Boarded the Emeral Princess in Athens for a 2 week cruise through the Greek Isles, Istanbul, Ephesus, Malta, and a few ports in Italy. The boarding process was effortless, and our bags were delivered to our cabin in record time. Our cabin steward introduced himself, and was one of the bright spots of our cruise. Our last cruise was on the Royal, so we knew that the Emerald was an older design. While it's in pretty good condition, I did miss the Horizon Court layout of the Royal as well as the enlarged atrium. I did not think the food choices in the Horizon Court were very good, and breakfast rarely changed at all. Service in that area also was poor, especially at breakfast even when it wasn't busy. Most of the staff were friendly and helpful, but there seemed to be quite a few on this cruise that did not enjoy their job. To make matters worse, we were under a norovirus prevention program for the last 6 days of our 2 week cruise. This is my 2nd experience on a Princess ship under norovirus prevention rules and it's the staff that suffers the most. I make allowances for poor service during those times since they're under a lot more strain, but the poor service occured before the outbreak.

The entertainment was good, including 2 different comedians and 4 different variety shows. The casino is the worst that I've seen on a ship, with very few slot machines, and most of the ones they have are relics. The port lecturer was very informative, and I enjoyed watching his recorded lectures before each port. However, there were a couple of sea days where we were close to land, and some of us wanted to watch the movie on the pool deck and the sound was constantly interrupted by the port lecturer. Disembarkation was also very easy, but getting to the train station was a little cumbersome as it involved hauling your own luggage to 2 different buses. I don't recommend taking the train from Civitivecchia if you have more than 1 small bag as you'll have to walk down 20 steps and back up 20 steps to get to your train platform. About half the ports were new to me, and I enjoyed all of them immensely. Many were easy to do on your own with a little research. All in all, it was a good cruise, mainly because of the itinerary and the beautiful weather.