Emerald Princess Review

4.5 / 5.0
1,873 reviews

Cruise to HI, Samoa and French Polynesia

Review for the South Pacific Cruise on Emerald Princess
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Nicknet
6-10 Cruises • Age 70s

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Sail Date: Mar 2018

We had just returned from our 2 months stay in the bay area of CA with a 10 days cruise to Mexican Riviera. We already had another cruise booked to Cuba in November. We missed home. As such, were not going away again for a while. It so happened, as I was browsing thru Hawaii cruises, that was to be our cruise in 2019; I noticed balcony prices were just a bit over the Ocean view, which seemed strange. Checking further, we found they had been reduced to half price for whatever reason. It took us a few days more to get OK for me to turn around and fly again to CA from my medical care team. We decided to do this cruise to HI, Samoa and Tahiti - a dream we had never thought to come to fusion! What joy it was to book the tickets, yet unreal that we were truly going! I researched a little about and French Polynesian Islands and was happy to learn of over nighting in Bora Bora.Wished we also over nighted in Honolulu and Maui. No idea why Princess does not over night as much, which should give a break to all the crew allowing passengers to enjoy the port stops to the fullest.

Embarkation was delayed by 2 hours due to no fault of Princess, we understand. However, it would have been good if Princess land staff would let us know what caused our over 2 hour wait in a crowded loud hall with people standing and sitting on the floors. As time passed, would be passengers got hungry and grouchy. Many had snacks brought from home while those without simply sat there. Conspiracy theories were started. All this negativity need not have started had we been notified the ship had arrived from South America and the Customs office had been very trying on all the non-US citizens! Embarkation went fast once it got started.

We expected a huge crowd in Horizon buffet but, it was manageable and after food in the belly, many seemed to be happy campers. There was no hand wash sinks here. The food was OK, crew was nice, service oriented. Everyone of the crew from cabin steward thru wait staff was surprised what caused the delay, which meant nobody was informed!

Port Reviews

Moorea

We enjoyed shopping. One of the pearl shops - Alberts had a van parked at the dock and drove us to the shop but, the quality of the pearls was no better than the ones on the dock for the price. So, we went back to shop there. Relaxed with a coconut water. By now we were tired of island tours that began to look too familiar and similar! However, this is a pretty island and we were able to see the beautiful mountain peeks from our balcony, the deck all around the ship and enjoyed the scenic view of the jagged cliffs, the colors of the lagoon from the shallow waters to the ocean' shallow water to where the ship was anchored carefully in the outlet. There were not many restaurants or anything on our drive, the stores were just ordinary and spread far apart.

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