TheTides

Just a thought, its a solid journey into Paris, you would only get a few hours in this Magnificent city.  We just got back from Paris-Northern France, and Le Havre was one of our favorite towns.  There is so much to see and enjoy in this small town, that if your time is limited, it maybe worth just spending it in the small, quaint fishing villages in the area

I agree... The Aft of the ship is prime real estate, some of the best views from the ship.  I actually was never a fan of Spice H20 zone, with a giant TV blocking my views of the sea.   An aft pool, a spa like or island themed bar/restaurant, and plush chairs sounds simple and perfect to me.  Instead they gave this space to laser tag.  I’m sure it will be fun but I can see people playing it once/twice a cruise and being done with it.  Laser tag is great, but maybe put it in an interior space, not prime sunbathing space.  I am afraid that with this addition the pools will be more of a zoo than they already are.  I am a big fan of the getaway class, but as these ships progress I maybe the odd ball out but I dont like the amusement park direction NCL is heading

NCL is great! But I have sailed both, with the Epic twice, and I would easily pick the Reflection. The ship is fantastic, probably one of the prettiest at sea in my opinion of the solstice class, food is great, more ports, more days, and southern is better than western. The only thing that I would say about the Epic would be the larger variety of activities, and better entertainment. If that stuff matters, I would choose NCL. Other than that for the ports alone I would pick Celebrity

I am assuming you are discussing the Star 9 day and the Jade 10-11 day itineraries. We had the same delima, with the the Jade being cheaper for 10 days than the Star 9. One of the big perks for us was the Star cruised out of Venice vs. “Rome”. The sail away and the port city of Venice is far superior, which leads to a great start and end of your vacation. The Star and Jade are virtually the same ship, with the subtle difference being the Jade having a 2nd pool and the Star having the large atrium. Another benefit for us, was the Star visited ports in Montenegro as well as Croatia, while the Jade did Italy/Greece. Personally, I would book the cruise off of itenerary, as you will spend the majority of your time onshore. I second the dining plan, last time we cruised NCL the main dining room food was good, but specialty dining was far superior, and since we are foodies, we find the dining package to be a great option.

Thanks! Do you know if there is a way to upgrade our dining package to more meals before we embark?

Hey!

We are looking at choosing the 3 day dining package as one of our perks. We usually do the full length dining package for our sailing, so we were wondering is there a way once we get the 3 day as a perk, to upgrade to a higher amount of evenings for a discounted price?

Thanks

That would be awesome. In looking at the photos, it looks as if le bistro, lobby, garden cafe, the new spice area and the pool have been renovated. Do you know if the staterooms have been refreshed, as well as any new restaurants? Thanks so much!

Thanks! Are they under the official NCL FB account?

Hey Guys!

We are looking at booking the NCL Star 9 night Greek cruise, and were curious about her updated drydock which took place a few weeks ago. Her reviews of the transatlantic spoke of her looking fairly outdated (definitely one of the older ships in the fleet) and was curious on NCL’s investment on her aesthetically besides carpets. Thanks!

Awesome Review! Looking forward to reading more!

Hello there,

We are looking at booking this class on the Serenade of the seas, and was wondering if anyone had experience with either of these rooms, one is forward facing, and one is on the port side of the ship. Love to see some pictures or feedback if its better to overlook the front or side of ship.

Thanks so much!

Thanks Andy. I still get a "please be patient" message each time. I guess I will just "be patient". :loudcry:

@bluebury Here you go! Thank you Rayison

Yes! Go to the normal celerbitycruises.com and select ships -> Edge. And under that link there should be an option for deck plans. let me know if that doesn't work for you and I would be happy to post the link

Ship looks very modern. And from the way the brand is going, it seems to be alright... I do have a concern though, after looking at the deck plans there are only 3 hot tubs? How in the world is that going to work on a ship larger than the S class?

Also has there been a release of the exterior of the ship. All I can seem to find are interior renderings.

So I realize the Joy will be sailing in the next few months, but in diving into NCL's website, I cannot find a single itinerary for the Joy. In fact, when searching for Asian itineraries, all that appear are the Star this march, and the Jewel next march. Is there something that I am missing here, or have they just decided to not release these itineraries to US passengers?

This has bugged me as well. On our last cruise on the Empress, honestly the food was really bad. The buffed rotated 5 or so dishes, and there were multiple nights that I would eat because I was hungry in the MDR, not because I enjoyed the meal. With that being said, the last 2 nights of the 5 night trip, they interrupted dinner from the head waiter to the bar staff to stress the importance of 5 stars. Honestly to me 5 is exceptional, and while the service was good, I wouldn't call the service exceptional on this particular cruise. I don't understand why NCL, Celebrity, Disney, and Princess can ask others to complete surveys without putting this stress on their lives depend on it. I agree they work incredibly hard in a challenging environment. Yet to stress how hard their lives are and how they need 5's turns me off from the whole dining experience.

I may be one of the odd balls here, but I would do the 6 day on the Empress. We got off the ship about a month ago, and while I wasn't totally sold on it, it was well done with no crowds, and good service. To me, a 4 day cruise is a quick trip, and a 6 day trip could be an actual vacation. If you have any questions please feel free to ask. Plus 2 extra ports is a huge bonus for you.

Celebrity has an excursion that does this that is extremely reasonable. In fact, it cost like 5 dollars more than getting a taxi to red hook and back + ferry. But if you want my opinion, I would stick to St. Thomas. We LOVE St. John, probably our favorite island in the Caribbean, yet you waste like 2.5 hours of transportation time getting there and back. Whatever you choose though, enjoy!

