On our Empress of the Seas cruise we bought The Classic Romance Package ($98.95) which included:
- Chilled Domaine Chandon Champagne upon arrival
- A tray of elegant canapes before dinner
- Delcious Petit Fours after dinner on the first formal night
- Breakfast in bed on the day of your choice
- A silver-framed 8" X 10" keepsake portrait
I thought it was a really nicely done package and wanted to pass along our experience for anyone considering doing this.
The champagne was indeed waiting for us in our stateroom as well as a folder with coupons good for the other elements of the package
I believe the idea was to work it all through our head waiter. I asked our cabin steward what we should do with the coupons and, as good as he was about everything else, he wasn't sure.
In any event, the canapes appeared in our cabin before dinner not one, but two nights. I think that was a mistake but who am I to complain?
The Petit Fours for after dinner were left in our stateroom while we were in the dining room and were basically Chocolate Covered Strawberries. These we got three times. Again, I think that was a mistake but I really like the way they make mistakes on this ship.
It was kind of like so many other areas of service on this sailing, if they were going to error, they did it on the side of the guest.
We really enjoyed the breakfast in bed. We'd given the coupon for that to our head waiter the night before and he handled everything beautifully. First he asked what time we wanted it and then what we wanted to have.
There's a standard menu of selections; omeletes, french toast or pancakes, along with all the stuff you'd expect. You're invited to choose between Mimosas or Bloody Mary's too.
We asked for and got Eggs Benedict done very very nicely.
They also sent along orange juice, assorted breakfast pastries and a nice fruit plate
We saved the Bloody Mary's (since it was Bloody Mary day, as opposed to yesterday which was Gin and Tonic day) and headed to the pool after breakfast, spending much of the rest of our day at sea poolside.
I'd surely buy this package again. Everything didn't go exactly as I thought it would but it was well worth the price and a nice touch. When I do it again I'll get right on when we want these things delivered. I think I'd like to spread the petit fours and canapes out over the course of the day. Dinner was always excellent on the Empress and a highlight of the day. I think the Canapes would have been a nicer touch done earlier before dinner and the petit fours a nicer touch done later after dinner.
The silver framed portrait was nice too. We posed for a bunch of them and picked what we thought was the best one.
The Classic Romance Package made a wonderful sailing even better!
