The largest entertainment producer in the world, Royal Caribbean International, operates a 132,500-square-foot facility that produces world-class entertainment for its fleet of ships around the world. The Royal Caribbean Production Studio, located on Florida International University's Biscayne Bay campus in Miami, FL, includes three-story studios, a 300-seat theater, a 20,000-square-foot costume-making facility, 10 rehearsal studios, audio rooms, a gym and residences for its singers, dancers and choreographers.

Boarding Empress 

Well, my cruise day finally arrived! I could not have been more excited to get back on Empress of the Seas.

As I mentioned I flew in from Tampa, FL to Miami, FL today. The flight was on time and I landed in Miami at 8:30AM. With nothing else to do in Miami, I decided to head straight to the ship! I took an Uber ride from the airport to this ship. The ride was $15 and very easy process, pickup and drop-off were seamless.

I had some friends getting off the Enchantment this morning so as my face was all smiles, theirs was no so much. I chatted with them for a bit and then headed over to my terminal.

It was around 9:45AM and there were about 20 people in line to check-in. The security process does not open until 10AM, so we just waited in line until then. I checked in and their Loyalty Ambassador recognized me from a previous cruise and invited me into her suite lounge to wait.

This was a very nice lounge with water, coffee, and small sandwiches. Another perk if you are in a suite, is this lounge you get to board first, she took us right on board at 11AM. 

On board 

Believe it or not, I was the first person to board Empress of the Seas today. Pretty cool experience, reminded me of being on board for a back-to-back.

Once I was on board I headed straight to the Windjammer for lunch. I am going to make bold statement here, the mac-n cheese might have been the best I have ever tasted before, all I can say is wow!

Lunch was outstanding and so fresh; I walked out with a smile that is for sure.

Now that I had a full belly I had to put my Select Drink Package to work. I had pre-purchased the drink package online prior to Royal changing their new drink packages. This package only allows me to get beer and house wines. When I cruise alone this package works well for me, because I get my 3 free Diamond drinks at night between 5:30-8:30. I talked to new friends at the poolside bar until our cabins opened at 1PM. 

Cabin – Ocean View #7000 

For this cruise, I am sailing in a standard ocean view cabin #7000. This cabin is all the way forward facing a little private walkway.

I wanted to try a different cabin that faced forward. On larger ships having a cabin all the way forward might cause some long walks to and from the cabin, but on Empress it iss a very short walk. The cabin can sleep up to 4 adults, so if you notice from my pictures there are two beds that hang on the walls. These beds make it very difficult to get in and out of the bed from the sides, because you have to bend over. I have been getting in from the bottom of the bed, pretending I am a child again.

Other than the extras bed kind of in the way, the cabin is nice and everything on the inside feels new from her recent dry dock. 

Sail away 

The muster drill was at 3:30, and we set sail at 4:30. I have learned over the years not to arrive at the muster drills early, it can get hot standing on the side of the ship.

Our drill was very fast and did not take more than 10 minutes. After the drill I headed up to the top deck and wanted to get a close look at the Enchantment of the Seas. She is my favorite ship and it was excited for me to see her again. But I do have a cruise on her next month.

Once we set sail I headed to a top tier event for Diamond and up guest or suites. They usually host private events on Empress since there is no Diamond/Suite lounge.

The event was nice, with live music and all the officers attending, including the captain. They served fish and shrimp kabobs, which I do not want to share how many I had… 

Evening On board / Dinner 

Tonight, I headed down to the Schooner bar to use my Diamond drink coupons, which are pre-loaded to my SeaPass card before dinner. I grabbed a window seat and just watched the ocean go by, that view just never gets old. I had made reservations for Chops Grill when I first got onboard for 7:30PM tonight.

One of the Crown & Anchor benefits for Diamond Plus is a BOGO specialty restaurant. Since I am cruising along I paid the cover charge tonight $35 and tomorrow is free. The staff in Chops all remembered me from last month, so that was fun to see them again. I laughed because I ordered without even opening the menu. The restaurant was almost full, but do not feel like you need to reserve online before. I asked my waiter to speed the meal up because of Monday Night Football and since I was dining alone. Overall a great meal and I look forward to going back tomorrow night. 

Shortly after dinner I decided to get some rest, day 1 is always a long day and I was ready for bed. 

Random observations

• The ships does not feel full at all, there is never any wait at the bars.
• My Crown and Anchor VOOM coupon was not loaded, so I had to have them apply a manual credit. However, the VOOM is working great!
• The gift shop now has the ship models for $32.95.
• The air conditioning is now working in 90% of the casino. 

 Stay tuned, tomorrow we are in beautiful Key West, Florida! If you have any questions, feel free to comment below and I will respond.

One crew member died and four other crew members were injured on Royal Caribbean's Harmony of the Seas earlier today.

