We boarded the Emerald around 12pm on Sunday and carried on our luggage. Went straight to our stateroom and everything was ready for us. Since we had our luggage with us, we went ahead and unpacked and freshened up before exploring the ship. The room was beautiful and the balcony was HUGE, plenty of room to relax. Our steward, Gerald, was fantastic and took care of all our needs without even being asked including bringing ice each day, extra pool towels, and anything else we thought to ask for. The ship was beautiful, all the public areas were clean and very inviting. We had 2nd seating traditional dining and our waiter, Placido, and assistant waiter were wonderful. We did eat in the anytime dining room two nights and did not have to wait at all, the service was good both times.

We enjoyed 3 comedians on the ship, each one was excellent. We attended one production show 'We Got The Music' which was good but most of the songs were from the 70s which is not our taste in music. We never had any trouble getting seats in the theater or any of the other entertainment venues. There was an excellent martini demonstration, ice sculpture demonstration, rum tasting, ballroom dancing lessons, and many other fantastic activities. We were definitely not bored at all. MUTS was wonderful and always crowded, there was a short rain shower at the end of one movie which did cause everyone to run for cover. We used the pools and hot tubs and never had any problems with chair hogs, we always got loungers exactly where we wanted them in sun or shade no matter what time of day we went to the pool. The fresh baked cookies and milk were awesome, they came around the pool deck with a cart each afternoon.

The food was all really good, with the dining room food being much better than the buffet food. We did the coffee card and the soda card and they were definitely worth it. The International Cafe was a great place to stop for a snack anytime of day. The champagne waterfall and captains party were great. We enjoyed the after 8pm drink specials most nights and they were never watered down, definitely worth the $2.99 price. Went to Skywalkers for Eighties Night and had a great time dancing and watching the eighties music videos. It got pretty busy in Skywalkers late at night but was empty most of the day which was great for a quiet place to relax and enjoy the view.