dr_truth

Fun to play the spot my family game with all your pics. Found us in the Grease crowd! I agree with you re: the show. I thought the choreography was wonderful, but the condensed/altered plot was very strange for those used to the movie and the singing wasn't the best--some of the cast had great voices, but they weren't playing Sandy and Danny.

We were playing ping pong two or three days after Christmas and just happened to look into the window of Adventure Ocean and saw at least 30 wrapped presents behind the desk. Now that I think about it, they did look like cups, but I did not know it at the time. I am guessing they did exactly what you suggested and tried to give them out at the kids camp and these were the left-overs.

 

Sorry, I have no photo proof that this happened, nor did I count the exact number of gifts we saw. Disappointing, I know, but you (CC community) will just have to take my word for it.

My two did Adventure Ocean and Teen activities after Christmas and no one tried to give them any leftover gifts. :) We didn't go to the Santa thing. I was sick in the cabin, and everyone else left early to get to the island for the tour. So, seems like a snooze and lose situation.

I continue to enjoy reliving our trip through your pictures :)

Did you go inside any of the shops in San Juan? From the outside there wasn't much apparent damage, but inside places there was lots of water damage and the shopkeepers we talked to said they just recently got power there and in their homes just a short distance away many were still without power. There were still many other utilities that were not back to normal too.

I knew if I kept looking I would be sure to catch a glimpse of my party in your pictures :cool:

It's so interesting how different our experiences were at Labadee on the same day. It did actually rain a bit and lots of people took off when it did--maybe that was while you went back to the ship? Also, we went late to the buffet and there were no lines, but you are probably right about the ickiness of the fruit area after lots of hands.

Did you happen to see the rescue in our area? A lady fell asleep on her float and drifted into that little doc on the left--the lifeguard had to jump in and get her. She stayed asleep the entire time!

I don't think that is a jellyfish, Harry. It has no way to sting anyone because it has no tentacles. It looks more like a sea slug. IMO. :)

We were wondering that too! Sometimes it is super hard to see the tentacles (they are so fine), but whoever picked it up doesn't seem to be concerned...

Looks like you were right next to where we were in the Bungalows! I just looked through my pics to see if your crew was in the background of any--you weren't :)

We didn't see any of those jellyfish. Thank goodness! (though better to see and avoid than not to see and get stung of course)

Actually I love these pics, lots of detail, I see what seems to be a bar area at the bottom of the stairs, Which bar is that?

That looks like the Schooner Bar. I believe they have one of these on every Royal Caribbean ship. On this cruise, they had trivia there during the day and often had a piano-bar type singer there in the evenings. She had a good repertoire, although it was a bit bawdy.

Excited to see your report! I was on this ship and had seen your prior reports and saw you were going from the roll call--I have to admit looking for your family and camera (but not seeing them). I did a first half of my report while on the ship sick in my cabin on Christmas. Haven't gotten around to second half. It will pale in comparison to yours as I don't have any of these great pictures!

Hi all. I am writing down my thoughts now before I forget them and perhaps they will be helpful to some of you. This will be text-dense. I have taken pictures, but haven’t had a chance to upload them from phone to computer.

I am currently on Day 5 of the 9-day cruise on Independence of the Seas that departed Ft. Lauderdale 12/21. My party is six people: My husband, myself,and two daughters (12 and 9) in one balcony room and my father and girlfriend in another. We are on the seventh floor, one fairly aft and one mid-ship.

Day 1: I had wanted to arrive for boarding a little on the late side to avoid crowds, but it worked out that we got there at 1pm. We hadn’t had a chance to check in online, so it took a bit of time as security located our names on a list before they let us through. Even still, it wasn’t that bad…maybe 25 minutes for this stage. We then waited in another line where everyone needed to fill out a medical form and then check in to get seapass cards. This was about another 20 minutes. It was around 1:50 when we got on the ship. My father had already boarded, so we attempted to find him. We ended up waiting on some chairs overlooking the Promenade—a nice spot. Rooms were ready about 2:15 on our floor and we dropped our bags and went to the Windjammer. Although there had been a noro (or other) outbreak two cruises ago, the buffet was back to self-serve for our cruise, though the cleaning/sanitizing procedures were still very visible. The buffet was disappointing this day. Crowded, terrible traffic flow, limited food selections.

We then went back to the room to unpack and set everything up. We met our steward, who was nice enough, but wasn’t really good at cleaning. When we arrived we wiped everything down with disinfectant wipes and things were dusty and grimy. There were candy wrappers on the floor from some previous occupant.It was obvious things weren’t vacuumed well—a few days in I had to specifically request the floor be vacuumed and it still hasn’t been done very well. Cleaning while we are on board also seems to encompass making beds (not changing sheets), a shower rinse, and a change of towels (no actual wiping down surfaces in bathrooms). The towel animals he made were cute (a penguin one day so far and a hanging monkey another), but I would rather more training time be invested in the actual process of cleaning.

