Empress of the Seas Review
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Additional details
The cruise itself was fine- it was a relaxing vacation. This was our first time on a Royal Caribbean boat. While we will probably try Royal again, I cannot recommend this ship unless you really just like to hang out on a deck chair and read or watch people. It is very small boat and the activities are quite limited. I didn't travel with any young children and I'm glad because I saw very few things that were geared towards that age group. We went the entire 5 days without ever having our room steward introduce himself, although he did a nice job of keeping our room clean. The cabin itself was tiny. I mean really tiny. The pictures are deceptive...this room is SMALL. Dysfunctionally small. Painfully small. And we even had a cabin with a window. I can't imagine the interior cabins.
I found the drinks to be a lot more expensive than on our previous cruises with Carnival and Holland-America, so be prepared for that. The drink card was a good choice for us for this reason - a coke was almost $4, and frozen/mixed drinks almost $13 - at those prices, it doesn't take long to pay for the beverage card.
The activities each day were on par with a boat this size - small boat, small amount of activities. Most of the staff was friendly enough - although most of the bar stuff were rather gruff.
Cabin Review
Tiny. Tiny. Tiny. Limited storage, no mini-bar (I don't know where they would even put it). Bathroom is basically unusable, it's so small - shower was a joke. Had plumbing issues that last night. Air Conditioning system was hit and miss - either freezing and non-functional. Room steward made two towel animals the whole week and they were lame.
Port Reviews
Miami
We liked Miami a lot - did not book any excursions, just winged it on our own. It's not hard to find something to do in Miami. Beautiful city and beautiful beaches.
Nassau
Not impressed with Nassau. Dirty city, way over crowded and nothing much to do near the cruise terminal other than shop or drink. The closest public beach is trashy and dirty and a long walk. The shopping was shop after shop of the same cheap tourist junk. The straw market was so tightly packed, it was almost impossible to walk through and what I did see before I go t incredibly hot I had to get out, was packed booth on top of packed booth, all filled with the same stuff. We didn't take any formal excursions because they were expensive for the perceived value - I guess that was our mistake. Maybe we would have enjoyed Nassau more that way.
Key West
Not what I expected. Tight, crowded streets that were dirty, more bars than anything else. Excursions were lame or expensive, and could be done on your own for a lot less - the island is not that big, it's not likely you can get far enough away to miss the boat.