My husband and I have been on 11 and 13 cruises respectively, and of this number, two and three have been on Princess. We were traveling with our dear friends, leaving many feet of snow in our hometown of Spokane, Washington. The four of us range in age from late 40's to early 50's.
Hotel: We stayed in Comfort Inn Airport/Cruise Port South and were happy with our stay. The free airport pickup and cruise port drop off went smoothly. There was a massive amount of people going on cruises so we were pleased it went so well.
Embarkation: We took the 12:30 shuttle to the Emerald Princess and encountered a huge line to get on the ship. It moved so quickly, however, that we probably were on the ship in 30 minutes or less. Once through the security you went to the line that corresponded to the deck your room was on. I think it was so quick that our credit card did not quite register at this point and a couple days into the cruise we got a note requesting us to re-register it again.
E305
This is an obstructed view cabin, but we could see over the lifeboat, which was just to the right of the window, and to the left were cables and what not. We were very happy with it.
We were not happy to find out that the deck 7 door to outside was directly under us and it slammed at all hours. Also, this room is directly across from the service area elevators where they bring in the luggage and room servicing carts. There was a lot of noise to say the least, and I was glad I had earplugs. There was a lot of motion and creaking in this room also. Sometimes it sounded like someone tapping on our door.