Emerald Princess Review w/photos March 3-17, 2023

[Trish Traveler]

We booked the 2 ½ hour morning Princess Whale Watching Adventure by Zodiac & Swim Tour which happened to be operated by Wacky Rollers (they offer many different tours and are well reviewed).  The access stairs were right at the port where you get off the ship.  The zodiac appears to hold 23 people.  You wear a life jacket and sit straddled on a padded bench with a back support, so not too uncomfortable. Be sure to wear a hat with chin strap, as a baseball cap will fly off.   We weren’t sure how wet we might get, but on this day, just some light sea spray.  However, we had one waterproof camera and a cell phone in a waterproof bag just in case.  We wore bathing suits. Two guides onboard. 

 

It was a beautiful clear, sunny day.  The guide said we have an 80% chance of seeing whales.  We headed out about 4 miles, but we could still see the mountainous landscape of beautiful Dominica. The guide said he hadn’t seen that level of visibility from here in a while.  The seas were pretty calm, so it was a really fun ride.  We were towards the middle of the zodiac and it wasn’t very bumpy at all.  They stop occasionally to drop the hydrophone in the water to listen for whale sounds up to 2 ½ miles away.  After about the third stop, I was beginning to think we were the 20% who wouldn’t see whales, but it was a lovely day for a zodiac ride (although overpriced if we didn’t see whales). 

 

Then they changed direction and started quickly heading for another area where we could see a few boats in the distance so we were hopeful they had communicated that whales had been spotted.  Success!  We saw spouts and then whale backs as they did dives and a couple of flukes (whale tails).  There seemed to be a mother and juvenile humpbacks.  We were able to zoom in the camera for some close up shots.  No true breaching, but this was amazing enough to witness them swimming in the wild.  And it was cool to see the slick patches of ocean, called “footprints” they leave behind after diving.  So exciting and definitely worth taking the tour!

[Trish Traveler]

We saw the whales several times before we needed to leave to head to a cove for a quick break to swim and enjoy some tasty rum punch.  That was a great way to stretch and celebrate this successful tour.  Quick ride back to the dock.  We were very happy we took this tour!  We did hear one lady in the back where they had a couple of rows of three across say she was not able to see the whales from her middle seat, so avoid those seats if you can.

[Trish Traveler]

Back on the ship to change and get some lunch.  Roast beef was the featured carved meat today.  Pix also of some salads, the fancy cakes available (I’m not a big cake person, so I didn’t try it), and the last pix is the sandwiches available at International Café as well as the delicious cookies in the background.  After, we went briefly back ashore to check out the small vendor area.

[princess76021]

Wonderful wonderful!!!  

[Trish Traveler]

Later we were once again treated to a beautiful sunset with sailaway.  If you go all the way forward on Deck 15 port or starboard sides, you will see an unmarked door that leads to another door and the large viewing deck above the bridge that extends beyond the sides of the ship for awesome views.  It can be really windy out there. If the weather is inclement access is denied.  You will also see a nice view of the forward located pool which I believe is for staff.

[Trish Traveler]

MDR dinner of French Onion Soup, Cesare Salad, Asian Slaw, Mama’s Lasagna (DH really liked it and had it several times, I got Chef Boyardee vibes from it), Roast Turkey and I believe the Short Ribs.  Got an after dinner Mai-Tai in the Wheelhouse Bar which is also where the Salty Dog Gastropub food items can be ordered for a fee.

 

[Trish Traveler]

We then headed up to the Lido Deck for the Caribbean Heat Deck Party which was just getting underway.  Lots of pax out to enjoy this beautiful Caribbean night.  We were treated to the rising reddish moon visible this night.  Another terrific day.

[Trish Traveler]

Review of Emerald Princess March 3-17, 2023 continued

Barbados     March 10

We had pre-ordered the night before the complimentary room service breakfast with the card that goes on your door.  It came promptly and was good except he said they were out of bananas, which seemed odd (maybe they were all still green that day).  Bananas reappeared in the buffet next time we looked.  We turned on the TV to view the webcam to see we were approaching Barbados.

 

We pre-booked using Viator online for the Barbados Paradise Sightseeing Tour including the beach option, with the Beautiful Barbados Company (formerly known as Glory Tours, which is another highly reviewed company).  We have been to Barbados several times, but it had been a long time since we did an island tour, so we decided to see this beautiful island again on a land tour.

 

This port is really industrial and we had the furthest berth which required a shuttle bus – no walking allowed to the terminal building.  This really put a kink in the disembarking.  Luckily, we were waiting nearby one deck above when we were cleared at 8:15am  and got on the second shuttle.  It was a bit similar to tendering as they only let out 30 people at a time for the shuttle, so that you were not standing out in the sun waiting.  The shuttles were continuously loading.

