Old Ship, Sub Par Crew...Havana was great!
Empress of the Seas Cruise Review to Cuba
Contributor Level:
Purser
Cruises: 7+ cruises
Reviews: 2
Helpful Votes: 56
5 Night Key West & Havana Overnight (Miami Roundtrip)
Sail date: June 01, 2019
Ship: Empress of the Seas
Cabin number: 8110
Traveled as: Singles/Friends
Reviewed: 5 years ago
Review summary
Empress of the Seas should be decommissioned for remodeling. It needs an overhaul in the dining areas, as well the staterooms. If and when travel to Cuba is restored from US ports, you should skip the stops in Florida and go straight to Havana. Allow people a minimum of 2 nights.Embarkation
We were in a larger stateroom and received priority boarding. It didn't take more than 15-20 minutes to get on the ship after arriving to the port.
Ship experiences
Food and Dining
The main dining in Starlight is awful, both the the food and service.
The food in Windjammer Cafe was good, though I felt that there were limited options at times. Also, they always overbaked the cookies...everyday, all day!
There is only 1 specialty restaurant, which is very disappointing compared to the multiple options I have experienced on other cruise lines.
One of the days that we were at sea, the drinks were to be served in fresh pineapples all day at pool side. We arrived around 3p and there were no pineapples.
Onboard Activities
My biggest complaint is that the itineraries had errors everyday. Often multiple activities were listed as occurring in the same room in overlapping time periods. Opening hours were wrong. It was pretty pitiful.
Movie nights on the pool deck were nice.
The pool is way to small
It reminds you of the 3ft kiddie pool that would be at your local park.
I wish they had an art gallery as I have experienced regularly on other cruise lines.
Entertainment
The musicians were really great, as well the DJ.
The one thing that I really missed in comparison to other cruise lines was a really good comedian. There was a horrible ventriloquist performing.
Service and Staff
I have to say that my room steward was excellent.
However, the majority of wait staff in the bars and restaurants were not very welcoming or interactive with guests. I often noticed them standing around talking to each other in lieu of checking in to see if we needed anything else while enjoying our meals. We often would sit waiting 20 or more minutes before being able to get someone's attention.
To add insult to injury, the last night of the cruise an announcement was made in the dining room about how great the team was and how hard they work. Next thing you know they are walking around with trays of cookies and beverage options for guests. This has not happened at all the entire trip.
However, earlier in the day after room cleaning, envelopes were left in our rooms for "additional gratuities," as there is an 18% gratuity automatically charged daily. So, this was a veiled attempt at stepping up service to gain additional money the last night. So, disrepspectful and dishonorable. This is why I dislike automatic gratuities.
As well, during embarkation we were the first to meet with the head of dining services and requested earlier seating time. She hemmed and hawed for literally 10 minutes, only to say "we are pretty booked, I will add you to the waiting list." I watched her put our name at the top of the list. She then said, "I will call you and let you know what we can do." We never heard from her the entire trip.
Needless to say, my room steward received the additional gratuity because the dining crews were undeserving.
Ship Quality
Ship design was pretty straight forward. Most areas were kept clean except the bathrooms.
The bathrooms were not frequently attended to on this ship. You could often go in and smell urine, see toilet paper on the floor or have none available.
Cabin / Stateroom
The beds were hard as a rock and had mattress pads from the 70s. There was only 1 chair in the room, though there was more than adequate space for an additional chair.
Ship tip
Don't set your hopes to high.
Thumbs up
0
Ports of call
Tourist trap. We then wasted the night at sea to travel 90 miles at 7 knots/hr to Havana, Cuba. We could have skipped Key West altogether to spend another day in Cuba. Certainly, we could have arrived in Cuba early evening the same day to have a 2nd night there.
Disembarkation
I am accustomed to disembarking based upon flight times and/or other variables. This process was random and less than stellar.