Empress of the Seas Review
Middle of the road food and entertainment and subpar activities for children
Rating by category
Additional details
The Empress of the Seas is an old ship and shows its age.
Food in both the casual buffet and formal dining is mediocre at best. Service at the formal dining leaves much to be desired. The first night the assistant waiter, who is responsible for drink orders, brought our drinks after we had finished our entrees. He was replaced the second and subsequent nights with someone who was far more capable and attentive.
Service at the bars is a time-consuming affair, with us frequently waiting 15-20 minutes just to get service.
Cabin Review
Port Reviews
Freeport
Freeport was as alternate port of call, since we could not port at Coco Cay as planned due to weather. Freeport was completely devastated by hurricane Matthew in October 2016 and has not recovered. Most resorts and businesses in Freeport have closed, with little or nothing left to do. If you have to travel here and would like to visit the beach, then tell cab drivers you want to go to the shopping district. The shopping district is walking distance from the beach, but if you tell the cab driver you want to go to the beach then they are likely to take you to a sketchy private beach away from the shopping district (as happened to us).
Miami
We live near Miami, so we didn't spend any time on this cruise there.
Key West
Key West was fun. We have 3 young children and enjoyed the aquarium, the shipwreck museum, and Ripley's Believe It Or Not museum.
Nassau
We spent our day at Atlantis, enjoying the pools and water slides with our children and the dolphin encounter. Beware that Atlantis is very expensive.