My boyfriend and I sailed on the Emerald for our first princess cruise on January 10th-17th, 2010. It was my 4th cruise, but my first on Princess. I have sailed Norwegian, Royal Caribbean, and Carnival. We had a really great time overall, and I am looking forward to sailing with Princess again.

Embarkation and First Day-- We stayed the night before sailing at the Renaissance on 17th St. It was pouring rain and 39 degrees in Ft. Lauderdale, but we were able to walk to the Crown Wine store and stock up on some bottles for the trip. We got to the pier at about 11:45 and were on the ship in about 15 min. It was by far the fastest embarkation that I had been through. We explored the ship, bought a soda card, and watched some football on the MUTS. We had a great dinner in the anytime dining room. The seas were VERY rough, so we went up to Skywalkers but there were only a few people there.

Princess Cays-- We woke up in time for the port only to turn on the bridge camera to see that we were still at sea. A few minutes later, the captain came on and said that we would be missing the stop. It was cloudy, 62 degrees and still VERY rough. There were concerns about tendering and the overall weather conditions. The cruise directors staff did a great job coming up with activities for the day. We had a fantastic lunch in the MDR and were able to get some sun as the day warmed up. We had reservations at Sabatini's for the night. Overall, we thought it was great. The ravioli was AMAZING. I did not like my entree, but I was more than full from all the other food. Read more