Loved the Empress! July 28th cruise

[Emmabelle]

Just back from the Empress of the Seas, July 28th cruise. We had a great time on the ship, just my husband and myself this cruise, left the kids with the inlaws. We had great weather, of course it was hot, but we expected that. The Sail Away check in program was down when we got to the cruise terminal so we had to have the info inputted again when we got to the dock but it still only took about a half hour to board the ship. We went directly to the windjammer for lunch, there were low crowds there around 1:00pm. The food was good, I just like better when the windjammer has stations for the food instead of one continuous line. It would be so much better if the salad portion of the buffet was its own station since it would take forever to get through that part of the line.

 

I was surprised that the pool wasn't filled the first day even when we checked at 8:30pm, I'm not sure when the pool did get filled, since I didn't check again until the next morning. We never had a problem getting chairs by the pool which was so nice, even on the sea day it was easy.

 

The food in the dining room was very good, didn't have a bad meal, just my steak the last night was over cooked, but I dealt with it. We had great table mates for the cruise, we ended up hanging out with them each night and for the sea day. We got very lucky for dinner, breakfast in the dining room was another story, we had a few that I thanked my lucky stars that we didn't have to sit with them at dinner. Especially the rude 20 something year olds that my husband tried to joke with the first morning at breakfast, the waiter was walking around the table offering pepper to everyone, the girl sitting next to my husband had just cereal, so the waiter skipped her and my husband joked, "oh, don't you want pepper on your cereal?" the girl turned and gave my husband the dirtiest look and groan. We had a good laugh about it anyways.

 

The entertainment was good, the first night were two comedians who juggled, they were very entertaining, the second night was a 40's inspired show with the singers and dancers, the third night we watched the love and marriage show at 10:00pm, we missed the earlier magician since we went out to have a drink at Senor Frogs while in Cozumel, that was a crazy place, just like being at spring break. The last night was a latin inspired show from the singers and dancers, which I enjoyed more so than the 40's swing show, just personal preference.

 

Loved the chocolate buffet, you couldn't ask for more chocolate!

 

Our cabin was small, but efficient, we had eight small drawers which was much better than the four we had on the Sovereign. The closet had two doors and much more room in it, the shower was very small, but at least the curtain wasn't blowing in the whole time.

 

Our cabin attendant was very nice as were all the employees that we ran into while on the cruise, we loved our waiter and assistant, they were alot of fun. I'd have to say that the waiters at the pool can be a little annoying asking us about every ten minutes if we needed a drink. I wanted to say to them don't worry we know where to find you when we do.

 

We just walked around Key West and shopped since we had to back on the boat by 1:30pm. In Cozumel we were very lazy and just got off the ship and walked over to the Senor Frogs directly across from the ship and used their beach while we sipped on frozen drinks.

 

All and all it was a great cruise and I would definitely recommend the Empress!

[Cruiser_Guy]

Sounds like you guys had an awesome time! Thanks for the review!!

[BMW325]

Thanks for the review. We leave on September 3 and am really getting excited. Received our boarding docs over the weekend and I did the on-line registration for everything and got my bar code, so we'er all set.