The Biggest Little Ship Around: An Empress of the Seas Pictorial!

Empress of the Seas: May 11, 2017

As a ship buff, exploring the vessel itself is one of my favorite things to do on a cruise. It’s always sad when a ship gets transferred overseas or retired before I have a cruise on them. I got lucky when the former(Carnival) Celebration was brought back to Florida by a small cruise company in Palm Beach. I missed all of those old Holiday Class ships when they sailed for CCL. Empress of the Seas was another of those lost opportunities.

Or so it seemed.

Luckily Royal Caribbean decided to bring the old girl home again. She’s had some renovations and new galleys; she looks great! After the heartbreaking loss of the Legend of the Seas and the Splendour of the Seas, it’s encouraging that we’ve gotten a small ship back. There are many cruisers out there who are uninterested in the giant ship experience. I thoroughly enjoyed the intimacy of the Empress.

Just getting on board was a bit of a challenge. We booked one of her first sailings last year, but were canceled as her renovations took longer than expected. We then booked her earlier this year for a cruise out of Miami. After hearing that she would be moving to Tampa we re-booked to avoid the longer drive. The day finally came and we were on board. Parking at the terminal and embarkation all went very smoothly, as it usually does at Tampa.

The Ship:

The Empress has an interesting story which makes her a bit different from her fleet mates. When Royal Caribbean bought Admiral Cruise Line back in the 80's, they acquired the unfinished M/S Future Seas. The ship was then designed and finished out as the Nordic Empress. As a one-off design she has no sister ships, although her interior spaces are very similar to the larger Sovereign and Vision Classes. Her two level main dining room was unique at the time, and not used again until the Vision Class.

The ship’s Schooner Bar is very large relative to the size of the ship. It was packed every night since she has one of the best sing-along piano players I’ve heard on Royal. The Boleros Latin Bar is also nicely decorated and featured a great band each night. The other nightly venue is the Viking Crown. Once Royal Caribbean’s signature design element, these topside observation lounges are sadly being phased out of the fleet. On Empress, the Viking Crown Lounge does double duty becoming a nightclub late in the evening.Oddly, the balcony level of the Viking Crown is the ship’s gymnasium. I’m not sure if it was always like that, or if the gym was relocated there.

The lido deck on Empress is spacious, and there appeared to be plenty of lounge chairs. Although there is only one main pool, she does have three hot tubs and a small kiddie pool. The upper sun deck offers more outdoor seating and was full on sea days. A rock climbing wall sits aft on the pool deck. It seems to be the only major addition that Empress has received over the years.

Our Cabin:

We were in an Ocean View cabin (#4604) which is located mid-ship on deck 4, starboard side. The rooms on Empress are smaller than similar categories on newer classes. Those familiar with the rooms on the Sovereign and Vision classes will know just how small this is. There is room to walk on either side of the bed, but just barely. There is a desk and decent storage space in the closet and drawers. The room had the newer combination style safe and flat screen TV, but only one open electrical outlet. This was a problem since we left our travel power splitter at home. Luckily there is a US style outlet for the TV which I used to charge my phone at night.

Food and Service:

Food is obviously very subjective, so I won’t bore you all with a culinary review. I will just relay that I found the food to be of good quality and had no issues in that area. The main dining room offers a great brunch buffet on sea days. Carnival started a similar program a few years ago and it’s a good idea. We night owls love breakfast food, but not waking up before ten o’clock to get it! Dinners in the Windjammer were typically good and blessedly quiet. My only wish is that Royal would offer some simple food option late at night. The Windjammer closes right around the time of the nightclub and revelers need food. Carnival wisely keeps their pizzeria open 24/7. I wish Royal would follow suit there as well, especially on the weekend cruises.

Service on board was generally good. The weekend crowds are younger, so the bars were usually crowded. The bar staff seemed a bit overwhelmed at times, especially during the first two days. Most were friendly and trying their best, but a few seemed a bit apathetic. The crew accommodations on Empress were described as being pretty bad by some long time employees. Most of the crew has to quadruple up into a room, and there is only one tiny crew bar above the pool deck. I’m sure the hectic 5/5/4 schedule doesn’t help matters either.

Activities:

With only a few bars and lounges on board, it’s always easy to find something going on. On sea days most guests venture up to the pool deck.They have the typical belly flop, sexy man competition and other various poolside activities. I also saw trivia games in the Schooner Bar during the day.

In the evening most people congregate in the Schooner Bar for the piano sing along or at Boleros for the live Latin band. At night the Viking Crown becomes the dance club and Boleros has karaoke. They also hosted a pool deck party on the second night which was well attended. Unlike many other Royal Caribbean cruises I’ve been on, they also opened the dance club (albeit with pre-recorded DJ music) while the deck party was going on. This works much better since some people don’t enjoy the deck parties.

The DJ on Empress was particularly off-putting. Like some others, he has the bad habit of talking too much over the music. He would frequently stop the music entirely to yell at dancers for having drinks on the floor. While I understand the inherent safety issue, at some point it just needs to fall to security to handle. A good DJ should be seen and only rarely heard. Stopping the music kills the mood of the club and causes guest s to leave.

Cozumel:

We didn’t plan a lot for our day in Cozumel. We walked from the pier into town for some exercise. Some friends recommended the Sunset Bar and Grill, so we stopped there on the way back. Their staff is friendly and the food was good. We then returned to the ship and I spent the rest of my afternoon on the pool deck getting the most out of my beverage package.