After settling in we walked around and then went up to register my younger daughter for the kids club. They were having free arcade games at this time too, so we played a bit. We have late dinner in the MDR, at 8. We started lining up early this first night, which was silly. I’ve been trying to arrive at 8:05 other nights so we just walk right in. Our servers are nice and attentive and remember each of our preferences. I think my 12-year-old is a bit overwhelmed at this. I don’t remember what dinner was—nothing memorable. The best part is Asiago or similar cheese rolls each night; (sadly for my waistline), I’m a bread lover :)

The kids went to check out the Voyagers and Teens areas after dinner,but because of the late hour, they missed the meet and greet. They participated in some activities anyway. My younger daughter didn’t like the “host” for her group—said she didn’t take their opinions into consideration. My older daughter seemed to have fun, but after, said she’d prefer just hanging out with us. She didn’t even want to do the teen only ice skate the next day. Re: the ice rink,one thing we did this day was to pick up tickets for the ice show. They “sold out” rather quickly, so if you want a guaranteed seat I would suggest getting them. There were no lines to get them—it took just a few minutes.

When we got back to the room there was the invite for the meet and mingle. At 9am the next day! Ugh, too early.

Day 2, Sea Day

My husband and younger daughter got up early to get breakfast quickly before going to the Voyager room for Star Wars-themed activities. Again, she was less than impressed, but she asked to go back a different day. Older daughter and I tried to go to the meet and mingle, but got there 15 minutes late after all the give-aways. We then got breakfast on our own and I can’t really remember what we did after. We all went to play “Family Quest” at noon-ish, which was fun. Then lunch. The WJ was better this day. We did some swimming after. The pool wasn’t too crowded. It was fairly easy to find places to sit.

Dinner again in the MDR, which was fine. I had a memorable appetizer, fish rillettes. The fruit sorbets were also good for dessert.

After dinner my husband and little one went to the room and older daughter and I went to the Schooner bar to see the piano player. She was pretty good, and had an impressive repertoire, but the show was fairly bawdy, evenbefore 11pm. As a note, we kept hearing the entertainers and other passengers say that things can get more “adult” after 11pm, but the kid curfew is 1am—little things like this were very confusing…there were a lot of seeming implicit rules that contradicted those stated.

Day 3, Labadee Haiti

We had breakfast in the WJ. Things are getting a little better as people figure out the flow, etc. Food is still “meh.” Last time I cruised was 2002 or 2003, and I fondly remember the great breakfast buffet (on Norwegian), including lots of berries and other fruit. The fruit here is just sad melon and pineapple—lots of no-good spots. For some added excitement over breakfast therewas a code “Oscar”—I suppose if you are going to go overboard it’s better to do it when the boat is docked rather than in the middle of the ocean. We didn’t know how this resolved, but we did see a rescue boat alongside. Hopefully everyone was retrieved and safe.

Labadee was very nice. We got one of the bungalows, which was a very good deal. I can’t remember the price exactly, but it included plenty of bottled water, towels, beach chairs, two floats, the bungalow, and a little private area of beach. Our server was awesome. We had to head back to the boat to grab some cash, because we didn’t have enough to tip her fully (she can’t use or doesn’t want to use the drink receipt tips). We had also wanted to buy some things from the little shops, but even though All Aboard wasn’t until 4pm, the shops started closing up before 3pm. So, do your shopping early. Also, the tram took us from the ship to the bungalows, but on the way back wouldn’t stop at any of the in-between stops, which a lot of people wanted (including us). The Labadoozie drinks were yummy, but pricey. Even the non-alcoholic versions that I and the girls had were $9/each. The lunch buffet was ok. Like other things, they started closing well before their 1:30pm ending time.

Dinner in the MDR again. Again, it was ok. After dinner we went to the 10pm ice show. Doors opened at 9:30 and my dad, who had seen it on another ship, urged us all to go early to get good seats. We let our MDR servers know we were trying to get out of there by then, and they helped move things along.We were in line by 9:28, and were able to get seats in the front row. I would strongly suggest anyone interested in this show do the same. The skaters interact a bit with the audience and it is very cool to be that close to the action. The show was good. I had read of many falls, etc., but even though the boat was rocking fairly well, there was only one minor fall and another stumble.

Day 4, San Juan, PR

As we didn’t arrive in San Juan until 1pm, we took our time in themorning. Little daughter went to Voyagers, which she liked better this time. Older daughter slept in until 11am or so. The rest of us did breakfast in the MRD, which my husband much preferred to WJ. I thought it was ok. I’m not a hotbreakfast person, so it wasn’t much difference to me, but it is nice to not have to scrounge for a seat. Husband and I played some trivia games and then we all grabbed quick lunch in the WJ.

By the time we got off the boat it was around 2:15pm. We walked to the closer fort and spend nearly two hours exploring. It’s a neat place! We then walked around the shops a bit and bought some word art for my daughters. Theprices were high, but given the recent hurricane, we were happy to pay to help some local vendors. We picked up some things we needed at the Walgreens right across from the port. It was also nice to get some Starbucks ;) Although I hadread the premium coffee on the ship was Starbucks, it is not, and I’m not a big fan of other espresso. We had debated getting dinner somewhere in San Juan, as we weren’t due back on the ship until 8:30, but we ended up heading back and eating in the MDR. Before dinner we did some family karaoke, which wasn’t crowded and was lots of fun.

