Empress - Interior Guarantee - Yes or no

[chef_christoph]

I need some help from anyone who has sailed on Empress.

 

We're looking at booking a room for the Southern Caribbean itinerary sailing out of San Juan next January.

 

I am considering booking an inside guarantee room but, since I have never booked a guarantee room before, I don't know if this is a good idea or not.

 

Anyone have an opinion?

 

Thanks!

[mediator]

I am sailing on the 11/19th (11night) Empress. We booked an inside guarantee based on the GREAT price. Since becoming diamond, we normally book a balcony due also to the pricing benefit. With that said, we mostly end up booking a guarantee cabin of some sort, rather than choosing a cabin. We are not that passionate about front, back, middle, hump etc. Many people are very particular. We book pretty much on the price at the time, and have been happy with what we have been given.

 

I don't know if that helps, but I think a lot depends on your personality and expectations. I do know the rooms are small on the Empress. Looking at the square footage, I hope my husband and I don't kill each other. Hopefully, it will just make us more snuggly. I'll let you know how it was when we return.

[firefly333]

The small size of the cabins would be a factor for me too. We did SOV and I said never again. We booked a N cabin (and also a I). the I OV was much much better imo. We had no storage on the inside, only the thin drawers of the desk.

[demodawn]

I dont think the guarantee is the point it whether you want the small room. We did the guar on the Rhap which is the same size ship and i will tell you the room is small small small, we could hardly pass each other in the room, could brush your teeth while sitting on the john!! But that said we were never in the room except to sleep so its all what you want would i book a room that small again it would have to be a really really good price!

[chef_christoph]

Thanks for the information everyone,

 

We love the itinerary, and the price for an interior guarantee is amazing. It sounds like the size of the interior rooms on Empress are the same size as the Cat. N we had last week on Majesty. This time, we'll have to make sure to pack only what we absolutely need :).

 

firefly333: You said that there was no storage space on the inside. How about the closet space? How does it compare to the Cat. N on Majesty?

 

mediator: I'd love to hear from you when you return.

 

Thanks again!

[Bargeo]

We booked an outside guarantee for January, and were immediately assigned a cabin....... which surprised and delighted us. It is not the smallest cabin, and is midship...... a great location. We are happy, and the price was soooooooo good. We have heard only great things about the Empress. I remember seeing her in St Martin two years ago as we were on the Jewel and she was behind us. Though smaller, she was beautiful, gleaming in the caribbean sunset. I said to my DH, "Someday I want to sail on the Empress". Looks like this will be our last opportunity, as she is leaving in March. Will let you know how it goes.

[tinker]

Having been on the Empress twice on deck 7 outside cabins, we love the ship. Storage is sufficient with 4 glass shelves in the bathroom for toiletries, and some on the vanity/desk area. Closet is a bit small with no shelves but there are some above the television stand for folded items such as shorts and shirts. Plenty of room on the closet floor for shoes and suitcase fit underneath the bed. (The bedding is soft and luxourious with high thread count sheets and comforter cover. No yucky bedspreads! lol)

 

There are small drawers also in the tv stand and some in the desk area.

The cabins are tiny but having overpacker as usual, there was room for everything. We had a small round table by the tv stand also and good for paperwork, extra items and then two narrow nightstands.

 

We would sail her every year if she were to remain in the fleet as we prefer the smaller ships, and cabin size really not an issue for two people.

[terri23]

if you can stand living in a closet, go for it. we loved Empress, but there is not much "elbow room"!!

[phillygirl67]

The rooms are small, but how often are you in them. There is plenty of closet space. I brought a few extra hangers and hung everything I brought with me.

 

 

I have no problem living in a shoebox, as long as I'm not at work.:D

 

 

Chrissy

[lvtotrvl1]

The Empress has tiny rooms...Personally I could not stay in an inside on her for 11 days. It really is up to your personal tastes. Some people don't mind the small inside rooms, and others (like me), just couldn't do it.

[firefly333]

firefly333: You said that there was no storage space on the inside. How about the closet space? How does it compare to the Cat. N on Majesty?

!

 

On our cat N: The only storage space I would consider storage were the drawers in the desk. True there are a couple of shelves in the bathroom and little itsy bitsy nooks I think above the desk we didnt use. We had 3 bags of bathroom type stuff with us which I kept on top of the desk. The first drawer of the desk was the hair dryer which took up a lot of the space, plus 4 more narrow drawers in the desk. There were no shelves in the closet and one side of our closet all the hangers were broken and wouldnt snap closed, so basically other than what we put in the desk drawers we lived out of the suitcases.

 

Others seem to find this great, we didnt.

 

We were in a quad with a broken bunkbed hanging out they hung framed pictures on (wierd to disguise it was broken?), and it snapped down one night and could have bopped someone in the head had my sister not been sound asleep at 3 am. So we had half a closet we used and the little desk drawers.

 

The OV had more storage with an extra little dresser that we could use the top of it plus two deep drawers, much better and it had shelves in the closet. A world of difference imo.

[cruisegirl1]

We’ve booked a guarantee a few times and got the worst cabin deck and location. We even did this the 21 RCCL cruises and still got a terrible cabin location.

 

If location does not matter and you can save lots of $$ – then go for it.

M

[robtulipe]

We booked an guaranty inside on Empress as our first RC cruise and got the lowest deck most upfront cabin possible and it sure was tiny. Here is a shot of it. Yes that was our only bed.

I usually don't mind having an inside but Empress's inside are way too small for us. Below is Radiance inside.

[kubri32]

Book the guarantee and use the money at the bar.

[Cnd_Cruiser]

We booked the inside guaranty on the Empress in Feb. and saved over $1000. At that price the savings just about covered our air fare. I say go for it.

[chef_christoph]

Thanks everyone! I really appreciate everyone taking the time to give your opinions.