Princess Cruise 2010 Part 2

I want to continue my review of the Emerald Princess. I had mentioned that I would be discussing some more of the ship herself and then briefly talk about the ports of call.

The ship has some quirks that I want to mention. The best way to describe them is to simply call them “dead ends.” For example...if you want to get to the Botticelli Dining Room on Deck six near the back of the ship (aft) and you happen to be in the forward or middle part of the ship, you have to go up to deck 7 and walk towards the back and then go back down to deck 6. And just try to get to the quiet, adult pool in the aft part of the ship from deck 15 or 16...you must navigate your way through all of the buffet dining areas to get there. You saw a lot of people walking around looking confused at how some of the areas were laid out. I say all of this just to prepare you and give you ample time to pack your compass or GPS unit.

Another “con” I will mention is the Thermal Suite in the Lotus Spa. For those of you who are experienced spa-goers, you know that these areas are supposed to be for unwinding and relaxing. They are generally considered “quiet areas.” Some ships such as the Disney Wonder will have nice peaceful music piped in to help set the mood along with the low lighting. Well...the Emerald’s Thermal Suite had neither and more often had clientele who felt the need to yammer on about some mundane issue in a very loud, less-than-soothing tone of voice. Most of these folks were in there with friends and used the area more as a social venue than one of relaxation. Since you must pay a fee to use these areas, I feel Princess needs to address this and simply mount some “quiet please” signs as you enter and also let patrons know that it is meant to be a place of tranquility.

Ok...enough of the quirks and cons. Here is another “pro.” We have been on some ships where we felt the shopping was less than adequate, but that was not the case with the Emerald. Some ships load up their shops with large selections of alcohol and cigarettes that you can buy duty free and then leave little room for those items that some of us prefer to shop for on board such as logo apparel or other souvenir-related items. The Emerald Princess had a great selection in “Calypso Cove” of both souvenir clothing and other things that you might want to purchase in order to take home as a cool reminder of your cruise experience. I am also pleased to say that their pricing for some of the duty-free items such as perfume or cologne were not that much different than the prices on shore at some of the more well-known duty free shops. So budget accordingly!

Ok...time to get off of the ship and talk quickly about the ports of call. We made 4 stops; Princess Cays (their private island), St Maarten, St Thomas and Grand Turk. We have been to 2 of the 4 ports on a previous cruise so I will only just touch on what we did on this cruise that was different than the previous cruise. First, we booked an excursion for St Maarten through a 3rd party excursion company called Shoretrips.com. It was a short, 3-hour island tour of the Dutch and French sides of the island with 3 stops along the way. It went great. The van was comfortable and air-conditioned and the driver was very nice and courteous. I would recommend using this company if you want to be more in control of your schedule and want to pay a little less than what the cruise lines usually charge for basically the same excursions. The tour itself was OK, but not great and one we will probably not do a second time. We got to see the French town of Marigot, try some tasty French pastries and snap a few pictures of Orient Beach. Those were pretty much the highlights of the tour. Most likely we will just stick to shopping on the Dutch side the next time we visit St Maarten and take advantage of getting back on the ship early. I should also say that St Maarten now is probably our least favorite port of call in the Caribbean (Nassau is our least favorite of all time).

In St Thomas we decided to go on our own and see what we could find to do in town. I had done a little research and found that there is a very cool walking tour that you can do after you catch a cab from the pier to the main downtown area. You can ask to be dropped off at Emancipation Park and from there you can slowly work your way up the hill to Blackbeard’s Castle, passing several historic homes and buildings along the way. The scenery, as you make your way up the hill, is breathtaking so make sure you take lots of batteries for your camera.

The 2 biggest surprises to us on this cruise (surprise in a good sense of the word) were the stops in Grand Turk and Princess Cays. First let me say that both are beautiful islands. The various blues and turquoise that the ocean paints for you is just hard to put into words. Both stops had beautiful beaches loaded with palm trees. My expectations were not that high for Grand Turk which is maybe why we felt blown away by what we saw. It is still a fairly new stop for cruise ships and the new cruise ship center is clean and basically just a few steps away from where you dock. But I must admit that the nicest surprise was the beach adjacent to Jimmy Buffet’s Margaritaville. It is a FREE beach with loads of lounge chairs and plenty of room (especially if you happen to be the only ship in port as we were). And to top it off...the pool at Margaritaville was also FREE and again had an abundance of lounge chairs which made the stop very similar to the one we had at Princess Cays. Both were days where we felt completely relaxed and didn’t feel any need to plan any additional excursions. Thumbs up to Grand Turk!

