twangster

The Ocean's 7 bar: At 11am our lunch was ready. Lunch was a hamburger or a hot dog. I wouldn't rave about the meal but it did the job. Fearful I might develop an ache somewhere in my body I thought it wise to take a local drink called a Painkiller. To be extra safe I thought it best to consume several.

There are several bars that we were free to visit. This beach is popular with the yachting and sailing crowd.

My excursion today was Escape to Jost Van Dyke booked through Royal and later cheaper when it went on sale and I saved $19. Jost Van Dyke is one of the smaller islands in the BVI with a small permanent population. I've been to Jost Van Dyke before and booking this excursion was the very next thing I did after booking this cruise. Very close to the end of the pier is the staging area for excursion boats. The boat has both inside and outside seating fore and aft. The forward outdoor seating does some sea spray but it was very refreshing. Around 25 minutes later we were approaching this little slice of heaven right here on Jost Van Dyke. The water here is quite stunning. I wasn't quick enough to capture the decent size sea turtle that popped up close by in this general direction. On previous trips here the boat anchored and we swam to shore. This excursion comes with a barge that takes guests to shore where you can just walk onto the beach without getting wet. There are numerous bars that line the beach. Our designated section was at the end of the beach at Ocean 7 names after seven sisters that founded this bar. Loungers and umbrellas were reserved for us. We received tickets for one drink (beer/soda/water) and one meal each. It's such a beautiful beach.

Day 5 - Tortola, BVI We sailed through the Virgin Islands chain and eventually began approaching Tortola. Tortola has a pier. Our progress so far... Docked and ready to go. Excursion meeting point is right at the end of the pier where several people holding up signs were in place to greet us.

Odyssey is coming soon, just over a year away. They will likely be careful since some folks might not book Odyssey if they start talking about OA5. Classic Royal approach is to focus hype on the next coming, not the one after that.

Itinerary absolutely comes into play. Radiance was doing Alaska and Australia in 2018 and both are more expensive areas to cruise so her numbers bear that out.

Chops was $48 plus 18%. Since I'm D+ I used a C&A BOGO offer to get a second visit for free. The Café menu:

I've been in cruise mode having a great time making new friends so I apologize for the lack of updates. This was our sail out from San Juan at midnight. The fountain on Paseo de la Princesa that I capture earlier. El Morro at night.

Walking back to the ship I just had to capture it with some water blur effect and the nearly full moon. It was too early to go back on board so with several hours until all aboard time I wanted to go back to Paseo de la Princesa. I always enjoy stops that include the ability to take pictures of the ship at night so I couldn't let the opportunity go to waste. Time to head back on board.

My destination was sort of El Morro and anything I happen to see along the way so I just started walking up hill vaguely in that direction snapping a few pictures along the way. I walked past a church with open doors so I couldn't resist a photo. Eventually I reached the edge of the field in front of El Morro just in time for sunset. Behind me the lights along the road towards Castillo San Cristóbal caught my attention so I went that way. I wasn't really feeling the photography juices flowing so I had to figure something out. Maybe some long exposure light streaking photos would do the trick. This is why I love golden hour. Castillo San Cristóbal. With my camera doing a 30 second exposure I used the light on my phone to "paint" the area closest to me with light.

Drink sale of the day, half off Margaritas! My plan for this visit to San Juan was some photos during golden hour after sunset so I waited for the WJ to open at 6pm and had some dinner before venturing off. Walking up hill I found a view that included Empress in the distance.

Day 4 - San Juan Quite windy as we approached Puerto Rico but Empress handled it really well. The pilot boat was having a fun ride. Finally San Juan was within sight. El Morro was grand as ever. Into our berth early as promised.

CocoCay has an employee population of a few hundred living on the island. With only one ship in port it would be impossible to miss the ship. The full time employee residents would spot you and run you the ship. The Empress run to the Eastern Caribbean is unique because it has to leave at 3pm to make San Juan on time. If they left at 5pm with the other ship it wouldn't be an issue because all guests would be back on board their ships and any stragglers would be immediately obvious.

Voom update. Day 3 Voom was pretty good all day. I used day 3 as a work day and spent a lot of time on calls and using WebEx. Day 4 Voom still holding up. First thing in the morning. Several conference calls with perfect voice calls for hours. Day 4 afternoon after arriving in San Juan mid afternoon. Fingers crossed the on/off Voom was fixed by the maintenance I saw on boarding day.

I think they have a no-whiners policy. If you are a cranky guest, you are at guest services complaining the pillowcase is too white or trying to get something for free, you might not get invited. On a small ship it's easier for guests to get to know the management team. The reverse is also true, the management team gets to know the guests.

