Review of Empress of the Seas to Cuba Nov 26-30th Post New Travel Restrictions

Empress of the Seas Review 11/26

Background- We aredevout cruisers. This was my 27thcruise? I’ve sailed all the major lines, Carnival, NCL, MSC, Royal, Princess,Celebrity and HAL.

Pre-cruise- We stayed at Springhill Suites MIA airport east.There was no airport shuttle. It was a $25cab ride from MIA to the hotel. It wasyour typical Springhill, nice not spectacular, more spacious than your averagehotel room. They did have free breakfastin the morning. They also offered ashuttle for $8pp to the cruise ship terminal. You did need to sign up. Itappeared there was a shuttle leaving every hour. Since the early departure times were alreadytaken, we took uber for $3.5 per car. Itwas a nice stay. We arrived so late, Ididn’t get a chance to really explore what was nearby but it didn’t appearthere was much to do surrounding the hotel. They did offer a shuttle to bayside marketplace. Overall we had a nice stay and would returnagain.

Embarkation- Easy! Wearrived at the pier about 10 am. Originallywe were given a boarding time of 11:30, however, the day before departure wereceived an email about a coast guard inspection that would delay boardingtime. They encouraged us to arrive about12:30. Needless to say we didn’t listen. There were maybe 2-3 people ahead of us onthe Security line. About the same for Emerald check in. The line was a little longer for gold andplatinum. No line for Diamond check in. We handed over our tourism declaration forms, received our visa, tookthe photo and went to wait for boarding to begin. I think about 10:45 or so we began toboard. Rooms weren’t ready until 1:30,sowe began our cruise in the windjammer.

Cabin- Once cabins were ready we headed to our home for thenext few days. Cabin 8174 (OV). We started off in an inside and were upgradedseveral times due to price drops. J Not too much to say,it was decent but definitely showing its age. If you are a person bothered bystains on the carpet or a few random stains on the walls be forewarned. You could certainly find those things. There was not as much storage in this cabin. However, since this was a short cruise we wereable to make it work. I had instant flashbacksto the plastic curtain liners that stick to you. J

Ship- In a word dated. I will admit my bias. I’m partialto the newer ships. It has to be theitinerary to get me onboard the older vessels. She was showing her age, despite the recent refurbishment. The public spaces were still nice. Theamenities of the newer ships were absent. It was small, didn’t take very long to learn your way around. The kidsfacilities and gym paled in comparison to the mega ships. When I saw the kidssplash area, I was grateful my kids weren’t sailing with me. They would have been disappointed.

On the positive side,it was a different experience being on such a small ship. We ran into the same people frequently. I think it made it easier to bond with fellowcruisers. We met sooo many great cruisers on this sailing. I can’t remember a cruise were we have met somany people. Likewise, we got to knowsome of the crew members better too. Definitely a much more personal cruise on the Empress. There weren’t really any crowds to speakof. We often walked into activitiesright as they were starting and we were able to find a seat. I was worried about the motion on such asmall ship, but we sailed so slowly, motion was not a problem. As with most of the cruisers, we chose thiscruise to go to Cuba not for the ship so it was easy to make the best of it.

Chef’s Table- I always love my Chef’s Table. There were only 8 of us. Again a personal experience. They offered us a galley tour before ourmeal. While were back we got to see afew entrees on the main dining menu. Wementioned how delicious they looked and the wait staff served our table thoseentrees along with the Chef’s Table Menu. The food was outstanding, the tablemates and service was even better.

Service- I didn’t have any complaints about service. Ourroom steward was great. Loved our diningstaff. Loved the energy and personality of the cruise director Hugo Arenas.

Food- The food was so much better on this cruise. Again, I wondered if the smaller ship hadsomething to do with that. I had some really good memorable dishes in the MDR.Windjammer food was standard fare. I hadquite a few delicious deserts, including sugar free ones. Usually I think the desserts leave much to bedesired. However, this time was not thecase.

Entertainment- Pretty good. The comedian was very funny opening night. That night was the PG, family performance. Thesecond night he was borderline offensive. Sensitive people be warned. Hewas equal opportunity with poking fun at different ethnic groups, gay peopleetc. I heard there were people complaining to the comedian right after theshow.

I think we did a little bit of everything this cruise, fromdance lessons, to making a rose out of ribbon, to adult coloring classes. Then there was the traditional, love andmarriage game show and my favorite: Quest. The shows were ok. After you’ve experiencedrobotic shows of 270 and the aqua and ice shows. The others kind of run together.

