JamieLogical's Live from the Emerald Princess 12/18-01/02

[Priszm]

On 12/28/2022 at 8:41 AM, JamieLogical said:

Before dessert, out server offered us a drink called Amarula, which was delicious. It was like Bailey's, but about 12 times better? Going to have to see if I can find it when I get home.

Do you have a Total Wine by you? If so, you should be able to get Amarula from there.  Did your server tell your what it's made from? 

[ESCARGO]

59 minutes ago, Priszm said:

Do you have a Total Wine by you? If so, you should be able to get Amarula from there.  Did your server tell your what it's made from? 

I've sailed with Jamie previously and she is a fan of Baileys, which I  also like! When she posted that she was served Amarula, and enjoyed it better than Baileys, I had to buy a bottle for New Year's Eve! Jamie is correct, it is better than Baileys! It's also cheaper, and is from South Africa! 

 

Amarula is a cream liqueur from South Africa. It is made with sugar, cream and the fruit of the African marula tree (Sclerocarya birrea) which is also locally called the elephant tree or the marriage tree. It has an alcohol content of 17% by volume (34 proof). It has had some success at international spirit ratings competitions, winning a gold medal at the 2009 San Francisco World Spirits Competition.^[1] It has the taste of slightly fruity caramel.

 

[Robbie555]

5 hours ago, schmoopie17 said:

When we saw Cartagena on our itinerary, we were a bit wary...Columbia being one of the drug capitals back in the day. But we ended up loving it...our segway excursion through town was one of the highlights for us. Your pictures of flamingos, peacocks and the Old Town brings back some great memories.

You should definitely count your blessings in that up until spring, Cartagena, Colombia was an often skipped port of call because of Covid-19 restrictions. Originally, I booked a sailing on the Emerald Princess departing on Fort Lauderdale on 1/28/22 but rescheduled two weeks prior for two reasons. The first being Omicron and the second being the likelihood of a second cancellation for Cartagena, Colombia after the already announced cancellation of San Juan del Sur, Nicaragua. It wouldn't be fun to only have four ports of call on a 15-night cruise. In the end, my fears were correct in that Cartagena, Colombia was indeed cancelled as well for the 1/28/22 sailing.

 

I rescheduled for the 12/3/22 sailing and it was definitely a great choice in that Covid-19 testing was no longer required, and the scheduled port of call in Cartagena, Colombia went as planned and we managed to see 5 ports of call after Nicaragua was still cancelled, and I managed to meet great crew and fellow passengers.

Edited January 1, 2023 by Robbie555

[Arizona Wildcat]

On 12/30/2022 at 6:19 PM, abbydancer said:

Fun fact.  I finally learned why it is called "Black and Blue" onion soup.  The Blue is blue cheese.  The black is because they use Jonny Walker Black whiskey.  I learned this when I was on the Crown in September, and my nieces with Celiac wanted it (with GF bread) but were concerned about the whiskey.  They googled and JW Black is Gluten Free, whereas JW Red is not.  The soup uses JW Black, so hence Black and Blue.

 

 

Sadly had it twice in Crown.  Cold both times.  Flavor from the touch of whiskey and blue cheese was good

[johnjovi]

11 hours ago, Essiesmom said:

The canal pictures are captures from the Panama Canal webcams:

https://multimedia.panama-canal.com/

 

The others are from the Princess bridgecams:

 

https://www.princess.com/bridgecams/

Jamie's pictures are much better...if you are there.  But these help us to follow along. 

 

Don't fret if you can't get captures from the PanCanal cams.  I will be doing captures for that cruise for another forum that concentrates on the Panama Canal and can post on CC, separate thread if you are not doing a Live from...EM

 Thank you so much - I would greatly appreciate that!  I am not going to be doing a live review 

[nini]

8 hours ago, JamieLogical said:

 

 

The crew has definitely been great. I love them all. There just need to be far more of them in order to adequately attend to the passengers. Nearly all of the issues we encountered could be solved by having more staff.

 

This was my 11th cruise post-restart. I have sailed NCL three times and Celebrity seven times since July 2021. I have definitely not witnessed anything like this on the other two lines.

 

Edit: That was a little inaccurate. I did have one super slow dinner service on Celebrity on the Equinox for their very cruise back sailing. But that was to be expected. Newly trained crew, working together for the first time were not going to be a well-oiled machine. And on NCL, I was on the first Breakaway sailing back and it was a complete sh**-show at the pier on embarkation day because they were testing all passengers and MANY people had not completed their Bermuda travel authorization before showing up at the pier. Again, a fairly isolated situation.

