An adventure on the Empress 7/28/16 - A detailed photo review!

Hey folks! Good evening. As the thread title says, I have recently sailed on the Empress of the Seas, on a 4-day weekend cruise to Cococay and Key West that left Miami, Florida on July 28 and am ready to share my experiences with you. I love writing these reviews, and am all set up to write my very first Royal Caribbean one. I like to make these as detailed as possible with lots of pictures and I like to talk about my experiences from my perspective, and try my best to give honest assessments of everything from embarkation to debarkation and all that happens in between. I will say that I like to take my time getting these done as I want to make the reviews the best they can be, so if this takes a long time to finish, I apologize in advance. I am fairly busy but I do add on to my reviews whenever I get a chance. So, with that out of the way, here we go.

First, a little bit of a background on me, Flying Cruiser NJ, and how I chose this particular cruise vacation. I am in my mid-30s, from the Philadelphia suburbs, single with no kids, so I am very flexible with my travel opportunities and thus can really get the best deals when they come up. I have been on close to 20 cruises overall since I began cruising in 2006, with the vast majority being on Carnival. This was my second time on Royal, with the only other time being a number of years ago on the Monarch of the Seas, out of Port Canaveral. I have also sailed Princess and Norwegian a few times. I like to sample all cruise lines as they all have their good points and their not so good points.

I chose this cruise about a month ahead of sail date, as my buddy (who I will call M throughout this review) and I had talked about taking a long weekend vacation somewhere during the middle of the summer, to get away from everything for a while. We originally talked about going out to Las Vegas to visit a few old friends for a few days but after researching cruise deals extensively, we settled on a short weekend cruise. M and I have cruised together twice prior to this, and I credit myself with getting him hooked on cruising, LOL. We found a really great deal on the Empress of the Seas, and since we have a few hookups who could get us even better deals than advertised, we went for it. I won't say how much it cost but I will say we spent almost as much on alcohol as we did on the cruise fare and taxes, haha. Anyway, we booked an unobstructed outside guarantee cabin and were assigned our cabin location shortly after booking. We had a pretty far aft oceanview, on Deck 7, which for what we paid, was awesome. Great views, and a decent cabin. Will talk more about this as the review moves along. So, after researching the ship and what to do onboard, all that was left to do was just....CRUISE.

So, in the subsequent posts, I will try to chronicle one day at a time or more if I can, with pictures (of which I have well over a hundred) and my own unique sense of humor and critiquing style. I am also going to do this review in large and dark blue fonts to make reading easier, if it looks to be too hard to read, let me know and I will adjust it. So, here we go, hope you enjoy the upcoming adventure review, and comments and questions about the ship, ports, food, service, etc, are welcome.

DAY 1: EMBARKATION DAY

All the planning was taken care of and the anticipation had built until it was......embarkation day. We live in Philly and this cruise left from Miami, so obviously some travel would be involved. Yes, the quickest way to get from NJ to Florida is by plane and thankfully there are lots of flights that can get you there in just about two hours. No cruise review would be complete without talking all about the journey to the departure port as if you read these boards, there is a ton of discussion all the time about getting to the port of departure from far away places. So, my travel adventure will be first up.

M flew into Fort Lauderdale/Hollywood International (KFLL) the night before, not taking any chances and got a hotel room in the general area of the airport. I had stuff to do that evening before the cruise and like to sleep at home instead of in a hotel whenever possible so I planned to go the next morning. Firstly, I am a huge proponent of flying in the night before a cruise, especially a long one, if it is during bad weather season or if there are not multiple nonstop options to the port on the morning of the cruise. I won't get into detail too much, but just know that I have seen people miss their cruises due to cutting it too close and have almost missed a cruise or two myself by doing that. Relying on a single flight option or a connection can lead to total disaster if the slightest thing goes wrong along the way and then you are out of luck. Saying that, I elected to fly down morning-of because there are many, many nonstop options from my area to South Florida and even if something went wrong with one or more flights, I still had more to choose from.

