It's actually quite surreal now that it's over.
First time cruiser, first cruise... on the regal empress. I guess it must be my 'cup of tea' because I was intreagued and fascinated wtih the ship from the start.
The experience itself, it was good for a first time cruise. The food was great, the service was awesome, the staff was very attentive and looked to serve you.
the activities kept us busy and we did have a lot of fun doing the activities. We were never board.
Our cabin sucked but it was a outside room on A deck. It was quiet for the most part, sometimes I could hear the water rushing by a few decks below but overall very quiet. Bed was ok. To be honest I was too drunk to notice lol.
I'm kinda into the whole nostalgic thing, so for me the ship itself was part of the experience. I've heard that other ships actually don't even feel like ships. For me, I kinda liked the slight sway of the boat.... you can barely notice it but it's there. I kinda like the hum of the engines, again, barely there but you could hear it. The wood paneling and attention to detail is impecable where you can find it. Let your mind wander and you'll see something in her that's really beautiful. Even in little things like the fixtures, they're built so strong, from a time gone by where plastic didn't really exist yet and things were built to last forever... nothing like the mass produced "fun" ships of today. (from what I see in pics anyway)
Loved the fact that the ship was small and intimate. It was not uncommon to see the same people multiple times throughout the day, which was nice... after a while it felt like you knew some of the people. I smoked and drank on deck with many people who I also ate breakfast with the next day. Hell, our cabin neighbors across the hall from us ended up at our breakfast table by chance, what a coincidence!
Yes its old, yeah some parts of it are in disrepair but like mentioned before, it's a fading piece of american history and truly something to experience; I went into this cruise with zero expectations whatsoever and it came out a winner in my book, to be honest I do actually plan on paying for the best suite on the boat and taking another ride on the empress before she gets decomissioned.
The regal empress is the last of her kind... I think all self-proclaimed 'Seasoned' cruisers should give her a try before 2010 so they can at least get a feel for what the industry started out like.
my .02
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