Recent photos of empress of the seas in dry dock

[Clarea]

Like the Rhapsody sailings from PC last year? :eek:....

Yes, exactly.

[John&LaLa]

Yes, exactly.

 

I had one of those as well, so I guess that makes 3 cancelled Rhapsody cruises for us.

[ARCruisinNana]

I heard that Empress is staying in Cadiz to further update the ship. They will be adding a CL, specialty restaurant and BALCONIES!

[monarch142]

I heard that Empress is staying in Cadiz to further update the ship. They will be adding a CL, specialty restaurant and BALCONIES!

 

 

To further update the ship, I'm with that but balconies? I can't see that at all, they would have done that already the ship is too far complete externally and lifeboats back on the ship too.

 

 

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[voyager70]

I'm confused, I thought she was headed for Freeport?

[coaster]

I would of been happy if she sailed back as scheduled without all those extras if it is true.

 

 

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[ARCruisinNana]

To further update the ship, I'm with that but balconies? I can't see that at all, they would have done that already the ship is too far complete externally and lifeboats back on the ship too.

 

 

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I know! Balconies seem to be quite a big project. I guess we'll know in a few weeks.

[ZoeyVictoria]

If that proves to be true, what will happen to the people who booked unobstructed OVs at the great rate that was available for the first couple of days? I have one of those for May 28. I can't see Royal giving me a balcony for five days for the $343 pp (including port fees/taxes and insurance) that we paid. And I really can't see me paying more because my room category was physically upgraded after booking.

[John&LaLa]

If that proves to be true, what will happen to the people who booked unobstructed OVs at the great rate that was available for the first couple of days? I have one of those for May 28. I can't see Royal giving me a balcony for five days for the $343 pp (including port fees/taxes and insurance) that we paid. And I really can't see me paying more because my room category was physically upgraded after booking.

 

Think of the helicopter parents with small children who don't want a balcony for safety issues. :eek:

[LMaxwell]

I heard they are adding extra ballast tanks to make the ship a semi-submersible; all lower deck OV's are getting super panoramic windows so they can get a sea view.

 

hope they bought the good caulking!

 

 

:D

[ZoeyVictoria]

I heard they are adding extra ballast tanks to make the ship a semi-submersible; all lower deck OV's are getting super panoramic windows so they can get a sea view.

 

hope they bought the good caulking!

 

 

:D

 

First smile I have had over this issue :D

 

I haven't been impacted (yet), but I am so upset over what happened to others. I am thinking ahead so I am ready if/when I, too, get hit.

[ctsharpie05]

I love the idea of balconies!

 

 

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[poncho1973]

Think of the helicopter parents with small children who don't want a balcony for safety issues. :eek:

 

I have a friend with a job matching college interns with job openings. They have had multiple helicopter mommies call. This is from an email exchange we had:

 

I don't need that hassle. Every time it happens, that application immediately goes in the shredder. If the mommy calls back, I tell them if they want an internship they need to submit an application under their own name. We only deal with applicants and the internships have 10x more applicants than openings.

 

While I feel bad for the rare kid that couldn't control their crazy parent and got missed... I have the feeling that apple probably didn't far fall from the tree.

Edited March 21, 2016 by poncho1973

[OfTheSeasCruiser]

I heard that Empress is staying in Cadiz to further update the ship. They will be adding a CL, specialty restaurant and BALCONIES!

 

I would love that. Maybe they have in their heads that Empress will be a long-term Cuba ship. I can tell you that currently the only way I'd be on Empress would be with a JS, but I don't like the added cost just to have a balcony. So it would be great to have balcony options.

 

I get that it might not be true, but I sincerely hope you are right.

[Powersboyee2]

I've seen Royal cancel cruises before.

 

 

Lol. Funny funny.

[John&LaLa]

I would love that. Maybe they have in their heads that Empress will be a long-term Cuba ship. I can tell you that currently the only way I'd be on Empress would be with a JS, but I don't like the added cost just to have a balcony. So it would be great to have balcony options.

 

I get that it might not be true, but I sincerely hope you are right.

 

Aren't many of the existing OV's bigger than the current JS cabins?

[OfTheSeasCruiser]

Aren't many of the existing OV's bigger than the current JS cabins?

 

Not sure. My point was that I don't want to pay extra for a Junior "Suite" just because it has a balcony. I'd rather just pay for a balcony cabin.

