Princess Cruises Emerald Princess

I have just returned from a cruise onboard Emerald Princess with my wife and I have to say we were both suitably impressed, in fact this holiday dispelled one of my pre conceived ideas. (see later.. Movies Under the Star's)

Ship - From the outside I could not help but find her looks cool, fresh and cutting edge. The icey blue look to her is a real winner in my opinion and she looks every inch a Princess Cruises ship. Once inside, and we entered on deck 6 (guest relations), the atrium is cleverly designed and decorated. There is no ten floor expanse of space that you find on some ships, but this is not needed here. There is a well balanced offering of shops, public rooms and activities including small side shows (occasionally during the day), string quartets and other musical offerings.

Everything here is extremely well co-ordinated here. The two bars are extremely different both in size and what they offer.

The International Cafe - is great in the morning for speciality coffee's and pastries (pastries are free!) ideal for grabbing something light just before you set out for the day when in port. Throughout the day here you can always grab a pastry or maybe a panin etc. It is a lovely small but very light, pleasant place to sit and take a breather, enjoy the various entertainment in the atrium area or simply just to relax and people watch.

Vines - this is the Jewel in the crown as far as I am concerned. Kitted out as though you are in a wine cellar, it is small and intimate, not light and airey as the Int Cafe across the atrium, yet it has a wonderful cosy feel to it. Here you can sit down and sample - EXCLUSIVELY - the Raclette Cheese speciality and once again it is free and to die for (if you enjoy cheese of course). They heat the cheese and as it melts they spread it over small cooked potato halves. It is served with and Italian ham and tastes delicous. You will not find this on any other Princess ship - but I am sure it will catch on.

This lovely little venue in the atrium also serves excellent Sushi, this can be purchased for approx $3 - $4 depending on the servings which is superb value for money, plus it tastes delicious - even if one of the spicy portions was extremely hot! There is a wide range of fine wines here and it is the perfect stoppping off point for a pre dinner taster.

In the evening, apart from making a fool of myself in Club Fusion by being entered - no, it was not my choice - into Princess Idol..!! a popular venue is Crooners Bar with its wide range of cocktails and resident witty pianist who was actually very good.
A quick note: Club Fusion is a great venue for more updeat dancing to a live band if you do not want a full blown disco in Skywalkers.

Restaurants

We chose the anytime dining option in the Da Vinci restaurant and this is deffinately my preference. The food was of a very high standard with a very good choice. I have eaten in many restaurants on ships and this was very good indeed. I did like the fact that you were given a proper menu. It was heavy, it felt qaulity and these little things all make for high expectations and I can say that on this holiday they were delivered. If they were not, I would say so..!!

It always helps if you have a good waiter and Princess did not dissapoint here also. In the main, people I spoke with did not have any problems with the service on board in any of the public rooms.

Sabatini's Trattoria Italian restaurant was excellent, however you must make sure you do not eat too much during the day, because despite one of the courses being taken out (Pizza), there is more than enough to keep you well fed for the next 24hours..!!!! Worth the $20 cover charge - YES.
Don't forget to take your pre dinner drink in Adajio's Bar next door, if it is a lovely warm balmy evening you can venture outside and watch the sun go down, the perfect start to a romantic Italian evening.

The Emerald Grill Steakhouse on Emerald Princess is just like going back into the 1920's in New York. The decor is great in here and I did enjoy eating here. I enjoyed it better than the Italian but that is just a personal thing. Also it is only a $15 cover charge - Worth it - You Bet!! 
Plus - You can get up and walk up to the gally and sit and watch them steam your lobster of cook your steak to perfection. A great night out.

The Horizon Court is not a restaraunt in the true sense but is the focal point for breakfast and lunch on Emerald Princess and there is a good choice of both hot and cold dishes plus the usual savouries etc. Some people did say that there was not enough choice and I know what they mean but there is a reason for this.

The Horizon Court does not need to provide fench fries every day, it did not provide Pizza, Burgers or Hot Dogs etc on any day whilst we were on board. Reason - it does not need to because you can get all these and more at the other eating venues (Trident's Grill, Mermaids Tail and Cafe Caribe) all up on Lido deck 15. Plus other venues inside around the atrium.

