Susie

If you room is for 4 people then you might can add one more. However, you should call Royal Caribbean about it. They will be the best one to answer your question. 

? Really simple solution. Don't buy anything extra except you think it worth it. 

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.

But my husband will possible kick me out of the house when he see credit card bill. ?

? Really simple solution. Don't buy anything extra except you think it worth it. 

Might be from the B4B ?

+1 ?

+2!!

But my husband will possible kick me out of the house when he see credit card bill. ?

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

Me too !!!

Me too !!!

Did I mention that I want to cruise like @twangster?!  So jealous. Remember the lowly Diamonds when you make Pinnacle. At your cruising rate, that should be soon ?

@twangster, I'm starting to feel like I'm in The Matrix and it just glitched with a Deja Vu!
Have (yet another) great trip!

In the words as sung by Britney Spears...  ? Oops, I Did it Again ?
For those who are wondering what is he talking about?  (or thinking I've enjoyed one too many happy hour drinks)  I just finished 14 nights on this little beauty last week.  You can read about that B2B experience here:
https://www.royalcaribbeanblog.com/boards/index.php?/topic/14213-empress-b2b-14-nights-on-the-biggest-little-ship-july-2019/
Those cruises were great but they were Western Caribbean and this 8 night cruise is Eastern Caribbean including a stop at Tortola in the British Virgin Islands.  Royal hasn't visited the BVI very much in recent years so when I saw the BVI added to the itinerary in the wake of the Cuba cancellations I knew I had to do it.  Icing on my cake comes courtesy of another visit to Perfect Day at CocoCay. 
Itinerary
Miami Perfect Day at CocoCay Sea Day San Juan Tortola St Thomas Sea Day Sea Day Miami Our Perfect Day ends at 2pm so we can make it to San Juan for a 3pm arrival after a day at sea.  We stay until midnight in San Juan so if all goes well I hope to get some evening and night pictures around San Juan.
Sailing in a Junior Suite I have scored one of the most forward deck 9 JS cabins this time.
I love this small ship and her big heart.  It's a good thing I love this ship because this will be my fourth cruise on her.  My Crown and Anchor points haven't been posted yet from my last cruise on her so with the "paint still wet", I'm heading back to the love of my life, or at least the love of my life right now. 
Because I'm flying I don't like taking just one cruise so with a night off the water in between, I'm doing a side-to-side over to Majesty right after this cruise.  A few years ago I started dreaming about a tour of the small ships and this marks another step towards completing that goal.  
I think I set a record this time having packed my suitcase a full two days before the cruise.  Basically I took my cruise clothes from the dryer and put them right back into my suitcase.  
      " You see my problem is this
       I'm dreaming away
       Wishing that heroes, they truly exist
       I cry, watching the days
       Can't you see I'm a fool in so many ways
       But to lose all my senses
       That is just so typically me
       Oh baby, oh "
Okay that doesn't make total sense but it's the only part of the lyrics that somewhat fit so I'm going with it.  

MSC ships are registered in Panama with a few in Malta so they can operate in the EU (much like Royal's one token ship registered in Malta).
The Italian business environment wasn't favorable so they moved to Geneva.  The company is registered in Geneva just as your post indicates.  They market themselves as Italian though which is where the company was originally founded before moving to Switzerland. 

https://www.msccruisesusa.com/en-us/About-MSC.aspx
Definitely Italian.  ?

I know, ironic right? Anthem has the best CK in terms of service and food quality. It can’t beat the view of OA class CK though. 
I have the drink package so I just ordered it with dinner.
Now that I have sailed both, I would pick whichever one works out to be cheaper. They are so similar, I love them both. It’s like asking me to choose between my kids. Can’t do it ?

Thanks for the blog and Happy Anniversary. Look like your dinner included Lemon drop (not sure but look like it) 
If you have to choose between HM and SY which ship you prefer ?

Symphony Final Thoughts
What a perfect week this has been.  So different from our last few sailings with our kids, this one was the other extreme.  So relaxing, and an abundance of down time. It was just what we needed to recharge. 
This ship is amazing, it did not disappoint one bit!  However, is it my favourite now? I don’t know.  If there is a noticeable price difference between HM and SY, I would have a really hard to picking the more expensive one over the other.  I find both ships to be so similar to the point where there honestly were times that I forgot which one I was on.  
The entertainment was the same caliber as the rest of her sisters.  The one that stood out the most was Flight. Other than the drones, 1977 was quite comparable to 1887.  We enjoyed Hiro more than The Fine Line just slightly because we preferred the music and choreography of Hiro. I did miss the spinning guy though. The Broadway production is subjective. I still think We Will Rock You is best. YMMV.
As far as dining goes, I love El Loco Fresh. Way better than Mini Bites on HM but not enough to justify the cost difference of SY.  
Coastal Kitchen/Suite Lounge is identical to HM.  This was probably our least favourite CK experience though thus far.  There was nothing that went wrong but they did not do anything to exceed expectations either, like others have in the past. If I had to put my “teacher hat” on, I would say they were just average, both the crew in there and the quality of the food. Good, but did not go above and beyond what was expected.  Like I mentioned before, there was also some inconsistencies the earlier nights with the quality of the food itself. We still enjoyed our time here but if I were to rank it among our other times, this would not be ranked as high. In my opinion, that honour goes to Anthem’s CK.  Both times we were there, the crew and quality of the meals were spot on and outstanding. 
So to wrap it up, I loved Symphony because she’s OA class. My favourite? It’s whichever one that has the lower priced loft suite between HM and SY. ?
Please continue to ask any questions that I haven’t answered.  @tiny260 and his DW tell me that this is a good place to end it.  In the theme of seventeens, this is Page 17. ?

