Questions re Empress of the Seas?

[laedw]

I looked at the RCCL website and saw cruises on the Empress of the Seas. However, I do not see any forums for that ship on the cruise critic website. Has any cruise critics sailed on this ship? If so, please share your thoughts. Thanks in advance. :)

[CT Sean]

Empress left Royal's fleet several years ago and it only just returning. Looks like March 30th will be her maiden voyage (re-maiden re-voyage??)

 

edit - I suppose I should add my wife and I did sail on her for our honeymoon in 1998 (and like the idea of sailing again in 2018). We enjoyed it at the time but I can't really compare it to a cruise on a newer more giant ship. I do remember enjoying that it felt like we were on an actual ship.

Edited February 4, 2016 by CT Sean

[Clarea]

I looked at the RCCL website and saw cruises on the Empress of the Seas. However, I do not see any forums for that ship on the cruise critic website. Has any cruise critics sailed on this ship? If so, please share your thoughts. Thanks in advance. :)

There are no forums for Royal ships, other than roll calls. The links at the top of this page with ship names are not forums. Those are just shortcuts to searches that find mentions of those ship names in this forum.

[Powersboyee2]

You can also click on where it says "search this forum" while you are in the Royal Caribbean forum on CC and then just type in "Empress" and it will bring up any discussions related to empress. I only know because I'm sailing on her in April and have been trying to research as much as possible beforehand.

 

 

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[Tagsalong]

Youtube has some nice walk-throughs of the ship when she was formally with RCI and when with Pullmantur.

[#55worktoplay]

You can also click on where it says "search this forum" while you are in the Royal Caribbean forum on CC and then just type in "Empress" and it will bring up any discussions related to empress. I only know because I'm sailing on her in April and have been trying to research as much as possible beforehand.

 

 

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I am also sailing in April. I did what you suggested only found this thread. Did you find others?

[Powersboyee2]

I am also sailing in April. I did what you suggested only found this thread. Did you find others?

 

 

I go onto CC... Click on cruise lines p-z or whatever... click on Royal... then on the right side of all of the titles is says search forum... when i type empress in there and make sure show threads is clicked when i hit submit, it comes up with every CC post with Empress related titles. I get all sorts of topics, most of which are from years ago but there are several that are recent. Hundreds of them literally. Are you using a computer or phone? Phone apps aren't nearly as useful for this.

[#55worktoplay]

I go onto CC... Click on cruise lines p-z or whatever... click on Royal... then on the right side of all of the titles is says search forum... when i type empress in there and make sure show threads is clicked when i hit submit, it comes up with every CC post with Empress related titles. I get all sorts of topics, most of which are from years ago but there are several that are recent. Hundreds of them literally. Are you using a computer or phone? Phone apps aren't nearly as useful for this.

 

I will try again, I am using a desktop so I must have done something different.

 

I see that we are sailing on the same date. I am going on a little gals getaway there are 4 of us in total.

 

I am quite worried about the ship size after being on the monsters and am afraid there won't be enough for me to do and I am especially worried about too much motion. What do you think am I worrying for nothing?

[Powersboyee2]

I will try again, I am using a desktop so I must have done something different.

 

 

 

I see that we are sailing on the same date. I am going on a little gals getaway there are 4 of us in total.

 

 

 

I am quite worried about the ship size after being on the monsters and am afraid there won't be enough for me to do and I am especially worried about too much motion. What do you think am I worrying for nothing?

 

 

Did you get it figured out? I've tried the search feature on my phone and got the same results. Showed all kinds of threads.

 

Which sailing are you on? We will be on 4/7 and 4/11. I have been on all of the "monsters" as well. I share some of the same concerns as we are usually pretty active and like having stuff to do. The smallest class I've sailed was on Voyager. Still A GIANT compared to empress. We will all find out together I suppose haha. As far as the ship movement... I'm sure it will move more than larger ships but still won't be crazy I don't think.

 

I think if there is a big enough presence of younger people on the ship, it will seem a bit more eventful. We are 29 and 30 so are kind of in the middle I suppose. Won't be worried about being in bed at 10 lol.

