We chose this cruise as we wished to go from the UK rather than fly and we had cruised with Princess twice in the past. Emerald Princess and P&O's Ventura are identical ships built in the same shipyard. I looked to go with P&O on the 22/07/2016 on a near identical itinerary in a mini suite but it was over £6,000 more expensive than Emerald Princess!

Embarkation was a breeze, considering the ship was 29 people short of being at full capacity, using the parking services of CBS who valet parked the car, while the porters took our bags and we next saw them outside our room. Although we had priority boarding due to our Platinum status with Princess check in was quiet and we were on the ship within 10 minutes at 12.30. Our cabin was ready - a mini suite on deck 8 aft.

The cabin was very well appointed and the décor looked fresh. As sated by others the beds are very good but very firm! There are two flat screen TV's with various TV & movie channels along with sales channels for the shops and tours. The TV is not interactive as is the case on Ventura but you can easily get to the back of either TV to put in a HDMI cable to play DVD etc. There is also no curtain between the bedroom and the lounge area making it difficult for two people to watch two different TV's at the same time. The 3rd bed is made up using a pull-out section of the sofa and the 4th bed is a drop down bunk above the sofa. The bathroom has a full size bath with shower over it and a basin with ample storage. The lighting could be better in the bathroom though. Toiletries were poor but we used our own so this did not bother us. Soap was provided a plenty to make sure noro virus was kept at bay. The fully covered glass fronted balcony was large with two reclining chairs, two footstools and a table. The balconies on Deck 9 were the same size for the mini suites but were not covered and were overlooked by all those above. Read more