Port- I really enjoyed Cuba. I definitely wouldn’t mind returning. We took a ships tour. I hateships tours. With all the back and forthregarding the changes in the people to people designation, we were afraid wemight not be able to debark if we didn’t have a ships tour. We booked the Old Havana Heritage Walkingtour. Our tour departed at 8am. It beganat the square (right across from the cruise ship terminal) We walked by thesculpture conversation, over to several squares, and to one of the oldestcathedrals. Afterwards, we got on a tourbus. Many of us were surprised by this,as we thought the walking tour would be all walking. It wasn’t. We were bused to a Cuban cigarstore and then to a bar where we listened to Cuban music, got samples of Cubancigars, rum and Cuban coffee. Then wereturned to the pier about 4 hours after we started.

We reboarded the cruise ship to have lunch and then debarkedagain. This time we walked to another Cathedralon our way to the artists market. If you enjoy local art, this is the place tobe. There were rows and rows of art,handicrafts and some of the standard souvenir type stuff. There were T-shirts,magnets, shot glasses etc. There was a smaller market across the street toothat had cheaper prices, but less of a selection. We shopped for about 2 hrs and then got onthe hop on hop off bus tour of Havana. 10CUCpp. I love HO HO’s because they are a great way toget an overall view of a city. This wasno exception. Other than a stop atRevolution square and most of the Havana area we didn’t really need to get off. We drove up the Malecon, and past severalsquares. Again it was a nice way to getan overview of the city. It took about 2hours to complete the entire route. Whenwe got off at the pier we still had time remaining to get more souvenirs anduse the remainder of our CUCs.

Just like other Caribbean ports there were tour vendorshanging around trying to get you to tour Cuba independently. One guy offered 15CUC’s to pedal us aroundfor about an hour in the Old Havana area. I saw many vendors trying to sell the tours riding in an oldconvertible. They were lined up waitingfor you when you exited the cruise ship terminal. It’s a shame the government makes it so hardto visit because this would be one of the easiest ports to see without a shipstour. Old Havana is directly across the street from the terminal, the marketsare a few blocks to the left. Plenty ofshops, restaurants within walking distance. The HOHO stop isn’t far away either making it easy to take in the restof Havana easy and cheap. Nobody askedwhere we’d gone when we re-boarded or proof of where we bought our itemsfrom. For all the time we spent worryingabout it, it was very painless. Despitethe Department of state warnings due to the embassy incidents. We felt very welcomed by the Cubanpeople. I didn’t feel unsafe walkingaround and even in the markets when we said no, we could walk away withoutbeing harassed as we have been in some ports. There were plenty of cruisers finishing up their tours with the cruise lineand taking local ones.

Overall- loved my trip to Cuba. I have no regrets. I feel that US citizens might not be able togo much longer, before more restrictions are put in place. I’m glad I got a chance to see it. I’m stilla new, megaship girl at heart, but Empress produced a great cruise experience. Usually my cruise withdrawal would havealready begun, fortunately for me I set sail on the Escape next week.

Cuba Q&A

I usually skip the port of call talks when I cruise, butbecause Cuba has so many restrictions I wanted to make sure I understood therules. RCL Director led the talks andanswered all the questions posed by cruisers. Here are some of the highlights of the questions and responses.

Q: Are you allowed to book your own tour?

A: Yes, you are responsible for verifying that your independenttour meets the requirements, that it isn’t one of the vendors banned by thestate department. You may be subject to fines if the tour doesn’t meet thatcriteria. If you weren’t a part of theships tour you could debark between 7:15-8. Otherwise you’d have to wait until after 10am once all the shipexcursions had debarked.

Q: Do all of your toursmeet the guidelines? Some of your toursare part day the regulations require full day touring.

A: They guarantee that all the ships tours meet theguidelines

Q: Can we stay off the ship following a ships tour

A: Yes! you can board and re-board as many times as you like.Just bring your stamped passport for proof that you have submitted your visa(visas are kept by customs the first time you debark)

Q: Will you be allowed to disembark without a ships tour

Yes, we do not police our guests. Again, you are responsible for being able toverify that you meet the requirements and leaving without participating in atour doesn’t meet those guidelines.

Q: Do we have to exchange money?

A: Most vendorsaccepted US dollars. He encouraged us to exchange very little because you wouldlose money in the conversion and if you returned unspent dollars, you would loseagain when the money was converted back.

We exchanged $50 dollars and were buying t-shirts etc. tryingto spend the rest of it before we boarded. We found most vendors were willing to take US dollars, particularly ifyou said that that was all you had.

Q: If I am not a US citizen am I held to these new Cubarestrictions.

A: Yes, Royal is a USbased company, departing from the US and you are held to these standardsregardless of your country of origin. He did say that the enforcement would becomplicated if you were not a US citizen but that it would be possible torestrict future VISA authorizations to the US if you were found not incompliance

Appreciate the info on non-ship tours in Cuba. That part has been a little fuzzy to me.

QueenL-when did you purchase your cruise for Cuba? The reason I ask is because we booked after June and we wanted to know if we purchased our own excursion if we would be allowed to step off the ship without an excursion. Your advise is greatful appreciated.

