Emerald Princess

The most useful thread is a 2026 one from a couple choosing between same-priced balconies for an Alaska round trip: forward Lido-deck cabins L246, L250 and L251, or midship Riviera-deck cabins around R608 to R618 that sit between the two elevator banks but directly under the World Marketplace buffet, with a midship Caribe premium balcony available for about $200 more per person. One reply, from a wheelchair user who books near elevators by habit, said elevator noise itself is minor and the real disturbance is the occasional loud drunk heading back to a cabin at night, and advised keeping the midship room with earplugs as insurance. Another argued a premium balcony is not worth the surcharge unless it is aft, since the side-facing premium balconies are almost identical to standard ones, and described aft-corner Caribe cabin C752 from a 16-night Hawaii sailing on this ship: a huge balcony with views sideways and astern, very quiet, and no extra motion felt even with a hurricane passing 500 miles off, the dining room being where movement showed most. Noise from above also came up in a 2024 thread: a poster who booked R207 directly beneath the thermal suite was reassured that spa guests go barefoot and keep their voices down, that the space is empty much of the time, and that its hours rule out early or late noise apart from cleaning, the only dissent being a joke about occasional after-dark DJ events.

Guarantee bookings and obstruction questions recur. A 2026 poster who took a guaranteed balcony for Alaska because little else was left asked how many obstructed balconies the ship has; replies said obstructed balconies are normally a separate, cheaper category, so a standard-balcony guarantee should not land in one unless the fine print allows it, while a passenger onboard at the time reported a cabin sold as partially obstructed whose obstruction was a solid metal railing in place of glass. On the mini-suites, a 2014 honeymooner who had deliberately booked aft on Emerald deck for a covered balcony was upgraded to midship Dolphin deck, where the mini-suite balconies are open to the sky; replies noted there is no real privacy on any Princess balcony because the dividers have gaps of several inches, that direct sun hits for roughly half of each day and reverses on the return leg, and that Princess is strict about leaving nothing on balconies. At the class level, a 2022 thread on Princess oceanviews reported that on Crown and Caribbean Princess the Emerald-deck oceanviews, mostly sold as obstructed, are laid out like balcony cabins with the bed away from the window and the desk and fridge beneath it, minus the armchair that used to be provided, and suggested pricing obstructed balconies against them since they occasionally undercut. A 2026 first-timer thread added that cabin thermostats respond quickly, worth knowing because several posters find the public rooms run warm.