This was my family's first cruise on Princess and I have to say we are extremely disappointed. We experienced so many issues, the most important being with poor quality of service. Here is some of what we experienced: - Nights two and three we had horrible (and by horrible I mean nonexistent) service at dinner. Our other tables in our large party were literally finishing their entrees and we had yet to receive our appetizers. I still could not tell you who our assistant server was after our 7 night cruise because he was nowhere to be found. On night three no one came to our table for over a half hour. - The toilet in one of our rooms clogged like clockwork every night for the first three nights and instead of apologizing and fixing the problem the plumber essentially accused us of putting something other than toilet paper down the toilet (we didn't). When we would try to call the desk to have someone repair it no one would answer the phone, forcing us to walk to the lobby each time. After the third time the toilet broke, we went back to the desk and I could see one of the women at the desk mocking me as I spoke to her colleague. In front of my face. I work in the hospitality industry and can assure you that while direct and frustrated, I was very polite and calm while interacting with him. Completely uncalled for. Finally the next morning the plumber actually disassembled and repaired the toilet instead of the usual quick-fix from the previous nights. It worked fine after this. - The toilets in the public women's rooms were often filthy and would remain this way for hours. - The currency machines were out of order 80% of the time. The machines to check your account balance were down the last two nights of the cruise, causing insanely long lines at the front desk. When directed to the desk to exchange money, they acted as though guests were a bother. Every crew member we spoke with at the front desk was incredibly unprofessional and far from friendly. - In fact, most staff we interacted with on the cruise were unprofessional, unapologetic, and rude, making it very apparent they do not enjoy their jobs and do not wish to be there. After constant issues, sometimes all you want is a seemingly genuine apology, and we never received that. Not once. - Like I said, the attitude of most staff we encountered was poor to say the least. A couple examples: We watched an employee in the photography studio on the last night of our cruise yell (loudly!) and berate an elderly woman who took a photo of one of her pictures, not realizing this was not allowed. He followed her around the store yelling loudly for everyone to hear, demanding she delete the photo immediately. This was NOT the proper way to handle this situation and everyone around was mortified and embarrassed for her. Another night while shopping in Calypso Cove if you needed assistance from a staff member you would not receive it. Why? The two working were arguing in front of the store. - Want a drink at night? If you are directed to a bar that is supposed to be open until 11pm, prepare to get there only for them to be completely shut down and unable to pour you a drink by 10:30, a half hour before closing time. This happened twice at Adagio. - Spa staff was polite and helpful, until there was a concern with one of the treatments. Their demeanor then completely changed and became curt and defensive. - Disembarkation was chaotic. We did the walk-off option as we had to be off the ship early, and our entire group had to carry our 50+ pound suitcases down over ten flights of stairs because it was impossible to get an elevator. Three of the five elevators were marked 'R' for reserved and the other two were at capacity for over twenty minutes before we opted to take the stairs. Two people in our party who were unable to take the stairs waited over 45 minutes for an elevator. Children, seniors, and everyone in between were lugging their gigantic suitcases down the stairwells. POSITIVES: - Our stateroom, while dated, was always very clean. Our steward Winston was so friendly, always asking about our day with a genuine smile. - The restaurant 'Share' by Curtis Stone was excellent. We loved our food and entire experience here and agree it was definitely worth the up-charge. We wish we came here more than once - The Ports of Call were great. We loved each destination. It should be noted that we did not book any of our excursions through the cruiseline, only outside companies. - Embarkation was smooth, quick, and efficient. As first-time guests on Princess, we are beyond disappointed. After one day of this, we thought 'maybe this is a one-off.' But the continuous issues and unapologetic staff day in and day out made this vacation far from relaxing. We had high hopes and expectations and this cruise did not live up to them. For all of these reasons I would not recommend Princess cruiseline. I have no experience on their other ships but this one specifically was disappointing. I have sailed with three other cruiselines and have never experienced such poor service. My family spent a ton of money for what should have been the trip of a lifetime and while the ports were fabulous (again, excursions not booked through Princess) our time on the ship was stressful, agitating, and honestly shocking. Read Less

Excursions too rushed and actually didn't see anything properly and definitely did not have the experience expected. Summary - 'Been there seen that' - Not 'Been there and done that'. Embarkation and disembarking were very well organised and efficient. Cleanliness was high and service from our steward was excellent. No issue service wise. Food was basically the same form day to day will minimal variations - food was ok of you love great if you love salt. Would have preferred to have more local foods from each destination we went to. Couldn't get into the restaurant we wanted even when booking a day on advance. Was my first cruise so wasn't sure what to expect - but definitely felt underwhelmed. My 2 teenage daughters did enjoy it but even their excitement was starting to dull toward the end. Everything seemed to have an additional charge when I expected most things to be included. Overall pretty poor value - rather do hotels and stay for a few days at each location that this overrated hop on hop off bus. Read Less

