This was our fourth cruise on princess 2nd time on the Emerald. Th is was a 14 day cruise. Starting in Rome. 10 ports ending in Barcelona. I recommend this cruise or any cruise going to th is region of the world, we previously did a family land tour of northern Italy so this would be all new territory. We were picked up at our hotel in the Spanish steps area to the Ship. I think it was about Two hours. This trip was my wife and I first time cruising just the two of us.

Getting on the ship was very organized and quick dropped off our bags waited about 2 minutes to get to the check in desk received our cards and off to the ship. We had a balcony 14 deck near the front of the ship, same type size room we had when we did Alaskan cruise Two years earlier. Plenty of room for two and our four bags . One thing to know if you never cruised before we bring a heavy 6 foot extension cord with multiple plug ins. The bed was great room clean and our room Stewart was very good always seemed to know when we would leave room always kept clean . There are two dining rooms we ate Da Vinci, and Michelangelo. We ate breakfast almost every day at Da Vinci. . And Dinner at Michelangelo had the best Materdi Carlos the magnificent And our lovely waiter Franco from Mexico. We had anytime dinning but our table was always saved for us we started with just my wife and I and as we made friends we had a table for 6.the food was good some excellent some ok mostly very very good. Franco always new what we’re drinking and never waited long to receive them. I would not recommend the buffet much. We ate there two times . Excursion

We did two from the ship. We did Pompeii from Salerno all I can say was the tour guide from the princess ship was horrible he made up stuff and not one time did he take us to a shady area when it was near 100 degrees. My suggestion make all your excursions before you leave home online with reputable companies. We did a excursion in Kotor Montenegro was booked before we left home. We did this from a group of 6 Aussies we met from roll call. We did a speedboat. Blue cave , submarine caves tour with swimming at the blue caves,a very fun 3 hour tour, we then did The Godfather tour booked from princess , this was a very fun day. Great tour guide if your a fan of The Godfather movies you will enjoy this. Our next paid excursion was also not from princess with family we met from roll call. We did Pompeii again from Naples. This was a fantastic tour our guide his name was Sasha was so knowledgeable his father was also a tour guide I told him what the tour guide from the princess ship told us and he said what load of garbage i showed him the pictures I took from the first tour and what the guide told us about that. He was blown away with the crap the first guide told us. Every time there was shade he took us to the shady spots and explained what was the real history, all ”other ports we did either the hop on bus or just walked the towns. We had some of the best food on land ever.seafood was more then fantastic. One thing if your going to book your excursion from princess do it before you get on the ship most of the good excursions sold out very fast. I do recommend using non princess excursion. We made a lot of new friends in this ship. After dinner we would go to crooners bar see the piano player. We did trivia one night. And we watched a few movies on the deck with greasy popcorn. If you drink much including alcohol coffee and water get the drink package we got ours free with our balcony booking so it was worth it. Drinks are not cheap if you buy your own . Bottle water $2.50. Latte $2.50 each . We had a later time to get off the ship in Barcelona our transportation was supposed to pick us up at 10 but after 3 phone calls they finally got there by11.00 there is no place to sit and almost no shade at the Barcelona terminal. Then they took us to the wrong hotel , this was not booked through princess . One thing I would recommend transfers book from princess. If you smoke they have a cigar smoke room or you can smoke on the 16 th deck ... Feel free to ask my anything you would like to know.