But I want to end this review mentioning more about Princess Cays. Previous to this cruise, I had been able to visit 2 other cruise line private islands; Disney’s Castaway Cay and NCL’s Great Stirrup Cay. Princess Cays blew both of them away in my opinion. I know I know...if you are a Disney fan, that will be hard to fathom, but it is true. The only and I mean only advantage I see that Disney’s Castaway Cay has over Princess Cays is the fact that the Disney Cruise Line Ships actually dock versus having to be tendered in as you do with Princess. But that is it. Princess Cays is just as beautiful, just as pristine and the barbecue was just as good. To me, what makes Princess Cays better is that you did not have to take a tram to get to the main beach area and the beach actually seemed larger. I also felt the overall landscape was more scenic than both Disney’s and NCL’s island and gave you lots of room to move and walk around. The tendering process went very smooth and quick. My wife and I both agreed that our stop at Princess Cays may have been the best one out of the whole cruise and frankly we cannot wait to get back there.

So to keep this post from being another novel, I will just sum it all up by saying that I can recommend Princess and the Emerald Princess without hesitation. If you are a family...just know that they do have great kid’s programs, but the overall “kid population” may be much smaller than what you will find on other major cruise lines such as Disney, Royal Caribbean and Carnival. Case in point...this cruise had over 3000 passengers on board and only 77 of them were under the age of 18. Depending on your perspective, that could either be a pro or a con. But I say give Princess a try if you have not already. I do not think you will be disappointed. If you would like to see pictures of the ship and ports of call...click HERE

Thanks Princess for a wonderful experience.

Princess Cruise Review 2010

I want to just hurry and say something right at the beginning of this review so everyone understands...we had a GREAT time onboard the Emerald Princess. In fact...I will even say that this was the best cruise so far.

So with that being said...this review will discuss both the positives and negatives of the ship. Cruises are like hotels...each should stand alone on its own merits. In my opinion, it is not fair to judge an entire hotel chain based on one good or bad experience at a particular hotel in a particular city. I feel the same about cruises. It is not fair to judge an entire cruise line based on one good or bad experience. The overall experience relates directly with the management and regular staff that is onboard that particular ship just like a hotel.

So this review comes from the perspective of my experience aboard the Emerald Princess and I will be comparing it to my experience with other ships such as Royal Caribbean’s Radiance of the Seas and the Freedom of the Seas as well as NCL’s Norwegian Sky and Disney Cruise Line’s the Disney Wonder.

So let’s get started. First let me mention the ship’s overall appearance. I found the ship to be strikingly beautiful. It is still a fairly new ship so I expected everything to be shiny and clean and it did not disappoint. I noticed the staff on a regular basis cleaning, doing touch-up painting and staining and keeping it as sparkling as possible. Lot’s of calm color tones (earthy versus the bright neon on Carnival ships), lot’s of deep, dark wood colors in the lounges with comfy leather chairs and elegant artwork throughout the ship. I am a traditional sort of person which is probably why I found the ship’s public areas to be more appealing than my wife did. She prefers more of the modern decor that is found on the Royal Caribbean ships. But overall...I give the public areas an “A” grade as far as decor and cleanliness is concerned.

Next...let me mention the staff. Attentive, caring and friendly are words that come to mind when I think of how we were treated onboard the ship. Most of the staff that you passed in the hallways were always ready to give you a smile and warm hello. Our stateroom attendant was probably the best so far out of all of our cruises. He was ready to go get whatever you needed and was extremely aware of making sure you had your laundry back in time for the dinner’s each evening. Thank you Isidro! Our dining staff (Saulo from Peru and Cecelia from Brazil) were top-notch. We judge the wait staff simply by how present they are (at the right times) and how willing they are to help you find the right food choice. We also judge them by their ability to pay attention to the simple details. My dinner drink of choice was simply an ice tea with lemon and my wife’s was a diet coke with lime. After the first night...we never had to ask for those again. We were greeted each evening with our beverages and refills were always done promptly. I can say that this is not the case with some of our past cruises so we appreciate the staff that makes it a point to pay attention to the small things. So again my grade for the staff is an “A+.”