As you will read from many other reviewers; this was "the worse" Princess cruise I have been on -- and I have been on many, many Princess cruises. Something was terribly wrong with 50% of the interactions on this cruise. To be fair, I would like to give you a balanced overview. THE GOOD: Our room steward "Randy" was THE BEST we have ever had. He should be training for Princess on how to take care of Guests. The International Cafe people were very friendly and helpful - but they need more staff for the service - everyone goes there. Two casino people really stood out (Hans and Mario) - they were very professional and helpful to guests (more on the casino later) I liked the new market place for eating and for the layout, colors and seating - the food -- that will be later too. The Crown Grill - excellent Chilean Sea Bass and steak for others. Best food and service. The fitness center - the dry dock brought mostly new equipment. I'm always at the gym on shore and the cruises - they did an excellent job here. And, there were 45+ people in the gym at all time -- just goes to show - if you build it, they will come ;) Traditional dining - good fish, nice salmon, excellent asparagus. THE BAD Customer service desk - clueless people, no help or service. It seemed that half the crew must have been new to the cruise industry and all the guest were the guinea pigs. And they were just plain rude at times. You would be talking with them about a problem - the phone would ring and they would cut you off and spend 5-10 minutes on the phone before coming back to you. Casino manager ( I won't mention names - I do have them, but it's not worth mentioning) shut the casino craps table down around 11 or `11:30 and forced everyone to leave - over and over - who does that? (more on the craps table under horrible) Drinks - every night the same thing at the craps table - hour to an hour and a half before they would come to ask if you wanted a drink. If you wanted one before that, you had to stop gambling and go to the bar to buy one. Why would they do that? The food in the new market place - average - and that is being generous. I did like their sandwiches for lunch. Food over all here was far below what you would normally expect from Princess Cruises. I will say their salads were fresh ! Traditional dining - this is the sad part - 50% of the time the meal was good, the other 50% of the time - I couldn't eat the food. The beef stroganoff - couldn't cut the meat with a steak knife - much less chew it. Braised beef - let's just call it braised fat. Their steaks - I wanted medium rare - it took them four times - each one was rarer than the previous one. People at my table were "mooing" because it was such a joke. The 4th steak was perfect. Their lamb - one bite was all I could do - so bad. The excursion for snorkeling at our 2nd port was nice - but the boat was way too small for the number of people who went on the excursion. THE HORRIBLE: Two main things stand out that really ruined this cruise. As others have said, the excursions were ruined for people and Costa Rica was the worse. Hundreds of people missed their buses because Princess wouldn't let you off the ship - seriously - they kept people in the Princess Theatre with no stickers or organization - when they finally let people out - row by row, dozens of buses had already left. So yes, hundreds of people missed their excursions in Costa Rica !! They reimbursed everyone - but it was the one big excursion I wanted to go on. People were standing in the heat of the day on the dock while they waited. Most excursions were cut in half for their time. Someone mentioned that this happened near the beginning of the cruise and people talked about it for the next week and a half - that is an understatement - people were furious - including me. I will give credit to Gary McNeil - he owned up immediately for all the problems and took full responsibility. Princess should be happy to have people like him. Craps table in the casino - okey, something is up with this and Princess needs to look into the issue. The table was "re-done" in the dry dock and new dice were added. 14 days of playing and every player lost every night. The dice would land and bounce at 90 degree angles. The dice would stop rolling and then "suddenly" flip over one more time. Many players there were commenting on what was up with the dice and table. We've played craps for years in Vegas and on cruise ships. NEVER have I seen the dice act so weird AND have 100% of the people loose at the table for 14 days straight. I'm not accusing them of anything - BUT - they need to look into this. We will not be playing craps on our next cruise with Princess. This is serious folks. FINAL WRAP UP: We did not come back "RENEWED" you will find from other reviewers, this cruise really hurt Princess's reputation in so many ways. Which is sad for me, I really liked them a lot until this cruise :( Read Less

The outside of this ship is well designed. Not so the inside. First the good stuff. If you like to walk a ship's promenade deck, this one is very nice. It's wide and goes all the way around the ship if you climb a few stairs, giving you great 360 views of the sea and sky. You can do the same on deck 16, also with a few stairs. The inside is different story. The design is flawed, mainly because of the way the spaces are chopped up, especially in the buffet area. Many activities occur in the atrium, but only about 100 people (out of 3000) can actually see what's going on. Deck six is chopped in a way that makes you go up, and then down a flight of stairs to the dining room. But the biggest fiasco is the poorly designed buffet. If you TRIED to design the most inconvenient buffet possible, you might not come close to this one. You just have to see for yourself. I have been on maybe 20 ships, and have never seen such a poor layout of food service and seating areas. We missed both seafood buffet and the big dessert buffet because it was held in the back portion of the buffet, and no info was posted or announced anywhere. It is a mystery to me that anyone would have ever approved such a poor design. One very positive thing that deserves mention is the sound levels of music and background noise on the ship. The crew and sound people seemed to be very professional and kept volumes at an appropriate level everywhere. In the theater, sound levels always seemed loud enough and without distortion. I mention this because many ships just don't pay attention to this and I have seen poor sound engineers ruin a perfectly good talented performance with distorted volume levels and background music. Read Less

We chose this cruise because we wanted to be in Hawaii during whale season. Have done two other round trip HI cruises (one from Vancouver and the other from San Diego) but never this time of year. We did see whales - yeah! Poor Emerald, where to start. I'll go with the good first: The MDR staff (ATD) and our room steward were simply excellent. I can't overstate how efficient both areas of service were. Our cabin was comfortable and clean - just an inside on Aloha deck. The sailing itself was good - a few rough days out but nothing too bad. Entertainment was good. The piano player and the trumpet guy were great. Always love the addition of the live band and hope that is never nixed. The ship's excursion to the Polynesian Cultural Center on Oahu was great. Our guide was good not only at the site but along the way and at the other stops. We did the Ultimate Ship's Tour and that was pretty cool. I wish we could have seen a little more of the galley area but I understand it's a busy place and they need to keep it clean. The whole tour was done very well and we were treated to some gifts from the departments. Very nice tour! Now the not so good: Many areas were always crowded. Maybe this was because folks wanted to play cards and other games in the buffet while we carried full plates of food around hopelessly looking for a free table. Same for the International Cafe - people would set up there for the day. We learned to eat in the dining rooms at every available opportunity. On the crowded note, the theatre seating was ridiculous. Had to be there 30-45 minutes early to get a seat. They allowed sitting on the stairs during the first few shows but glad to see they stopped it in subsequent shows. It was a Hawaii cruise but very cold (maybe not to others but to me, 60 degrees on a moving ship is pretty cool). Not just a few days out of L.A. and the last few back in but every single day of sailing. The day in Ensenada had a high of 55. Certainly not the fault of anyone at all, but I think it led to some of the overcrowding on the inside of the ship. I do wish this class of ship had a covered pool area and wish new builds would include them. I'm not a foodie and didn't go hungry or get sick, but man, the food on this ship was just not good at all. There is not one thing I want again. OK, I would go for any of the Norman Love desserts and the pizza was good one day, but other than those, there wasn't one memorable item. While I love them, I do not cruise to eat hamburgers and fries (that are cold by the time I find a warm place to sit and eat). Guest Services were sort of robotic, to put it nicely. However, one lady was nice and was helpful. I went the first day right after muster to sign up for the afore mentioned ship tour as a huge line formed up behind me. I finally got up to the front and while I was filling out the tour info sheet, the lady that waited on me got pulled to the side by a "mob" of people wanting holes punched in their ship cards for their lanyards. So, I'm waiting (and waiting, and waiting) for her to come back to get the sheet and the huge line behind me is getting very restless and angry at the hole punch people (and probably me, since I'm standing in their way), all the while she is off to the side punching holes in cards. So she was actually too nice and too helpful, but just not very professional - should have suggested they stand in line like the rest of the other guests. Not a huge deal as I generally don't visit the desk often if ever, but each time I walked by there, they all had pretty grim faces. I am just very glad we did not book the 28 day round trip L.A. Hawaii/South Pacific trip. And I'm reconsidering a TA booked for September on the Crown as I am afraid of the same issue with overcrowding. Read Less

