I have been sailing with Princess since the 90s and I must say they are slipping down the slope quickly. As others pointed out, the Emerald Princess should not have left dry dock. I don't believe the ship was ready and I too question the logistics and scheduling decisions made by those in charge of it. One crew member told me they went over budget by $5 million and spent a total of $19 million. They had a video about what they did in dry dock. I think they created it because you couldn't tell anything was done other than new carpet smell. There were other odd smells in public rooms as well which they did not do anything about until the day we disembarked.

We left Port Everglades almost 2 hours late as they were still loading items needed. Not to mention the numerous functioning issues that occurred throughout the trip. Service was good in some places and horrible in others. We gave up on eating in the Main Dining room as our service was the worst I've experienced on any cruise. For some reason, we didn't have an actual Waiter but 2 Assistants only. Neither were ready to be a full waiter. One evening, they even forgot to take the order of one person at our table of four. It took sometime for him to come back and take the order. Another night the coffee came out and was not right, color was ok, had no taste and turned a strange color when cream was added. Apparently, this was my fault or at least that is how I was made to feel given the terrible looks I was given by the one assistant. On top of it, they had a Matre'd there making them nervous the whole time and honestly, he wasn't much better in guest experience. We had other servers who were nice and friendly in Café Caribe and Horizon. Horizon Buffet food was disappointing overall. I think I was spoiled by the Royal Princess buffet as it had so many selections with high quality food. The Emerald did not. Even the croissants that I so enjoy were not fresh or good tasting.

We had mini-suite E731. Great room location with a huge balcony. Highly recommend it. We unfortunately had the water, toilet and AC issues for 4 out of 5 days. Oh well. We made the best of it! Room Steward was nice but he too seemed to very new as most of the crew on this ship and we had to frequently ask for things instead of them just happening. Read more