Photo Review: Empress of the Seas 6-06-16 to Cozumel w/Compasses etc. *WinksCruises*

Mrs. Winks and I are back from a 5-night sailing aboard the recently returned, red-headed stepchild of the Royal Caribbean fleet, the Empress of the Seas.

By all accounts (at least the ones you read about here on Cruise Critic) we shouldn’t be alive. Exploding toilets, flooded staterooms, non-working central air, surly staff, long bar lines, cockroach infestations, and most disturbing of all, a non-working soft serve ice cream machine on the pool deck, were all horror stories reported by the inaugural passengers on this floating death-trap of the high seas.

The conditions were so atrocious on Empress, rumors began circulating Bear Grylls had turned Deck 3 down as a possible shooting location for an upcoming episode of “Mission Survive,” citing conditions too hostile even for him, as did Survivor’s Jeff Probst, who declared the Empress environment “way too repugnant and distasteful” for a family-friendly primetime show like his.

So, as you can imagine, in the days leading up to our cruise, we, like countless of our other co-passengers for this voyage, prayed nightly for a phone call from Royal’s upgrade fairy. Of course, this wasn’t your typical upgrade fairy; no, this special fairy was one that would tell us our cabin was uninhabitable, refund our fare and mercifully “upgrade” us OFF the ship!

But no such luck. In the end, a rumored 60 cabins were canceled from our sailing, but our stateroom on Deck 8 forward was not among those lucky, lucky few. We would have to set sail on Empress or eat the entire cost of the trip.

Resigned to our fate, we got our final affairs in order, spent some quality time with our loved ones –never hinting to them that we might never see them again - made peace with the Cruise Critic admins (like that did any good) and then trudged off to the airport satisfied knowing that, no matter what happened, we had lived reasonably respectable lives; we’d had a good cruising run.

As ship itineraries go, this was an unusual one, a Monday through Saturday sailing. So we decided to fly to Miami a couple days early, Mrs. Winks to attend a Spinning conference and me to pace around our hotel room, fretting about our decision to cruise and hoping for a last-minute reprieve from the Governor. Our pre-embarkation hotel was the Miami Biscayne Bay Marriott, a fine property that has a bird’s eye view of the Port of Miami. From our hotel room window, we would be able to judge for ourselves just how crippled the Empress was when she came hobbling into port Monday morning - and perhaps be in a position to offer some aid to any surviving refugees, unable to disembark under their own power.

Over the course of the weekend, we watched a number of seaworthy cruise ships come and go. Then on Monday morning, the Empress sailed down the causeway, pirouetted and docked. I was surprised to see no outwardly visible signs of fire, carnage, sewage or pestilence. No white flags waving from broken stateroom windows. No tent cities erected on the promenade deck. No emblem of the skull and bones flying from the yardarm. What was going on? She looked perfectly fine.

Port of Miami from our hotel window

So there she was. Docked in all her glory. Holding her own against Port of Miami neighbors of superior tonnage. And just as we remembered her. See, Mrs. Winks and I took our very first cruise on this ship back in 1999, when she was known as the Nordic Empress. That was a 7-night cruise from NYC to Bermuda and the one that hooked us on cruising.

When we heard she was returning to the fleet from her exile with Pullmantur to become Royal’s calling card to Cuba, we waxed all romantic and decided to book this early June cruise, assuming she’d have shaken off any post dry dock service issues. Little did we know, due to extended dry and wet dock stints that resulted in a dozen canceled cruises, we would actually end up sailing on what would be her third post-refurbishment voyage.

One thing we did know from our ‘90s sailing is that Empress’s cabins are small. Back then, we were upgraded from an ocean view guarantee to one of her few balcony rooms… and even those seemed small for a “premium” room category (they’re now classified as Jr. Suites). So we knew we would be more comfortable in a room with even more square footage, and prudently had our TA book one of the Owner’s Suites for this 2016 adventure.

As full suite guests, we got an email over the weekend from Empress’s Loyalty and Suite Ambassador, Daniela. She extended an invitation to be “one of the first” to board the “beautifully revitalized” Empress of the Seas on Monday morning. Would we please join her at 9:30 am? Wow! Real early. Mrs. Winks replied to her email and asked if working toilets, air conditioning and, most importantly, soft serve ice cream, were part of the of the revitalization. To her credit, Daniela wrote back admitting that while the first sailing had suffered some service issues, the current cruise was faring much better and we could expect a wonderful vacation.

