Live from 3rd Sailing of Empress of Seas (June 6 - June 11, 2016)

[Garavar]

How soon do you need to book, I would say with no specific claim to expertise, keep watching reviews for in the coming months, Once the intended CD takes over it might pick up Elvis, while being a first time CD, seems like he could be a good one.

 

The current CD, Carlos, is actually quite good. He is very funny. We went to comedy show first night and our friends thought he was the comedian.

 

What's happening to Carlos?

[Garavar]

Update

 

- Flooding on Deck 9. Photos will be posted when I get back. Grunt of flood located infront of Cabin 9122

[pstone1]

The current CD, Carlos, is actually quite good. He is very funny. We went to comedy show first night and our friends thought he was the comedian.

 

What's happening to Carlos?

 

I agree! We weren't familiar with Carlos but thought he did a fine job. Better than many we've seen over the years.

[Big_G]

I've never said this about any ship but they should just park this rust bucket and cancel any further cruises. Aren't they only booking into July? Take the hit and fix the ship.

[Paulette3028]

The night life is terrible we went to Viking Crown lounge on June 7 from 10 pm to 2 am with our friends to celebrate my lady's birthday and we were the only ones in there pretty much. The dance floor was empty and there were 2 guys sitting drinking daquiris down from us, a couple on the other side of room and 5-6 people at bar. That's it.

 

How soon do you need to book, I would say with no specific claim to expertise, keep watching reviews for in the coming months, Once the intended CD takes over it might pick up Elvis, while being a first time CD, seems like he could be a good one.

 

The current CD, Carlos, is actually quite good. He is very funny. We went to comedy show first night and our friends thought he was the comedian.

 

What's happening to Carlos?

I agree! We weren't familiar with Carlos but thought he did a fine job. Better than many we've seen over the years.

 

Carlos Torres is a very very good CD. He has been on Her Majesty as CD and on what too many people would call a 'party ship' for years, even though plenty of families sail on her as well. On every sailing we have been on with him, he has packed the Cruise Compass with plenty of nighttime buzz to keep all entertained. So for me, I have to wonder, about what Garavan has posted that less than 6 people in the Viking Lounge between 10pm and 2am, is a very accurate description of what was going on in OTHER places on the ship. I know that Carlos plans activities lots of things to be happening around the ship.

 

Elvis was a terrific Activity Manager and when he joins Empress will bring his own energetic style to Empress.....but some of what I am reading about the 'night life' on the ship, may have nothing to do with who the CD is (because Carlos is great), but more with who the cruisers are and what they want to participate in.

[Garavar]

Carlos Torres is a very very good CD. He has been on Her Majesty as CD and on what too many people would call a 'party ship' for years, even though plenty of families sail on her as well. On every sailing we have been on with him, he has packed the Cruise Compass with plenty of nighttime buzz to keep all entertained. So for me, I have to wonder, about what Garavan has posted that less than 6 people in the Viking Lounge between 10pm and 2am, is a very accurate description of what was going on in OTHER places on the ship. I know that Carlos plans activities lots of things to be happening around the ship.

 

Elvis was a terrific Activity Manager and when he joins Empress will bring his own energetic style to Empress.....but some of what I am reading about the 'night life' on the ship, may have nothing to do with who the CD is (because Carlos is great), but more with who the cruisers are and what they want to participate in.

 

There was a white party under the stars at 10 pm or 10:30 but when it ended he invited people to VCL and no one went. The white party had a decent turn out but not huge.

 

Update:

 

- They put a huge cake on pool deck in shape of empress of seas for pool party, first time I've seen a giant ship cake.

 

- Room service has about 4 things on the menu, I will post photo when I get back.

[BusyBlond]

Thanks for the update we are on the next sailing on Saturday hope you continue with some good news reports

 

I'm also on the next sailing. Hope things continue to improve. I'm determined to have a good time regardless.

[stormynow]

Would anyone please take my place on the 6/11 cruise. Perhaps Paulette will.