Empress of the Seas Review 11/26

 

Background- We aredevout cruisers. This was my 27thcruise? I’ve sailed all the major lines, Carnival, NCL, MSC, Royal, Princess,Celebrity and HAL.

 

Pre-cruise- We stayed at Springhill Suites MIA airport east.There was no airport shuttle. It was a $25cab ride from MIA to the hotel. It wasyour typical Springhill, nice not spectacular, more spacious than your averagehotel room. They did have free breakfastin the morning. They also offered ashuttle for $8pp to the cruise ship terminal. You did need to sign up. Itappeared there was a shuttle leaving every hour. Since the early departure times were alreadytaken, we took uber for $3.5 per car. Itwas a nice stay. We arrived so late, Ididn’t get a chance to really explore what was nearby but it didn’t appearthere was much to do surrounding the hotel. They did offer a shuttle to bayside marketplace. Overall we had a nice stay and would returnagain.

 

Embarkation- Easy! Wearrived at the pier about 10 am. Originallywe were given a boarding time of 11:30, however, the day before departure wereceived an email about a coast guard inspection that would delay boardingtime. They encouraged us to arrive about12:30. Needless to say we didn’t listen. There were maybe 2-3 people ahead of us onthe Security line. About the same for Emerald check in. The line was a little longer for gold andplatinum. No line for Diamond check in. We handed over our tourism declaration forms, received our visa, tookthe photo and went to wait for boarding to begin. I think about 10:45 or so we began toboard. Rooms weren’t ready until 1:30,sowe began our cruise in the windjammer.

 

Cabin- Once cabins were ready we headed to our home for thenext few days. Cabin 8174 (OV). We started off in an inside and were upgradedseveral times due to price drops. J Not too much to say,it was decent but definitely showing its age. If you are a person bothered bystains on the carpet or a few random stains on the walls be forewarned. You could certainly find those things. There was not as much storage in this cabin. However, since this was a short cruise we wereable to make it work. I had instant flashbacksto the plastic curtain liners that stick to you. J

 

Ship- In a word dated. I will admit my bias. I’m partialto the newer ships. It has to be theitinerary to get me onboard the older vessels. She was showing her age, despite the recent refurbishment. The public spaces were still nice. Theamenities of the newer ships were absent. It was small, didn’t take very long to learn your way around. The kidsfacilities and gym paled in comparison to the mega ships. When I saw the kidssplash area, I was grateful my kids weren’t sailing with me. They would have been disappointed.

 

On the positive side,it was a different experience being on such a small ship. We ran into the same people frequently. I think it made it easier to bond with fellowcruisers. We met sooo many great cruisers on this sailing. I can’t remember a cruise were we have met somany people. Likewise, we got to knowsome of the crew members better too. Definitely a much more personal cruise on the Empress. There weren’t really any crowds to speakof. We often walked into activitiesright as they were starting and we were able to find a seat. I was worried about the motion on such asmall ship, but we sailed so slowly, motion was not a problem. As with most of the cruisers, we chose thiscruise to go to Cuba not for the ship so it was easy to make the best of it.

 

 

 

Chef’s Table- I always love my Chef’s Table. There were only 8 of us. Again a personal experience. They offered us a galley tour before ourmeal. While were back we got to see afew entrees on the main dining menu. Wementioned how delicious they looked and the wait staff served our table thoseentrees along with the Chef’s Table Menu. The food was outstanding, the tablemates and service was even better.

 

Service- I didn’t have any complaints about service. Ourroom steward was great. Loved our diningstaff. Loved the energy and personality of the cruise director Hugo Arenas.

 

Food- The food was so much better on this cruise. Again, I wondered if the smaller ship hadsomething to do with that. I had some really good memorable dishes in the MDR.Windjammer food was standard fare. I hadquite a few delicious deserts, including sugar free ones. Usually I think the desserts leave much to bedesired. However, this time was not thecase.

 

Entertainment- Pretty good. The comedian was very funny opening night. That night was the PG, family performance. Thesecond night he was borderline offensive. Sensitive people be warned. Hewas equal opportunity with poking fun at different ethnic groups, gay peopleetc. I heard there were people complaining to the comedian right after theshow.

 

I think we did a little bit of everything this cruise, fromdance lessons, to making a rose out of ribbon, to adult coloring classes. Then there was the traditional, love andmarriage game show and my favorite: Quest. The shows were ok. After you’ve experiencedrobotic shows of 270 and the aqua and ice shows. The others kind of run together.

