Empress 8 Night Eastern Caribbean 🎵 ​​​​​​​Oops, I Booked it Again 🎵

[twangster]

Cabin Tour!

 

As we waited for cabins to become available at 1:30pm I was waiting in the elevator lobby near my cabin.  As the hall door was opened by crew moving luggage, James my new cabin attendant spotted me.  He was servicing the block of cabins right beside my last cabin so he recognized me.  He waved me through telling me my cabin was ready.  Nice touch.

 

Junior Suite 9600 Starboard.

 

 

This JS is the reverse layout from my last JS.

 

 

Pretty much identical with the same "efficient" bathroom and shower.

 

 

 

Walk in closet.

 

 

I waited until we had left the port to take balcony pictures.  This cabin is the most forward JS on deck 9 so the balcony doesn't have a divider on the forward side.  You do lose a small corner and the elevator lobby can see this balcony but the forward view is better.

 

The better sea views can also be enjoyed when sitting on the sofa inside the cabin.

 

 

 

 

The pool deck above narrows so the overhang is slightly smaller.  The view aft.

 

 

The view down.

 

 

Something I forgot to mention in my last Empress thread are the USB outlets.  They are found on the bottom of the lights on each side of the bed.  It's a great hidden feature.

 

 

 

It's really nice having USB outlets on both sides of the bed.

 

[John&LaLa]

32 minutes ago, twangster said:

Day 1 Embarkation

 

A first glimpse of Empress at Terminal G from my Uber.

 

 

Terminal G

 

 

 

The entrance to the building normally has some signage but in this early hour you had to know where to go.

 

 

Terminal G check in area.

 

 

Suites and Pinnacles have a small waiting lounge.

 

 

Boarding started at 10:45am.  

 

 

Woohoo!  I am officially on a cruise!

 

 

 

 

 

This last round of pictures is not working well on my phone.  Very squeezed

[twangster]

4 minutes ago, John&LaLa said:

 

This last round of pictures is not working well on my phone.  Very squeezed

 

Voom is quite painful at the moment.  It took a long time to craft that post and wait for images to load.  It seems they didn't load right.  

[twangster]

Another hidden discovery is that Wow! bands can be used to access your cabin.

 

 

Unfortunately when used in this fashion anyone on the ship can use your Wow! band to access your cabin.

 

 

Okay, that's a lame joke but I was enjoying drinks at the Schooner Bar up to this point...

[John&LaLa]

13 minutes ago, twangster said:

 

Voom is quite painful at the moment.  It took a long time to craft that post and wait for images to load.  It seems they didn't load right.  

 

I had some on Harmony like that. Sometimes best to just give up and try later 

[beachnative]

33 minutes ago, twangster said:

Another hidden discovery is that Wow! bands can be used to access your cabin.

 

 

Quote

 

 

Twangster:  please comment about the noise factor above this cabin...we are considering booking it.  Also, do you think  the balcony would be too chilly in a cool climate cruise.

 

Thanks

Edited August 11, 2019 by beachnative

[twangster]

Crown and Anchor sail away party deck 6 aft, Diamond and higher.

 

 

I ran into the IT Manager and asked him if his O3b upgrade came through.  Nope.  The contractors I saw working are doing some routine maintenance replacing some components with a goal to improve reception when one set of antennas is blocked.  That's an issue at CocoCay with other larger ships beside us - they block one set of satellite antennas.  

 

We talked about Voom and I learned a few new things.  Empress shares transponders with a few other ships.  Navigator and Mariner use the same transponder.  Other groups of ships share different transponders.  For this legacy satellite system a different satellite covers the Western Caribbean compared to the Eastern Caribbean.  We'll use the same satellite for the entirety of this cruise.  On the last cruise in the Western Caribbean we switched satellites during the cruise.  

 

In terms of rain fade he pointed out something I should have thought of.  What goes up must come down.  Speedcast and O3b have their primary earth station in Miami.  Our data traffic comes down in Miami as a gateway to reach the internet.  If Miami is encountering bad weather like a line of strong thunderstorms that can impact every ships Voom even if the ships are in sunny skies a thousand miles away.  It was obvious when he said it but I had never thought about it.

 

The bridge has some data feeds that use a different satellite platform but if the Captain wants to stream Netflix in his cabin that uses the same Voom the rest of us use.

 

With the darkening skies over Miami as we pulled out I wonder if some ship somewhere is experiencing a Voom slow down.

 

 

 

 

Rain moving in.  Time to move to the Schooner Bar.

 

[twangster]

Just now, beachnative said:

 

 

Twangster:  please comment about the noise factor above this cabin...we are considering booking it.  Also, do you think  the balcony would be too chilly in a cool climate cruise.

 

Thanks

 

I'm hearing quite a few carts rolling above me at times.  Not so bad at night but during the day I do hear more traffic above me at times.  

[twangster]

Dinner at Chops

 

I was offered a window table but they were pretty busy so I chose one row back so someone else can enjoy the windows this time.  Still a great view.

 

 

Bread of course.

 

 

Wedge Salad.

 

 

Beef Carpaccio. 

 

 

The 16 oz. bone in.  Yum.

 

 

The sundae again.

 

[twangster]

30 minutes ago, John&LaLa said:

 

I had some on Harmony like that. Sometimes best to just give up and try later 

 

Yep.  Trying to get through day 1 at least so I don't get too far behind.  Happy hour, good time to take a break for now.  

[Sea Dog]

Looks like a great meal. Great info on the transponder. I figured that's how they did it but had no idea that several ships share. No wonder it can be so slow. 

[twangster]

All the regular activities are going on around the ship.

 

 

Since I covered some of them in my last thread I'm going to skip them this time but don't think that means they aren't happening.  There is a lot going around this little ship.