So, I got up early (which I am not a huge fan of doing but I will get into this more later) and headed to the airport at dawn to get a flight from Philadelphia International (KPHL) to Miami International (KMIA). Note, checkin and security can take a while in the morning so leave extra time but I had no problem with getting parked and checked in with an hour to spare before my flight. I got to the gate in plenty of time for boarding, got a good seat assignment, and settled in for a flight to MIA. If my cruise is less than 5 days, I always take one backpack and 22-inch rollerboard suitcase because I really try to avoid checking bags if at all possible. I guess they said it was too big to carry on (never had a problem with it before but whatever, was just a direct flight to MIA, no chance for it to get lost during transfer at MIA) so I had to check it. LOL.

Anyway, we were a little late taking off due to multiple maintenance issues (minor and they were able to troubleshoot eventually but we took off a good hour late), which for me was not a problem but many people had connections to deep South America and the Caribbean in Miami and well, delays can cause you to miss an entire vacation. I will tell you that it is a little nerve racking to have to deal with mx issues as you never know how long it will take to fix the problem and if it can't be fixed quickly, it too could cause me to miss my cruise. But it all worked out, we made up time in the air, I relaxed and took a little nap, and we were in MIA in no time. It was my first time flying into there as usually FLL is my airport of choice in South Florida, and that airport is huge. Anyway, I got my bag from the carousel, called M, who had been waiting at the hotel at FLL for me to let him know I made it to MIA, and went to the Super Shuttle kiosk to book a van ride to the Port of Miami.

Me relaxing with some breakfast on the way to MIA. Haven't had a Biscoff in a while, lol.

Cruise altitude somewhere over the Carolinas. Incredibly smooth ride all the way down, just a little minor chop on the way into MIA, summer convection beginning to get going some.

On approach to MIA. If you look closely, you can see the Empress docked at the port, just waiting for me to board it. Almost there.

Downwind continued and landing. Not sure what runway we came in on, but it was a good landing with a good amount of reverse thrust and a very long taxi to the gate.

Some of the cargo ramp action at MIA. Just cargo planes as far as the eye can see. Lots of international pax carriers here also that you don't see much of up north. Not sure what airline that was but still, DC10s. Not many of them left these days. If you haven't gotten it yet, I am an airplane geek as well as a cruise geek. You will see more plane pics when we get to Key West day.

I am at my 6-pic limit for this post, so we will continue with my rather lengthy shuttle ride to the port.....

DAY 1 - CONTINUED

I researched transit options from MIA to the POM and found that a cab would cost about $27 but Super Shuttle would only be about $15 or so. Super Shuttle seems to operate at every major airport that I have ever been to, so a safe option to get to the port. Here, you do not need a reservation to ride, as they have kiosks right outside of all baggage claims with attendants who make a reservation for you and direct you to the right van to get to the port. I do not know the Uber situation at Miami, I have heard they are allowed to operate there and I have also heard they are not. Which is it? Anyway, I do not do Uber and don't plan on doing it in the near future so that was not an option either way. Some people might be interested in knowing if they go to the airport or not. It seems that MIA does limit the number of shuttle companies that are permitted to pick up and drop off there. But I could be wrong about that.

It was only a 10 minute wait or so in the Miami heat for the van to show up and it was full. Port of Miami is not far from the airport but this was not an express van. I didn't care too much as it was only about 1130 (will use military time for this review) and boarding doesn't begin until noon anyway but it still took a long time. Traffic around the hotels in downtown Miami is horrendous on a weekday due to volume and construction and I was the next to last dropoff, after about four hotel stops. We curiously took the old local route to the port, over the big bridge, so I got a good first close up look at the ship as we passed it. Overall, the ride took me almost an hour. I got out at the port, tipped the driver, and was on my way.

My first look at the gargantuan Empress of the Seas. Only other ship in port today was the Carnival Sensation, another very small, older ship so no problems getting to the dropoff area and no delay getting into the terminal. The porters directed me to just take my bags with me onto the ship, so I did that. I was going to check the rollerbag in but I really had no problem taking it on with me. Turns out that was a good choice. I had checked in weeks before, so I just had to show my passport and documents to the folks at the door and was right through. I saw the ship's entertainment boarding at this time as well with like 8 pieces of baggage, security didn't want to let him through until he explained his situation to them, haha. Anyway, right up the escalator is security, only took a few minutes to get through here, and right to checkin. They have a separate checkin line for those with status, which I obviously do not have on Royal but the general checkin line was not long as I arrived pretty early and the Empress is just not that large of a ship. I was through by 1245, met up with M (who checked in right before I did) on the gangway and we made our way into the atrium. Yes! We are officially on a cruise now.

