Princess Chatter

Elites can no longer join the tender line at will from the ship to the shore.  Elites must wait in a ship waiting room until called.  This policy change was confirmed in writing from three Emerald Princess admin. sources and by personal observation. 

Emerald Princess – Day 7

•   Cabin door LCD computer crashed for the third time in the last seven days, on its own.
•   Cabin housekeeper from the Philippines calls my dear wife (DW) with a word that sounds like “mom.”
•   The likely reason for the ship slowing down could be that it was ahead of schedule or  that the ship is having generator problems like last nights extended power outage in the back of the ship, apparently on all decks.
•   The gay like cruise director Hernando came out on the stage sashaying last night.  The Motown Princess Theater show, called Sweet Soul Music was heavy with Stevie Wonder selections.  The show appeared to include booth enhanced singing and enhanced band instrumentation.  In other words what the audience heard was not what I  actually believed was created  on-stage.  The audio level was really high and the strobes were  flashing the audience.  The booth had cut back on the extreme bass notes so the seats weren’t vibrating.
•   The Comedy Juggler “The Mighty Quinn” is back again tonight for maybe the second or third time. 
•   When the ship maneuvered into dock position this morning everything in our back hallway behind what walls and ceiling were rattling like crazy.
•   There was a very long line in the terminal of passengers and crew waiting to catch the free shuttle to Walmart.  We rode Uber to town at a cost of around $9 each way which now includes a mandatory booking fee. 
•   Last night the ship computer said it had a 5 pm opening in Da Vinci.  After it showed our pictures on the cabin TV and said to click the button to reserve the screen froze and said it couldn’t find our passenger record even though it found our pictures.  We went anyway to the dining room and saw lots of empty tables.  This tells me that the ship’s reservation system is badly flawed.
•   Heard from two elderly widows who said Princess EZAir got them to LAX one hour late causing them to barely make the ship departure..  They said that they arrived at the ship around 4 pm as the ship was preparing to sail and no one offered to help  them with their luggage either at the terminal or on the ship..
•   Kilauea volcano, one of the world’s most active volcanoes, erupted last night.  That volcano is maybe 20 or so miles of where we are docked.  I don’t believe that it is any kind of show stopper right now.

Emerald Princess – Day 6 - revised


•   It is difficult to walk through the deck 15 pool area as the walking lanes are crowded with tables.
•   No pencils in the library for puzzles.
•   WiFi calling in airplane mode, at least on T-Mobile is working again.
•   Celebration – 1 day turnaround for Elite laundry.  Unheard of.
•   Ordered English Muffin and bacon at breakfast in Da Vinci dining room.  English Muffin arrived cold after we finished breakfast and bacon never arrived.
•   Princess “Best Pizza on the Sea” was slightly better than on the Sky Princess but the crust was still undercooked.
•   Ship clock changes tonight just 5 ½ hours before we dock in Hilo.  I wonder how many passengers will forget to change time before they go ashore.
•   Received two Passenger Services give away Princess ball point pens.  Neither worked.
•   The mostly unreliable CrewCall Chat said one thing about Hilo shuttles, the port video and the Excursion Desk told a different story.
•   Our cabin sink drain, when closed, always immediately pops back open.
•   Yesterday brewed coffee in International Café was served in small paper cups.  Today it appears that all brewed coffee is only served in large paper cups.
•   I’m starting to wonder if the assignment of the Captain’s job on this older ship was a demotion.
•   The Da Vinci dining room lunch waiting line stretched all the way across the Piazza into the smoky Casino.
•   It was every passenger for themselves at lunch in the FM.  Line cutters were going at it full time.
•   The ship speed currently is very slow as we sail toward Hilo for docking in the morning.

Emerald Princess – Day 4

Fresh Market/Horizon Court (FM)

•   There are two parts to FM on the Emerald Princess.  The middle part (on each side) and the back part.
•   At breakfast the port side opens first and well after the port side passenger grid lock has already occurred the starboard side finally opens. The back side has black out curtains covering the port side serving area and the rest of the backside has limited breakfast offerings.  Both the FM sides and back do not have a visible bread toasting machine.  It was hard to find toasted bread in the FM side serving areas but easy to find in the FM back side.  The butter for bread on both sides and back side is located far from the bread.
•   Orange juice is no longer on the servers trays.  In the middle part of FM orange juice is pre-pored in the small plastic glasses and placed in the food serving area for you to pickup.
•   FM syrup coffee is just as strong and bad tasting as you would expect.
•   It appears that FM is quite understaffed and the serving and kitchen staff seem to be unaware where passengers can find different food items.
•   This morning we sat near the aft end of FM and as a test I asked the Ocean Now app to tell my our location.  Ocean Now reported that we were seated in ‘Steamers Seafood.”  Say what?  We’ve near heard of an Emerald Princess “Steamers Seafood” area in the FM seating area.
•   Not to my surprise it appears that most passengers don’t know about the back side of FM.
•   Yesterday morning there were no bananas available anywhere in the FM serving areas or in the FM  kitchen nor was Cream-of-Wheat (which apparently may be gone on all Princess Ships).
•   Yesterday they ran out of rolled silverware
•   The hand washing stations are no longer maned.
•   I talked with four ship officers who were standing around about the bad music coming from the speakers in FM.  None of them seemed to care.

