My cruise was from the 4/30/06 to 05/04/06...... I can start off by saying if you arrive early it will be well worth your while. We arrived at the cruise terminal at 10am and to our surprise they were allowing people to enter the terminal for the cruisers that were scheduled to leave out that day. I can say this I have been on several cruises, and this by far was the most organized events that i have ran across. We were directed to have a seat in the seats, as instructed we did, and later learned that since we arrived early, we would be one of few to board early, like the VIP'S (platinum members).

Was allowed on the ship around 1145 am. I was assigned to cabin Empress 212. Upon entering the hallway that i was assigned i observed that several rooms had brand new carpet, and several rooms still had old carpet. I based my decision on this due to the brightness in the newer carpet and the wear and tear on the other carpet. While traveling down this hallway, we could smell a sewer smell, emitting from the hallway. It was not a carpet smell. We arrived to our cabin. Even though our cabin was mostly cleaned, we placed our luggage in our closet that we had carried on to the ship. our cabin steward introduced himself to us, and stated that the room was not ready.

Prior to sailing: We had advised our cabin steward of the sewer smell that was emitting in our cabin, it was extremely bad, to the point that it was giving us both headaches. We also complained about the ventilation within the cabin. Read more