Yeah it's not really handy...
Actually the loading eventually finishes, but after a WHILE, like 5mn or more for me (and then it's painfully slow - unless you have a supercalculator)
You could try Blue Stacks if you don't need a full emulator, as it's the only thing that seems to run some apps sort of smoothly
(it adds a bunch of garbage background processes to your startup if you keep it installed...)
Also check out Manymo, which sounds interesting...although I didn't have much success with it
Anyway I guess the best options is still real devices...