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

[Honolulu Blue]

1 minute ago, loge23 said:

Lovely aka (according to her) Big Mama, always brought the fun on our Emerald cruise in June!

Her asides on the mic are hilarious!

I didn't see much of her, only at this ticket taking and yesterday's horse race. I can see where people would like her.

 

Let's see if I can scrape up another photo of her from the B roll...

 

[paddingtonbear]

1 hour ago, Honolulu Blue said:

We were scheduled for noon, were called down at 12:20, I got through at 12:40, made it off the ship a few minutes later.

 

I'm sorry to hear part of your group isn't feeling up to snuff. Get well soon. 🙏

Do you happen to know if only those with princess excursions were called first or if others with private excursions were also called early? 

[Honolulu Blue]

35 minutes ago, paddingtonbear said:

Do you happen to know if only those with princess excursions were called first or if others with private excursions were also called early? 

I heard two things about those with Princess excursions:

 

1) They would get the lowest numbers or letters in order to get cleared and off the ship ASAP, and

2) Some excursions that were especially early were allowed to depart and told to go through this when they came back

 

I don't think private excursions were taken into account at all.

 

There seemed to be very little wiggle room about getting a different group number other than going to Guest Services and pleading your case. I didn't try this, because I had no need to. I didn't hear of anyone who tried this, though my circle of information is small.

 

I'm sorry for the circular answer. It's the best I can do.

[Honolulu Blue]

I'll split the evening into two posts. This first one will be about dinner. The other one will be about entertainment. 

 

BTW, no newsletter for tomorrow as this is our last evening onboard.

 

OK, I went to Planks BBQ for dinner. What a difference! I was greeted instantly, seated promptly, got ice cold water early and often, and received my courses insanely quickly. And they had smiles on like they valued my business. Gotta give these guys an A++ for service,  or a 10/10 on the cruise ship survey scale.

 

But how was the food? I'm glad you asked. I got a double order of ribs and chocolate cake. Again, no appetizer. The main course came with several sides.

 

BTW, this is the absolute last food picture of this LIVE trip report.

 

 

The slices of cornbread were separate. They were slightly sweetened and were just OK. They were the least tasty thing I had here.

 

The pickle slices and onion rings were good, as were the fries. The cake was nice, but not memorably so. I'm going to remember the lemon pousset from the Gastropub for much longer than the cake.

 

The ribs were very good, but then again, I like my ribs from whatever source I can get them. Tastewise, they were about even with the ribs I got from the MDR on the Carnival Dream in January.

 

I should note that there was much more seating here than in the Gastropub. I estimate the Pub would seat about 50, vs. the 150 or so here. It took a significant bite out of the buffet's seating room, though this side of the buffet wasn't open this evening. 

 

I absolutely recommend this place if you like ribs, like being treated well while dining, or are sick of the runaround at the evening trough. Whether this is better than the MDR experience is a question someone else will have to answer. 

 

Getting in and out in 35 minutes was very nice - similar to casual restaurant experiences on land that I've had.

 

Again, here's the menu:

 

Edited August 10 by Honolulu Blue

[Honolulu Blue]

This post is brought to you by the letters H and C, and the number 14.

 

 

After dinner, I stopped by the Explorers Lounge for some Elton John trivia. This isn't my best category, but I did OK here when combined with Mr. Joel on Carnival. And there wasn't much of a crowd (the lounge was only half full), so I thought I had an outside shot.

 

Assistant CD C.S. hosted this one. I was happy for this, because he seemed like a such a bundle of energy.

 

This was a straight 20 song clip quiz. No need for the artist, because we already knew who sung all of these. 😁 And the release date was not asked for, thank goodness. 

 

I knew most of them. A couple I should have gotten, like Honky Cat. 😺 And a few only the zealots were going to get. 

 

Alas, we had at least one team of zealots that got 19 out of 20. They got the bottle of bubbly.

 

BTW, I got 14 - a quite respectable score considering everything. 

 

[paddingtonbear]

12 hours ago, Honolulu Blue said:

I heard two things about those with Princess excursions:

 

1) They would get the lowest numbers or letters in order to get cleared and off the ship ASAP, and

2) Some excursions that were especially early were allowed to depart and told to go through this when they came back

 

I don't think private excursions were taken into account at all.

