Emerald Princess: 10/31 Another Review

[sunshine426]

Let the instructor know that you are knew to yoga so he can demonstrate the moves to you. The classes were $10 per class. This class is a nice introduction to yoga. I am not that experienced. I have been taking yoga class for less than one year myself.

[rdsqrl]

Thanks! I'll definitely be trying it then. Wish me luck . . . I'm totally uncoordinated so no doubt I'll provide entertainment to everyone else in the class.

[tvaud]

When people post patters, they usually scan them or photograph them and place them on a site like Webshots and then they supply the link in a post here.

 

Some questions I have:

 

On what night was the Tropical Island party?

 

Were the formal nights on night 3 and night 9 of the cruise?

 

What movies were playing?

 

On the first day's patters (embarkation), what venues does it say are open for lunch?

 

Thanks so much!

 

Just jumping in for a sec... We were on the Emerald the cruise before(Oct 21) and although it's not published, the da Vinci dining room was open for lunch on embarkation day. You'd think they were guarding Fort Knox, and tried to direct us to the buffet several times, but I brought a copy of the Princess news article that states we now can....highlighted! It was taken from me, shown to the Head Waiter in charge, then we were hearded in, as to a speakeasy during prohibition. Once inside, we saw other savvy CCer's from our roll call, also enjoying lunch in the dining room. Come armed...with paper.;)

[sunshine426]

We had planned on doing that as well, and I did have the news article with me, but once we headed out of the cabin, we decided to head up for Pizza. Part of that was not wanting to deal with confrontation on the first day of the cruise!!

 

But I think it is a great tip and something everyone should know about and be welcomed to.

[sunshine426]

Thanks! I'll definitely be trying it then. Wish me luck . . . I'm totally uncoordinated so no doubt I'll provide entertainment to everyone else in the class.

 

One of the things I have liked about yoga is what I perceive as lack of attention from other participants. It is a very inwardly focused activity and most participants are assuming the different poses and postures and focusing on breathing, than paying attention to others. Wear comfortable shorts or yoga pants, and be prepared to be either barefoot and some socks with non slip tread. The instructor will walk around and correct positions so don't worry abt that. Come back and let me know how it goes.

[PescadoAmarillo]

I'm enjoying your review. Thanks!

[sunshine426]

Antigua: We booked a tour with "Adventures Antigua". The Eli Eco Tour. I found information and a review of this on the ports of call boards. If you would like to see pictures: look up PubsRuleAtlanta's thread. Wonderful pictures of this excursion.

We were to meet with Eli's boat guys at a local boutique less than 5 minute walk from the ship at 8:50am. They got there at abt 9:15 but I guess we were on Island Time. This was a dual hulled power boat that can hold up to 50 passengers, but they keep the number to around 25 for more personal attention. After stops at Sandals Resort and Sunsail Resort to pick up additional passengers we were on our way. Actually we were on our way before the passenger pick up as "Wun Love" would come by each group of passengers to tell them about the stuff we were passing. With the motor on it is hard to hear, but still got a good tour. We made several stops on this trip, the purpose not being a rowdy rum drinking day, but an exploration of Antigua's Eco System. We were offered the opportunity to hike up to several nice visitas for viewing of the Atlantic and Carribbean Seas. A beguinners snorkle lesson was offered prior to a lunch stop. Lunch was served on boad and was very tasty. In additon to soft drinks a local fruit punch and "Tamarind Drink" were served. No alcohol yet. We also toured a mangrove swamp and went to Hells Gate with a climb thru a cave to the top for another vista viewing opportunity. First Mate Treavor was always there with a strong hand and good advise for foot placement. After snorkeling we were offered tasty rum punches and headed back to drop off our resort passengers and to return to the ship. The ship was to sail at 4pm. All passengers were requested to be on board by 3:30 and we were promised to be back by 3:15. I will confess that this time schedule was almost a deal breaker for us as we like to have a cusion of time incase of problems. They had us back at the cruise dock 3:15 on the nose, and we were reboarding the Emerald by 3:20. I think this was my favorite excursion. AT $90. per passenger with all the personal attention and lunch it was a bargain. I placed a $20 pp deposit with my booking and paid the remainder at the end of the tour. Gratuities were accepted but not solicited at all. No tip bucket or verbal reminder. Also on this trip we were somewhat off the beaten path and almost always on water so we did not have soliciation by local vendors. I'll report later on our other ports of call. Please go look at the other thread and you will see wonderful pictures. One other thing I forgot to mention, my visor broke early in the trip, and I was frustrated because I like to shade my eyes from the suns glare. :( I was ready to steal Mr Sunshine's cap, but with his poor sunburned scalp, I was resisting. One of the other passengers, witnessing my predicament, came to my rescue with a spare cap to borrow!! :D Now I would have managed and had a good time without, but this was such a very kind thing to do, and I know I enjoyed the cruise more without dealing with sun's glare. Turns out that my cap lending friend was the BIL of the "PugsRuleAtlanta". Such a small cyber world.

