Happy to be back on land

My friend and I sailed on the Emerald Princess over Christmas. We have both cruised with Princess before and were disappointed. We were in an inside cabin as we always have been. Our room was so warm that we were unable to sleep in the covers and spent the night tossing and turning. There were 8-15 foot waves so the boat was rocky which didn't help our sleep situation. They had to close the pools down one day cause the water was pouring out and it made it unsafe for people to swim. 

We had 3 ports on our voyage (Curacao, Bonaire and Aruba). The shopping was very expensive at all 3 ports. It was also difficult to get to a beach at the ports. We took a water taxi to a Pelican Bay beach in Aruba. It was $10 for the taxi and a chair. The beach was busy and it would have been best just to take the city bus to the beach especially with the water being so rough.

The food wasn't up to Princess standards. One evening we walked out of the restaurant and decided to eat at the buffet. 'At the buffet it was the same items for breakfast every morning by the 5th day we were tired of it. The restaurant had mostly red meat options every night and not much variety. 

Entertainment was lacking on this ship. In the past there was a lot of shows and a variety of entertainment. On the Emerald it was a lot of different music. A 50's and 60's night that the seniors seemed to enjoy. We had high expectations for Christmas. We received one small stocking in our stateroom with two mini candy canes in it.Christmas Eve the crew and passengers sang Christmas carols. On Christmas there was only one show at 5pm with a couple of the crew members singing a Christmas song of their choice in the theater. 

We are both very disappointed with Princess especially with it being their 50th anniversary and celebrating Christmas on the ship. We will be thinking twice booking with Princess again.