Yes, there is the place for snorkel. I forgot what that portion of the beach called but you will easily spot it. A lot of people will be there and a lot of people snorkel there. You also will see the lifeguard at the deep area on the platform. So many to see in the water, many kinds of fish, many Stingrays and some even see sea turtle at the plane wreak area. I did not go that far.   
Yes you can use your own snorkel gears and no need to pay anything. 

Yes, there is the place for snorkel. I forgot what that portion of the beach called but you will easily spot it. A lot of people will be there and a lot of people snorkel there. You also will see the lifeguard at the deep area on the platform. So many to see in the water, many kinds of fish, many Stingrays and some even see sea turtle at the plane wreak area. I did not go that far.   
Yes you can use your own snorkel gears and no need to pay anything. 

I've been getting a number of questions about how I shot the Milky Way photos.
I shot this using a full frame Sony A7III with a Sony 12-24mm lens.   A crop sensor body that most people shoot wouldn't be able to get this wide.  The A7III also has really good low light performance, night and day from my last full frame body, a Nikon D750.
Also keep in mind I have a pretty good investment in gear.  Body and lens for this shot are ~ $3,700.  Not trying to brag but let's keep expectations real.  A <$1k kit can shoot the Milky Way and produce some nice results but maybe not achieve the same results.
Camera settings shown at the top, Lightroom adjustments below that.

Using Adobe Lightroom I added a lot of clarity and adjusted other light levels and white balance.  This is why I shoot in RAW.  There is a lot of data captured in a RAW file that can be manipulated using software such as Lightroom.  Shooting in JPEG would lose all this extra data and you would never be able to achieve these results.  This is how JPEG produces a lower file size, it throws away all the extra sensor data it doesn't need for a JPEG picture.  A RAW file is much bigger because it contains all the raw sensor data that was captured.
Original picture as it was captured on the left, final picture on the right after adjustments in Lightroom.

The one on the left is closer to what you see with the human eye.  Between the two brightest stars you can sort of see a cloud like area with the human eye that is the center or heart of the Milky Way.
Keep in mind I've been shooting the Milky Way for several years now so I've got some previous experience on land with a firm tripod.  On land you have more control and can take longer exposures, up to around 25 seconds for this focal length.  That allows you to lower ISO or make other adjustments for better results.  I wanted to keep the exposure shorter because of the ship's movement.
I use an app called PlanIt Pro.  It has an AR feature where you can hold up your phone, adjust the time or date and it will show you where the Milky Way will be at that moment in the future.
After we left Belize heading North to Cozumel I used this app to see when and where the Milky Way would be on Night 11.

This tells me the MWC (Milky Way Center) will be visible between 8:43pm and 3:07am.  At 12:16am the MWC will be as shown for the location we are at this moment in time.  On land that works well, on a moving ship you don't always know where your position will be in six hours or the heading of the ship hours later so there is some guess work and extrapolation involved, but at least you know what direction to find it. 
With a full moon the results would have suffered a lot.  I don't try to shoot the night sky on land most of the moon phase, it works best without moon light.  New moon was perfectly timed for me, that's just luck.   For Costa Maya it was July 31st. 
The MWC in the Northern Hemisphere is visible at night in summer months only, you can't shoot the Milky Way in the winter up here but you can down under.
There is also a lot of luck involved.  Based on the cloud cover after leaving Belize pictured above the Milky Way would not be visible.  I got pretty lucky two nights in a row with the ship heading South towards the Milky Way, on the right phase of the moon, without major cloud cover.  Costa Maya and Belize are close so the ship was only moving at ~8 knots.  
I don't always bring my A7 with me, that's why I have the RX100VI - for travel.  I threw the A7 in my backpack at the last minute.
I was in the right place at the right time with cloud cover that was in my favor on a slow moving ship with the right gear.  It's pretty rare to get all that working in your favor on a cruise, on a ship with a public area that is dark.  I may never get another opportunity like this. 

Lucky you to catch this event. It is definitely a stunning Milky way.  Hope I see it up on the sky one day. I guess that another bucket list. Thanks for the pictures.