So we headed off to the Port of Miami early Monday morning where, at about 10am, Daniela called our cabin number and pulled us out of line. She escorted us through security (where no one batted an eye at my wife’s rolly-cooler) and dropped us off at a nicely appointed waiting room lounge just off the long registration counter. Here she pointed us to refreshments (OJ, water, coffee, tea and light pastries) that had been put out for us. We were told to relax and hang out until the registration staff was ready to commence the sign-in process

Suite Lounge and registration area at Port of Miami

We waited in the lounge, taking advantage of the refreshments and chatting casually with the other assembled suite guests (except the ones wearing Pinnacle nameplates, who pretty much stuck to themselves). Occasionally, a crew member would pop in to say hello and swipe a donut or cup of coffee.

Shortly thereafter, Daniela returned and led us to the registration counter specially set up for Suite Guests. This secured our position to be among the first to be issued Sea Pass cards before the registration hall was opened up to the general masses. It was actually one of the smoothest embarkations we had ever undergone. And while it was a pleasant way to kick the cruise off, our fears, of course, would not be assuaged until we boarded the vessel and could see for ourselves if the soft serve ice cream machine was working… or not.

After successfully signing in and receiving our coveted gold Sea Pass cards, we headed up the escalator to the ship where our first stop was the pre-boarding picture station. The pre-boarding picture has come a long way since 1999. Below you can compare what it was like then and now. And as you can see, Mrs. Winks and I have actually just gotten a whole lot less mature!

Empress boarding photos: Then and Now

After photos, Mrs. Winks, cooler in tow, and I made our way up the gangway and onto the ship. We were greeted at the entrance and deposited into the breathtaking 7-story centrum, one of the most stunning features of the ship.

In retrospect, we realize it wasn’t such a great perk to allowed on the ship so early – since, as is Royal’s policy, the staterooms are inaccessible until 1pm. Weighed down by our carry-ons and Mrs. Winks’ cooler, our ability to explore the ship was constrained to a degree. Nonetheless, our first impressions were good, as we wandered about the theater, shops and promenade deck.

The Centrum

It was on the promenade deck we found the “secret” public stairwell that leads up to fore viewing balconies on Deck 7 and 8. Hoisting all our bags up the narrow steel stairs, we discovered that the access door to Deck 8 was open, which allowed us to slip in and drop our bags off in our cabin - which was the first cabin in the hallway, totally on the sly. We ran into our room steward, who gave us a knowing wink, and then headed back out of the secure area.

Now unshackled, we could explore the ship more freely, although it being of such small size, you can literally walk from fore to aft in about a minute or so! We enjoyed the big seats in the aft promenade deck and the addition of hammocks and clamshell chairs to areas just off the pool. The new movie screen is bright and state of the art - and the sound issues reported on the first cruise had been solved.

When 11:30 am rolled around, we headed up to the Windjammer, the only venue open for lunch on boarding day. To be honest, the buffet on this ship is only serviceable. The menu did not change much day-to-day and there was significant bottlenecking during prime times. You can view some video of these offerings in my Snapchats, which we’ll post in a later installment of this review.

The Windjammer entrance, now with wash-up sinks

Coming up: a look at our cabin, more pics of the Empress, the daily Compasses, our cabin crawl, Snapchat videos, MDR menus (when we had them), review of Chops and our impression of Nachi Cocom and Mr. Sanchos day-pass beach clubs in Cozumel.

Can't wait for more!

My deepest condolences that no one stepped in to prevent you having to board that floating death trap, but thank goodness you somehow survived! I am anxiously awaiting more to hear of what was surely the vacation from Hades.

Thanks for all the pictures and the one of you and Mrs. Winks then and now is especially awesome! Thanks for sharing! Can't wait to see the full review.

Okay, for those who've claimed we’re just planted shills for Royal Caribbean and are here only to perform damage control on all the negative press Empress of the Seas has been getting lately, please let me direct you to the profile banner from our Twitter account (pictured below).

