Emerald Review 3/5-3/10

[brellis]

Just got off the NOT WANTED party cruise. So many college kids we could not even get close to the pools or bars. The staff did nothing to help the situation. Several times we were trying to go for a walk on deck only to encounter shall we say "inappropriate behavior of a sexual nature."

 

10th cruise, 5th with Princess. Probably done with cruising...too many cut backs

 

WHO: We are a couple in early 40s traveling with family (9 total ages 72-5)

 

THE GOOD: Hey, its still a vacation! We had an enjoyable time catching up with family. MDR staff was good and attentive

 

BAD: Never saw cabin steward. A-320 inside cabin. There was a bag of opened pretzels on the floor when we got to the cabin. I left one pretzel on the floor crushed to see if he even vacuumed......its still there.....Rest of staff was so overwhelmed with the spring breakers we could not even get a drink on the private island, and don't even think of going near a pool.

 

 

FOOD: Average. The Curtis Stone menu items looked odd. I don't go on vacation to eat beets and cauliflower! Shrimp cocktail is alive and well! Lets just say the ocean called.....

 

ROOM: Dirty. Probably because the staff was busy trying to watch the kids

 

PORT: Private Island: Disaster....Hundreds of drunk kids, could not get near the bar or beach. Took over 2 hours to get a tender. Grand Turk was better as we got off the boar in the morning before the partyers were up.

 

Ship: Ship was in very good condition. Only complaints there was that we enjoy watching the live music but almost all of the live venues are the same time as main seating. And of course one could not venture on deck at all.

 

Overall the college kids were a mess. Individually when we would talk with them in the elevators and such they seemed like nice kids, but get them together and watch out! If we had known there would have been this many we would not have gone. Princess obviously cant always control that, but they did nothing about it.

 

Thanks for all the tips and help over the years fellow CC

 

 

B. Ellis

Edited March 11, 2016 by brellis

[Colo Cruiser]

Thank for the comments.

 

Not sure what you expected the staff to do to make the bars less busy.

From the different reports of people on that cruise I would not have been very happy either. However its the chance one takes when you sail during spring break, especially on a short cruise. :(

 

Dirty room is unacceptable. Did you report this to housekeeping while onboard?

[KirkNC]

Thanks for your report. Did you not know it was spring break?

[floridalover5623]

Those march cruises have always been know to have lots of students but this seemed over the top for Princess.

[brellis]

We have been on cruises in March before but this was way worse not because of the kids but because the staff just kind of gave up on day one. The kids were good natured, and stayed on deck at the pools for the most part. The staff seemed to stay up there too and just watch them! The downstairs bars were not manned most of the day and it was odd that even the scheduled events sometimes had nothing going. The staff was overly rude, and although they were probably a bit stressed they were taking it out on everyone else. Example: I found a cruise card on the floor in the back of the ship and tried to give it to several workers. None would take it. One pretty much gave the thumbs us to use it! I stood in line at the desk to turn it in, and after 30 minutes in line the person behind the desk snatched it and accused me of taking it.

 

I could deal with the kids, they were having a good time.....the staff could have gone a long way toward making the trip a pleasure...they did not. Several fellow passengers remarked that it was as if there was a dispute among the workers or they didn't get an expected raise or something. Bad days happen, but it seemed most all of them were having a bad week!

[WisCruiser2]

We were on the week before and the crew was great -- helpful, friendly, and efficient! I know the stewards have more cabins to take care of than they used to but that's no excuse for not cleaning up. I think we saw our steward daily, mostly out in the hall as we went to & from our cabin, and things were always taken care of.

I'm sure there was more stress on the staff due to the increased workload but that's a shame it was taken out on the rest of the passengers.

[blkspy]

A drunk kid stood on the railing on the 16th deck, where the band usually plays....AND JUMPED into the pool...NOT a word from Princess security standing there. Back flips from the Hot tub. A cruiser has it on video and plans to post it.

 

Young lady was found Passed out, face down in the hallway....Her friends left her there. 3 guys had to be rolled in wheel chairs back to the ship from Grand Turk.

 

I caught some kids on my floor--Riviera Deck--popping the balloons and riping the signs off the doors.

 

I saw No violence at all. Just lots of drinking. By boys and the girls.

 

We had a good time.....Will I sail again in March with Spring Breakers? NO :) Too many other choices.

Edited March 12, 2016 by blkspy

[riclop]

Thanks for your thoughts.

[Keith1010]

Thank you for your review/report.