 

There seemed to be very little wiggle room about getting a different group number other than going to Guest Services and pleading your case. I didn't try this, because I had no need to. I didn't hear of anyone who tried this, though my circle of information is small.

 

I'm sorry for the circular answer. It's the best I can do.

Thank you very much.  That's exactly what I needed to know.  🙂

[Honolulu Blue]

We have made it back to Boston! Disembarking is scheduled to start in an hour, but let's see if we can get off faster.

 

There was barely anyone at the breakfast buffet this morning. It surprised me too; usually I've found the trough to be swarmed on debark morning. There were a few changes with this breakfast. I ended up with scrambled eggs, English bacon, chicken, pineapple, OJ, and apple juice. It was all as good as usual. 

 

I finished packing in the usual 15 minutes and now I wait for TPTB to let me go.

 

Also, I noticed a couple of oddities on what is probably going to be my final folio. First, I was charged 18% service fees for both my casual dining trips. That added about $3 to the total for each. Then I was charged 8% sales tax for my trip to Planks. We hadn't left port, so I suppose that checks out.

Edited August 11 by Honolulu Blue

[Honolulu Blue]

Are you ready to hear the tale of the EASIST DISEMBARKATION EVER? You may think I'm exaggerating, but as you'll see, I am not. This was cruise #31 and I've never had such an easy time getting off the ship.

 

Around 7:15 I went to the main theater, my meeting point for the self assist group. People were being let out of there already, so I followed them put the door, to the checkout point, into the terminal, and outside. 

 

No passport check, no Customs form hand-off, no quizzing from CBP agents, not even a look into one of those pretty kiosks. 

 

I was done with the cruise and they were done with me. It took me longer to figure this out than to go through the line.

 

Where I ended up was very close to where I embarked the ship. The taxis for  transportation to the airport or wherever were right there. The shuttle buses were a short walk away. The rideshare pickups, the option I chose, were a quarter of a mile away by foot. There was a nice view of the rear of the ship from there.

 

 

There's a Dunkin on this street and that's where I chose to have my Lyft pick me up. The ride was short (10 minutes) and and the tariff was relatively low ($23 including tip).

 

And now I'm at the airport near my gate. There are several hours until we fly out, so I'll just chill until then.

Edited August 11 by Honolulu Blue

[paddingtonbear]

Thank you very much for sharing your trip with us. Travel safe!

[susancruzs]

Thanks so much, enjoyed your posts!  Can't wait for my Oct. cruise, Quebec to Ft. Lauderdale, should be a fun one.  

 

I do the NE cruise like going to the Caribbean over and over, 4 or 5th one, I think, TAs, too!  I'm on the '25 Fall Emerald, Northern Lights plus TA.  See a pattern here?  Cold weather type!

[Derbie]

On 8/8/2024 at 3:52 PM, Honolulu Blue said:

It's funny that I saw this post as this was placed under my cabin door:

 

 

Apparently this is what's about to go down. I've heard of similar inspections by others, but this is the first time it's happened to me. 

 

We'll see what happens. If it goes according to this written plan, it shouldn't be TOO bad, but as always, the devil is in the details. 

We are on the Emerald in October, and our port time is 10:00AM-9:00 PM for Portland.  We are looking at a private excursion that leaves at 12:00 pm. The departure spot is close to the port.  Given your experience; would you recommend we consider a different excursion, a little later in the day?  Thanks for the great information you have shared.

[Honolulu Blue]

8 minutes ago, Derbie said:

We are on the Emerald in October, and our port time is 10:00AM-9:00 PM for Portland.  We are looking at a private excursion that leaves at 12:00 pm. The departure spot is close to the port.  Given your experience; would you recommend we consider a different excursion, a little later in the day?  Thanks for the great information you have shared.

Thank you for your kind words.

 

With what I went through, I think it's too unlikely you will make your noon appointment. You should try for a later excursion if you can get one, or consider a similar Princess excursion, extract a promise that you can get a refund if you're late off the ship due to immigration issues, or make them promise to wait for you no matter how long it takes.