I choose this cruise thinking it be relaxing, enjoying and good food, man I was wrong, it was not relaxing because you could find a seat where it was warm, to cold around pool, where most of the movie we’re. Very hard or sometimes impossible to find a seat indoors. Because so cold out doors. The only was to get a seat in princess theaters for main shows, was to go one hour before showtime. Now foods overall was poor, four good meals two prime rib very good, two lobsters dinner very good. The rest of meal was tough or weird spices. The last for or five days we had a lot of leftovers or food no one like. The last three days never seen a chocolate chip cookies, the must of ran out of chocolate chips. But help in dining was fantastic and also rooms steward was fantastic. The ship was very clean and we’ll maintain. Overall poor no place to sit that was warm, seating was limited at princess theater and food was poor. Read Less

Previous experience with Princess was good 9 years ago. Not anymore. Cruise Director was terrible. Most of the entertainment was amateur at best. The one excursion we chose did not warrant the association with Princess it was a dogs breakfast of a show. (Germaines Luau on Oahu.) Cabin upkeep was excellent. Crew staff were excellent and pleasant. Theatre seating was a nightmare unless you got there 3/4 hour ahead of time. Specialty restaurants had good staff but the food was nothing to get excited about. Crab Shack's crab was not fresh nor of sufficient quantity. Steak restaurant had good environment but little else. The ships photographers became annoying after awhile and the spa services were most aggressive in pushing their very expensive products. My wife and I foolishly fell for the future cruise offer but we won't be using it now that we've experienced the whole cruise. Prior to this cruise, 9 years ago we had 55 days each of Princess cruises. Things were much better 9 years ago. Read Less

This was our 3rd 15 day Hawaiian cruise on Princess. We bragged about it to friends and they booked on our recommendation (we got nothing from Princess). Embarkation was a unorganized disaster, we did not find the staff to be happy or friendly. The food in the dining room and buffet tasteless, I think they do this to sell the upgrade $29 each meal sites. Loved the island stops, the captain wisely delayed departure once to miss a storm and made up the time, a wise decision. The ships seat cushions and mattresses could use an upgrade. One of our party of 8 is allergic to dairy and reported this prior to the cruise. She was offered Jello at meals, the staff is not educated on food allergies, on Carnival and RCL she had a wide variety of foods that she could eat. Our cabin was great. The phone had the wrong name on it that made our granddaughter think she was calling the wrong number, I reported this several times and it was never corrected. The Enesnada Port to town shuttle was incorrectly priced ($4 instead of $2) and took us way off the main street, different than the stated site. BE AWARE Read Less

This was my 8th cruise and my second on The Emerald Princess. The tone of the cruise was set by the staff at the Pier. The weather was a factor but the staff attitude was uncalled for. I’m 67 and my husband 70 and we felt too young to be in this cruise. The ship is old decor and the cruisers fit the decor. The entertainment was terrible. The activities boring. If you have 5 sea data you need multiple activities for 2500+ passengers stuck in the middle of the ocean. Activities were knitting, glee club, lei making and the games were so overcrowded it was more of a chore than fun. The thermal spa package $249 was a total waste of money. The spa was coed and the visual was too much. Save your money. The food is average. The specialty restaurants was ok. Nothing to brag about. Casino offered a good escape but costly LOL!! Shore excursions were good except Mexico. Felt so hustled in Mexico. The ship staff overall was great. They don’t smile a lot but you got 2500+ cranky senior citizens aboard, I wouldn’t smile either. I understand you can’t choose your passengers but these were some of the rudest people I’ve ever encountered on a cruise. High recommend if you are 80+ Read Less

