Giosmom

this is not an option without losing half of your money. We are on the same sailing and we look forward to sailing the Empress. I must be one of the few that isn't real worried about much of what I have read. The Empress is the smallest ship in the fleet so it is a given that the pool, the windjammer, beleros, and other places on the ship are going to be smaller then the other ships. That doesn't mean people won't or can't have an enjoyable cruise on this small ship.

The problems on the ship had nothing to do with it being a small ship. I knew when booking my 5/28/16 trip that the ship would be small and what to expect. I was actually looking toward to a small ship. The problems were no food, kitchen equipment not working, no freezers, no a/c, toilets not working, flooding, no ice cream (soft serve broken & freezer), not being able to make frozen drinks at sail away, hard to get drinks at bars, heat in casino, and many other issues.

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There wasn't a kids menu. At lunch they go serve pizza, hot dogs, hamburgers, and fries. At dinner in the dining room it was harder. The first night when I asked for chicken I was given chicken wings. After that I requested grilled chicken and fries, I was told they would try but when I went to dinner they had it for my son. I made sure to request it every night for the following night. They were very nice and always sent out fruit as an appetizer for him. They do serve steak every night so if your children eat that you can order it, I heard that they do have cheese pizza in the dining room for children as well, I just never ordered it.

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I was on the May 28th sailing with my 6 year old son and can try to answer any questions you have. What specifically do you want to know?

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I can tell you about the kids information. The kids menu is limited right now. No actual menu but even for my very picky son I have been able to get him food he will eat. I have now been able to get him grilled chicken and French fries at dinner. On the buffet they have hot dogs and hamburgers.

The kids ages 6-11 are all together in a smallish room but they seem to be having fun and they don't want to leave.

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Tonight's entrees were very good. Soup not so good. And dessert was terrible. They were out of 2 of them and substituted with creme brûlée and a yogurt with berries but they weren't very good. No ice cream on the ship, I was told by waiter that they had to throw it away because freezer wasn't working.

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Tonight's menus

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This issue is being looked into by the corporate office as we speak.

 

L Maxwell is correct, every ship, whether is has a dedicated lounge or not, is offering a nightly event for those eligible levels, i.e. Majesty with no lounge. The Majesty sets up an area in the VCL. I do not understand how the officers on this ship can arbitrarily decide to not honor one of the benefits that is part of the program.

 

Hopefully, this will be rectified for those on this cruise and before we cruise on June 11th.

 

I find it hard to believe that no D, D+ or Pinnacle members on board the ship now have not made a point of dealing with this issue.

 

It was mentioned that Suite guests ( and how many suites are on this ship, 6 maybe) have an area in Boleros set up for them.

 

L Maxwell.....you are so right about not being on one of the first to sail new, before or after drydock.

 

i am shocked to hear of the issues on this ship. If I didn't know better, I would think it is being run by all new employees - which is not true.

 

Keep the info coming.

Actually there is over 50% new employees from Pullmantur Cruise lines, including the head chef, from what I have been told by employees.

Also the galley was still not ready and they are having equipment problems, which is slowing down the food.

As I said before the staff has been very nice, and I feel very bad for them because everyone is complaining.

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This is sad about the food snafu......

 

 

 

But tell me, are the drinks (alcoholic) plentiful????

 

 

 

 

 

Or is this issue slim pickens also.

 

 

 

Hope it gets better for those sailing.

 

 

 

 

 

Good luck

Actually it has been difficult to get drinks (that I want anyway)

During sail away I asked for a piñata colada from the pool bar and was told they couldn't make it. The bar in the casino can't make a Bay breeze, sea breeze, or Malibu punch. I have just been getting rum and coke.

There isn't many people coming around for drinks. The only way I have been getting them is by going up to the bar.

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You actually had someone come to your room to fix AC? I've tried twice now. What's the secret?

Call, complain, call, complain, call, complain, repeat!!!!

It is a simple fix, it only took the man 2 minutes.

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This is the room service menu.

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I will try to remember to take a picture of the menu tomorrow night at dinner.

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And the free sandwich options weren't even available :(

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We are in Empress as well and having the same issues. We wait in line for over 30min to find no food in the containers. Main dining was also horribly slow. For children they only had pizza and wings. No hamburgers, hot dogs, or chicken tenders available. Actually no chicken tenders available at all on the ship. I asked for a piece of grilled chicken for my son and they can't do it. Room service didn't have any food available for free, only hamburgers for $5. This was at 9pm. They keep saying things weren't delivered to the ship. The staff is very nice but don't know what to do.

The ship is also very hot. The air conditioning in our room wasn't working well and after asking from 11am for someone to come fix it we finally got someone to our room at 1:30am that was after about 20 phone calls and also going to guest services.

At this time I would not recommend Empress of the seas.

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So happy to hear this. We sail on her this Saturday!!!!

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We are also booked on this sailing. I didn't want to be the first sailing but now we are. I'm hoping it goes smoothly as this is the first sailing with our 6 year old son. I looked into changing than other cruise but this one works well with the dates we have off and the others are much more expensive. I guess we will wait and see.

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We are cruising to Key West with my mother that also has a torn meniscus. We rented a electric car to drive around in. They will pick us up at the port.

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We are going on Empress on May 28th and thinking about renting an electric too. My mom has some mobility issues and we thought it would be fun to drive around and see the sights :)

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We are booked on the 5/28 sailing on Empress with our 6 year old son. I'm hoping he will enjoy the kids club, I know I did when I was young.

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