Just off the Emerald Princess

[masonchar]

Just finished a 15 day cruise through the Panama Canal - L.A. to Fort Lauderdale (Feb 29 - Mar 15)

We had a wonderful time and the staff were amazing.

Kudos to Captain Stephen Lewis and his staff. Cruise Director Aaron Hawkins must have an identical twin - he was everywhere and did an outstanding job. Captain Lewis did a Q and A on the last sea day and was well received.

Staff were excellent despite the fact that the 60 day cancellation of cruises was announced during the cruise.

At the start of the cruise, we served ourselves in the buffet - but that changed half way through.

We were fortunate to get in all stops except for Cartagena.

Our temperatures were taken in Panama before we left the ship.

We were fortunate that there was no illness and disembarkation went fairly well.

Embarkation was absolutely horrible though - due to a computer glitch.  We waited hours in a long line both outside and inside. 

 

 

 

 

[Colo Cruiser]

2 minutes ago, masonchar said:

Just finished a 15 day cruise through the Panama Canal - L.A. to Fort Lauderdale (Feb 29 - Mar 15)

We had a wonderful time and the staff were amazing.

Kudos to Captain Stephen Lewis and his staff. Cruise Director Aaron Hawkins must have an identical twin - he was everywhere and did an outstanding job. Captain Lewis did a Q and A on the last sea day and was well received.

Staff were excellent despite the fact that the 60 day cancellation of cruises was announced during the cruise.

At the start of the cruise, we served ourselves in the buffet - but that changed half way through.

We were fortunate to get in all stops except for Cartagena.

Our temperatures were taken in Panama before we left the ship.

We were fortunate that there was no illness and disembarkation went fairly well.

Embarkation was absolutely horrible though - due to a computer glitch.  We waited hours in a long line both outside and inside. 

 

 

 

 

Awesome!! Glad you had a great cruise.  Thanks for checking in!  

[XBGuy]

1 hour ago, masonchar said:

. Captain Lewis did a Q and A on the last sea day and was well received.

 

 

That is SO COOL.

 

I'm glad you had a great cruise.

 

Thanks for your report.

[masonchar]

Also wanted to add that the entertainment was the best I have seen on a cruise ship.  This was only my 10th cruise, but I have never seen such solid entertainment.   The ship's band, Atomic was fantastic - so versatile.  But all the vocalists, piano players, steel drums, etc around the ship were great.  So were the shows in the Princess theater.

Excellent!

[jennybenny]

Welcome back!  Sounds like you had a great cruise. Thanks for sharing

[jwattle]

Thank you for checking back; great to hear! 🙂

 

[cynbar]

It's so nice to see a positive, upbeat post in these uncertain times --- and one that talks about actual cruising instead of cancellations, pandemics and so on!

[mrgame101]

We just got off the Crown this morning. We were only on the 10 day sailing so we did not need to worry about arrangements.

The entire time, if you did not watch the news other than the crew serving at the buffet you would not have known there was an issue anywhere!

It was nice and relaxing and quite frankly we still wish we were on board

[AF-1]

good for you mrgame101,  and for you masonchar,  glad you are safely home

[Editrix]

7 hours ago, masonchar said:

We were fortunate to get in all stops except for Cartagena.

 

Why did you miss Cartagena?

[masonchar]

We missed Cartagena because they are no longer accepting cruise ships. Disappointing for sure.  But I was worried whether we would get to any of the ports.

[Lucky TGO]

I’m very happy that you had a great time on your cruise. I can’t wait until we are all able to cruise again!!! 
The Captain of The Rowboat,

Tony

[emmak8]

Thank you for posting and so glad you had a terrific cruise.

 

[janetz]

Thank you for your post

Trying to decide on a ship for a partial transit 😊

[LHARTWICK]

Thank you for this update.  We are booked on Emerald for September 2020 - remaining positive that she will still sail. It may seem silly, but I'm truly praying the cruise industry survives this, which I think it will.  Not just because it's our favorite vacation, but lots of people (hard working people!) and jobs are involved. Also praying for the US for the same reason.  Blessings to all here!

[enfuego4cruising]

Thank you for sharing your cruise experience on board the Emerald Princess. So glad that your cruise went well and that there was no corona virus impact on board. We were closely following the progress of your cruise with great anticipation. We were scheduled to board on March 15th, right after your disembarkation. Having booked this, our first ever Panama Canal sailing nearly two years ago, the excitement and anticipation for our cruise continued to grow as the sailing date drew nearer. So of course we are disappointed (as are so many multiple thousands of others) by the mass cancellations and the suspension of service. But, a new countdown begins as we have re-booked our P.C. cruise for November 2020. I am sure that all of us who enjoy cruising are looking forward to the day when we shall sail again, and that all sectors of the economy are once again running full steam ahead! 

