We did a six night cruise on the Canadian Empress from Quebec City to Kingston. While there were a few positive aspects, notably very good food and evening entertainment, overall this cruise did not come anywhere close to meeting our expectations. Other reviewers have commented on the small cabins, which is absolutely the case but we could have lived with that. However, we felt that the main problem is that the ship is old (35 years) and has not been maintained to an acceptable standard. Everything looks shabby and tired, and we experienced numerous mechanical problems which impacted our cruise experience. These included a power outage, lack of hot water, lack of cold water (depending on the day), and an engine problem that resulted in cancellation of one of the scheduled itinerary items. What bothered us most was that there were frequent sewage odors not just in our bathroom, but throughout the ship.

We felt that the crew worked very hard to make our experience as pleasant as possible. However, we also felt that the ship is staffed at the absolute minimum level, meaning that the service was sometimes slow and cabins and common areas were not kept very clean.

Given the price point, we were expecting much more and in our opinion, we did not get what we paid for. In fact, most of the other passengers whom we spoke to about their satisfaction with the cruise told us that they were also very disappointed and would not recommend this cruise to others.