This was my first time on a Princess Cruise. Last year, my fiancé and I went on a Carnival Cruise to Mexico and we had an amazing time. We absolutely loved it, from the food to the service to the entertainment. The staff was phenomenal. So our expectations for the Princess Emerald were pretty high. We had a lot of pros and cons in regards to the onboard experience. First, the positives. The International Cafe was our daily go-to (sometimes multiple times a day) for coffee, tea and sandwiches. We bought two coffee cards ($35 each) that cover 15 specialty drinks, which ended up being a really good deal considering each drink cost $4-$5. We really liked the fitness center and used it often, and although we didn’t attend any of the classes, it was nice to see they were available. We went to dinner at Michelangelo’s most nights, and enjoyed the food, service, and the flow from appetizers to entrees to desserts. We never found ourselves waiting a long time to eat. The hostess was fantastic and her energy really added to the positive experience. However, there were some complaints we had about Michelangelo’s as well. They lost our previously purchased and stored wine bottles multiple times, and would usually find them by the time we were ready to leave. One time they never found it, and gave us complimentary wine which was appreciated, but our thoughts were that if they didn’t have a working system in place, they really shouldn’t give the option to keep your wine at the restaurant. Also, sometimes the dress code was obnoxious (my fiancé was told to take off his hat although we saw other diners wearing hats) and I didn’t think it was appropriate to turn away multiple men wearing shorts who had paid good money for the cruise. It just seemed kind of knit picky to me. That being said, for reference, the demographic on this particular ship to Hawaii was probably 80% senior citizens, which wasn’t an issue within itself, but we felt less accommodated and at times somewhat singled out being in our late twenties. The events were mostly geared towards much older adults (although there were a few productions we really enjoyed) and it seemed like everything closed very early. On Carnival, the pools and hot tubs stayed open well after midnight, and here they closed at 10:30PM. The only option by 11PM was the Skywalker’s Nightclub, which was fun sometimes, but it would’ve been nice to have some more choices. The staff in the bars and clubs seemed to thin out also, and we would have to go to the bar initially to get servers to come over to our table, which seemed kind of ridiculous, especially when most of the time they were congregating in an area and not doing anything else. We felt a tad bit uncomfortable in that the pushiness of products and services sales kind of took advantage of and seemed to at times (for lack of a better term) prey on the older adults that may have not been aware of how overpriced things were in comparison to buying the same things off of the boat. We really didn’t like that, and it was something we didn’t see on Carnival at all so it took us by surprise. We also noted that some of the references were outdated, even for the majority demographic, which seemed lazy. One of the productions included music from the early 1900’s, and during an ice sculpting event one of the cruise staff asked the crowd “who remembers before freezers existed?” In that same vein, on days we chose to stay in our cabin we noticed that the channels would play the same episodes of the same shows on a loop for the entire day. This wouldn’t usually bother me, but another huge issue on this ship was that it was terribly overcrowded, so if you wanted to sit anywhere inside during the day most times your room was the only option. This became a recurring problem throughout the cruise. If you wanted to get a seat for a show, you would have to get there at least an hour early to guarantee you got seats, and most events a lot of people had to stand for. This became more annoying when the majority of the productions started at 7:30-7:45PM, so we had to rush through dinner a few times in order to get there by 6:45PM for seats…and then sit there and wait an hour for the show to start. We ended up sitting and waiting longer than most of the duration of the shows. We also noticed the public bathrooms were not very hygienic, and saw urine on the floors often. The Emerald collectively stressed only to use the public bathrooms for an emergency, which was concerning and not very realistic for people to have to go back to their cabins so often. We had two frightening experiences on the elevators, where the elevator would clunk to a floor and the doors wouldn’t open. We soon noticed a pattern of elevators having to be maintained throughout the trip, and by the end we were pretty much using the stairs whenever we could. I will say that our experience getting from LAX to the port was a pleasant one, and very organized. Once we got to the port things went quickly and smoothly, which was nice after a day of traveling. Our disembarkation experience, on the other hand, was an absolute mess. We paid to get our bags “transferred” to LAX, which we were under the impression meant we wouldn’t see them again until we got to the airport. Our group was called 45 minutes late to disembark and once we got off the ship we had to find our bags in the port lobby and take them through customs and onto the shuttle. This wouldn’t have been an issue if we hadn’t paid for something we could’ve done ourselves. Leaving the port and trying to find Princess’ shuttle to the airport was disorienting, and we got to our terminal less than an hour before our flight was set to leave (running through LAX is not fun and I do not recommend it). My fiance’s parents got caught in the torrential rain leaving the port, so having to walk 1/4 mile to the shuttle was even more inconvenient, and by the time they got home their bags (also “transferred”) were still soaked. Overall, we had a mixed experience onboard the Emerald. The price of the cruise and the standards did not match up, we expected much more. We will not be sailing with this cruise line again. Read Less

My husband and I chose this cruise for the itinerary. We always wanted to see Hawaii and we were glad we did. What a beautiful destination (all four islands that we visited). I was especially taken with the fern grotto (it was almost mystical) and something everyone should see in their life time. Embarkation was quick and we were on board before 1:00 pm The Emerald is still a gorgeous ship although it could use a little sprucing up which will happen in April. Pros: The staff. They were all friendly and extremely helpful at every turn. Nothing was too much for them. The wait staff in the Botticelli dining room were the nicest people and professional as well. My husband and I enjoyed all the excursions as well. So much to see but so little time. The drivers and guides were exemplary. International Cafe Ate most meals there as it was fairly decent. Crown Grill was excellent, but ofcourse you have to pay extra for that. Cons: Our biggest disappointment was the food on board. What has happened? The Horizon buffet was not good. Such low quality food. Every day it was just left overs from the dining room the night before. Sushi hot-dogs anyone! Some of it was just gross. The dining room is not much better. Weird combinations of food that had an off putting taste. The prime rib was the only good meal in 15 days. The Curtis Stone restaurant was terrible. $39.00/pp extra and it was not any better than the dining room. I think it was the same thing that they tried to pass off with fancy gourmet names when really it was nothing special and all 6 courses could fit on one plate and there would still be room. I don't think Curtis Stone would have become famous serving this. If you think that throwing a twig of rosemary on something makes it gourmet food, think again. Not all of us are fooled. Disembarkation was horrendous. Caught in torrential rain storm in LA. This was not Princess's fault, but it was the way they handled it. Left a whole group of us in the rain after we left the ship. People in wheelchairs were left stranded in the rain because we did mot know where the buses for our group were located. Were told to go under the makeshift tent but found out that this was only for people getting on the ship. Finally one of our group found the buses at the other end of the parking lot. Out there for 20 minutes soaking right to the bone. Princess employees were no help at all. Side note: the bus driver that took us to LAX was wonderful and tried to help as much as she could. WiFi was slow and spotty at best. Not worth the money. All in all, I am going to try Celebrity the next time in order to compare or at least one of the newer ships. Read Less