Final Thoughts:

I had a great time on this cruise, more than I planned to have without my usual gang of barflies on board. I think that certainly factored into it, as I met more of my fellow cruisers than I normally would have.

The Empress facilitates guest interaction better than the newer shopping mall/theme park mega-ship monstrosities. The Empress is old school. Precious few mainstream ships are less than seventy or even a hundred thousand gross tons nowadays. At fifty thousand, she’s a throwback to the simpler days of cruising. With only a few venues, you actually see the same people more than once throughout your voyage.

Like the Vision and Radiance class fleet mates she inspired,the ocean is visible from nearly every public area of the ship. Ocean views are becoming scarce in an industry bent on keeping your eyes down and your wallet open at all times. There are no ice skating rinks, bumper cars, observation cranes, water slides, skydiving tubes or surf machines. The Empress is better for it. She exemplifies what we’ve lost in the cruise industry by gaining so much gimmickry. She was built to actually be a cruise ship, and I hope she’s around for many years to come.

Leaving Tampa

Looking forward to more photos.

I always love your reviews as I for one am also a small ship lover

Never been on a small ship, but I'm considering it. Would you happen to have a photo of your stateroom? I would love to see how small is small on Empress.

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Spot on review, I was there. :D (the forward-facing Owner's Suite was small, but awesome!)

I thought the bartenders were mostly friendly and hard working, but seriously understaffed.

Never been on a small ship, but I'm considering it. Would you happen to have a photo of your stateroom? I would love to see how small is small on Empress.

 

 

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But of course:

Hey, nightstands with drawers! A plus compared to Oasis class.:D

More room pics

Thanks for the review and the pics! We are booked on Empress next year to Cuba and I was curious what she was like since such a small ship. We cruised Legend many years ago, but Empress is smaller. Will be nice to see her:D

Hey, nightstands with drawers! A plus compared to Oasis class.:D

As much as I'd like to tell you yes on that one Bob, they were drawer-less unfortunately. The white part below the top is just trim. I checked because I usually keep my sunglasses and other pocket stuff in them on the ships so equipped.

As much as I'd like to tell you yes on that one Bob, they were drawer-less unfortunately. The white part below the top is just trim. I checked because I usually keep my sunglasses and other pocket stuff in them on the ships so equipped.

Dang. I just don't undertand why the company has turned against nightstands with drawers.

The Centrum

Dang. I just don't undertand why the company has turned against nightstands with drawers.

My guess is too many people forgetting stuff in them, or using them for contraband, or both. :D

The Schooner Bar

The Royal Theater is nearly identical to the ones on the Sovereign Class ships

The Viking Crown Lounge and fitness center

Boleros Lounge along with its attached coffee bar and porch area on the exterior promenade

Empress of the Seas: May 11, 2017

 

Like the Vision and Radiance class fleet mates she inspired,the ocean is visible from nearly every public area of the ship. Ocean views are becoming scarce in an industry bent on keeping your eyes down and your wallet open at all times. There are no ice skating rinks, bumper cars, observation cranes, water slides, skydiving tubes or surf machines. The Empress is better for it. She exemplifies what we’ve lost in the cruise industry by gaining so much gimmickry. She was built to actually be a cruise ship, and I hope she’s around for many years to come.

This feature cannot be overstated enough - the Empress of the Seas was designed with ocean views available from literally every single public space on the ship. Nearly all of those views remain today, with only the windows in the main shop onboard being covered over by merchandise displays, leaving no exterior views from the shop. Otherwise, the sea is visible from everywhere: the dining rooms, lounges, bars, arcade, casino, gym, spa, all aft elevator lobbies on Deck 4 and up, and the entire Centrum area from Deck 5 and up. It is quite a departure from the increasingly inward-looking ships being designed today, a fact not lost on the ship's Captain Carl Graucob who makes note of it consistently in his Crown & Anchor Society reception remarks.

Throw in the ship's beautifully wide, teak wood wrap-around promenade deck, and it's truly a fantastic ship for those who love to actually be connected to the sea while cruising.

This feature cannot be overstated enough - the Empress of the Seas was designed with ocean views available from literally every single public space on the ship. Nearly all of those views remain today, with only the windows in the main shop onboard being covered over by merchandise displays, leaving no exterior views from the shop. Otherwise, the sea is visible from everywhere: the dining rooms, lounges, bars, arcade, casino, gym, spa, all aft elevator lobbies on Deck 4 and up, and the entire Centrum area from Deck 5 and up. It is quite a departure from the increasingly inward-looking ships being designed today, a fact not lost on the ship's Captain Carl Graucob who makes note of it consistently in his Crown & Anchor Society reception remarks.

 

Throw in the ship's beautifully wide, teak wood wrap-around promenade deck, and it's truly a fantastic ship for those who love to actually be connected to the sea while cruising.

Very true, I enjoyed the talk that the Captain gave at the past guest party. I've heard similar sentiments from other Captains as well. I think many of them realize that much is being lost as the companies chase the theme park crowds.

Chops and the Casino area

The main dining room

The pool deck

The Windjammer Cafe

More exterior shots

Great review!

What's the "hectic 5/5/4 schedule" for the staff?

And the pics of the WJ show the new sinks, first I've seem of them...

Tim