My voyage on the Emerald Princess was my sixth cruise, my past history consisting of trips on Carnival's Imagination, Paradise, Triumph, and Glory as well as the Emerald's sister ship the Crown Princess. While my overall vacation was a blast, I feel that the Emerald itself provides just an average value for the money at this time and I don't think I would choose Princess for Europe again any time in the near future.

Embarkation The Emerald Princess Mediterranean itinerary runs between Venice and Barcelona. We embarked in Venice, which I was pleased about as I had a basic familiarity with the city after spending four days there previously. Most passengers fly in a night before boarding is permitted, which I highly recommend. Embarkation was scheduled to begin at 1:00 p.m. Saturday and run as late as one the next day, when the ship would finally depart. We boarded at around 3:00 p.m. Saturday and faced a very short wait at check-in. The embarkation process was particularly easy for mr_chelledun and I since the Venice airport lost all of our luggage leaving us with nothing but a small carry on-bag containing toiletries and medications and my laptop. My parents did have luggage to check in with the ship, and received it in time for our 8:30 p.m. dinner time. After two Princess cruises, I have to say the line does an above average job with making the embarkation process as smooth as possible.

Our Room Per usual, mr_chelledun and I booked one of the cheapest, smallest rooms on the ship. This time our room, E310 was literally in the lowest class, due to the astronomical costs associated with going up even the tiniest category on a twelve-day Mediterranean cruise. Despite this, we actually ended up in better shape this time than on our previous Princess cruise since we had a room intended only as a double rather than as a quad. This meant no fold-out beds overhead and no bumping my head every morning. The room was bland but clean, with beige walls and a couple of Greek-inspired paintings hanging on either side. The bathroom was correspondingly tiny, with space for a shower, toilet, and little else. Read more