The cabins were ready by 1300, and that is right when we got onboard, so we stopped in the cabin to drop our stuff off and check out our home for the next four days before exploring the ship. Where do you think we headed first? The pool bar on Deck 10 of course. M had already prepaid for the Premium Package, which is one of three all-inclusive alcoholic beverage packages that Royal offers, so he was able to get a drink right away. I paid for mine there (they overcharged me but more on that later on) and got the sticker on my card and proceeded to order a Long Island Iced Tea. Oh, that Long Island hit me. Eat a lot before drinking one, trust me. We then went to the Windjammer Cafe, which is the casual dining hall on this ship, located forward on Deck 10. Here we got a lunch of stewed chicken, pork, hot dogs, soup, rice, potatoes. A nice meal with a good view of the outside action in Miami.

Lunch in the Windjammer. Note that there was never any trouble finding a table in there at any mealtime during the cruise. I don't know if the ship was not sailing full or the layout is just good but I had to say that. Many ships have capacity issues at peak times in the buffets.

I will get into the drinking packages a little here. The package we got, the Premium, was $49 a day plus 18 percent gratuity, per day for the entire cruise. The package included all beer on board, wines by the glass up to $12 and cocktails up to $12 as well. Plus unlimited Coke products and bottled water. You also get a tumbler with the purchase which helps when you go to a bar for a soda, they will give you a full can whereas the regular glasses only hold about a half a can. No freestyle machines on here either, just regular can and fountain soda. The lack of cutting-edge technology on this ship was a trend as you will see as we go along with this review. The Select package was $39 plus gratuity, but only included beer and wine up to $8 along with soda, no bottled water and no cocktails. If you wanted to get extreme, the Ultimate package was $59 plus gratuity and covered all you get with the Premium plus some stuff I can't remember. For us, the extra $10 a day for the Premium was worth all we got with it compared to the Select. I feel we both got our money's worth with the program but I will admit it is hard to drink a lot each day for four days straight, lol.

Anyway, there is a small bar in the Windjammer, and I got a Dos Equis beer from here to take back to the cabin. By now it was 1400 and I was still talking to some folks back home about stuff and doing last minute web surfing on my phone before we wouldn't have service for a few days later on. We got back to the cabin, began to unpack and put our valuables in the safe (pinpad activated, large enough for valuables for all pax in cabin). I got a nice pic of the port area from our large oceanview window.

We headed back up to the bar to await the muster drill announcement at 1500, and waited it out with a few Coronas and some sort of alcoholic lemonade drink. Fairly crowded up here now. We explored the outer decks some and I got some nice pics from the Miami and surrounding areas. Muster would be at 1530 in one of the lounges.

Classic Miami shots. No matter how many times you sail from there, it is still a great thing to see. It means you are on vacation! M got that pic of me with the remnants of my hard lemonade drink, he said I had to smile for it and look like I was having fun. LOL.

More on embarkation day in a second......

DAY 1 - CONTINUED

Here are some more pics of Miami and the port area that I took before sail away.

This was the pool area. I had heard that it was too small and not enough room for everyone, never saw this to be a problem. Three hot tubs and a pool along with a kiddie pool. Plenty of tables and deck chairs. Nice island band playing on stage as well, they played every day I think. They finally called muster at 1530 and we headed down to the lounge and checked in with staff. They do this to ensure everyone is there and not hiding out somewhere in order to avoid the drill. Why anyone would is beyond me anyway. All service on the ship stops for that time anyway. The drill did not take long and some of the announcements were quite hard to hear but it was over a few minutes after it started and we were officially on vacation.

We headed back up to the pool deck and enjoyed the sailaway party. Good music, wobble, cupid shuffle, etc as we left Miami around 1615. We headed down the famous channel, past South Beach and waving fans from the surrounding areas as we passed by and soon we were full steam ahead, on the way to Cococay. Of course I had a few more drinks and just enjoyed the festivities.

