We chose this cruise as my husband is Cuban and we wanted to see and share in Cuba beauty. The Empress is the smallest ship but it is the best ship. The entertainment was fabulous along with the cruise Director (Elvis) the dinning and ship service was excellent. We did not utilize port of Miami destinations for either embarkation or debarkation only arrived to board the ship. We were celebrating our 25th wedding anniversary and chose Cuba since my husband is Cuban and we had heard a lot of beautiful stories from Cuba. Our first stop was Key West where my family is from and we took a trolley ride to the Southern most Point. Then the sail to Cuba was smooth and when we arrived everything went well from the exchanging of the monies to meeting our tour guide in Havana. In our second port we encountered an equally smooth transfer as with our 4th to Labadee. We even took a tour of the Ship which was amazing!