LIVE from the Emerald Princess - August 4-11, 2024

[phonejock]

@Honolulu Blue Hi. DH and I are doing the exact same cruise later this month.( starting in Boston and ending in Quebec) When you get a chance, can you please let me know what nights are formal. NO rush. Thank you so much. I am looking forward to reading your live review. All the best Travel Safe😎

[High C's]

1 hour ago, Honolulu Blue said:

I checked around. It's Botticelli on deck 6 on this ship that's hosting the embarkation day lunch.

 

 

Huge thank you for taking the time to post this!  

[chrysalis]

1 minute ago, phonejock said:

@Honolulu Blue Hi. DH and I are doing the exact same cruise later this month.( starting in Boston and ending in Quebec) When you get a chance, can you please let me know what nights are formal. NO rush. Thank you so much. I am looking forward to reading your live review. All the best Travel Safe😎

not the exact same cruise.....the boston to quebec is 10 days....the OP's cruise is only 7, so the formal nights will be different.

[Honolulu Blue]

10 minutes ago, phonejock said:

@Honolulu Blue Hi. DH and I are doing the exact same cruise later this month.( starting in Boston and ending in Quebec) When you get a chance, can you please let me know what nights are formal. NO rush. Thank you so much. I am looking forward to reading your live review. All the best Travel Safe😎

The formal nights are the sea days - days 2 and 6. The latter us listed as "dress to impress". I don't know what the difference between it and formal attire is. Perhaps someone can enlighten me? Thanks!

[Honolulu Blue]

All right. I made it back to my cabin and have reviewed the paperwork left there. I guess I'll unpack later. Here are my first impressions:

 

. TPTB have already nagged us threee times about doing the safety briefing thing, and I'm sure there's more to come. Not my favorite part if the cruise, I assure you. 😝

 

. There will be a time change tonight and we'll change back just before we get back to Portland. 

 

. Oh joy, we have to fill out a Canadian customs form that looks awfully familiar. 🙄

 

 

Princess did helpfully provide some instructions in addition to the instructions on the form. They recommended we turn them in to our steward by 6 tonight. I think that's rushing things a bit, but who am I to fight authority?

 

. Speaking of cabin steward, I met mine. His name is Daniel and he we had the usual conversation about cabin administrative details. He also handed me a letter about my Platinum events and perks. He seems nice.

 

. My interior cabin on Baja deck seems standard, except for the hair dryer. It's old, but seems more substantial than the ones I've seen on other cruise ships.

 

 

. This is the first time Princess hasn't upgraded my cabin. I'm only a little disappointed. ☹️

 

. One of the nicest pieces of paperwork we got was a listing of theme nights by day at the trough.

 

No Caribbean night of course, bit it's nice to know when my favorites and not-so-favorites are coming. Thumbs up, Princess! 👍

 

. I got a glossy brochure with details about Princess and its cruises. Most of it seemed standard with stuff I already knew, but I found a bombshell in the fine print of this page. See if you can spot it.

 

 

All right, since when does Princess keep the casino closed on its Galveston sailings? I did one last year from there, and I swear up and down that they DID NOT DO THIS.

 

. My official review is "so far so good". There are 6 1/2 days to go, so the gang onboard can totally screw things up. I don't expect them to, but you never know.

 

Sailaway is in less than an hour. I'm looking forward to the rest of this adventure. I hope some of you are too.

[Honolulu Blue]

I almost forgot, this is today's newsletter:

 

 

[loge23]

We were on the repo cruise from FLL to Quebec on the Emerald in June and after 30+ years on Princess and dozens of cruises, this cruise was one of the best. Here's hoping for a similar experience on yours! The crew, entertainment, dining, and activities were all wonderful. Happy Cruising!

[Honolulu Blue]

Since my last post, we got nagged again about safety procedures, sailaway comes closer but we haven't left yet, the general emergency alarm was sounded as a FYI, Captain Jonathan gave us more safety instructions, and the Olympics is available in the cabins on two separate channels.

 

 

 

[Purple Gallinule]

We sail on Emerald next Sunday, 8/11, for Greenland, etc. We will follow your live reports. If you get a chance, please let us know who the Cruise Director is.

 

Thanks.

[Honolulu Blue]

A little while ago I wandered out and got a BLT burger from the Salty Dog Grill. The burger and fries were good, but... the skies were gray and icky and occasionally wet, the floor was definitely wet, some of the tables were wet, and we had some foghorn blasts. Either it was rough visibility out there or there was a lot of traffic out there.

 

When I went out, half the buffet was out of commission. I don't know if they eventually opened the other half. But the half that was open was quite busy. And the self serve drink options are limited.

 

In better news, I did get tomorrow's newsletter. 

 

[Purple Gallinule]

Does anyone know which dining room hosts the Reserve Collection dining? Thank you.

[walkingsoon]

7 hours ago, Honolulu Blue said:

I made it to the cruise port at 11 and made it onboard by 11:50. Not bad, all things considered. 

 

Thank you for that information regarding boarding time. That's a significant improvement from the experience of others earlier on in the summer. I'll be boarding as you debark. Please don't eat all the food in the buffet 🙂

[Thrak]

3 hours ago, Honolulu Blue said:

When I went out, half the buffet was out of commission. I don't know if they eventually opened the other half. But the half that was open was quite busy. And the self serve drink options are limited.

 

The buffet always has one side closed. They will rotate which side is open. This allows setup and take down of breakfast, lunch, snack, and dinner.

[wallyj]

5 hours ago, Purple Gallinule said:

Does anyone know which dining room hosts the Reserve Collection dining? Thank you.