Us sailing down through the harbor, on the way to the open sea.

Not your typical lemonade, haha

More folks having fun with the entertainment crew and here we got to first meet our cruise director, Carlos Torres. He was pretty good and upbeat with a good sense of humor but not too over the top throughout the cruise.

More in a moment....

Following along.

DAY 1 - CONTINUED

Well, shortly after sailaway and after we were out of cell phone range in Miami, I put my phone into cruise ship mode (airplane mode) and didn't use it again as a phone for the next few days. We were out of sight of Miami around 1800 and lunch ends at 1730 in the buffet so it was time to head back to the cabin to get a nap.

I had mentioned I am not a morning person and having to get up early usually means I did not get a lot of sleep the night before as I am a night owl. That, combined with the drinking, travel and hot weather and sun up on deck means I sort of just passed out without even finishing up my packing. The plan was to go to the Starlight main dining room around 2000 (we had anytime dining and they seat until 2100) but of course neither of us felt like getting up and getting cleaned up to go there so we missed it. I hate missing out on the MDR on cruises. I mean, I have nightmares before cruises that my next voyage featured me freaking out because we got to the end of the cruise and I realized I missed the MDR every night.

This was our cabin. Spacious enough, good location on a high deck, good ocean view window. Bathroom was small but I think they are small on all Royal ships.

Well, anyway, M got up around 2100 to get the Italian buffet in the Windjammer, which serves until 2130. I tried to get up a few times, just couldn't do it. Was still too worn out. He came back to get cleaned up and after trying to get me up, was unsuccessful and headed back out to do what he loves to do, drink. I finally got myself up around 2230 because I was hungry and I wanted to hit the hot tub. I love cruise hot tubs, because they really soothe my feet and it is nice to just relax for a while in them. Especially late at night when they are not as crowded and I might not be in the mood to meet any new friends.

I got up to the pool deck with my swim trunks and towel which I picked up from the towel rack at the entrance to the pool area (sometimes there is an attendant there to electronically sign you out a towel that if you do not bring back, will cost you $20) and went for a dip. They advertise the hot tubs being open until 2300 but not tonight. Guess they were doing a shock treatment. The pool was still open until 2300 and it was amazingly crowded for being late at night. I guess they will keep the hot tub open later sometimes as I saw it open past midnight a few times later on if people want to use it late. I just got a few sodas to sip on as I wasn't ready to drink again just yet.

I changed again at the cabin and headed to the casino to play the penny slots a little bit and get a few drinks at the bar. The casino is located midship on Deck 6 and is really small. And not many people were playing in there on this night. Quick tip - if you are like me and don't plan out ahead of time having enough $1 bills for bar tips before embarkation, just play some on the slots with a large bill, cash out, get small bills change from the cashier. I did this. And yes, tipping bartenders does help get stronger drinks and better service. Just like on land. But then again, most of the time the bars were not crowded but still, an occasional dollar tip helps. Got a few Coronas and headed up to the late night Windjammer buffet for what they call late night snacks. Got a hot dog, burger, fries and some wings. The wings were not particularly good, were kind of tough but still good for late at night. They also have apple juice, potable water and lemonade along with maybe iced tea and tea/coffee at the buffet for beverages.

Around 0100 I explored the ship some more and for this time at night, it was really quiet. The Viking nightclub on Deck 10 aft wasn't even hopping tonight. Oh well, I was starting to feel lousy again so I went back to the cabin and checked out what TV stations were offered onboard around 0130. Not much. Have to say the TV selection is bad. Worse than Carnival, even. Just CNN/CNN International (which is blah) and many variations of ESPN along with ship produced channels with activities advertised and music. Also a few channels running old network TV programs over and over again in a number of languages. No ship position or weather condition data channel or bow cam. First ship I have ever been on that did not have that. See what I mean about not modern? I mean, the ship was nice and clean and all that but not modern. But it was delivered in what, 1989? I will give them a pass for that.

