Emerald Princess review - cruise E415, N. Spain & France May

[towny44]

Overview

This was our 7th Princess cruise but our first since 2009 and sad to say we did notice that standards had slipped in a number of areas.

Mainly little things like they no longer produce the daily newspapers for US, Canadian and UK passengers, a box of tissues in your cabin is no longer standard, but available if you ask, the sun decks were not cleaned to previous high standards and used crockery etc. was not cleared away as rapidly, and, unlike other US lines sailing from the UK, they don’t provide tea or coffee making facilities in your cabin.

But by far the biggest disappointment was in the standard of the food, we always found that dining on Princess was exciting with each course savoured, this was no longer the case and the quality of some of the cuts of meat was well below our previous experience. Probably the biggest deterioration was in the breakfasts, we found a lot of the food items in the buffet were at best only lukewarm, tepid eggs benedict is not very appetising, whilst on our three visits to the MDR for breakfast we experienced very slow service.

I highlighted some of these issues during the cruise and to be fair passenger services did take them seriously and we ended up with 3 boxes of tissues! But more importantly the buffet breakfasts did get much hotter.

Overall the cruise was still very enjoyable, especially since we were with our 2 sons and their families, and we did get some very good service from most of the bar waiters and those in the MDR.
Was it good value, well yes but only because we got 2 price drops honoured by Princess which resulted in the overall cost reducing by 40% from the original booking fee. Whilst Princess continue to give price drops they will likely remain competitive, but their launch prices in the UK are much higher than RCCL/Celebrity or now, on this year’s launch, even their partner company P&O, and as we need to book early to secure an accessible cabin then they would need to be providing a must have itinerary for us to give them our future business.

Entertainment

This was typical cruise ship fare with production shows and guest artists in the theatre, but unlike P&O there were no guest artists in the other venues only the ships contract musicians, DJ music or the entertainment staff organising trivia type shows or the Princess Pop Star passenger talent contests. There were however some guest acts performing in the Piazza as well as a couple of pseudo shows from the ships singers and dancers. But Princess do try to pack more features into their Piazza area, as a result it can get very crowded at some times and finding a seat is well-nigh impossible. The lack of guest artists in the other lounges was probably fortunate for us since we found that both the lounges had poorer viewing access of the stage areas than their P&O equivalents, but for canned music this is not a problem. We also found that Explorers lounge had worse access for wheelchairs than P&O’s Tamarind or Malabar equivalents, and as a result we did not use this lounge. There were a fair mix of musicians on board including a string duo, a couple of pianists, a C&W duo, a guitarist and a party band, generally sufficient to find some bar with your type of entertainment.

Ports of call.

All the Ports of call were our first visits, at none of which did we take any ship’s excursions, mainly because Princess did not offer any accessible tours at all on this cruise, but they did provide free accessible shuttles where needed.

La Coruna – The ship berths close enough to the town centre so that a shuttle bus is not needed. It is quite a large town on a peninsular, similar to Cadiz but much bigger and more modern, with a promenade, the Paseo Maritima, following the coast line and providing a reasonably level walk whereas the town centre is quite hilly in places. We did not venture as far as the Tower of Hercules but wandered around the old town and then into the town hall square which has sidewalk cafes all around it. We enjoyed a tapas lunch and then a short stroll back to the ship.

Bilbao – The berth is at Getxo which is about 3 miles from Bilbao centre and requires a shuttle transfer of 20-30 mins, provided free by Princess. Unfortunately there was only one accessible bus and it did not run to the provided timetable, as a result we just missed it and decided to let the rest of our party use the normal bus and we went back on board, so I have no real information on Bilbao, other than the family enjoyed it and said it was very pleasant.

Le Verdon (for Bordeaux) – The berth is a 3 hr. drive away from Bordeaux and Princess only provide shore excursion tours to Bordeaux or the vinery’s, but they do provide a free shuttle to Soulac sur Mer, however the shore excursion team and even the Captain go out of their way to disparage Soulac, and one of the team even told me that it had little to offer and any beach Soulac had was quite poor and too far away for an easy walk, all of which is quite wrong. The town is only about 20 mins away and although fairly modern is quite a charming little seaside resort. The main shopping street is about a quarter to half mile long leading from the main square where the shuttle drops you right to the sea front which has a magnificent beach and a pleasant promenade. It obviously began as a tourist resort back at the start of the last century and has one or two interesting old hotel buildings on the sea front, and quite a large old market building along the main street with the usual shops selling all sorts of interesting food produce. We thoroughly enjoyed our visit.

St Peter Port, Guernsey – This is a tender port and since I was informed that my wife would need to be able to take a few steps in and out of the ships tender and that there were also steps from the dock in the town we decided to stay on board. So we were rather disappointed to find that Princess were also using a larger shore based tender and we saw at least one wheelchair and passenger carried on board this vessel, but by this time the rest of our family had already gone ashore.

Conclusions.

