Amazing crew, But boat needs complete overhaul or replaced

Empress of the Seas Cruise Review to Caribbean - Western

Cruises: 7+ cruises
Reviews: 4
Helpful Votes: 160

Overall rating:

3.5 out of 5
Verified Review
Empress of the Seas

8 Night Western Caribbean & Perfect Day (Miami Roundtrip)

Sail date: August 24, 2019

Ship: Empress of the Seas

Cabin type: Inside

Cabin number: GTY

Traveled as: Couple

Reviewed: 5 years ago

Review summary

Ship is Very old and needs a complete overhaul if royal plans to keep using it! The plumbing issues need to be fixed or boat sold and replaced! You would think all the bad reviews and publicity would encourage them to do a complete remodel from top to bottom or just sell the boat considering its a 1989! The Sewer smell was present the entire cruise, and deck 3 had blowers running the entire cruise trying to dry the carpet! Rooms are showing the age and bathrooms need serious updating as well. We Just got of harmony before this cruise and the staff is definitely nicer on the smaller ships. They aren't near as rushed with only 1/3 the people onboard. Dining room waiters ( Mark & oka) were amazing, and easily near the top on all but a dozen cruises we've been on! Room attendant was also very good and much better than some we've had. Food in the main dining room was good and the service was as well. Food in the windjammer was fair, & way to repetitive on the longer cruises. Evening Entertainment/Shows were good but afternoon activities were lacking! The movies repeated wayyyyy to much! How hard is it to at least play a new movie every day!? Also the movie selection was very poor compared to other cruises we've been on! The Cruise we were on got extended do to hurricane and royal did not charge any extra, and handled the situation pretty well!

Embarkation

4 out of 5
Smooth and easy as usual

Ship experiences

Food and Dining

4 out of 5
Main dining room service and food was good. Windjammer on the other hand needs some improvement! Food repeats way to much on the longer cruises.

Onboard Activities

3 out of 5
Evening entertainment/Shows were good, morning and afternoon activities were lacking!

Entertainment

3 out of 5
Evening entertainment was ok

Service and Staff

5 out of 5
Service across all the different operations was very good.

Ship Quality

2 out of 5
Ship needs a complete makeover from top to bottom, or just sold! There is excessive wear through out the ship! The plumbing issues and the sewer smell lets a very bad taste for the royal brand! You would think all the bad publicity and reviews would lead to improvements or the sale of this 1989 ship!!

Cabin / Stateroom

3 out of 5
Standard size for small old ship, again excessive wear visible threw out. Bathroom definitely needs redone as its very apparent its from the 80's

Ship tip

Oldest and Smallest boat in fleet

Ports of call

Miami, Florida

3 out of 5
Boarding was pretty smooth and easy

Key West, Florida

3 out of 5
Nice place to stop

Costa Maya (Mahahual), Mexico

4 out of 5
Nice port to stop at.

Belize City, Belize

2 out of 5
Not a very nice place around the port.

Cozumel, Mexico

4 out of 5
Nice place, but again downtown is not within walking distance

Perfect Day At Coco Cay, Bahamas Did not visit port

Stop was canceled😠

Disembarkation

4 out of 5
Fast and easy
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3 Comments

wgammon1    4 years ago

Sorry you had a bad experience.

mikenabbie    5 years ago

I would have to say deck 3 is the absolute worst on this boat!

acruise4us    5 years ago

What deck did you stay on, I thought deck 8 had smell so I booked deck 3!

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