::: Review::: Emerald Princess 10/19-10/29 Eastern Caribbean

[jillocb]

We are just off the Emerald Princess and what a gem, she is. This was our first cruise and will be my first review on CC so, be nice. I'll include photos if I have them and as much information as I have. It's going to be choppy because CC only allows 6 images per post.

 

We stayed in Ft. Lauderdale on Monday October 18th at the Ft Lauderdale Hilton Marina. This is a very nice hotel, I would recommend it highly. Staff was pleasant and friendly. We were upgraded to a water view balcony room due to our honeymoon status. The hotel sent us a complimentary bottle of champagne, as well as chocolates to celebrate. Those pictures are taking forever to load so, I'll just move on.

 

On Tuesday October 19th, we took a taxi from the hotel to the dock. We rode in a nice air conditioned SUV and it was $6/per person. We tipped to make it an even $20. We arrived at the 'holding pen' at 11am. We dropped off our luggage and found a seat. We had boarding number 3. We were called at 12:12pm to board the ship. One of the boarding folks actually apologized for taking so long to call us.

 

We found our room right away and then went to check out the ship. We bought one coke card which gave us free cokes for the duration of the trip. Only one of us bought the card. We did not abuse it. If one of us wanted a coke, we got one and the other drank a water or whatever.

 

There's my husband buying one while I was at the purser's desk getting a hole in my shipcard to put a lanyard on it. Lanyards were sold in the gift shop once the ship was sailing.

 

 

Movies Under the Stars

 

This might be sky walkers...and I think it's the only time we ever went there. Hahaha.

 

I can't remember everything we looked at other than the pics above, but we did make sure to find the International Cafe which was set up with lunch items and treats. We got a prosciutto and motz sandwich and some chicken with cashew nuts salad. Yum. I loved that chicken salad! We also purchased a coffee card. We found a coupon in our coupon book that was in our room when we arrived that had a buy one get one free coffee card coupon. The coffee card allows you to get cappuccino, espresso, cafe mocha, cafe latte and other specialty coffees. You also get all you can drink brewed coffee and hot chocolate. The hot chocolate was to die for. Of course it was HOT out so we didn't use it all that much but it was still tasty. I forget how much the card was but it gave you 12 coffees.

 

 

[jillocb]

We also checked out the various pools, scoping out the best spot for a seat. After we checked out the ship a bit, we grabbed a few drinky drinks during the sail away party.

 

 

We didn't feel the need to join in, so we went back to the room, found our luggage sitting there and called Room Service (note - you have to call room service, not any other line to order the Balcony Dinner). We ordered the Ultimate Balcony Dinner (UBD) for our second sea night - Thursday night.

 

We unpacked our bar, yes, we carried all of this on. It was packed in our luggage and no one mentioned it. We also packed a case of beer.

 

We put up the magnets, Princess gave us the balloons:

 

 

We went back to the pool for sail off and then found two open lounge chairs at the back of the boat to watch our first sunset of many on the ship.

 

 

[jillocb]

Mmmmm dinner. These were over the first two nights of our trip.

 

Seafood Pot

 

Escargot

 

Cheese Plate

 

Princess Dream Dessert

 

Honeymoon Cake

 

Since we were celebrating our honeymoon, these jokers:

 

 

sang "Happy Honeymoon to You" in the tune of Happy Birthday. They added the following afterwards, "We hope you get some tonight, we hope you get some tonight, we hope you get some....presents....tonight, we hope you get some tonight." Funny guys, I tell ya.

[Woobstr112G]

Congrats on getting married. Great pictures to look at. I especially loved the sunset pic. Sounds like you had a great time and I'm sure this won't be your last cruise.....:):):)

 

Bob

[Bigboy99]

Hey.....CONGRATS TO YOUR MARRIAGE :)

 

 

....and beautiful pics, want some more

 

Bernie

[cruzzers]

Thanks for taking the time to share your experience with us. We will be getting on next week if all goes well on the brewing hurricane out in the Caribbean right now.

[jillocb]

On the second sea day - Thursday - we enjoyed the Ultimate Balcony Dinner. If you haven't heard of it, it's a dinner for two that they will bring to your stateroom and give you a private server for the duration. You get 6 courses, 2 specialty drinks and a split of wine (half bottle, pretty much). It is $50 per person - no extra charge added to that. We tipped our server $20. It's the most amazing dinner we have ever had.

 

The waiter arrived at 6:30pm on the dot and set up a table with a white tablecloth and flowers on our balcony. He set out a table setting for 2. Then he brought in the photographer. You get a photo included in the price of the dinner. They took about 12 pictures and we got to choose which one we wanted.

