Just back from the Emerald Princess, July 25, Eastern Caribbean trip. We have been on Princess 3 x before and although we enjoyed our trip very much, this was not our favorite cruise. We are a family of 4 consisting of 2 teens, age 16 and 19. We did sail with other family members totally 11 people in all. We stayed overnight in Dania at the Springhill Suites and took a free shuttle to the port at 10am and left our car at the hotel for free for the week. The hotel was lovely and there were no problems at all. We paid for return shuttle on Aug.1 to get back to the hotel to retrieve our car. $8pp was the fee for this service. We arrived at 10am at the port and the ship was still handling departing passengers from the week before. So, we sat outside on benches and waited to be invited in to go through security. Then we were put in group 2 and sat in the waiting area until almost noon. Our group was called quickly and we then went through the lines to register, get key cards and board the ship. When group 2 was called to boarding took all of 15 minutes. Very efficient. We were allowed to go straight to our rooms on Aloha. We had two inside cabins next to each other and they were ready to go, clean, and ready for luggage with a luggage pad waiting on the bed. Our room steward was Jules and he greeted us promptly and throughout the week, supplied us with what we needed. I had faxed 4 weeks ahead for egg crates for the beds and he had not gotten the message, so he quickly remade the beds on Monday after we re-requested them! It was not his fault that he had not gotten the message and he even offered to show us his "list" of special requests, but we did not take him up on it, as we totally believed that it was a Princess error and not his. Not an issue anyway. Our group was quickly off to the DaVinci diningroom for a nice relaxing lunch. Our group of 11 was accommodated with no questions and it was a nice sendoff. 9 of us looked at our key tags and made sure that we all were assigned to dinner together. The other 2 did not check, assuming they would be with us, and this caused an issue later, as by the time they realized that they were not at our table, the maitre'd had made all changes and could not do anything. So, for the week we had to call each morning and make a reservation at 6pm for dinner each night for our large party. We ended up getting the same table each night with the same servers, just not in the traditional dining room, but in the anytime dining room which was fine. We toured the ship, received luggage, unpacked, went up for sailoff and the lifeboat drill and then it was dinnertime. We sat down and then all of the lights were flickering and then off. The generator kicked on, the A.C. went off and it was not the most pleasant way to begin the week. It turns out that we lost the engines for a total of 6 hours and that we had no elevator usage, few items to choose from to eat, no working bathrooms, no air conditioning and no real explanations. It was a very long and hot night. Not a great way to begin the week. Around 11:30pm our air conditioning started again in our room. The ship started to move and we were on our way again. Because we had an inside with no airflow, we sat on the Promenade deck much of the evening to get a small breeze. There were many irate passengers, many who could not use the stairs who were "stuck" on whatever floor they were on, but there was nothing any of us could do, so we just hung out and waited. By the next day, we were supposed to be in Princess Cays, but we had to miss the stop because we had lost so much time. We were compensated with a glass of wine on Monday at dinner and soda for the kids, and 3 extra hours in St. Maarten. This compensation did not please many of the irate passengers who felt we were owed much more for their inconvenience. It is amazing how loud some of them could be to show their displeasure. We had 2 sea days back to back and I personally had no problem with this. As long as I wasn't cooking or making my bed, I was happy. Hard to not have fun on a cruise in my opinion. St. Maarten was a very hot day and we had been there before. We shopped a bit and then enjoyed a fairly empty ship and the pools were delightful. St. Thomas was a great day and we did one of the Princess Tours to St. John to snorkel in Trunk Bay. It was easy and a beautiful snorkeling excursion. Grand Turk was not much, but we had arranged a tour with Blue Water Divers and loved it! Only 11 of us went snorkeling and had a super time at the "wall" and saw amazing things including sharks, turtles, eels, rays, etc. I would highly recommend this company. Our last sea day was typical and full of fun. On Wednesday we received a letter stating that each cabin would get a 300.00 credit to use for anything to compensate us for the loss of engines and Princess Cays on Monday. We also received 15.00 in port charges refunded for each person. Our family actually received a credit on our Visa. Not bad. Our 16 year old had fun in the teen club. Our 20 year old participated in many 18-20 events. The food was average, I have had much better on Princess ships before. Disembarkation was a breeze and easily handled by Princess on this particular ship. Much better than Carnival. Overall, we had a nice time. Saw some really funny comedians, thought the shows were corny. International Cafe was a hit with our daughter. The pub lunch was mediocre and not really enough food for a lunch, but a nice change of pace. Movies under the stars at night was great! The deck chair situation was ridiculous! The first day I was out at 9:30 and found 1 chair left. The second day, 9:00 and seriously got the last chair. Last sea day, 8:30am and not a chair to be found! People had chairs saved all day and never even used them! Believe me, I watched and even asked the person next to me who was saving the seat if it was available for my clearly live and standing there son, and was told it was being used, but the person NEVER showed up and then she left and picked up the towel on the other chair much later...So rude! So, I'd say that I wouldn't rush to the Emerald again, but I'd definitely try Princess again.