 

The terminal building here is really nice as it is indoor and air conditioned with many shops.  The outside area where you load Princess Tour Buses and independent tours is very large, shady and pretty organized.  It was busy out here because Voyager of the Seas and the Britannia were also in port.  We quickly found our tour operator, but as expected we had to wait for others who were trying to exit the ship.  Our tour began about 20 minutes late due to this issue, but I am sure they are used to that.

[Trish Traveler]

We were in a nice air-conditioned mini-van with I believe 9 people on our tour, with a great driver/guide named Lisa.  We quickly left the busy city area up the west coast and up across the island to our first stop at Cherry Tree Hill which is on the beautiful grounds of St. Nicholas Abbey.   Here is a beautiful ocean view of the west coast, as well as a few vendors for souvenir purchases.   This island has a lot of wild green monkeys (I am not a fan of interacting with them).  Thankfully, the only one we saw this day was a pet here that was on a rope.  We also got to see the Steam Engine that happened to arrive while we were up there. 

[Trish Traveler]

Our next photo stop was at the picturesque old Morgan Lewis Windmill.  This historic windmill from the 1700’s is the last of the many Barbadian windmills once used to produce sugar, and one of only two functioning sugar windmills in the world. Nearby we saw some cute sheep that look like goats grazing (I think they are the Barbados Black Belly Sheep).

[Trish Traveler]

The highlight of the tour for us is when you make your way to the east coast traveling through Cattlewash and make a stop in Bathsheba which was named for its great beauty.  This is the magnificent wild east coast (too rough for swimming, although some surf on this side) with giant boulders looking like they were set there just for our photo ops!  This would be our tasty snack stop (which we considered lunch as it was plenty of food).  A picnic table was set and waiting for our group.  We were offered beverages of which we chose the local sorrel juice which was really refreshing.  Next came our plated Bajan snack of crunchy fish cakes, green salad, French fries and banana bread.  Delightful to eat while enjoying this scenic view of the ocean.  There are a few vendors here who’s colorful beach towels add to the palette for stunning photos. 

[Trish Traveler]

Our next stop was gothic St John's Church one of the oldest churches on the island.  We were able to take time to photograph and reflect inside, while also walking the grounds of the small cemetery in back with views of the ocean.  Buried here is Ferdinando Paleolocus descended from Constantine XI, the last Christian emperor of Greece.   Before continuing on, our guide let us sample some Bajan candy treats she had brought along for us.

[Trish Traveler]

Our last touring stop was back in Bridgetown, at the first British-built garrison in the West Indies at St. Ann's Fort in 1705. The garrison, which served as the regional headquarters of the British Navy, soon expanded to include barracks and a parade ground. This was a quick photo stop of canons and the Main Guard Building.  Nearby is a home that George Washington lived in for the short time he stayed in Barbados and survived smallpox.  We didn’t see it, only the sign, as it wasn’t part of the tour.

[Trish Traveler]

We were now ready for the beach portion of our tour.  We really enjoyed seeing more of this beautiful island, but it is a lot of time spent in the van.  And some of the roads are in need of repair and quite bumpy.  However, we are really glad we took this small group tour.  Lisa brought us to the Carlisle Bay beach area which is home to many beach bar clubs.  She walked us in to the Savvy on the Bay property where we were given wristbands which would allow us to have the included 2 lounge chairs and one umbrella per couple and a token each for a bar drink.  Naturally you need to bring your own beach towel.  She showed us where she would be in 2 hours when she came back to pick us up.  Some of the people on the tour were not doing the beach portion and she returned them to the ships.

 

The skies were partly cloudy and looked like it might rain, but it never did.  Beautiful white sandy beach.  The beach bar is cute and offers a large variety of drinks. We enjoyed a rum punch and a Banks Beer while relaxing here and then swimming in the refreshing ocean.  There are also some food trucks parked behind the bar offering a variety of food including some Bajan specialties such as Flying Fish Sandwiches and Bake & Shark.  You can also pay for a snorkeling boat trip that takes you out a short distance to see turtles and a shipwreck.  We saw these last time we were in Barbados.   

 

I walked the beach for some photos past some of the other beach clubs to the pier by The Boatyard Club which has some water trampolines and slide which you can use for a fee in their package.  Lisa picked us up and drove us the short ride back to the port, where we shopped in the terminal building.  Back outside we quickly boarded a very full shuttle (they use the fold out middle seats to hold more pax) back to the ship.

[Trish Traveler]

For MDR dinner this evening we had Rock Cornish Hen which was a replacement for the guinea fowl, and a fish we had never heard of but really enjoyed: Kingklip, which Google says is an eel fish.  It was all really good.  This evening was a production show in the Princess Theatre called Sweet Soul Music which I enjoyed.  Back in the cabin, along with our usual Patter, we received the Disembarkation Form you need to fill out to indicate your preference for leaving the ship on the last day of the cruise back in Ft. Lauderdale.  We never like to see these forms signaling it’s near the end of the cruise, but we were happy knowing we still had six full days of cruising left.