We left from Los Angeles and the weather was rough for the first couple days, but that was to be expected with a storm front. Embarkation went very well, very organized. Disembarkation was also very good. The cabin was good and the steward was excellent. Nearly all the food we order and the food on the buffet came to us lukewarm, at the best. The last 4 days, we found a terrific waitress in the Michaelangelo dining room. The best meal we had was the Specialty Dining at the Crown Grill. We also enjoyed good English Pub fish and chips on three days, for lunch. Entertainment was so so. We like the comedian and the ventriloquist, but the stage shows were really not that good. This is something we always used to enjoy on Princess. Service with the buffet staff was also so so. I often felt I was in their way, and that is not acceptable. The ports were good and the excursions we took (2) were very good. The big problem came in Maui. After our whale watching excursion (which was terrific) we went to the ship to eat, then back on the tender to town for some shopping. We waited in a HUGE line to get on the tender back to the ship. The line went at least a city block and kept growing. We got on the tender and headed out to the ship and the waters became rough, to say the least. When we approached the ship, the deck hands tied us up the the ship and at that point things went from bad to worse. Waves were slamming us against the ship, we heard the fiberglass on the tender crack against the ship. The ship was raising up and down, and our little tender was slammed against the metal rails since the bumpers had come off and left so protection for us. The deck hand in our tender was handing out barf bags to everyone and at least 35 people began throwing up. It was bad enough with waves not only going over and into the tender, but they were also going up and over into the ship. At that point, the deck hands ran away and up the stairs to avoid getting wet and leaving us still tied to the ship. They left us tied to the ship until we screamed at them to cut us loose! Finally, we got loose and the tender operator took us back out into the rough seas. He didn't seem to know to have the front of the tender facing into the waves, so we were sideways in the awful rocking water for over 2 HOURS! We left the dock at 5:15 and we finally got on the ship at 7:20 pm. Most of us could barely walk and once on the ship, the women began crying. The fear was real. We put on our life jackets because we though we were going to be turned over in the sea. It was the worse experience we have ever had and we have been sailing for over 15 years. We called and asked to speak to a supervisor or someone in charge. We were told they would call us back, NOPE! Not one peep from anyone in charge. I can guarantee you that a lot of us called and no one called any of us back. I was sick and barely able to walk, so my husband called the service desk and was told he would have to come down and get the sea sickness (meclazine) medicine if we wanted any. He went to the medical office and it was closed, so back up he went to the service desk, where they ended up having a couple packets of the pills. We missed our evening meal since we were so sick. No one on the Emerald Princess responded to our requests about this nightmare, AT ALL! We have done the Hawaii cruise twice before, but we will never do it again after that treatment. I will not be on Princess again after this cruise, either. This was the worst service in the restaurants, the worst food, and to top it off a tender from HELL. I cannot understand how the service on Princess could go downhill so completely in such a short amount of time. If you go on any cruise, but definitely Princess, you better think to take care of yourself and other passengers in an emergency, the crew does not care about you and you will be left to fend for yourself. We were on this cruise for our 40th anniversary, we got no mention of the special day, at all. Other cabins had birthday and anniversary signs, we got NOTHING. It was on our reservation, so there was no excuse. The ship is really showing it's age. We opted for a balcony cabin and it was nice, but the hallways are pretty banged up, the elevators were banging in between floors, tile is cracked and uneven. I heard the ship is going into dry dock in March, but it needed renovation more than a year ago from what we saw. I don't think there is enough seating for Movies under the Stars. Until the last sea day at a night that was pretty cool, we couldn't ever find seating. They are pretty stingy with the popcorn, too. The guy came around once with about a cup full of corn in the little bag. My husband didn't get any since he wasn't there when they handed it out and the guy never came back. I didn't realize we one had one chance to get some for the whole movie. The last Hawaii cruise was nothing like this. What a sad and frightening journey. Read Less

We chose this cruise for its ports of call. The food on this cruise was very good as was the entertainment. The ship was clean and majority of crew members were very nice. Our cabin steward brought us our requested ice each day. He was able to straighten our cabin early when we went to breakfast and dinner. The cabin was very small compared to what we have experienced on other similar cruise lines for similar fares. The shower was TINY as was the bathroom. The closet was large - actually too large. There was only one chair in the room to sit on so we had to use our bed when sitting in the room. The balcony was very narrow. We were on the starboard side of the Baja deck. It was nice to have a refrigerator in the room without additional costs. I gave it a three star rating because of two major issues. One was where an officer yelled and chewed out another crew member in front of many passengers. There was no need to do that and it indicated to me that there is underlying crew moral issues. In the dining room servers would not service tables not assigned to them and even gave disapproving glances to other servers. The second issue was a lack of response from the captain to the stranded tender passengers - over 300 - and a lack of concern for the safety of these passengers during the tender unloading process. On a final note we would travel to Hawaii again on a cruise but not on Princess line. Read Less

We didn't want to fly all the way to Hawaii from Philadelphia, so we choose this cruise because iwe wanted to celebrate our 25th wedding anniversary with a cruise to Hawaii. This was not our first cruise, but was our first cruise on the Princess Cruise line. We were only in the four main Hawaian Islands for one day each so the rest of our time was on board the ship. Our cabin was small and had little room for storage. The bathroom and shower were even smaller. There were far too many people on board for the space available in the entertainment areas and you could not get seating at the shows unless you went there about 45 to 60 minutes before the show started. This became very stressful when you have to hurry your dinner schedule in order to get seating for an event. During the days at sea ther was little to do except for early in the morning. Few events were scheduled for the afternoons so we spent a lot of time naping or reading. On the last day of the cruise. I had to pay $25.00 dollars to use a computer for a few minutes to confirm my airline reservation and print our boarding passes. which I thought was outrageous. Considering the amount of money it cost us for this cruise, I have to say I foud it mostly boring and very overpriced. Based on our experience, I would not recommend Princess Cruise line. Read Less

23 friends got together to enjoy a Hawaii cruise. Other than a unhappy room steward , the staff were great. We purchased internet for the full 15 days and had no internet on the 9 sea days. The food was just OK compared to Celebrity. The entertainment was excellent but we did not think the singers and dancers on board were up to par. The ship needs a referbish and understand it is to happen soon. The Horizon grill on the Lido deck is a jam together place. The food dispensary areas are encircled small areas. Lines up at all areas. They need to see how Celebrity or RCCL do it properly. The dancing music and area was very good. We would suggest the room stewards find better locations for their service carts than having them block hallways. Food was generally cold and fried eggs were at least 20 minutes sitting on the service area before used. Read Less