[swimmingpoolguy]

THANK YOU for such a fun and engaging live review! I don't comment much on CC but I do enjoy reading the live reviews from members that write (type?) great stories - I've read a few of your previous ones and now finally have the chance to say something while your live is just finishing up. You have a great balance of telling and showing with your words and photos. It was also neat to learn there is a "B roll" of photos that don't make the cut for the posts - because I was just thinking you are always this ace photographer and every shot comes out perfect! 

 

Safe travels home! For both you and Hudson 😀

[peanutter]

Another Thank You for sharing your journey.  We board the Emerald on the 28th in Boston with a bit of a different itinerary but hearing about the ship and the ports you had was very helpful and informative.  It's been a while since we've been on one of Princess' older ships and it's good to refresh my memory about a few things. 

 

Wishing you continued safe travels!

[LynnSD]

Thank you for sharing your trip.  We’ll be onboard in October, and you had  some good tips.  
I wasn’t able to book the MDR for our preferred time a couple of nights, so now I’m inspired to try the alternate options - Planks etc.  
 

[Honolulu Blue]

47 minutes ago, swimmingpoolguy said:

THANK YOU for such a fun and engaging live review! I don't comment much on CC but I do enjoy reading the live reviews from members that write (type?) great stories - I've read a few of your previous ones and now finally have the chance to say something while your live is just finishing up. You have a great balance of telling and showing with your words and photos. It was also neat to learn there is a "B roll" of photos that don't make the cut for the posts - because I was just thinking you are always this ace photographer and every shot comes out perfect! 

 

Safe travels home! For both you and Hudson 😀

Thank you for your kind words. 

 

I'm not convinced I'm an ace photographer at all. I do have some advantages in that 1) I'm here, 2) I carry my cell phone with me almost everywhere, 3) the tools and lenses in the integrated camera are very forgiving, and 4) 20 years ago, real photographers would have given their first born to have the tools I have in this cell phone.

 

I shared, what, 50 to 100 photos here in this thread? I'm too lazy to count. I probably took over 500. Many are duplicates, some are just signs and other items to remind me of where I am or where I was.

 

And for some reason my flight out of Boston is being delayed for another 3 1/2 hours. ☹️ I like it here well enough, but it's time to go.

[Honolulu Blue]

28 minutes ago, peanutter said:

Another Thank You for sharing your journey.  We board the Emerald on the 28th in Boston with a bit of a different itinerary but hearing about the ship and the ports you had was very helpful and informative.  It's been a while since we've been on one of Princess' older ships and it's good to refresh my memory about a few things. 

 

Wishing you continued safe travels!

And thank you! Have fun on your trip on the Emerald. She isn't all bad!! 🤣

[Honolulu Blue]

12 minutes ago, LynnSD said:

Thank you for sharing your trip.  We’ll be onboard in October, and you had  some good tips.  
I wasn’t able to book the MDR for our preferred time a couple of nights, so now I’m inspired to try the alternate options - Planks etc.  

Thank you! Planks and the Gastropub definitely offer good food if you can live with their limited menus, limited hours, and service fees.

 

Have fun with whatever you decide to do!

[Honolulu Blue]

Hi everyone.  I wanted to take a few moments to list some of my thoughts and conclusions about this cruise and Princess in general.  They won't be in any order and this post will probably run long, so I don't blame you if you read about @JamieLogical and her more current adventures instead:

 

