Emerald Princess Cruise Reviews - Reviews

Overall it was memorable experience, would do it again. I would love to see more of Alaska and Victoria BC. In addition I hope to do the Land and Sea Cruise and stay overnight in various places.

The cruise could have been better. The lack of quality food and entertainment was disapointing. The excursions for Jeaneau and Skagway were exceptional. Would look into another ship with better accommodations. I also did not like how they pushed disembarkation on day 2 of the cruise made you think about how rushed it was.

Overall I would give this cruise just a good rating. The highlights were the activities and the design/décor of the ship. Also, the photo staff was great. The food was average. The room was small, even though it was a balcony room. The service staff always seemed to be in too much of a hurry to be elsewhere, rather than assist cruisers. There was not enough clear direction given for 1st-time cruisers.

This was my 5th cruise but my 1st on Princess. Overall it was a nice ship, there were a few things that disappointed me such as the bar staff are not proactive enough to offer bar service in various parts of the ship like the casino or lounges. If you want a drink you need to ask yourself. The food was overall decent, a few desserts were dry and the dinner rolls are always hard. Seating in the buffet area is limited and hard to find at times because of the layout, there are actually 4 different sections but no one really helps you or tells you that. The Crown Grill has amazing steaks and I highly recommend it. The process for getting off the ships at the ports are executed well and move quickly. For my next cruise I may try a different line just to see the difference, nothing about Princess wowed me specifically. 

The scenery was incredible, the staff was amazing and the food was outstanding!

It was an unbelievably great experience!!

Every aspect of this cruise was wonderful! I would recommend this cruise, ship and company to anyone. It was a perfect vacation with perfect company!

This was a celebration for our daughter, who after the cruise had to report to the United States Naval Academy to start college in Annapolis Maryland.

The entire cruise was a wonderful experience.  Our steward was excellent and all the staff we dealt with were the same. Very courteous and professional. Our cruise was once in a lifetime experience. Thank you !!!

The excursions were great, really enjoyed them. We had great weather. Food was not up to par  The shows were just OK  The best was the comedian and a magic show in one of the lounges

Had a good time. Had a good time. Had a good time. Had a good time. Had a good time. Had a good time. Had a good time. Had a good time. Had a good time. Had a good time. Had a good time. Had a good time.Had a good time. Had a good time.

Besides seeing the beauty of Alaska, I am very grateful that we booked a room with a balcony.  We loved the layout of our room and it made all the difference!  We loved it!

The Passage, the views, nature, wheater, just perfect!!

Crab Skack was very good, entertainment show very good, the comedian very good, our dinning and the food were good. I definetely will plane another cruise to Alaska

We had a great time.  Our dinner staff was excellent.  Israel took care of our large group with great care.  We loved the dinners and time we got to spend together.  The ship was great as always.,

The sightseeing is breathtaking. Picture perfect.

 God's fine art displayed.

We were singing How great thou art, all the way. 

Excellent service from the embarkation to the end. 

Very attentive personel, made us feel special with  their attention to details.

An unforgettable experience.

Marie & Leo

 Thoroughly wonderful trip and surprisingly good weather throughout the time. The icebergs were cold and the whales were plentiful!   Skagway Alaska was the best! The train ride over the White Pass was most memorable and a bit scary :-) 

Great Cruise! Ship is clean, well maintained. Staff is friendly, bartending staff at pools very friendly,  Dining room staff friendly. We had early seating.

My wife and I have been on many cruises before but in the Caribbean. This was our first Alaskan and we plan to return! the ship was neat and well kept. The staff was friendly and accommodating. They were very kind and good at recognizing faces! Our brief friendship with the staff made this trip wonderful. 7 days was just enough and we plan to return.

Organization -

missing vouchers, pre tour chaos esp in Ketchikan , docked at furthest port each time, late arrivals and tour owner not notified in Juneau and saw part of Butchart Gardens in the dark, specialty dining a disappointment to passengers early in the week, change of drop off at airport far away, etc. Perhaps crew wasn't working together or working for the passengers. Cruise got on wrong foot with the 24 hour cruise which came in that morning. It did not feel like a Princess cruise and I was so looking forward to sharing the Princess experience with my sister. Fortunately, some standouts saved the day! 

The cruise was very good except the food quality in the horizon dining needs improvement.the staff were very helpful and efficient from the front desk to our waitress Cathy in the botecille dining and our room steward Dario in the dolphin deck. Another was disappointed  not to be at Tracy fjords

The boat was huge--over 3,000 passengers. So there was lots to do, but an awful lot of people to work around when you were doing it.  Made for some long lines getting off at the ports.  But the staff was very helpful and I appreciated the truly personal contact.  While you could do things online if you wanted to, there was always a PERSON available to help you.  So nice.

So many activities on the ship were tied to purchasing jewelry or art or photos ....got very tiresome.  And there was a gratuity for EVERYTHING.  I bought a cruise cookbook at a wine tasting (for which we had to pay an additional charge) and was told that they didn't have the book right there, but that I could pick it up at the bar later that day.  So I did, and found a 15% gratuity had been added on to the cost of the book, because it had been handled by waitstaff.  Sigh.

The food was AMAZING.  Awesome.  Waitstaff was superb.  We elected to use the anytime dining and really enjoyed sitting with different people every night.  

Entertainment was excellent.  The broadway-style shows in the main theater were exceptional, but we particularly enjoyed the ventriloquist and the magician in the lounge, as well as the local entertainer that was brought on board in Skagway.

Princess has a LOT of stuff on the top of the ship (Lido deck on up) and it was difficult to find your way around.  I noticed the Holland America ship that we were paralleling throughout the cruise had a much more "flat" top, so that you had a panoramic view from almost anywhere on the top deck and could walk just about anywhere without having to climb stairs to go around something.  I would much prefer that open deck to an intrusive outdoor movie screen which really didn't add anything to our experience at all.  Most of the time it was too chilly or windy or rainy to enjoy it.  Better if they would show the movies on the stateroom screens and open up the deck.  But  then I guess they wouldn't be able to sell as many drinks, hmmmm?

The scenery was indeed breathtaking.

Our stateroom was quite suitable.  Though the shower/bath was small, the tradeoff was that our room was more spacious and we had a LARGE open close space. Very good room attendant.

All in all, it was a very good trip at a reasonable price.

This is the first time I cruise with Princess. I have cruised over 100 days with Royal Caribbean and Carnival. I am very disappointed with Emerald Princess. All the staff on board are lack of enthusiasm . They are unprofessional and defensive.   One time I called the Spa about the steam room was out of order for 2 days. she replied she did not know how to fix it. As she already reported it to services department. that is unprofessional, unfriendly and defensive. She should say sorry for the inconvenience, I already asked the maintenance department to fix it. I do not know when it will be fixed but I will be glad to fellow up on it and get back to you. In another occasion, I was told the coin change machine in self laundry room was broken and I had to go up to purchase the coin at customer services desk. I asked them whether they know when the machine will be fixed. He replied with defensive tone again, said due to passengers careless let the door to slam on the machine and cost the problem. later I came across a repairman, he told me the machine is working and if not just bang on it. He did it and made the machine to work. In other words, the customer service guy did not personally clarify with the repairman and just to tell us story to  push us off. I can give much more bad experiences, however the above 2 cases is enough to give you the idea of what i am talking about. Our diner waiters are excellent and they are the only nice worker on board the vessel.