Date: Tue, 27 May 2003 10:18:54 -0400
From: cmommydearest@aol.com (Cindy)
Subject: Review

This was my 4th cruise.  My first on Royal Carribean.  I traveled with my hubby and 3 of my sons and our extended family of 22 total!

The embarkation process was a breeze!  I expected to be standing in a long line all day and was very pleasantly surprised when we were processed right onto the ship.  Possibly arriving early helped (check with your ship).  They allowed us on at 11am and even though some areas were closed for cleaning, we could go to our cabin and to the Windjammer Cafe for lunch at noon.  Some of our luggage arrived in time for dinner, mine did not.  I was glad I brought a change of clothes in my carry-on!  After dinner my luggage was in my cabin.

The Empress is a smaller ship so it made it easier to navigate our way around.  This was especially comforting to me as my children knew their way around in no time!  The cabins (ocean view) were beautiful, although very small.  Bringing an over the door shoe-hanger for bathroom supplies helped.  There was a good amount of closet space, but not enough drawer space for us all.  If you can pick up accordian style hanging shelves (they are usually made for shoes)it would be a big help.  Of course we got the signature "towel animals" on port days, what a hoot!  Our cabin steward Rodney was great.

Dinner was wonderful (as were all meals on this ship)!  Our waiter Phillipe was the best.  I must add I have read some reviews that stated Royal Carribean food was mediocre, but I didn't see or taste anything less than excellent!!!  We did have some confusion in the Carmen Dining room for one lunch.  We were dressed in nice shorts (not jeans), button-down shirts and sandals and were told by the Matre D' we couldn't enter wearing shorts.  We went to the Windjammer instead.  Later we saw people leaving the Carmen DIning Room with not-so-dressy shorts, flip-flops and t-shirts...apparently the Matre D' wasn't there when they entered.

My children were excited to check out the "Adventure Ocean" program so after dinner off we went to the orientation.  The leaders of this program are wonderful, especially "Center of Attention Steve"!  He was the favorite with my 11, 9 and 6 year old!  The only gripe I had with "Adventure Ocean" is that I thought I would be spending some quality time with my boys, but they were always in a hurry to get back to the "kid konection". They were kept so wonderfully busy I got to spend a lot of time alone with my hubby!  They also had some fun family activities which we truly enjoyed and appreciated!  I didn't hear "I'm bored" once!

The activities on the pool deck were the best!  And the Calypso music was wonderful!  Bar service (for sodas) was very slow there.  Also being a smoker I appreciated having one side of the pool deck designated for smoking, but ashtrays were very hard to come by and the bartenders didn't seem to want to help.

The other shows were ok...don't miss "The Quest" unless your faint of heart or prudish!  Most of the good shows/activities for adults were held at 10:30pm after the "kid konection" closed.  So if we wanted to attend we had to have the kids sign up for the "late night party zone" where they were kept busy for $5.00 per hour per child.  That was $15.00 per hour for me so we only attended 2 evening shows.

In port in Bermuda we did our own thing.  I found the ships excursions pricy and found better ones exploring the net myself.  We bought the 3-day bus/ferry pass and off we went.  We saw the dolphins at the Maritime Museum in Kings Wharf, did some shopping, went to Crystal Caves, went to a beautiful secluded beach (John Smith's Bay), went helmet diving on Hartley's underwater walk (this was the best!!!!!!!)and so much more!  Bermuda is such a beautiful island and the people so very friendly and informative!  One thing though is that the kids couldn't wait to get back to the ship to the "kid-konection" activities!

On the 2nd formal night we (all 22 of us) had portraits taken.  They turned out wonderful and were very reasonably priced.  There are always different back-drops and you only buy what you want.  The photographers were very professional and accomodating.

Debarkation was not as smooth as getting on the ship.  We waited for a long time to be called off.  If you are traveling with children make sure you have little snacks and activities for them while you're waiting as mostly everything is closed.  There was a very nice bartender at the Carousal Pub who accomodated us as much as he could.  Security was suprisingly light.  We were not asked for our "sea-pass" cards, gang plank passes and so on.  The only time we were stopped was to give our list of souveniers to the customs official, but he didn't check anything.  That was a little scary considering the state of the world these days.

Of course we had our little quirks, but none worth mentioning here.  Overall is was the time of our lives and I can't wait to do it again!

If you have any questions email me at cmommydearest@aol.com

United We Stand