Pretty sure it will be Da Vinci, Deck6 mid. IIRC, on Grand class ships, entry will be starboard side, non reserve collection will enter on port side.

[Purple Gallinule]

14 minutes ago, wallyj said:

Pretty sure it will be Da Vinci, Deck6 mid. IIRC, on Grand class ships, entry will be starboard side, non reserve collection will enter on port side.

Thanks.

 

[Honolulu Blue]

5 hours ago, walkingsoon said:

Thank you for that information regarding boarding time. That's a significant improvement from the experience of others earlier on in the summer. I'll be boarding as you debark. Please don't eat all the food in the buffet 🙂

I'm glad to be of assistance. And I'm happy to report things are apparently improving in Boston. I promise not to eat more than my share at the trough 🐷 (though it did smell good as I passed by). We'll be back soon enough. Enjoy your upcoming cruise!

[Honolulu Blue]

3 hours ago, Thrak said:

The buffet always has one side closed. They will rotate which side is open. This allows setup and take down of breakfast, lunch, snack, and dinner.

Oh really? Thanks for this note. I haven't seen this on the Royal class ships I've been on, but that was a couple of years ago. And I only saw it once for dinner on the Ruby when I was on her last year. But then again, maybe I was lucky about which side I entered on.

[paddingtonbear]

20 hours ago, Honolulu Blue said:

I'm not at the port yet, but getting closer. Close enough to get a read on what is apparently our full schedule. I've reviewed it and here are some quick notes:

 

. Lots of Olympics shown by the pool most days from rough 10 am to 5 pm.

. Plenty of music trivia scattered over different days. Will the other passengers allow me to win this time? 😁

. I don't see a basic Medallion and Internet class this time.

. Rock Opera on day 2 sounds interesting. Any reviews?

. We have guest vocalist Brianna Faulk in the main theater on day 3 doing the Chain of Fools thing? I think?

. Day 4 is obviously the 80s themed day as there are a bunch of entertainment items related to that decade. I'd prefer a full cruise dedicated to it, but I'll take what I can get. 

. Sweet Soul Music is on day 4 also

. Horse racing challenge on day 6. Is that what I think ot is???? We'll find out soon.

. We have an unhosted Social Media Influencer get together in the afternoon of day 6. I don't think Don, Ilana, or Allison are onboard, so I wonder who will show up this and why. I plan to be there, and I'm kind of influential (mostly in my dreams...).

. Farewell variety show is at 8:30 on the final day. I guess I'll take a look.

 

Note that a mention here doesn't guarantee that I'll attend, and I might show up for things that I didn't mention. 

How did you find out the detailed schedule before you got to the ship? 
 

[Honolulu Blue]

1 hour ago, paddingtonbear said:

How did you find out the detailed schedule before you got to the ship? 

I looked on the app

[Honolulu Blue]

Good morning! I hope you are all feeling well. I had a good night of sleep. I didn't do anything exciting last night, but I do have plans for today.

 

I watched the Wake Show thus morning and for the cruiser who asked above, his name is Lloyd. I don't have a last name yet.

 

 

Lloyd and his guest Eliko the Guest Services head, dusclosed that there are between 3200 and 3300 guests onboard. I believe it. The ship feels pretty full most of the time.

 

Except for breakfast. I think the time change scared a lot of people off. I don't normally do food pictures, but I can save 1000 words by disclosing I had this for breakfast. 

 

 

Also, I got a few items of paperwork before heading out. The most interesting offered 20% off certain excursions in Halifax tomorrow. Alas, none of the ones I'm interested in are on the list. ☹️

 

That's all for now. I'll talk again when I have something to say. 

[Honolulu Blue]

16 hours ago, Purple Gallinule said:

We sail on Emerald next Sunday, 8/11, for Greenland, etc. We will follow your live reports. If you get a chance, please let us know who the Cruise Director is.

 

Thanks.

I found out his name is Lloyd Flay. I'll post the complete senior officer board since I think it's important enough to have its own post. And also, our Captain's first name is Johnathan. I would like to apologize for misspelling it earlier. 

 

[Honolulu Blue]

I've done a few hours of exploring around the ship and have some spare time to report to you guys. All four of you. 😛

 

I went to the destination talk hosted by Jase Walsh. 

 

 

He's independent of the shore excursion crew,which gave him some extra credibility in mind. Also, he's a former policeman,  chronicled several epic driving journeys, and has visited 154 different countries. That's about 130 more than me, just saying.

 

I would estimate the crowd at about 150. I thought he did a good job at keeping our attention with information about the best places to see, etc., about Halifax and Sydney.

 

He was back to back with the next lecturer Cynthia from the shore excursions desk. She wasn't as good or as informative as Jase. She seemed inexperienced. I'm sure she'll get better at this as she does this more.

 

She covered all our stops, including Boston. When she mentioned this excursion, I thought, "Why loan falcon, why?" Give me alike of you get the reference. 

 

 

Now I think we're up to date. I have some things to think about with my explorations in the coming days. I already booked a tour for Halifax, this one.

 

 

And we'll see what I do with the rest of these ports. Later alligators. 🐊

[Pevil]

Do you know what time the Platinum/Elite lounge opens in the afternoon?  Past cruises, some were 4:30, others at 5. 

[Honolulu Blue]

3 hours ago, Pevil said:

Do you know what time the Platinum/Elite lounge opens in the afternoon?  Past cruises, some were 4:30, others at 5. 

Ours opens at 4:30

 

[andimark]

We'll be on the end of September  - thanks for getting us more excited!