Since there were so many terrible reviews for the Empress’ earlier cruises I thought I’d let others know that all is well on the Empress of the Seas. First remember it is a small ship. If you are used to large or mega ships this one might be too small for you. There is not really a lot to do onboard but sit back, read, relax and let the seas go by. With that being said the Empress has an exceptional staff. Since the ship is bound for Cuba later this year many of the customer service staff are Latin from Brazil, Dominica, Puerto Rico, Mexico, etc. I did not encounter an employee that did not greet me first, really customer centric.

Rooms are small and probably smaller than ships launched in the 2000’s. If you plan on spending a lot of time in your cabin you might want to pick another ship. For a $60 million dry dock it’s hard to see where the money went; a lot of behind the scenes activities I guess. It did not appear that much has been reconfigured but there was an expanse of new carpet throughout. With such an extensive dry-dock I had expected something like the transformation of the Carnival Dynasty‘s remake to the Sunshine. The pool deck area is totally inadequate on sea days. There is a small adult pool and an adjacent smaller kid’s pool. No dry-dock dollars went to the pool deck. Same is true for the Windjammer and the Viking Lounge.

Food was quite good and varied based on the limited dining options. Earlier complaints regarding the Windjammer food have been resolved. The meager salad selection mentioned in earlier reviews has been expanded to 4 lettuce blends, 10-20 condiments and 4-6 dressings. Cold cuts for dinner have been increased to 4-6 full blocks of cheese selections. The usual hamburger fare was always available with full dinner options from chicken, fish, carved pork/beef, pastas, etc. There was plenty of variety to choose from. WJ staff were excellent; checking at your table to greet you, see if you needed anything. They would actually offer drink refills as well as walk through the area serving cookies and desserts. Keep in mind an old ship so the setup is not as spacious as you’d like. Proper timing and you wait will be limited. When items such as ice/beverage/soft serve did not work there was always staff present providing backup options. I never went without anything when dining in the WJ. Read more