Having read the countless, horrifying Cruise Critic reports from recent sailings of this ship, what you see depicted in that collage is fully what we expected to encounter on this vacation. Cockroaches, flooding, hot room temperatures and no ice cream (Oh, and that’s Adam Goldstein, Royal’s President and COO, flipping you the bird, btw).

We considered the terrible way Royal Caribbean treated (and then compensated) the passengers on the slew of last minute Empress cancellations to be nothing less than abysmal, and even though Mrs. Winks and I thought ours was a reasonably decent sailing, we’re still questioning our loyalty to Royal simply because of that callous act of corporate insensitivity - and have booked our next cruise on Princess because of it.

Our Twitter Banner before the cruise

Originally, we originally planned to do a lot of social media on this cruise and even purchased the Voom Streaming Internet package in hopes of providing Periscope coverage of the ship and port amenities. Unfortunately, we were not able to get Periscope to connect with Voom on Empress! We got connection failures notifications indicating the signal strength and upload speeds weren’t strong enough to support Periscope live video feeds. Major bummer!

Fortunately, Snapchatting was supported. So we fell back on that social media platform as our Plan B and it worked out pretty well… Throughout each day of the cruise, we uploaded little snippets of our day to a crowd of about 40 followers. Here are our snaps from Day 1.

[YOUTUBE]uMIH50j8nb0[/YOUTUBE]

Snapchat of the Seas

Okay, so after our lunch in the Windjammer (in retrospect the Honey Stung Chicken wasn’t so bad), we headed down to our stateroom to formerly settle in. We were staying in the Josephine Suite (presumably named after Napoleon Bonaparte’s wife, the first Empress of France – who he later divorced when she couldn’t provide him an heir).

In the Twitter banner above, our suite is just to the left of the cockroach's "hola" call out balloon.

It’s touted in brochures as an Owner’s Suite, and one of five on the ship, but Mrs. Winks and I both agree it was more akin to the typical Grand Suite other ships in the Royal fleet provide. Spacious, except for the bathroom, roomy vanity, and its best feature: an increasingly hard-to-find fore-facing balcony.

Storage was plentiful and we were surprised by the number of electrical outlets available, two on the vanity, one by the bed and one by the cabin door. The couch pulled out to bed. The flat screen TV was hard to view from the bed; which is why a cabin like this usually comes with two.

Air conditioning was adequate, but nothing close to approaching chilly even when the thermostat was placed on full chill.

Owner's Suite - 8506

Initially, we were a bit wary of having a cabin located so far in the front of the ship, situated right above the bow as it is. Our concern was amplified even further when we discovered we’d be sailing through ocean seas riled up by Tropical Storm Colin, which had just raged through the Gulf. Visions of thumping up and down as we crested each wave plagued our vacation dreams.

In the end, though, seas remained relatively calm and we loved having a forward facing balcony, despite windy conditions we experienced there when the ship plowed ahead at full speed. Also, our balcony door didn’t seal completely, which resulted in incessant whistling the first night of the cruise when we faced stormy conditions. But overall, it was an interesting experience and a wonderful place to view the pulling in or out of ports.

Fore-facing Balcony while docked in Miami

If there was one part of the Owner’s Suite we did not like, it was the bathroom. While it had a tub and shower, space was really limited and the sink had slow drainage throughout the cruise. Water pressure and temperature were fine and we were happy to find the toilet worked well. Then there were silly little things like the Kleenex boxes that didn’t fit in the bathroom counter dispenser designed to hold them.

Small bathroom blues

One other major drawback to the room was that it was located near the door at the end of the hall that gave access to the public balcony. During the first couple of days of windy conditions, that door would slam shut if someone let it go after exiting. It was loud, like an explosion, and literally shook the cabin. Fortunately, this only happened a couple of times and became a non-issue later in the cruise.

Coming up: Dinner at Chops and our Cabin Crawl.

Awesome review so far! Love your subtle humor. :D

Looking forward to the rest!

Loving it! Thank you! :)

Yessss...another Winks review! I heart you guys. ❤️

We are on her July 18. We got bumped April 30. This is a great review! Thank you and can't wait to see more!

We just booked Empress for August 25 -- and looking forward to reading what your experience was like.