I chatted with Julie about the lack of a Diamond event. Internally the Crown and Anchor department carries the financial burden of Diamond Happy Hour in their budget center. They've looked at different ideas but some of it comes down to staffing. Empress isn't staffed to host a Diamond event. At a minimum it takes 3 crew to host and serve a dedicated happy hour event and with fewer crew on Empress that would mean pulling crew from elsewhere causing another area to be understaffed every night. It's not a decision the Hotel Director can make exclusively since C&A pays for it. They are always considering ideas and I let her know it is one of the more popular discussion points amongst Diamond and higher cruisers who consider Empress when booking a cruise. She was curious if I thought cruisers just wanted a meeting place to see other Diamond members or if the happy hour drinks were the issue. I suggested that the drinks beyond the 3 happy hour 'coupons' were more of a point of contention. I'm not sure anything will come of it but it's nice to know they are aware of how us cruisers feel and they aren't just standing on policy but are thinking about our concerns. Next cruise will have 18 Pinnacles. With 12 Pinnacles on this cruise that is high for Empress (last July to Cuba there were no Pinnacles on board). Next cruise should be interesting.

Another gentleman is doing a B4B and has C&A points in the high 200s. He was beside me at meal with an officer in the last cruise. That itself is unique. Meal with an officer should kick in at 340. He was surprised he was invited. Empress treats C&A guests very well.

@JLMoran asked me if they ever have a piano player in the MDR during dinner. I was fortunate enough to be picked for the Hotel Director's Table once again. I learned that it's not always just the top elite that get invited based on numbers. The Captain or Hotel Director has the ability to choose. Once again Jorge our Guest Services Manager joined us. This is the last cruise for Julie our Hotel Director and Jorge as well. While Julie goes home for 2 months Jorge is heading to Majesty for a few months. Some of my tablemates tonight were the pier runners at CocoCay. Long story. The ship called one of their emergency contacts when they were late. Another step in the protocol I didn't know about. I asked Julie about the previous Eastern cruise when guests were left at CocoCay. She confirmed there were 3 guests involved and they all made their way to San Juan at their expense. They contacted Mariner first and confirmed they had space before leaving the guests. When the decision to skip San Juan due to civil unrest was made it was Jorge who contacted the port agent to make arrangements to get the guests over to the BVI at Royal's expense. I asked about the process when a guest misses the ship. Multiple security wearing body cameras enter their cabin. They document everything on camera. They will open the safe and look for passports, wallet, credit cards and money. Money is counted very visibly on camera. They collect it all and put it in a bag. If they see diapers in a cabin of missing guests they'll grab some of those too. Everything is put in a bag and readied to be handed off to the local port agent. She said when a guest does make it at the last second (pier runner) it's very sobering for them to see their stuff in a sealed bag when they realize how close they came to missing the ship. If a guest does miss the ship they hand the sealed package to the port agent who later gives it to the guest. In the case of the last cruise and missing CocoCay guests the sealed packages were left with Mariner's security team. Julie is very personable and it was interesting to hear more stories from her lengthy time at sea starting as a revenue manager. She shared a picture a friend (crew) on Mariner took using a drone showing Empress and Mariner at the pier in CocoCay. She airdropped the photo to me so I airdropped the Milky Way photo from my Empress Western cruise the week before back to her. Since the drone photo isn't my picture I'm not going to share it here but it's a pretty cool picture. Some of my table mates will be on a Navigator B2B I have coming up. Another will be on a Vision Panama cruise coming up with me. Last cruise a table mate at the HD Table will be on an Oasis B3B with me later this year. You meet so many nice people at these events and I greatly appreciate the invitation. Once again we were presented with a memento of our dinner experience. Loyalty does pay.

Day 3 continued... Forgot to post the rainbow at sea this morning. Lots of sargassum at sea. They don't call this the Sargasso Sea for no reason. That's the Atlantic for you. This is the source of that stuff that lands on beaches like Florida and Costa Maya. Top Tier at 5pm in Boleros. 730 total Crown and Anchor members. That's up quite a bit from the last sailing. 412 Gold 130 Platinum, 49 Emerald, 91 Diamond, 36 Diamond Plus, 12 Pinnacle 944 new to Royal this cruise. Main theater show tonight is a new act that wasn't on my previous B2B. Replacing the hypnotist we have The Dangerous Comedy of Wilde and James. Juggling three knives on a unicycle. Yep, that just happened. Captain's address. Guest cout 1,674. Top speed for Empress is 19 knots and we are running at that speed today. The Captain announced we should have an extra hour in San Juan. With a scheduled arrival at 3pm we should be at the pier and ready to go closer to 2pm. Saw this as I walked through the smoke free casino.

10 seconds with a small tripod. Full details here: https://www.royalcaribbeanblog.com/boards/index.php?/topic/14213-empress-b2b-14-nights-on-the-biggest-little-ship-july-2019/&do=findComment&comment=144333

Yeah but your funny money walking into the casino had the reverse effect.

Word on Empress at NextCruise suggests Odyssey cruises will be released in December.

This is exactly why contracts with tour operators are reviewed and cancelled periodically.

You can! Applications are being accepted at RoyalCaribbean.com right now. All it takes is a credit card...

When in doubt go with the truth. Did they mention the survey? If so, then yes.