Loyal Princess Cruiser....Fifth cruise to HI and it had been a favorite in the past. Wow was this trip a disappointment. No invitation for the Captains Circle party or hor'd menu. Learned about it from another guest....ordered appetizers on another night and they were never delivered. Sheets changed once on 15 day cruise, Ice bucket not delivered. Elite Gold bag half filled and with two hair conditioner tubes. Had to ask for pen and notepad, (not a big deal, but just another missing element)...." Ice" cold poached eggs, TWICE in dining room. Hostess asked for room number from me and other guests who received same, neither of us received any response. Shows a big disappointment. Too inexperienced a cruise director. No general Elite information as in the past.and on and on... A terrible experience in one of the dining rooms where, as a single, I was seated at a table for 6 since "I would be seated sooner"... after twenty-five minutes I was still alone at the table and waiter then suggested I might as well order....Not Good! Sorry Princess but you have really fallen down in numerous ways. Only the Captain seemed on top of his job and was very sociable and pleasant, and I met some lovely table partners. I will never take this particular cruise again and I'm wondering what has happened to Princess and if I want to use any of my future cruise credits.... Read Less

Platinum level cruisers, so typically pick Princess first, but about 4 years since our last cruise so noticed a big difference especially in quantity/quality of staff. Nice enough cabin, outside window, very clean and a good location. But cabin stewards used to ALWAYS address us by name beginning with the minute we boarded, and that is so not the case anymore--didn't happen once. I have agree with another reviewer, "cruise director Kaylie seemed like a giggling 14-year-old." Sorry Kaylie--you just had that kind of demeanor. Entertainment was pretty weak. One guitar player/"comedian" in the large Princess theater was particularly bad--lots in the front row just got up and left about 10 minutes into performance. Trip was nice--being in Hawaii for Christmas is always a treat. We did our own shore excursions, hiring them at the end of the pier, because you go exactly the same places Princess takes you at about half the price. Specialty restaurants are getting a bit "gougy" too--Pay $29 per person in the Crown Grille, but then if you decide you want a lobster tail from the menu, they add an additional $10 for that! Lots of little changes noticeable -- no more half & half or cream at the coffee/tea drink station, only milk; buffet food was typically cold; used to be offered water when we got off on a shore trip, now they charge for it. Oh yeah, we had practically NO internet on this ship. Lots of excuses (weather, position, etc) but still NO internet. Connectivity is a necessity for many these days, not a luxury. This was a huge pain and lots of very angry people at the Internet Cafe, demanding refunds. So between high-priced shore excursions, cut backs in service, staff interaction that was just "average," and entertainment not nearly as good as in previous years, we are definitely going to give another line a try. Read Less

The cruise was 15 days spanning Christmas and New Years. It was an OK trip, but I expected more from Princess Cruises. The ship was over crowded and there were long lines for everything. Many of the shows and events (trivia, classes, ect) could not accommodate the amount of guests on board. The food was eatable, but disappointing as well. You could not find tables to sit and eat because the overcrowding and lack of space drove people to lounge and congregate at the tables in the buffet and café areas. The amenities were lacking; they definitely fall into the "No Frills" category. The service staff were good and tried to be very helpful and attentive. They did their best to make the vacation smooth and enjoyable. The holiday events left something to be desired and we kept finding ourselves lucky to have gotten a seat, but merely waiting for it to end. Christmas passed with minimal notice, and New Years was very disappointing. I think I will stick to Royal Caribbean for my cruises. They were a much better experience for the same cost. Read Less

Chose this cruise due to great experience on the Ruby. Emerald needs a major suite overhaul, best thing about the cruise was staff, not food, not decor, not amenities, not entertainment, not services available! The food in dining room was excellent at first, then got poor as the cruise progressed. The room service was great with 2 of the delivery stewards, but one put zero effort into it and just dropped off our tray of lukewarm food. The suite experience did not meet my expectations. The only thing worth it was having a shower and tub. Of course the shower had some black stuff growing on grout and a maintenance man spent an hour and a half of unscheduled time sanitizing the jet tub. When I asked him if there was a problem with it that brought him to our cabin, he politely informed me his boss told him it must be sanitized every 3 months and today was the day. Eww. Every three months? Our couch seat cushions were extremely worn and did not really fit the sofa. Looked like a garage sale find. Our room steward worked his tail off and was always pleasant. By the end, if I had to hear the violin girls in the piazza one more time I would have torn my hair out. They are very good, they justt played a lot of the same stuff over and over and over. This is a rough review, but I spent A LOT of money for the suite experience. We quit ordering the canapés because they were always dry and tasteless. We tried the fancy tea once, he brought a bunch of dried out sandwiches and pastries and literally dropped it off. There was no service. Didn’t even set the table at all. Don’t get me wrong, we got to relax and enjoy our time together, but I could’ve spent the same time in a much better luxury hotel for less money. Read Less

Everyone said Princess is a grest cruise line. I was very disappointed in the food and overall experience. The comedians were the highlight of the cruise. Our cabin attendant was excellent. The Cruise Director and her staf did a good job. The dining was a big disappointment. The food was ok, but not was I was expecting. You had to wait in long lines for a burger, pizza, ice cream or anything at the International Cafe. We got lost repeatedly as they don't have any wayfinding system like Royal Caribbean. To get to our dining room, we had to goup to ths 7th floor and then down to the 6th floor. I found it odd and annoying. We got locked out of our room twice on a 5 night cruise. We had to go from the 14th floor to the 6th each t I'll me we got locked out. Both times were late at night when we were teying to get back to the room to go to bed. Read Less

