Independence Review_March 1 - 5, 2018

Last week we sailed on the Independence of the Seas for a short 4-night cruise to Cozumel. My husband and I are frequent cruisers, but we were treating my father to his first ever cruise experience.

For years we have been trying to talk him into trying a cruise, but never could convince him to go. We finally decided last year after sailing on the Oasis in May that we were just going to book a cruise for the three of us.

When it came to finding the right cruise for his first experience, we knew it had to be Royal Caribbean! My husband and I have sailed many other cruise lines, but RCCL has been our favorite now for over 4 years and for what they offer, we knew it would give him the best vacation experience.

This review is going to be our honest thoughts and opinions of our time on this ship both from us as seasoned cruisers and through the eyes of a brand new cruiser.

A couple of things to notate first...

1. I only have a photo of the first nights menu in the MDR, mainly to show the new menu format.
   
2. We did not eat at any specialty restaurants, so I cannot comment on those.
   
3. We did not do any spa services, so I will not have any input on those.
   
4. Yes, I do have compasses for all 4 days.
   
5. We were 3 adults traveling with no children, so I have no input on the kids clubs or activities.
   

I'm happy to answer questions if I can!

Following, looking forward to your thoughts. We are sailing on the Indy in November for the first time after several years of Oasis Class ships, so I am trying to read all I can.

What made us choose Independence over any other ship?

This was quite an easy decision. We wanted to sail out of Florida, for convenience purposes for my father since he lives north of Orlando. We also wanted a shorter cruise, even though we prefer a 7 night or longer. However, since my dad has never cruised before we thought it best to do a shorter cruise. There is nothing worse than being stuck on a ship in the middle of the ocean and be miserable. When it comes to a short cruise, choices are pretty limited to the Bahamas or Mexico, and there is no comparison in my book...so Cozumel it was!

The Freedom class ships are our favorite class. They aren't overwhelmingly big, not too small but just the right size with the right amount of common space and different activities to keep you busy during your cruise. We have sailed Freedom twice and would have loved to have done that one again, but because of our short cruise length requirement, that would count Freedom out and leave us with Independence. So, in June of 2017, we booked our cruise.

Cabin selection for 3 adults.

Since there were three of us, we knew that 2 cabins were not going to be an affordable option for us because of the single supplement. After some research, we settled on a forward ocean view cabin on deck six with cabin 6202 (my ideal deck on the Freedom class). I watched the prices regularly for a drop and was lucky to catch one that allowed for us to upgrade to a balcony on deck 6 just past the hump, cabin 6350 for just a little bit more but I kept this a secret from dad so that he would have some sort of a surprise the day we got onboard.

If you read my review of Oasis from last May, you'll know that we have fur babies, including a chipmunk. Yes...we still have the chipmunk! Because we had such a bad experience with boarding our dogs for that cruise, I was having anxiety about leaving our babies again. For months I would ask friends if they knew of anyone or could recommend a kennel, secretly hoping that someone would offer to look after our girls but no such luck.

After doing some checking and research on my own, we came across Rover.com. Looking back, it was probably from a commercial that I had seen on tv. I contacted about 3 or 4 sitters and then met with one that was available for the times we needed. I don't have children, but I now understand what it must be like to interview for a potential daycare or babysitter. Our dogs are our babies, and I can't entrust them or my house to just anyone. For the first couple days of being gone, I still had a little bit of anxiety, but the photos and texts that our sitter sent us while we were gone helped a lot. In the end, this worked out to be a perfect option for us.I would most definitely use this person and service again. So, for those of you who have pets and aren't comfortable with putting them in a kennel for an extended period of time, this is definitely something to consider. It was a very reasonable and in the event that something should happen to your home, your pets or the sitter, Rover's insurance covers it!

Sorry for the brief pause...the work week has been crazy, trying to catch up from being on the cruise. One of my coworkers made the comment to me yesterday that "it's just not worth going on vacation when you have to come back to so much work!". I DISAGREE! Give me my vacations which for us equal out to "give me my cruise!" Ha

Now back to our scheduled review...