Uber for sure... 30 bucks you cannot beat it at all. Plus they pick you up when you want to leave, and drop you off right where you want to go. No hassle. 30 dollars well spent

I Will Work on the Photos! Please let me know if they become visible.

After lunch we headed to our room, 4102, which I thought were small, but adequate. They reminded me of pretty much the majority of Oceanview cabins I have stayed in over the years. Would I squeeze 4 in a room, no chance. But 2 was adequate. The beds were fairly hard, but if that bothered you, they were happy to bring you an egg crate. Our room steward, Frank did a tremendous job. He would come running down the hallway to open our door and always greeted us with a smile.

We decided to relax by the pool and wait for sail away and the muster drill. We may have been 2 of 10 people by the pool. We proceeded to order our drinks from a waitress named Beverley! If anyone has the pleasure of sailing the Empress, look for Beverly. She is fantastic and takes great care of you. We ordered our Coronas and sat there enjoying the sun and the uncrowded pool deck until the muster drill took place. The muster drill was the first drill I have had in probably 8 cruises that we actually went to our designated life boat location. I honestly preferred this method, as I feel if our ship is going down, I want to know exactly where I am going. The muster drill took all of 15 minutes, and It was back up to the pool deck to let the party begin!

The show that evening was a Cuban dance show, which was good. Would I see it again, probably not. But if it was my first time on this ship i would attend for sure. You can tell RCCL is marketing this ship to Cuban itineraries, as they have designed spaces, drinks, and shows off the country. From there, we headed off to dinner. I must say tonight, the Italian night, was easily the worst meal I had the entire cruise. Thankfully the meals got better throughout the trip! If I could recommend anything to anyone, take the discount and dine at Chops the first night. The Italian menu lacked inspiration and the dish’s tastes reflected that. Yet food is subjective, so some may really enjoy the Italian night. I was just less than impressed.

Thankfully, that evening entertainment made up for the meal, as we had the pleasure of being entertained by the piano man in the Schooners Lounge. He will take virtually any request, and his renditions of all songs are great. We ended up here pretty much every evening to wind down before bed with a few drinks. Next… Key West

We were on this cruise as well, so I am interested to see your review. :)

 

I may do a short summary review in a couple days.

Look forward to it!

Getting There:

So since I am still in Graduate School, I had no other choice but to leave the morning of. Would I recommend? Honestly it wasn’t bad but I still would try to fly in a day or two before, like we usually do. I left Atlanta at 7:00 am and Arrived in Miami at 8:45. I booked the 7 am flight just incase that flight was canceled, I would have a fallback plan. So after picking up my friend from the MIA Marriott Airport (which was nice) we headed to port, and arrived around 10.

The Oasis in Ft. Lauderdale

The first thing you will notice when you are driving over the Dodge Island causeway is how SMALL the Empress looks compared to all the other ships. It is important to go into this trip with expectations of it being a unique experience to itself, without all the bells and whistles. I think this point has been brought up a few times, but I just wanted to reiterate it for future cruisers.

With the Empress being smaller, we checked in to 0 security lines, and i believe waited for 15 minutes before we were ushered onto the ship at 10:30. Not bad right? I really enjoyed the entry on this ship, as you walk right into the Centrum, instead of the promenade or the casino which to me, ads a nice “your on vacation touch”. Now if they only served Champagne like Celebrity….

Since the rooms would not be ready until 1, and the buffet was not available until 11:30, we decided to do a walking tour of the ship. You can definitely tell where they have enhanced different places on the ship. From my perspective, the ship for the most part did not look her age. Boleros, the Cuban lounge was a beautiful space. The pool deck looked nice enough, and the carpeting and chairs all looked new. From a looks perspective I was impressed.

We headed to the Buffet, and this is where my main complaint on this trip lies. I know food is subjective, and I have cruised a variety of lines so I have some sense of what food should be like on the ship. The buffet to me was lacking. I mean it was essentially a salad bar, with a hot section of 2 starches, 4 meats, and some really ehh looking desserts. And to my chagrin,the options really didn’t change all too often. Yet, with that being said there was hardly a line in the buffet, and always a seat to be had in the buffet. Also the waiters brought you drinks, which was a touch I appreciated.

Hello there! This cruise we decided to self-title it The Empress of the Seas A.M. (After Mathew), 5 night western Caribbean visiting Key West and Cozumel! If you have any questions as the review progresses, please ask! Enjoy

Background:

Why the Empress of the Seas: I would say there are multiple reasons we chose this ship, the one I believe attracts everyone is PRICE.. I mean come on we're paying like 50 bucks a day for an ocean view, why would you not go? This being my eleventh cruise, I also really wanted to try Royal, as well as try a smaller ship. My smallest ship before this was probably the Celebrity Century, which is double the size of the Empress, so it will be a completely unique experience. To me, the Empress has attracted me since royal announced they were re-branding it, and have followed its progress ever since. To me, the Empress is a ship in the 21st century that represents the golden age of classic cruising. After trying the big ships, I was excited to compare those experiences with a newer, smaller vessel.

Like i said earlier, this was my 11th cruise, the rest coming from the likes of Disney, Celebrity, Norwegian, and Princess

So without further ado, lets get started.

Radiance?

We are headed out on the Empress in a week. If there is anyone who has any questions of the ship, cruise compass, etc. Let us know! We would be happy to help