[Cruzin-Keith]

Sunshine426....thanks for the review. We'll be on the Emerald in 5 days.

Where can I find the news article about the da Vinci dining room being open the first day?

 

Thanks

 

Liz & Keith

[sunshine426]

You might find it by doing a search on the boards, or post this question on the Princess boards and one of the regulars will more than likely post the link. That is how I found the news artlcle i the first place.

[sunsetbeachgal]

Sunshine,

 

Can't wait to hear all about what you did on the other islands as we do this itinerary on Jan. 19th. I've already looked at Eli's website and bookmarked it to go over with our group as it looks great.

 

thanks for taking the time to help us all!

 

Carole

[cruiselifers]

Sunshine,

Do you remember, or is it in the Patters, what night Italian night was in the Dining Room? We would like to book Sabatini's when we board and would like to do it on that night. I believe, if I can remember from this past year when we were on the Emerald, it was the third night, which would be the first formal night, but I can not remember for sure, the memory is the first to go.:rolleyes: Your help would be much appreciated!

[sunshine426]

It was the night we were at St Lucia (or rather sailing away from St Lucia). Night number 7. Is was also Italain night in the buffet, but I don't think they always were the same. I think this was the night we discovered the adagio bar right next to Sabatinis.

[sunshine426]

Barbados: We had no plans for this port of call. We sort of thought we would walk around the town and then maybe walk over to the Malibu Rum Place and the Malibu Beach. We got off the ship and walked into town. This was a long walk, but we wanted some exercise so did not take the shuttle bus or taxi. We had many many many taxi's offer tours etc, but we just smiled, said no thanks and kept walking. Did not really see much, so I think we went the wrong way. There was a lot of traffic and it was pretty smoggy. So, we walked back to the ship and went into the cruise terminal to find out where things were. We left, and found a taxi, at first we were just going to go the the Mt Gay Bottling Plant, but ended up letting him take us on an Island Tour. It was raining off and on. I'm glad we ended up going with this tour, as I was getting pretty bored with just walking around. We ended up at the Mt Gay place and had some tasting and made a few purchases. We went back to the ship around 2pm, since we had not had lunch, we had a late lunch up in the HC and then went back for a nap. Lesson Learned: Book a tour, either independently or thru the ship. Did not get to see any of the beaches, but did hear abt some of Barbados history, saw some churches, saw a black bellied sheep, tasted some rum. Next stop will be St Lucia. We had a lot of fun at the port, so it will be a more upbeat post!!!

[PugsRuleATL]

PugsRuleAtlanta's thread. Wonderful pictures of this excursion.

 

You can see the pics here:

http://gallery.me.com/tarreld

[sunshine426]

yea! Thanks for posting the link. By the way, when I am talking about walking around Barbados, I think you might have been following us. We were certainly walking around the same areas.

[sunshine426]

Sunshine426....thanks for the review. We'll be on the Emerald in 5 days.

Where can I find the news article about the da Vinci dining room being open the first day?

 

Thanks

 

Liz & Keith

 

Liz and Keith, the link and information is back the first page of the Princess thread. Anyone knowing how to post this link. plese feel free to add it to this review since it answers this question.

Sorry, family emergency kept me away from the computer for any length of time, on the other hand, CC boards are a great way to calm your mind when stressed by life!! I'll post St Kitts and St Lucia later today, if no more ED and ICU stays are in the works for family members.

[cruiselovincouple]

Hi all,

 

I literally JUST bookmarked this link this morning while reading the other thread on this topic. I hope this helps someone out!

 

http://www.princess.com/news/article.jsp?newsArticleId=na932

 

I know we were unsuccessful on the Grand last year but we didn't go between 12:00 and 1:30 when the dining room is rumored to be open and I was later thinking that it may matter WHICH dining room at which you make your attempt. I know we'll be on the Emerald on Thursday so we know to try the Da Vinci in between 12:00 and 1:30pm. Wish us luck, hope to see some fellow CCers there!

