Celebrity Cruisers Return From Emerald

[richsea]

We are Elite Captain's club members on Celebrity & just returned from our 3rd Princess cruise on Emerald Princess, a 10 night Caribbean, & all we can say is, WOW!!! What a perfect cruise!

 

The service was superb, the food was delicious & the crew was great. While we enjoyed our 1st 2 Princess cruises (Crown 2006, Emerald 2008) enough to purchase a future cruise certificate on board, we did so mainly because Princess offers a longer Caribbean fall/winter season with more choices. But on this sailing we were so impressed with the level of service, the friendliness of the crew, the entertainment (which we did always think was better than Celebrity's), but was even better this time. The Beatle Maniacs show was almost as good as Broadway's "Rain"!

 

And we're pretty sure that our next Princess cruise will be even better, considering that we won't have to endure the cigar smoke from our neighbor's balcony as we did this sailing, when the new Princess smoking policy takes effect in January!

 

We've always thought that Celebrity felt like home to us, & still do, but I think we found another home!

[constantcruiser]

I'm so glad to hear that. We're also Celebrity fans and Elite members, but we just booked a Pacific Coast cruise on the Sapphire next fall. My favorite Celebrity ships are the Solstice class...how does the Emerald compare to that specific design?

[amazinglife]

great to hear ...... I agree :)

[grandmaa]

Glad you enjoyed the cruise..so did we. It was a wonderful Princess cruise again for us.

The Emerald Princess staff were friendly and very visible which sometimes is not the case.

The cruise director Billy London was loads of fun..especially when he visited the Crooner's lounge in the late evening with Barty Brown and they sang songs together.

[-Lew-]

 

We are Elite Captain's club members on Celebrity & just returned from our 3rd Princess cruise on Emerald Princess, a 10 night Caribbean, & all we can say is, WOW!!! What a perfect cruise!

So happy to learn of your wonderful cruise as we're booked on the Emerald B2B in January and February 2012. Thank you for posting your experience...

 

Lew

[TracieABD]

This is great to hear! So glad that you enjoyed your cruise!:)

[richsea]

I'm so glad to hear that. We're also Celebrity fans and Elite members, but we just booked a Pacific Coast cruise on the Sapphire next fall. My favorite Celebrity ships are the Solstice class...how does the Emerald compare to that specific design?

 

We've only sailed on Solstice of the S class, & while she is beautiful & elegant, we much prefer the other Celebrity ships. A glaring omssion on S class is a Rondevouz like lounge , where you can have a cocktail & dance before dinner. I liked Emerald & Crown more than the S class of Celebrity, but not as much as M class. The only Emerald shortcoming I can think of is the "you can't get there from here" at certain elevators, but it was no big deal.

Also, it looks to me by the deck plans, that Sapphire has one less deck with staterooms than Emerald, so would be somewhat less crowded, & Coral & Island have TWO less stateroom decks, which makes them more like the M class, & thus less crowded. We're looking at a Panama Canal on Coral next spring, so maybe we'll find out firsthand!

[OhioDogLover]

Glad you liked your cruise. Celebrity and Princess are our two favorites.

Ohiodoglover

[A1A]

It is really nice having two homes, we share the same thoughts, Princess & Celebrity!

[geoherb]

I'll add a third line to the mix of my favorite cruise lines: HAL. Between Princess, Celebrity, and HAL, I've always been able to find a cruise that meets our schedule and our budget--and the requisite level of food and service.

[lovevacadays]

Thanks for the review. It's great when you have a couple of cruise lines you like so much that way you can mix it up and also find itineraries that fit your needs at a given time.

[shofer]

We've only sailed on Solstice of the S class, & while she is beautiful & elegant, we much prefer the other Celebrity ships. A glaring omssion on S class is a Rondevouz like lounge , where you can have a cocktail & dance before dinner. I liked Emerald & Crown more than the S class of Celebrity, but not as much as M class. The only Emerald shortcoming I can think of is the "you can't get there from here" at certain elevators, but it was no big deal.

Also, it looks to me by the deck plans, that Sapphire has one less deck with staterooms than Emerald, so would be somewhat less crowded, & Coral & Island have TWO less stateroom decks, which makes them more like the M class, & thus less crowded. We're looking at a Panama Canal on Coral next spring, so maybe we'll find out firsthand!

 

We have always liked Celebrity but our last 3 cruises were on Princess d/t itinerary. We very much liked the Coral for the Panama Canal as it was like the M-class ships on Celebrity. We do find Princess ships a little difficult to maneuver as the decks do not all go straight through from front to back.

[richsea]

We do find Princess ships a little difficult to maneuver as the decks do not all go straight through from front to back.

 

That is a little disconcerting at first, but we got used to it. Is it the same on Coral Princess & the Grand class?

[janina]

Glad you found Princess.:D

[DrivesLikeMario]

That is a little disconcerting at first, but we got used to it. Is it the same on Coral Princess & the Grand class?

 

Yes, a little. What drives me bananas about the Coral/Island is that the Horizon Court is in the bow of the ship and the spa/gym is in the aft (which is the reverse of almost all the other Princess ships). Takes me days to get used to that. The size of the Coral/Island is really nice though.