Cuba is a cool place!

Empress of the Seas Cruise Review to Cuba

Cruises: 7+ cruises
Reviews: 2
Helpful Votes: 78

Overall rating:

4 out of 5
Verified Review
Empress of the Seas

6 Night Nassau/Key West/Havana (Miami Roundtrip)

Sail date: November 20, 2017

Ship: Empress of the Seas

Cabin type: Oceanview

Cabin number: 7640

Traveled as: Family (older children)

Reviewed: 6 years ago

Review summary

General crew needed more training. Great dining staff! Raffles are your existence for entertainment. Music is from the 70s every night. Havana worthwhile to visit.

Embarkation

2 out of 5
Confusion regarding where to direct us for check-in. Sea Pass was confusing (multiple names on one pass). Check-in person did not give us Visas and told us that boarding would not start until 3:00 for a 4:00 cruise. Also, she did not know how to use the camera to take our pictures for ID purposes. Credit card number not applied to whole cabin which created disembarkation confusion (entered online as well as presenting at embarkation). Cookies are very good!

Ship experiences

Food and Dining

5 out of 5
Very good food excellent service. Ice cream on pool deck should be open more hours, especially for late night snack even if self-serve.

Main Dining Room

5 out of 5

We did Free-style dining. Seating was very prompt. Servers provided great service and food was excellent. Nice food variety.

Onboard Activities

3 out of 5
Pool water needed to be cleaner. Activities sometimes started late, some early - inconsistent. Activities were double/triple booked - other times were empty.

Pool Deck

3 out of 5

Smoking was annoying and wasted tables in smoking section.

Entertainment

4 out of 5
Some shows better than others. Comedian very funny!

Royal Theater

4 out of 5

Good availability for seating. Able to see stage.

Children's Programs

No children

Service and Staff

5 out of 5
Waiters very good! Guest Services challenging. Need to speak English and pretend to not understand.

Ship Quality

4 out of 5
Layout is fine. Outside of ship needs painting (rust).

Cabin / Stateroom

2 out of 5
Small. Needs maintenance - closet doors did not close as well as track broken on drawer. Told two different times for vacating cabin. Had a sick passenger in bathroom and had to leave cabin even though no where to go due to disembarkation delays.

Ship tip

No views from cabin. Old ship. Limited non-structured activities due to small size. No wash days or self-service wash capabilities. No ice cream after 6:00 pm. Good food and dining service. Could request favorite waiters.

Ports of call

Miami, Florida

5 out of 5
Great public transportation - trolleys and MetroMover are free. Can get to ship from downtown Miami by trolley. No public rest rooms.

Nassau, Bahamas

4 out of 5
Enjoyed the glass bottom boat excursion. Sunset cruise was too early to see sunset and same route as glass bottom boat. Environment similar to Bermuda. No public rest rooms.

Key West, Florida

5 out of 5
Visited classic sites - southern most point, Sloppy Joes (eat),Margaritaville, Hemmingway house, end of Route 1, little White House When docking at Navy pier unable to take pictures.

HAVANA, CUBA

4 out of 5
Pre Cuba stressful to ensure paperwork in place - need Visa when checking in Day One. Only had to show passport for actually entering country. Beautiful country with friendly people. Able to take pictures everywhere and walk around after excursion. No machine guns or military presence. Old cars are a tourist attraction. Typical large city.

Disembarkation

2 out of 5
Credit card to applied to all passengers in cabin even though we had foll;owed up on this point. Created VERY stressful departure compounded by having a sick passenger with no where to take solace (closed rest rooms). Ran very behind schedule. Crew gave mixed messages and were unpleasant.
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