[ZoeyVictoria]

It might be a good idea to take all of the final statements for your party to Guest Services very early tomorrow morning and verify that none of you are on "the list". After waiting in line to debark for an hour, my SO was sent to the end of the very long line at GS instead of walking off the ship because his name appeared on a 3-4 page list of problem accounts. There was an "accounting error" that was fixed by adding his charges to my credit card, without my knowledge or consent. We can straighten out the money between us, but the time and aggravation was the final straw.

[2Shoes2Go]

Unless it gets much better, very fast. Booked on a whim.:(

[Paulette3028]

There was a white party under the stars at 10 pm or 10:30 but when it ended he invited people to VCL and no one went. The white party had a decent turn out but not huge.

 

Update:

 

- They put a huge cake on pool deck in shape of empress of seas for pool party, first time I've seen a giant ship cake.

 

- Room service has about 4 things on the menu, I will post photo when I get back.

 

Late evening party whether White Party or 70's Party usually start around 10pm. Sometimes in the Centrum or on the Pool Deck, and then moves to a bar (Viking Crown lounge a possibility). But if the cruisers don't want to come along, it isn't as if the CD can do much about it.

 

We have been on sailings when the partying is just ramping up after the White Party or 70's Party......and on others it barely makes it past midnight.....it does depend on the cruisers onboard.

[Garavar]

Update:

 

- Final Night They Offered Free Wine at Dinner

 

My lady won the "Wipe Out Raffle" but she was at dinner with her friends for her bday. I was in casino and tried to claim it for her since I booked the cruise and its my credit card linked to account.

 

They told me no, that she had to be there. Oh well final nail in Empress' coffin

[Garavar]

Update:

 

- We bought relatively expensive bottle of tequilla from Cozumel and we never got it back. Went to customer service, they couldnt find it. They gave me OBC credit for value of Tequila, good customer service.

[edk136]

I was on this cruise, so I'll add my opinions:

 

- We had an aft Jr suite. It was small but we knew that prior to the cruise. The bathroom was the same size as another other stateroom.

 

- No refrigerator (chill box) was a bummer, so we had to drink room temperature water.

 

- We drink a lot of water during the day but once we drank our two expensive bottles of water that was initially in our stateroom and then the two additional bottles of water we receive as Diamond members, the waters were never replaced. In fact, on the evening of the last night, I finally saw an employee stopping at every room checking on how many bottles of water each room had.

 

- At some point prior to our cruise, they replaced the window in the balcony. There was writing in 'grease pencil' instructing where the window was to be installed but after installing the window, they never removed the writing. Shoddy work I believe.

 

- During the cruise, they replaced a balcony window on a room that was diagonally above us. While replacing the window, the lower metal/rust retaining piece fell down onto the balcony below. Lucky, no one was out on the balcony at the time or someone could have been seriously injured. I guess at some point while replacing the window, the old window broke as we found pieces of broken glass all over our balcony.

 

- People still had flooded rooms. We met a couple who had a Jr suite on deck 9. On the second to the last night of the cruise, their room flooded and they had to switch rooms at 4:30 AM.

 

- Casino was hot but has previously stated, they had those portable fans. I call them fans because all they did was move around the warm air.

 

- Wait staff / bar tenders were limited but they did the best they could do under the circumstances. We didn't have any problems getting a drink but a lot of times, we just parked ourselves at the Schooner Bar.

 

- The Viking Crown lounge was busy every night, except for, the night of the pool side 'white party'.

 

- I cannot understand why the Viking Crown Lounge refuses to have the same alcohol choices as the other bars. I asked for a Fireball and Diet Coke on the first 3 nights and was told they did not have Fireball in the lounge but I was able to get it at every other bar. How hard is it to bring a bottle of Fireball to the lounge. On the 3rd night, a bar tender stated he would go to the casino to get my drink. I told him to forget, he shouldn't have to do that.

 

- For how old the ship is, the shop is in good shape but I feel the hull is held together by paint, which covered a lot of age.

 

- The layout of the ship was ok, it was small so it was very easy to get anywhere fast. There is some odd sitting areas, like on Deck 5, next to the photo gallery/casino.

 

- Windjammer was fine, easy to get food even though it was tight to walk around. Never had a problem getting a seat. Ice machine and ice cream machines were working.

