shoafmom

Great info! Do you remember how much the taxi ride was and the price of entrance to the fort?

We were on the May 28th sailing. There was no kids menu and when we asked if there was anything else my daughter could order the waiter just looked confused. A few nights into it, the waiter said they could do cheese pizza. It was much later than the other food and was terrible. Just cheese melted on bread.

Bring games for your kids! There are a few hours a day (from 12:00 to 2:00) where the only thing available is the pool and the one shuffle board court. Both are completely overcrowded and they use that time to do competitions or demonstrations in the pool so you really can't use it.

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Good to know- thanks for the help!

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My DH and I have done most of our cruising on RCI. One of the things we love the most is being seated with strangers and getting to know them over the course of the cruise. We have made some wonderful memories and great friends this way.

We have done one previous NCL cruise but we came with friends so we ate with them every night. Our next cruise is a 2 week Panama Canal in December.

With freestyle can we request to be seated with others? It seems like a great idea because if we all hit it off we can eat together again, but if not there is no requirement to see them again. Info please [emoji1]

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We knew going into this that it was a small ship with no frills, but we did expect the things they had listed. The crew didn't even know there was no pingpong as it was listed as competition for the day.

It might have just been a perfect storm as far as the kids were concerned. They were really excited about what WAS advertised as being on the ship only to find out it wasn't working or didn't make the cut after they had advertised it being on.

This seemed to be the issue with a lot of things. Several things were listed as being available but at some point they realized the ship just did not have the room so it was cut. Many of the crew members weren't yet aware of the changes and we were sent to several different areas only to at last find out about the change.

We finally had to change our expectations and choose to laugh at the whole experience.

We weren't frustrated by a naive wish it would be like the bigger ships. We were frustrated by not seeing what RCI had listed on their website as being on the ship. You all have a lot better info than their website. Consider me schooled.

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My fault, someone told us they were. Funny what you believe when you're on board & can't google what someone says to see if it's true. What ships have been stretched?

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Ok, the phone thing is not working for me today. We've been on Majesty and Sovereign and thought it would be similar but we had forgotten that both of those had been stretched. It doesn't sound like much of a difference but it really is!!

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Very true, there are a lot of other ships that I knew would be SO much better, this just happen to work best for dates. We've been on Majesty and Sovereign

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I meant "wading" area, not waiting.

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There is one pool that has a max capacity of 20 people. A couple of hot tubs & one very small wading pool all in the center of the very small top deck. It can be seen from anywhere you sit if you can see over the 500 plus people trying to fit in the cramped space. There are no sprayers, slides or anything other than a couple of objects (not sure what they are) that are in the 8 foot by 12 foot waiting area. It's really non-existent.

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Sorry for the appearance of text. We're just off the ship & trying to type on my phone (which looks fine).

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There is one pool with a maximum capacity of 20 people & one splash pool for kids that is about 8 feet by 12 feet. Since the other pool is so small as well adults like to sit in the splash pool to cool off.

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We just got off of Empress this morning & by the first full day of cruising we knew we would never book on Empress again. The abundance of issues break down into two categories: 1- issues from being a first sailing that will probably be resolved within the next couple of cruises and wouldn't have stopped us from future cruises on this ship. Some of the issues included; broken air conditioning that wasn't fixed in our cabin for the first 3 days, our only electrical outlet & TV that were out for over 24 hours no matter how many times we called guest services & our room steward, the sound on the poolside movie screen that never worked, the cruise compass that listed things like a Ping pong tournament that never happened since there are NO ping pong tables on the ship, constantly broken toilets, running out of food in the windjammer, no ice cream on the ship for 3 days because their ice cream maker for the dining room & the poolside one were both broken, the 2 hour wait in line to get off the ship, & probably several other issues that I can't remember. Yes, these issues were completely frustrating but if some compensation would have been offered we would be willing to overlook this less than stellar experience. We have sailed a lot with Royal & really enjoyed the experience overall. We have also sailed with other cruise lines & have noticed that Royal is really starting to slip in the last 10 years. We have always suggested Royal to people but that is about to change. My husband is ready to chuck Royal completely if nothing is done. We have been really happy with other cruise lines so why put up with this?

The second category of problems with Empress cannot be fixed- she is simply too small to have the facilities to support the number of passengers on board. We brought our kids on a cruise with us for the first time ever & after this experience they prefer our family vacations to be something else. The only pool on the ship has a maximum capacity of 20 people & is packed with over 40 people at all times. If you're an active family & don't want to just lay in a chair all day there is really nothing else to do! The rock climbing wall is packed because it's the other thing offered, but only at select times. The ship is too small for ping pong tables, the only shuffle board court was covered with some huge boxes till day 4 & even after that, there is only one of them. The Adventure ocean consists on two rooms; the room for 3-5 year olds is 8 by 15 & cannot handle kids any younger & the larger room for all other ages was 10 by 20 & the kids are confined to this room the entire time they are there. From 12:00-2:00 & 5:00-7:00 it closes & so does the rock wall so the kids have the option to swim in the pool if they can get in to it or watch the silent movie on deck, which by the way, was the most interesting thing for them to do. We ended up playing a lot of board games that we brought. My kids are too young for trivia, napkin folding or dance classes & they were the only other things offered. There was a scuba diving instruction class & a belly flop contest that took over the pool during part of those two hours when everything else was closed as well (great timing RCI). The work out facility is crammed into the little loft that is open to the Viking Lounge & the Viking is the best path to get to the rock wall so it really wound up being a hallway for both. Since the ship is too small for multiple offerings for entertainment, if you don't care for Broadway type productions (which we don't) then you are out of luck for evening entertainment.

Over all the ship is just too small to support the number of people on board. It would be bearable if there were no days at sea but as it is it's terrible, especially with kids.

The staff are top notch as usual & were trying their best to make it enjoyable. They are trying to make lemonade out of, well, I'm not sure... The Adventure Ocean staff were doing a fabulous job of trying to entertain all the kids in that tiny little room (that might have exceeded capacity). The maintenance crew was doing their best to get through the HUGE to-do lists that they were all carrying around. The Guest Services people were inundated with duly upset people who seemed willing to "shoot the messenger". Those poor GS workers looked like deer in the headlights the whole time. They were doing their best to try & figure out what to tell people since they didn't know much about the way the ship worked either.

Our only worker complaint came the first day at sea. Our party of 8 decided to go to the main dining room for brunch. Other than being too hot in the room it stared off well. We got our drinks, we were offered rolls & they took our order- that was the end of the good times. Both our waiter & assistant waiter for our section were gone for the next 45 minutes. After the first 20 minutes or so of no refills on coffee or water people from other tables in our section got up & stared serving the drinks & rolls that were left in our section. It was funny at first but after a while I got really frustrated with the servers in the sections right next to ours who watched us all serve ourselves for 25 minutes without offering to help, check on our waiter, or get the head waiter to see what could be done. Apparently there was an issue with the omelette makers that was holding things up, but why did not one worker stop to check on the section of over 30 people serving coffee, water & rolls to each other in that hot room? We waited for over an hour & then got cold food (unless you ordered an omelet). The table next to us got great, timely service & we had to excuse ourselves around their waiter so we could get ourselves drinks. Something is wrong with that.

Overall, we would never book on Empress again & may be done with Royal in General since their are so many great cruise lines out their to choose from.

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Does anyone know where Empress is going to dock in Key West?

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My husband & I did the falls on our own a few years ago & loved it! We are planning on doing again in 2 weeks, but I can't remember a few things:

1. Is there an entrance fee & how much us it?

2. About how much would a taxi be from the cruise port in Ocho Rios?