During a lifeboat drill that was conducted in Marseilles, France, an accident occurred when a lifeboat, with five people on board, broke free from the vessel and fell. 

Royal Caribbean confirmed the injury totals via social media.

Sad news to share that a #HarmonyoftheSeas crew member has died of injuries suffered during a lifeboat drill conducted in Marseille, France.

— RCLcorp (@RCLcorp) September 13, 2016

Four other #HarmonyoftheSeas crewmembers received medical treatment. We're keeping our colleagues & their families in our thoughts & prayers

— RCLcorp (@RCLcorp) September 13, 2016

Local news in France are reporting the accident occurred this morning when the boat detached from the fifth deck while it had five people on board.

Harmony of the Seas is cruising the Mediterranean and departed Rome on September 8.

Royal Caribbean is adding additional time for guests to enjoy two of the premier attractions on Anthem of the Seas.

In an effort to enhance the overall guest experience, Royal Caribbean is adding support staff onboard to accommodate expanded hours of operation at Ripcord by iFly and North Star attractions.  This will allow more guests to experience these popular attractions than ever before.

The expanded hours for these attractions will be in place for sailings beginning November 27, 2016.

Royal Caribbean is also adding more convenient line-up of show times that complement the evening dining options. For guests in the early dinner seating at 6:00pm, their evening show will be at 8:30pm.  For guests in the late dinner seating (8:30pm), their show time will be at 10:30pm.

The additional hours are part of the changes Royal Caribbean is making to Anthem of the Seas that were announced this week, including a notable change to dinner.

Royal Caribbean will be discontinuing its Dynamic Dining program on Anthem of the Seas, beginning with sailings on November 27, 2016.

The reason for the change is feedback from guests indicated a preference for a dining program that combines traditional seating with the option for flexibility.  As a result, Royal Caribbean will offer on Anthem of the Seas My Time Dining program, with traditional and flexible options, as well as introduce new, upgraded dinner menus. The four main restaurants – Chic, Grande, Silk, and American Icon – will now become the main dining venues to support the My Time Dining program and will all feature the same upgraded dinner menu each evening. My Time Dining flexible venues will be located on Deck 4 in American Icon and Silk, while Chic and Grande will be designated as the early and late seating restaurants on Deck 3. The name and décor of each venue will remain unchanged.

All Anthem of the Seas sailings departing on-or-after November 27th, 2016, as well as sailings departing November 23rd, 2016 through April 14th, 2017 onboard Ovation of the Seas, will be impacted by this change.  In addition, beginning November 27th, 2016, Anthem of the Seas will offer either one or two formal evenings per cruise, dependent upon sailing length.

All active bookings on-or-after November 27th, 2016 on Anthem of the Seas will automatically convert to the new dining program, respecting all pre-selected times, party sizes and other reservation features.

Traditional Dining will occur in The Grand and Chic restaurants and choose between early (6:00pm) and late seating (8:30pm).  Traditional dining includes a fixed dining time, fixed venue, fixed table assignment and same table companions each evening.

Flexible Dining will occur in the Silk and American Icon Grill restaurants. Guests in Flexible Dining choose a preferred dining time and are seated on a first come, first served basis and include a variable dining time with fixed venue and flexible table assignments.

Families with small children can take advantage of My Family Time dining benefits while sailing onboard Anthem of the Seas. This is available as part of the traditional dining experience during the early seating time and can be reserved pre-cruise via Cruise Planner or once onboard. My Family Time dining allows children ages 3-to-11 to enjoy their meal within 40 minutes of seating before heading to the evening’s Adventure Ocean activities.

New, upgraded dinner menus will be introduced each evening in all four main dining restaurants. 

The decision to change how guests dine on Anthem of the Seas marks a tremendous reversal in fortunes for the Dynamic Dining program, which at one time was arguably heralded as the future of cruise ship dining. 

Back in March 2014, Royal Caribbean had previously announced its Quantum-class cruise ships would usher in a radically new dining program called Dynamic Dining, where there would be no main dining room and instead would offer a combination of complimentary and specialty restaurants for guests to choose from.  Then in August 2014, Royal Caribbean announced Dynamic Dining would spread to Oasis of the Seas and Allure of the Seas.

Guest feedback changed Royal Caribbean's plans, and Dynamic Dining was postponed indefinitely for the Oasis-class ships and a more traditional Dynamic Dining option was added.

Hi blog readers, its Michael Poole here and I’m headed back on board Empress of the Seas.

If you recall, I was recently on Empress of the Seas July 28th and did a live blog on that sailing too. I enjoyed the ship so much, I’ve decided to head back and take you on another live blog adventure.

This time I’m cruising solo, so I’ll be going in more detail of the Empress and all she has to offer. 

