Emerald Princess - Panama Canal March 23rd 2022 - a few comments

[kywildcatfanone]

I'm not typically one much for reviews, but we haven't cruised, like many people, in 2+ years.  Here are my comments.

 

Generally the cruise itself was wonderful. Ship was clean, staff was great, even though it's still mandatory that they were masks, even when working outside.  They were always friendly and nice, and a pleasure to be around.   Our cabin steward was wonderful, very nice and attentive, and we became friends with our waiter and had conversations with him every day about many things. 

The ship does need a break to fix quite a few items that need addressing, but generally she is still is good shape.

 

Weather was overall great except for the trip through the locks at the canal, but I think that's pretty normal weather for the location.  We were late leaving Jamaica because of strong winds, and that caused us to get back to Port Everglades late.  More on that in a minute.  One thing I don't understand is that the Celebrity Equinox was docked beside us and managed to leave on time despite being on the side of the dock where the wind was blowing, but we sat for 3+ hours waiting on the winds.

 

The Good:

As mentioned, ship was clean, staff was great, rooms were clean.  Lots of food options, even though you could tell they had many of the same items daily on the buffet, but didn't really impact us in any way.  Seems they make a lot of potato dishes.  Captain said we had 1970 on board out of  3200 possible passengers, and that was nice.  I now wonder what that would have felt like with another thousand passengers on board.  It was very nice that it wasn't overly crowded anywhere you went.  I wish it could stay that way.

 

The Bad:

I'm not really sure what Princess is doing, but out last few cruises, the cabin temps have been what I would describe as warm.  I don't need it 65 degrees in my room, but 70-72 would be nice.  Even though you have a thermostat in your room, you don't have that much control.  I think that is mostly controlled separately.  We did call maintenance and the guy came and hooked up to the thermostat with a device and said he could "increase air flow", that they limit it, and it did seem to get slightly better.  Luckily I had thought ahead and bough small portable fans, and we had those, and it made a huge difference. I don't like not being in control of my airflow in my living space.

As mentioned, there is clearly some maintenance that needs done when it goes into dock soon.  The worst I noticed was carpets needed replacing, and some of the rubber flooring and outdoor carpet around the pool areas were cracked and created tripping hazards.  Really surprised they had not patched those, as some of those bubbles were 1/4" high, and could trip anyone, and were right in the walking paths.  I mentioned it to a deck crew member, but never saw it addressed. 

 

The Ugly:

So, as I mentioned, because we were delayed leaving Jamaica, we got notice we were going to be late getting back to port.  Many people had to scramble to deal with flight issues, including us.  I do realized it's my issue if I book an earlier flight when something like this happens.  But my issue with Princess is how they handle the disembarkation process.  We had already signed up for Walk Off A because of our flight time.   And of course early walk off is important to both those with earlier flights and those who simply want off the ship to start driving home.  Most disembarkation's are kind of ran terribly, but this one was the worse I have experienced.

From our stateroom location app on the TV, it appeared we might dock a bit earlier than the note had said, so we gathered our things and went down to MichaelAngelo Dining room as instructed to wait.  We were some of the first people there.  However, there was only one person there trying to direct traffic and as more people showed up, lots of folks just started standing around in the hallway in from of the dining room and the IC area and waiting.  Princess really needs some rope lines, or more employees directing people in one side of the dining room and around to the other, and not allow people to just stand around anywhere near where disembarkation was taking place. 

As we got closer to being released, more and more people were crowding closer to the area, and there was no organization.  I heard a couple of people being argued with by staff at the disorganization of it all, and honestly, rightfully so.  They need a handful of people working and directing all traffic to flow.  They finally opened the doors at about 8:20am and there was a huge push immediately.  I'm surprised people didn't get hurt during all of that.  They need to create single file lines.  Very disorganized and dangerous, and I'm going to point that out on my survey and ask to speak to someone.  It really dampened what had been a wonderful cruise.

 

One other Bright spot:

My wife realized as she was packing at 5am that morning that one of her laundry items was missing and she had received someone else's in it's place.  We called down, they sent someone up to retrieve the wrong garment, and was going to see if they had hers, and a few minutes later he showed back up with her piece of clothing.  I thought that was kind of a miracle

 

Summary:

Anyway, our enthusiasm for cruising has dampened a bit.  The warmth of the room and the general behavior of passengers is making cruising a less enjoyable experience overall.  We did buy more FCD's while onboard, but will have to think about using them.  Might have to stick to newer ships, seems the bathrooms and showers are slightly larger, or maybe it's just that I haven't been for a while.  I know one of our last cruises, I think it was on the Sky, the shower seemed larger with a small foot rest area, but I don't really remember for sure.

 

 

 

[coo359a2]

Thanks for your review. We were on the Emerald for 3 cruises - January, February and got off when you boarded for your cruise. Had the opposite problem with our room on January cruise. It was freezing. After 3 tries,  maintenance finally found something broken and we then had heat. On March cruise our kids were on Riviera mid deck and cabins were warmer than they liked while ours on Dolphin mid ship was fine   
 

we have had 6 cruises since November and thankfully no disembarking problem like yours. Everyone waited in their assigned lounge or around the IC area. We were walk off A too and No crowding or pushing.when we started off. Of course the ships weren’t late arriving like on your cruise.

 

yes the big ships have a foot rest in their showers so showers do seem larger. We found all the crew - especially room stewards and the staff in Crooners- to be great and so happy to be back. 

  
 

[kywildcatfanone]

I just got my survey from Princess and the disembarkation process is going to be my top priority.  It was awful the way they handled it.

[gullgeorge]

Warm cabins have been an issue on the Emerald, Grand and Caribbean.  Only the Enchanted was comfortable.  We are bringing a small digital thermometer to stick to the wall above the thermostat to see what the temperature really is for the next cruises. Did not have this issue very often prior to the restart.

[kywildcatfanone]

51 minutes ago, gullgeorge said:

We are bringing a small digital thermometer to stick to the wall above the thermostat to see what the temperature really is for the next cruises.

I had forgotten I had one with me, it was in my toiletry bag, but it was buried under other stuff.  I usually have one with me for that very purpose so I can show them that it's not cooling the room.  This was also a balcony room, and I have always felt that balcony rooms get warmer than insides because of the glass.