just returned from empress 7-8/7-15

[LynandBill]

Hi Everyone,

We just returned from our cruise on the Empress. This was our 13th cruise, 9th with RCI, and it was simply awesome! Loved the ship, the crew was great, the Cruise Director was one of the best we ever had. Sailing out of Philly was great! I will be happy to answer any questions. Bill

[dillybar92]

Hi Bill,

 

Glad you enjoyed your cruise! It's nice to see since there a been quite a few bad reviews of the Empress lately. What type of stateroom did you have? What was your favorite meal? What did you do in Bermuda?

 

Thanks!

[sha88]

Hi Everyone,

We just returned from our cruise on the Empress. This was our 13th cruise, 9th with RCI, and it was simply awesome! Loved the ship, the crew was great, the Cruise Director was one of the best we ever had. Sailing out of Philly was great! I will be happy to answer any questions. Bill

 

Thanks for posting, Bill. We are on the Empress this fall out of Philadelphia. I want to know, too, what you did in Bermuda. I signed us up for the Bell Helmet dive and the Wildcat Boat Ride. Glad to hear you enjoyed the Empress so much!

[LynandBill]

Hi Bill,

 

Glad you enjoyed your cruise! It's nice to see since there a been quite a few bad reviews of the Empress lately. What type of stateroom did you have? What was your favorite meal? What did you do in Bermuda?

 

Thanks!

We were in 3626 (oceanview stateroom). They are on the smaller side. We took extra hangers and there was plenty of closet space and it was fine. The window was a nice size window not a porthole. The food was pretty good, some nights excellent to some nights good. My favorite meals were the fishermens platter(lobster and shrimp) and the stuffed flounder but all the meals were good. Our waiter was very good and assist. waiter was excellent. Our head waiter was one of the better head waiters we've seen in many cruises. Shows rated from excellent to good, pending on your taste in shows. Of our 13 cruises this was our 1st in Bermuda. In our opinion this was the cleanest place we have been to and the water was simply stunning. We went to Horshoe Beach both days in Hamilton and loved it. We are looking to book this ship again next year. Bill

[LynandBill]

Thanks for posting, Bill. We are on the Empress this fall out of Philadelphia. I want to know, too, what you did in Bermuda. I signed us up for the Bell Helmet dive and the Wildcat Boat Ride. Glad to hear you enjoyed the Empress so much!

Hi,

We loved going out of Philly. We arrived at the navy yard at 10:45. We parked for the week($10 day). Getting there early was great as we had no line at all. At 11:30 we were having lunch in the Windjammer. Because this ship sails at 3:00 the deck party was 2 hours long and we have the most fun of any of our 13 cruises. With the ship being on the smaller side you will get to know the crew much better than the mega ships and that really adds to the great experience. We love the beach so we went to Horshoe Beach and liked it so much went back the next day. Bill

[sha88]

Hi,

We loved going out of Philly. We arrived at the navy yard at 10:45. We parked for the week($10 day). Getting there early was great as we had no line at all. At 11:30 we were having lunch in the Windjammer. Because this ship sails at 3:00 the deck party was 2 hours long and we have the most fun of any of our 13 cruises. With the ship being on the smaller side you will get to know the crew much better than the mega ships and that really adds to the great experience. We love the beach so we went to Horshoe Beach and liked it so much went back the next day. Bill

 

Thanks, I heard that Horshoe Bay was a definite must do while there, so we will definitely go. Good to know about the early boarding! We live in Western PA and the car trip to Philly will probably take about 4 hrs. Plan to get there by Noon or earlier.

[LynandBill]

Thanks, I heard that Horshoe Bay was a definite must do while there, so we will definitely go. Good to know about the early boarding! We live in Western PA and the car trip to Philly will probably take about 4 hrs. Plan to get there by Noon or earlier.

I would suggest getting there early. We had family members arrive around 12 and they said was very congested with long lines. Bill

[sha88]

I would suggest getting there early. We had family members arrive around 12 and they said was very congested with long lines. Bill

 

Thanks for the heads-up. Heck, I will be so excited to get going that leaving at 6am won't be a problem at all.:)

[wbrumel]

Glad to hear from an experienced cruiser that you had a positive experience. I am going next month on the same voyage. Did you find the ship overly crowded? Did you experience the deck chair problems others complained of? Are there alternative restaurants on this ship and did you dine there?