Hubby and I flew into Orlando the day before the cruise. We had a very early flight (5:30 am) from Nashville into MCO. As you can imagine, with the flight coming to Disney territory, we had A LOT of kids on our flight, which was surprising to me given the early departure time.

We chose to fly into Orlando instead of Ft. Lauderdale because my dad lives north of Orlando in a small town called Umatilla and I didn't want him to do that 4 hour drive alone, even though he is a retired truck driver.

We arrived into Orlando around 8:30 local time and drive east to Port Canaveral to have a wonderful breakfast at Grills (http://www.grillsseafood.com/port-canaveral/). We have eaten both here and Fish Lips many times in the past and would recommend either one of them for a great meal. Great spot to watch the ships sail out as well!

After breakfast, we made our way south to Ft. Lauderdale!

HOTEL and DINING Pre-Cruise:

We have sailed from Ft. Lauderdale many times and there are many great options to choose from when it comes to selecting your accommodations for your night prior to the cruise. This time we decided on the Embassy Suites on 17th Street, mainly because of the larger/suite type rooms being that we would be sharing the room with my dad.

Yes, this hotel can be quite pricey especially if you are going to be leaving your car there for the duration of the cruise. Since I booked several months in advance, I was able to get a decent rate for the night. The parking was something I had a little bit of an issue with. One night will run you $27 plus tax for self park and a little more for valet. Should you be leaving your car for the cruise duration, it now cost $10/day but they gladly honored the price I was given back when I booked the room, which was $7/day. They didn't honor the original price for the first night, which was $24 however.

This hotel has a great happy hour between 5-7pm with free drinks and snacks in the lounge. We made very good use of this little perk! :)

After getting a little "happy", it was time for dinner. I was voting to go to Kelly's Landing which was a seafood restaurant recommended to me on Facebook, but since my dad isn't a seafood loving guy, I gave in and we went to Duffy's.

The wings were pretty good, but that could have been the drinks talking too!

All in all, the hotel was a good choice and depending on price I would consider booking again.

Looking forward to more. Have the Independence scheduled for next January, :)

Sail Away Day!

Thursday morning we got up and had our breakfast downstairs. It wasn't the best hotel breakfast I've had, but it was very good. Made to order eggs (win) along with bacon, sausage, potatoes and so much more. No one should leave there hungry, that is for sure.

We checked out and moved our car to the appropriate area for cruise parking and then requested an Uber to pick us up. The hotel does offer a shuttle, but if I remember correctly, it is $8 or $9 per person and you have to wait till the van is full. On a Saturday or Sunday this might not be a problem, but since we were the only ship in port that day I didn't want to wait. Not to mention, the Uber was just a little over $8 for the three of us!

We got to the port about 10:15am and had the quickest and smoothest security check and ship check in that we have ever had in all of our cruising. I told dad that he was our good luck charm because it went so fast! Of course, maybe some people headed the notice that was sent out a few days prior to the cruise requesting people to come after 12:00. You know, the usual silly email that comes before every cruise...HA~

Normally we do not bother stopping for the embarkation photo. We are normally all frazzled from all the usual craziness that goes will embarkation day, but since it was dad's first cruise, I knew I would want this photo for posterity.

Then it was upstairs to the holding pen as my hubby likes to call it.

Since we were the only ship that day, we were at Terminal 18 which is where the Harmony and Allure are stationed when they are in port (Saturday/Sunday).

Shortly after 11 the started boarding with the B2B folks, then Suites, followed by C&A status. We were walking the gangway by 11:20 or so.

Can't you just see the excitement on his face? I told him it was "ok" to show excitement...after all of our cruises, we still show excitement too!

Once on board, we made our way up to Windjammer for lunch. This is totally out of the ordinary for us, mainly because it is so incredibly packed on embarkation day. However, since we got on so early we thought we would head up there to deck 11 and give it a shot. We were pleasantly surprised to find that it wasn't packed and we found a good spot by the window for the three of us!

