it I may have been ripped off as I seem to remember they were $8 each so how 2 pina coladas became $20 was way beyond me. Well one thing for sure is they didn’t rip me off on the rum as it was poured into a test tube vs. directly in the frozen pina slush so we got a full oz of RUM. Given the expensive price tag, the drink was actually quite good (darn if this was on board the ship after 8PM I could have bought 5 of these and still had change left from the $20).

 

As we sat there admiring the beauty of this port, we noticed that the flowrider ride was deserted (I did see a line up earlier but I guess the pax must have gone back to the ship by now). And of course sitting 200 feet above sea level behind the flowrider was the Princess logoed smoke stack backdrop with a setting sun to the west of her. This was when reality hit. Our vacation was drawing to a rapid close. As I continued to ponder the world, a congo lined had formed in the pool where the 1 hour happy hour drink special had just begun.

 

I gave DS a 15 minute warning to get out of the pool because, sadly we had a standing dinner reservation at 6 and we really didn’t want to keep Wisoot and Apirhat waiting, even though it was well in their job description to WAIT (rimshot).

 

So 30 minutes after issuing the 15 minute warning (another rimshot) we were on our way out of Margaritaville. We stopped by Del Sol to pick up a t-shirt (we always picked one up everywhere we went in the Caribbean) for DS. That’s when DS demanded a restroom break, badly, and it was the kind where he needed to sit down. The public restroom was rather filthy by that time so DW had to take off (literally) with DS back onto the ship as I waited in line to pay for the T-Shirt. The fact that you needed to walkthrough a duty free shop before one could get onto the pier was clever. I stopped to check out what they had and the selection was huge.

 

Not in the mood to spend any more money, I started my S L O W walk back to the ship, with frequent glance behind me of this beautiful place as well as the graceful silhouette of this 113,000 tonne boat in front of me (and with Monday morning commute to the office in mind), my eyes started to water. A strong gust of wind had blown some sand into my eyes. Did this sound like Leslie Nielson in one of the Naked Gun scenes or what? Well the solemn thought of having to go to work 3 days later did give me this sinking feeling (and sinking feeling is not good especially if you are on a ship – another rimshot)

 

A quick shower later we were sitted in Michael Angelo for the 6th consecutive night. Tonight’s menu was:

 

 

 

And there was a little bio on the menu about the Executive Chef on board:

 

One thing of note – FRENCH ONION SOUP

This was not on the menu (nor was it on any night’s menu) but you should order it as you will not be disappointed. If you search the Princess forum you would see this come up everywhere, the soup is good. Our waiter told us that you could have it every night if you want just order it a day ahead of time.

 

And here is the Quail and Venison Saddle Terrine, Gingered Red Onion Compote, Mesclun Salad (boy that was a mouth full):

 

After dinner we decided to check out the not-so- kid-friendly entertainment of James Michael – the Bad, Bad boy of Magic. DS had a date with the kids program as they were all competing in the mini Olympics. So after dropping a couple of seniors (those that really don’t speak much English off), we headed over to the Explorer’s lounge, ordered a $2.99 Long Island Ice Tea and sat in the front row. THIS was a show that no one should miss. I actually could not tell DS that we were watching a magic show as he would have demanded a seat in the audience, well not tonight AND not likely until he turns 13. James was HILARIOUS!!! All of us almost died laughing. Picture him dancing to the Nutcracker music.

 

 

Later that night he had an even more raw show by him (rated R18) at Club Fushion that was even better (more on that later).

[BalconyGal]

 

 

Yes both picture # 2 and 3 were shot there. And hollybelle your information you provided that afternoon in St Thomas was slightly incorrect To get to this deck you need to go all the way forward on Deck 15 NOT 14. Deck 14 was where the reall bridge was and the door said Crew Only.:mad:

I thought this area was closed while the ship was in motion? You were able to get out there while still at sea?

[7x5090g]

Oops forgot about this. She was on again tonight and this time I took a video (with my new D5000)

 

[7x5090g]

I thought this area was closed while the ship was in motion? You were able to get out there while still at sea?

 

I guess so. Door wasn't locked.

[BalconyGal]

 

Later that night he had an even more raw show by him (rated R18) at Club Fushion that was even better (more on that later).

 

We saw James too last summer on the CB and went right to the late show after seeing the early show, he was that funny! :D

[BalconyGal]

Oops forgot about this. She was on again tonight and this time I took a video (with my new D5000)

 

Andy you should submit your hula hoop photo to the Captain's circle photo contest!

[7x5090g]

Andy you should submit your hula hoop photo to the Captain's circle photo contest!

 

Is there such a thing? How do I enter? I have a few photos that I can enter with too.

[BalconyGal]

Is there such a thing? How do I enter? I have a few photos that I can enter with too.

Yes and you can win a free cruise if they choose your photo! :D When they send you the captain's quarterly newsletter the info is in there. I will see if I can find the info for you.