Independence Review 2/24-3/1

Hey everyone!

My husband and I just returned from the Independence so I thought I'd share some thoughts. A little background: We are 32/33 with only a couple fur babies to leave at home. We live in Florida so we try to cruise whenever we can. We've been Diamond members for years since we were both lucky enough to start cruising around 5. On this trip we had the deluxe drink package and the Ultimate Dining Package. We didn't purchase Voom, just used our free days. I didn't save any Compasses, but can try and answer any questions :)

Pre-Cruise: we drove over the night before and stayed at the Hilton Marina. We have stayed here several times previously, but we're very disappointed this time around. The view from our room was amazing, but there was mold all over the balcony and obvious water damage in our room. When we called the front desk to see if we could change rooms we were told there were no other options, and the best they could do was refund us. Needless to say we won't be returning.

Embarkation/Disembarkation: we utilized the Park n' Go again, and it was efficient as always. We got to the pier around 10:30 and checking in went quickly. Only one person in front of us for security and walked right up to the counter to get our Seapass cards. We were onboard in about 20 minutes from drop-off. We always do self assist when we disembark and were in the Park n' Go shuttle back to our car from our stateroom in about 20 minutes as well.

Cabin: we stayed in 7710 which is an aft balcony room, with 2 loungers plus a table and 2 chairs. Our attendant, Totok, was great! He has the back suites and up one of the halls. Due to our room location we hardly walked by his assigned cabins, however we still saw him often and he always came by to say hi and chat. We asked for some champagne glasses when we boarded and he had them waiting there shortly after. We got towel animals 4/5 nights too.

Food: like I said above we had the ultimate dining package, so we had specialty dining every night as well as lunch on sea days. We purchased this during a promo sale since it was cheaper than a 3-night dining package, but decided on this type of ship it wasn't really worth it with there currently only being 2 specialty options. The food in both Chops and Giovanni's were delicious. We miss the chocolate mud pie and the red velvet was a little dry. The biggest thing that was different was the service. On 4/5 nights we saw servers literally running to keep up, and the hostesses bussing/setting tables. All interactions with the staff were pleasant, however there was no time to say anything but order our food quickly. They are clearly overwhelmed and we made sure to note it on our survey. We had breakfast 2 mornings in the dining room and service there was quick and friendly. The other mornings we ordered omelets in the Windjammer with minimal wait. In all of our cruising this has been the most flavorful Sorrento's we've had. Also, we never noticed or had anyone ask us about purchasing specialty dining throughout the ship.

Bar service: as previously mentioned we had the deluxe package. I did notice the 10-drink card, coffe card, and draft beer packages show up (I believe on day 3), but don't recall the price. There were consistently bartenders present in the solarium and we were able to order both from the hot tubs and in the pool. Service at all the bars we visited were quick and efficient.

Spa: we did a 50-minute couples massage after our day in Costa Maya. We walked up to make an appointment and got one about an hour later. My husband got a bamboo massage (no thank you, haha) and I had a Swedish. Both therapists were great and we didn't get any sales pitch at the end.

Ship condition: there were definitely some parts of the ship showing wear, but overall we still thought it looked great. The carpets in the hallway by our cabin had obvious high traffic marks, but that is to be expected. The worst part of the ship was the mini golf course, which is being removed soon anyway.

Entertainment: we enjoyed the ice show, Freeze Frame, and Grease was fantastic! During our all access theater tour we got to take pictures in front of the Rydell High wall and I was very excited about that. Rondell Sheridan was the comedian and we saw his family friendly show which we enjoyed. We opted out of the adult comedy because it was last night and we knew we were going to up early for our drive home.

Costa Maya: we took a 5-minute, $2/pp cab ride to Mahahual. When you leave the port, walk just past the shuttles and out the gate to get a cab. We spent the day at Tropicante and it was wonderful. We didn't email ahead or anything but had our choice of loungers around 11. Rafael called us by name all day and was quick to bring us food and drinks. Our only complaint would be all the beach vendors, every few minutes we were saying "no thank you".

Cozumel: we aren't ones to spend all day everyday at the beach and having been here many times before, we decided to just grab some lunch. We found Crazy King Burrito highly rated on Yelp and had some delicious burritos. It was a$8/pp cab ride there and afterwards we strolled the nearby Centro shops.

Misc: we found out the day before that this was a Steelers Legends cruise, including 20 former/current players and about 1000 fans. We don't follow football so we had no clue who anyone was, haha. They had organized private events for that group, but we saw the players hanging out all over the ship and chatted with a few in the bars and elevators. Everyone we talked to was really nice and we didn't feel like it was overwhelming onboard.

Thanks for sharing. First cruise on RCL will be on IOTS.

Enjoyed reading your review/report.

Keith

Thanks for the feedback.