We have cruised aplenty.....from Her Majesty (a dozen times) to Allure and going on Harmony in February. We look at this cruise as a 'visit to a day when ships were much smaller and intimate'.

I expect it will be fun...but the cruisers and the staff make the fun.

I am curious how the entertainment and activities were onboard. Carlos Torres as CD generally does a great job....we have sailed with him in the past as our CD.

Love your reviews!

Looking forward to new, exciting installments!

Oh jeez! How could you guys let me forget about muster?! It’s been saving lives since 1914! (Thanks, Titanic!)

But lately, it’s been bothering us just how flippant and carefree passengers have been about attending muster, treating it like they do the in-flight safety demonstrations on commercial aircraft; with utter disrespect. On several recent muster assemblies, Mrs. Winks and I’ve have witnessed passengers reprimanded for drinking, talking on cell-phones, Facetiming, Go-Pro-ing (Mrs. Winks has since learned her lesson) and even snoring during the mandatory drill.

It wasn’t any better for us on this Empress sailing. One group near us on the promenade deck (on Empress, you muster outside on deck under your lifeboats) burst into a rousing rendition of "Happy Birthday to You" to celebrate a family member’s special day, despite the muster captain’s desperate pleas that they silence themselves, lest the Captain hear and take disciplinary action. They, of course, burst into song again. Yikes! It’s become anarchy at these things and I’m starting to worry about our own safety just attending them!

Listen, I’m the first to admit that the muster regulations need to be updated and made more palatable to guests, especially since so many of us are repeat cruisers. But at the same time, it’s hard to stand by and watch such blatant disrespect of maritime law. (Thanks, Jim Walker, Esq!)

And so that’s why I decided to take action and produce a homegrown T-shirt to wear to our cruise's muster, in hopes it would drive home the important safety message, if only for a handful of passengers.

Showing my Muster T-Shirt to our Cabin Steward, Derron

Of course, the Muster T-shirt went over like the Costa Concordia hitting the shoreline, most people not getting the message and instead expressing deep concern that it was some sort of promotional item the ship was giving away that they’d missed out on. The muster captain gave me a smirk, uttering under his breath that he didn’t like my “twisted sense of the macabre”, so Mrs. Winks and I hung our heads and snuck back up to our cabin by way of the front secret stairwell. It’s back to the drawing board with that one.

Once back in the Josephine Suite, we popped open the bottle of champagne that our TA had sent to us and hung out on our balcony watching first as the Enchantment took off (we were actually able to Periscope this since we still had access to our cell phone provider’s data stream - I'll see if I can salvage and post here) and then as the Empress fired up and, ironically for us, backed out of its mooring.

Come sail away...

We made a late dinner reservation at Chops, for 8:45 pm, and were a little disappointed that there was no first day discount on the specialty dining surcharge. Still, at 35$, it was cheap as the price goes these days, so we accepted the maitre d’s explanation that they didn’t offer that incentive on 5-night sailings and booked it.

First though, we stopped at the Royal Theater to take in comedian Tony Daro who was uproariously funny. His observations on family life and travel were spot-on and his interaction with audience members was top notch. The show was emceed by Cruise Director Carlos Torres who did a commendable job running the activities on the ship, including a sensational White Night Party on Day 2. That said, the Royal Theater itself suffers from serious sight-line problems, everything from support columns literally blocking the view from a number of chairs to rear row seating that doesn’t let you see over the heads of the people in front of you. If you go to the Royal Theater, go early and scope out a decent seat, there aren’t that many to be had!

After the show, we headed to Chops where we were introduced to Gabriel and his team who would also end up serving us at breakfast for the entire cruise, as Chops was a breakfast option for Suite Guests.

While we found breakfasts to be great, dinner at Chops was a bit of a disappointment. My NY Strip was okay, but Mrs. Winks’ was salty and grislily and looked like it had come from the Main Dining Room! Shared sides came in what appeared to be single serving cups! Though the service was fine, the food itself was only passable. It’s not the dining experience it used to be and we’ve found this to be true on other ships, besides Empress.

Comedian in the Theater followed by dinner at Chops

Morning at Chops was a delight. Being served by the affable Gabriel and Diana. For Suite Guests and Pinnacles they provide a continental buffet available featuring fruits, meats, cereals, and yogurts. And then you can order from the grill, everything from eggs benedict to French toast. Coffee, tea, and mimosas flow freely.

