Treated like a Princess??

I have just been on board Emerald Princess last weekend for a 3 night mini cruise, this was a holiday I paid for with my husband and some friends so there were a few of us. It was my first time sailing on board Princess, I have done a ship visit before but not the same as staying on board. I was really looking forward to this experience.

We parked at the port using CPS parking which was different that what I expected, my husband has a Jaguar so doesn’t like anyone else to drive it but when we arrived we parked directly opposite the terminal and had to hand in the keys for the car to be parked by a member of staff, hubby wasn’t happy about this but nothing we could do at the time. We have used AB Ports before where you keep your keys and park yourself. Both of these parking options have a luggage service from the car which is fab.

Check in was very smooth and we were on board within 20 minutes so not too bad at all. We had booked just inside cabins as only 3 nights and wouldn’t be in there long plus a bonus we had $300 on board credit so that was the drinks package paid for. Getting a drink was a different story but more on that later.

We headed up to the bar on deck 16 after sorting out our drinks packages to say cheers to the start of a well needed 3 night break! After these drinks our cabins were ready so so headed down to the cabin to unpack. A cheeky little cocktail – don’t mind if I do!

I was very impressed by the size of the inside cabin and could quite happily cope even for a week, the bathroom was average size but had a shower curtain not glass doors (I’m a Celebrity girl obviously)…. I loved the walk-in wardrobe with plenty of storage space and a safe inside the cupboard – well done Princess on the layout of the cabins. Plenty of space under the bed to store your luggage also – always a bonus.

The beds were amazing, after the refurbishment of all the cabins with these amazing Princess beds, so comfortable and feel like they hug you when you get in, I said to my husband ‘ wake me up on Tuesday to get off’. I could have stayed here forever…

After inspection of the cabin we then headed off to have a wander round the ship and had a few more drinks as we waited for the sail-away at 4pm. The ship was full and as it takes almost 3100 passengers it was pretty busy up on deck. The one downfall was not enough staff, 2 barmen on and 2 waiters for over a 1000 people so took almost 45 minutes to get a drink – this was not a great 1st impression I must admit. The worst thing was this continued over the 3 nights – the obvious lack of bar staff in all bars. I have never waited so long to get a drink on board a ship before. We think this was maybe because it was a mini cruise which people refer to a a ‘booze cruise’ – less staff – longer wait – not too many drunk people – I certainly didn’t get drunk over the course of 3 nights – ha ha! (not for lack of trying)

We caught up with colleagues who were on board also as lovely to see people we only see once or twice a year – I also had many customers on this ship so would have been nice to see them but no-one picked me out this time.

The weather was actually OK considering it was last week of April, a bit chilly but the sun was shining, the sail-away was lovely. It was then time to head down to the cabin to get ready for dinner. Great powerful shower and plenty of plug sockets for those all important hair straighteners & curlers but ‘Houston we have a problem’ – not enough power to heat them up… Oh no i thought after spending £50 to get my hair cut & coloured (no more cruella da ville) I couldn’t use them and was not a happy bunny. After trying all the sockets Adam called down to reception to ask ‘why?’ we then learnt that you have to re-arrange your bedroom furniture to use the socket behind the bed (where the bedside lamp was plugged in) as that is the only one powerful enough. Ok so I had my hubby to move the bed, I tried but quite heavy so not ideal for 2 ladies sharing. I had to do this every evening so not ideal – Princess you need to sort this!!

Then onto dinner – well the first night was an experience, we sat down at 8.20pm for late dining at 8.30pm. The service was extremely slow and took 40 minutes to get a drink and to place our order, then they brought out wrong drinks, courses in the wrong order – it wasn’t great so Adam spoke to the restaurant manager to complain. The food was good and plentiful, the main courses were huge so no complaints there. It did take a long time and we didn’t leave till gone 10.30pm meaning we almost missed most of the entertainment. There was not much going on after 11pm apart from music playing or you had to go to the nightclub. We love to watch a band or musician after dinner but nothing like this available after the regular entertainment finished.

We love Karaoke (my husband being a DJ) but this was only on for 1 hour, people wanting to sing but they finished it at 11pm. So the next night at dinner we advised the waiters – we need to be out by 9.45pm to enjoy the entertainment and I must say they were fantastic for the next 2 nights, we even had the manager serving us so maybe just a blip on night one. As i said the food was good and well cooked and plenty of choice. It was a different story in the buffet restaurant – Horizon Court, it just didn’t seem large enough for the amount of people on board and the food stations were badly laid out so queues everywhere, we only used it twice.

Day two was a sea day and plenty of activities going on if you like dancing or quizzes & bingo. We love doing quizzes so did most of them and even won one. Again though the bar service was slow, hundreds of people doing the quiz but only 1 waiter – I don’t get it!

The Princess Platter gives you everything that is going on for each day, here is the sea day entertainment.

We did enjoy the cruise as best we could but these little situations do not help when only on for 3 nights.

I will cover more in my next blog as we had fun on Guernsey and even more trying to get back on the ship from the tender….. watch this space for that story!!

Here are a few more pictures of the ship, she is beautiful and I would sail on her again for a longer cruise just to see if the service was better.