 

Port- I really enjoyed Cuba. I definitely wouldn’t mind returning. We took a ships tour. I hateships tours. With all the back and forthregarding the changes in the people to people designation, we were afraid wemight not be able to debark if we didn’t have a ships tour. We booked the Old Havana Heritage Walkingtour. Our tour departed at 8am. It beganat the square (right across from the cruise ship terminal) We walked by thesculpture conversation, over to several squares, and to one of the oldestcathedrals. Afterwards, we got on a tourbus. Many of us were surprised by this,as we thought the walking tour would be all walking. It wasn’t. We were bused to a Cuban cigarstore and then to a bar where we listened to Cuban music, got samples of Cubancigars, rum and Cuban coffee. Then wereturned to the pier about 4 hours after we started.

 

We reboarded the cruise ship to have lunch and then debarkedagain. This time we walked to another Cathedralon our way to the artists market. If you enjoy local art, this is the place tobe. There were rows and rows of art,handicrafts and some of the standard souvenir type stuff. There were T-shirts,magnets, shot glasses etc. There was a smaller market across the street toothat had cheaper prices, but less of a selection. We shopped for about 2 hrs and then got onthe hop on hop off bus tour of Havana. 10CUCpp. I love HO HO’s because they are a great way toget an overall view of a city. This wasno exception. Other than a stop atRevolution square and most of the Havana area we didn’t really need to get off. We drove up the Malecon, and past severalsquares. Again it was a nice way to getan overview of the city. It took about 2hours to complete the entire route. Whenwe got off at the pier we still had time remaining to get more souvenirs anduse the remainder of our CUCs.

 

 

 

Just like other Caribbean ports there were tour vendorshanging around trying to get you to tour Cuba independently. One guy offered 15CUC’s to pedal us aroundfor about an hour in the Old Havana area. I saw many vendors trying to sell the tours riding in an oldconvertible. They were lined up waitingfor you when you exited the cruise ship terminal. It’s a shame the government makes it so hardto visit because this would be one of the easiest ports to see without a shipstour. Old Havana is directly across the street from the terminal, the marketsare a few blocks to the left. Plenty ofshops, restaurants within walking distance. The HOHO stop isn’t far away either making it easy to take in the restof Havana easy and cheap. Nobody askedwhere we’d gone when we re-boarded or proof of where we bought our itemsfrom. For all the time we spent worryingabout it, it was very painless. Despitethe Department of state warnings due to the embassy incidents. We felt very welcomed by the Cubanpeople. I didn’t feel unsafe walkingaround and even in the markets when we said no, we could walk away withoutbeing harassed as we have been in some ports. There were plenty of cruisers finishing up their tours with the cruise lineand taking local ones.

 

Overall- loved my trip to Cuba. I have no regrets. I feel that US citizens might not be able togo much longer, before more restrictions are put in place. I’m glad I got a chance to see it. I’m stilla new, megaship girl at heart, but Empress produced a great cruise experience. Usually my cruise withdrawal would havealready begun, fortunately for me I set sail on the Escape next week.

 

 

 

Cuba Q&A

 

I usually skip the port of call talks when I cruise, butbecause Cuba has so many restrictions I wanted to make sure I understood therules. RCL Director led the talks andanswered all the questions posed by cruisers. Here are some of the highlights of the questions and responses.

 

Q: Are you allowed to book your own tour?

 

A: Yes, you are responsible for verifying that your independenttour meets the requirements, that it isn’t one of the vendors banned by thestate department. You may be subject to fines if the tour doesn’t meet thatcriteria. If you weren’t a part of theships tour you could debark between 7:15-8. Otherwise you’d have to wait until after 10am once all the shipexcursions had debarked.

 

Q: Do all of your toursmeet the guidelines? Some of your toursare part day the regulations require full day touring.

 

A: They guarantee that all the ships tours meet theguidelines

 

Q: Can we stay off the ship following a ships tour

 

A: Yes! you can board and re-board as many times as you like.Just bring your stamped passport for proof that you have submitted your visa(visas are kept by customs the first time you debark)

 

Q: Will you be allowed to disembark without a ships tour

 

Yes, we do not police our guests. Again, you are responsible for being able toverify that you meet the requirements and leaving without participating in atour doesn’t meet those guidelines.

 

 

 

Q: Do we have to exchange money?

 

A: Most vendorsaccepted US dollars. He encouraged us to exchange very little because you wouldlose money in the conversion and if you returned unspent dollars, you would loseagain when the money was converted back.

 

We exchanged $50 dollars and were buying t-shirts etc. tryingto spend the rest of it before we boarded. We found most vendors were willing to take US dollars, particularly ifyou said that that was all you had.

 

Q: If I am not a US citizen am I held to these new Cubarestrictions.

 

A: Yes, Royal is a USbased company, departing from the US and you are held to these standardsregardless of your country of origin. He did say that the enforcement would becomplicated if you were not a US citizen but that it would be possible torestrict future VISA authorizations to the US if you were found not incompliance

If it helps I was on the Empress in May 17 and the only difference when entering Cuba with my British passport was that they didn't stamp it.