Moving on, let me discuss just briefly our stateroom. We were on the Plaza Deck (deck 5) in P309 which is right off of the art gallery. We were in an ocean view stateroom. The location was excellent! We spent a lot of time at the various public areas of deck 5 such as the International Cafe which serves wonderful little treats of all kinds throughout the day (including my wife’s favorite, “Cookies and Milk”) and we also frequented the Internet Cafe where we kept folks updated back at home. We would choose this deck again for any future cruises aboard the Emerald or any of its sister ships. The stateroom itself was adequate for 2 passengers, but I cannot imagine adding a 3rd or 4th. The bathroom was probably the smallest that we have had to date, but the closet and storage space was the best so I guess that is the trade-off. Here is the only exception to what I said earlier about the decor; the decor of our stateroom can be summed up in one word...BLAND. It just was not as nicely decorated as any of our previous cruises. We had a flat-screen TV which was nice and we were thrilled to see that they actually play old episodes of “The Love Boat” onboard (we love that old show). For those that may not know...Princess Cruise Line’s Pacific Princess was “The Love Boat.” Overall stateroom grade...a “B.”

Ok enough about the stateroom. I have to next mention the food. I can say that the food was good, but not great in comparison to some previous cruises. I was hoping it would be a “wow” experience when we ate each meal and it was just not that. Don’t get me wrong...I enjoyed the meals, but some of the dishes just lacked some overall flavor. We ate most meals in the main dining room (Botticelli) where we also chose to do one of the traditional dining times (early dining at 6PM). The staff more than made up for the lack of wow food experience. The buffets were ok...food was warm to hot on most occasions, but the buffet areas are crowded and not laid out well. We prefer the way Royal Caribbean designs their buffet areas which minimizes the congestion around each food station. We enjoyed the pizza pool-side as well as the hot-dogs and burgers which were all near the pool areas. Food tip: if you like gelato...make sure you try some at the International Cafe on deck 5. For a small fee (under $2), you get 3 heaping helpings of their gelato and it was excellent.

But now for my first real negative (outside of the bland stateroom decor). We ate at one of the 2 specialty restaurants...the Crown Grill. The Crown Grill resembles some of the best steak houses on land. The decor is warm and elegant with lots of dark woods and low lighting. It would have been a great place to celebrate a special occasion such as an anniversary etc. BUT...the food was disappointing along with the service. The server was very nice, but he messed up our side-dish order and never brought me an ice tea that I had asked for at least twice. Remember what I said about attention to the small details? But really the most disappointing part was the steak and other dishes. I ordered the filet mignon (8oz). It was very bland and frankly tasteless. I salted it at least twice trying to get some flavor out of it and it didn’t work. And the grain of the meat resembled more of a roast than a good filet. The sides were the same with the exception of the corn casserole. You pay at least $25 per person to eat in the specialty restaurants and I have come to expect a “wow” experience in each one that we have eaten in and this was less than that by far. So save your $25 and stick with the dining room or maybe try Sabatini’s (the other specialty restaurant option). So if I were to grade the overall food experience...it would receive a “B-.”

Hurrying along, the entertainment onboard was excellent. They put a lot of time and money into each production show and it really does show. We were also able to see at least 3 comedians onboard. Our 2 favorites were Kevin Hughes and Phil Tag. We were also able to see Phil Tag again in the Explorer’s Lounge and he did not disappoint. The only negative about the shows is that the Princess Theater is very small compared to the number of passengers onboard. Tip: Get to either the early or late show at least 30-45 minutes early if you want a seat. Another great entertainment option onboard is what they call “MUTS” or Movies Under the Stars. The staff prepares each lounge chair with a blanket and a comfy chair cover with a built-in pillow and they also provide fresh popped popcorn for each movie. The same movie screen shows movies and music videos throughout the day. Entertainment...an “A.”

Since I have probably lost you attention along the way in this lengthy post, I will end this portion now and write a part 2 a little later on where I will discuss a few more aspects of the ship as well as the ports of call. I will also be posting a link to all of the photos taken during the cruise a bit later so stay tuned and feel free to comment or ask any particular question that you may have about the ship, the cruise line, etc.