Empress of the Seas 11/15 & 11/19 review

[pconkli1]

Wow .........what a lesson learned. Good and bad......

 

We just returned from B2B, 4 and 3 day cruises on the Empress.

 

The ship was well done with nice refurbishments everywhere. We stayed in an owners suite aft on deck 8. Room was about 40' long and 10' wide. Strange set up, but we had his and her balconys, with 2 doors. The room had two 19-21" lcd tv's but no stereo?? Storage space was ok for two. (we love to pack more than we need) Jet tub with shower was new and nice. Most all the public areas were refurbished and very well done.

 

The cruise staff tried all they could to make us happy, if not for them we would have jumped off the back and swam for mainland USA. Our room steward was great and he had a policy of not knocking on our door for anything unless we put out our make up room please card. He knew when we left the room and we always returned to a made up room. The dining room staff was excellent and a part of our day we looked forward to.

This was the first time in many cruises that we met, talked with, and had special requests for our head waiter. Of course being english speaking may have had some role in this?? More on that to follow. We have never tipped a head waiter before on any cruise. We tipped twice on this cruise.

 

Ports were a bit lacking on our first four day, we docked in Dom. Rep. for a couple days. We never left the ship. Had the pool deck to ourselves. The catalina island was not much different than a day at any private island. We found out later from others that resort at campo was very nice, sorry we missed that. Back to PR to drop off one bunch of party and pick up a louder party.

 

Now here is where we learned a lesson........... no hable espanole(close)

99% of fellow cruisers were spanish speaking. We were starved to have conversation in english with any crew member we could find. We found the PR people to be loud in celebration and a little pushy. We never felt threatened but just very much in the minority. That was a new felt feeling for us.

 

The Empress does have a certain charm in its small size. The walk aft was really not that far compared to that of a radiance class ship. Yes we had soot a couple of times on balcony.

 

We dined at Portofinos for dinner one night and we were the only ones there. Private dining............wow.

 

The second cruise brought a new celebration onboard, this time armed with a trumpet and various percussion instruments. Yes they were loud and yes they took over the entertainment whenever they wanted, but they were having a blast.

 

Our ports on the second part were St kitts which was cancelled due to high winds, and St maarten. We met a couple of like minded beach folks and met up at Orient beach for the day. Staving for english once more we did not stop talking for several hours at the beach. Beautiful day with a little wind but pleanty of english and sun for all.

 

We booked a couple of excursions onboard only to find out they were cancelled due to lack of interest and probably money.

 

The crew members were the ones who really suffer on these cruises out of PR, they get little to no purchases from the guests, and NO tips. We felt very sorry to see nobody at dinner the last evenings or most nights for that matter. The last night bags were left out with do not disturb cards placed in doors. We saw many things we would never ever see on a cruise based out of a USA port. Lack of security at the port was very evident, but security when flying from PR is tight, go figure???

 

We will never again leave from PR, just our personal choice. We do not speak spanish and do not want to learn.

 

I tried to be as positive as I could be, but we love RCCL and the staff on this ship deserves better.

 

Cheers,

 

Paul & Vickie

[Snackdaddy]

Hi Paul & Vickie,

 

Thank you for the review of your B2B Empress cruises. I'm happy to know that the public areas have been refurbished very nicely and that the staff and service were excellent. Tipping a head waiter twice? WOW!!! He/she must have been someone special. Normally you rarely see head waiters until the last night.

 

Sorry to hear about your experiences with 99% of your fellow cruisers of whom were Spanish speaking. Your comments reinforce the value of learning a foreign language while in school. If only I had paid more attention in my Spanish classes. :(

 

In any event, there are probably some statistics that would support a correlation between the location of the embarkation port and passenger demographics. My guess would be that on short 3 and 4 night cruises the number of people living closer to the port would make up a larger proportion of passengers. That may be why when you returned to PR for the 2nd leg of your trip, the crowd was louder and more boisterous. Why? Probably more locals. Hence, when you decided to take two short cruises, you unknowingly decided to travel with more Spanish speaking people.

