I had never been on a cruise before and a friend of mine higher recommended the Empress of the Sea. I was going to a wedding in Miami so decided to make a trip out of it and go on a 5 day cruise beforehand. The Empress of the Sea is a small cruise ship so if you hit bad weather - prepare to rock/roll and be sea sick! We had bad weather for ALL 5 days. The boat rocked so much it was impossible to sleep and everyone was sea sick - even the staff! I attempted to get a massage to relieve my massive headache due to the rocking and the masseuse had to leave in the middle of my treatment to throw up. Everyone was throwing up. Crew were hosing down the decks due to all of the vomit. Staff was down due to being sea sick so room service was 30 minutes late. I had to get room service 2 days because I was too sick to leave my cabin. All people I spoke with said it was the WORST cruise they had ever been on. I met a couple when I was well enough to venture out and they mentioned it was their 30th cruise. They said it was so bad it made them never want to cruise again! The one good day was our stop on Cozumel. It was sunny and most importantly we had land. I had a great time in Cozumel and the people were lovely. I was dreading getting back on board and sure enough it started to rock and roll again leading everyone to be miserable and sea sick. Our only hope was we were going to Costa Maya the next day. Around 6 AM the Captain came on saying we would NOT be going to Costa Maya due to the waves and instead of going to another port we would spend 48 hours at sea. Everyone was so upset that we were not going to another nearby port or going back to Miami early. Everyone said they would rather get back to Miami one day earlier vs. spending 48 hours at sea being sick on a rocking boat. There was also nothing to do. The pool was drained due to the waves, rock climbing wall was down and no one in our group wanted to drink because we felt so sick. We are in our 30's so enjoy adventure/fun. The only activities were Bingo, Trivia the casino and Karaoke. It was beyond awful. It was supposed to be a fun trip with my husband, sister and brother in law. It was our first cruise for all of us and Royal Caribbean did nothing to make up for the bad experience. I would never go on "vacation" on this boat again.