We saved up quite a while for this dream vacation of a lifetime on Princess Cruise Lines. We were very disappointed in our balcony stateroom and even more disappointed in the lack of response from Princess Cruise Limes customer service and passenger services. When booking our cruise and choosing our balcony stateroom, we selected a top floor (Lido 15th floor) balcony room at the front of the ship. When selecting our room, you select the room you are requesting and a picture pops up of what the room looks like. It showed a typical room with a balcony with the blue tinted plexiglass wall on the balcony. When we arrived on board the ship and went to our room, we discovered that it did not have the transparent plexiglass wall on the balcony, but it had a white painted metal wall instead. Our dreams of waking up in the morning with the curtains open and being able to see the ocean from our bed were dashed. Having coffee out on the balcony in the morning sitting in the chairs watching the ocean was also impossible. Having a romantic dinner catered out to our private balcony as they advertised? Not an option unless you think sitting in a metal box is romantic. There are 2 balcony rooms with this metal box configuration out of the 900 balcony rooms that are on the Emerald. These 2 rooms (L201 and L202) cost just the same as the others in their category, but they should be highly discounted due to their lack of visibility. There should be some kind of designation or remark in the description of these 2 rooms when you are choosing state rooms. We met the couple that was in L202 during dinner one night, and they were just as disappointed as we were in our balcony room. They have cruised 56 times and this was their first Princess cruise, celebrating their 50th wedding anniversary. Let me just say that they were NOT impressed with Princess. They also complained to passenger services and customer care and they at least got a phone call and a letter. Neither one of us would have chosen the balcony room that we did if we had known that there was little visibility from our balconies. We immediately went to passenger services to complain about our room/balcony. Passenger services promised that we would receive a letter delivered to our stateroom no later than the following night. Well, the cruise was over yesterday, and we are still waiting! On the 3rd day of the cruise, I used some of my Internet minutes on board and emailed corporate customer care. I got an automated message verifying my letter and said that they would respond to complaints in the order that they were received. It has been 28 days, and I am still waiting. We have earned Platinum status with Princess and have not had issues on the 10 previous cruises. Apparently Princess does not believe in customer service or customer loyalty. We also had another issue with Passenger services. My wife forgot to take her watch off when getting into the pool and set it on the bench at the side of the pool when she got in. Five minutes after getting out of the pool, she remembered her watch on the bench, but someone had already picked it up and taken it to passenger services. My wife went to passenger services to retrieve her watch within 30 minutes. Passenger services said that they didn't have the watch. Over the next several hours, she called passenger services 2 times about the watch, and was told that they did not have the watch. Finally after finding the woman who turned in the watch and having her come with my wife to passenger services to get her watch back.....it magically appeared. The watch had been there all along and much stress could have been avoided if they were doing their job. Not sure what happened, but it was the same passenger services person that was involved with this fiasco as well. Other than these 2 issues, we had a good cruise. The room/balcony was quite the downer, but we made the best of it. We had fabulous dinners with excellent staff and service in the Michelangelo dining room every night. Francesco the head waiter was the best by far that we have ever had. Food was great but the menus were totally out of date. Recommended wines in the menu were not available, and some items were not available. We were told that they were waiting to print new menus. The horizon court was typical buffet food. More on quantity rather on quality. I think that their food quality has gone down hill a little in the last year or so. Some of the quality of the food in the dining room was also not up to previous cruises. Things like the quality of the beef cuts of meat and the size and quality of the lobster were not up to par. One thing that Princess has changed that I believe really cost them a bunch of profit was the discontinuing with happy hour in the lounges. On previous cruises, during happy hour the lounges were packed with standing room only. Now you can rarely find anyone in the lounges unless there is an exciting entertainment venue, and hardly anyone is ordering drinks. I bet that the liquor profit for Princess is WAY down due to this decision. The entertainment in the theatre was pretty good, with some entertainers that we have seen on prior cruises. Our entertainment director, Alexander, and his staff were amazing. Our room steward Frankie was great. Couldn't have asked for anything more from him. Our room was always spotless and all needs were eagerly met. Hawaiian islands were great as always. THe south pacific islands were amazing. Bora Bora is as beautiful as the pictures in the magazines make it look. Moorea was too. Samoa islands were beautiful. We were a little disappointed with Tahiti as the port city was just like any other big city. Should have done an excursion and got out of the city. Probably will not do this long of a cruise again and not with Princess. We had been happy with Princess cruise lines up to now and have earned platinum status. We were excited to earn Elite status and cruise with Princess exclusively. We now are going to try some other cruise lines after the lack of customer service that Princess gave us this last cruise. Read Less

Went on Pacific Coast tour in October and I couldn't believe how horrible the buffet food was on this trip. I admit this is my second cruise on Princess and most likely my last as the thought of being on a cruise for a long duration and having to eat horrid food with questionable sanitation at tables each time we eat there is not my idea of vacation. The food was bland, dry, and at times tasted awful. Buffet service is slow cause everyone had to wait for their utensils once they find a table to sit. I already have gotten my food and now I have to wait for utensils by finding and asking the waiter for utensils...which was not always easy. Also cream for my coffee was crazy. Had to also ask waiter for cream since they don't put it out at the beverage area, Napkins, what? Again had to ask the waiter. Waiters were busy getting utensils for people that waiting for cream which often took a while that my coffee was cold. Crazy. We couldn't wait to get off the ship to eat fresh, tasty food, which is saying a lot! The ship's layout was very strange to badly laid out. I understand that these ships are huge and takes time to manage it. But if I keep having to go up on flight and down again just to get to the dining room or theater is totally baffling and strange to me why one can't simply walk thru to the other end of the ship is the common areas. Maybe they want people to get their exercise walking stairs? Can't imagine how difficult it must be for the handicap having to wait for elevators which was really slow. The ship's layout is the worst I've had to maneuver. Ports were nonexistent, tho I admit I went on this cruise just to get away, relax and enjoy dining experience. Not much in Astoria, tho we did enjoy ourselves at the brewery...hmm, why couldn't it be like this on the cruise. I did complain to Princess Cruise and all I got was a "I'm sorry" from them. We'll I'm sorry I won't be going on anymore Princess Cruises. I've never been disappointed on any of the Royal Carribbean and NCL cruises considering the many, many times I cruised with RCCL and NCL. Guess Princess Cruises thinks they are great enough to not try to entice disappointed guests back. I book many group tours with friends and families and there is no way I will subject them to a cruiseline that does not back up it's service and food. NOR do not value it's past guests. Entertainment OK. Had better experience on other cruise lines, esp RCCL. Activities. Minimal activities. Mostly activities to try to get you to the shops with raffles. Eh, not for me. Anyways, my take, Princess Cruise line from my experience does not values it's past guests and back up it's service and food. Will not be taking Princess again. NO WAY. Read Less