[Trish Traveler]

We are at the halfway point.  Review to be continued tomorrow...

[Carnevale]

What a fantastic blog!  Thank you for sharing all of this information and for the wonderful photos.  
 

With the new beverage pkgs I especially appreciate the bar menus you have shared.  If you happen to see a bar menu with the prices for cognac it would be great to see it.  I’m curious what each pkg offers by way cognac since for me that’s an occasional special treat.

[Trish Traveler]

8 hours ago, Carnevale said:

What a fantastic blog!  Thank you for sharing all of this information and for the wonderful photos.  
 

With the new beverage pkgs I especially appreciate the bar menus you have shared.  If you happen to see a bar menu with the prices for cognac it would be great to see it.  I’m curious what each pkg offers by way cognac since for me that’s an occasional special treat.

Thank you!  I'm not currently on this ship so I won't be able to check on Cognac.  I did see a CC member pointed out that the after dinner drink menu I posted #18, did not list prices.  This did show the cognacs offered.  Maybe one of the LIVE posters currently on a ship could check for you.

[Trish Traveler]

Review of Emerald Princess March 3-17, 2023 continued

I forgot in my Barbados day post that I wanted to post the pix of the International Cafe breakfast offerings and the sailaway of the Voyager of the Seas from Barbados.  We sailed her last September for a great New England/Canada cruise.  

And I have forgotten to mention our port times.  Our first 6 ports including Trinidad which I will review next were from 8am-6pm.  Coming up also will be a nice long day in Curacao 8am-10pm!

And Aruba 7am-5pm. All great port times!

[Trish Traveler]

Review of Emerald Princess March 3-17, 2023 continued

Trinidad & Tobago     March 11     8am-6pm

 

Well, we have never been here and know that not many cruise ships stop often presumably due to crime rates.  We were surprised to see it on this itinerary and after researching learned that it is on the US State Department’s Travel Advisory List as Level 3 (of 4) “Reconsider travel to Trinidad and Tobago due to crime. Exercise increased caution in Trinidad and Tobago due to terrorism and kidnapping. Some areas have increased risk.”  It was difficult to find much info researching on CC and TA. I was surprised there were no safety warnings from Princess. 

 

Originally, we thought about just staying on the ship.  But we also were curious to see a little of Trinidad and decided to book a Princess Tour for the safety aspect.  We chose the Highlights & Angostura Distillery 4 hour tour.  The morning tour was sold out but we reserved the afternoon 1-5pm tour when they added that one.  More on that later.

 

When we awoke, we were already docked in Port of Spain, but since our tour wasn’t until afternoon we decided to have a leisurely breakfast in the Da Vinci MDR.  I checked to see if I could order my favorite, Eggs Benedict as it isn’t on the menu, and they said yes.  It’s so nice to be served breakfast after too many in the buffet.  I was a bit surprised when my dish arrived with regular bacon instead of Canadian Bacon, never saw that on Eggs Benedict.  The sauce was also a bit dry, but overall it was edible and I ate it. The rest of our meal was fine.

[Trish Traveler]

We went out up on deck for photos of Trinidad.  Port of Spain is a big, bustling city, with a container port adjacent, but also views of some very modern buildings including the Hyatt Hotel right next door; and mountains in the background.  Also, visible was a beautiful structure similar to Sydney Opera House, which we later learned is their Performing Arts Center built to resemble Trinidad and Tobago’s national flower, the Chaconia.  In one photo, you can see at the bottom right all the identical tour buses for the morning Princess Tours.  Don't be disturbed by my panoramic photo that made the Emerald Princess a curved ship! 😲😁  From the other side of the ship we could see the harbor water which was shades of darker colors… definitely not the blues of the Caribbean we are used to.  Definitely wouldn’t want to be swimming in that water, not that anyone would be at the port. 

 

We could hear loud festive music and saw a very welcoming display of entertainers down below:  Stilt walkers, ladies in Carnival costumes and more.  It is actually a decent colorful port area with lots of photo ops.

 

We decided to head down to enjoy the festivities and check out the shopping in the terminal building.  It is small, but there are some very nice shops with a variety of items with very nice vendors.  There is also a display of steel drums as this music was “born” in Trinidad.

[Trish Traveler]

We headed back on board the ship to play some Trivia in the Explorers Lounge.  Since the bar here wasn’t open yet and we wanted a Mimosa and Bellini, we decided to give the NOW app a third chance.  I am happy to report our drinks arrived in 15 minutes and the Bellini was especially delicious! 

