5 Night Key West Havana & Cozumel (Miami Roundtrip)
Sail date: May 26, 2018
Ship:
Empress of the Seas
Cabin type: Inside
Cabin number: 8019
Traveled as: Singles/Friends
Reviewed: 6 years ago
Review summary
I had issues with the cruiseline, but I loved the cruise itself. Havana was eye-opening and educational, and the snorkeling excursion in Cozumel was great!
Embarkation
5 out of 5
There were several disappointmnts in RCL as a cruiseline, but the cruise itself was fabulous. I chose not to let my experiences leading up to the embarkation taint my impression of the cruise itself.
Ship experiences
Food and Dining
4 out of 5
I'm not a conniseur, but I think the food was quite good as far as mass dining experiences go.
Onboard Activities
4 out of 5
There were stretches of time when there was nothing of interest to me on the schedule, but I had to remind myself that there were others onboard who probably were enjoying the options. I was a bit disappointed with some of the activities I did attend, because apparently my picks were not as popular with other passengers. Or perhaps they just conflicted with other activities.
Service and Staff
5 out of 5
Ship Quality
5 out of 5
This was my 3rd sailing on the Empress of the Seas, but the first 2 were over 20 years ago. It was beautiful and brought back memories.
Key West was fine. It reminded me of St Augustine, which is a place I visit often. We took the trolley tour around the whole island. We stopped by the Most Southern Point bouy, toured the lighthouse grounds and saw the 0 Mile milemarker. Otherwise we just walked around town.
We did the Classic Car excursion offered by RCL. The price listed seemed high at first, but then we realized it's a single price per car with up to 3 passengers and not per passenger. We had a great time. The tour included a relatively short bus tour, then we divided up into several classic cars and caravaned thru Miramar and back into the city to Revolution Square and then the old section of the city. Our driver did not speak much English so only pointed out a couple of things. We lucked out though when 1 of the 3 tour guides from the bus jumped into the front seat of our convertible when we were leaving Revolution Square. He told us all about what we were seeing and shared loads of history about the city. We made a stop at National Hotel for mojitos and another stop to see an African influenced dance, then we went to some shops and an art studio where we received more mojitos. Even though it was a grey, drizzly slightly cool day, we were able to experience the top down on the convertible for about a 1/2 hour, and we agreed we probably enjoyed it more than if it had been stifling hot.
When we got off the ship in Cozumel, it was crazy hot. We were so thankful we had scheduled a snorkeling excursion - 3 Reef Snorkeling Tour. We really loved this activity! Ours was a small group, only 12 participants, on a boat large enough for 50-75. We had 2 guides who were in the water with us pointing out various fish. They would swim down, as much as 40 feet, to prod fish which were camophlaged on the ocean floor or hiding in coral or rock formations. I highly recommend this excursion, if you're a good swimmer. When I've snorkeled before, the boat took us out and we swam around on our own around boat. This snorkeling excursion was truly a tour. The boat stopped a 3 different reef areas and we were in the water swimming with the guides for about 35-45 minutes at each one.
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