 

[masonchar]

The Panama Canal (full transit) is fantastic.   I attended all the lectures on board to learn about the history of the canal.  It's fascinating.  We went through the old canal 8 years ago and that was our favorite cruise.  Going through the new canal was equally enjoyable.  Enjoy!

[chamima]

Thanks for your glowing report.

We were  on the cruise previous to yours - the 28 day Hawaii-Tahiti cruise.

I agree about Captain Lewis and Aaron and most of the entertainment around the ship. 

Many times i had to make a choice of which venue I wanted to attend since so much was going on.

Did you get to see the 2 girls in the Wheelhouse ? They were fantastic!!!!

However, the acts in the main theater for our cruise (other than the Production shows) were pretty bad so I'm happy to hear they found better entertainers for your cruise.

 

I have one question for you. You said no one was sick on your cruise. Over 800 people on our cruise had the flu (and those are just the people that actually went to the medical center) Did you have any sense of that? I wonder how they managed to have a healthy ship (maybe it's because they sent all of us home).

Edited March 17, 2020 by chamima

[masonchar]

2 minutes ago, chamima said:

Thanks for your glowing report.

We were  on the cruise previous to yours - the 28 day Hawaii-Tahiti cruise.

I agree about Captain Lewis and Aaron and most of the entertainment around the ship. 

Many times i had to make a choice of which venue I wanted to attend since so much was going on.

Did you get to see the 2 girls in the Wheelhouse ? They were fantastic!!!!

However, the acts in the main theater for our cruise (other than the Production shows) were pretty bad so I'm happy to hear they found better entertainers for your cruise.

 

I have one question for you. You said no one was sick on your cruise. Over 800 people on our cruise had the flu (and those are just the people that actually went to the medial center) Did you have any sense of that? I wonder how they managed to have a healthy ship (maybe it's because they sent all of us home).

Wow!!!! 800 people with the flu.  I'm glad I didn't know that.  Might not have gotten on the ship.

No - we did not hear about that.  The staff were always cleaning. Handrails; elevators; tables, chairs, etc.  We had to wash hands before entering the buffet area. They encouraged us to use washrooms in our cabins instead of the ones in public areas.

We got the feeling that there was no illness.  It was often talked about among the passengers.  We felt fortunate and we felt safe on the ship.   

[sterling2]

16 hours ago, masonchar said:

Wow!!!! 800 people with the flu.  I'm glad I didn't know that.  Might not have gotten on the ship.

No - we did not hear about that.  The staff were always cleaning. Handrails; elevators; tables, chairs, etc.  We had to wash hands before entering the buffet area. They encouraged us to use washrooms in our cabins instead of the ones in public areas.

We got the feeling that there was no illness.  It was often talked about among the passengers.  We felt fortunate and we felt safe on the ship.   

We were on both of these cruises. Curious how you know there were over 800 people sick. Usually if there’s that many sick there’s evidence such as salt and pepper shakers disappearing. There was none of that on either cruise. We agree with the last sentence about feeling safe.  Captain Lewis was fantastic as were the crew. One of the best captain and crew on our 27 cruises.

[chamima]

47 minutes ago, sterling2 said:

We were on both of these cruises. Curious how you know there were over 800 people sick. Usually if there’s that many sick there’s evidence such as salt and pepper shakers disappearing. There was none of that on either cruise. We agree with the last sentence about feeling safe.  Captain Lewis was fantastic as were the crew. One of the best captain and crew on our 27 cruises.

 

My husband was one of those that went to the medical center. They gave him that figure there.

The doctor was awful but she did test him for the flu and it came back positive. He isolated for a couple of days (until he had no fever for 24 hours) but after he was diagnosed we started noticing just how much coughing was going on around us.

[sterling2]

1 hour ago, chamima said:

 

My husband was one of those that went to the medical center. They gave him that figure there.

The doctor was awful but she did test him for the flu and it came back positive. He isolated for a couple of days (until he had no fever for 24 hours) but after he was diagnosed we started noticing just how much coughing was going on around us.

The coughing on the 28 day was horrendous. Many of those people should have been in their cabins. Maybe some things will change for the better. We can hope people will become more aware and less me me me.