7 Night Cuba & Eastern Caribbean (Miami Roundtrip)
Sail date: January 27, 2019
Ship:
Empress of the Seas
Cabin number: 8515
Traveled as: Singles/Friends
Reviewed: 5 years ago
Review summary
Terrible service. Very average & poorly stocked casual restaurant. Extreme overemphasis on tipping. Serious language & cultural barriers with staff. Evasive & condenscending excursion staff.
Embarkation
4 out of 5
Traffic flow was good, but agent was rude.
Ship experiences
Food and Dining
1 out of 5
Food in casual restaurant was never hot, mostly was room temperature and some sat for too long - not even edible. Finally got hot coffee on day 4, then they continuously ran out of mugs. Did not eat in main dining room. Heard it was difficult to get a reservation.
Onboard Activities
1 out of 5
The few board games, card decks, and puzzles were all missing pieces. Very few tables to play on. Trivia games were average at best.
Entertainment
3 out of 5
Headliner shows were average, one comedian was quite good. Musicians were also good.
Service and Staff
1 out of 5
Language and cultural differences affected communications. Very difficult to understand public announcements. Staff was sometimes rude and condescending. Sometimes didn’t even understand the issues under discussion. Only ate in casual restaurant where there was NO table service at all, except for cleaning.
Ship Quality
3 out of 5
Layout was fine. Overall trip appeared relatively clean EXCEPT public restrooms. Some some absolutely atrocious. The only restroom being maintained regularly was by the theater.
Cabin / Stateroom
4 out of 5
It was small but relatively clean. Sure we saw things under the bed that were not vacuumed up during the entire week. Room steward failed to replace empty Kleenex box twice, but otherwise was well supplied. Steward also could not seem to properly “time” cleaning so a couple of times we told him to skip cleaning so we wouldn’t have to leave again.
Ship tip
They pushed for additional tips the whole way - from announcements about how great the staff was (which they weren’t) to envelopes in the room. Of course, never present were comment cards (yes, we asked). Forget about speaking to someone - they didn’t understand.
Tours were fine but too long. Descriptions were not clear as to activies covered on classic car tour. We asked at excursion desk & they refused to be specific. Had s one on another cruise line where descriptions were clear. They seemed unsure what would be available & seemed to be winging it. One tour venue changed & we missed the cancel deadline because we did not even get the letter before the deadline & they refused to return our money. (And told us “no” when we asked to speak to the manager. Instead said to get a cup of coffee & relax)..
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