UKWLDCruise

The only difference from a normal day will be the unavailability of room service breakfast and an earlier start for the MDR and Windjammer, the food offering is unchanged. If heading for the Windjammer my advice would be to be waiting for the doors to open.

Back to what was the norm a few years ago.

I know that you cannot use American dollars and I always wonder how much money will I need to convert into local currency.

Actually a lot of people found they will take US dollars if you have nothing else but they may ask for more to cover the surcharge. I bought t shirts, magnets, coffee, rum and 3 cigars and spent about 100 CUC.

The longer tour visits either Hemingway's home or the cemetery (you choose) and as well as driving around we also stopped at revolution square, Jose Fuster's studio, the covered market and lunch. We had lunch at DK Mino and it was pretty good but other buses went elsewhere.

If you do the six hour you won't really have any time to do anything other than shopping in the terminal/go back to the ship. I was on the first bus of many and we got back less than an hour before all aboard.

This means you will clear customs and immigration at Boston and be able to clear the ship quite easily in New York.

I did the six hour tour and again had a modern Chinese built bus with a toilet, though we also had two stops with bathrooms as well.

I was on the 20th May sailing and the Cubans coped pretty well with Empress considering they had a second ship in at the same time. Yes don't expect Diamond Int on every corner and you can't drink the water and probably have to bring some toilet paper with you but my advice would be go now. Yes either the US travel situation could change or just as likely Cuba might become just another island shopping stop.

you haven't said which ship you are on but the Caribbean transatlantic cruisse sometimes stop at St Thomas last to at least get immigration out of the way. I did the Independence last year and it was almost a straight forward walk off the ship in the US. Also RCI will sometimes offer reduced cost tours to get you out of the way when there are coast guard inspections etc and you are B2B.

This is my short review of the 20th May Empress of the Seas sailing, short because there have been a few recently but I thought being a solo D+ Brit I might have a different outlook to offer.

While I know that in theory I could have visited Cuba before now but I have always had doubts, social conscience prickling. When the RCI cruises finally came up I had a casino voucher in hand to tip the balance so I booked.

The nine hour flight from London was long but ok and the Holiday Inn Westshore was a safe choice offering a free hotel shuttle and a $20 port shuttle.

The cruise started with the odd situation of a segregated check in for Cuban’s, some people travelling on the ship supposedly were not able to get off at Havana for fear of arrest. After completing the usual health form check in was very quick and boarding took place shortly after, the announcer running through pinnacles, suites and Ds in about 15 minutes.

Empress to Cuba the good and the bad

Good

In general term the MDR and windjammer food showed an improvement on recent trips, it was claimed at the repeaters do that more money was being spent.

A non smoking casino if only because the air con doesn't work properly.

Shore excursions, I was one of the majority that took an RCI tour in Cuba and the six hour tour of Havana was pretty good. It was pretty clear though that the C word had been banned, socialist being used instead. The single Tampa offering wasn’t bad either for killing time before a flight.

The crew seem pretty happy and the service was generally good, entertainment is perhaps a bit more basic than the bigger ships.

Robe etc appeared without having to be asked and the missing TV remote was replaced within hours.

I know some people reported connection and speed problems but I always managed to get on and for basic social media, web searches and messenger it was fine, even checked in for the flight home ok.

Bad

They might have spent a lot of money on the old girl but there are still lots of visible rough edges nothing broken but lots of cracks.

My room 3621 in particular was a bit run down, cracks in the shower plastic, cig burn on the sink, bedside light coming off the wall, a shower you had to turn full cold to get hot water, and I really hated the yellow main lights but it was clean and you don’t spend much time init.

I was amazed that the Casino doors were closed when it was shut effectively blocking you from moving indoors from one end of the ship to the other on that deck.

Even when we were arriving late at a port, Key West for example, the shops, casino etc didn’t open until we left at the end of the day.

The noise level of the poolside band was ear splitting at times and could be heard even several decks away from the pool deck.

To note

They say as you board that it is all about Cuba and that seems to be perfectly true on the Empress now.

The muster was quite long, several people were late attending and it was very hot.

If you can make sure you are on bus one on the six hou rHavana tour and about the first one off the ship you can change money before the tour otherwise Qs will have formed and you need to go straight to the bus. The next opportunity will be at the market stop and the order of the tour will vary, it may be last. On the other hand several people I spoke to didn’t change money at all and survived.

