Emerald Princess Review

Not up to par with our other Princess cruises, and one scary tender experience

Review for Hawaii Cruise on Emerald Princess
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PamRR04
10+ Cruises • Age 60s

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Sail Date: Jan 2019
Cabin: Balcony

We left from Los Angeles and the weather was rough for the first couple days, but that was to be expected with a storm front. Embarkation went very well, very organized. Disembarkation was also very good. The cabin was good and the steward was excellent. Nearly all the food we order and the food on the buffet came to us lukewarm, at the best. The last 4 days, we found a terrific waitress in the Michaelangelo dining room. The best meal we had was the Specialty Dining at the Crown Grill. We also enjoyed good English Pub fish and chips on three days, for lunch. Entertainment was so so. We like the comedian and the ventriloquist, but the stage shows were really not that good. This is something we always used to enjoy on Princess. Service with the buffet staff was also so so. I often felt I was in their way, and that is not acceptable. The ports were good and the excursions we took (2) were very good. The big problem came in Maui. After our whale watching excursion (which was terrific) we went to the ship to eat, then back on the tender to town for some shopping. We waited in a HUGE line to get on the tender back to the ship. The line went at least a city block and kept growing. We got on the tender and headed out to the ship and the waters became rough, to say the least. When we approached the ship, the deck hands tied us up the the ship and at that point things went from bad to worse. Waves were slamming us against the ship, we heard the fiberglass on the tender crack against the ship. The ship was raising up and down, and our little tender was slammed against the metal rails since the bumpers had come off and left so protection for us. The deck hand in our tender was handing out barf bags to everyone and at least 35 people began throwing up. It was bad enough with waves not only going over and into the tender, but they were also going up and over into the ship. At that point, the deck hands ran away and up the stairs to avoid getting wet and leaving us still tied to the ship. They left us tied to the ship until we screamed at them to cut us loose! Finally, we got loose and the tender operator took us back out into the rough seas. He didn't seem to know to have the front of the tender facing into the waves, so we were sideways in the awful rocking water for over 2 HOURS! We left the dock at 5:15 and we finally got on the ship at 7:20 pm. Most of us could barely walk and once on the ship, the women began crying. The fear was real. We put on our life jackets because we though we were going to be turned over in the sea. It was the worse experience we have ever had and we have been sailing for over 15 years. We called and asked to speak to a supervisor or someone in charge. We were told they would call us back, NOPE! Not one peep from anyone in charge. I can guarantee you that a lot of us called and no one called any of us back. I was sick and barely able to walk, so my husband called the service desk and was told he would have to come down and get the sea sickness (meclazine) medicine if we wanted any. He went to the medical office and it was closed, so back up he went to the service desk, where they ended up having a couple packets of the pills. We missed our evening meal since we were so sick. No one on the Emerald Princess responded to our requests about this nightmare, AT ALL! We have done the Hawaii cruise twice before, but we will never do it again after that treatment. I will not be on Princess again after this cruise, either. This was the worst service in the restaurants, the worst food, and to top it off a tender from HELL. I cannot understand how the service on Princess could go downhill so completely in such a short amount of time. If you go on any cruise, but definitely Princess, you better think to take care of yourself and other passengers in an emergency, the crew does not care about you and you will be left to fend for yourself. We were on this cruise for our 40th anniversary, we got no mention of the special day, at all. Other cabins had birthday and anniversary signs, we got NOTHING. It was on our reservation, so there was no excuse. The ship is really showing it's age. We opted for a balcony cabin and it was nice, but the hallways are pretty banged up, the elevators were banging in between floors, tile is cracked and uneven. I heard the ship is going into dry dock in March, but it needed renovation more than a year ago from what we saw. I don't think there is enough seating for Movies under the Stars. Until the last sea day at a night that was pretty cool, we couldn't ever find seating. They are pretty stingy with the popcorn, too. The guy came around once with about a cup full of corn in the little bag. My husband didn't get any since he wasn't there when they handed it out and the guy never came back. I didn't realize we one had one chance to get some for the whole movie. The last Hawaii cruise was nothing like this. What a sad and frightening journey.

Cabin Review

Balcony

The balcony cabin was very nice and our room attendants were very friendly and helpful.

Port Reviews

Hilo

We rented a car and saw all the things you would never see on an excursion

Honolulu

We loved having so much time on this port. We went to the Polynesian Cultural Center on our own and had a wonderful time.

Ensenada

Ensenada was much better than our last trip, did not expect that! They really need to clean up the river area, when the tide went out the river bed was full of trash and tires, not good.

Los Angeles

Port is easy to get to, just not that thrilled with L.A.

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