Itinerary 

This cruise is a 5-day sailing, so one extra day than my last time on board. We are headed back to Key West, Florida on day two. Day three is a sea day, followed by Cozumel, Mexico and ending with another sea day.

For my time in Key West, I’m sad to report there will be no bike tour this go around. I was thinking about all my recent visits to Key West and how I’ve never actually had in Key Lime pie there, so I’ll be on the search for some pie.

In Cozumel, Mexico I’m thinking about just exploring around and see where I end up. I had thought about going back to Nachi, but I’m looking to explore and just see where I end up. 

Cabin Type 

When I originally booked this cruise, I booked the lowest cost cabin type, which was an inside on the lower decks.

Over the course of a few weeks the cruise dropped a lot in price, since I was past final payment there is nothing you can do about the price. However, I was able to move up to an Ocean View cabin for no additional cost. Now I’ll be staying on Deck 7 forward, cabin #7000. This cabin over looks the secret walkway all the way forward, so I’ll be sure to include some pictures. 

Travel Plans to Miami, Florida 

My plan was to just drive to the port since I’m around 280 miles away from the port (4 hours). But after thinking about parking cost at the port $20/day puts me at $100 parking cost, plus fuel. So I ended up finding a flight for the same cost as parking and I’ll be flying in the morning of the cruise. I know that’s generally not a good plan, but worse case I’ll just jump in my car for a fast road trip. 

Well friends, I’m really excited to share another live blog with you. As always, feel free to comment below if you have any questions or would like pictures of something. Be sure to follow me on Periscope for 2-3 daily live scopes from on board too! @mpoole3

The last day of any cruise is bittersweet and waking up today, we all felt a sense of tempered happiness knowing our 7-night cruise was nearly over. Still, we have a full day onboard to enjoy.

We all slept in after a few days straight of waking up early, and did not get up to the Windjammer until 10am.  It was quite refreshing never having much issue with crowds in the Windjammer on this cruise.

My oldest daughter went upstairs to Adventure Ocean for part of the morning session, while the rest of us strolled the Royal Promenade before taking time to record a live podcast episode with everyone in the group cruise.

It was fun sharing stories from our week together and I think it is safe to say we all had a lot of fun on this cruise together.

For lunch, we all had something different, with my wife and youngest eating in the Windjammer, my oldest daughter having take-out Johnny Rockets and I opted for a couple of sandwiches from Cafe Promenade.

The take-out Johnny Rockets was a new experience, and I walked into a very busy restaurant and placed a take-out order. Twenty minutes later, my food was ready to go in a bag.

In the afternoon, the weather improved and the sun came out and turned into quite a nice day.

I also noticed this one day drink package option.  And for those wondering, no drink card spotted on this sailing.

I also noticed in the casino that Royal Caribbean has its own brand of scratch-off lottery cards for $5 each.

To wrap up our cruise, I will share some final thoughts on the experience based on different aspects of the cruise.

Crew

The crew were outstanding.  Truly great all around and offered the kind of service Royal Caribbean is well-known for.  Many thanks to them for making us all feel like part of their family.

Specialty Dining

I managed to dine at 2.5 specialty restaurants (take-out Johnny Rockets counts as a half) and greatly enjoyed it all.  Sabor was my favorite of the lot, but Chops Grille is a solid experience all around.

The Izumi Express was a good option to have, although they seemed to run out of the popular rolls quite quickly. Do not wait if you want to enjoy some yourself.

Entertainment

My wife saw most of the shows onboard, but I thought the activities and shows were quite good. The Cruise Director (Cuddy) had a great personality and I enjoyed hearing and seeing him around the ship.

The top two shows on Freedom of the Seas remain Once Upon A Time and the Freedom-ice.com skating show.

Ports

We visited four ports and other than Falmouth enjoyed them greatly.  Falmouth suffered from bad weather (rain), so not much that be done about that.

While I love Cozumel, our private yacht in Grand Cayman made that day my favorite day of the cruise and we had a blast onboard!

Drink Package

The question I have been asked a lot is if buying the drink package was a good idea.  I feel I broke even financially in terms of drinking enough per day, although that number is skewed by the fact that having the drink package I would order more drinks than I might have had otherwise.

That being said, I really enjoyed not having a bar bill at the end of the cruise and I think the real value of any drink package is pre-paying your drinking tab ahead of time. I will strongly reconsider the drink packages for future cruises because of that reason.

Conclusion

Overall, we had a great time onboard and I really enjoyed this cruise.  Enjoying a Royal Caribbean cruise with friends from Royal Caribbean Blog was a lot of fun I cannot believe how quickly the week went by.

Freedom of the Seas offers so many great things to do that I really believe it is one of the best ships in the fleet and an equally great value.

Thank you to everyone that followed along with this live blog and I cannot wait for my next cruise already!