 

 

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[#55worktoplay]

Haha I guess we may be surprised together. Yes I found some threads, still not real sure of this but we are going and if it's awful we will just miss the ship in Key west :)

 

We are older than you but there is no fear that we will be in bed at 10:00pm, we will either be howling at Karaoke, piano bar or losing our shirts in the casino!

 

We are sailing on the 7th so if you see 4 ladies that are 2 low 50's 2 mid 60's say hello. If the boat is rocking crazy and you see a overly dramatic one -that would be me!

[Powersboyee2]

Haha I guess we may be surprised together. Yes I found some threads, still not real sure of this but we are going and if it's awful we will just miss the ship in Key west :)

 

We are older than you but there is no fear that we will be in bed at 10:00pm, we will either be howling at Karaoke, piano bar or losing our shirts in the casino!

 

We are sailing on the 7th so if you see 4 ladies that are 2 low 50's 2 mid 60's say hello. If the boat is rocking crazy and you see a overly dramatic one -that would be me!

 

Haha good times!

[BillandChristy]

Did you get it figured out? I've tried the search feature on my phone and got the same results. Showed all kinds of threads.

 

Which sailing are you on? We will be on 4/7 and 4/11. I have been on all of the "monsters" as well. I share some of the same concerns as we are usually pretty active and like having stuff to do. The smallest class I've sailed was on Voyager. Still A GIANT compared to empress. We will all find out together I suppose haha. As far as the ship movement... I'm sure it will move more than larger ships but still won't be crazy I don't think.

 

I think if there is a big enough presence of younger people on the ship, it will seem a bit more eventful. We are 29 and 30 so are kind of in the middle I suppose. Won't be worried about being in bed at 10 lol.

 

 

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The Empress Roll Calls are located here. Seems like it is taking a while for people to find the roll calls (not sure why since all RCI roll calls by ship name are here, same as they have always been). I started the April 30th roll call here on January 6th and only 6 people have found it so far.

 

We have been on all RCI class ships except Quantum and prefer the smaller ships. It will be interesting to see what Empress is like and such a short cruise. We normally take cruises that are at least 2 weeks, e.g. Transatlantics (usually B2B), Australia, etc. We jumped on this because it was being refurbished for re-entry to RCI and we have a TA to Europe on Navigator a few days after this sailing. We have never been to the Keys so we are spending a few nights there between sailings.

 

Bill

[Powersboyee2]

The Empress Roll Calls are located here. Seems like it is taking a while for people to find the roll calls (not sure why since all RCI roll calls by ship name are here, same as they have always been). I started the April 30th roll call here on January 6th and only 6 people have found it so far.

 

We have been on all RCI class ships except Quantum and prefer the smaller ships. It will be interesting to see what Empress is like and such a short cruise. We normally take cruises that are at least 2 weeks, e.g. Transatlantics (usually B2B), Australia, etc. We jumped on this because it was being refurbished for re-entry to RCI and we have a TA to Europe on Navigator a few days after this sailing. We have never been to the Keys so we are spending a few nights there between sailings.

 

Bill

 

I must agree that the roll calls aren't exactly filling up too quickly for the Empress sailings. I am in two of them for our B2B and they are pretty much vacant except for a few people. What worries me is that when I go to royals uk site to see stateroom availability for the cruises that we are on, it shows a huge percentage of the rooms aren't booked at all. Something along the lines of 50-60 out of the 70 Junior Suite rooms are still vacant. I pretty much have my pick of the litter still, after booking months ago. Hopefully this isn't the case with all room types because RCCL will need to do some serious room selling or drastically discount current prices to fill the ship at this pace. We shall see what happens :eek:

[geoherb]

Or people have guarantee cabins that have not been assigned yet. The number of available cabins doesn't always correspond to the number of unsold cabins.

[Powersboyee2]

Or people have guarantee cabins that have not been assigned yet. The number of available cabins doesn't always correspond to the number of unsold cabins.

 

Normally I would agree with you, but I have been watching and checking with regular interest and have not seen the guarantee as an option for any room categories for either of the sailings I'm on. I will hope that you are correct though!

