Empress of the Seas Photo Guide

Hello! I recently cruised on the Empress of the Seas and never wrote a review for my cruise, but I definitely planned on reporting out to you guys in some way about my trip. After going through my pictures, I decided that I would post all of my ship pictures so you guys can see what a wonderful ship Empress is!

To start, here's the first view you'll see of Empress. The Centrum. It's very pretty, and Royal redid all of the marble and whatnot for its renovation so it was very clean and fresh. I did not see any cracks anywhere.

Here is a view of the Windjammer. I didn't get a picture of the front, but the Windjammer was spacious and we surprisingly never struggled to find a table to sit at. This was on the side near the starboard entrance. Note there is also hand-washing stations at both entrances. You can either wash your hands or use hand sanitizer. There will be a crew member there lightly enforcing it. It amazed me that people were actually complaining about washing their hands. I for one think the idea is genius.

Here is the hallway leading to our room.

An Oceanview cabin on Deck 5. This picture looks much smaller than it actually is. Don't get em wrong, it's small, but nowhere near what some people had hyped it up to be.

Here is the view from the bed. You can see that there actually is room to turn around, and when shared with two people, it really isn't that bad. Also note the two 110V outlets on the right, and then a 110V and a 220V on the left. Lots of space to charge your devices.

The bathroom. Kinda small but not that big of a deal for us. We don't camp out in the bathroom, we only use it when we need it. The shower was behind me, which was the only thing i can say is actually as small as it is hyped up to be. It was almost impossible to bend over to wash your legs and whatnot. That was one of our few complaints from this ship/trip.

Here is the busy pool. We did not like this because as you can see, it is packed, and this was embarkation day there was an area on the other side of this that was an open deck space, a pool could've easily been built in. However I understand why Royal wouldn't want to do that, considering that this ship is most likely temporary. But the absence of a pool didn't bother me too much, as I only use it to cool off after tanning, but I just opted to use a nearby pool shower to cool me off instead.

The poolside bar. You can see that opening in the deck I mentioned.

The rock wall at the aft of the ship.

The Viking Crown Lounge

The gym is above the Viking Crown Lounge. It offered great views, and was a place I definitely visited a few times.

The spa rooms. The ship doesn't have a steam room or sauna, which I kinda missed, but I got over it. We had 3 ports and 1 sea day so I didn't get too worked up.

More of the pool.

Here is the upper sunning deck. I spent a lot of my time on deck and almost all of the sea days. Not many people came up here.

Hammock!

The Theater. It was very nice in here and I would love to come see the shows.

The view from one of the windows.

The closed photo gallery.

One of the sitting areas. Those stairs lead to the casino.

The outdoor promenade. Very relaxing on sea days and after ports.

The Starlight Dining Room. Had great food in here every night.

The Schooner Bar. I sat in here many nights and watched sports and listened to the music. I didn't like when they had movies playing and live music at the same time. You could never hear the movies.

The casino. It was hot in here but they had fans to cool it off.

Boleros Lounge. It was definitely one of the most noticeable refurbishments of the ship. It was a beautiful lounge and had good programs nightly. There was a nice outdoor viewing deck at the back as well.

Excellent pictures. One of our favorite ships!

Conclusion: I really enjoyed my cruise on the Empress. After a not-so favorable cruise on the Enchantment in 2012, I can definitely say that Empress has completely turned around my perception of Royal. I enjoyed the food and service I received the entire cruise, and I loved the general atmosphere of the ship. I met great people as well that I am planning another cruise with! Royal did a lot of work on Empress, and it is noticeable. It was a very clean ship with a great crew. My few complaints of the cruise were the faint smells of sewage that occurred sometimes when walking down the hallway (only happened directly after someone flushed), the packed pool, and the small shower. But every cruise has a few negatives but I never let them get in the way of my enjoyable and much needed vacation.

All in all, I would recommend everyone to take advantage of the Empress and her great deals! There are some very cheap cruises to some nice places, that i would definitely take more advantage of if I lived in Florida. I wish Royal would expand the itineraries on here, to add ports like Labadee, falmouth, Roatan, Belize, etc, but she still has some nice cruises to ports like Nassau, CocoCay and Grand Cayman.

I hope you all enjoyed my pictures, feel free to ask any questions about the Empress, I would be happy to help in any way! :D

Excellent pictures. One of our favorite ships!

Thank you! I thoroughly enjoyed my time on her :D

Thank you for this posting. There is not many reviews available for this ship, so I really appreciate your photos and commentary. We have a group travelling in a couple months, most of whom are newbies. DH and I have sailed only on Carnival in recent years. A couple questions if you don't mind.

1. Is it true there are NO formal nights? What kind of clothing did you see?

2. Brunch is served daily in the dining room? Is buffet also an option for breakfast? Is it true there is unlimited Mimosa and Bloody Mary during brunch?

3. Any tips? Must do's? Must Don'ts?

BTW, we are doing the 4nt Key West/Nassau. We been both places several times, but most of our travel friends and family have not. Age range 22-75. We have an unbelievably long port of call at Key West - 12 hours!! so looking forward to that.

Thanks!!!

Thank you for this posting. There is not many reviews available for this ship, so I really appreciate your photos and commentary. We have a group travelling in a couple months, most of whom are newbies. DH and I have sailed only on Carnival in recent years. A couple questions if you don't mind.

