New Cruise Review: 2/25/07

Jason · April 20, 2007

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[*]First solo cruise of 66th taken .Love the ship sad to see her go .

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Hi just a short review of my cruise on the Empress of the seas .

I cruised solo for the frist time on the Empress of the seas 2/26/07

had a great table and had a great time. It was an11 day S.Caribbean

cruise out of San Juan .First off i thought i would have to pick up

the ship in St Maarten the next day .almost being snowed in !! I Got

to the airport at 4am on the 26th and my flight was at 6:25 am .It

took an hour to deice the plane ,and we left at 7:30 an .I was on the

ship at 1 pm .The ports on the cruise were St Maarten, St Kitts,

Antigua ,st Lucia, Bardados ,Margarita island, Curacao,Aruba ,and 2

day at sea .Great ports .Have not done a S.Caribbean cruise in in some

time .So i was realy looking forward to this cruise .That and it being

an 11 day cruise .

First a little history of me with this ship .We did the 10th sailing

on this ship when it was brand new back in 1990 .Then again in 1999 to

Bermuda from NYC .Both of the cruises were when she was the Nordic

Empress .The new places on the ship are the rock clinbing wall, the

Schooner bar, Boleros ,Potofino's ,witch you pay $20 and is great .And

Ben & Jerry"s ice cream . The cabins on this ship are very small .I

could not take my family back on here in the same cabin again .I would

need 2 cabin now ! This ship holds 2050 people on her when full ,and

on sea days up at the pool it gets very crowed when full .On my cruise

there was only 1500 or so on board . So it wasn"t so bad at the

pool.Also i think this ship has the best wrap around promenade

deck ,it"s wide .I did my 10 mile power walking there every morning at

6:30 am to 8:30 am .It was great watching the sun coming up ,it just

dosen"t get any better i lost 5 lbs's on this cruise!!

Now the good news this ship and cruise was the first to get the new

menu"s .That will be going feet wide soon .It was the best food i ever

had on RCCI .This being the 9 time with RCCI .and 3rd time on this

ship .Now i still would not call it the best cruise food i ever

had .But it was very good at lest better then the other RCCI cruises

we have been on .Also there were 2 top guy"s from the head office on

board to check it out .The Carmen dinning room the food tested better

not as blend as before .In the Windjammer cafe it's so much better

then i ever remember before .Another great thing at the Windjammer is

there is food there all day long ! Unlike alot of other cruise

lines ,and you could get Ice tea and Lemon aid all day long HINT

Princess !!!!

The show's were very good i went to most of them .Being an 11 day

cruise the night life after 11 pm is not like on a 7 day cruise .And

another funny thing .On a 7 day cruise most people go for the 2nd

seating dinning not on this cruise !! yes it was an olded crowed .But

not to old as i thought would be .One thing RCCI is offering now is

ghost booking.That"s where you do an open booking for $100 and they

fax it over to your TA it's good for 3 years .And when you book your

next cruise with RCCI that's the only depoist need for the new

booking ,and you get a $200 ship board credit . You can't go wrong!

Ports i only did 3 tours one in St lucia a train ride around the

island it was great .A tour of Margarita island was good .and a tour

of the rain forest in San Juan the last day it was a great way to

spend the day before my flight home ! Took my time and went to the

great beachs of the islands .Then went back to the ship to have some

lunch .then in the afternoon went to town to shop and walk around

town .I had a great time no rush here !

In clossing i had a great time on this cruise i love doing an 11 day

S.Caribbean cruise love the ports of call. The great people i met like

always The service in the cabin and dinning room was great The front

desk was very helpful .Would i do this cruise again in a hart beat !!

But there was talk on baord that she may be going to Island cruises

or Pullmenta cruises .Not sure when .This was my 66th cruise and

another great one .We will be on the New Liberty of the seas august

25th 07 of this year .Also doing an 2 day cruise to Nassau on the

Regal Empress with friends in august .And the Explorer of the seas

doing an 12 day S Caribbean cruise from NJ Feb 24th 08 No flying this

time !! Enjoy

Ken G...........>

Updated Fri, Apr 20 2007 9:15 pm

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terumim · April 21, 2007

Ken thank you for the review

Tonia

GottaCruz · April 21, 2007

Ken, thanks so much for that amazing review. I really learned alot from it. Great info about the open booking. Wasn't aware of that. . We've been on about 30 cruises but only 2 of them with RC, the rest Carnival. We recently sailed Enchantment and loved it. Like you said, the food was all day long.

Curious to know, is the Empress larger than Enchantment ??? We love that jogging track for our walking. It's shaded , which is great for us. 10 miles??? Wow, you lost weight . I've got to learn how to cruise and lose like you.

Thanks again for a super review.

rogue · April 21, 2007

Sounds like a great cruise, Ken. We were on the Nordic Empress back in 1999 on our first cruise, and we both loved it even though we hit a hurricane on the first day out of NY.

Thanks for the review. :thumbup:

cruisetarp · April 21, 2007

Ken - thanks for your review of the Empress. We have sailed on this ship quite a few times and are very sorry to hear it will be leaving the fleet in March of 2008. Glad you had a good time and we look forward to trying out the new menu.

MrVeendam · April 21, 2007

:biggrin: Hi Cheryl We been on Carinval 10 times also .We go now mainly on RCCI & Carinval now more or less for our boy"s 15 &16 .We did the Crown Princess last august .There was not much for them to do on that cruise .They got bored !! We been on Princess 5 times going back to the Sitmar days .Right now i would say RCCI is much better then Princess .The food on Princess was just good .It use to be great !!! We have been on all the cruises lines on our 66 cruises.Some that are not around anymore too .I live in NJ on the other side of the river from NYC .My house over looks the NYC passagers ship piers We watch the ships go out from our deck. Today the NCL Sprite HAL"s Nordam are in .It"s Spring time here today up in the 70"s !! Cap liberty is 2 towns over from where we live . I still think after 27 years of cruies .,it's still the best vacation !!