International Café (IC)

•   Princess has been bragging about their new coffee supplier.  My dear wife (DW) and agreed that the IC brewed coffee was weak and tasted bad.  They won’t hand you your brewed coffee order until you swipe your medallion on their medallion scanner.  There is now only one size brewed coffee.  No more large or small sizes.  All brewed coffee now costs $2.36.
•   The green chairs by the IC are so low to the floor that it’s a real struggle for passengers to get out of them.  One short person seated at our IC table like them because finally her feet could touch the floor.
•   The snacks in the IC,  when we were there, were all greatly downsized, apparently to cut costs.

Other

•   Hazmat was observed working in a suite two doors down from us, day before yesterday.
•   Room Service, after prompting by us and after their broken promise, finally delivered our mini-bar trade out and the missing part of our pre-cruise order of water.
•   At the Captain’s Champagne Waterfall event it appeared that drinks were not watered down.  When the Captain presented the senior officers, one by one, to the crowd the junior officers dutifully clapped, but not all.
•   At the Motown (Tamla) trivia contest if you don’t know who sang Don’t Leave Me This Way (Thelma Houston) you probably will not win.
•   Passenger Services can show your account with your spouse account merged onto one page in the Princess app on request.
•   Tonight’s show is a repeat of comedian Mike Gafffney due to the entertainer no-show previously mentioned.  Gaffney has the show that caused me to almost fall asleep.
•   The music in the only Princess Theater show I’ve seen wasn’t too loud.  I did enjoy the booth guys playing Macarena as we exited the Theater.  We are fully prepared for blasting audio on shows to come.
•   The seats in the front of Princess Theater seem narrower than the back seats, or maybe it’s my imagination.
•   The Princess Theater Interdenominational Sunday Worship Service was a high church Anglican, read the script, without a sermon or communion.  It was led by the Captain and helpers from the Entertainment staff. 
•   Sabatini’s food report in tomorrow’s update.

Emerald Princess – Day 2 report.

•   The apparently only choice for mini-bar trade out is one bottle of Chardonnay.
•    Last night’s show was comedian Mike Gaffney.  I nearly fell asleep during the show
•   Our likely gay cruise director, with a  name that I forgot, came skipping out on the stage at the beginning of the show.  That’s right.  Skipping.  In listening to his look at me patter he admitted that one of the scheduled entertainers was a no-show.  He announced that “The mighty Quinn” a comedy juggler would fill  in.  Quinn is tonight’s show.
•   The ship rock and rolled all morning even though seas seemed normal.
•   The Captain gave his expressionless noon day report with an explanation of nautical terms.  I’ve heard that same speech on different ships.  He only mentioned the ship’s wallowing very casually other than basically – hold on.
•   The CrewCall Chat continues to VERY slow in giving you an answer to your question.
•   The cabin door LCD panel is also quite slow in showing your picture.
•   WiFi calling in airplane mode on my T-Mobile iPhone is working great.
•   Occasionally our ship WiFi connection loses Internet.
•   Our stewardess yesterday said she would turn in a maintenance request for our buzzing and flickering cabin lights.  That apparently never happened.
•   Cabin A/C works great – so far.
•   Cabin stewardess suggested eating green apples for sea sickness. My ENT doc suggested over-the-counter (Rugby brand) 25 mg Meclizine tablets.  I always bring a chewable 100 count bottle which costs under $6 at a local independent pharmacy. Ginger ale in a can was only available at one of two bars that I checked on deck 15.
•   Fresh Market (FM) aka Horizon Court with ongoing so-so food was playing loud cowboy music tonight.  The (gluten free) guacamole tasted almost  like smashed peas.
•   Reservation only Botticelli Dining Room – deck 6 aft – has to receive your reservation several days in advance.  In other words, that dining room has become fixed seating, once again.
•   I wasn’t expecting it to be so cold both outside and inside the ship here in the first part of June.  Nor did I expect the Emerald Princess lobby carpets on each floor to show so much wear.
•   Good news.  No pushy people ran over us today.

Not that I've heard.

"Covid rates high on board.

Special disembarkation protocol for covid positive passengers and close contacts once at Southampton.

All passengers who have tested positive during the cruise and those travelling with them (even if testing negative) must remain onboard until at least 10am and then be escorted to the gangway by cabin stewards in KN95 masks.

All luggage taken and tagged red. "

Sent to chatter.princessonly.com

New Concept from Award-Winning Chef Rudi Sodamin Now Onboard Enchanted Princess, Coming Soon to Majestic Princess, Sky Princess and Discovery Princess

O'Malley's Irish Pub Also Set to Debut Aboard Enchanted Princess

Enhancements to Enchanted Princess Piazza Celebrates Italian Heritage

Laid-Back Vibes and Eats from the Original Salty Dog Café Now Available on Enchanted Princess Lido Deck

https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/princess-cruises-unveils-the-catch-by-rudi-new-signature-seafood-restaurant-301792838.html