firemedic1560

I agree about the America's Cup race! If sailboats aren't your thing we also did a trip with Captain Bob and we liked that too.

http://www.soualigadestinations.com/soualiga_destinations/Welcome.html

Empress is on the move again. I heard their was a shakedown cruise today for friends and family type people. I guess that's what's happening.

I'm sailing her on the second sailing, departing June 2nd-6th. I'll report back afterwards for sure.

Well she is now in Miami at the westernmost end of the cruise terminal. Hopefully she is getting loaded and will be ready to go.

Marinetraffic.com shows her moving. She appears to be about 10 miles west of Freeport at a speed of 10 knots.

Empress just left Freeport and is Miami bound. Hopefully all goes well!

And Tuesday morning she is still in Freeport.

I saw that earlier today. Mondays are a busy day in Miami. Hopefully she will move soon. If she is cruising on Friday, I would think she needs to spend a couple of days here for provisions and inspections.

First off let me extend my sympathies to those who have had cruises cancelled as part of this mess. Today is 5 days from the next scheduled trip for the Empress. My family is booked on the following cruise departing on June 2nd. After today, if no news comes out I will begin to believe we are going. When I see the ship leave Freeport I will be even more excited. When Santa Claus is sighted on board, I'll be really excited!

I live locally and will be driving to the port, so I don't have the exposure that many others have with airfare and hotels. Still, I cannot go any other time. We have to travel during the window of this cruise or we don't all go. It's that simple. I'm not sure how insurance will help me in this case. What really concerns me more than anything else is that so far Royal has waited until the last possible moment to cancel. The cruise before us leaves on May 28th, so if they give that sailing 5 days notice, we only get 10 days notice. It might be possible for me to get something else booked, but it will be expensive with an itinerary that goes back to Nassau. One of the reasons we picked this sailing was to avoid Nassau. I'm all ears if someone has another suggestion.

I too am booked on the June 2nd sailing. I'm not at all confident that we will go. Three cabins, two daughters and two daughters boyfriends. We cannot rebook another time as one of the boyfriends is going in the Air Force. I'm hoping that another month will give them the time they need to solve the problems and get the ship ready to go. Unfortunately I have absolutely no confidence that they will either get everything done or if not, let us know far enough in advance that we can make other arrangements. 5 weeks is a lot of time, but it really depends on the scope of the work and Royal Caribbean has not been forthcoming with information.