Review of Emerald Princess Transatlantic and Baltic Cruise, April 26 -- May 23, 2012
This was our second transatlantic cruise on Princess. We were on Ruby Princess in 2010 from Ft Lauderdale to Barcelona. On this voyage, we again departed from Ft Lauderdale but ended in Copenhagen. We stayed on board and continued with an 11 night Baltic cruise. Overall, it was a wonderful cruise. The service from the Princess staff was excellent. Food selection and quality was fine for our tastes but the entertainment was mediocre. More about that later. The first half of the cruise was very relaxing but then became very port intensive and exhausting.
Having been on Ruby Princess, the layout of Emerald Princess was very familiar and almost identical to Ruby Princess. For the transatlantic cruise, we had a balcony cabin on Baja deck. Baja deck is the first level of balcony cabins to be completely covered by the balcony cabins above you. We could easily look down and view the balconies on the lower decks. For the Baltic cruise, we gave up our balcony cabin in favor of an inside cabin on Plaza deck. When we arrived in Copenhagen at the end of the transatlantic cruise, all we had to do was pack the loose items and the cabin steward moved everything to our new cabin. The Plaza deck is an interesting location since it was only steps away from the Piazza and the International Cafe open 24 hours.
We had two different cabins on this back to back. The balcony cabin was on Baja deck and was a good private balcony location.
For the Baltic cruise, we moved to an inside cabin. This cruise is so port intensive that we didn't expect to use a balcony that much. The Plaza deck location is great for an inside cabin since you are only steps away from the Piazza.