 

 

1. Is it true there are NO formal nights? What kind of clothing did you see?

2. Brunch is served daily in the dining room? Is buffet also an option for breakfast? Is it true there is unlimited Mimosa and Bloody Mary during brunch?

3. Any tips? Must do's? Must Don'ts?

 

BTW, we are doing the 4nt Key West/Nassau. We been both places several times, but most of our travel friends and family have not. Age range 22-75. We have an unbelievably long port of call at Key West - 12 hours!! so looking forward to that.

 

Thanks!!!

Hello,

I am glad you found my review and photos! First off, it is correct that there are no formal nights. You can always choose a night that you want to be formal on with your group, but there is no cruise-sponsored formal night. As for brunch, yes it was everyday in the dining room, and yes about the Bloody Marys if I remember correctly! A must-do for the ship would to be to sun on the upper deck toward the front, or aft near the Viking Crowne Lounge, because it actually gets quiet there and easy to find a place to relax.

As for Key West, I did the Trolley Tour for my first time and wrote a photo review of my experience. It can be found here: http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=2425352

You will enjoy Key West, and your trip to Nassau! Don't listen to all the negative Empress reviews, she is really a beautiful ship and if you go on the ship wanting a good time, you will exit the ship with a good time. :D

I've been on the Empress twice in the last month and it was only one bloody Mary or mimosa for brunch.

I've been on the Empress twice in the last month and it was only one bloody Mary or mimosa for brunch.

Oh okay, I did not pay much attention, I just remembered them going around. Thanks for clearing that up! :D

Great pics! We were on her just last week and I totally agree with your positive review. Our wait staff was among the best we've ever had on a cruise ship. There are small indicators that she is an older ship, but, in general, she is in great shape.

To those who have never cruised RCI, be advised Empress is not the typical RCI ship. She is too small to have all the newer bells & whistles the larger ships have. But that was OK for us, a couple looking for a relaxing getaway. We loved her and will sail on her again.

OOT, thanks for posting. I didn't get many pics to share with friends, so I'll share yours!

Great pics! We were on her just last week and I totally agree with your positive review. Our wait staff was among the best we've ever had on a cruise ship. There are small indicators that she is an older ship, but, in general, she is in great shape.

 

To those who have never cruised RCI, be advised Empress is not the typical RCI ship. She is too small to have all the newer bells & whistles the larger ships have. But that was OK for us, a couple looking for a relaxing getaway. We loved her and will sail on her again.

 

OOT, thanks for posting. I didn't get many pics to share with friends, so I'll share yours!

Wow, thank you so much! I have to agree with you on not being a staple for all of Royal Caribbean, it is certainly best for cruisers who just want a relaxing trip and do not really care about the ship, or frequent cruisers who understand that she is not like the others and just need a break. But I certainly enjoyed my cruise, and I would love to do another! If they release more cruises through June and July, I may just have to :) My itinerary was changed due to a brewing Hurricane, so hopefully I can book one to my original ports!

OOTs,

Thank you for the great review and pictures! We have just booked this ship for Jan 16th of 2017 and cant wait. We are a 4-some who have sailed before but only on the larger ships. My question is how was the movement of the ship realizing that wind and waves dictate the ride? Thanks again!!!

On our recent 4-night, I felt like any of the larger ships. We had moderate winds/waves one evening and the movement was noticeable - slight rolling, but nothing to worry about. I enjoy a bit of motion when going to sleep.

OOTs,

Thank you for the great review and pictures! We have just booked this ship for Jan 16th of 2017 and cant wait. We are a 4-some who have sailed before but only on the larger ships. My question is how was the movement of the ship realizing that wind and waves dictate the ride? Thanks again!!!

Hm, this is hard to answer given that we had glass-resembling seas the whole cruise. However, CapeCoralCruiser mentioned movement above this comment!

I hope you all enjoyed my pictures, feel free to ask any questions about the Empress, I would be happy to help in any way! :D

Great pictures! Thanks for your review as well!

Thank you so much for your review with the pictures. We're booked in an Oceanview room on our first Empress cruise in March, 2017 to Labadee and Key West. Could you answer a couple questions? Was there a refrigerator in your room? And were there any theme party nights we could prepare for? Thanks again for your information.

Great pictures! Thanks for your review as well!

Thank you so much for reading the review! :D

Thank you so much for your review with the pictures. We're booked in an Oceanview room on our first Empress cruise in March, 2017 to Labadee and Key West. Could you answer a couple questions? Was there a refrigerator in your room? And were there any theme party nights we could prepare for? Thanks again for your information.

Thanks for reading!

As for the refrigerator, I do not recall one. I could be wrong however, we did not look for one. For parties, they have theme parties based on the decades nightly in the centrum, like 80s, 90s, etc. We enjoyed them and went every night! :D

Thanks for reading!

 

As for the refrigerator, I do not recall one. I could be wrong however, we did not look for one. For parties, they have theme parties based on the decades nightly in the centrum, like 80s, 90s, etc. We enjoyed them and went every night! :D

These answers are helpful for our planning. We had heard of a "White-out" party. Did you see one of those on your cruise? Thanks again.

Thank you so much for your review and wonderful photos.

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No refrigerator in our outside (8004) a couple weeks ago. Yes, there was a "white" party. Did not go, but I guess all attendees are encouraged (not required) to wear white.