Was on Emerald for 10 night Southern Caribbean Explorer cruise. Beautiful ship and in great condition.

We stayed in FLL beach the night before, dropped off our car and got shuttled to the port around 1. We were onboard by 1:45. Had a nice CC get-together the first day onboard. Muster drill at 4. Food is good in the dining room and buffet. Like the themed night in the buffet and we ate there more often than in the dining room. Ice cream at 3:30 in Horizon Court was nice and quite popular. Horizon Court will serve lemonade if you ask for it. Pizza always good; I haven't had that much pizza in six months! Brkfst buffet gets boring. Formal nights in the D.R. a few men had on tuxes (~10%), lots of suits, and the rest in the D.R. had on a dress shirt or polo shirt. Ladies varied from sparkly gowns to a skirt and top. Our not-so-good waiters got all friendly the last night telling us to rate them "excellent" on D.R. service. That was the most they spoke to us! Crown Grill was excellent. Every dish we tried (4 of us tried different dishes) was fabulous. Service was excellent too. Costs $25 per person. I like that there are five pools. We were close to the aft pool which is great. It has minimal chairs and no shortage of chair hogs who disappear for long periods of time leaving their stuff on the chair. Sanctuary area pool (though the pool is not in the Sanctuary) is nice with a swim-into-the-current thing going on, and has lots of deck space. Aft upper deck (18? 19?) has a pool too and since this cruise was largely seniors, this family area was available to everyone. Nice clean hot tubs there too. We were on the Riviera deck just at the edge of the Horizon Court so we heard minimal noise. Bro and SIL had cabin slightly forward and asked to be moved due to loud noise of chairs dragging above them. Very loud and annoying noise. I got to see how Princess does not help resolve issues (moving them to another cabin) and promises someone will get back to you, but no one does. My bro pursued it and 24 hrs later was finally moved. We heard it's a common complaint on Riviera so I wouldn't stay under an uncarpeted area. Also there is a large overhang from about 1/3 of the way to the back on Riviera which blocks the sun (and rain). Ample storage in cabins. Flat screen TV with lots of channels and shows. Classics like Roman Holiday, Get Smart, An Affair to Remember, etc. Showed The Love Boat too! More current movies and shows too. Would be nice if they'd have your onboard account viewable on the tv. Would cut down on the lines at Guest Services! Blow dryer in room is fine. Minimal electrical outlets for curling irons, etc. Safe, cabinets, lots of hangers. Our room steward Kupunt was the best one we've had on a cruise. Always tidy and he met my few requests happily. The shampoo, conditioner and lotions are now in little bottles; no more cardboard containers to get all mushy in the shower. Nice. No towel animals! Robes if you request. I love MUTS. We saw Mama Mia, some Indiana Jones flick, Get Smart, Baby Mama. Too much football (3 nights). They usually come around once with popcorn, cookies & milk, and candy (fee).

You never know when your request for a bridge tour will be honored! :-) I wish they had games like name that tune, name that tv show, finish the lyrics, etc. They did have something similar to Family Feud which was fun, but there wasn't enough time for everyone to have participated. Neil the cruise director was good. I ran into him mid-cruise and asked if there would be another 70/80s music night and he wrote it down on a pad and said "check your Patter" and 2 days later, there it was. So it's nice he listened to a passenger's suggestion. Debarkation isn't too organized if you're doing express walk-off. It seems you are better off coming to the meeting room later than they say. Still, we easily made our 10:40am flight, and could even have made the 9:30 with time to spare. Read more