 

:D

[spingal]

Liz and Keith, the link and information is back the first page of the Princess thread. Anyone knowing how to post this link. plese feel free to add it to this review since it answers this question.

Sorry, family emergency kept me away from the computer for any length of time, on the other hand, CC boards are a great way to calm your mind when stressed by life!! I'll post St Kitts and St Lucia later today, if no more ED and ICU stays are in the works for family members.

 

Karen,

 

I hope everything is OK now. I was worried when I read your post. :(

[sunshine426]

Karen,

 

I hope everything is OK now. I was worried when I read your post. :(

 

Jamie, Thanks for your concern. Rich's mom's health has been very frail the past few years, and sadly we have become used to middle of the night phone calls and hospital trips. But she is a tough 87 year old who keeps bouncing back so we are blessed. She landed in the hospital last year during our Alaska cruise, but our daughters were able to step in and we did not have to fly home. This time she was back in the hospital within 48 hours of our return. The cruise did us so much good, as we really needed to relax and be away from the telephone!!

[sunshine426]

St Lucia: Yet another ship's excursion. We had planned on booking an independent tour of this Island, but the opportunity to view it from the land and sea swayed us over to the Ship's Excursion. This turned out to be a very popular excursion with many passengers. We were divided into smaller groups, so it was still a fun and very interesting excursion. We started our tour with the sea portion of the tour and were escorted over to a couple of catamarans. Further division onto the two boats. We ended up on the smaller catamaran, which was fine with us. After a safety briefing we began with a leisurely sail along the coast of St Lucia towards the Pitons. Our tour guide offered commentary at appropriate times, but also allowed for private conversations and just the opportunity to be sailing. We did tour a few bays, very lovely with a bit of the "Life Styles of the Rich and Famous" thrown in. We did sail into one bay and drop anchor for a two hour beach and swim opportunity. Also the opportunity to by any items from the local vendors. We did enjoy a fresh coconut, but probably paid to much for it:D. We had been told it had some very amazing restorative ability, but you need to have 'Young" coconuts. I'm sure we could all make some jokes about that, and many were made. Snorkeling equipment was offered at a nominal charge to rent. After reboarding the cat, we sailed towards the pitons and finally came to land. (After the swim, rum punch was offered). We switched to small mini vans to view the "drive in" volcano. This was pretty interesting although some did not like the strong sulfur smell. I thought it was a lot better than the strong diesel smell I experienced in Barbadoes!! Next stop was a working plantation where we had lunch and then a tour. The lunch was very good with peas and rich and some local breadfruit, plantains... The tour was quite educational, saw coco bean production, had some more coconut, but this time no charge and of course the opportunity for purchase. We did purchase some coco which I will attempt to make hot choclate with later. After reboarding the bus we made a few more stops and learned some "creole". We did stop at a fishing village where we were expected. Local vendors, but I liked the hand carved wooden bowls, that I hope were made locally(as we were told) and not shipped in from China. Eventually we returned to the ship. The bus tour was along some pretty steep cliffs and a few passengers were a little nervous, but we thought it was quite lovely. We restrained ourselves from Pizza when we got back, and enjoyed dinner more that night.

[sunshine426]

Ooops, meant to say "peas and rice", and since this is one of our personal favorite Island meals, we were pleased to see it on the menu. BBQ chicken was also served.

[spingal]

Jamie, Thanks for your concern. Rich's mom's health has been very frail the past few years, and sadly we have become used to middle of the night phone calls and hospital trips. But she is a tough 87 year old who keeps bouncing back so we are blessed. She landed in the hospital last year during our Alaska cruise, but our daughters were able to step in and we did not have to fly home. This time she was back in the hospital within 48 hours of our return. The cruise did us so much good, as we really needed to relax and be away from the telephone!!

 

Karen,

 

You and Rich are in my thoughts and prayers. I am glad you got time to relax and rest. I hope Rich's mom is back at home very soon.

 

It is so hard to see our parents age. My folks are still doing great but I worry about the day that changes.

 

Thanks for your wonderful review. I really enjoy reading it. :D Take care!

[sunshine426]

I loved meeting your family, and watching you and your dad jogging on the promenade deck. Last year we went on an Alaska cruise with my mom. After seeing Rich's mom decline and knowing my mom really wanted to do this, we asked her to join us. We had a wonderful time with her, and glad she saw all this while her health is so good and she is able bodied. It was fun to just have the two of us on this cruise this time.

