We took this cruise because my husband is wholly dependent on a walker due to his rehabilitating from two broken femurs (thighbones). It was convenient to where we live and didn't involve air travel. In addition, it was mostly sea days. It started off badly, with the wheelchair supervisor slamming the footrest down on my husband's shin while assisting him into the chair. He didn't apologize or offer a band aid to quell the bleeding. We waited more than an hour for an attendant to get us to the room. The ship is really too long for someone with difficulty in walking any distance with a walker and that is my own fault for booking it. There was a helicopter rescue while at sea and we were denied access to our room for 5 hours. The announcement came while we were at breakfast and we couldn't get to our medications, reading materials, glasses. There was just about no place in the public rooms to sit (all occupied by the three floors of people who were evacuated) and we finally found the last two chairs in the library. This my 4th helicopter rescue at sea and we've never been denied access to anything but the immediate area. We could not attend some activities due to not being able to get from one place to another to get to an aisle or otherwise accessible seat for my husband. The Lido Deck was continually crowded--seemed like it was poorly arranged and not adequate for the volume of passengers. Upon disembarkation, we were kept waiting for over two hours for a wheelchair attendant; we were supposed to be off by 9:00 a.m. and it was after 10:00 a.m. when we finally got off. I had pleaded with the person doing the scheduling that we were in danger of missing our bus. We were the last two loaded on the bus. Our waiter literally ran between tables. It would appear to me that help is stretched very thin. Service was good. Our stateroom attendant was excellent. Our cabin was one of the nicest we've had since needing an accessible one--double sized balcony. The theater has no center aisles, is not tiered on the main floor. The seats are so broken down my husband said he felt like he needed a seat belt to keep from sliding forward. The rows are so close together that no one could possibly pass in front of the seated person who must stand each time. We're through with Princess. Read Less

We chose this cruise for being round trip from Vancouver. Embarkation was very fast since we were almost the last to board the ship. Our luggage arrived inside our cabin very quickly. The seas were rough leaving Vancouver and we couldn't sit by the pool till day 5 where we watched Mamma Mia! We were disappointed with the selection and food in the dining room. The Crown Grill and Share were excellent! The staff in the Wheelhouse knew our evening drinks. Now that is service. We enjoyed the deck party with the video of the staff of the original Love Boat with Jen and the cruise staff. Disembarkation took longer and when our color was called not all our luggage was in the specified area. It probably was due to arriving a little late due to the medical emergency which happened on board. A good time was had by all. Read Less

Old, dated, stained. Felt like an old Travelodge hotel.Low value. cannot compare to our other 3 cruises with Holland America. We repent Holland America, never again will we sale with the Dirty Princess. Our stareroom steward was great. The stateroom was worn out, the window curtans didnt fit properly. THe food in the Horizon buffet was almost un eatable. THe other resteraunts on board were better but disappointing in many ways. Check your room key card when you use it. Staff gave the wrong key card back to customers and cause lots of problems. Entertainment leader Jen was awesome but most of the entertainment was just so so. When we dis embarked the ship in Vancouver we had to Walk off because our connection was at 11am and we had no help from staff at ALL. My wife and I are in our 70s and I am disabled and we pleaded for help getting off boat but we were ignored by the staff. My wife and I had to drag and push our 5 bags down 4 decks and gang planks to a taxi. Worst expierence we have ever had. Read Less

We took this cruise because of all the sea days plus the ease of getting to Vancouver. As there was only the Emerald in port, embarkation was a breeze. We booked a Suite so there was a dedicated line for check-in. Speaking of Suites, here is where I get snooty. We have cruised many times, usually atthe Suite level. Princess does not treat their Suite passengers with nearly enough care,compared to other lines we have travelled on. Although we did get the Crown Grill forbreakfast every day, which was excellent, there were few other Suite perks. The ClubClass dining was available as part of the Da Vinci dining room for Suite and CC mini-suiteguests but the area was crowded and noisy. Moreover, the Head Waiter, Jelena, was overly friendly to the point of being pushy and made us wonder just how genuine she really was. Otherwise, being in a Suite meant we had a nice cabin, but not a lot else. We miss having a Concierge or even a dedicated phone line for reservations. Princess is a mass-market cruiseline. The other big disappointment: we are readers, especially with 10 sea days. EmeraldPrincess has the worst library I've ever seen on a crusieship of any size. There was nolibrarian or cruise member to answer questions. No inventory of books. Not many booksanyway, except those that other passengers left. No daily printed newspapers, summaries from Canada, USA, Britain, etc. And no one to complain to. Very sad. Re the food: Hardly ever went to the buffet; too crowded. The dr menu was okay butthe "always available" left much to be desired. Not even a steak, as had always been thecase. Instead there is a deluxe hamburger but I never saw anyone eating one for dinner. Princess has cut back. There are too many other lines that present a better product. We'll only travel Princess again if they have a particular itinerary to which no one else travels. Read Less