The good thing about this is that you do not get the massive rush at lunch for food which is focused in one venue. There were no big queues either which was a relief. The whole lunch, brunch thing worked very well on Emerald Princess.

Evening Entertainment - I did not see a show so I cannot comment, I was too full from the excellent food choices available and would probably have fallen asleep much to my wifes annoyance!

The bands were OK and there was plenty going on if you needed it.

Lotus Spa. This is something that I have always avoided when on a cruise, not sure why, but there you go. However on this occasion I decided it would be a good idea to get my back checked out because I had been having spasms and aching for some time. I was recommended by a member of the crew to ask for a young lady called Dunja from Croatia (she won't mind me mentioning her name - I did ask). I was not dissappointed. I was told that ona scale of 1 to 10 with 10 being bad, my back was a 9. Let me tell you this.... when I said "that hurt" I was told I needed to be brave..!!!!

This was by far the best massage I have ever had. Princess sometimes do specials when in port and my treatment for approx 50mins was $99. Worth it - without a shadow of doubt - YES!!  All I have to do now is make sure I look after myself, easier said than done.
The whole of the Lotus Spa was I suppose how it should be, tranquil and a very pleasant place to spend time to relax and unwind. The special I had included, back - head - leg massage and it was so enjoyable I booked another!

Movies Under The Star's - I was not sure what to expect here. Was it going to be a gimmick, would it be a distraction for guests all sorts of pre conceived ideas. Well I was the biggest sceptic about this feature but I am now the biggest fan of Movies Under the Star's. I personally though it was amazing to lie in the sun and watch a movie, cool down in the pool, grab a beer - all without missing a single moment. Loved it and a big thumbs up during the day. (notice I said day)

In the evening however, if it is a little cool, the blankets are not wide or long enough. The whole experience is for me in the evening a 9 out of 10 but this does need sorting out for when it is cooler up on deck and for that I deduct a point.

The whole movie experience both day and night is really wierd because the atmosphere around the movies pool (Calypso) is much like that in the cinema - it's hard to explain but it just is. You find yourself being careful not to make a noice at 2pm in the afternoon in case you distrub someone. Yet around the corner (Neptune pool) the whole atmosphere is entirely different. Maybe a band playing of some pool games - this is the good thing about Emerald Princess. Everything seems to work really well and is well thought out. (Apart from the balnkets!!)

Sunbeds - absolutely no problem on the sea day getting a sunbed on this ship. I spoke to a number of people and no one I spoke to had an issue. So cannot say any more on this subject.

Cabins / Staterooms - very much as all cabins now on new cruise ships. Very comfortable and a good steward, so no problems here also.

Do not forget about the back of the ship for somewhere to sit. It is quite stunning on Emerald and a cery good feature.

Negatives: Blankets for Movies Under the Star's, also on one evening we were sat at one bar with a number of people and told that the bar was closing. We were only offered Skywalkers as an alternative. Not sure what bars you could drink in if you wanted a late one ie: 2am. I suppose I could include the pain from Dunja's attempt to correct my long suffering back!

Overall. I was very Impressed with Emerald as a new large cruise ship. I do think she delivers what she sets out to do and that is to provide a very high standard of service for a large number of people. All the food is cooked fresh and a lot of work does go into the menus, you can see that and they cater for passengers with a wide variety of food intolerance allergies. Yes she is big but because of the way she is designed we never had a problem finding seats in any public rooms or getting served at any of the bars. On days in port there was never an issue getting a drink around the pool if you chose to stay onboard.

The mixture of predominantly Brits, American, Canadian, Japanese and Mexican passengers made for a good atmosphere onboard also.

If you have any questions about Emerald Princess or disagree with any of my comments, please post a comment on the blog for either myself or Janine and we will be pleased to answer them as best we can.

Oh, and if I did offend anyone with my tuneless but entertaining rendition of "Daydream Believer" ............ Tuff...!!!

Have a good day.

Phil

Plus: Find great Princess Cruises at www.princessuk.co.uk