[twangster]

I ended up at the Schooner Bar where I met some folks from Cruise Critic.  One drink led to another and the bartenders were taking care of us.

[twangster]

Day 2 - CocoCay

 

I woke and discovered we were already here and tied up to the pier early.

 

 

 

Mariner is with us today.  The NCL Sky was sailing past on her way to anchor at GSC next door.

 

 

 

Live music to greet us this morning.

 

 

 

I think it's going to be a Perfect Day.

 

Edited August 12, 2019 by twangster

[twangster]

From my last stop I posted a bunch of CocoCay pictures in that thread so I'm not going to repeat those here, but I did pop into the Thrill Water Park to check it out.  If you want to see my other CocoCay pictures check out the thread URL I posted in the first post.

 

 

 

 

Royal has done a really nice job with this area as well as the rest of CocoCay.  Plenty of loungers, picnic tables and space to spread out.

 

 

Lots of complimentary lockers are available.

 

 

 

Even the restrooms are done up nice.

 

 

 

The wave pool has lots of loungers available

 

 

 

 

 

Thrill Water Park Cabanas are found in a couple of areas.  Here are some on the sides of the wave pool.

 

 

Thrill Water Park has its own Snack Shack.

 

 

 

 

Some of these require you carry a mat or tube up with you.  The Sling Shot uses a conveyor system to lift the raft to the top for you.

 

 

 

More Cabanas near the slide pool.

 

 

 

 

The Adventure pool has these floating rope courses.  Based on what I saw they are harder than they look, but fun.

 

 

 

 

 

Daredevil's Tower is amazing.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Just Wow!

 

I can't wait to check these out on my next visit on Navigator in a few weeks.  I've already bought a zip line and Thrill Water Park combo pass.

 

Edited August 12, 2019 by twangster

[twangster]

I went back to the ship to drop off my camera stuff and grab my snorkel gear.  It's so nice having a pier now at CocoCay.

 

 

They were handing out cards to remind people of our 2:30pm all aboard time.

 

 

While going up the stairs to my cabin I found the wireless link that ties the ship network to CocoCay.

 

 

 

It wasn't hard to find a 2nd row lounger for my stuff while I snorkelled.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Sergeant Majors were pretty friendly today.

 

 

 

 

This part of CocoCay still resembles the CocoCay of old for folks who just want a chill beach day.

 

 

 

Edited August 12, 2019 by twangster

[twangster]

Snorkelling was fun but it was for some Snack Shack.

 

Juice choices today.

 

 

A Shack Crispy Chicken Sandwich, Mozzarella Sticks with Marinara sauce and a Funnel Cake for dessert.  Yum.

 

 

Over to Oasis Lagoon for a Margarita.

 

 

 

 

It's so nice having a pool to jump into.

 

 

[Carolina Girl 99]

In what area of Coco Cay did you snorkel?

[twangster]

5 hours ago, Carolina Girl 99 said:

In what area of Coco Cay did you snorkel?

 

On this map of CocoCay the snorkel beach is in the bottom left area off Chill Island.

 

 

There is a swim/snorkel area with boundaries and lifeguards.  I swam out between the break walls, along the boundary and back along the break walls.

 

[twangster]

Royal has a Cabana Guide that illustrates the location of each type of bed, bungalow or Cabana.  I created a separate post for here on Cruise Critic since it goes beyond Empress but here it is:

 

 

In PDF format:

CocoCay Cabana Guide.pdf

 

 

[twangster]

All aboard for Empress was 2:30pm so we could make San Juan by 3pm after a sea day. 

 

Around 2:45pm as I wandered up to deck 11 to take in sail away I heard the announcement -   "Would the following guest make their way to guest services...".  Not one, or two or five or eight but ten guests were about to become Mariner passengers.  Then came the ship's whistle several times.

 

Looking down from deck 11 I could see Julie our Hotel Director and Jorge our Guest Services Manager on the pier.

 

 

 

Pier runners!  At 2:47pm five guests came running up the pier.  

 

 

At 2:53pm a golf cart delivered the remaining guests.  Finally we could leave.

 

 

A last look back at Mariner and Perfect Day at CocoCay.

 

 

 

I needed to ensure they still had ample Guinness on board so I headed to the Schooner Bar. 

 

 

They have the Heineken draught beer machine out for this sailing.  It's a self contained countertop beer cooler and dispenser since Empress doesn't have permanent taps.

 

 

Edited August 12, 2019 by twangster

[twangster]

The end of day 2 finds us at sea on our way towards San Juan.

 

I was sitting in Boleros enjoying some latin music with a glass of wine when I noticed a sunset happening behind us.

 

 

 

Our progress so far...

 

 

[twangster]

Day 3 - Sea Day

 

Not to be outdone by the sunset last, the sunrise this morning tried to do better.  Good effort.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

And so begins our day at sea.  A Chops Grille breakfast is calling my name.

[Biker19]

7 hours ago, twangster said:

While going up the stairs to my cabin I found the wireless link that ties the ship network to CocoCay.

 

 

Which does what?

[twangster]

17 minutes ago, Biker19 said:

Which does what?

 

Last year on Empress at CocoCay they used paper tickets for all purchases including the floating bar.  Now, the ship is tied to the island so that cards can be swiped at point of sale terminals.  

 

I believe it is also the link that carries authentication for the ship's Voom network so that guests can use Voom on CocoCay using your ship Voom plan.  On the island it places you into their VLAN so you have access to CocoCay's O3b uplink but it still requires authentication using the same username and PIN that works on the ship. 

 

On Labadee the ships connect to fiber boxes on the pier.  CocoCay it seems does it wirelessly.

Edited August 12, 2019 by twangster