We were a complete beginner; we knew nothing about cruises, cruise ships or cruising. We had a great cruise advisor, as a family we were travelling with teenagers; age 17 and 15 we were advised to take 2 cabins on the Caribe deck, forward. I chose inside cabins based on the cost. We stayed in the Intercontinental West Miami for a pre cruise night.

When we were waiting in Miami for luggage a very well dressed cruise rep appeared, from that moment onwards we were extremely well looked after. We checked into the hotel, it seemed very quiet and suited our needs. The next day we were disappointed to find breakfast was not included, but we had a great morning shopping before coming back to the hotel. The transfer to the ship was organized but quite slow, the hotel was surprisingly full of passengers going to the Emerald Princess. There were 10 coaches, so we just relaxed and waited for our turn. Once at the port we were astounded to see the size of the ship, she is huge. Embarkation was great, from getting off the coach to being on the ship took 20 minutes maximum.

The Emerald Princess met all our expectations. Our teenagers were worried about getting lost, but getting around was fairly easy, there were plenty of lifts, some busier than others especially those in mid ship. Our cabin was in a good position, forward, meant that there were no passengers passing going to public areas. All the crew were very helpful and always gave you a smile. We found our staterooms quite quickly; we were met by Joseph, our steward. The stateroom was bigger than I thought, very well planned with a huge bed, the bathroom was small but very well designed and immaculately clean. Joseph did speak English but was not fluent, he was very good at his job, we wanted for nothing. We chose anytime dinning. We really liked the Da Vinci restaurant, the service was second to none, the food perfect, our waiter really did 'make the difference', and he explained the menu fully. I would advise booking a table; if it's busy you are given a pager and paged when your table is ready. The buffets were lovely, well presented and often themed, you could eat outside, there are plenty of tables, buffet stewards were a little slow, but for us acceptable. The pool service was good, the service at afternoon tea was fantastic. We did not use the restaurants with cover charges. We had a great day on Princess Cays, we booked a cabana, but took our own snorkel gear. The shore near the cabanas was covered in coral so walking in to the sea was tricky, the snorkeling near to the off shore pavilion was fantastic. On St Thomas we took a taxi to the beach, I think we paid too much, $40 dollars one way for four, but he arrived to collect us at the time arranged and gave us an island tour on the return, so we were pleased. On St kitts we had a kayaking and snorkeling tour, (pre booked at home) this was very good. On Barbados we took a tour called turtle encounter with beach, we were disappointed, far too many people in the water at the same time, we did have a very quick glimpse of a turtle. The beach after was lovely, very quiet, just as we like it. On the other islands we took taxis to the beach. On Antigua , Halcyon cove was very enjoyable, our teenagers enjoyed the jet ski. Back on the ship the entertainment was ongoing. A show every night, lots of singing and dancing, perhaps a little repetitive, our teenagers did not particularly enjoy them, we all enjoyed the game shows, magicians and comedians. Sometimes two things we wanted to see were on at the same time, choosing was tricky. Our teenagers did not use the teen club. James, the entertainment director made regular tanoy announcements for daytime activities, e.g bingo, dancing etc, we would have liked these announcements to included teen activities, perhaps our teenagers might have joined in if they were reminded of what was going on. The movies under the stars were a massive hit with our teenagers, perfect for day time, finding a shady sun bed was tricky but we did manage. We did not use the gym , spa or casino. Time to go home. We were given disembarkation details the day before departure. We were given colored luggage tags and a meeting time and meeting point. Our time was 9.30am, after a leisurely breakfast, we sat on the promenade deck before going to our meeting place. The process was organized, a little slow, but there were 3,000 passengers on board, all had to go through immigration, collect luggage and go to transportation. We just waited our turn, it took about 30 minutes from leaving the ship to getting on the bus. Read more