Empress 11/09/06-11/17/06

[wckdtrix]

We Just got back from an 8 night Southern Caribbean Cruise aboard Empress of the Seas.

We got to the cruise terminal around 3:30 pm in San Juan. the boarding process was very quick and very easy. We got to our cabin shortly there after, an ocean view on deck 8 (cabin 8632). Upon entering, we noticed the beds were not together, no big deal. We just asked the room steward to fix this for us which he did that evening. At first we basically dropped our stuff off in the room and then went out to explore. As soon as we left the room, we decided we had better go ahead and grab our life jackets for the muster drill...so we went back to the room, but neither of our cards would open the door. The room steward couldn't get in either...he had to call maintenance. Maintenance came up and replaced parts in our door lock mechanism thing and all was good the rest of the trip with that. We left San Juan after being delayed several hours due to some sort of engine problem.

Our Stops were St Maarten, Antigua, St. Kitts, St Lucia, and Aruba. All of them were very nice, and we had a great time at each island.

The experience on the ship was alright at best. Many of the ships passengers were loud, obnoxious, rude, and pushy. I guess that is to be expected, but we had never experienced anything like that on our Celebrity Cruises so far.

The Windjammer food was awful for breakfast and lunch. The dining room food in the evening, was decent...but nothing to get excited over. The Ice Cream machine seemed to be out of order often, or out of ice cream cones. We didn't try room service or the specialty restaurant, so I can't say anything about that. Also, not that it bothers me, but in the main dining room, even on formal night, we saw plenty of jeans, t-shirts, and ball caps.

The shows were not that great either. We watched one comedian who was not very funny, a juggler who dropped the stuff he was juggling several times, and a comedy team of two men who were very funny.

All in all, the ship and ship experience was a bit disappointing to us. I don't think we will be going on another Royal Caribbean Ship anytime soon. I think we will just stick with Celebrity for the time being. The islands we visited saved the trip for us, as we really enjoyed visiting them.

Please ask me any questions you may have, and I will do my best to answer.

[jpgd]

I will go on the Empress on 2/26/07 for first time for my hooneymoon.

Some advice in general who you can give me.

[wckdtrix]

The ship itself was in good shape. The rooms were small, but that isn't a big deal since you will spend so little time in the cabin anyways. There are plenty of places to relax. On Deck 6 if you go all the way forward to the very front of the ship, there is a set of stairs that lead up to a couple of more "private" decks. We went to these several times to just relax in the evenings and never once saw another passenger. There are plenty of activities on the ship throughout the day to keep you busy if you want to participate in them. We spent most of our time, while on the ship, in the casino. We only had two "at sea" days (on our 8 night cruise)...so we didnt spend that much time on the ship except for those two days. We went to a couple art auctions and participated in a few "games" set up by the activites staff while "at sea". Other than that stuff, we relaxed on deck or napped in the room. Be sure to sign up for "Meet and Mingle", as that was a good time as well...plus you have a chance to win some prizes!

[on board]

We will be on the Empress for an 11 day cruise in Jan. I am so sorry to hear it was not what you had hoped for.

I have a few questions,

What was the age range? And yours?

Much night life?

Did you have any problems getting a chair to lay out in the sun?

Can you tell me what you done while on the Islands? Did you take any excursions, which?

What were the prices of mixed drinks?

Thank you for taking time to post as I am looking forward to hearing from you.

[Puerto Rican Cruiser]

We just got back from 11/17 (3-nighter - St. Thomas and St. Marteen).

 

In summary, the ship is in really good shape, better that I were expected. The staterooms are smalls (I have an interior category L) but we used it only for sleep and take a shower. The midnight buffet was only regular. The pool is small but it is the Empress not Freedom.. :D . We went on Freedom on July and then Empress on last weekend, so you can imagine..:p

We booked onboard the 14 night Brilliance- mediterranean venice cruise.

 

Any specific question, ask me.

 

Later I am going to post a detailed review.

[wolfcathorse]

Who was the captain? I was expecting Capt Frank to go on vacation 11-17 and Capt Gunnar come on.

[curlyd]

There are plenty of places to relax. On Deck 6 if you go all the way forward to the very front of the ship, there is a set of stairs that lead up to a couple of more "private" decks. We went to these several times to just relax in the evenings and never once saw another passenger.

