Emerald Princess Aloha Deck

[ladymike]

Hi All

We are booked for the Jan 25 sailing of the Emerald Princess. Has anyone heard how the balconey rooms on the Aloha deck are?

This will be my 3rd cruise. My second with Princess. I am a little nervous that I have too high of expectations. I was disappointed with the Carnival Glory last January, because it didn't live up to my memories of my South Pacific (4wk) cruise in 1979 - when I did my big solo trip when I was turning 21 - on the original Pacific Princess (The Love Boat). I've realized since that I should never have compared ships when they were so disparate to begin with! I'm hoping from all I've read that it is the still the feeling of personal service that sets Princess apart from most of its peers.

Thanks!

[f-mattox]

Hello ladymike and welcome to cruise-chat.

It's quite a coincidence; I just recently posted in the "favorite cruise ship" thread in the Lido Deck forum that the original Island Princess (the other love boat) was my favorite ship, in spite of its lack of goodies found on today's mega-ships. And it was also my first ship.

I have not had the pleasure of sailing on Emerald Princess yet, but I have been on many of Princess' other larger ships, and they are all very much the same in design and layout. The balcony cabins on all decks are basically the same, with the exception that the balconies on Caribe deck are somewhat larger due to the superstructure design.

I am sorry you were dissapointed with Glory, but I think you were correct in attributing it to unreasonable expectations. I have been cruising Princess since 1974, and while nothing can compare to my earliest memories, I am still very satisfied with Princess.

I'm sure that, after your Glory experience, you know there is no way to compare the 3000+ pax, 113,000 Emerald Princess with the 600+ pax, 20,000 ton love boat. I think you will find the Emerald just overwhelmingly beautiful, with more choices of food and activities than you ever dreamed possible. As my friend Dr. L. pointed out, he has a 24 foot pontoon boat with more amenities than the "love boat".

You just need to prepare yourself for lots and lots of people. And after Glory, you should know to expect this on a mega-ship. But I've always found the larger Princess ships very well organized, considering the number of people onboard. Debarking can be a problem, depending on the port situation. And tendering can be time consuming on such a large ship. But the positives so far outweigh the few negatives, I'm sure you will have a wonderful cruise.

Keep in touch.

[penny3333]

We were on the Aloha deck on the Sea. It was a great location. We're sailing on the Emerald in November, but I believe we're on the Caribe deck. We haven't received our documents, but I think that was the deck they assigned when we book last year. I really haven't noticed much of a difference in any of the decks we've been on. I'll let you know where we were and how the ship was when we return. Welcome to Cruise-chat and have a wonderful cruise!

[Albertagirl]

We were on the Emerald in May on the Caribe deck. The biggest balconies are on the dolphin deck which is one deck below caribe. However, all the decks were nice and big, we were pleasantly surprised, they held two lounge chairs and a small table and two chairs. Most of the outside rooms are balconies on Emerald.

[f-mattox]

Just to clarify, the cabins on Dolphin deck are all mini-suites and do have larger balconies than the balcony cabins on Caribe deck.