Emerald Princess Review
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Having sailed on Carnival once and three times on Royal Caribbean, we decided to give Princess a try because we heard it was a step up from our previous cruises. It was more of a step backwards than a step above. I am not the type to complain but the best part of the cruise was the embarkation process which was very quick and the ports we stopped at.
The sailing started out without a problem and we were able to take a quick tour before the ship sailed. The ship was beautiful and we were looking forward to a nice vacation. Within hours, everything changed. The seas were rough and the whole week was like flying in a bumpy airplane. You could hear what we assumed were the stablizers kicking in. It wasn't just in the front or back, it was all over the ship. Bonine helped me, but one person with us was sick the first 3 days. We talked to people from 3 other ships when we were at St. Maarten and none of them had the rough seas we had and I'm pretty sure we were in the same water.
The whole atmosphere on the ship was unusual. Our cabin attendant was very nice and did his job, but it took us 4 days to find out that he was keeping our ice bucket in the fridge. Other staff members especially at the buffet lines, where we ate our meals because of the unappetizing menus in the dining room, made you feel like you were an intruder rather than a guest. Most of the bar tenders were the nicest staff members. We took advantage of the soda package so we had unlimited sodas. The meal highlights were the night they were having lobster tail during the formal night, at the buffet, we had lobster claws and the parts that weren't the tails. Other cruises we have been on, had pretty much the same menu at the buffet as in the restaurants. The best buffet moment was the final night when they ran out of prime rib and brought out pork loin. One passenger went ballistic. The "chef" informed him that prime rib is very popular that night and they therefore ran out. I too was dissappointed with the no prime rib and there really was nothing else appetizing so we went back to our room to order room service. There is a very very limited room service menu and it took me about 15 minutes to get through to someone to order a sandwich. (all they have is soup, salad and a couple different sandwiches--breakfast is a continental breakfast for room service, not a full meal)
Cabin Review
Clean room. A little smaller than the cabins on our other cruises, but it was good for what we needed. The balcony was the normal size for a cruise ship balcony. We were on deck 12 so our deck was private but the decks below us had staggered balconies and we could see what the people below us were up to---something I didn't really care to see. Beautiful view though and I would never cruise without a balcony.
At night there were weird noises in the cabin. It sounded one night as if there were critters running above the ceiling panels. We could hear the sound of the stabilizers or whatever motors they were and the beds shook so much I was expecting to end up on the floor some morning from rolling out of bed.