 

We found out about these decks last year before our cruise and I was able to change our cabin to #8000. Right up front and each morning I could look out the window and see where we were. So for this year I booked #8004, great view with almost a private deck. We enjoyed the ship - I know there are bigger and better and we will try them too but our 11 night cruise is so port intensive that whatever ammenities the Empress doesn't have I won't miss. I do think it is a slightly older crowd. We are 55 & 53, and there weren't that many children on the ship last year. Since it was our first cruise we had nothing to compare it to but were not disappointed either.

[Puerto Rican Cruiser]

Who was the captain? I was expecting Capt Frank to go on vacation 11-17 and Capt Gunnar come on.

Captain Frank on the 11/17 cruise

[wolfcathorse]

ty Puerto Rican Cruiser

[DON M.]

We Just got back from an 8 night Southern Caribbean Cruise aboard Empress of the Seas.

We got to the cruise terminal around 3:30 pm in San Juan. the boarding process was very quick and very easy. We got to our cabin shortly there after, an ocean view on deck 8 (cabin 8632). Upon entering, we noticed the beds were not together, no big deal. We just asked the room steward to fix this for us which he did that evening. At first we basically dropped our stuff off in the room and then went out to explore. As soon as we left the room, we decided we had better go ahead and grab our life jackets for the muster drill...so we went back to the room, but neither of our cards would open the door. The room steward couldn't get in either...he had to call maintenance. Maintenance came up and replaced parts in our door lock mechanism thing and all was good the rest of the trip with that. We left San Juan after being delayed several hours due to some sort of engine problem.

Our Stops were St Maarten, Antigua, St. Kitts, St Lucia, and Aruba. All of them were very nice, and we had a great time at each island.

The experience on the ship was alright at best. Many of the ships passengers were loud, obnoxious, rude, and pushy. I guess that is to be expected, but we had never experienced anything like that on our Celebrity Cruises so far.

The Windjammer food was awful for breakfast and lunch. The dining room food in the evening, was decent...but nothing to get excited over. The Ice Cream machine seemed to be out of order often, or out of ice cream cones. We didn't try room service or the specialty restaurant, so I can't say anything about that. Also, not that it bothers me, but in the main dining room, even on formal night, we saw plenty of jeans, t-shirts, and ball caps.

The shows were not that great either. We watched one comedian who was not very funny, a juggler who dropped the stuff he was juggling several times, and a comedy team of two men who were very funny.

All in all, the ship and ship experience was a bit disappointing to us. I don't think we will be going on another Royal Caribbean Ship anytime soon. I think we will just stick with Celebrity for the time being. The islands we visited saved the trip for us, as we really enjoyed visiting them.

Please ask me any questions you may have, and I will do my best to answer.

My favorite meal of the day is breakfast. Made-to-order eggs, bacon, sausage, potatoes, lox, bagel maybe a waffle, coffee, juice. Could you elaborate on "breakfast was awful". I have never had a awful breakfast on any of the other 3 rcl ships we have been on.l

[Spanky My]

Hi we are scheduled to be in room 8618 on the Empress in a couple of months . It Is an oceanview room. Is that a good spot and were the windows fairly big to see out? Your thoughts on the room itself and being on deck 8? Also do the rooms have a safe? Thanks in advance for your response.....Spanky My

[Puerto Rican Cruiser]

Hi we are scheduled to be in room 8618 on the Empress in a couple of months . It Is an oceanview room. Is that a good spot and were the windows fairly big to see out? Your thoughts on the room itself and being on deck 8? Also do the rooms have a safe? Thanks in advance for your response.....Spanky My

 

We have been on room 9675 (interior). It is exactly below the Viking Crown Area, so you can imagine what a noisy place to sleep. For us it was not a problem because we stay in the Viking Crown until 3 am :D. I do not really know about the oceanviews staterooms.

 

The rooms have a safe.

[wckdtrix]

Hi we are scheduled to be in room 8618 on the Empress in a couple of months . It Is an oceanview room. Is that a good spot and were the windows fairly big to see out? Your thoughts on the room itself and being on deck 8? Also do the rooms have a safe? Thanks in advance for your response.....Spanky My

 

The room we had was very nice. A bit small, but it worked out okay for us. The windows were a very decent size. Right below them, you could see the life boats, but that was no big deal. The rooms had drawer space (not much) and plenty of hanging space in the closets. The rooms did have a safe.

[wckdtrix]

My favorite meal of the day is breakfast. Made-to-order eggs, bacon, sausage, potatoes, lox, bagel maybe a waffle, coffee, juice. Could you elaborate on "breakfast was awful". I have never had a awful breakfast on any of the other 3 rcl ships we have been on.l

 

The eggs were cold, bacon was overcooked, waffles cold, pancakes cold/rubbery, french toast cold. Scrambled eggs were full of green and red peppers and tasted horrible. I stopped eating breakfast completely after the first few days.

