Emerald Princess Rome to Barcelona September 26 -October 3 2015 in photos and video

Bimmer09 · October 15, 2015

With Rome now a thing of the past we dialed our minds into "Escape Completely" mode so that we could "Come back New".

I passed the yellow highlighter to Patter Woman Carol. She immediately found that Da Vinci MDR was open for lunch and we headed that way immediately.

Having been on the Ruby and the Crown, sister ships to the Emerald we knew where to go. A welcome greeting at the door after we hit the Purell. A request for a window seat. There was already someone next to the window that had availability but they left after 5 minutes so we had a good view.

Drinks orders were taken. Carol bought an UKP card (Ultimate Kids Package) which gets her sodas, mocktails and smoothies and her favorite Club Soda and lime. I believe the cost was $59. I ordered a bottle of Estancia Pinot Grigio for about $42 plus 15% gratuity.

While waiting for the food I attacked the bread basket-those crispy bread rolls are fantastic!

I'm a soup guy. Carol also had the English Pea Soup. Good start but the crutons were rather stale.

[/url]

Red snapper and succotash with Marinara sauce and roasted potatoes for me

For Carol,a Cobb salad with chicken

Neither of us had dessert. The last embarkation lunch we had was on the Ruby in January where I raved about the food-the best I had on a Princess ship. This was a step below in terms of temperature and finesse in the cooking. A decent meal, not a rave. Much of the succotash remained on the plate as there was an overabundance and it seemed like an easy plate filler.

Here's the lunch video....

[YOUTUBE]rhuVhOIozbg[/YOUTUBE]

Next plan was for Carol head back to the room to see if the luggage was there and to unpack if it was while I would go up to the Sanctuary on deck 17 to make some bookings.

Normally I rush up there first thing to bag our favorite loungers for the week but with a port-intensive cruise like this, when we would be off the ship most days during Sanctuary opening hours of 8 a.m to 5.30 p.m, a week-long booking wasn't going to happen.

Norris

Pmorton3360 · October 15, 2015

Enjoying review. Will be doing similar next October. Pack the coats and mittens. Cold here in Michigan.

Bimmer09 · October 15, 2015

Enjoying review. Will be doing similar next October. Pack the coats and mittens. Cold here in Michigan.

Thanks for joining us!

Yes it was cool and wet last time we went-actually first day sublime mid 70s and second black skies, deluge of rain tapering off to drizzle. It was still a good getaway.

Norris

Bimmer09 · October 15, 2015

There's no problem booking the Sanctuary for certain days in advance on a cruise like this. I booked for this afternoon as there was still 4 hours left to enjoy (i.e nap). $20 each. I booked the sea day, Tuesday for all day at $40 each and afternoon of our last day when we would get back from Cannes by 2.30 @ $20ea.

I imagine that the Sanctuary looked this this all week...

[/url]

Prior to my nap I stopped at the Tradewinds bar for my first beer of the cruise, which is the Official beginning of my relaxing. There was a big smoking section there-48 chairs in total which was twice as many as the Ruby in the Caribbean.

As there is no longer Beck's beer served I had a Grolsch. $5.95 plus 15% gratuity.

Back in the cabin the luggage had arrived and so I unpacked and hit the Sanctuary with Carol. The Serenity Steward brought us some cucumber infused water to quench our thirst.

We were woken up a while later by some people talking loudly at the railing "Hey! it's nice and quiet up here! Plenty of comfy loungers" The steward came and told them that it is not free and luckily they left. The nap spell was broken so I got up and took some pics of our surroundings.

Our neighbors- closest was Club Med II which I thought was a Windstar ship

Hal's small ship the Ryndam

MSC Poesia

And, as it's a European port there are always some ferries

Bimmer09 · October 15, 2015

We love Industrial ports and would get to see many of them this week.

Lots of cranes!

Notable were the hundreds of cars lined up for export. A long train at the far end of the dock was unloading more cars. There's a glut of unsold cars lined up on unused airfields around Europe. There's plenty of space for more in the docks here.