On several mornings, we ran into Super Mario, Royal’s most seasoned passenger who literally lives on cruise ships for months at a time. He’s currently living in a Jr. Suite on Empress and we ran into him several other times having dinner in the Windjammer! (See him in the Snapchat video posted below; like a cheesy paparazzi, I couldn’t help capturing him on camera).

Eggs Benedict and champagne at Chops breakfast

Day 2 was a day at sea and also the day we had scheduled our Cabin Crawl via our Cruise Critic Roll Call forum. For me, once again, it was custom T-Shirt time, but this time around, it was for the purpose of letting complete strangers know who we were. So, it was on with the Cabin Crawl T-shirt.

We showed up at the Schooner Lounge at 11 am, our appointed meeting place and time, only to find Morning Trivia in full swing. Miraculously, despite the crowd, the other members of our Cabin Crawl crew found us and after a round of introductions, we were off to view our group of five cabins.

Here is where we heard of several service issues. Air conditioning near the aft of the ship was definitely challenged and one our Cabin Crawl members had yet to meet their cabin steward!

We toured an Ocean View on Deck 3, a Hump Cabin on Deck 8 which featured an extra fold down berth, another Ocean View with two fold downs over the main bed (very claustrophobic). Each cabin having a unique quirk in its layout. Next up, the crawl stopped at our Owner’s Suite where the balcony was a big hit, then it was off to the Royal Suite, where we viewed amenities like a bar, 50 inch TV screen, sectional couch seating, dining table and a separate bedroom.

It was fun meeting other passengers, peeking in on their cabin layouts and trading cruising war stories. But all in all, no one had any serious complaints and everyone seemed to be enjoying their cruise.

Our Empress Cabin Crawl

And finally, below is our Snapchat clip from Day 2. It includes footage of our Cabin Crawl, Chops Breakfast, Super Mario and a late day rain storm.

[YOUTUBE]SQ_KJ3k7cks[/YOUTUBE]

Coming up:

Main Dining Room, More Shows, Arriving in Cozumel, and visiting the Nachi Cocom beach resort. I’ll also try to grab some of Mrs. Winks’ exclusive snaps of the White Party. Stay tuned and thanks for your readership!

Great review. Looking forward to more!

Thank you for taking the time to put this together! Your review has been awesome. I hope Super Mario is on board when we get there on July 18th! :)

Awesome

Sent from my iPhone using Forums mobile app

Now I wish I had been on your cruise! Great review, can't wait to hear more! I loved all your snapchats. I was following last week and my family and I looked forward to each one!!

I loved all your snapchats. I was following last week and my family and I looked forward to each one!!

Mrs. Winks and I both fell in love with Snapchat as a social media interface and hope more cruisers use it in the future.

Periscope if very popular here. And while it actually has applications that are perfect for its use, we think Snapchat is the way to go for capturing the day to day stuff. Quick and fun.

Thanks for your feedback!

Thanks for your kind words and continued readership. I imagine it can be quite difficult keeping up with us; I fully get that just having to live it the first time! So thanks for your fortitude and perseverance in staying awake through it all. It means a lot.

And to those of you who report getting your physician’s approval to read this review while you’re giving your nervous systems a break from Ambien or Lunestra, (which is fine) just know the side effects of reading this muddled dribble hasn’t yet been researched by the AMA. So you’re on your own with any nightmares or more severe psych trauma that result. End legal disclaimer.

Okay, so last night Mrs. Winks finally relinquished hold of her cell phone (let’s be honest, I had to pry it from her steely grip after she fell asleep) and, bad news for you, I was able to successfully transfer her Snapchats off it.

With apologies for backtracking a little, here’s her take on Suite Life and our Cabin Crawl.

[YOUTUBE]97YT6z2w2ks[/YOUTUBE]

But enough about Mrs. Winks and I. Why don’t we take a much-needed break from that nonsense and just explore the ship a little bit more.

Here’s the Royal Theater, which really looks great. Too bad, as mentioned earlier, there are sight line issues from a host of different vantage points. Nonetheless, the entertainment was pretty good (except for a juggling comedian who was pretty inept).

