Ok cruise that was relaxing
Emerald Princess Cruise Review to Coastal - West Coast
7 Night Classic California Coast (Los Angeles Roundtrip)
Sail date: May 20, 2023
Ship: Emerald Princess
Cabin type: Balcony
Cabin number: A503
Traveled as: Couple
Reviewed: 11 months ago
Review summary
This trip was not as good as the one taken in January on the same ship. I picked it because it was not Spring Break and it went to San Diego. I think I will start with the negatives first. I made reservations for the Crown Grill ahead of time. Unfortunately they said I had a package that gave me 4 meals, but they could not use it since it was not loaded yet and to give them a credit card number to make the reservations. I should see the service desk to get the refund and my 4 free meals applied to the reservation. The ship says they can not refund my card, I have to get OBC, and it would be paid out at the end. I looked at my final statement and it appears that that was not done. SIGH! The App is still a piece of garbage, I could not make dinner reservations that would stay. I called the help line and they could not do it, but after 45 minutes they used another way in to get us our time. At least this trip we did not lose our reservations. Also, the dinner menu on the app (and TV) only roughly matched the actual menu with usually a couple of things missing or different. Biggest issue is that many venues seem to still be undermanned and with a different set of people than in January. The Coffee & Cones had a hard time making a plain milk shake. First they tried to give me the coffee shake, then they made one with ICE CUBES and would not remove the ice cubes. The last one I got I walked them through the ice cream, some milk, blend it, serve it. Had issues at the juice bar and the grill that I did not have before but they were still good We had the Premium package and found that some of it is not as good as the hype says. If in port then the prize perk does not work. Even though each person is paying, the paperwork onboard says only one winning per stateroom. The daytime musical entertainment was lacking this trip, and the few performers that were on were mostly not very good. Internet was lousy, downloads in the 0.3 to 3 Mbps and sometimes with a jitter in the 300-400 msec range. Usable but a bit slow for anything that requires a lot of downloading. Now the good, food overall was good to very good, our waiters were excellent, The staff at the MDR door were very good too and they remembered us from January. Room was comfortable, I liked the bed, wife said she had a back ache. Captain was very vocal and kept us informed and gave out some tidbits about what he talked about. Embarking and disembarking went smoothly (but then we are elite). Weather was not very good, foggy and cold with some wave action. Due to the *^&$#*@! app and the lobster cut back, I think I will be looking for other lines for year or two (like Celebrity) unless a deal I can not turn down pops up.Embarkation
Ship experiences
Food and Dining
Onboard Activities
Entertainment
Children's Programs
Service and Staff
Ship Quality
Cabin / Stateroom
Ship tip
Look around as soon as you board
Ports of call
San Pedro (Los Angeles), California Did not visit port
Ensenada, Mexico Did not visit port