Empress does not "impress"!

Empress of the Seas Cruise Review to Caribbean - Bahamas

Cruises: 7+ cruises
Review: 1
Helpful Votes: 25

Overall rating:

1 out of 5
Verified Review
Empress of the Seas

Sail date: June 02, 2016

Ship: Empress of the Seas

Cabin type: Suite

Cabin number: 7186

Traveled as: Couple

Reviewed: 8 years ago

Review summary

This ship is definitely not ready to sail with real people. Perhaps it needs a few more years in dry dock to come up to the standards of Royal Caribbean that we are used to. I don't even know where to begin to tell you all the things that were wrong, not working, dirty or out of order!! It simply was not ready to sail and the staff appeared to have not been trained at all. Mass confusion, mistakes, running out of food, broken ice cream and ice machines, bathrooms not functioning or overflowing....the list goes on and on. We managed to have a good time despite all the problems the ship was having. We had beautiful weather and could enjoy the ports of Key West and Coco Cay enough to make up for the horrible ship experience. After spending several months In dry dock( including putting in an entirely new galley!)  you would expect that the ship would be brand spanking new but with all the problems we experienced it appears that "new" means something totally different. I would never take this ship again and would not recommend it to anyone we know that we'd like to stay friends with😒. Please Royal Caribbean, take it out of its misery!

Ship experiences

Food and Dining

1 out of 5
Very limited menu and many items weren't even available. Really? This was only the second cruise!

Onboard Activities

3 out of 5

Entertainment

5 out of 5

Service and Staff

3 out of 5
Many staff seemed to not be happy being on this ship. Our room steward was great but never introduced herself so we don't have a name to recommend.

Ship Quality

1 out of 5

Cabin / Stateroom

1 out of 5
Very small, old rusted balcony furniture had holes in it, no refrigerator. Suites usually have a refrigerator and nice furniture on the balcony. It has a very small bathroom, again not up to RCCI standards.

Ship tip

Turn back!!

Ports of call

Miami, Florida

5 out of 5

Key West, Florida

5 out of 5

Cococay (Cruise Line's Private Island)

5 out of 5
Was this review helpful? 25

5 Comments

imanico1    8 years ago

I think it would be helpful to know that this is in reference to the 6/2 sailing. There seems to be a progressive improvement with each sailing, based on reviews.

joeglo67    8 years ago

I have read a lot of negative reviews on this ship so everybody can't be wrong. I was on the navigator of the seas and it was good but Im sticking with carnival..

joeeel    8 years ago

Well im sorry that u had a bad experience. But RCI did alot of work to make the Empress of the Seas meet todays standarts.

bramur    8 years ago

Wow. I'm so sorry you had such a miserable time. I just got back from the 5 night cruise to Cozumel and had the total opposite experience. The ship is beautiful, the staff is totally amazing and very accommodating, food was excellent as well as the entertainment.

dawnro    8 years ago

Tell us how you really feel.

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