Friday, August 5, 2016

The Return of the Empress of the Seas

Last week, a few members of our staff were invited to tour the revitalized Empress of the Seas while she was docked in Miami.  I have a soft spot for this ship, as I sailed on her about 19 years ago when our children were very young.  Seeing the ship brought back memories!

This ship is very different from the rest of today's Royal Caribbean.  It is a smaller vessel, at under 50,000 tons carrying under 1900 passengers (compare that with the Harmony of the Seas, at 226,000 tons and 5400 passengers).  While the long term plan is for her to sail to Cuba, she is currently sailing short itineraries of 4-5 nights out of Miami.

If one is looking for a quiet getaway, this is a great ship.  It does not have the "bells and whistles", but brings you back to the earlier days of cruising.  The ship has a nice showroom, and we previewed the shows which looked great.  It has a fairly large casino for a ship this size (and by the way is the only non-smoking casino in the fleet).  There is one specialty restaurant on board, Chops Grill, which is a beautiful, completely new venue.  The other lounges have their old motif, except for Boleros which was redone in a Cuban theme.

The cabins are small, but clean and adequate for a short cruise.  The bathrooms are small, and because it is an older ship none of the standard staterooms have balconies.

One strange part of the ship is the gym.  It was added as a loft to the lounge in the Crow's Nest.  While you have to go up a spiral stair case from the lounge to the gym, it seems strange to me if you want to work out at night to have to walk through an active bar to get there (considering you will be wearing work out attire).  It was obvious they had to find a spot for the gym, so had to make do.

All in all, I would recommend this ship to couples looking for a short, relatively quiet getaway.  I think it is perfect for people who have cruising for a long time and would like an experience to reminisce about cruising of yesteryear.




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