 

Afterwards, it was time for a quick lunch in the buffet.  DH really loves their grilled boneless chicken and a special treat for me today was the fried cauliflower and as always lots of fresh salad choices.

 

 After lunch we stopped by the pool bar to grab another healthy juice, but this time the bartender told us the computer was charging our account $8 for it.  We accepted it and said we would check it out with guest services.  The bartender just wanted us to know.   Back in the room, we received a phone call from the Food & Beverage Manager who wanted to discuss the items I had listed on the “How’s your cruise going?” questionnaire I had turned in the day before.  He also said he would remove the $8 charge as we shouldn’t be getting charged for the juice.  The bar items he said would be discussed with the bar and he let us know that some missing ingredients on the ship are still due to “supply chain issues”.  I was very appreciative of the fact that he reached out.  So definitely let them know any issues while you are on the ship so they can work to rectify them if possible.

[Trish Traveler]

Time for our Princess Highlights & Angostura Distillery 4 hour tour.  We headed out early and our tour guide took our first group of 15 people to the bus about 10 minutes early.  I believe one more bus of pax left shortly after us.  It was a very hot day and the A/C did not work very well. Our tour guide let us know that we would be going first to Angostura instead of first to the Botanical Gardens.  We weren’t thrilled, but understand the order can be changed on a tour.  Then she said it was a two hour tour – no, Princess sold it as a 4 hour tour (even though I’m sure all their tour times have a leeway built in).  A lady asked if we would still have the Botanical Garden included and the guide said Yes. 

 

Our guide Renee gave us lots of info along the way out of the downtown area to a more impoverished area on the short ride to Angostura.  We all got off the bus and then the Ango guide said he wanted to do the outside bus portion first, so we all loaded back on the bus to drive around the property to learn about the distilling of Angostura Bitters and the rum they produce.  Our guide, Renee also stayed with us for the entire tour. We got to see the molasses truck make their delivery.  We saw a small building that was built as a restroom for the visit of Queen Elizabeth in the 1950’s, but alas she never used it while visiting there. 

[Trish Traveler]

Back to the main lobby of the very modern House of Angostura to continue the tour.  We went into the room where the bitters are mixed and bottling occurs (which wasn’t operating at the time) and learned all about how secret the ingredients list is (no photos were allowed in that room). Only 5 people at any given time know the recipe of botanicals. Our Ango tour guide was VERY enthusiastic and detailed. 

 

One interesting factoid about the oversize label is that one family member sourced the bottles and another the labels, which were too big.  But they stuck with it and it is the off iconic look you see of the bitters bottle. This property also has a large lovely art collection in the hallways (no pictures allowed) that he also explained in detail. 

 

Next room was a special treat which is an extensive old butterfly collection by Malcom Barcant on display to view as another part of the tour.  Then came the historic section of info on the family and the history of Ango since 1824 – By this point our heads were exploding with information overload.  This tour was going on too long for us and others on the tour.  Again the guide was nice but just too much info and I think our bus guide should have told him that we were only allotted 90 minutes here.  Lastly, we still had half of the art collection to tour on the way out.  Rather than a tasting, they gift you a little bag with cute tiny bottles of bitters, etc.  The gift shop was closed this day, but we were able to later buy a bottle of Angostura Bitters and Rum at a store in the terminal building.

[Trish Traveler]

So two hours and we were finally back on the bus.  Our guide was asked again if we were still going to the Botanical Garden and she said yes, we had two stops we would get to.  Okay, onward to a quick photo stop at an overlook called Lady Young Lookout which had a hazy view all the way down to the cruise ship.  A few vendors up here.  Nothing special.  

 

We headed back down to the city to view from the bus the Magnificent Seven mansions which looked beautiful from what I could see, but I was on the wrong side of the bus and although you could see out the windows, they had a weird plastic film on them that really glared if the sun was shining.  It would have been a lovely block to walk down to view the mansions. 

 

Anyway we saw the Queen’s Park Savannah which isn’t much to see except a cricket team was practicing.  Now we know that the Botanical Garden is adjacent to this park, but we continued on to see a neighborhood that had beautiful homes where the Ambassadors from foreign countries live.  We started to get that Uh-Oh feeling that we were not going to the Botanical Garden as we saw the cruise ship ahead.  No explanation and the tour ended at 4pm, one hour earlier than stated and which still would have allowed us to tour the Botanical Garden for the short 20 minutes as the description indicated. We were very disappointed. 

 

Back on the ship we visited the Shorex desk and explained our disappointment and complained politely to the staff member.  He said others had already complained and he would investigate. The next day, we had a phone message from him stating that a partial credit had been applied to our account.  We think that was appropriate.  Oh well, ship happens, not going to ruin our cruise.