Empress of the Seas 8 n. Sept, 15, 2018... Cuba: Havana, Cienfuegos, Santiago & Haiti

Just signed up for this one.... hope to see more soon!:cool:

Just signed up for this one.... hope to see more soon!:cool:

Empress roll calls are here: https://boards.cruisecritic.com/forumdisplay.php?f=258

As suggested, just started another (correct) Empress Sept.15 entry under the "Empress of the Seas" section. Hope to see you there!

How was your cruise? We are heading out for this same one in December. What excursions did you do?

We returned last week from the 9/15/18 FIRST sailing on the Empress of the Seas to the 3 ports in Cuba. The ship itself was brought back from Pulmantur Cruises to RCCL for the Cuban Itinerary. It was an RCCL ship (Nordic Empress) back

in 1990. They have attempted to "upgrade" this "older" ship with paint and carpet, etc. They still have a way to go though! The food was very good, both in the upstairs buffet (very crowded with narrow walkways for 1,800 folks), and

in the main dining room. However, their the service was VERY SLOW and we always missed the 7 pm main show each

evening, unless we got up from our early dining time to barely make it to the 7 pm show. We were on the Cruise Critic (CC) blog months before we sailed, and their were many folks on it as well, and it sounded like everyone had signed up

with RCCL (via their link) to receive a day / time / place for a "meet and greet" with all of the CC passengers. We have

done this on other cruise lines, and it works well. I even received an email from RCCL H.Q. in Miami, confirming that the

minimum number of 25 CC passengers had signed up via "their link" and that I would be receiving notification in my

cabin for the "meet and greet". Two days went by, and NO NOTICE. So, having brought a copy of the RCCL email

with me, I went to the front desk, and asked about the "meet and greet". They had no idea what I was talking about,

and had not received any info from RCCL H.Q. Then, they told me that I COULD GO UPSTAIRS AND POST A NOTICE

for my own "meet and greet" on a community chalk board, and maybe someone with CC would see it, and I COULD

ORGANIZE IT !! I asked them to make a copy, and contact RCCL H.Q. themselves to confirm the email I had received

from the H.Q. was indeed legit, and to get to the bottom of this lack of knowledge. The 2nd. to the last day of this

cruise, I finally received a phone call to my cabin from the Manager of the Front Desk, and he said that the RCCL H.Q.

told him that only ONE CC PASSENGER had signed up via the RCCL link, and that there would be NO MEET AND GREET!! WAY TO GO RCCL !! Did anyone else from CC experience the same ??????

ALSO -- the immigration process in Havana was terribly slow -- only two windows were open out of about 12!

So, be very patient. Our second stop, Cinfuegos, we had to tender in using the "life boats" from the ship. It took

1/2 day to tender those passengers who wanted to go ashore! There seemed to be lots of confusion in this process

and it took forever to get passengers onto the life boats. Once we got moving, most of the passengers were covering

their noses and mouths with their shirts due to the tremendous amount of diesel exhaust fumes being sucked into

the life boats from the engines!! The crew didn't seem to be bothered.... At our last stop in Cuba at Santiago de Cuba,

they had a pier we tied up to. However, a rain storm blew in, and it broke the ships ropes from the pier, and the ship

was blown away from the pier (the gangway almost fell into the water - thank God no one was on it at the time)

and we were heading, bow first, into the buildings on shore. Luckily they started the engines, threw them into

reverse to keep the ship from crashing. They put in an emergency call for the only 3 tug boats available to push with

all their might on the opposite side of the ship to get us back next to the pier, to be able to let the hundreds of additional

passengers to make it back onto the ship!!! The cabins were the absolute smallest we have ever been in (outside)

We had a family with a SCREAMING 2 YR. OLD next door to us!! Late at night and early int he morning, we had to listen to him..... and in the main dining room, he kept up his screaming. The head waiter should have asked the parents to

kindly remove him until he stopped screaming, but they did not......But, other than that -- not much excitement happened !!