Background information: I was a solo traveler (English speaking only) arrived in Miami on 7/3/16 (should have been 7/2/16 but flight had 6 hour delay!). Cruise scheduled to leave port at 4 PM on 7/4/16.

Ship: Empress of the Seas. Newly renovated. Nice new carpeting throughout. Décor is nothing to write about, not sure it even caught my attention. Ship pretty clean for being newly renovated, however there was a foul odor in the hallway just outside my cabin - I couldn't smell it when in my cabin and on one side of the ship on deck 6 (blah). Ship is very small, which was not a surprise, but I discovered that I missed the layout and all of the activity provided on the larger ships, especially the Promenade.

Cabin: I have an inside cabin. It was very small, was happy to have it to myself. If I had been traveling with someone we would have been tripping over each other anytime we were in the cabin. Shower is extremely small. Ladies - don't plan on shaving your legs in the shower as there is no room to bend over! Also, had to fight with the show curtain blowing in on me when showering and keeping the water from getting all over the floor in the rest of the bathroom. I did discover that it was possible to control both by turning the pressure on the shower down. Read more