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RCL Empress Feb 2019 cruises cancelled

cpayne

By cpayne,
in Royal Caribbean International

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Corby114

Corby114

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It’s extremely rare for a scheduled drydock to be extended unless there’s a major issue found during construction that must be repaired for the safety of all passengers and crew on that ship. I recently sailed on the Independence Of The Seas from Southampton on a fourteen day Canary Islands Cruise in June 2018. At the conclusion of its season sailing from Port Everglades the ship headed to Freeport, Bahamas for its scheduled forty plus days major drydock. Rooms were added on various decks and the large photo gallery was replaced by a beautiful Playmakers Sports Bar. The ship sailed on a non revenue Transatlantic sailing that was scheduled to complete all drydock work. The ship now is in outstanding shape and returns to Port Everglades in November 2018 for its winter season.

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Saab4444

Saab4444

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It’s extremely rare for a scheduled drydock to be extended unless there’s a major issue found during construction that must be repaired for the safety of all passengers and crew on that ship. I recently sailed on the Independence Of The Seas from Southampton on a fourteen day Canary Islands Cruise in June 2018. At the conclusion of its season sailing from Port Everglades the ship headed to Freeport, Bahamas for its scheduled forty plus days major drydock. Rooms were added on various decks and the large photo gallery was replaced by a beautiful Playmakers Sports Bar. The ship sailed on a non revenue Transatlantic sailing that was scheduled to complete all drydock work. The ship now is in outstanding shape and returns to Port Everglades in November 2018 for its winter season.

 

 

 

That does not make sense. They do not extend a dry dock for February in August because of construction and safety issues. They just decided to change more things on Empress, whatever this is we will learn later. Maybee they found space for ugly water slides or the yellow ball...

 

Regarding Indy they also added about 100 beautiful cabins to bring about 200 more beautiful people on the ship. The standard cabins have not been touched at all for updates so for me her outstanding shape is only one side of the story. Same applies for Mariner and Adventure „upgrades“.

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FLACRUISER99

FLACRUISER99

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I was lucky enough to sail to Cuba on the first ship from the US to Cuba on Fathom Cruise Lines’ Adonia last year. Ship was close to half the size of Empress. 400 passengers on a ship that could hold 700. I was extremely happy!

 

Now you have Norweigian Sky and Sun sailing now or very soon to Cuba. Also, Carnival’s Triumph, Sensation, Paradise and Sunshine which are all larger than Empress. Smaller ships such as Empress are no longer necessary for sailings to Cuba.

Do they also sail to Cuban ports other than Havana? Can Vision class sail into the other Cuban Ports?l

 

 

 

Sent from my ONEPLUS A6003 using Forums mobile app

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Jimbo

Jimbo

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Empress is my favorite RCI ship.

 

Sent from my ONEPLUS A6003 using Forums mobile app

 

Wow, you have to be one of the only persons whoever said this was their favorite ship...............We sailed her once, but never again. If we did I wouldn't have a place at home to live I would be sleeping out in the driveway or doghouse...and we don't even have a dog.

 

 

Jimbo:)

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Cruiser24

Cruiser24

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All sailings between 6/6/19 and 9/26/19 seem sold out - not sure what's going on.

 

We received the following yesterday. Maybe all cruises in that time period have been cancelled.

Dear Guest,

We are reaching out to let you know that, regrettably, we have to cancel your
Empress of the Seas
September 7, 2019 cruise. This is due to the
Empress of Seas
’ itineraries changing to more immersive 6 & 8 night sailings, including additional ports. We know this news may be disappointing and we apologize, but we have some robust vacation options to offer that we hope you will take advantage of.

 

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molly361

molly361

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We received the following yesterday. Maybe all cruises in that time period have been cancelled.

Dear Guest,

We are reaching out to let you know that, regrettably, we have to cancel your
Empress of the Seas
September 7, 2019 cruise. This is due to the
Empress of Seas
’ itineraries changing to more immersive 6 & 8 night sailings, including additional ports. We know this news may be disappointing and we apologize, but we have some robust vacation options to offer that we hope you will take advantage of.