 

Thank you so much for your answer and especially taking the time to do so.

[Cinerama]

23 hours ago, JamieLogical said:

After Clayton ate and Matt and Meghann had returned, we listened to as much as we could stand of the live music that was on offer at that time in the Wheelhouse. It was TRULY the worst live music I have ever heard on a cruise. Maybe anywhere? It was a guy on piano butchering popular songs to the point that you would need to listen halfway through to even be able to identify them. He had no rhythm or tempo, mangled the words, and just generally mangled the songs beyond all recognition. It was kind of like watching a train wreck. We should have just left, but at the same time we kind of wanted to see what would happen next.

 

 

 

 

 

Bert Stratton?

[Homosassa]

16 hours ago, schmoopie17 said:

 

 

 

 

When we saw Cartagena on our itinerary, we were a bit wary...Columbia being one of the drug capitals back in the day. 

We were on one of the last cruises that had Cartagena on the itinerary back in March 1985 (Sitmar Trans-Panama cruise, Aruba to San Diego).

 

The port stop was interesting. We were traveling with our then eighteen month old daughter. She was one of the six children on board ship.

 

The day before the stop, all the parents were called for a meeting with the Captain and Cruise Director. 

 

For safety reasons, they wanted all children to remain on the ship and had us fill out information on emergency contacts and any legally designated guardians. We were also asked to turn over their passports to be kept with the file. (Gasp!!!! All passengers had passports for the cruise).

 

Passengers could only go ashore on ship excursions and each tour bus had an armed escort on board.

 

 

Edited January 1, 2023 by Homosassa

[graphicguy]

Can’t help but getting a mental picture of the movie “Romancing the Stone” hearing about Cartegena.  Looks like a place well worth while to visit, though.

 

@JamieLogical…thanks for commenting on the entertainment.  I hadn’t read anything about it.  Sorry it was disappointing.  But, maybe a campy way of entertaining oneself? 😉

[EllieinNJ]

When we were on the Enchanted in November we enjoyed most of the entertainment except for the guy who sang at the piano at the Crooners bar.  He did have a good voice but all his songs seemed to be sung on one note and he changed up the melodies of every song that they were unrecognizable.  After the theater we always grab a capaccino at the IC and sit in the atrium to listen to the music but listening to him was almost excrutiating.

[KKB]

On 12/31/2022 at 10:17 AM, JamieLogical said:

 

Probably will not sail Princess again, but will DEFINITELY do another Panama Canal sailing. Would love to go on a ship small enough to do the old locks next time and I want to come once the Fuerte Amador pier is completed.

I wouldn't judge Princess based on the Emerald...Princess is our 2nd fav line after Celebrity. We typically find the service & food a tick above other lines.. I've sailed Caribbean Princess, Discovery & Sapphire in the last 6 mos. 

 

That piano singer...wild. I will say the main band on Encore last month...was, well, OK. They had a Bon Jovi tribute. We came in about 15 min. in & they were playing a song I had never heard! Then they were asking the audience "What do you want to hear?" Someone yelled--"Well, a Bon Jovi tribute should include Living on a Prayer!" NCL had them playing a LOT of differ genres...it didn't always work.

 

We had Panama Canal booked on the Emerald in April...this week we decided to change that booking to the Prima to Bermuda! I admit reading your review made me re-think the Emerald!

 

Edited January 2, 2023 by KKB

[KKB]

Sorry....duplicate

 

Edited January 2, 2023 by KKB

[Robbie555]

On 12/21/2022 at 11:27 AM, XBGuy said:

The backed up situation with the tendering that @JamieLogical reported at Cabo San Lucas is disappointing and must have been frustrating for the passengers.  I have visited Cabo San Lucas several times and have never experienced anything like that--and, yes, our ship was anchored along with one or two other cruise ships.

 

Typically, our ship engaged local tenders to facilitate the transfer of passengers.  I have learned that these local tenders are faster and can carry more passengers than the orange covered rescue craft that the ship carries.

 

My guess is that in the on the day of @JamieLogical's visit the local tenders were all engaged by the other cruise ships that were in port that day, and, so, the Emerald Princess had to rely on their own slower, smaller craft.

I wonder why this itinerary had Cabo San Lucas instead of Puerto Vallarta.

 

However, it looks like for the eastbound itinerary on 1/17/23 will stop by Puerto Vallarta.

[Robbie555]

On 12/31/2022 at 8:17 AM, JamieLogical said:

 

Probably will not sail Princess again, but will DEFINITELY do another Panama Canal sailing. Would love to go on a ship small enough to do the old locks next time and I want to come once the Fuerte Amador pier is completed.