 

- The gym is a joke and obviously an afterthought. I realize a lot of people will not be working out on this ship as this will become a party ship to Cuba but having the gym being open on the second story of the Viking Crown Lounge is weird. They should have made this area the Diamond Lounge and do away with the gym as you can obviously tell this area was a lounge at one time.

 

- Dining room: I had sent two emails to RCL dining requesting a table for 4. I never received a response but with being a diamond member, we usually did not have a problem having our request filled. Welp, we were seated at a table for 6 in a corner of the dining room, right next to where the waiters bring the food in/out. Nothing like being crunched into the corner of the room where either I could sit and look at a wall that was directly in front of me or wedge myself between the wall and table. We went to the dining room the first two nights and then the Windjammer the rest of the week.

 

- We didn't have any problems find a lounge chair on the pool deck and we didn't go out until 11:30 AM.

 

- The shows were good, Jesse Hamilton was awesome plus he so personable. I liked the seating arrangement in the theater, it was like the Viking Crown Lounge where each group of seats had their own table.

 

- Another thing that bothered me, which is a personal choice that I like, there is not a television channel that shows the ships positioning, etc. There is a not a channel that replays the events that occurred throughout the cruise.

 

- There is not a house band on the ship, which we like to go watch the band at night. I felt bad for the Schooner Bar pianist as on any night, there may have been 10, maybe 15 at the most, people in the Schooner Bar. Basically the Schooner Bar is positioned as a place someone could stop and get a drink as people passed through from the theater to the casino/dining room.

 

- My room stewardess did an awesome job up until the last night when she did not turn down our bed. Our son had the same stewardess in a separate interior room and she did not turn down his bed either. Wasn't a big deal, just strange.

 

- You can feel the employees were stressed and it was discussed the fact they were not ready to sail this ship.

 

I'm sure there is more but I typed long enough. If you have questions, I'll try to answer them.

 

Eric

[Citymom92]

Thanks Eric for sharing your thoughts. Interesting that they can't seem to get that A/C working in the casino. Another passenger said that Boleros was hot as well. It seems like keeping customers cool in the casino so they keep spending money would be a high priority for RC, but doesn't sound like it. Were there other lounges that are still without working A/C?

 

I'm sorry there's not a little house band either.

 

On such a small ship, it sure doesn't seem like there is any problems with crowding. Where are the people going at night? Winkscruises posted snapchats live almost every night last week, and the lounges looked to only have 10-15 people in them at most.

 

I'd rather see fewer people than be jammed in a club with all 1800, but did you get a sense that people were enjoying other spots? The pool deck maybe? I thought I saw that the pool was supposed to have a "Plunge" party every night, but not sure if that's happening.

 

Do you have any menus you can share? I'm really interested to see what they look like and whether you found most items available. But mostly, I'm just glad that the issues seem to be getting fixed one by one.

 

Sorry for all the questions. We sail the Empress July 18th, its our first cruise ever, so we would love to know what to expect. Thanks!

[edk136]

- The Viking Crown Lounge was crowded every night except for the 'white party' but the crowd did not get there until late. I'm guessing the party really didn't start until 11:30 PM or little later and there were nights we were there until 2:30 am. The lounge is kinda spread out so depending on how the pic was taken, it could look like it was empty.

 

- We went to Boleros for the tier event and 'win in a minute' event (which was not very good, btw) and it didn't seem too hot in there.

 

- The only place that I noticed the lack of air conditioning was in the casino.

 

- I didn't take any pics of the menu. The dessert menu was definitely lacking but other than that, we didn't notice many changes but then again, I usually have an idea what I'm going to order each day prior to going on the cruise, lol.

 

- The ship did not seem to be crowded. The Schooner Bar would occasionally have lines of people trying to get drinks and sometimes there would be lines at the Windjammer but again, it wasn't too bad.

 

- I really do not know where everyone went at night. The casino was never busy, we didn't go to Boleros and the Schooner Bar was not busy. I guess people either went to bed or they were at the Viking Crown Lounge.

