twangster

I wouldn't invest a lot of time or energy arguing that point with you. I'd lose.

Despite the storms brewing in the Miami area the seas are very flat tonight. One thing I noted in the Cruise Compass for tomorrow. We are changing ship time this sailing, going back one hour after Key West unlike the 1st leg of this B2B when we did not change ship time.

Chops dinner using the D+ BOGO, again. Rinse, lather, repeat. Gotta love that view. Crispy Goat Cheese Salad. Grilled Black Peppered Bacon appetizer. Back to the nine ounce filet. Ice Cream Sundae for dessert. Yum.

Miami Sail Away The Crown and Anchor Loyalty Ambassador hosts a Diamond and up sail away behind Boleros on deck 6 outside. Since Empress doesn't have a Diamond Lounge this event is offered. Louis our LA is there to greet us It's a great covered location to take in the sail away from. Several officers drop by to greet guests. This included the Hotel Director, Revenue Manager, Marketing Manager and a few others I forget to note their positions. Oh that Miami traffic. You know it's bad when a cruise ship is going faster than the traffic. We passed Symphony of the Seas as we departed. The not so little, biggest ship as seen from the biggest, little ship. Cheers and Happy Anniversary to @Lovetocruise2002 and hubster who embarked Symphony today. You can read her live blog from Symphony here: https://www.royalcaribbeanblog.com/boards/index.php?/topic/14288-“symphony-no-17-celebration-relaxation-exploration-reflection”-–-072719-–-080319/ Miami beach was pretty popular today.

Day 7 Turn Around Day Miami Some general observations and housekeeping items... The balcony dividers do open at least for pressure washing the balconies like they did this morning. The Viking Crown Lounge is unique to the fleet. Upper ring is the gym. Best gym views in the fleet. Back to Chops for my cruise #2 reservations. This is the sitting area right across from Chops. The beverage cups of Empress. I'm not sure I've seen this kind of variety in beverage cups on one sailing before. First we have the new but now old beverage cups offered in Boleros. The old style old design cups that have been around for several months near the Windjammer. The old style new cups available on the pool deck. Welcome aboard cake! This line at Shore Excursions lasted for hours. Have these new to Royal cruisers not heard of the Cruise Planner? So many people booking excursions on the ship.

Thanks! All shot with the RX100. It's easy to carry everywhere and you never know when a sunset will present itself like this.

Ummm, please do not include pictures in your replies. LOL!

My view of the not so little biggest ship from the biggest little ship: Cheers and Happy Anniversary!

I checked the tidal chart. High tide at the government cut was 5:34 pm. I’m betting your departure was held to put you closer to high tide while other ships weren’t bound by that constraint.

I see myself on deck 6!

First impressions of Symphony?

Empress is on the move! Where are you guys?

Just when you thought you’d heard of everything on a ship... I guess they weren’t clowning around.

Beyond it being a new class of ship with unknown new activities the environmental aspects represent a ongoing trend towards less pollution being generated. Symphony is 20% more efficient compared to her sisters. That reduces emissions and lowers operating costs over the lifecycle of the ship. I haven’t looked at the numbers involved with LNG but a significant aspect of LNG is much lower emissions. At some point in the future all ships will be required to further reduce emissions, 50 or 100 years from now will look very different from today. Icon is a step in that direction. Quite frankly any reduction in operating costs is passed onto cruisers. It’s very competitive and they need to contain operating costs to continue to offer affordable vacation choices for the masses. They can’t afford to return to the days when only affluent people could cruise.

Stray observation... On the first leg they had a new style beverage cup. It's a soft plastic with no handle and a big bendy straw. I can't see where this one has an RFID chip in the bottom to work with Freestyle dispensers on those ship that have them.

Not sure. I didn't check any previous Cruise Compasses for Empress before boarding. It's definitely listed in my current Cruise Compasses for this sailing. Late Night Snack 10:30pm to 12:30am Late Night Burger & Sandwich Bar 12:30am to 1:30am

Day 7 Miami Not a bad view to wake up to. Back to terminal G. Consecutive cruises met in the Schooner Bar at 9:30am. Regular guests were still trickling off. At 10am around 11 of us were escorted off. Bit of a wait as we were held waiting for a mother/child B2B guests who didn't come down on time. CBP did a quick glance at out documents and we immediately turned and headed back on board. Time off ship ~ 14 minutes. By 10:14am we were back on board with complimentary champagne and mimosa's waiting for us in the Schooner Bar. #winning New beverage cups on this cruise in honor of Royal's 50th. As I start the rinse, lather and repeat phase of this B2B I'm going to slow down on posting. I'm going to wait until day 3 to buy Voom since I'll have cell coverage in Key West tomorrow so I may disappear for a bit.

Late night Windjammer was very popular. Looks like people have found the midnight buffet on Empress. Mmmm. Red Velvet cake.

New comedian on board, adult only late night. Theater was packed, great performance. I wonder if he'll stay on for the next cruise?

Gotta say it... that feeling you get when you do a back to back. Suckers...

In the main theater was Three Sequins and Feathers, a celebration of showgirls from yesterday, today and tomorrow with live music from the Empress orchestra and the High C's horns. I have to admit I don't always find small ship entertainment to be all that but this was a really good performance so I'm going to go overboard with the photos. The band did a great job, always nice to have live music. Quite impressive and not the small ship kind of show I've seen on other ships. Great cast with strong vocals.

Nice sunset tonight. Best place to take it in was deck 6 aft behind Boleros.

Day 6 WJ Dinner Asian Night. The second most popular crew member tonight. The most popular crew member tonight. Hit it big in the casino. In the Schooner Bar it's Piano Melodies with Olga.

Right back at you! From the biggest little ship as you board the not so little biggest ship.

One of the benefits of being Diamond Plus. These tours are free. I don’t think I did it on Explorer but I have on sister ships like Adventure. Those ships have a two deck galley if I recall. Empress being smaller they have to go vertical more. I enjoy the tours because you learn so much. I remember on Adventure the Sous Chef asked if we knew why they keep track of food temperature so closely. It’s because we have 5,000 crew and passengers on board but only 5 beds in the medical center he explained. Chef humor but a good point.