The food in the windjammer on that first afternoon seemed good to us, other than it didn't seem like the food was all that hot to me. There was plenty of it, and dad quickly found out that he shouldn't have any problem finding food he would eat on this trip. For a first time cruiser, there are many things that you don't know about or might have false knowledge of, for my dad, his big concern was the food. Crazy, right? Yeah, I know! You see, my dad is sort of a picky eater in that he is strictly a meat and potatoes kind of guy. He rarely eats anything green other than the occasional small serving of peas or green beans and is not keen on trying anything new. I did encourage him though, that a cruise is a perfect time to try foods you haven't had before and if you don't like it you can easily get something else. Guys, my dad is almost 70 and this cruise was the first time he ever had creme brulee! Of course, I think he liked it quite a bit because he had it 3 or 4 times during this short cruise.

At 1:00pm they gave the announcement that the rooms were ready, so we made our way down to deck 5 first so my dad could get a good look at the Promenade. This is always one of my favorite spots on these ships, however, it seemed like on the Indy that it was overly crowded and not laid out well. The chairs for cafe promenade, sorentos, and the pub seem to float out too far into the center of the promenade and traffic flow isn't very good, especially during peak times. We never noticed this being an issue on the Freedom.

When we started to make our way to the room, my dad started to get confused. He couldn't understand why we were not walking toward the front of the ship. It was nice to have one last surprised for him with our balcony upgrade.

THREE ADULTS IN ONE CABIN:

Yes, it can be done! Our cabin had the two beds (together as a king) for hubby and me, and a sleeper sofa for dad. My dad is 6 ft tall, and as you can see, he isn't a small man by any means. It worked out fine for us for this short cruise, but I wouldn't do it for a 7 night cruise. I truly believe the balcony helped with giving us some extra space to get out of each other's way when trying to get ready. I will say though, that we all thought the little curtain between the couch and bed went at least halfway across the room when pulled, but that is NOT the case. The little bit it comes out is really quite pointless if you ask me! You aren't getting any privacy with that.

By the end of day 2 my dad made the comment that he enjoyed the balcony, but if he cruised again he would be perfectly happy with an inside cabin. This coming from a new cruiser. He quickly picked up on the fact that we were merely in the cabin to sleep, shower and change and that most of our time is spent in the common areas of the ship between the Solarium, pool deck, promenade, lounges, and theater. We concur with him, that an inside cabin is perfectly fine for us as well. To us, cabin location is a little more important than whether it has a balcony or not. Of course, this doesn't mean that I wouldn't appreciate that upgrade to a suite one of these days! Ha~

Our first issue with this cruise, although minor--

Our cabin steward was nowhere to be found this first afternoon. In all of our previous cruises, we have always noticed the stewards in the halls eager to introduce themselves and meet their guests. We hung out for a few minutes hoping our luggage would soon appear or our steward would appear so that we could make our requests. Finally, we gave up and made our way up to the pool deck to look around some more.

Thanks for your review.

We are sailing on Indy on Thursday. We also sailed on her in 2014.

You dad seem so happy in the pics.

You mentioned that you are frecuente cruisers, were you able to bring your dad to the “holding pen “ based on your C&A status or you guys went to the gold section ?

Thank you !!!

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You dad seem so happy in the pics.

You mentioned that you are frecuente cruisers, were you able to bring your dad to the “holding pen “ based on your C&A status or you guys went to the gold section ?

Thank you !!!

 

 

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He was able to join in our group. And you're right, his smile was infectious during our cruise.

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Enjoyed your review.

Keith

Enjoyed your review.

 

Keith

Thanks. I'm still working on it. Much more to go, but hope to finish it today.

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We had a little issue with our luggage getting delivered to our cabin. My boys went on the hunt down our hall and found our 3 pieces in front of another cabin....Issue #2.

Not sure how there was any mistake since each piece had our luggage tags on them, but thankful we found them with little problem.

We were all able to be unpacked before muster drill, and found no problems finding storage space to put everything out of the way. We also put the glass coffee table in our closet to give us more walk around space inside the cabin. Besides, we knew that once the couch was pulled out for the evening, it would have to go somewhere. It easily fit into the closet and left room for our pop up mesh hamper.