M came back from the Schooner Bar on Deck 5 (good bartender Nelson there, will talk more about that later on as the review progresses) where he drank all night and said it was fun. He said he met a few nice girls, unfortunately I was not able to be the wingman tonight because I just wasn't up to it but this was only the first night after all. We were both out by 0200, as tomorrow would be an early arrival day to Cococay, Royal's private island in the Bahamas. That pretty much wraps up an eventful first day onboard the Empress. A few random thoughts I forgot to mention earlier...

Our room steward, Anaceito, did a great job with our cabin, considering we had such erratic and different sleep schedules and it was hard for him to actually get into the room sometimes. Good, pleasant, did his job well. The captain was Diego Lombardic and we did hear from him at least once a day with a weather and position update. Seemed fine to me. Oh, and I noted that some bars would only serve bottled beer to you in cups and not the bottles. M didn't like that as he said beers like Corona taste different if they are not in the bottle. Is that a Royal thing in general or just this ship? Not all bars did it and only at certain times did this happen but the bartenders did say that they had to do it this way due to safety issues? Never saw that before on any cruise ship.

Anyway, hope you enjoyed and I will be back with our day in Cococay hopefully soon. Thanks for reading!

Thanks and love the pics. Looking forward to more. :)

DAY 1: EMBARKATION DAY

 

Some of the cargo ramp action at MIA. Just cargo planes as far as the eye can see. Lots of international pax carriers here also that you don't see much of up north. Not sure what airline that was but still, DC10s. Not many of them left these days. If you haven't gotten it yet, I am an airplane geek as well as a cruise geek. You will see more plane pics when we get to Key West day.

 

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At least one of those is an MD11, but I do appreciate the seniment. Pretty soon the only 747's you will see will be at the cargo terminals. I'm glad I got to see the KLM 747 land at Maho before they retire it. BTW, I saw my first Korean Air A380 during that long taxi back to the jetway at MIA.

Thanks for the stateroom photos, we've never been on Empress.

Great job. Thank-you.

I'd be very interested in your reviews of the MDR food.

My wife and I have done 25 cruises now and actually feel like the food is getting better (better varieties and healthier as well).

We don’t miss the lobster and, in fact, hadn’t ordered it even when available, in years.

I look forward to the rest of your review.

Thanks.

Thanks for the review so far, keen on hearing about empress as considering a last minute cruise on her next month

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Keep it coming.

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Happy to follow along..soaking up info prior to my Empress cruise 9/17.

Following along.

Thanks, glad you are along for the voyage. I should have Day 2 up by later this evening, hopefully. Stay tuned!

Thanks and love the pics. Looking forward to more. :)

Glad you are enjoying. I only have like a hundred more pics to share, lol. I am going to get started on Day 2 - Cococay sometime tonight I think.

At least one of those is an MD11, but I do appreciate the seniment. Pretty soon the only 747's you will see will be at the cargo terminals. I'm glad I got to see the KLM 747 land at Maho before they retire it. BTW, I saw my first Korean Air A380 during that long taxi back to the jetway at MIA.

Yeah, we were pretty far from the cargo ramps but that pic just showed a few of the freighters that were parked at the various buildings. You are right about the MD11s now that I look closer, I think that might have been Skylease cargo but not sure. There were probably another dozen planes from a number of cargo carriers parked further back than that, pretty crazy. Only place I can think of that has more cargo action in the lower 48 is maybe JFK or LAX. Then of course all the South American airlines that fly into Miami parked over at the terminals. I agree about 747s. All the classics have been gone for a while and the -400 is an endangered species. Probably last major airline to fly them will be Lufthansa and UPS will still have their fleet of -400F for quite a while but that might be it (not counting the 747-8) Just hard to compete with ULH twins when you have four older generation engines these days. Too bad the -8 hasn't been a better seller. I did not get to see the 744 at SXM when I went there to Maho Beach a few years ago as I believe KLM does not fly there on Saturdays. Did see the Air France A340-300 land though, nice consolation prize. LOL. Sadly, pretty soon the only thing you will see flying around mainline will be 737, A320/321, E190 and A330/350 and 787/777 and nothing against those models, but the variety that we used to see just won't be there anymore. BTW, my first A380 sighting was Lufthansa, climbing out from MIA a few years ago as I had just boarded a cruise, LOL. That thing is just huge. I have since seen the Qantas 380 when I flew into LAX for a cruise out of there last winter.