• In thinking about my near miss at 80s music trivia, could I have won if I had been more aggressive about joining a team?  Perhaps.  But for several complex reasons, I think the teams and I would have been better without each other.  Moving on...
• Both stops in Nova Scotia were very Scottish.  I didn't know about this, even though the hint should have been in the name itself.  I wonder if my favorite Scottish singer knows about this place.  She probably does, and she's probably been there a time or two.  NOTE:  This photo was taken on another cruise, NOT this one:
• 
• Cape Breton Island as an identifier was a Very Big Deal on Sydney and surrounding areas.  It even has its own flag.  It seems a little weird to me, as if the U.P. of Michigan had its own flag (I don't know if they do), or if the Conch Republic was more than a pipe dream, but whatever.  I can play along.
• 
• We generally had good weather last week.  The rain in Boston held off until after we left.  There was early morning rain in both Halifax and Portland, but both days they cleared up by the time we got to the port.  Most highs during the day were in the 70s, but Portland got to the mid-80s - which was a little bit more like the Caribbean for my tastes.
• If I had a choice of taking a Caribbean cruise in July or August, or a repeat of this cruise, I'd take a repeat.  That's even given the cons of this cruise.
• Princess showed off their good service onboard.  I expected it, and I got it.  It's the one thing I can now rely on onboard.
• The app generally worked well for me.  One irritation was that there was about a 10 second lag between the time of bookmarking and getting an acknowledgement that the event had been bookmarked.  Individually it's a small thing, but when you've got 30 events to bookmark, it adds up.
• WiFi worked well for me.  There were some random hiccups that lasted up to a few seconds.  I was able to stream Peacock and YouTube easily with minimum interruptions.  This was despite never getting a speed test score above 3 mbps.  I've gotten better on my other Princess cruises everywhere else.
• I apologize for the following organized events that I missed:  my roll call's meet and greet, the Captain's Circle party, and the social media event.  I hope that everyone can find it in their hearts to forgive me. 🙏
• It seems that the side of the trough that was closed was the same for the entire week per meal.  One side was closed for every breakfast and the other side was closed for every dinner.  I've said enough about how I feel about that 🤬, so let's move on again.
• It was no problem answering questions from you guys onboard.  I was happy to do what I could.
• The awkward look on Lloyd's face when he had to prematurely confess that he was leaving the ship with most of the rest of us was very interesting.  Thanks @wallyj.  I have a video capture of that, but I'll spare you guys its amateurishness (by me, not Lloyd).
• I love flying out of my local airport and wish I could do it more often.  It was a 3-minute walk to the terminal from the long-term parking lot, another 10 seconds to security, and 1-2 minutes to any of our gates.  No monorails or moving sidewalks needed. 🙂
• Boston's airport wasn't bad.  I found it fairly easy to get around and through.  I've been through many worse.
• Delta gave us some free earbuds on the way into BOS.  That was nice because I had forgotten my headphones.
• Overall, we got four nagging messages about watching the video and/or checking in at the muster station.  
• FYI, our initial sailaway was moved from outdoors to the Piazza due to rain in Boston.  I didn't attend.
• Four nice things about having an interior cabin on Baja:  I didn't have to hear the more-than-occasional foghorn blasts.  I felt little movement.  Most locations were only a few flights away.  And I didn't have to deal with sunlight.  I'll certainly consider choosing another one on my future Princess cruises.
• And yes, there will be more Princess cruises for me in the future.  I had scheduled two before this cruise for late 2025 and found no reason to cancel either of them.  Unless Johnny does The Right Thing and schedules more 80s themed cruises, I can't imagine scheduling any more cruises on Princess before mid-2026.
• FYI - after you've finished dessert in either the Salty Dog Gastropub or Planks BBQ, there's nothing to sign for, so you can just leave.
• One random stat that stuck with me from Captain Johnathan is that when we were in Halifax, at one point nearly 90% of passengers were off the ship.  This was surprising and impressive, especially since we were tendering and had a bunch of... seasoned passengers.  I wonder about this figure in other of our port I've been to.  
• I found my favorite seat in Explorers for trivia.  It was in front, but off to the side.  I don't think any of the hosts paid much attention to me.  That's fine; if I had won, we would have found each other.
• Three stories about Reg, our shopping concierge.  First, he was on the Wake Show as Lloyd's guest three times, more than anyone.  Second, I met him outside the shops.  He gave me a raffle ticket for one of their drawings.  He seemed as smooth and nice as he was on the show.  And third, he came on one of the shows wearing a pink diamond bracelet.  It worked for him, but I don't think it would ever work for me.
• The city of Sydney has about 31,000 people, so our visit increased the population by about 10% on that day.
• Other than Halifax, I didn't see any other cruise ships with us.  Where did they all go?
• I never did find out how Dress to Impress night was different than Formal Night
• Mr. Whitney built a steel plant in Sydney (Whitney Pier).  I mentioned a few pages back that he built a coal mine here.  I apologize for the error.
• The bus we had on our tour had lap & shoulder belts.  I don't think the buses on either of my other tours had them.  And they're rare on other tours I've taken.
• Quick shoutout to Benny, my seatmate on this excursion around Sydney.  Hi Benny.  I hope you're not scarred by the experience. 😁
• I also described Sydney's Big Fiddle as a violin.  It is, in fact, a fiddle.  I apologize for this error.
• 
• Our assistant CD Holly was from near Toronto, Ontario, Canada
• 
• The most crowded day at the buffet was the day we docked at Charlottetown, PEI, and it still wasn't too bad compared to other of my cruises.
• The biggest industry on PEI is agriculture and potatoes are the biggest crop.  They're the biggest grower of potatoes in Canada other than Alberta.  Most are made into french fries.
• Of PEI's 1.6 million yearly visitors, 160,000 were by cruise ship (92 of them).
• Lloyd reminded us that any glitches with the television should NOT reduce the entertainment score.

