We decided the Empress of the seas ship due a bargain deal to Key west and Cozumel. There were 17 of us in my group. We had three people turning 60 , one 50 , one 40 , a 30th anniversary and 20th anniversary and sailing on my birthday. Due to so many people we wanted to have an exciting trip but at a low cost. The Empress changed their itinerary to Costa Maya and Cuba and that ended up extremely exciting for the cost we paid for the original trip. What a bargin and especially to Cuba for the first Royal Caribbean cruise.
We started off extremely excited till we got on the ship. This was the smallest ship we have been on and was older than we thought. We noticed area were update but other areas were run down. There was an AC problem we discovered the min. we walked on. The Casino had individual AC units plugged in through out the area that was not doing the job. The staff was so hot working and we were sweating every night. Only two people on the ship were comfortable and they had reserve seat on the only 3 card poker table with one portable AC unit directly on them . They had plenty of money to spend but us who spent our hard earned money were not important enough to get treated with that luxury. The bar staff , wait staff, dealers and casino host were all 10's . They suffered with our while working and they were the best of the best.
Our toilet, overflowed and did not flush on many days. We have to call maintenance often. Maintenance was great and responsive but the toilet situation did not pertain to my room only. My neighbor has the same issue and toilets in the hall did not flush. I had a friend on floor 8 that their neighbors toilet overflowed in the hall and they were told they should not go bare foot. So horrible! The odor was extremely bad in many hall ways.
The only complaint is the toilets did not flush and overflowed. Bathroom smelled. Other than that the cabin was good and attendant great.
Stayed at the shore culb, loved it !
Went into town and beaches on our own. Loved it.
Walked on our own ate and drank and shopped. Loved it.