We had a very enjoyable cruise and cruising still provides a high quality holiday at a reasonable price, but for those of us who have been cruising over the last 10 – 20 yrs. the cutbacks in quality of food and standards of service are quite noticeable.

Comparing Princess with other lines we sail, we think they are now very similar to P&O, but have fallen behind Celebrity’s standards, and are therefore probably closer to RCI and CCL itself in the quality of the cruise they provide. This is perhaps not surprising as both Princess and P&O are part of Carnival, but this now leaves Carnival without a main stream high end offering since HAL is a much smaller operation.

[Meg 50]

if you were in Le Verdon on May 7 - we passed you!

here you are:
http://www.cruise-community.me.uk/galle ... age_id=535

[Jan Rosser]

Thanks for posting your review John - it is of particular interest as you know because of my trip in July on Princess for the first time since 2005 which I can't say I remember that much about

I'm sure I will enjoy it anyway

[oldbluefox]

Thank you towny for a very objective and honest review. Sorry to hear that Princess has suffered the same cutbacks as P&O but pleased you had an enjoyable cruise.

(Looks like you have just signed up a good coach in Stevie Thomson )

[ChrisB]

I enjoyed your review John. We were supposed to be on the cruise following your one. We were off to the Canaries for 11 nights. Unfortunately we had to cancel just three days before we were due to go as my OH was admitted to hospital. I did enjoy reading all that we missed from the ship as only ever been on Grand Princess. All our cruises have been with P & O. We decided to have a change and book with a different company. We are still hopeful of going on our Celebrity cruise booked for September. Glad you enjoyed the cruise even though standards had dropped.

[Suekersh]

Interesting report John. We have never tried Princess but do kept thinking we might. I had not realised that there were no tea and coffee making facilities in the room on cruises departing SH.

Sue

[Sweetheart55]

I was on this cruise together with my daughters and grandchildren.
After several cruises with PandO we were ready to try something slightly different,,,how I wish we hadn't bothered.

It was enjoyable, mostly because we were with the family. but we failed to see why tips were added daily to the OBA of two children under 2..

We very much enjoyed the Crabshack and waiters in the MDR made a good effort with the children...but it wasn't as good as PandO... Several regular passengers said that standards had dropped.

[allatc]

Interesting report John. We have never tried Princess but do kept thinking we might. I had not realised that there were no tea and coffee making facilities in the room on cruises departing SH.

Sue

Not only are there no tea/coffee making facilities in the cabins, you are also specifically forbidden to plug in kettles (i.e. travel kettles) and other higher wattage appliances

[Suekersh]

Mmm perhaps we won't be trying Princess then.

Thanks for the info.

Sue

[Mervyn and Trish]

Agree it's not quite "British" but to be fair on our Princess cruise last year when we ordered tea or coffee from room service it arrived very quickly. Much more quickly than it used to on P&O in the days before they provided DIY facilities.

[ChrisB]

Oh! dear. We are on Emerald in July. We have done all our 26 cruises with P & O but thought we would try a change. I will let you know how it goes.

[ChrisB]

Please disregard above. We are on Caribbean Princess not Emerald. A senior moment one thinks.

[Jan Rosser]

Please disregard above. We are on Caribbean Princess not Emerald. A senior moment one thinks.

Chris I'm on Caribbean Princess on 23 May - will let you know what she's like. I sailed on Ruby Princess last year - first time with Princess for many years and thoroughly enjoyed it - different in some respects to P&O but a nice change (new shows in the theatre, amazing crew - very happy and helpful). Overall a good experience so in looking forward to this trip with my son and family.

[ChrisB]

Hi Jan, I would appreciate that. Always a bit scary when you change what you are used to. I hope you and your family have a great time. We were on the Britannia Maiden in March. I enjoyed some of the ship but the venues were not big enough to cater for so many people. We found it difficult getting a seat anywhere in the evenings except the Crow's Nest.

[Jan Rosser]

Hi Jan, I would appreciate that. Always a bit scary when you change what you are used to. I hope you and your family have a great time. We were on the Britannia Maiden in March. I enjoyed some of the ship but the venues were not big enough to cater for so many people. We found it difficult getting a seat anywhere in the evenings except the Crow's Nest.

Always interested to hear about Britannia - going to Fjords on her in June (with JenniC Modplod on the forum) and then Christmas in the Caribbean with family in December 2015 plus Jenni and hubby too - lots to look forward to

[Mervyn and Trish]

Hi Jan, I would appreciate that. Always a bit scary when you change what you are used to. I hope you and your family have a great time. We were on the Britannia Maiden in March. I enjoyed some of the ship but the venues were not big enough to cater for so many people. We found it difficult getting a seat anywhere in the evenings except the Crow's Nest.

Always interested to hear about Britannia - going to Fjords on her in June (with JenniC Modplod on the forum) and then Christmas in the Caribbean with family in December 2015 plus Jenni and hubby too - lots to look forward to

Don't panic Jan. For a slightly different view the only place we couldn't get a seat was the Live Lounge, and then only for one particular show.