Of course today was better. That’s how it works. In fact, today was a really good day, and a wonderful ending to 2025.
But the Emerald Princess went through a dry dock earlier this year, and maybe all the mattresses were changed out at that time. That would make sense. I hope that’s the case, given our upcoming cabin moves. Because, otherwise, I’m tempted to schlep my mattress down to the new cabin on turnaround day. It. was. heaven. I woke up with not a smidge of back pain for the first time in a long time (even better than at home).
Despite my prediction that I would sleep in, I slept so well that I was up shortly after 6am (and with a time change!), got dressed and snuck out of the cabin, using the time to walk around the public areas on Decks 5 to 7 and Decks 15 to 17. It was chilly and grey, and though not actively raining at that time, the outside decks were puddled. Cruising again on the Emerald Princess floods my brain with wonderful memories of our early winters at sea, but the last time we were on the ship was in October 2021, on its first cruise after COVID. And before that was probably more than five years earlier. While the overall layout is obviously the same, some things have changed, especially in the buffet.
I met up with G in the Botticelli Dining Room for breakfast (Paquito and Amul (from Nepal!), and I mention names so I’ll remember them come survey time). Every waiter in there, every cabin steward I encountered today was extremely friendly and welcoming. I mean, even more than usual. I hope Princess never loses this quality in their crew, because it’s what keeps so many of us returning.
More walking around after breakfast, this time together with G to check out our future cabins. Two of them are located next to each other; unfortunately we have a cruise in between them. Luckily, these cruises are 10 and 16 days long, so it isn’t like we’re moving every 7 days as we did on the Regal last fall.
Over coffee in the World Fresh Marketplace (buffet), we planned our day. There is a naturalist on board but I didn’t discover her lecture until it was nearly over. I would love to do line dancing class again, used to love them, but it’s kind of rough on the knees. And we didn’t want a big lunch, because we had seen the New Year’s Eve dinner menu and it really was a feast. So we grazed a bit in the buffet (no lunch menu pics, sorry) and sat on the Terrace Deck until a storm blew us inside.
G and I have never agreed on who wins the buffet battle: Crown Class or Royal Class ships. I love the smaller buffet like on this ship. I don’t like to spend ten minutes foraging for food as I feel I have to on the Royal Class ships. Give me a small buffet with just a few items I like and I’m happy. It’s early days, but I feel I can safely say that the dessert section on the buffet far surpasses that on the Royal Princess. G concedes that, but still likes the larger buffets.
He also misses the covered seating area on the back of the Lido Deck that is on the Royal Class ships. I’ll give him that, but know that the Terrace Deck on the Emerald Princess will improve as the weather does.
So, it’s hard to not compare, and I think the perfect ship (for us) would be some combination of all the ships we love.
We returned to the cabin for a bit of a rest to get us through the long evening ahead. Not that I napped, of course, but it felt nice to escape to the quiet seclusion of our cabin. Cruising is a people-y sport! I drew the short straw and started getting ready first for tonight’s formal night. I love New Year’s Eve on a cruise ship, I really do, better than Christmas. No thoughts of people at home, New Year’s Eve is just all fun and parties and guests dressed as formally as they are on any other night in a ship.
I waited in line again tonight outside the DaVinci Dining Room for over 30 minutes for a table for two. If they won’t assign us a table with the same waiter every night, I’m going to get one any way I can. It is a huge PITA, and so unnecessary, and will be mentioned on my post-cruise survey. Back at table 412 tonight with Rex and Roal, we’re going to make this work, dammit.
Tonight’s menu was a feast. It was so hard to decide what to order, but we each got surf and turf and I ate two lobster tails and G two beefs and happiness reigned. Dessert for me (yes, I splurged tonight) was the Amalfi thing, possibly the best, most flavorful dessert I’ve ever had on Princess. Service by Rex and Roal was so spot on. Yep, they’re worth waiting in line for.
We skipped the champagne waterfall and instead went to Club Fusion at 7pm for comedian Joe Duece. He was…okay. We had to be somewhere this evening as we burned time until midnight. Our next stop was O’Malleys to listen to live music by the O’Malleys Duo (definitely NOT G’s thing, we discovered) and from there we went to the Princess Theater for the 9pm performance of Rock Opera.
I’d only seen that show one time previously, on the Emerald Princess in 2021, and G has never seen it because he chose to watch an NFL game on MUTS that night (yes, I know, it’s hard to believe I didn’t do the same). I remember that I loved it, and I still love it. But, again, definitely NOT G’s thing. Give him a Bravo or an Encore any day. Yet classical music lover me prefers Rick Opera. Clinging to vestiges of my younger self, I guess.
Side note: as we were waiting in the Princess Theater for the start of the show, I received a happy New Year text and GIF from Angie, the lady we had met on the Ruby Princess in June. You might remember that she was celebrating her 94th birthday, the first one since her husband passed way, while traveling solo on board. We have stayed in touch ever since. Isn’t cruising great?
And by then it was nearly 10pm, and the parties around the ship were kicking off. Captain Baranski said in his noon announcement that tomorrow in Cabo San Lucas is forecasted to be 81F and sunny, and it definitely felt a little warmer on the open decks this evening…but still very windy and humid. We opted to welcome in 2026 at the party in the Piazza instead of the one on the Lido Deck. And, as the old joke goes, we stayed up until 2 or 3…minutes past midnight. 😉
Wishing each of you a healthy and happy 2026 filled with safe and exciting adventures at sea.