[/url]

This blue roofed building is the cruise terminal

ccv · October 15, 2015

Love the way you captured the light with the other ships. Thank you.

C

Bimmer09 · October 15, 2015

Love the way you captured the light with the other ships. Thank you.

C

Thank you for the kind comment!

We won't see many other cruise ships on this route but there will be plenty of cargo ships, ferries and luxury yachts.

Thanks for joining us!

Norris

Bimmer09 · October 15, 2015

So civilized on Princess.

If you read Singinalot's excellent photo review of the Glory on the Carnival board you'll see their Muster (or more like a Cluster....) where all the pax are lined up in the heat, like sardines on Promenade deck, which is the LAST place you want a crowd of people in an emergency. They don't have life jackets.

Princess- you assemble in an air-conditioned lounge in smaller groups and have no trouble hearing the instructions before you get to put on your own lifejacket. I have done it so many times I could do it in the dark without spilling my Guinness. Thank you Princess for being smart.

Muster drill at 5.15

7 short blasts and one long blast on the PA speakers in the hallway.

We descend down the back crew stairs to deck 7 and the Club Fusion lounge.

Cards are scanned on the way in to ensure all present and correct.

Sailaway at 6 pm.

We would be delayed by 25 minutes while waiting for a cruise ship that had been hidden at the back of the dock until now. She's a little beauty.

Coming up next- sail away video.

Norris

AZ Ocean Lover · October 15, 2015

My treat to myself at work is to read you review daily. I've loving every minute of it. Thank you.

The ferry is huge. Any idea where it goes?

Colo Cruiser · October 15, 2015

My treat to myself at work is to read you review daily. I've loving every minute of it. Thank you.

The ferry is huge. Any idea where it goes?

Tirrenia sails to,

Sardinia/Sicily/Tunisia/Spain/Italy-Napoli/Genoa/Tremiti Islands to name a few.

Bimmer09 · October 15, 2015

Sailaway

For me, nothing beats it. Once the last mooring rope on the aft is dropped in the water and winched onboard our cruise has begun. Thrusters give way to the propeller and the wake slowly begins to form as the revs slowly climb.

We are anticipating the event

Here's the video

[YOUTUBE]wz6pCr-10gA[/YOUTUBE]

We're going to sea!!

Norris

jlf1 · October 15, 2015

Norris,

Your snapper might not have been over the top but the picture was.

Judy

Edited October 15, 2015 by jlf1

wineforhealth · October 15, 2015

Love the ongoing review, you put a lot of detail and your passion to travel in each post.

Looking forward to the balance of you cruise

Jim

Bimmer09 · October 15, 2015

My treat to myself at work is to read you review daily. I've loving every minute of it. Thank you.

The ferry is huge. Any idea where it goes?

AZ, thanks for the kind comments and I'm happy to see you read it daily.

I'm glad to see Keith has already answered your question. One of the beauties of CC.

Norris

Bimmer09 · October 15, 2015

Love the ongoing review, you put a lot of detail and your passion to travel in each post.
Looking forward to the balance of you cruise

Jim

Jim, I love the feedback and to know who's reading.

The detail comes with the narrative but I stop short of posting the Patters and drink menus.

The Patters on this cruise would be pointless as it was the ship's last week in the Med.

Drink menus I seldom read personally. I can post some in a future cruise for the benefit of others. Any mixed drink I have had on Princess has been so weak I had to help it back to it's cabin for a lie down. I'll see how they are on Celebrity.

The balance of my cruise is, at this minute, overwhelming...I scanned through my photos earlier and have a lot to show you. The Motherlode.

Looking forward to it though.

Thanks Jim,

Norris

Bimmer09 · October 15, 2015

thanks for the shout out! :) and glad you read my review as well.

I can't wait for my first cruise on Princess next year. If anything you've posted so far is a sign of what's to come, I am definitely going to be happy

The Shout Out is justified.