Relatively speaking though, I'd say your sailing is still a heck of a lot better than the Holland American MS Zuiderdam eastbound Panama Canal sailing on 11/17/22 which had serious embarkation problems and also had to skip Huatulco because of a sick passenger. 

Lots of bad comments at:

 

https://boards.cruisecritic.com/topic/2895368-lousy-cruise-on-zuiderdam/

 

 

https://boards.cruisecritic.com/topic/2810515-december-03-2022-ft-lauderdale-to-la/page/17/#comment-64545379

 

 

[KKB]

 

From someone on the Ruby Princess cruise.

This is the Monte Cristo on the Ruby.

Looks more like a Cheese Frenchee to me (with ham & turkey)

Still not QUITE a real Monte Cristo (basically ham & cheese on French toast--REALLY not that hard), but clearly there isn't a consistent product across the cruise line!

[nini]

2 hours ago, KKB said:

I wouldn't judge Princess based on the Emerald...Princess is our 2nd fav line after Celebrity. We typically find the service & food a tick above other lines.. I've sailed Caribbean Princess, Discovery & Sapphire in the last 6 mos. 

 

That piano singer...wild. I will say the main band on Encore last month...was, well, OK. They had a Bon Jovi tribute. We came in about 15 min. in & they were playing a song I had never heard! Then they were asking the audience "What do you want to hear?" Someone yelled--"Well, a Bon Jovi tribute should include Living on a Prayer!" NCL had them playing a LOT of differ genres...it didn't always work.

 

We had Panama Canal booked on the Emerald in April...this week we decided to change that booking to the Prima to Bermuda! I admit reading your review made me re-think the Emerald!

 

 

Excellent advise! Do not judge Princess on the sole basis of the Emerald! I

Sad, but true.

[Cleckie]

11 hours ago, nini said:

 

Excellent advise! Do not judge Princess on the sole basis of the Emerald! I

Sad, but true.

I agree and although I enjoy reading all the reviews of the different ships I also keep in mind many things are subjective. What one person dislikes another will like. About to see what I think of the Emerald.  We will be on board in a few hours.

 

[graphicguy]

15 hours ago, KKB said:

I wouldn't judge Princess based on the Emerald...Princess is our 2nd fav line after Celebrity. We typically find the service & food a tick above other lines.. I've sailed Caribbean Princess, Discovery & Sapphire in the last 6 mos. 

 

That piano singer...wild. I will say the main band on Encore last month...was, well, OK. They had a Bon Jovi tribute. We came in about 15 min. in & they were playing a song I had never heard! Then they were asking the audience "What do you want to hear?" Someone yelled--"Well, a Bon Jovi tribute should include Living on a Prayer!" NCL had them playing a LOT of differ genres...it didn't always work.

 

We had Panama Canal booked on the Emerald in April...this week we decided to change that booking to the Prima to Bermuda! I admit reading your review made me re-think the Emerald!

 

You, @JamieLogical, @ESCARGO and I have similar tastes in cruising.  That’s why I value all of the posts I see from all of you.

 

I’ve been Princess “curious” for a while.  Jamie’s review doesn’t instill much confidence in me booking them…at least not in the foreseeable future. I’ll never say “never”…as never is a long time.  

 

MSC is next up.  But, that’s not until May.  I’m looking for something to “tide me over” until then.  Trying to nail down something on Celebrity.  But, the deals we got right after start up are a distant memory.  Still, I’m looking.

 

 

 

 

[Level six]

23 minutes ago, graphicguy said:

You, @JamieLogical, @ESCARGO and I have similar tastes in cruising.  That’s why I value all of the posts I see from all of you.

 

I’ve been Princess “curious” for a while.  Jamie’s review doesn’t instill much confidence in me booking them…at least not in the foreseeable future. I’ll never say “never”…as never is a long time.  

 

MSC is next up.  But, that’s not until May.  I’m looking for something to “tide me over” until then.  Trying to nail down something on Celebrity.  But, the deals we got right after start up are a distant memory.  Still, I’m looking.

 

 

 

 

Yes, we need all kinds of reviews to help us decide on future cruises. On my last cruise on the Island Princess  (30 days Baltic/Iceland) I had a similar experience as JamieLogical has had.  It was very disappointing.  So much so that we got refunds on our 6 future cruise deposits. We have been on Princess 200+ days and just have seen the decline, even before covid.  Sad really. 