 

We'll see what our experieces are when we cruise for 11 nights on the Empress in January.

[pconkli1]

The crew did share the demo's for the next cruise. There was going to be 70% or higher english speaking on the following 11 day cruise. Quite different from less than 1%. They said this with a BIG smile on their faces.

 

My wife had won a three day cruise as a sales award. The four day was tacked on to make it a worthwhile trip. The times we could travel made our choice limited for this cruise.

 

Enjoy the empress.

 

Cheers,

 

P&V

[Smooth Sailing]

We have done the Destiny out of San Juan twice - I agree there is a high percentage of local passengers - maybe as high as 50% on these 7 day cruises - We heard that Carnival opens all unbooked cabins for $399 outside and $299 inside to the locals about 2 weeks before sailing - Also agree many of these passengers are loud and many are quite rude by our standards and they do not want to spend any extra money - I don't remeber seeing any of them on the excursions. Hope the 11 night on the Empress will have a smaller percentage - I believe it will - Anyone on the 11 night - let us know your experience - Thanks.

[pconkli1]

Just a couple of fun and interesting cruise facts. The PR guests ate all the bacon on the ship....they ran out.

 

Whan traveling to Dom. rep. the food from the windjammer that was not fake or tied down was taken to be distributed to friends, family on Dom. Rep.

Just old fashion cruise grocery shopping.

 

The three day cruise set records for most guests ever on the ship.

18-1900 guests. So much for my space ratio.

 

Fun was had by all.

 

Cheers,

 

P&V

[xyzjo]

I'M NOT A PUERTO RICAN AND I FEEL INSULTED. HAVE YOU EVER HEARD IF YOU DON'T HAVE ANYTHING NICE TO SAY DON'T SAY ANYTHING AT ALL. I WAS BORN AND RAISED IN GOOD OLD TAMPA FLORIDA AND I SPEAK 3 LANGUAGES FLUENTLY BY CHOICE. MAYBE YOU SHOULD WEAR YOUR KKK UNIFORM NEXT TIME AND GO WITH YOUR FELLOW WHITE SUPREMACISTS ON AN ALL CAUCASIAN CRUISE. I KNOW I AM GOING TO HEAR SOME FLACK BUT YOU DESERVE IT BIG TIME. IT IS A WONDERFUL THING TO BE ABLE TO INTERACT WITH DIFFERENT PEOPLE OF DIFFERENT CULTURES. I FEEL SO SORRY FOR PEOPLE WHO ARE SO SHORT SIGHTED. JESUS CHRIST LOVED EVERYONE, TAKE SOME ADVICE FROM HIS BOOK THE BIBLE.:mad: :mad: :mad:

[pconkli1]

I never said I hated anyone, You did.

 

Cheers,

 

P&V

[xyzjo]

:confused: :confused: YOU DIDN'T HAVE TO IT WAS IN EVERY SENTENCE YOU WROTE. HEY, UNTIL I READ WHAT YOU HAD TO SAY I HADN'T HEARD ANYONE PUT ANYONE DOWN AND I HAVE ALWAYS ENJOYED THE UPBEATNESS OF ALL WHO CORRESPOND WITH EACH OTHER. LIKE I SAID YOU NEED TO CRUISE WITH PEOPLE OF YOUR KIND WHATEVER THAT MAY BE. :confused:

[pconkli1]

Agree to disagree.

 

I am sorry if you feel offended, I am just stating my cruise experience and facts related to these cruises. Perhaps if you looked at this from my view you would understand how different this was for us. I do not want to put people down, but I also think people have a right to know what happens on these cruises.

 

Cheers,

 

P&V

[xyzjo]

Okay, Maybe I Was Too Hard On You. We All Have Our Opinions. I Guess It Is Awkward. Hope Your Next Cruise Is Better. We Are Sailing On12/04/04 On The Sos Out Of Tampa. Have A Happy Thanksgiving!!!!!;) ;) ;)

[pconkli1]

May you also have a great cruise and Happy Thanksgiving as well.

 

Cheers,

 

P&V