FoxboroCruiser

I had both Red Stripe and Bud Light on the Empress last week, both were cans and were the 16oz version, not 12oz.

We spend a couple of days in South Beach before our cruise and was SHOCKED to see numerous young/hip people wearing fanny packs! Apparently they are making some ort of comeback. Guess its true what they say about all things come back in style if you wait long enough!

Great pictures, thanks so much for sharing!

Agreed! I had in on the Empress last week, and it was SPICY! (in a good way)

Having lived with a curtain on the Empress last week, I'm really looking forward to a door on Adventure next year ;-)

While I don't love the way the lanyard looks, I do love the functionality. My wife and kids didn't want them when I handed each a lanyard, but within a day or two they all wore them, all the time. For us, not having to worry that things have fallen out of our pockets, or that we'd left something behind helps the overall relaxation process. Pros far outweigh the cons.

Blondie511c - thanks so much for sharing! We have nearly a year to wait for that same cruise, but seeing the pics definitely still gets us excited!

We booked the Adventure NJ to Bermuda cruise while on the Empress last week! Please keep the info coming! Have a great cruise!

Go Patriots! 6X Champs #StillHere - sorry, had to be done.

Fantastic, thanks very much Matt!

Seems like they managed to change the port for the current cruise... Just wish we received the same. Looks like MOST voyages are getting new ports. We get that it's difficult but wouldn't you be disappointed too? Seems to me they could have figured out something better than a seas day, that's all. One concern we have is how is the crew going to react to this situation? Many of them are likely losing their jobs when RCCL send the Empress out to pasture a second time. I hope they find a way to motivate them to still be happy and helpful. As professional as a person can be, something like this situation has to have an impact. One hope we have is that many people cancel and the ship is less crowded.. We have a vow renewal ceremony scheduled for Key West on Tuesday, and a number of other things planned in and around this trip. Many I can't get my money back for. I ma not a negative or pessimistic person by nature, but the added disappointment of not getting a new port stings, and I don't just blindly assume that RC did all they could to find a better solution than a second sea day on a small old ship. We're disappointed, but are trying to rally and find ways to make this work.

If there are price drops to we automatically get the difference or do we have to contact them? Or cancel and re-purchase?

We had Havana replaced by NO PORT! Another day at seas on the smallest and oldest ship in the fleet is not what we hoped for. ANYWHERE would have been better than a sea day. They managed to take a bad situation and make is worse. 5 night cruise with two ports...Seems like even some shorter voyages have managed to add a new port - may be the're nothing they could do, but it sucks no matter how you slice it.

Unfortunately the app doesn't support Empress of the Seas... Cruise Planner now shows the voyage as: 5 Night Key West & Cozumel Cruise - no third port listed. I did see the message about a full refund or 50% credit. I sincerely appreciate that RCCL is dong the right thing by offering the best options available to them to try and satisfy customers . For that we will book the next cruise from them. Hopefully using the 50% credit and if we are lucky a little money from the travel insurance as well. 100% going with no flight, and cruising out of Boston or New York to Bermuda on a much larger vessel. The hard part of this situation for us is that we can't recoup enough of the other spends to make it worth canceling and reschedule a vacation that we'd really WANT to go on, so we will likely make due with what this has become. I can't get a full week off work very easily, so we'd have to push the whole thing out a year, and I've have spent significant money on non refundable things (including renewing our wedding vows in Key West next Tuesday) to make this vacation happen to the point that canceling and losing the money just doesn't make sense . Hopefully the trip surprises us and we don't come back as disappointed as I feel right now.

Wonder if they will offer the 50% on our cruise that departs on Monday? We didn't even try calling to cancel or change it, assuming we'd never get through and think that less than a week to go they wouldn't agree to refund us - are we right in that assumption? Plus we have 4 flights booked Boston to Miami, hotel in South Beach all already paid for. We have travel insurance on all of it, but (sorry for the pessimism) we're sure they won;t pay out much if anything on that under these circumstances. This trip was 100% about the destination for us. Our kids are 18 & 21, might be the last time we go somewhere as a family and wanted it to be special. We haven't been able to do something on this scale in 9 years, but for our 25th wedding anniversary we found a way to get this trip booked. he small old boat didn't matter to us, but experiencing CUBA together is what mattered. If we could, we'd cancel all of it and re-book on a larger ship and make it about the ship, and not about the destination, but that;s not an option being offered to us is it? Now we might go to a second Mexico port, right next to the one we were already going to? Hardly makes up for missing the experience of visiting Havana. I applaud the 50% refund, and REALLY hope it applies to our voyage as well. It would take a little of the sting away. I can;t see why we wouldn't be offered everything the voyages that left today received. What would the logic be to offer us anything less? Anyone know the rules/policy well enough to confirm or deny we have no other real options here? Sorry for the rant, just need to vent!

On royalcaribbeancom. We are aware of the new U.S. travel restrictions to Cuba and we are analyzing the details to understand the impact to future sailings. We expect to know more within the next 24 hours and will communicate any changes as soon as we are able. In the meantime, we are adjusting the itineraries of our June 5 and June 6 sailings, which will no longer stop in Cuba. We are communicating with our guests about those changes.

I found it...

can you link to these tweets? I am on CNN twitter page and do not see that message.

So much for making accommodations prior to June 5th. Why are ships being treated so differently? Now we are taking our first real vacation in 9 years on a ship we would never have booked if not for this itinerary. I wish I could cancel everything, flights, hotel reservations, excursions, drink package, wifi, all of it and start over. We are heartbroken.

We are booked on the Empress less than week away... Monday 6/10, in Havana on Wednesday 6/12. So we would have completed a transaction before 6/5, since e paid before then...unless I am reading that wrong, we're good to go?

In case someone with that info replies... We would love to see a more recent 5 night Compass for Empress..and the menu's. We are cruising in June

Not 100% sure why there was no water, but I do remember that it filled up once we were at sea. I have other pictures where there were people in the pool.

Thanks for the tip, would love to sail Oasis! Was hoping for May/June, but summer might work. Thanks again!

It really does thank you for taking the time to write such a great response! I think the Anthem sounds great, and if we can work out the dates, that will be the choice!

It's a shame that isn't as true today. Our last cruise was this one in 1994 and we are taking the Empress to Cuba in June of this year to celebrate out 25th wedding anniversary. Wish it hadn't taken 25 years to cruise again, but we are taking our two sons 21 & 18, and want them to see how wonderful the experience is as well. We are so excited to go that we have already started looking at a bigger ship for next year... Thinking Anthem or Adventure out of New Jersey and going to Bermuda. While this years cruise is about the ports (Key West, Cozumel, and Havana) our next one will be more about the ship! Love the blog, podcast, and message boards - what a great community!