 

Did they offer any alternative cruises and/or compensation for the cancellation

 

Sent from my BG2-W09 using Forums mobile app

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FLACRUISER99

FLACRUISER99

Posted
Posted
Wow, you have to be one of the only persons whoever said this was their favorite ship...............We sailed her once, but never again. If we did I wouldn't have a place at home to live I would be sleeping out in the driveway or doghouse...and we don't even have a dog.

 

 

Jimbo:)

I can't be the only one. No she is not a floating amusement park but she is in wonderful condition for her age and her crew is great.
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Cruiser24

Cruiser24

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Did they offer any alternative cruises and/or compensation for the cancellation

 

Sent from my BG2-W09 using Forums mobile app

They offered these options: rebook on certain Majesty 5 night Cuba itineraries with additional OBC, rebook on certain 6 night Empress itineraries (ours was 5 nights) with additional OBC, rebook on any other RCL sailing with additional OBC or cancel and they will refund your original deposit.

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ChinaShrek

ChinaShrek

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They offered these options: rebook on certain Majesty 5 night Cuba itineraries with additional OBC, rebook on certain 6 night Empress itineraries (ours was 5 nights) with additional OBC, rebook on any other RCL sailing with additional OBC or cancel and they will refund your original deposit.

 

I was given the option of three different Majesty cruises or a refund of my deposit. I was not offered any OBC if I simply made a new booking. Perhaps, it was because I was booked as a solo? :(

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marasmoney

marasmoney

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I hope they are not adding any more rooms. If they are, they will have to liberally coat passengers in oil and have them sleep head to toe and in layers.

 

For those of you not familiar with the ship, it was once nicknamed the Royal Caribbean "Yacht." It was a lovely jewel of the ship that featured an atrium (Centrum). From the Centrum it was opened up through the middle of the ship with a glass sky light on the pool deck.

 

Open lounges lined this area on both sides of the ship with large windows giving a view of the ocean. The lounges were a lovely area to sit on each passenger cabin deck.

 

There were separate areas for the library, card (game) room, and other facilities.

 

When we cruised on her (off season), there was usually around a thousand passengers on the cruise. Total passenger capacity was not much larger.

 

In the mid aughts, Royal Caribbean started to "improve" the ship. More cabins were added (good bye open deck space at the aft of each passenger deck to sit and stare at the wake) and speciality restaurants added (good bye library, game room and the lovely lounge areas around the open Centrum ). Keep in mind that while the passenger load increased, the open public area space decreased. There was no way to expand the Windjammer, the main dining room, the theater, and the deck space around the single pool on board. The Centrum lounge area on each passenger decked now became the library, game room, computer center. etc.

 

After the ship was transferred to Pullmantur, more cabins were added. I see now that the passenger capacity is 2020 on a ship that was originally designed to hold around 1200 passengers.

 

One can only hope that the extensive dry dock will remove cabins and restore public space.

 

I was on Empress twice in 2017, didn't notice any additional rooms off the back. My wife and I stared at the wake all the time on deck 6 and relaxed a lot on the back right behind Club Boleros. Unless you are talking about some of the upper decks. The only specialty restaurant they added was Chops which was midship. I haven't been on Empress before they moved the library but they were definitely in the Centrum area. Max capacity is 1840 passengers that is if you filled every room up with every guest which never happens. Both cruises I have been on there couldn't have been much more than 1000 passengers onboard. I love this ship and it still never to this day feels crowded.

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FLACRUISER99

FLACRUISER99

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I was on Empress twice in 2017, didn't notice any additional rooms off the back. My wife and I stared at the wake all the time on deck 6 and relaxed a lot on the back right behind Club Boleros. Unless you are talking about some of the upper decks. The only specialty restaurant they added was Chops which was midship. I haven't been on Empress before they moved the library but they were definitely in the Centrum area. Max capacity is 1840 passengers that is if you filled every room up with every guest which never happens. Both cruises I have been on there couldn't have been much more than 1000 passengers onboard. I love this ship and it still never to this day feels crowded.
Great now there are two of us.:D
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