 

 

Triple Berry Daiquiri, my vice

 

First Course: Canapes

 

Second Course: Appetizer

Blue Crab Quiche. These were amazing. Just the right amount of crab flavor in them - not too fishy, not too bland. Tomato rose on the right, pasta sauce on the left.

 

About now we started thinking that maybe we shouldn't have eaten any bread....

 

Third Course: Salad

The word amazing is going to escape my mouth too many times in this post. This salad was to die for. Huge chunks of goat cheese. Amazing dressing that was just the right consistency and flavor. Endive leaves, candied almonds. Yum.

[BballinQT24]

Congrats on getting married! Thanks for taking the time to post the review and pictures. I will be on the Emerald in December so I was happy to see this review!

[jillocb]

In between courses, after he made sure we had everything we needed, the door was closed and he pulled the sheer curtains for some privacy.

 

 

Fourth Course: Entree

Humongous Filet Mignon - Medium Rare and Lobster. FYI: This lobster was about 3x bigger than the lobster we got on the last formal night in the MDR. It tasted BETTER than it looks.

 

 

Fifth Course: Dessert.

We started with this. I have no clue what it's called. It was amazing, though. See, there's that word again. Chocolate slabs on the top and bottom, as well as the chocolate cylinder. We EACH got one of these!! Those were different flavored mouses. My favorite of it all was the plain chocolate and raspberries. DH really enjoyed the mouses.

 

 

Then, he brought Petit Fours! Yeesh. Talk about full... And this wasn't a, "which would you like" type of circumstance. Nope, he gave us the whole plate.

 

We could not move at the end of this meal. Good thing it was in our stateroom, we were done for the night after that! If you have an extra $100 on your cruise and you're trying to decide if you should do this or not, we vehemently say, DO IT! Don't hesitate. Seriously, you won't regret it.

 

Now, mind you. We had perfect weather. It was slightly breezy with the ship moving along. The full moon was rising as we sat down to eat (even the waiter noted that it was included in our meal that night). We ate this amazing meal on our balcony by ourselves with a personal server. With an endless view of the water. Wow.

[jillocb]

Every night, the room stewards leave you chocolates during turn-down service. Our waiter took our chocolates and made little designs for us out of the tin foil:

 

 

 

It was kind of funny knowing Rudy (our room steward) was in there doing his thing, the waiter was doing his thing and here we are...on our balcony. Enjoying pure luxury.

 

YUM!

 

Next up I'll post our pics of Antigua. It will be later, though. Gotta go move some laundry...boooooo!! :)

[SunNFun05]

Hi Jill, glad you guys had a great time, so did we. What a wonderful way to spend a honeymoon !! Saw you on stage in Explorers ( got to love oranges ).

 

Tom

[jillocb]

Hi Jill, glad you guys had a great time, so did we. What a wonderful way to spend a honeymoon !! Saw you on stage in Explorers ( got to love oranges ).

 

Tom

 

OMG....hilarious. We wanted a good seat. We got too good of a seat, obviously. I have pictures from that, too. Hahaha.

[gingera]

I have been on the fence about ordering this meal...after seeing your photos, I am convinced it is worth every dollar....

Thanks so much for sharing!!

[amistad]

Great review, thank you for taking the time to do this.

[Toto2Kansas]

Thanks for the report, and all the GREAT pictures. Now I am starving and can't wait until our next cruise. Everything looks absolutely delicious. It sounds like you had a GREAT honeymoon. :) Congratulations!

[Clutterlady]

Congratulations and thank you for sharing your cruise with us! Can't wait for more and those pics are great:)

[lovevacadays]

Congratulations and thanks for your review and pictures. Looking forward to seeing more!

[Momma Mojito]

Thanks for sharing your fantastic pictures and your review. We got off the Emerald on the 9th of October had a great time on the ship but the weather did not cooperate for us. Of well good excuse to try it again. I just earlier tonight posted a picture of the escargot I had.. Yours is the before mine is the after

[Colo Cruiser]

Excellent!

[Rockymountainsparky]

Thankyou for the wonderful review. The pictures were fantastic, I need more. You've made me so hungery. Congrats on your marrage.

[Tweedy]

Congratulations!

 

I'm looking forward to reading more of your review.

[rdsqrl]

Thank you so much for the review; looking forward to reading more.

Love, love, love all the photos -- especially of the food. That dessert looked awesome.

[srpilo]

Awesome !!

 

 

Srpilo

[JWJs]

Congratulations and best wishes. Great review. Thanks so much for sharing. Love your pictures! Also love the Emerald. One cruise on her so far and she remains a favorite. :)

[moniquet]

Thankyou for review and photos. Can't wait for 11/27:)