We took this cruise because my husband is wholly dependent on a walker due to his rehabilitating from two broken femurs (thighbones). It was convenient to where we live and didn't involve air travel. In addition, it was mostly sea days. It started off badly, with the wheelchair supervisor slamming the footrest down on my husband's shin while assisting him into the chair. He didn't apologize or offer a band aid to quell the bleeding. We waited more than an hour for an attendant to get us to the room. The ship is really too long for someone with difficulty in walking any distance with a walker and that is my own fault for booking it. There was a helicopter rescue while at sea and we were denied access to our room for 5 hours. The announcement came while we were at breakfast and we couldn't get to our medications, reading materials, glasses. There was just about no place in the public rooms to sit (all occupied by the three floors of people who were evacuated) and we finally found the last two chairs in the library. This my 4th helicopter rescue at sea and we've never been denied access to anything but the immediate area. We could not attend some activities due to not being able to get from one place to another to get to an aisle or otherwise accessible seat for my husband. The Lido Deck was continually crowded--seemed like it was poorly arranged and not adequate for the volume of passengers. Upon disembarkation, we were kept waiting for over two hours for a wheelchair attendant; we were supposed to be off by 9:00 a.m. and it was after 10:00 a.m. when we finally got off. I had pleaded with the person doing the scheduling that we were in danger of missing our bus. We were the last two loaded on the bus. Our waiter literally ran between tables. It would appear to me that help is stretched very thin. Service was good. Our stateroom attendant was excellent. Our cabin was one of the nicest we've had since needing an accessible one--double sized balcony. The theater has no center aisles, is not tiered on the main floor. The seats are so broken down my husband said he felt like he needed a seat belt to keep from sliding forward. The rows are so close together that no one could possibly pass in front of the seated person who must stand each time. We're through with Princess. Read Less

We had been looking forward to this cruise for several years. We were celebrating a significant anniversary and we had had a wonderful experience on a previous Princess cruise. The ship sailed from Vancouver to the Hawaiian islands and back. It was a 15 day cruise. The ship itself was clean but not maintained all that well. There were mysterious wet spots on the carpeting in some areas and the occasional funky smell. There were also a lot of burnt-out or non-unctioning lights, which may seem trivial but often indicates a general lack of maintenance that may extend to areas not so visible. The seating in the Princess Theatre was atrocious. Any of you who are large might consider that there is only an 18" width to the seats and the sides are hard. (Picture sitting in a box 18" wide.) EVERYONE that we discussed this with felt that those seats were awful! To give you some idea of the width, 18" is even less than the 18.5" that airline seating allows. The food had also gone downhill siginificantly, as had the service. Everything appears to have been cost-cut to the point where it is obvious to pretty much all of the passengers. The staff in the dining rooms is running to keep up, the wait times between course servings is frequently a half hour or more, and the food delivered may, or may not match the descriptions in the menus. Much of the hot food or soup is luke-warm at best. (The Princess chefs need a Truth-In-Advertising refresher course.) In addtion, the food is generally just plain bland. The pace and working conditions of the staff show in their attitudes. Where you never used to encounter an "attitude" with the crew and service people, these days you hear not-so-subtle complaints and encounter mediocre service on a fairly regular basis. Worse yet, every where you turn somebody is trying to sell you something at an additional cost. This encompasses not only all of the regular shops and over-priced drink packages, but also periodic sales in the dining rooms between meals under conditions that would make a discount store blush as well as the purported "activity" programs offered to pasengers which are thinly disquesed sales programs. It gets really, realy old in a hurry. Lastly, the premium restaurant that we tried was the steak house on board. Bearing in mind that this meal cost an additional $29 per person, (although ours was part of our tour package), one would expect a really fine steak. However, the steaks we ordered, while beautiful and beautifully cooked, had no flavor whatsoever! Yes, there were some really fun surprises and a few really memberable dishes in the dining rooms. Yes, some of the shore trips were great. But overall, I'm thinking that this was probably our last Princess cruise. Read Less

We chose this ship and date because it was suppose to be less crowded, because it is toward the end of season. Which is was less crowded and we were able to see some great port sales. Seattle was rated to be one of the easiest ports for embarking and disembark, it is. We have went out of Mobile, Alabama, Miami, Florida, Tampa, Florida, Seattle is the best Port. First stop, Ketchikan was wonderful, then off to Juneau again fabulous, scenic cruising of TAF, didn’t happen because of glaciers and icebergs, Skagway was next, it was okay, not spectacular, final port was Victoria, BC, which was enjoyable. In Juneau our ship excursion was a no go, whale sighting, but weren’t told until we disembarked and all other tours had either sold out or left. BUT Alix and Gary from the pier sales, took care of us! They set us up on a seaplane tour @ 5:30 & gave us the most memorable trip. Weather was perfect in every port. Unfortunately, there was a lot of negative from this ship and crew. Prepurchased the Internet package, never worked on either of our phones, so our business was neglected when we had sea days, to make it worse, no one on the ship could fix it or care to. The cruise director, Jen, did things a little backwards, she gave history and information on the port as we sailed away from the ports. We had a mini suite with a balcony, it was great. We had club class dining, anytime, that was also wonderful. The downside was the food was not impressive at all. The buffet was dull everyday. When you pay what we did you’d expect better, both dining room and ship wide. I also do not think you should have to pay almost the same amount as your vacation/trip as you do for a beverage package. Lastly, with a ship full of crew members and staff, we only had 5 people that were friendly and outgoing, made an impression. Nimo, room steward, Slavica, club class dining waitress, Jorge aka Coco, photography, Razman, club class dining manager and Front Desk Service, from Roaton, Honduras, gentleman(didn’t get his name). All in All we will probably not go on Princess Cruise Lines again, lacks so much. Read Less