Wine packages were sold yesterday on the Emerald Princess, but their purchase is being discouraged due to wine availability.
Formal nights on this cruise (Eastern Caribbean with two sea days up front and Princess Cays last ) are the second sea day and St. Thomas. The reason, we've learned, is to promote formal portrait sales...it's hard to buy formal portraits when you're sitting in the beach in Princess Cays and the photo gallery is closed. I've grown to like it, only because formal night on a port day feels less formal, if that makes any sense.
Mocktails are available for free on Princess Cays for passengers who purchased the Ultimate Kids Package. Some bar waiters might tell you otherwise, but they're wrong. Ask for a supervisor if this happens. While the soda gun drinks on Princess Cays are specifically excluded on the receipt you get when you buy the soda sticker and UKP, mocktails are not.
The Emerald Princess is currently offering "power hour" specials from 2pm to 4pm and 10pm to 12pm. I'm not certain whether these specials are available at all bars or not.
I've heard talk of delays in getting laundry back due to the high number of Elites on board (and we certainly experienced that last winter), and we only send out laundry 3 or so times each cruise, but we've always gotten it back the next evening. Our total laundry bill (that appears on our statement and then is immediately credited back) runs about $20 per cruise, so you can see we don't send a lot of things. We are much happier doing most of our laundry ourselves this winter, and run one or two loads a cruise through the washer ($2 per load to wash or dry, and the dry cycle has always been more than adequate).
We've had no issue trading our Elite bar setup in for two coffee cards on occasion (just call room service to make the trade).
The Emerald Princess is operating under Code Yellow norovirus cautions for the first two days of this cruise, but will stop these on Day 3 if the number of noro patients remains low. Code Yellow has minimal impact on passengers and then only in the buffet, where silverware is distributed when you get handed your plate and there are no cups or glasses or salt and pepper shakers on the tables. You can still serve yourself food in the buffet. Personally, I prefer that silverware and cups NEVER be on the tables ahead of time; especially with large tables, it's quite easy for germs to be spread to these items and then they are not removed when they have not yet been used. In the dining room, Code Yellow has no visible impact on passengers. A sustained Code Red period is what has a tremendous affect on crew and passengers alike; we haven't been there this winter. (Yay!). Fingers crossed...
We believe the food and service qualities on the Emerald Princess have been excellent. The only questionable items have been a few of the cuts of beef, but we can always get a different one. In general, we've been very pleased and are having a wonderful time. There is something special about this ship and this crew that we will miss very much next winter.