Small but nice ship, nice cruise

We took a 5-day cruise with our family party of seven on the Empress of the Seas to Key West and Cozumel. We have sailed over ten times, but this was our first time on Royal Caribbean. We were skeptical about sailing on such a relatively small ship, but the price was right so we decided to take a chance. It did not offer some of the additional amenities offered by larger ships such as 24-hour pizza, specialty eating venues (such as Chines, deli, etc.), but the buffet food was pretty good overall (avoid Chops Grille; it is overpriced and not much better than just eating in the main dining room). Overall the food and service in the main dining room were very good. They serve brunch in the main dining room on days when the ship is at sea. It is good if you get there early; then it starts to get crowded. There they serve free mimosas and bloody Marys.

Drinks were more expensive than we thought they'd be, so we had to "supplement" our drinks with a little of our own stash to get more bang for the buck. Having said that, we gave the cruise line plenty of our money for drinks.

The reggae band on the pool deck was very good. It was spring break so there were a lot of  "party animals" on board, but generally they were well-behaved and were just having fun. However, they did crowd out the three hot-tubs on the ship and slowed the bar service somewhat. Children are only allowed in the hot tubs for one hour in the morning and one hour in the afternoon.

The shows at night were very good. The dancers and singers were great and the live band was excellent.

They showed good movies on the pool deck at night. Our kids seemed to enjoy the children's and teens activities. Sometimes they were gone for long periods of time with their groups. The only complaint was the broad age ranges. They had something like ages 6 to 11 in one group and 12 to 17 in another group. Our 12-year old grandson felt a little out of place with the older teenagers, but seemed to enjoy some of the activities. Our 11-year old grandson felt superior to his age group. However, our 16-year old grand daughter enjoyed the teen group a lot and looked forward to participating in all of their activities.

The venues of Key West and Cozumel were fine for us. On Key West we recommend either taking your own walking tour (we walked to the eco-center [unfortunately closed on Sunday], Ft. Zachary Taylor Park [got the free tour and went swimming at the beach - if you do that, remember to bring some towels], Southernmost Point for pictures, Butterfly Conservatory [they fly all around you], start of highway US1 for picture taking, Pincers for lunch, Sloppy Joes for key lime pie, then back on board the ship) maybe three miles walking altogether at a leisurely pace, or if walking is not your thing, take one of the trolley tours.

Cozumel seems to have unlimited activities and we have been there many times on prior cruises. Any of the all-inclusive beaches is a good choice. This time we went to Hotel El Cozumeleno for an all-inclusive day at that hotel. We booked it independently and everybody had a great time there.

The cruise director and staff were all excellent. We enjoyed this cruise would consider sailing again on this ship, but then again every time we cruise it is a new hunt for the best deal.