Anyway, thank you for checking out the review and I will have the next day's summary up later tonight to get things moving along. I hope you are enjoying.

Thanks for the stateroom photos, we've never been on Empress.

You are welcome. I think our stateroom was one of the larger ones but still enough room for two adults. The room had two, maybe three standard power outlets IIRC and then the outlet for the shaver in the bathroom. The closets were decent size and there were two dressers with three or four drawers each. Of course, to make more room you can always put stuff like your bags under the bed. The bathroom and shower were kind of small but I wasn't expecting them to be big. No plumbing issues whatsoever either from what we saw. The huge window we had was nice also. I thought the beds were pretty comfortable as well, but like others have said, the air conditioning had a hard time keeping up with the hot and humid weather. I will talk about that more later on. I do have part two coming up, so stay tuned and thank you very much for following along.

Miata said:

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Great job. Thank-you.

I'd be very interested in your reviews of the MDR food.

My wife and I have done 25 cruises now and actually feel like the food is getting better (better varieties and healthier as well).

We don’t miss the lobster and, in fact, hadn’t ordered it even when available, in years.

I look forward to the rest of your review.

Thanks.

______________________________________

Thanks! I enjoy writing these reviews and I try to work in some humor to go along with my narration and pictures. I try to tell these as stories, both from the perspective of what I did on the ship and in port, but also try to work some info about the ship and what there is to do onboard and in ports as well. I try to make sure people can really see what a cruise on ships like this is like from the perspective of someone who has just sailed it and experienced as much of what there was to do as possible.

Not sure why it wouldn't let me quote your post but I will say I only made it to the MDR once, on the last night. I thought it was pretty good, service, atmosphere, and food-wise. I will definitely talk some about that, to go along with some pics. We did go to Chops on Saturday, as M said he wanted to try it out. It was pretty good too and I will get into that later in the review.

I don't have much to compare this cruise with where Royal is concerned, having only sailed them one time a few years ago but I was pretty satisfied with this experience overall. Yeah, it is not a huge new ship with tons to do and it did not visit any really exotic places but for what is there for, it was adequate. It met our expectations.

The food was good and the variety was pretty nice. I wish they would offer more late-night options for dining and maybe have a late-night pizzeria and ice cream like Carnival has, but their buffets are generally pretty decent. I would say cruise ship food has declined in some areas in general in the 10 years I have been cruising but you can still get OK food onboard and obviously very good food if you want to pay a little more for a place like Chops. I don't think this sailing had lobster either but honestly, I wouldn't miss it either. It is usually small, overcooked, whatever. I am not a huge lobster fan anyway. The only time I honestly eat it is when I am on a cruise ship and it is offered without an upcharge.

Part 2 of the adventure is coming up later tonight hopefully, so stay tuned!

Thanks for the review so far, keen on hearing about empress as considering a last minute cruise on her next month

 

 

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It is my pleasure to write it. Hopefully my review can help you get a perspective on the ship and itinerary that you might not have had before. I do try to make the reviews informative as well as entertaining, so hopefully this helps you decide on whether to cruise the Empress or not. I will say, if you are interested in a long weekend cruise or a short midweek one that you can just relax on and see a few ports, this is a good ship for that. Not a ton of extra stuff to do activities-wise, but plenty of room to move around and good food/drinks. Really nice crew also.

Keep it coming.

 

 

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I should have Day 2 posted up here tonight sometime, so be sure to check it out. Thanks for reading along!

Happy to follow along..soaking up info prior to my Empress cruise 9/17.

Glad to have you along for the ride. Tons more for me to talk about with this ship, starting with Day 2, where we went to Cococay. I should get to that later this evening. Hope this helps you to prepare for your September cruise.

Great Pics.

Thanks for your review we set sail on the Empress August 11.

Doug

Thanks for the review.

Good evening folks, I am back with the continuation of this awesome Empress of the Seas review from the July 28 sailing. Thank you all for your comments and for reading along so far, and this review will only get better with each cruise day's addition. So, here we go with part 2, which featured a visit to Cococay, Royal Caribbean's private island in the Bahamas.

