Cruising the Caribbean on Emerald Princess - Heading South/South East to Antigua

Day 2 – Sea Day aboard Emerald Princess sailing Southeast to Antigua

Best way to get from one end of the ship to the other

I love traveling with a super experienced cruiser who used to be Chief Purser on a cruise ship.  She just “knows things”…  In this case, it is the best way to navigate from one end of the ship to the other.  On Emerald Princess, like many of the newer ships we have been aboard, the decks and their layouts are not symmetrical.  This causes great fun the first few days when you are trying to get down to deck 6 or 7 aft to the traditional dining rooms after watching activities on 7 deck amidships in the atrium.  Last night it was the champagne waterfall – you can’t get to 7 deck aft from 7 deck amidships without going up and over – 6 and 7 decks between midship elevator/stairs and aft elevators/stairs are crew quarters and thus “No Go”.  So what’s the trick to get forward to aft without ending up in a dead end?  You go forward and aft on a passenger cabin deck not the common area decks (reception, shopping, etc)  

The Passenger decks have to have straight shots fore and aft to enable housekeeping to move from room to room efficiently and to move passengers from their rooms to lifeboat stations.  So taking passenger decks to go fore and aft is like taking the interstate vs.  local surface streets (common area decks) with detours and plenty of traffic.  So from your cabin, figure out if you are going fore or aft and the stairs/elevators you need to take to go up or down to your destination.  Walk down your hallway to that exit (there are usually exits on the passenger hallway for passenger elevators/stairs aft, amidships, and forward) and the go up or down to your destination.  So much easier…

Picking your Cabin's Deck/Location?

The Cabin pick expert websites are consistent in telling you to pick cabins on decks that have a passenger deck both above and below you.  The rationale is that passenger decks generate less noise than common area decks (dining rooms, casinos, night clubs, etc).  In this regard, picking Dolphin Deck for our cabin was a good choice with Emerald below and Caribe above.  What wasn't so good is that our balcony, because of the "tiering" of Dolphin and Caribe balconies, was not covered by the balcony above.  In fact, our balcony could be seen by all of our neighbors on the 4 decks above us.  Doh

Panorama looking up from our balcony - Hi Neighbors...

Wonderful Spa Experience

We rarely do “Spa” on our cruises – but because Princess was offering big discounts for attending a Spa orientation, we signed Valerie up for a 75 minute experience on our first sea day.  Wow, you should have seen her face when she got back to the cabin afterwards.  Princess’s tag line is "Come Back New" – that was what Val looked like after 75 minutes with Sheila – hot stones, soothing oils, and a 10 minute head rub that finished her off.  Val said it was the best and most relaxing massage she’s ever had – and is planning another on this cruise.  Two thumbs up for Sheila and the Spa.

Fixed vs Any Time Dining?

Another lesson learned had to do with Dining times in the Traditional dining rooms.  Most ocean going cruise lines now have some concept of Any Time or Your Way dining.  Idea is that you don’t have to eat early or late – sounds like the time you pick for yourself will be just right… Except that our experience on the last three cruises using Any Time/Your Way is that we end up picking the same time as everyone else and end up waiting each and every time.  Worse, you end up with a different table/waiter each night and you don’t get to know each other.  Our best dining room experiences have always been when our waiter knew our tastes and could suggest or modify things to meet them.  So after our first night aboard Emerald Princess on the Any Time plan, we contacted the Maitre’ De to switch to fixed dining; same table, same time each night.  We will eat in all of the specialty dining venues while aboard but when we eat in the dining room, we will have the same table, same time, and wait staff each evening.  And best of all, no waiting when we get to the Dining Room.

Do I Bring My Own Wine Aboard (And pay the $15 corkage for each bottle?)

One of the things we really care about while we are cruising is the wine list; both in the restaurants and in the various venues aboard the ship.  We are after all, pretty much a captive audience – you are typically allowed to bring 1-2 bottles of wine aboard the ship per person when you board – after that you, if you’re wine lovers like we are, then you hope the ship has a nice selection of wines.  When we sat down to dinner in the Main Dining Room the first night, we were pleasantly surprised – good selection with reasonably priced options.  Thumbs up to Princess on this one…

Movies Under the Stars

Took advantage of our first, “Movies Under the Stars” experience yesterday afternoon – while billed as “Movies under the Stars” they show movies all day and into the evening, rain or shine.  Good picture, good sound, and great selection of pretty current movies.  We watched “Sky Fall” yesterday and planning on watching “The Avengers” this afternoon.  It seems we never get to the movie theater often enough when we are ashore; this option gives us a chance to catch up on our big screen, big sound movie theater experience.

Big Enough?

Get to the Early Show Early

After our first “Fixed Time” dining experience on evening 2, we watched our first production in the Princess Theater.  Very beautiful venue – and as we learned this am, completely redone in the recent (December 2015) drydock/re-fitting of Emerald Princess in the Bahamas.  This show was a singing/dancing number – 60 and 70’s pop genre – very well done but surprisingly short considering how long we’d waited before hand.  We were done with dinner about 7:00pm or so, watched the Champagne waterfall at 7:15pm and then proceeded slowly to the theater, arriving perhaps at 7:40pm.  There were plenty of seats at 7:40pm – within 20 minutes – 15 minutes before the show started, there were already people standing in the aisles – standing room only for at least 100 people.  We will be going to the earlier show again tonight – probably heading there as soon as we finish dinner – suspect there will be more people arriving earlier tonight as well.  In a night or two, we will wait for the later show and see if this one is a crowded as the early show.  In a night or two, we will wait for the later show and see if this one is a crowded as the early show.