We chose this cruise because it is a smaller ship than other Royal Caribbean ships and the atmosphere was very casual with no 'dressing for dinner'. Plus the price was right. And the clincher was that we went to Key West, one of my bucket list locations. The ship was Empress of the Seas. I do not believe this started out as a Royal Caribbean ship, but was purchased recently. This ship is showing signs of wear, but it was fine and very comfortable. We had an ocean view stateroom on Deck 4 so it was very smooth when we sailed through some bumpy water.

The food was average to good. They had a specialty restaurant on board called Chops and were running a sailing day special offering a discount which we took and the food was definitely a few steps above the ship dining room. The food in the Windjammer Café buffet was okay but it is hard to keep that much food warm and in servable condition. And fighting the crowd in there become annoying.

The dining room service was very very good. We selected 'My time' dining and we were always seated within minutes of arriving at the dining room. Our menus arrived just as soon as we had put the our napkins on our laps and the wine list arrived shortly after that. Read more