[LMaxwell]

I think people are grossly overestimating the OV cabins on this ship. Most are abput 140 square feet, give or take.

 

I also think people are grossly overestimating the scope of the drydock in terms of cabin changes. I sincerely doubt changes go beyond soft goods and replacement of excessively worn furniture.

 

 

Here is an OV Cabin

 

[Brazilian Guy]

Even though they have scaled down the revamp program on majesty, I can't see them adding voom and splash away bay just for the sake of a year. The whole point of bringing empress back also was the $400 million wrote down on pullmantur they wouldn't risk adding a third ship so soon which increasing total capacity up by a third.

I'm sure time will tell, but I think pullmantur are being a little too optimistic in 2017.

 

 

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Well, maybe, but Pullmantur once had a fleet of six ships. Of course, something went wrong on the last years, and the company was bleeding. But there's certainly potencial for a recover.

 

The big problem for Pullmantur always was the state of the economy on the countries they operated. Back in 2008, the european crisis hit hard the company, now it's the economies on Latin America that are a problem... But crisis aren't eternal, in a better scenario there's plenty of room for more capacity.

[coaster]

I think people are grossly overestimating the OV cabins on this ship. Most are abput 140 square feet, give or take.

 

I also think people are grossly overestimating the scope of the drydock in terms of cabin changes. I sincerely doubt changes go beyond soft goods and replacement of excessively worn furniture.

 

 

Here is an OV Cabin

 

 

The link shows a larger handicap cabin. The regular OV's are wide enough for 2 beds and a nightstand. No extra room to the side of the 2 beds that are put together like this video shows.

[Brazilian Guy]

The mystery with the 're-deployments' started with the transfer of Splendour to TUI for lease to Thomson. Splendour was the first RCI ship to be revitalized by Navantia at Cadiz in 2011. That move has never made complete sense to me.

 

It would seem that the upcoming moves of Rhapsody and Legend may have some relationship to all of this, along with the changes to the modifications planned for Majesty.

 

The fact that TUI has 4 new builds coming on line, allows the Mein Schiff 1, the former Celebrity Galaxy and Mein Schiff 2, the former Celebrity Mercury to currently also be scheduled for transfer to Thomson.

 

Yeah, never got that too. But actually she was sold not transferred... What means that there's no way back. It would be way more logical to sell the Empress or one of the ex-Celebrity twins of CDF, even Sovereign or Monarch... But no, they sold the Splendour... She wasn't even the older ship on Vision class!

 

One could think that her size was the matter (she is actually smaller than the Sovereign class ships), but they are taking back the Empress!

 

The only way I can see this move as logical is in a scenario in where TUI did one irrefutable offer. And go after her would make sense for Thomson since Splendour is well known in Europe...

[LMaxwell]

I think people are grossly overestimating the OV cabins on this ship. Most are abput 140 square feet, give or take.

 

I also think people are grossly overestimating the scope of the drydock in terms of cabin changes. I sincerely doubt changes go beyond soft goods and replacement of excessively worn furniture.

 

 

Here is an OV Cabin

 

 

Here is photo of standard OV cabin.

 

Edited March 21, 2016 by LMaxwell

[razzinger]

I think people are grossly overestimating the OV cabins on this ship. Most are abput 140 square feet, give or take.

 

I also think people are grossly overestimating the scope of the drydock in terms of cabin changes. I sincerely doubt changes go beyond soft goods and replacement of excessively worn furniture.

 

 

Here is an OV Cabin

 

 

Thanks for the link. Only problem with that OV is the fact that is an OV handicap cabin, larger than a standard OV.

[Brazilian Guy]

About balconies, I guess that this is where she could get it.

But, if this was really going to happen, shouldn't it be done by now? I mean, why would they suddenly cancel cruises to add balconies and not add them while she was in the drydock?

[OfTheSeasCruiser]

About balconies, I guess that this is where she could get it.

But, if this was really going to happen, shouldn't it be done by now? I mean, why would they suddenly cancel cruises to add balconies and not add them while she was in the drydock?

 

These are the areas I was thinking they could add balconies.

 

But honestly, I have no idea what actually happened that caused the delay. I think balconies should've been in the original plan anyway, but that's a different story. Maybe something non-cosmetic caused the delay, and they figured they'd add balconies since they now had the time? Seems very unlikely, but I'm just thinking out loud here.