I don't know if many on the PCL board surf the other boards or have time to but the Carnival Board (X too) have a lot of active readers and a lot of great reviewers/photgraphers.

I have 8 Princess reviews and I'd say they all tell the same story. Not a dud cruise in the bunch.

Norris

Bimmer09 · October 15, 2015

Norris,

Your snapper might not have been over the top but the picture was.

Judy

Judy, next meal is Crown Grill and the best food on the ship. It's plain old steak-but superbly done.

Norris

jlf1 · October 15, 2015

Judy, next meal is Crown Grill and the best food on the ship. It's plain old steak-but superbly done.

Norris

Plain old steak is never plain old. Can't wait to see the pictures.

Sent from my A110 using Tapatalk

Bimmer09 · October 15, 2015

Between the camcorder and taking stills I am kept busy on sail away duty.

We are waiting for Sea Dream II to back out of her berth far away so she can turn in the basin behind us.

[/url]

She makes her reverse turn

and is the first cruise ship to leave port

The tug has now left us-he was there as we were pushing away from the dock and the Ryndam was close by, so the tug ensured we wouldn't push too far and endanger the HAL ship.

Those rolling hills in the distance- it's a pretty port. Hope to see it again some day.

Norris

Bimmer09 · October 15, 2015

[/url]

With the breakwater wall in our rear view mirror we are free of the harbor

Bimmer09 · October 16, 2015

We sail into the sunset, leaving Civitavecchia behind. I went up on deck after this shot to see the sail away party but , oh dear it was a sad affair. No live band. Just one Indian crew member sitting at a laptop, from whence sprang the music, reading some papers while the music fell on deaf ears and feet. Some nameless disco (which is the worst kind) was followed by Tom Jones "It's not unusual". A good song but 50 years old.

FLASHBACK....Back in my RCCL Song of Norway days we had a band from "the islands" whose sole gig was to play on deck by the pool. Steel drums, bass guitar, lead guitar and drums plus vocals of course.

Sailaways were a joyous affair with music and hordes of people dancing, some of them (mostly women) in scantily clad bikinis.

I got to play with them for a week as their drummer was caught bringing weed back onto the ship in Ocho Rios and therefore sent home immediately, never to return. No rehearsal but I knew and loved the "riddums". Playing by the pool was fun and we would string 3 or 4 songs together that had the same rhythm and keep the people dancing for 20 minutes non-stop. That's the sort of thing I think of when I hear "Deck party".

In the same week (timing!!) one of the Polish dance band drummers fell out of his top bunk and landed on his face due to too much Vodka and was incapacitated for the week and I was asked if I would step in. I did willingly but with 3 bands to play with the CD had to adjust some schedules and i had to hot foot it from one gig to the next. Fantastic fun. I had never had to read drum music live before but it was a good challenge. I was invited to all their "vodka tastings" thereafter. Halcyon Days!

[/url]

While up by Tradewinds bar I had a beer and stuck around for the sunset....

ar1950 · October 16, 2015

Sunsets at sea. Nothing better. Very nice shots.

Bimmer09 · October 16, 2015

Sunsets at sea. Nothing better. Very nice shots.

Thanks ar. A few more to come and then it is dark.

Yes nothing better. A good time to be quiet and reflect on the day past and what tomorrow might bring. Magical on a ship when those deck lights go on.

No obstructions as on land and you realize how alone this ship is on such a vast canvas.

Just another great reason to go cruising!

Norris

Bimmer09 · October 16, 2015

The last of the shots were taken from our balcony while getting ready for dinner. This is one of Carol's, capturing the moon. She NEVER misses a sunset.

[/url]

Coming up next....

Crown Grill dinner in photos and Yummovison video

Great comedian in Princess Theater

Sleep

Arriving in Palermo

Breakfast in Sabatini's

City tour video of Palermo-trash capital of Italy

Beautiful Med beach

Bird's eye view of Palermo

and much much more! I'll even throw in a FREE set of steak knives (a $99 value!) if you read it.

Norris