[Citymom92]

- The Viking Crown Lounge was crowded every night except for the 'white party' but the crowd did not get there until late. I'm guessing the party really didn't start until 11:30 PM or little later and there were nights we were there until 2:30 am. The lounge is kinda spread out so depending on how the pic was taken, it could look like it was empty.

 

- We went to Boleros for the tier event and 'win in a minute' event (which was not very good, btw) and it didn't seem too hot in there.

 

- The only place that I noticed the lack of air conditioning was in the casino.

 

- I didn't take any pics of the menu. The dessert menu was definitely lacking but other than that, we didn't notice many changes but then again, I usually have an idea what I'm going to order each day prior to going on the cruise, lol.

 

- The ship did not seem to be crowded. The Schooner Bar would occasionally have lines of people trying to get drinks and sometimes there would be lines at the Windjammer but again, it wasn't too bad.

 

- I really do not know where everyone went at night. The casino was never busy, we didn't go to Boleros and the Schooner Bar was not busy. I guess people either went to bed or they were at the Viking Crown Lounge.

 

Thank you so much! I can't tell you how much this direct report is appreciated.

[edk136]

I will say going into this cruise, I did not have high expectations (with this being an old, small ship and only being it's third cruise) but even with the issues we experienced, I did not put a damper on the cruise and it was actually, shall I say "fun" being on th small ship. I have experienced all different sizes of ships (except for the Quantum Class), with the Freedom Class being my favorite and this ship was kind of "fun" for being different and having that 'old school' feel.

 

Let me know if I can answer anything else, I'll check back every now and then.

 

Eric

[JamesEM]

Following along, looking forward to your photos.

[Thetrail]

Update:

 

- Final Night They Offered Free Wine at Dinner

 

My lady won the "Wipe Out Raffle" but she was at dinner with her friends for her bday. I was in casino and tried to claim it for her since I booked the cruise and its my credit card linked to account.

 

They told me no, that she had to be there. Oh well final nail in Empress' coffin

That is the same for all RCL ships, you have to be PRESENT for the wipeout raffle, sorry....K.O.:(

[Had2cruz]

I will say going into this cruise, I did not have high expectations (with this being an old, small ship and only being it's third cruise) but even with the issues we experienced, I did not put a damper on the cruise and it was actually, shall I say "fun" being on th small ship. I have experienced all different sizes of ships (except for the Quantum Class), with the Freedom Class being my favorite and this ship was kind of "fun" for being different and having that 'old school' feel.

 

Let me know if I can answer anything else, I'll check back every now and then.

 

Eric

 

Your review is giving me hope for our cruise in a few weeks! I'm going to adopt your thought of "it being fun on a smaller ship"! Thanks!

[Mrs. Winks]

Would anyone please take my place on the 6/11 cruise. Perhaps Paulette will.

 

I would have gladly taken your place. My DH and I were on the June 6th sailing and had a wonderful time. We were sorry we didn't book a back to back. There were some lingering issues but it was clear that the crew was eager and committed to fixing them. We did not experience any issues getting drinks at the bar. Service was great! My advice is to expect the worst and enjoy what comes. I think you will be surprised in a good way! :)

[Paulette3028]

I would have gladly taken your place. My DH and I were on the June 6th sailing and had a wonderful time. We were sorry we didn't book a back to back. There were some lingering issues but it was clear that the crew was eager and committed to fixing them. We did not experience any issues getting drinks at the bar. Service was great! My advice is to expect the worst and enjoy what comes. I think you will be surprised in a good way! :)

 

Nice to hear.

[Merion_Mom]

Update:

 

- We bought relatively expensive bottle of tequilla from Cozumel and we never got it back. Went to customer service, they couldnt find it. They gave me OBC credit for value of Tequila, good customer service.

 

Here is my usual advice, too late for you, apparently you missed it when I have posted it.

 

If they take a bottle from you and promise to return it, whip out your phone and TAKE A PICTURE OF THE BOTTLE.

 

:)

[Garavar]

Here is my usual advice, too late for you, apparently you missed it when I have posted it.

 

If they take a bottle from you and promise to return it, whip out your phone and TAKE A PICTURE OF THE BOTTLE.

 

:)

 

I have a picture of bottle and paper receipt. What else will that accomplish?