Empress of the Sea Rocks!

Empress of the Seas (RETIRED) 223 Cruise Review to Caribbean - Southern

Cruises: 7+ cruises
Review: 1
Helpful Votes: 27

Overall rating:

5 out of 5
Verified Review
Empress of the Seas (RETIRED) 223

11 Night Exotic Southern Caribbean (San Juan Roundtrip)

Sail date: November 05, 2007

Ship: Empress of the Seas (RETIRED) 223

Cabin type: Oceanview

Traveled as: Couple

Reviewed: 14 years ago

Review summary

My wife and I just did a November South Caribbean cruise on Royal Caribbean's Empress of the Seas. It was excellent, one of the best cruises we have done. The Empress is a smaller ship, much more user-friendly than the new mega ships. It is a pity that smaller ships like the Empress are becoming rare. The Empress is not fancy and does not have all the amenities of the giant ships, but it also is more relaxed and not crowded with thousands of people. The food on this ship was excellent. We ate in the dining room and never had anything that was not first-rate. It was as good or better than the food on any cruise we have done. The service was 5 star. We also ate one night at Portofino's Italian restaurant. It cost $20 extra and it is worth it. The food was great. This ship was wonderful, the food was excellent, the staff was first-rate. We loved our time on this ship and are sad that it will be out of their fleet by May. The itinerary for the South Caribbean islands on their 11 day cruise is very good. There is something fun to do on all the islands and , if you are a diver, there is some great scuba diving. I dove in Aruba, St. Kitts, and Barbados, and all were excellent. All in all , a wonderful time for myself and my wife. Great ship, great crew, great itin... we had a blast! Dan Maricich/ president/ Morningstar Ski Tours

Ports of call

St. John's, Antigua

5 out of 5
Very beautiful island! Take a tour to see the whole thing, and for sure visit the old English boat yard of the 1700's ... very interesting.

Castries, St. Lucia

5 out of 5
Most beautiful of the islands, for sure. Awesome volcano, rain forest jungle... The road is windy and slow, but it is worth it. You have to do a day drive on this island. It is beautiful.

Castries, St. Lucia

5 out of 5
Most beautiful of the islands, for sure. Awesome volcano, rain forest jungle... The road is windy and slow, but it is worth it. You have to do a day drive on this island. It is beautiful.

Willemstad, Curacao

5 out of 5
Excellent! It has the coolest, most beautiful port city.
Don't Miss: Do the boat with the glass windows that are under the water. Leaves from the Hilton hotel. Great!

Basseterre, St. Kitts

3 out of 5
Town is soso. not much to it... but the diving is excellent!

Philipsburg, St. Maarten

3 out of 5
Best thing to do here is do an island tour. it is a cool island, half french, half dutch... interesting place.

Willemstad, Curacao

5 out of 5
Excellent! It has the coolest, most beautiful port city.
Don't Miss: Do the boat with the glass windows that are under the water. Leaves from the Hilton hotel. Great!

St. John's, Antigua

5 out of 5
Very beautiful island! Take a tour to see the whole thing, and for sure visit the old English boat yard of the 1700's ... very interesting.

Philipsburg, St. Maarten

3 out of 5
Best thing to do here is do an island tour. it is a cool island, half french, half dutch... interesting place.

Oranjestad, Aruba

5 out of 5
The most touristic of the islands. Very busy, lots to do. But very touristy.

Bridgetown, Barbados

5 out of 5
Diving good here... did not do anything else.

Margarita (Isla De Margarita), Venezuela

3 out of 5
Very third world, lot's of trash around, depressing.. but there is a nice beach there on which to spend a day. It was the least of all the stops.

Margarita (Isla De Margarita), Venezuela

3 out of 5
Very third world, lot's of trash around, depressing.. but there is a nice beach there on which to spend a day. It was the least of all the stops.

Bridgetown, Barbados

5 out of 5
Diving good here... did not do anything else.

Oranjestad, Aruba

5 out of 5
The most touristic of the islands. Very busy, lots to do. But very touristy.

Basseterre, St. Kitts

3 out of 5
Town is soso. not much to it... but the diving is excellent!

Pros: the crew, the food (amazing), the itinerary

Recommends Empress of the Seas (RETIRED) 223? Yes!

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