 

Keith

[mrsgthatsme]

We were also on this cruise. It was our 10 year anniversary cruise, and while we still enjoyed the lovely weather and the chance to get away and relax, and I am grateful we had the chance to take a vacation, I have to agree with the review of the OP. Sadly, it seemed the staff was so overwhelmed and stressed by the huge amount of spring breakers on the cruise that service was poor. Our cabin steward did the bare minimum and unlike other cruises we have been on, most of the staff was not friendly or accommodating. I am used to cruise experiences where you are greeted by staff with a smile, and on this one, most did not even acknowledge passengers when they passed. The room was not very clean when we arrived (hair in bathroom, sticky on carpet, upper shelves and shower shelf not even wiped) and we had no towels several times. We had several waiters that were very good, but most made me feel like I was dining at a semi fast food restaurant at home... impersonal and not thrilled to be there. The food was decent most of the time, a few times good. Many meals in MDR were just okay. We really liked the pizza and burgers and hot dogs at the grill. Really good! The Crown Grill was a highlight... great food!!! Well worth the uncharge. MUTS was SO nice! However, as mentioned, the partiers took over the ship and you couldn't get near the pool most days. We spent lots of time in the Lotus Pool. It was loud in common areas, and people ran yelling down halls at all hours. Our Anniversary balloons were popped and our Do Not Disturb sign taken.

 

One other odd experience.... our refrigerator was not working well and maintenance came up to look at it. Our TA had sent a plate of chocolate covered strawberries, which we had eaten a few of, and put the rest in the fridge. We told the maintenance person to open the door slowly as there were strawberries in there. He didn't seem to understand and they fell out on the floor. He was very apologetic and quickly started putting the dirty ones from the floor back on the plate despite our insistence that it was okay and we would just throw those away. We assumed he was going to send new ones up, but he left the plate of dirty ones of the desk and never sent any others. I talked to them at the Customer Service desk (I tried to be very low key and told them I understood it was just an accident) and expected that they would just send new ones up, but they acted almost suspicious and kept talking to other people and finally reluctantly agreed to replace them. Two days later they were still not there. They told me they were delivered to the wrong room. Finally we did get them, but it was not a good example of good service in my opinion.

 

Anyway, like I said, this was probably not typical of a Princess cruise, but the service, even more than the party atmosphere soured me a bit on Princess and cruising in general. We did really enjoy the ports, the Crown Grill, MUTS and the great Caribe balcony, but overall the cruise was not quite what we were hoping for. I truly hope its an isolated situation due to the stress on the staff and not reflective of Princess service as a whole.

[Happy2cruise]

We were on the week before and the crew was great -- helpful, friendly, and efficient! I know the stewards have more cabins to take care of than they used to but that's no excuse for not cleaning up. I think we saw our steward daily, mostly out in the hall as we went to & from our cabin, and things were always taken care of.

I'm sure there was more stress on the staff due to the increased workload but that's a shame it was taken out on the rest of the passengers.

We were also on the the cruise the week before and agree the crew was great in all ways. Our room steward had 19 cabins to do twice a day which I personally think is too many. I can only imagine the nightmare it was for them to clean up after the springbreakers twice a day:(

[floridalover5623]

We were also on the the cruise the week before and agree the crew was great in all ways. Our room steward had 19 cabins to do twice a day which I personally think is too many. I can only imagine the nightmare it was for them to clean up after the springbreakers twice a day:(

 

They probably wouldn't notice the difference between a before & after cleanup anyway.;)

[blueseas4me2]

Unfortunately, there's no consistency in schools scheduling their spring breaks. This has been a source of aggravation for my family. I'm a teacher at three colleges.

Two of the colleges scheduled Spring Break to begin on Good Friday and through the week after Easter. 3/25-4/03

Another college where I teach has Spring break from 3/6-3/13.

My son's school and most of the area schools have have chosen to have Spring Break on the week prior to Easter. 3/21-3/28

 

It's pretty impossible to avoid Spring Breakers since schools are all over the place on when this happens. I feel bad for the OP because I would have been pretty upset if my cruise was as he described. I suspect the prices were low for that cruise and that attracted the college students. It's a catch 22-- should we avoid the lower priced voyages or do we get to enjoy the benefits of the low prices?

Edited March 12, 2016 by blueseas4me2

[Host CJSKIDS]

Unfortunately, there's no consistency in schools scheduling their spring breaks. This has been a source of aggravation for my family. I'm a teacher at three colleges.

Two of the colleges scheduled Spring Break to begin on Good Friday and through the week after Easter. 3/25-4/03

Another college where I teach has Spring break from 3/6-3/13.

My son's school and most of the area schools have have chosen to have Spring Break on the week prior to Easter. 3/21-3/28

 

It's pretty impossible to avoid Spring Breakers since schools are all over the place on when this happens. I feel bad for the OP because I would have been pretty upset if my cruise was as he described. I suspect the prices were low for that cruise and that attracted the college students. It's a catch 22-- should we avoid the lower priced voyages or do we get to enjoy the benefits of the low prices?