A note: I had cell service with Virgin Mobile in PR, but my husband did not (can’t remember what his carrier is). It was good to be able to call family from this stop, especially with it being Christmas Eve.

Dinner was ok. I didn’t really enjoy it, because by this time I started to feel quite sick. No stomach virus, thank goodness, but even with all the sanitizing, I had picked up a doozy of a cold—bad headache, coughing, sneezing, sigh. I know our steward was under the weather at the beginning of the trip, but I’m not sure if I caught something from him or elsewhere. This is why I am writing this review instead of enjoying Christmas Day in St. Maarten with the rest of my family. We had booked a tour with Joyce, who came recommended from others on cruise critic. I’ll have to let you know second-hand how that went when the rest of my party gets back.

To end this review and provide what I hope is useful advice, I wanted to talk a bit about the cabin and stuff we brought/wish we brought. The cabin is well laid out. However, although it said our cabin slept four, the sofa bed didn’t work for both my girls together. The bedding just sits atop the bed, so won’t accommodate two wriggly children. Luckily we had brought a cot, which we were able to set up between the two single beds and the balcony. The steward provided us bedding for it. I had been worried about the beds as I’d read so many reviews that they were very uncomfortable. I think they are fine. They are a medium firmness. We had them set up as separate beds (instead of making them together) so we would each get our own blankets. I find the kind of comforters on the ship (and most hotels) aren’t good for sharing.

The closet is very big and accommodates all our luggage except for one large suitcase, which would probably fit if we didn’t care about things being accessible. We haven’t been unpacking clothes, so we’ve been wanting to get into our suitcases frequently.

There are only two outlets. We brought one of those five USB charger things that plugs into one outlet and that has been working fine. The other outlet we are using to charge our walky-talkies, which I think have been a great purchase. We bought the Midland X-tra Talk, which work throughout the entire ship and ship to shore as well. They have some sort of encryption (I’mnot sure of the details—husband set them up) that prevents a lot of cross-talk with others.

We brought small bottles of hand sanitizer (for after touching menus and buffet tongs), which I think was good, despite me getting sick anyway. We also brought a small first aid kit (I’ve needed the meds!) and disinfectant wipes,which have gotten good use.

The bathroom is extremely well laid out. The shower pressure is excellent and there is plenty of storage, although we aren’t big “product” people, so don’t have too many toiletries. I wish I would have brought more grocery shopping plastic bags to line the garbage can (there is no liner). I have one hanging toiletries bag that we’ve been keeping toothpaste and some other little things in, and that’s more than enough in addition to the built-in storage.

We bought lanyards at a Target before we boarded. They have been very convenient, especially with the kids. If we hadn’t brought them I’m sure we would have had to pay the much higher price to buy the type on the ship.

We brought a number of magnetic hooks, clips, and flat magnets. We should have brought even more! These things are amazing and we’ve been hanging everything from them, including Christmas stockings, jackets, hats, lanyards, “wear again” clothes, swimsuits, strings of battery-operated lights, and dirty laundry bags. There were limited hooks built in to the cabin: four hooks in the bathroom that don’t work very well and two immediately inside the door that work better.

There is a small clothesline in the shower, but if everyone is showering frequently, that won’t work to dry swimsuits. We brought a line and clothespins and managed to secure it unobtrusively on the balcony where it is low enough to be protected from sight and the wind. It’s been very windy! At one point the winds were the equivalent of 55 mph on the deck.

We had forgotten a corkscrew, which we purchased in the San Juan Walgreens. We also didn’t bring any sharpies, so we got those there too. These have been useful for labeling stuff, like water bottles in the room fridge (so no one else gets my germs!). We brought on bottled water with us (almost an entire case). It was good to have some, but it seems to have been way more than we needed. We did have to buy bottled water at the fort in San Juan—we should have just brought from the room…that would have been much smarter.

That’s it for now I think. Thanks for reading—sorry it was so wordy! I guess I’m pretty bored cooped up in the room being sick, and this has kept me busy for a bit at least :)

I’m happy to answer any questions!

**For some reason when I copied and pasted from Word it took out random spaces between some words. I've tried to correct them, but my apologies if I didn't get them all.

If you want to save spending a lot of money watching captured dolphins perform tricks for their daily ration of food, I can tell you some places where you can go to see dolphins in the wild.

I think that would be a wonderful thing to share--a "dolphin sighting" thread :)

I had booked the dolphin excursion and after reading some threads here and doing some other research I had to cancel it. It was my nine-year-old who was originally concerned with the well-being of the dolphins and she was right! <3

During the normal hours.

Thanks!

When you all say the first "night," is this the normal hours or is this after when you have to pay for care?

My kids will be the same age (12 and 9) when we cruise this December. :)

I agree, the family forum wasn't that helpful as it is lots of posting about little littles.

Good to know about the importance of the first day for making friends!

Maybe the biggest difference between DCL and RCCL that I sawwas that the average crew member on RCCL will absolutely try to accomodateanything you ask for. But, on DCL, thatcrew member will also act like doing so is the thing that gives them the mostjoy in life.

Great line!

Thanks for the review.