People with breathing difficulties should beware; the airquality in Havana was on a par with summer in Jakarta - my eyes were wateringand me a London boy.

Deck six is a pretty good and quiet seating area, unusually the seats are stationed at the railings, but the smoking side is pretty much a no go area being the main smoking point on the ship with the casino being non smoking.

Talking about smells I didn’t really have a problem with the known sewage situation. If anything there was an occasional smell of drains on deck six rather than in the corridors.

To sum up my social conscience is still prickling and I doubt I will go to Cuba again while the situation is the same but happy to answer any questions you think a non-drinking, non-smoking Brit can answer.

When excursions were first available, the 8 hour tour was $116. It climbed to over $200. However, roll call members just received an email that they need to cancel the 8 hour tour - it simply can't be done within the time constraints. They are offering a shorter tour for $145ish. A savings for those who purchased late, but a hit for those who paid the $116. Hopefully, we'll hear from someone with a positive solution.

My solution for the May 20th cruise was not to cancel until I got on the ship. They canceled my $124 eight hour tour and replaced it with a $93 six hour one. Result $31 refund on my ship account.

I did a trans Atlantic in October last year from Southampton and the weather was pretty poor for the first four or five days but it can be good in a day or two. So bring a few books, kindle, films or whatever is your poison just in case you have to stick it out inside.

The RCI UK worldwide brochure for 2017/18 can be ordered here or you can just read it on screen and/or print out the bits you are interested in https://www.royalcaribbean.co.uk/brochure-request/

Wonderful Life, the US title was Swingers Paradise which really says 1964 was a more innocent time, was a Cliff Richard film. Sir Cliff pumped them out just like Elvis did in the 60s and this is one of his worst. Cliff Richard, Susan Hampshire, The Shadows, Melvyn Hayes, Richard O'Sullivan and Una Stubbs start off as part of a cruise ships crew and get thrown off in the Canaries. It wasn't bad comment cards though, as far as I remember they blew up part of the ship. The title song isn't so bad though and it does have sea gulls in.

Do they show English Premier league game live on Liberty.

They will usually have someone just before the exit to sign out towels for you.

When launched Majesty was a mega ship and one of the biggest cruise ships afloat, given another 25 years how big will Oasis seem if still in service.:)

If you are not all going to be on together you could book for less devices and share.

How different is the process for Non-US passport holders? We have always traveled under our US passports, and I remember on our first cruise having to present our passports before getting off on one of the islands, but haven't done that again. Not that she would do it, but what would be the difference if DD were to travel under her Canadian passport?

On Indy Canadians were treated as if they were from the US and a separate room was used for them and US passport holders, after an hour or so they were calling for them to come ASAP as there was no line.

I think they wanted them out of the way to get as many officers as pos to deal with the non US line.-

After our problems we had a note delivered to each cabin and they said that US officials would not take money to provide extra officers and would not send officers to clear the ship on sea days before arrival in the US.

We had the same sort of problems on Indy a couple of weeks ago. Our clearance at St Thomas started at 7 am and went through to around 4/5 pm with only eight officers to clear the whole ship. The best way to get off as early as pos is to book an RCI excursion ,even if you don't go on it, they do try and get you off on time for the tour.

I was on the Indy transatlantic a couple of weeks ago and we docked next to Grandeur in St Maarten. She had loads of visible rust on her, around all the glass especially. Looked in such a bad shape if I hadn't known she was booked in for work I would be considering cancelling my 2017 cruise on her.

Try this link, they charged me $99 + tax

https://orlandoairport.regency.hyatt.com/en/hotel/news-and-events/news-listing/dayuseroomsavailable.html

I did this a couple of years ago and I really enjoyed it. I had the tour cancelled a couple of time before I managed to go, once from lack of interest and another time due to a rescheduled launch. The Hyatt inside the airport also does a day room deal for about $100.

If it is of interest the ship at Portsmouth is HMS Warrior the first all iron hull, armoured war ship. Launched in 1860 with steam engines, but also sails for range, her main guns all 28 of them were 7.9 inch. The tank is a Churchill AVRE with a 11.4 inch petard mortar. The projectile was so big they called it the flying dust bin. The AVRE is one of a number of specialist tanks know as the funnies that served with the 79th Armoured Division under Percy Hobart.