Thanks for the replies.

[LynandBill]

Glad to hear from an experienced cruiser that you had a positive experience. I am going next month on the same voyage. Did you find the ship overly crowded? Did you experience the deck chair problems others complained of? Are there alternative restaurants on this ship and did you dine there?

Thanks for the replies.

Hi,

The ship did not feel overly crowded but the pool area did feel crowded on sea days. When the chairs where filling up the pool attendant starting putting more chairs aroung the chess set(large chess game out by the pool). If you notice chairs completely unoccupied for a long period of time tell William (pool attendant). He would pull towells. We went out everday around 8:30 and had chairs around the chess set. This was a perfect location if you want to be directly in the sun all day. There is only one alternative restaurant on the ship-Portofino's. We were with a large group (family) so we went to the main dining room everynight. We really had a great time and enjoyed the ship so much that we are going back on next summer. Going out of Philly was the easiest embarkation and deparkation of our 13 cruises, very smooth. The crew from the Cruise Director(Warren Allen) to the Bar Waiters were great. You will have a great time!

Bill

[dillybar92]

Thanks for all the details Bill. I makes me even more excited to go!

[curlyd]

As you can see by my signature we took The Empress out of San Juan last March. It was our first cruise and because of this site we were prepared for the small rooms and wonderful staff.

 

We loved it so much we booked it again while on board. I know that there are many other great ships but I love the itinerary and the ship (even though it is small). So "one more time" for us.:D

 

The ship is wonderful. Our waiter Noel became a head waiter the week after we left. He was wonderful.

 

Enjoy!

[JohnT106]

Hi Everyone,

We just returned from our cruise on the Empress. This was our 13th cruise, 9th with RCI, and it was simply awesome! Loved the ship, the crew was great, the Cruise Director was one of the best we ever had. Sailing out of Philly was great! I will be happy to answer any questions. Bill

 

Bill

Thanks so much for the post. We leave on the EOS on 8/5/06 our of Philly. This is our first cruise and also a going away present for your daughter that is going to colage in the fall. We perfur the thought of a small intimate ship and I'm glad to hear that the staff is friendly and helpful.

Thanks to all of the posts because I want to get to the ship at 11am and get to know her. I am so excited that you posted such a postive review. We should be having a family meeting this week so if we have any questions or comments I will post them here.

Thanks so much Bill and eveyone else that posted. Your posts have made my feeling change from nervous to an excited stage. I CANT WAIT!!!

[mabinbklyn]

just another voice in support of the Empress

 

haven't cruised on her out of Philly yet, but sailed on her several times (5 or 6) from NYC to Bermuda. yes, she's small, but a great ship with a great crew. Hope to get the chance to sail on her soon! Maybe because she is (relatively) small, the crew seems really special. Wish she was still sailing out of NYC!

 

Oh, and Bermuda is fabulous!! and visiting her on a cruise ship is the most economical way to do it, IMHO.

[mimosawind]

Hey everybody! I was on this cruise as well with my mom..

 

 

About the beaches:

 

While docked in Hamilton we asked the bus driver (we got a two-day pass, $20, covers buses AND the ferry's.. tehe.. the ferry's were cute and fun) what the best beach would be to go to. He said that Horseshoe would be crowded so to head to Warwick Bay. It's not a "beach" in the sense of a lifegaurd and concession stands and rentals or even restrooms. But for a nice chunk of beach to just get into the water and enjoy being in Bermuda with only a FEW people around, it's definetly worth it. The beach is bigger than Horseshoe's, and when I was there, about 10 others were on the beach scattered.

If anyone is interested, getting to it is a little difficult. Make sure your driver knows that you want to go to Warwick bay. We let our bus driver know and he dropped us off at the closest bus stop (not far at all). After getting off the bus (heading AWAY from Hamilton) we had to back track about 50 yards or so and headed down a trail. It doesn't look all that great right now because there are workers digging and (it seems) putting in a restroom. One of the workers saw us coming and waved us down (we weren't sure if we were headed the right way) and we went around their equipment and walked down onto the beach. It was absolutely beautiful. I went to both Warwick and Horseshoe, even though Horseshoe had the facilities and the nifty ride to the top of the hill, I loved Warwick more.

 

If anyone has any questions I'm sure any one of us who were on the cruise would be more than delighted to try our best to answer them! :D