This ship goes to fantastic Islands like no other! You will want to go back right away as soon as you leave them! The Cruise Director and staff on this cruise work very hard to make sure all the guests are well entertained. The food in the dining room is superb! The Captain and his team were detained in their journey when a passenger became deathly ill and after travelling a whole night on the way back had to turn the ship around and head back to the Island to meet a helicopter that would pick up the ill passenger. This was all done very professionally and the Captain managed to get us back to Vancouver at the expected time anyway!! Pretty smooth sailing all the way! Embarking and disembarking was made very easy by spreading out the clients across the ship with numbers and colors. The excursion to Germaine's Luau in Honolulu was spectacular! Unfortunately ours got rained out but they handed us all good sized rain ponchos to keep us all dry! I hope to return to Hawaii someday, it was spectacular! Read Less

We had been looking forward to this cruise for several years. We were celebrating a significant anniversary and we had had a wonderful experience on a previous Princess cruise. The ship sailed from Vancouver to the Hawaiian islands and back. It was a 15 day cruise. The ship itself was clean but not maintained all that well. There were mysterious wet spots on the carpeting in some areas and the occasional funky smell. There were also a lot of burnt-out or non-unctioning lights, which may seem trivial but often indicates a general lack of maintenance that may extend to areas not so visible. The seating in the Princess Theatre was atrocious. Any of you who are large might consider that there is only an 18" width to the seats and the sides are hard. (Picture sitting in a box 18" wide.) EVERYONE that we discussed this with felt that those seats were awful! To give you some idea of the width, 18" is even less than the 18.5" that airline seating allows. The food had also gone downhill siginificantly, as had the service. Everything appears to have been cost-cut to the point where it is obvious to pretty much all of the passengers. The staff in the dining rooms is running to keep up, the wait times between course servings is frequently a half hour or more, and the food delivered may, or may not match the descriptions in the menus. Much of the hot food or soup is luke-warm at best. (The Princess chefs need a Truth-In-Advertising refresher course.) In addtion, the food is generally just plain bland. The pace and working conditions of the staff show in their attitudes. Where you never used to encounter an "attitude" with the crew and service people, these days you hear not-so-subtle complaints and encounter mediocre service on a fairly regular basis. Worse yet, every where you turn somebody is trying to sell you something at an additional cost. This encompasses not only all of the regular shops and over-priced drink packages, but also periodic sales in the dining rooms between meals under conditions that would make a discount store blush as well as the purported "activity" programs offered to pasengers which are thinly disquesed sales programs. It gets really, realy old in a hurry. Lastly, the premium restaurant that we tried was the steak house on board. Bearing in mind that this meal cost an additional $29 per person, (although ours was part of our tour package), one would expect a really fine steak. However, the steaks we ordered, while beautiful and beautifully cooked, had no flavor whatsoever! Yes, there were some really fun surprises and a few really memberable dishes in the dining rooms. Yes, some of the shore trips were great. But overall, I'm thinking that this was probably our last Princess cruise. Read Less

We wanted a holiday for my wife from her usual houshold management, and adventure for both of us in visiting a wonderful part of the world we'd never gone before. What we liked so much was ease of getting from our home in Vancouver to the ship, without having to bother with an airport or flight. Staff, especially the waiters, were delightful: cheerful (often heard them humming or singing as they went by), friendly, and helpful. Ship was beautiful and comfortable, though so big it took a while to get the layout. It was a new experience to watch a movie while in a swimming pool! Cabin steward was always quietly helpful and friendly, and left our room sparkling every day. Food was excellent, with so many choices of places to get it, and of food options when you decided where to eat. That brought us into much contact daily with waiters, and they were a lot of fun in general conversation, and explaining different items when we wanted to know what they were like. We had supper with the same two other couples every evening, and they were also great companions - lots of knowledge, jokes, and personal sharing. We both enjoyed specially the ventriloquist, my wife liked being in the pop choir, quilling, and exercise, I played the grand piano once, we liked and learned a lot from speakers and videos, enjoyed a few movies but left one when the language got dirty. Best of all was the 8:30 am Bible study/prayer daily, which became a beloved bunch of friends. Embarking we were excited, disembarking sorry to leave, no problems either way. Ports were lovely, walked around all 4 days, loved swimming at all four beaches - yes! Read Less