Two notes here… for some bizarre reason, the house band plays at the side of the main stage, not on it! There’s a video Snap we’ll post in the next installment that shows this - and if you look carefully at the comedian picture we posted earlier, you can see them tucked away in the top corner.

What’s up with that? Does anyone know?

Also, two of the stage production cast members followed our cruising exploits on Snapchat! And actually sent us cute little Snap replies, one that they shot from the stage - in full costume - after the show! We really got a kick out of that, but, unfortunately, by nature of the Snapchat app, there’s no ability to save their replies, but if you’re reading this brittanypw, thanks! That was awesome!

The Royal Theater

One other peculiar venue on the Empress is the fitness center located at the upper level of the Viking Crown lounge. The workout equipment is laid out around the narrow circumference, making it the strangest gym we’ve ever seen at sea. Not to mention the number it did on my Feng Shui sensibilities.

Did anyone here exercise there? Would love to know what you thought.

One positive: since the space was serving as a fitness center, it marshaled a lion’s share of the ship’s air conditioning resources and was the one area you could actually describe as chilly. Mrs. Winks never saw anyone exercising in it, or hanging out in the Viking Crown Lounge below (though we heard it did get activity late at night). Too bad, it’s an awesome space and would have made a great Diamond of Concierge Lounge.

The Fitness Center / Viking Crown Lounge

The elevator landings on each deck level of the Centrum had wonderfully decorated lounge areas that were inviting and actually got used. One level had the library, another was a game room (which was very busy with people playing cards and board games), still another served as the ship’s Internet café. On the top level was a DJ station overlooking the entire Centrum. Really one of the most attractive and useful design features on the ship

Game Room and Internet Cafe off the Centrum landings

Similarly, there was a sitting space just off the photo gallery and near Chops and the Future Cruise desk, that was blown out with light. Once again, it was a nicely appointed area (though when we sat there, we noticed the furniture wasn’t exactly new) and on several occasions we witnessed small groups literally holding court there. It was like looking into another realm. An interesting design element that I thought really brought that area to life.

The Lighted Alcove off the Photo Gallery

The Empress has no dedicated Concierge Lounge, heck, it doesn’t even have a Diamond Lounge, though I’m sure they could use parts of Boleros or the Viking Crown to accommodate those amenities if they tried. With only six suites, the Concierge, Daniela, splits duties between listening to us bitch and moan about our trivial concerns and serving as the ship’s Loyalty Ambassador, so that the Diamond Lounges can get even more crowded! Daniela’s desk is located, out in the open, on Deck 8 in one of the Centrum lounge spaces. She was kept busy, but there’s one thing she couldn’t complain about, she has the best office view on the high seas, overlooking the water all day.

Suite Guest and Loyalty Ambassador's Desk

Coming Up: Let's get back to the chronology of events which includes theater shows, White Party and arriving in Cozumel. And keep watching the Snapchats. They’ll be glimpses of other ship amenities like the gift shops, Boleros and the Casino sprinkled throughout. More later...

Thank you for following!

 

Mrs. Winks and I both fell in love with Snapchat as a social media interface and hope more cruisers use it in the future.

 

Periscope if very popular here. And while it actually has applications that are perfect for its use, we think Snapchat is the way to go for capturing the day to day stuff. Quick and fun.

 

Thanks for your feedback!

AGREE! The Snapchats were terrific. I'm still learning how to use it, and I could never find Mrs. Winks on Snapchat. I was really excited to see the White Night party, and could never get it to show up. Thanks again for letting us join in on your cruise.

The fitness center design really is crazy. With a gym like that, I think it's better to just not have one at all.

A DL would've fit perfectly up there. On a ship this size, I'm not really sure that it's necessary to have both a CL and a DL, but I wish they would've figured something out. Maybe they could've had - dare I say it - a combined lounge for D, D+, Pinnacle, and suite guests.

Again, thanks for the review!

Great review. Great writing style. Thanks for taking us along.

Sent from my iPhone using Forums mobile app

WinksCruises -- on Embarkation Day did they have paella during lunch in the WJ?

It is a cruise tradition for us to have lunch on Embarkation Day and paella is the main course....when we sail on Empress on August 25, I hope to enjoy my paella lunch.

On Embarkation Day did they have paella during lunch in the WJ?

