My Ship Visit on Emerald Princess

I was lucky to be given the opportunity to visit the Emerald Princess whilst she was in Southampton last Saturday, and got to explore the ship as well as learning what Princess had to offer. This was my first time on board a Princess Ship so i was looking forward to seeing inside the ship and also getting to sample the food at lunch. I was not disappointed with what I saw. What was nice about this visit is we were able to explore the ship on our own and not be herded around like sheep.

I had a preconceived idea that as Princess is an American cruise line that it would be very similar to Royal Caribbean in terms of bright neon lights, bold colours and over the top placed items (such as the cars/buses you see on the royal promenade on a Royal ship), and I was very surprised to find this was not the case – the ship was beautifully decorated in yellows/blues/greens/reds and for a ship that came into service in 2007 it has been well looked after and did not see one shabby area on board.

Unfortunately on this visit we were unable to view any of the cabins as the ship was sailing fully (which is obviously great news for Princess) The main focal point of the ship is the Piazza (atrium) and this spans 3 floors. The international Cafe can be found here and is open 24 hours a day for sandwiches and pastries.  The Piazza was lovely however did feel very samey to other ships I have viewed before.

Princess Cruises were the first cruise line to introduce the Movies under the Stars, a concept which other cruise lines have now copied. Throughout your cruise as you are sailing on to the next port or stationary in dock, the big movie screen will show latest films and shows for all the family. You can choose to lay on one of the loungers and be snuggled under a blanket eating popcorn, or be in the pool or hot tub watching the screen.

Another great area on the ship was the Sanctuary – this is a lovely adults only area, with lovely big comfortable loungers which are more like beds, and you can also have a spa treatment in the private cabanas. But like most things the peace and serenity you will get lying there does come with a hefty price tag of $40 per day.  We also went to the spa area and the Thermal suite was a lovely area to relax in with the hot beds, saunas, steam rooms and different showers. Again this area comes at a price unless you are staying in a suite and the price for a two week cruise is only $149 and you can then use the thermal suite as much s you liked. They only give out 40 of these per cruise so you need to get in early to take advantage of this.

I thought the ship was easy to work your way around and the corridors were very wide and open, there is plenty of seating area in all of the bars so should never been a problem finding somewhere to sit.

Lunch was absolutely delicious and is definitely on a par with Celebrity Cruises. We had the Fettuccine Alfredo in a Parmesan basket to start, followed by beef Chateaubriand, then a Hazelnut souffle.  All three dishes I could thoroughly recommend, the Fettuccine you can also have as a main dish and I think I could have eaten that every night if given the chance.

Overall I was pleasantly surprised by Princess, and although for me the ship didn’t have anything that made me go wow or anything I hadn’t seen before. I did like the ship and would definitely consider sailing on her, or her sister the Ruby Princess in the future.