My husband and I chose this cruise because we wouldn't have to fly. Our home port is Vancouver. Also, neither one of us is a beach vacation person but we did want to see Hawaii. The good: the food was pretty good. We were booked for anytime dining but only went to the MDR once. It took about 1.5 hours to have dinner there and for us that's okay once in a while. So we stuck to the buffet where we thought the food was quite good. The complimentary pub lunches were really enjoyable. We usually shared a table and had very pleasant companions. The Salty Dog gastropub was worth the cover charge. If you go to it, make sure to get the hamburger. The entertainment was enjoyable too. Especially the Hawaiian ambassador couple - Rowena and Brian. Brian played ukelele and sang while Rowena did hula dancing. They were entertaining in the piazza quite often and I always stopped by at least for a few songs. In the Princess theater, the singers and dancers were a favourite for my husband. Also, there was a retired professor giving talks about Hawaiian history which I found interesting. The bad: the coffee in the buffet. We did pay for some at the International Cafe but didn't think it was worth it. And crowded during peak times in the buffet. Often we just ate outside by the pool. Our favourite stop was in Kuaui because there was a beach within a 10-minute walk from the dock. So we got towels from the ship's pool and spent the morning at the beach. You could walk right into the water it was so warm. What I would do differently: go to the hula dance lessons. Kind of regret not doing it. Finally, the embarkation and the debarkation were both very good. Read Less

My wife and I have been HAL mariners for 9 years, taking an average of two cruises per year. For the last 3 years we have noticed a steep decline in overall service and are seriously considering cutting all ties with HAL. Our last cruise to Hawaii on the Eurodam, was a final confirmation of declining service. The entertainment such as the country kitchen, had only a half dozen new shows for a sixteen day cruise and most of those days were at sea. This means repeating the same shows multiple times. The food in the Lido was boring and repetitive with few quality dishes being served, while the stations serving pasta and breakfast specialties were manned by improperly trained staff and resulted in long lines and waiting times. The majority of the staff continue to be friendly and helpful, but it is apparent that they are understaffed and overworked. I have never questioned the daily gratuities until now. I now believe that the gratuities are too high for the services rendered. I have contacted HAL after each cruise and shared my concerns but they do not respond in any way. They seem to be pinching pennies by reducing the quality of the service provided to their customers and hiring fewer staff. Their idea of improving your experience is to hire Oprah Winfrey and cut incentives such as payed gratuities. This is a corporate move because we have been on multiple ships and our experience was the same on each ship. I will no longer recommend HAL to anyone and have already canceled our cruise that we had booked for February 2019. Even our relationship with our booking agent at HAL, who we have dealt with since day one and consider a friend, has suffered. Read Less

We were on only the first part of the cruise and got off in Hawaii. I knew the ship was not new but I found very little wear and tear. The food was good, not exceptional, except for the Mariners lunch when ONO was offered, The travelers were mostly seniors. The young people were polite but i think disappointed with the slow pace, I was with the one in four using a cane! The staff and travelers were all polite and friendly. Those staying on to do the entire 38 days settled in with knitting, books, etc. Very little was offered so the seats filled long before the few events. The lei making was well attended so only enough flowers to make a halo lei. The observation deck is the highlight of the ship. Nothing but ocean on this cruise but it would be a delightful way to cruise Alaska. I did not want to fly both ways to Hawaii so the cruise fit my needs. It is open ocean most of the way. I loved the rolls and dips from the swells.Our cabin, guaranteed balcony, was 4005 just three cabins from the aft. This meant lots of walking to the food on the opposite end of the ship. We had a little of the entertainment noise from the deck below but it did not disturb us. Sailing into Honolulu just at sunrise was beautiful. The city light were still on as the sun came up. The doors were opened on deck 4 for the arrival. Many passengers scurrying past our door! The lack of daily activity was my only complaint but I knew that ahead of time. Read Less