[graphicguy]

31 minutes ago, Level six said:

Yes, we need all kinds of reviews to help us decide on future cruises. On my last cruise on the Island Princess  (30 days Baltic/Iceland) I had a similar experience as JamieLogical has had.  It was very disappointing.  So much so that we got refunds on our 6 future cruise deposits. We have been on Princess 200+ days and just have seen the decline, even before covid.  Sad really. 

Since the restart, I've sailed Celebrity, Royal, and NCL.  It's not just Princess.  
 

The only cruise line that came out of the restart and back to where they were (at least service and quality wise) was Celebrity.  

 

Enjoyed my NCL cruise, but that's because I had never done the itinerary before (NE/Canada) and some of my fellow posters were on board to hang with.  Royal was nowhere close to being remotely ready to go (little in the way of entertainment, lines to even get into the Buffet, etc).  Princess sounds like they're falling away in deep waters, too.

 

Celebrity was on point.

 

Point being, all these cruise lines have had 1.5+ years since the start up to get their "act together".  From what I've experienced, and what I'm reading, some can't find a liquor wholesaler to service them adequately (NCL).  Some have done big cutbacks on food quality (Princess).  Some can't seem to get their personnel situation corrected.

 

At first?  Understandable.  18-20 months later?  Inexcusable.

 

 

[megaphone84]

On 12/29/2022 at 2:57 PM, JamieLogical said:

 

@megaphone84 Can probably elaborate. I know they did a Gatun Lake & Animal sanctuary. They stopped at the canal visitors' center and saw a ship it two going through the locks. They took a covered boat ride on the lake and saw some sloths.

“gatun lake cruise and locks” was the title if I recall correctly. 
 

The tendering situation was a mess, our tour bus took us to the Panama Canal Visitors center first and I have no idea why they allow for 90 minutes at the stop. The excursion involved a large amount of driving versus actual activity which I wasn’t expecting. In 8 hours we spent about 1 hour on the nature cruise and it was the last stop meaning the highest heat of the day so most of the animals were keeping cool by hiding.

 

Additionally, there was a sick woman who insisted the tour bus was her way to get to a pharmacy because she didn’t want to take a taxi?? She knowingly got on the excursion despite knowing she was ill and that she would expose 37 other people to whatever she had going on and then insisted the tour operator drive around finding a pharmacy which really bummed me out. 
 

All in the excursion got us back 3 hours late and potentially got us sick so I would not recommend due to the logistics though the actual activities could be an enjoyable under different circumstances. 

[KKB]

2 hours ago, graphicguy said:

You, @JamieLogical, @ESCARGO and I have similar tastes in cruising.  That’s why I value all of the posts I see from all of you.

 

I’ve been Princess “curious” for a while.  Jamie’s review doesn’t instill much confidence in me booking them…at least not in the foreseeable future. I’ll never say “never”…as never is a long time.  

 

MSC is next up.  But, that’s not until May.  I’m looking for something to “tide me over” until then.  Trying to nail down something on Celebrity.  But, the deals we got right after start up are a distant memory.  Still, I’m looking.

 

Well we are trying Carnival next week & I am trying MSC next month!

 

The Caribbean Princess in July was the perfect return to Princess--the entertainment crew was FANTASTIC. They just had fun together & therefore so did the crowd. Then on the Discovery they also were SO much fun!! I truly believe a  good Cruise Director is key. My least fav cruise ever was RCCL; and it was the CD. He was a pompous A$$ who would show up at things for 5 min to hear himself talk or sing then leave it to his asst CD who was run ragged.

 

I guess as I ponder things--service, food, shows, CDs...as long as each one is pretty good, I'm happy. But if one is off....THAT is what I remember for that cruise. Don't get me wrong, I don't judge a cruise by one bad meal, one bad show by any means. I also try not to judge an entire brand either (that RCCL was our 1st RCCL cruise & we have sailed 2 since then & loved them both)

[Robbie555]

So how did you like your cruise?

 

Did you win the assorted awards and prizes that I suggested?

 

Did you befriend any fellow passengers or even crew members?

[XBGuy]

18 hours ago, Robbie555 said:

I wonder why this itinerary had Cabo San Lucas instead of Puerto Vallarta.

 

 

I would imagine that it had to do with port traffic schedules,

[Priszm]

7 hours ago, KKB said:

The Caribbean Princess in July was the perfect return to Princess--the entertainment crew was FANTASTIC. They just had fun together & therefore so did the crowd.

We were in the CB in August.  First time I've ever understood why people were always so concerned with who the CD is.  Kristoff and crew were superb.