Emerald Princess - did you like it?

[Colo Cruiser]

I was also on the Nov 16 sailing. I did not realize that US citizens started immigration at 7 am that morning. Non US started at 8am. We arrived a few minutes before 8am to a huge lineup.

 

 

That is because people started lining up at 6:30. :eek:

[horseymike]

we just got off the emerald princess today. had a great time. food was very good, the service was great, the staff very polite and friendly. we were extremely pleased with our cruise. i hope everyone else has the same experience.:)

[jt1120]

There were plenty of good things about the cruise. Hey, it's a cruise, right? What can really be all that bad? Having said that, if you've done 21 Princess cruises before, I think you may be a tad disappointed in the quality of the food on the ship, specifically the beef selections. Of course, by the time you go, whatever issue they had with our particular sailing may be corrected, so there may be nothing to worry about at all. I hope for your sake that's the case.

 

Or maybe they should go outside the Princess fold and find out what good food REALLY is. Sorry, that came out kind of harsh, and if Princess works for you, that's great. But with all of the lines we have cruised, we found the food on Princess to be the most inconsistent. I will agree with you that the beef was just mediocre, I found the pizza to be horrible (a BIG no no in my book), the breakfast in the buffet was never HOT, just warm; and stay away from the lamb as they just do not get how to prepare lamb. In contrast, I have had ONE negative experinece with food on three X cruises.

 

I would say that NCL does the best job with regards to the "squirters" on board. I only saw a few of them on Princess, and that was near the buffet. On NCL, they seem to be everywhere.

 

Call me stuffy and that I have higher standards, but Princess did not meet the standards that the other lines I have cruised meet.

[coiran]

Or maybe they should go outside the Princess fold and find out what good food REALLY is. Sorry, that came out kind of harsh, and if Princess works for you, that's great. But with all of the lines we have cruised, we found the food on Princess to be the most inconsistent. I will agree with you that the beef was just mediocre, I found the pizza to be horrible (a BIG no no in my book), the breakfast in the buffet was never HOT, just warm; and stay away from the lamb as they just do not get how to prepare lamb. In contrast, I have had ONE negative experinece with food on three X cruises.

 

I would say that NCL does the best job with regards to the "squirters" on board. I only saw a few of them on Princess, and that was near the buffet. On NCL, they seem to be everywhere.

 

Call me stuffy and that I have higher standards, but Princess did not meet the standards that the other lines I have cruised meet.

 

You must have very high standards, you asked me to say that, I won't call you stuffy though - we have found Princess' food on 21 cruises and several different ships to be very consistantly excellent - but then - we don't go to Ruths Steak house every night - we don't have one in town. And besides I don't think Ruths Chris Steak houses create 3000 meals every night. We also do not dine in the ship buffet other than for midday snacks.

Ron

[ISABELLA]

"In contrast, I have had ONE negative experinece with food on three X cruises."

We love X and big fans of Princess. Sailed more than 10 times with X and more than 15 times with Princess. So we remember old good days. They all are not that consistant anymore.

We just came back from Galaxy 2 weeks in Europe - food was OK, not great like we had before. While we were in Turkey, turkish buffet was offered as a dining option. Non of the dishes were eatable. Beef kebabs were so tough, we couldn't even bit them. Everyone complained about the quality of it - the worst food I ever had.

But last September we had fantastic food on Caribbean Princess. I think they are all HIT or MISS.

Still love cruising.

[jt1120]

You must have very high standards, you asked me to say that, I won't call you stuffy though - we have found Princess' food on 21 cruises and several different ships to be very consistantly excellent - but then - we don't go to Ruths Steak house every night - we don't have one in town.

Ron

 

You're right about Ruth's Chris. For my money, it's gotta be a Shula's! If you ever get the chance, take out a second mortgage and go to Shula's!

 

As for the Princess beef, Ron, absolutely no disrespect meant to you my friend, but I ordered pretty much every different cut I could in the dining room and they just weren't that good to me. Having said that, I will say that the porterhouse in the Crown Grill was awesome! The lamb wasn't very good either, but at least they offered it more often than RC usually does.

 

Perhaps you have had better experiences than I, and I have only sailed them once, but I did not like the Princess food (on the whole) as much as I have liked on other lines.

[Colo Cruiser]

You're right about Ruth's Chris. For my money, it's gotta be a Shula's! If you ever get the chance, take out a second mortgage and go to Shula's!

 

As for the Princess beef, Ron, absolutely no disrespect meant to you my friend, but I ordered pretty much every different cut I could in the dining room and they just weren't that good to me. Having said that, I will say that the porterhouse in the Crown Grill was awesome! The lamb wasn't very good either, but at least they offered it more often than RC usually does.

 

Perhaps you have had better experiences than I, and I have only sailed them once, but I did not like the Princess food (on the whole) as much as I have liked on other lines.

 

 

My 2 experiences with Shulas were a disaster, never again. :eek:

[sackman]

I don't think Ruths Chris Steak houses create 3000 meals every night.

Ron

 

And therein lies the rub as far as I'm concerned. I honestly believe that Princess does as good a job as they possibly can, but that the sheer volume of food that needs to be produced detracts from the overall quality. That's just my opinion, but I had to come up with some reason as to why the food on my last cruise didn't measure up to what I remember from previous Princess sailings. I'm goofy that way - I always need to try to figure out why something.

 

If I wanted to apply the scientific method to this, I would then test the theory by examining how things are done on another cruise with fewer passengers. Hey, what a great idea!!!

[coiran]

When I find nothing on the regular menu I order the "Tournedoes" They have always been served done medium rare as I request and are always Hot - no matter what ship. However we have never cruised on any of the Princess MEGA_GRAND ships - we will give it a try in March on the Emerald.

BTW - We never eat breakfast, lunch or dinner at the buffet!

Ron

[Jilumi]

I was on the same sailing and it seemed to me like every time I turned around there was some staff person squirting my hands with the sanitizer. The Noro virus broke out on the next-to-last day, and I think the staff did a remarkable job of doing what they could. I wouldn't say the food was awful, but it wasn't terrific, either. I personally had great service in the dining room. I guess it's a matter of who you end up with. My biggest gripe for the entire trip was the chaos surrounding immigration in St. Thomas.

The virus was not next to last day - maybe you were unaware of it-many people were not initially. I was on a ship (NCL) where the squirters were at the entrance of the dining rooms and buffets AND there was someone their making sure you used it. There was no disease going around at that time. Did you see anyone at the Buffet lines checking? NO!

My hubby, who eats pretty much everything, actually was put out on 2 nights. I've been on a few different lines and this was most disappointing. This was my second on a Princess. I'm also thinking that maybe service in dining room was not what I'm used to because the wait staff knows they are getting tips no matter what since they charge it to your room automatically.

[Jilumi]

The virus was not next to last day - maybe you were unaware of it-many people were not initially. I was on a ship (NCL) where the squirters were at the entrance of the dining rooms and buffets AND there was someone their making sure you used it. There was no disease going around at that time. Did you see anyone at the Buffet lines checking? NO!

 

My hubby, who eats pretty much everything, actually was put out on 2 nights. I've been on a few different lines and this was most disappointing. This was my second on a Princess. I'm also thinking that maybe service in dining room was not what I'm used to because the wait staff knows they are getting tips no matter what since they charge it to your room automatically. We had a great time because we were on vacation and saw quite a few different islands and I guess my standards are higher since I've been on 14 other cruises and maybe was comparing. Believe it or not, I am pretty easy to please!