 

On the off chances that someone cares, my next cruises are the following:

 

• October 2024, Royal's Ovation OTS, Transpacific
• January 2025, Royal's Serenade OTS, Western Caribbean
• February 2025, Norwegian Pearl, Western Caribbean
• March 2025, Royal's Explorer OTS, Eastern Caribbean

 

The last three of these are music charter cruises.

 

I'd like to thank everyone for stopping by.  Maybe we'll meet on some cruise in the future.  Be sure to say hi if you can find me. 😄

Edited August 14 by Honolulu Blue

[memoak]

On 8/11/2024 at 5:19 AM, Honolulu Blue said:

Are you ready to hear the tale of the EASIST DISEMBARKATION EVER? You may think I'm exaggerating, but as you'll see, I am not. This was cruise #31 and I've never had such an easy time getting off the ship.

 

Around 7:15 I went to the main theater, my meeting point for the self assist group. People were being let out of there already, so I followed them put the door, to the checkout point, into the terminal, and outside. 

 

No passport check, no Customs form hand-off, no quizzing from CBP agents, not even a look into one of those pretty kiosks. 

 

I was done with the cruise and they were done with me. It took me longer to figure this out than to go through the line.

 

Where I ended up was very close to where I embarked the ship. The taxis for  transportation to the airport or wherever were right there. The shuttle buses were a short walk away. The rideshare pickups, the option I chose, were a quarter of a mile away by foot. There was a nice view of the rear of the ship from there.

 

 

There's a Dunkin on this street and that's where I chose to have my Lyft pick me up. The ride was short (10 minutes) and and the tariff was relatively low ($23 including tip).

 

And now I'm at the airport near my gate. There are several hours until we fly out, so I'll just chill until then.

Many ports now use facial recognition for customs and will only stop you if you don’t have a facial match in their database. Also you often go through US immigration when you board such as Vancouver - Whittier cruises 

[cgolf1]

On 8/10/2024 at 1:39 PM, loge23 said:

Lovely aka (according to her) Big Mama, always brought the fun on our Emerald cruise in June!

Her asides on the mic are hilarious!

 

She was amazing and we went to some of the game shows more to see her perform than the game show. We did also do the stargazing that she hosted and was great to see a different side of her. I hope that she becomes a CD soon, she adds a lot to the cruise.

 

As an aside we had an older lady, Deloris, that was doing many cruises in a row that also was awesome and spiced up some of the shows.

[loge23]

Nice job, @HonoluluBlue! Thank you for taking the time!

Happy Cruising to you with your upcoming itineraries!

[andimark]

1 hour ago, loge23 said:

Nice job, @HonoluluBlue! Thank you for taking the time!

Happy Cruising to you with your upcoming itineraries!

I couldn't have said it better!

[Honolulu Blue]

3 hours ago, memoak said:

Many ports now use facial recognition for customs and will only stop you if you don’t have a facial match in their database. Also you often go through US immigration when you board such as Vancouver - Whittier cruises 

I've been through facial recognition in several ports, mostly successfully.  This didn't happen in Boston, at least not to me.  Perhaps the ladies and gentlemen in Portland got everything they needed in Portland?  I assume so.

 

I'm trying to remember what happened in Vancouver and Maui on my cruise between those two locations.  I know for sure I passed through Canadian immigration at the Vancouver airport.  I might have passed through some form of immigration and/or customs at the terminal, but I couldn't swear to it.  It was a long time ago.

[basketcasena]

We are a 10 day in Oct.  so excited.  We have never done a Princess before, so interested in seeing all of your information.  Thank you.