[Puerto Rican Cruiser]

The eggs were cold, bacon was overcooked, waffles cold, pancakes cold/rubbery, french toast cold. Scrambled eggs were full of green and red peppers and tasted horrible. I stopped eating breakfast completely after the first few days.

 

 

What about the midnight buffet?? Did you like it?

 

For me it do not filled my expectations.

[wckdtrix]

We will be on the Empress for an 11 day cruise in Jan. I am so sorry to hear it was not what you had hoped for.

I have a few questions,

What was the age range? And yours?

Much night life?

Did you have any problems getting a chair to lay out in the sun?

Can you tell me what you done while on the Islands? Did you take any excursions, which?

What were the prices of mixed drinks?

Thank you for taking time to post as I am looking forward to hearing from you.

 

The age range appeared to be very wide...children all the way up to senior citizens and every age in between. We are in our late 20's. We really aren't into too much nightlife, our nightlife was spent in the casino on most nights. We did walk through the club during the day, and it looked nice. Prices for a mixed drink (bourbon and coke) was $5 I think...and the daily drink specials were like $5.75 I believe.

 

On St. Maarten we took an Island tour with a taxi driver we found as we went into town. It was a nice typical island tour, driving around, and making stops for photos. We did get to see the Queen of Holland drive by in a motorcade...apparently she was there for the grand opening of the new airport.

 

St. Kitts we took an Island tour as well. We got to see the entire island, the driver told us that he was "no bum" and would show us everything, and he did.

 

St. Lucia we scheduled a tour with Cosol. It was fantastic. He does a great job and really goes above and beyond to make sure you enjoy it. I highly recommend him.

 

Anitigua we scheduled a kayak tour with Paddles Antigua. It was awesome! We loved it. It is a tiring excursion, but we got to see and do a lot.

 

Aruba we rode ATV's. We took a 4 hour tour, it was a great trip as well. We got to see a lot of the sights on Aruba.

 

We scheduled all of our tours and excursions on our own, through the internet, and just by walking into the ports and seeing what was available.

 

Also, dont get me wrong, the ship was okay, it wasnt all that bad...it was just a bit disappointing to us, thats all. We still had a great time, and loved our trip as a whole....just some things could have been better...but I guess that holds true on any vacation. You will have a great time on your trip...anytime you are away from home, it is hard to have a bad time!

[wckdtrix]

What about the midnight buffet?? Did you like it?

 

For me it do not filled my expectations.

 

We actually never made it to the midnight buffets. We were always so worn out from the day and full from dinner, that we never went to them. :p

[wckdtrix]

Who was the captain? I was expecting Capt Frank to go on vacation 11-17 and Capt Gunnar come on.

 

Captain Frank was the captain on our cruise.

[DON M.]

The eggs were cold, bacon was overcooked, waffles cold, pancakes cold/rubbery, french toast cold. Scrambled eggs were full of green and red peppers and tasted horrible. I stopped eating breakfast completely after the first few days.

Thats why I stopped eating the pre-cooked eggs a long time ago. I now stand in line, no matter how long ,to have the eggs or omeletes cooked to order. Whenever you have a buffet on a cruise ship its like going to Hometown Buffet, so my expectations are not real high. But I always find its better than my wifes cooking which is why we pray after we eat.

[wckdtrix]

Thats why I stopped eating the pre-cooked eggs a long time ago. I now stand in line, no matter how long ,to have the eggs or omeletes cooked to order. Whenever you have a buffet on a cruise ship its like going to Hometown Buffet, so my expectations are not real high. But I always find its better than my wifes cooking which is why we pray after we eat.

 

Well, on our cruise there was one chef with one pan to cook eggs, so the line was always very backed up. It appeared that they had two stations to cook the eggs, but I only saw one cook at one station everytime I went.

[andy7753]

Hi - Just wondering if there are refrigerators in the oceanview cabins. Thanks.

[Puerto Rican Cruiser]

Hi - Just wondering if there are refrigerators in the oceanview cabins. Thanks.

 

Interior staterooms does not has refrigerator

[wckdtrix]

Hi - Just wondering if there are refrigerators in the oceanview cabins. Thanks.

 

No fridge/chiller in the ocean view we had.

[Michelle4UGA]

Any one see any thing that was done while the Empress was in dry dock?

[on board]

Interior staterooms does not has refrigerator

 

All you have to do is call and request one!