Empress of the Seas Review

3.0 / 5.0
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Small ship with a big ❤️ Empress of the Seas Havana Cruise

Review for Cuba Cruise on Empress of the Seas
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Dgat
2-5 Cruises • Age 40s

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Sail Date: Jul 2018

This review is based on the cruise itself and time spent on board not including ports. The port stops are 5 stars on their own. We cruised to Nassau and stayed overnight in Havana. We chose this cruise based soley on the ports and our available dates of travel. From previous reviews, we knew going in that this was a smaller/older ship, and all of those reviews were not wrong. The ship is very old and needs major renovation to be on par with the comfort level we’ve experienced on other cruises (Celebrity, Carnival). However, the ship is clean and the entire crew is excellent. Food in the buffet and dining room was just okay for us, but definitely edible. They could offer more variety. There is one restaurant that is fee for service, but we didn’t try that one. There are only two areas that are options for food included in your fare. There are times during the day when there is no food available as they close to prepare for the next meal. There is a very, very small pool and I believe one or 2 hot tubs for the entire ship. These were always full so in my opinion the pools were really nonexistent. Entertainment was also very limited as there is only one piano bar, the dance club which is quite small, and another bar dancing area. It seemed like they were never opened at the same time. There was a comedy show which was ok. The variety shows were not that great, but we still watched because there was nothing better to do. They have a very small arcade for the kids. I have teens, but they did not participate in the teen program, so I can’t speak to that. We went to two ports including Nassau and and overnight in Cuba. We had a blast in each port. The ports are what we came for and they did not disappoint. We enjoyed a beach day in Nassau on our own. We signed up for a night tour of Havana for our first day in Cuba as this was the only tour that my daughter was allowed to participate in due to her age. The tour was ok. We did a private tour the following day with Cubaoutings which was amazing! I had found them through research on TripAdvisor. Overall the cruise was a hit for us because of the ports. The time at sea was ok, but it did have pockets of no activity which made it a little boring. The cabins are very small, dated, and worn, but clean. The crew really tries hard to make up for these shortcomings with excellent service and I feel they achieved that goal. I understand the cruises to Cuba must be on the smaller ships as the port in Havana is small and has a street running right under the entrance to the port! However, even the smaller ships should be held to the same comfort level of the other ships. A major overhaul could achieve this. If we ever go back to Cuba, we may choose another line to get there.

Cabin Review

Port Reviews

Miami

Miami has so much to see on its own, we went to the Keys and South Beach, had a great time.

Nassau

We bought a day pass for the beach through a local hotel. Most hotels in the area offer them. Call or research ahead, Hilton, Melia, Sandals...we did Melia this time, we may try another one next time.

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