[ShannonSC2]

I looked at the RCCL website and saw cruises on the Empress of the Seas. However, I do not see any forums for that ship on the cruise critic website. Has any cruise critics sailed on this ship? If so, please share your thoughts. Thanks in advance. :)

 

 

My family and I will be sailing on her on March 30th (the first sailing). Can't wait to see how it compares with others. Of course I will be doing my review and posting pictures once I get back.

[BillandChristy]

I must agree that the roll calls aren't exactly filling up too quickly for the Empress sailings. I am in two of them for our B2B and they are pretty much vacant except for a few people. What worries me is that when I go to royals uk site to see stateroom availability for the cruises that we are on, it shows a huge percentage of the rooms aren't booked at all. Something along the lines of 50-60 out of the 70 Junior Suite rooms are still vacant. I pretty much have my pick of the litter still, after booking months ago. Hopefully this isn't the case with all room types because RCCL will need to do some serious room selling or drastically discount current prices to fill the ship at this pace. We shall see what happens :eek:

 

The number of unbooked rooms is surprising. That helps to understand the slow roll calls. It will be interesting to see what RCI does to fill the ship or how much vacancy will happen. No matter what happens I'm looking forward to trying out the ship. It will be a good warm-up before our TA on Navigator and 3 weeks we will spending touring England afterwards.

 

Bill

[coaster]

I was looking at different categories the other day and every random cabin number I put in was available on April 11. Just made final payment on our outside cabin, but hoping to upgrade if the prices drop to fill the ship.

 

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Edited February 11, 2016 by coaster

[RFerrington]

I think one of the problems is that the C&A discount prices were so incredible when these listings first came out...and people scooped up all the suites...and then those price incentives went away after just a couple of days. Now the cabins on Empress don't seem quite so appealing.

 

They may need to think about bringing some of those C&A discounts back.

[ShannonSC2]

The number of unbooked rooms is surprising. That helps to understand the slow roll calls. It will be interesting to see what RCI does to fill the ship or how much vacancy will happen. No matter what happens I'm looking forward to trying out the ship. It will be a good warm-up before our TA on Navigator and 3 weeks we will spending touring England afterwards.

 

Bill

 

I had to call RCI last night about our reservations and asked them if the March 30th sailing was full. She said no there were plenty of cabins available. We got a really good deal on our sailing.

[BillandChristy]

I had to call RCI last night about our reservations and asked them if the March 30th sailing was full. She said no there were plenty of cabins available. We got a really good deal on our sailing.

 

We are on the 5 night April 30th sailing and paid $538 total for an outside cabin on the 7th deck. We also received enough OBC to cover gratuities and all other miscellaneous expenses so our net cost will be a little less. I thought that was pretty good for 2 people (about $54 / night pp).

 

Bill

[Merion_Mom]

I had to call RCI last night about our reservations and asked them if the March 30th sailing was full. She said no there were plenty of cabins available. We got a really good deal on our sailing.

 

Many experienced cruisers hesitate to book the first cruise out of drydock.

 

Look at the thread from the current cruisers on the Liberty of the Seas.

[LMaxwell]

Many experienced cruisers hesitate to book the first cruise out of drydock.

 

Look at the thread from the current cruisers on the Liberty of the Seas.

That one has gone relatively well. Both an Azamara and Princess ship just out of dry dock were both hot messes on their first cruise back. Both in the past few weeks.

 

I used to say I'd never sail a ship just out of dry dock and now I'm starting to think not even first 3 or 4 out of dry dock.

[Merion_Mom]

http://www.boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=2312333

[Powersboyee2]

I think one of the problems is that the C&A discount prices were so incredible when these listings first came out...and people scooped up all the suites...and then those price incentives went away after just a couple of days. Now the cabins on Empress don't seem quite so appealing.

 

They may need to think about bringing some of those C&A discounts back.

 

Yeah I think that there is only something like 5 true suites on this ship.. Could be slightly off with that number. The only other cabins with balconies are Junior Suites. These are nothing special and are Like a regular balcony room on any other ship. No tub in the bathrooms ect. and a TON still available. I got a STEAL on our room with the C&A discounts. Getting 18 pts (9nights) for each of us at around 2k total. By far smallest ship we will have been on.. Hope it's a good time! But hey, it's a cruise... couldn't possibly be that bad :p