[sunshine426]

St Kitts: I am not sure if I have saved the best for last or the second best!! We did the Volcano Hike, and it was an EXPERIENCE. Most of the time Mr Sunshine and I look to the more rigorous ship tours. We've biked in Alaska, We've scuba dived in Hawaii and also biked around volcanoes in Hawaii. So we tried to decide whether or not to hike the volcano or do the mountain biking trip. Both were full of warnings about being experienced and physically fit... yeah, yeah, yeah. OK, the Volcano Hike humbled me:o. I did really debate this trip. We are getting older(52,54) which we like to deny is slowing us down. Anyway, the hike. Up hill, 2.5 hours up hill, scrambling over roots, climbing up and over boulders and fallen trees, thru the rain forest. Being the oldest and biggest members of the group. Rich successfully climbed to the top. I persevered, and kept going, but finally came to recognize that I was not going to make it to the top before the rest of teh group would be returning, so very sadly and very reluctanly:(, I turned around. So with that admitted. I am very glad we attempted this. The rainforest was beautiful, the call of monkeys in the background was captivating and of course there is the allure of being covered with rich volcanic soil and sweat, perhaps it was a spa treatment.

There were aspects of this trip that I thought were unsafe, and am still struggling with how to alert Princess. Once I started to separate from the group the guide encourged Rich to go ahead and he would stay with me. It was a decision, but I also encourged Rich to go on, and I honestly felt I would make it up, I just needed more time. This guide constantly asked me if I didn't want to stop, did I want to turn back,. etc. I would look at each climb section and tell him one more and then I'll see. Turns out I was over 95% up when I asked him if the group would be coming back. He said yes, and that there was NO WAY I would be able to get to the top in the allowed time frame. At this point, I was ready to go up one more section, but decided maybe I should turn around so I could take my time on the return. Going down, looked like it was also going to be a challenge. I had one of the guides with me and another man who I assumed was a guide. When I determined that I was going to stop, one guide went on to join the group and left me with the other man. He was so hesitant, did not seem to know the way back, and I kept asking him if this was the right way, and he did not seem to know. He said he had only been up the volcano once. Luckily we ran into another group who were descending the trip and they had seem my husband with the main group and knew we were heading down. Their guide read the situation quickly and stayed with us for a portion of the return trip. He told his party of 2 that he could not leave the "lady" in an unsafe environment. I felt so much better, he advised me in the best place to put my feet and made sure we were heading in the right direction before they left for the rest of their trip. I still had very little confidence in my "guide" and indeed worried we were going to be lost. By the time we got to the bottom and almost at the end of the trail I heard voices behind us. It was one of the guides, my husband and one more couple, They had broken away from the group to catch up with us. At this point I was in tears, both from fear of being lost, from personal dissapointment and also from feeling like I was "culled" from the group for being weak. Turns out my "guide" was not a guide but a videographer tagging along on the trip.

If I was going on a land based trip to St Kitts, I would book this again in a heart beat. I was so close to the top, I should never have stopped unless I really wanted to. Mr Sunshine took many pictures, but voices regret that he went with the group, and also fear for my safety.

A snack ( cookies) were supplied at the summit and lunch was served at the base of the volcano. I did not want to eat anything, still upset. When we returned to the ship, we had some lunch and cleaned up.

Sore muscles and fatigue set in and dinner was bowls of soup from the HC that we took back to our room. We were in bed by 8pm and slept all night.

We laughed at each other the next day as we discovered a lot of muscles we have not used in many years!! I am glad we had two sea days to rest up. I did make it to yoga both days, and the stretches really helped my muscles.

So, was this my favorite or second favorite trip. I am still debating it.

Any questions: Let me know.

[sunshine426]

 

Saint Thomas: We had booked a shore excursion to St Johns'. It was an all day catamaran sail with lunch.

 

Sunshine,

Do you remember the name of the catamaran? Was it Heavenly Days? We did this trip last December with them and would like to repeat it this December if it is the same catamaran.

 

Thanks for any help.

 

Ok, finally downloaded all of our photos. The catamaran was the "Jolly Mon". I knew we had been consuming quite a bit of rum punches on this trip, but our pictures clearly showed this as well!! We had to laugh at them and our what were we thinking moments. Goodthing that "what happens on a cruise, stays on a cruise"!! (unless you post if for all to see on the internet;))