We love the Emerald. You can walk right across the street to an excellent beach or if you want to you can swim in the pool on the 6th floor and still look at the beach and the gulf. It's also relatively close to most of the things we like to do in Galveston, go to the Strand, Pleasure Pier, eat at our favorite restaurants, etc.
The only real complaint this year was they instituted some COVID rules that visitors could not go to the pool before 11am. Catching an early swim and relaxing before it gets later in the day is one of our favorite things. Check out time happens at the same time the pool opens. We were pretty unhappy about that and will check next time we visit to be sure that rule has changed. Otherwise, it is always good to stay there.