Yes! Pretty sure they did.

Love the review and snapchats thank you for taking the time to put it together

Strange but true, one of the things I really missed not having on the Empress of the Seas was the Bridge Cam channel playing on the closed circuit TV. I know, I know… why does a guy already blessed with a balcony view that overlooks the ship’s bow need a TV channel dedicated to displaying the exact same image? Reassurance, maybe? Mrs. Winks laughs. She knows all too well that if our stateroom television did feature a Bridge Cam channel in its line-up, I would be checking it all day and night to confirm it jived with what we were actually seeing in person!

But no, the real reason I missed having the channel was because we started this voyage headed out into the Gulf of Mexico at the same time Tropical Storm Colin was hitting Florida’s West Coast. It would have been interesting to see what plotted course variations Empress made to circumvent the storm, if any – for, as we reported earlier, aside from some rain and wind, we had a pretty smooth sailing. How was that accomplished? The closet meteorologist in me would have loved seeing that charted out and having a Bridge Channel would have been the magic key.

Oh well. Regardless of this shortcoming, as evening came on at the end of our second day, the sun began to emerge from the grey overcast that had plagued our journey since Miami and it made for a spectacular sunset. These are but two of about 100 pictures The Winks’ ended up taking that evening!

Sunset skies after Tropical Storm Colin

Once the sun dipped under the horizon, we scurried off to the theater to catch the early Bailamos show which ended up being a flashy tribute to all things dance through the ages. Mrs. Winks and I are not big production show people, but both admitted it wasn’t bad. And against clearly communicated theater policy, we both snapped a bit of the show - which I guess is how we ended up getting two of the production cast members as responsive Snapchat followers!

I also saw a cruise first, at least for me, in the theater that night. Midway through the stage show, a guy brought in a full plate food from the Windjammer, napkin, plastic glass and all – and laid it down before his lady friend who then proceeded to have dinner AT the show. Anyone else ever see this? First you get rid of formal nights, next thing you know we’ve turned the majestic music hall into a Medieval Times dinner theater!

Bailamos in the Royal Theater

Cruise Critic member Garavar has already posted many of the menus and Cruise Compasses from this sailing in his excellent review thread so this picture below is sort of redundant. Overall, we found main dining room service to be very good. While we were signed up for My Time Dining, we ended up being seated with the same serving team every night but one. Jacob and Arjay were both professional and funny.

The food, on the other hand, was pretty average. Though, interestingly enough, Mrs. Winks was probably served the best cut of meat on the ship (Chops included) when she ordered the steak tenderloin one evening. It came out thick, juicy and medium rare and far surpassed what we had at Chops or Main Dining Room! Other nights, though, the fare was not as tasty. And the selection was rather limited compared to other ship’s menus.

Main Dining Room menu

After dinner, I decided to retire a bit early, suffering from some sort of post-partum depression because all the horror stories we heard about the ship weren’t materializing for us and I had spent the last 6 sleepless and angst-ridden weeks worrying for nothing. I was so let down and disappointed. Mrs. Winks, who doesn’t let this sort of nonsense phase her, simply donned her special gear and headed up to the White Party up at the pool deck.

She reports that it was quite the shindig. Apparently, a group of people had taken line-dancing lessons specifically choreographed for the music that would be playing at the pool party, which ended up getting everyone dancing. Below is a picture she took, but be sure to check out her Snapchat at the end of this post if you want to get the full effect.

The White Party - Evening of Day 2

At the end of the evening, we found Derron, our room steward, had left us a little elephant pal. This was one of several towel creatures he would make for us over the course of the cruise. We also found that he would leave cans of soda and bottled water for us in our mini-fridge explaining they were complimentary and please enjoy. Nice touch.

And while Mrs. Winks missed a nightly chocolate candy being placed on the bed pillow (That’s a Princess thing, right?), we found the cabin service to be exceptional with Derron keeping Mrs. Winks’ cooler filled with ice every day… a herculean effort.

Mr. Elephant says "Don't Forget to Wash Your Hands!"

Mrs. Winks also took to Snapchatting over the course of this cruise. Here's her exclusive coverage of our pretty sunset and the evening's White Party.

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Coming Up Next: Cozumel, finally. And a visit to Nachi Cocom.