Emerald Priness Sailing Season: November 15 to March 6

[Host Mike]

"Emerald Princess
Capacity: 3,100 guests
Built: 2007
Homeports: Fort Lauderdale and Los Angeles (United States)
Length: ten to 15 nights
Itineraries: One-way Panama Canal cruises visiting ports in Central America and the Southern Caribbean, including Huatulco, Puntarenas and Cartagena de Indias, as well as roundtrip cruises to different parts of the Caribbean sailing from Fort Lauderdale
Sailing Season: November 15 to March 6"

https://cruiseindustrynews.com/cruise-news/2023/12/winter-2023-24-princess-cruises-to-return-to-southeast-asia/

[obendus]

Currently on the Emerald, voyage C333.
Dec 9 through 23, 2023.

[Host Mike]

We would be interested in hearing about how your cruise is going.  I really like the Emerald's color scheme.

Host Mike

[obendus]

Some of the main areas remain the same, ie lounges. Carpeting looks nice, in modern tones.  The fresh marketplace, formerly Horizon Court is fully refreshed, with lighter colors, and nicer tables and chairs. Gone are the syrup-tap coffee (?) dispensers, and Lavazza percolated coffee is quite an improvement. The onboard shops carry fewer items than I remember, but no loss there. I'll try to address questions if they arise.

[Host Mike]

Really good news about the Emerald Princess coffee.  I'm wondering if the ceiling music in Fresh Market and the dining rooms is on a repeating music tape.

[obendus]

Really good news about the Emerald Princess coffee.  I'm wondering if the ceiling music in Fresh Market and the dining rooms is on a repeating music tape.

I believe it is, although I rarely hang around. Currently lots of Christmas music, which I'm certain is repeating. Addendum to the coffee story... they perk it into a large on-tap decanter, and we've noticed that as the evening progresses, any coffee left starts to cook and thicken. To circumvent that, we each have a thermos (metal lined), and fill that around dinner time. I'll grab a photo for reference.

[obendus]

Some of the main areas remain the same, ie lounges. Carpeting looks nice, in modern tones.  The fresh marketplace, formerly Horizon Court is fully refreshed, with lighter colors, and nicer tables and chairs. Gone are the syrup-tap coffee (?) dispensers, and Lavazza percolated coffee is quite an improvement. The onboard shops carry fewer items than I remember, but no loss there. I'll try to address questions if they arise.

Huge percolators in the buffet area. Coffee filters are huge, like  a large salad bowl.
(Orig image was over 2 gb, so compressed to 200kb).

[Host Mike]

Obendus, have they slimmed down the dining room menu and started charging for an extra entre?  Have they raised onboard prices?

[obendus]

Honestly cannot tell you. We just ate from the 'Fresh Marketplace' offerings, with the occasional slice or burger. Did go to the Crown Grill once, and did the 'add on' lobster tail for $10. There certainly seem to be many things previously available for no charge that now cost more.

The theater was a different experience on the first production show performance night.
Ugh!

[RichC]

I noticed that on the Ruby, a crew member who was making Lavazza percolated coffee at the buffet would add 2 new packets of grounds to the existing used grounds.
I'm not sure if this is common practice on all the ships. I thought it was strange he didn't just empty out the old grinds first. It must give inconsistent strengths of coffee.
I pretty much don't drink their coffee except for the blended ice coffee. It all seems to strong to me.

[obendus]

I noticed that on the Ruby, a crew member who was making Lavazza percolated coffee at the buffet would add 2 new packets of grounds to the existing used grounds.
I'm not sure if this is common practice on all the ships. I thought it was strange he didn't just empty out the old grinds first. It must give inconsistent strengths of coffee.

That's disgusting. I'm sure that's not the way they are supposed to do this. Or maybe... it is. Watching the 'Cruising Season 1' and all of the wonderful zest and vigor on the show, and comparing it to current 'status quo' practices for my experience on the Emerald, doesn't leave me optimistic. I will be on the Ruby in March, and see if these 'short cuts' are the new way of Princess, IMHO.

[RichC]

I noticed that on the Ruby, a crew member who was making Lavazza percolated coffee at the buffet would add 2 new packets of grounds to the existing used grounds.
I'm not sure if this is common practice on all the ships. I thought it was strange he didn't just empty out the old grinds first. It must give inconsistent strengths of coffee.

That's disgusting. I'm sure that's not the way they are supposed to do this. Or maybe... it is. Watching the 'Cruising Season 1' and all of the wonderful zest and vigor on the show, and comparing it to current 'status quo' practices for my experience on the Emerald, doesn't leave me optimistic. I will be on the Ruby in March, and see if these 'short cuts' are the new way of Princess, IMHO.

We were extremely disappointed in the buffet food on the Ruby in Nov. We were on it about 8 years ago for the first time and maybe I didn't know any better but since then we've been sailing Royal class ships almost exclusively with more selections & better layout. At times we found nothing presented there of interest to eat at lunch so we resorted to eating hamburgers & fries, which for us was a first on Princess.
The food in the main DR was perfectly fine & we ate all our evening meals there.

Let me know your feelings about the buffet. We met old friends that we've sailed with in the past who though likewise about the buffet. You won't starve but it certainly can't compare to the newer ships. At least I didn't gain any weight on the Ruby. 
One thing for certain is that we'll be sticking to the Royal class from now on and the new Sun class when they arrive in Florida someday.

[obendus]

Definitely will be looking at newer ships for future sailings. Getting long in the tooth, so to speak with the Grand class. Nice, but time for a change I think.
An enhanced and expanded offering at the buffet will be one thing to look forward to.