Empress of the Seas
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Empress of the Seas Reviews

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4.3
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Based on 4 reviews
Cabin
4.3
Service
4.3
Excursions
4.3
Dining
4.3
Activities
4.3
Value for money
4.3
Entertainment
4.3
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My family and I specifically chose the Empress of the Seas for its itinerary-Cozumel, Havana (overnight), and Nassau. After reading some of the reviews on Cruise Critic, I was a bit worried about sailing on this specific ship. No worries! My family and I were presently surprised at the service and how well maintained the ship was. The ship is the smallest in the NCI fleet, which was fine by us! Mega ships are overrated; being on a smaller ship makes it much easier & quicker to learn the layout of the ship and you can walk from one end to the other in 5 minutes! Excellent dining experience in both the dining room and the Windjammer cafe! Huge selection of foods available...and quality of the food was very good to excellent. Desserts at the buffet were much better than I remember from my past experiences on NCL and Carnival. There were options for beverages at the Windjammer for those who chose not to purchase the pricey drink packages-lemonade, iced tea, fruit punch, water, and coffee. The coffee was much too strong for my taste, but it was decent. Staff on the ship couldn’t have been more helpful-from Deny (our room attendant), to our waiters in the dining room-Valento and Viny, and who can forget the hilarious activities staff who made playing trivia every day a hoot! Our accommodation was an oceanview stateroom. Yes, the rooms are small, but how much time do you actually spend in your room!?! I don’t know about anyone else, but I go on cruises to spend time in the ports of call, on the sun decks, and at activities, not wasting away in my room!!! Past posts indicate the ship is in poor repair and musty/dirty. I can tell you that I found none of this on the Empress of the Seas. I am a neat freak so I would have definitely noticed these things! No areas of the ship were closed off due to maintenance when we sailed (as I had read in previous posts). The pool and hot tubs were well maintained and were never shut down. Embarkation and debarkation when stopped at ports of call was quick and painless. I was a tad worried about getting sick on a cruise, given what is publicized in the media so often. The staff went above and beyond to encourage passengers to wash their hands or use hand sanitizer before meals to help with the spread of germs. I can tell you as a nurse I sincerely appreciated this! Shout out to Neilbert for greeting us at the Windjammer Café multiple times a day and encouraging us to “washy washy”!!! I would definitely consider traveling on the Empress of the Seas in the future!

Verified customer
1 cruise
13 Apr 2019
star star no star no star no star

Ship was old and dated.it could do with some refurbishment. In our cabin we had a television but you could not receive any news or films only on a loop about cruises.no fridge -no kettle-no self laundry-and no daily news paper. We had no news from home for nearly two weeks food was reasonable and i have seen better entertainment on other ships.

Verified customer
1 cruise
6 Apr 2019
star star star star star

Really good holiday the cruise was lovely nice ship and good food. The holiday booked with Iglu cruises was good with no problems with good transfer service. With stay Miami first then cruise to Key West, two stops at Mexico, A cruise stay at Cuba. Iglu cruises helped sort out all our visa and transfer. Great holiday with Iglu, Thanks would use again

Verified customer
1 cruise
2 Nov 2018
star star star star star

Really good holiday the cruise was lovely nice ship and good food. The holiday booked with Iglu cruises was good with no problems with good transfer service. With stay Miami first then cruise to Key West, two stops at Mexico, A cruise stay at Cuba. Iglu cruises helped sort out all our visa and transfer. Great holiday with Iglu, Thanks would use again

Verified customer
1 cruise
2 Nov 2018