DAY 2 - COCOCAY

I had mentioned that I am a night owl and not a huge fan of mornings. Lately I have been a little better about that, but early morning before 1000 or so is still not my best time. However, I guess since I rested a lot the night before and I knew we had already arrived at Cococay (by simply looking out the window), I woke up sometime around 0900. M is even more of a night owl than I am, so he was still asleep well past that. I was hungry so I threw on some gym shorts and headed up to the Windjammer for breakfast.

The tender that would take us to Cococay, taken from the cabin when I woke up.

As you can figure, the Windjammer has the typical cruise ship breakfast stuff. Nasty "scrambled eggs," pork and turkey sausage, bacon, biscuits and gravy, pancakes (with packets of syrup on the side), fruit, single-serve boxes of cereal, grits, potatoes, hash browns, etc. I will tell you that I like my traditional breakfast sausage but something about turkey sausage on a cruise ship. It is just better, not as greasy, it almost seemed as if the regular sausage was brown and serve quality. The bacon was pretty good, the biscuits and gravy were not so good. The roasted potatoes and waffles/pancakes were pretty good. They had an omelet station that you took a ticket for and placed an order that was filled a few minutes later based on demand. I did not get an omelet today. Also, they had apple, orange juice, water, and I think some sort of cranberry enhanced water, along with maybe guava juice (cannot remember) and of course, coffee and tea. Did not see any hot chocolate machines on this ship interestingly enough.

Breakfast in the Windjammer, looking out at Cococay, where we would be spending the day.

I sat down with my breakfast at the front of the dining room, looking out forward towards Cococay, and it looked to be a hot one, partly cloudy. It was hot in the Windjammer, as there is a lot of glass there, and there is a sun deck with loungers directly above, and you can figure that an enclosed space like that will heat up quickly. But it was bearable and the views were good. Not much of a crowd at all at this time. They also handed out survey cards to each table, which was cool. Royal Caribbean does like to get feedback from their customers, which is always good. I believe they serve breakfast until 1045, at which time they close and set up for lunch. No late risers breakfast line poolside like some other lines do.

Cococay and again, our tender, taken from the pool deck after breakfast and right before I got my mango margarita that I enjoyed before getting off the ship. Nice day.

I actually got a random picture of the famous Royal Caribbean rock wall, located at Deck 10 all the way aft. For me, walking back to the Viking lounge entrance, near the ping pong tables and rock wall, and heading down the aft elevators was the quickest way to get back to the room so I took a pic of the wall before heading back to the cabin. The hours seemed to be limited to early afternoons for the rock wall and I never got a chance to try it out. Not sure how popular it really was on this ship.

Another random ship pic, as we got ready to head to Cococay. They have an onboard internet cafe, located Deck 7 mid, not that far from our cabin and although I never used it, it was available for anyone to use, at all hours I think. I think unlimited daily internet was something like $12.95 a day for 1 device on this sailing but I could be off by a little bit. I did not buy it at all. I can do without the internet for like 2 days, lol.

M did meet me around 1000 in the dining hall and we headed back to the cabin around 1100 to get ready to head to Cococay. Didn't even need a beach bag here, sign out towel on the way off the ship and just brought flip flops, ship card, hat, shades, some cash for bartender tips and a photo ID (that we did not even need to re-board) and headed down to Deck 2 to get a tender to shore. Cococay is owned by Royal Caribbean so everything like bar service is included just as it is onboard.

The line for one of the two tenders running was just a few minutes long and before exiting, I finished my mango margarita that I got poolside and headed off. By the way, I wanted the guava margarita that was advertised but they said the shipment of guava mix that they had ordered from the suppliers in Miami never arrived and they did not have any this week. Bummer. Anyway, we boarded the tender and waited a few minutes for it to fill up and take us on a short 5-minute ride to Cococay.

Us aboard the tender, waiting for a ride to shore. The ship is the smallest major line cruise ship and yet it still looked big in this shot. I explained to M that the Oasis is like 4 or more times bigger than the Empress. He has never been on a really large ship so it is hard to visualize.

Up next.....we get to Cococay.