 

We have done quite a few spring breaks when our kids were in high school. I have always seen families on board with kids and a few college students which wasn't an issue before. This is honestly the first time where the ship had so many college students and areas were taken over.

I've never been on a cruise similar to this one.

Mattresses out on balconies, waking up to beer bottles a few times out on my balcony that had clearly been thrown overboard, being thrown up on, having a very bruised toe from being stepped on, etc. Of course one of the funny things was finding men's sandals on left at the barstool that I was sitting in at Crooners. The fellow obviously didn't realize that he left barefoot and as of 24 hours later, he never came back to find them!

[Host CJSKIDS]

A drunk kid stood on the railing on the 16th deck, where the band usually plays....AND JUMPED into the pool...NOT a word from Princess security standing there. Back flips from the Hot tub. A cruiser has it on video and plans to post it.

 

Young lady was found Passed out, face down in the hallway....Her friends left her there. 3 guys had to be rolled in wheel chairs back to the ship from Grand Turk.

 

I caught some kids on my floor--Riviera Deck--popping the balloons and riping the signs off the doors.

 

I saw No violence at all. Just lots of drinking. By boys and the girls.

 

We had a good time.....Will I sail again in March with Spring Breakers? NO :) Too many other choices.

 

That video was something to see!

 

There was a few issues that we witnessed. Some fights. And that girl screaming at the young man to leave here alone and get out of here for a few minutes or she would call security. I told the crew from the Sanctuary to call security but that didn't happen. The crew member just looked at me like I was nuts that I wanted him to get involved.

[floridalover5623]

Unfortunately, there's no consistency in schools scheduling their spring breaks. This has been a source of aggravation for my family. I'm a teacher at three colleges.

Two of the colleges scheduled Spring Break to begin on Good Friday and through the week after Easter. 3/25-4/03

Another college where I teach has Spring break from 3/6-3/13.

My son's school and most of the area schools have have chosen to have Spring Break on the week prior to Easter. 3/21-3/28

 

It's pretty impossible to avoid Spring Breakers since schools are all over the place on when this happens. I feel bad for the OP because I would have been pretty upset if my cruise was as he described. I suspect the prices were low for that cruise and that attracted the college students. It's a catch 22-- should we avoid the lower priced voyages or do we get to enjoy the benefits of the low prices?

 

We've been caught once years ago but it was nothing compared to the experience of the OP. We also learned that doing 10 day trips eliminates most of the worst problems caused by the larger groups. Also staying clear of all March dates no matter how much we can save. It's just not worth the small amount of dollars balanced against the possible aggravation that can occur.

Strange thing though- I didn't read of any other Princess ship having similar problems from other groups.

[Host CJSKIDS]

We've been caught once years ago but it was nothing compared to the experience of the OP. We also learned that doing 10 day trips eliminates most of the worst problems caused by the larger groups. Also staying clear of all March dates no matter how much we can save. It's just not worth the small amount of dollars balanced against the possible aggravation that can occur.

Strange thing though- I didn't read of any other Princess ship having similar problems from other groups.

 

I didn't save any money by taking the March dates. I had no clue that there would be so many kids from the colleges or I personally would not have booked the sailing. I steered clear of the party ships that leave here from Miami and chose Princess because I didn't expect that situation.

[Mom33]

This is the first March in years that we have not sailed during Spring breaks.

We never had the college party crowd on a cruise until last March, when we jumped on a 5 day Caribbean Princess cruise. 5 days and cheap prices attract college kids.

 

Our other March cruises were 7- 10 days in length and mostly a mixture of ages. It is till possible to sail in March if you sail a longer cruise and the price isn't a bargain basement discount. :)

[CRLess]

I am still on the ship...talk about the tale of two cruises! Because this cruise stretches into a second week, we are down under 100 spring breakers. No lines at the bars, and you can actually see the pool. However, for those of you sailing on the 3/14 departure....be forewarned. There are MORE spring breakers on the next cruise than were on last week's cruise. This is confirmed from the staff. I am told the number is 800+

[Host CJSKIDS]

I am still on the ship...talk about the tale of two cruises! Because this cruise stretches into a second week, we are down under 100 spring breakers. No lines at the bars, and you can actually see the pool. However, for those of you sailing on the 3/14 departure....be forewarned. There are MORE spring breakers on the next cruise than were on last week's cruise. This is confirmed from the staff. I am told the number is 800+

 

Geez! I know we were told we had the same amount last week. There were around 500 just from UNC Charlotte.

 

At least you can get your wine at Vines easily Chris. Have a glass for me tonight!

[smithmlmx]

Will be on the Emerald from Mar 19 - 26 (7 days). Any ideas on numbers of students on that sailing

[Colo Cruiser]

Will be on the Emerald from Mar 19 - 26 (7 days). Any ideas on numbers of students on that sailing

 

 

Its still spring break. There is no way to tell until you are onboard.