For our cabin location, our muster drill was outside on deck 4. This was a cluster for sure. People were taking their sweet time to get to their muster locations, so they couldn't start until everyone was accounted for. Strange observation was that they were not scanning sea pass cards like they normally do for the drill. Instead, they had a print out with names and cabin numbers and crossed you off when you verbally checked in. This didn't seem very efficient.

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Once the drill was over, we had my dad head up to deck 11 for sail away while we made our way down to deck 3 to Studio B to get tickets for the ice show. Yes, that's right...you need tickets for this show, or at least it's highly recommended.

For our 4 night cruise they had one evening performance on the first night and 2 performances on day 2. We decided on the matinee show on day 2. Once we had our 3 tickets we took them back to our cabin then up to meet dad up on deck, and get our sail away drink.

Great start. Looking forward to hearing your thoughts on a 4 day cruise as we have one booked end of the summer (different Royal ship)

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That is so funny you posted that about the ice show tickets. I just told my hubby this morning that I remembered on another ship that my mom had to hurry to get the ice show tickets for everyone or we wouldn't get to see it.

Are all of the performances the same of the ice show?

I am really enjoying your review...thank you!

That is so funny you posted that about the ice show tickets. I just told my hubby this morning that I remembered on another ship that my mom had to hurry to get the ice show tickets for everyone or we wouldn't get to see it.

Are all of the performances the same of the ice show?

 

I am really enjoying your review...thank you!

Not all of the shows are like this on Independence. The ice show as the only one that you needed the tickets for. i can only assume it's because of the seating capacity of the venue.

Thanks for swinging by for my review, I really appreciate it.

Dad's first sail-away!

Since it was a Thursday, there was not a lot of beachgoers which was quite a change from our normal sail aways on the weekends.

It was truly a beautiful day, weather-wise. The skies were blue and the sea was calm. We would find it calm for the first half of our cruise. To be quite honest, we have never had seas as calm as we did Thursday and Friday.

Tennessee has some of the most beautiful sunsets, but nothing compares to sunsets on a cruise ship.

Night One Dinner:

We had My Time Dining for this cruise. We have done this the last three times (Harmony, Oasis, and Independence). I think this works great on the large cruise ships like the Oasis class since there is always so much going on, but I think that you miss something with not having the traditional dining.

Royal started a new menu in January, and quite frankly we were not fans. Now, for my dad who has never experienced this before, he didn't mind it but hubby and I hope this goes back to the way it used to be.

Now when you order your dinner, you order everything at once including your dessert.

We also feel pretty sure that the menu choices have lost their creativity and the number of options seemed less than they were on our last cruise. There also is no longer a "bread person" walking around with the big trays of bread, there is bread in a basket on your table.

Our service this night was less than stellar, and with this new system of ordering everything at once, it was almost like they were trying to rush people in and out as quickly as possible. Our waiter brought my soup AND salad at the same time! We had our meal eaten and dessert on our table in roughly 40 minutes from the time we sat down. It was that quick.

Then, our head waiter came to our table to tell us that the next night would be formal night and they would have prime rib and lobster on the menu. Right then I knew what I would have for dinner on night 2, but...I would soon be disappointed.

First, let me say that I'm sorry that this is dragging on. Work has been overwhelming since being back. I had reserved my time in the evenings after getting home to working on this review, and more often than not I find myself working on my work stuff! I promise to quickly wrap this up in the next few posts.

FIRST NIGHT IN THE BOOKS!

One of my favorite things about night one is the Welcome Aboard Show. We had missed this the last two cruises because the Oasis class ships don't really do this type of show on the first night. I guess doing one welcome show is kind of difficult when you have that many passengers on board.

This show gave us our first glimpse at the comedian we were going to have during our cruise, and he was pretty darn funny. I had emailed about 3 weeks prior to our cruise to find out who our Headliner would be as well as our comedian, so I had checked him out on YouTube, and quickly recognized him from TV.

Rondell Sheridan

Once the show was over (it starts at 10:30pm), we made our way to the cabin to crash hard. It had been a long and exciting day, and we were ready to catch some ZZZ's to be ready for day 2.

DAY 2: SEA DAY

The three of us woke up relatively early and made our way to the Solarium to find a few chairs and park for some R&R. At 7:30 am it was no problem at all to find a chair. The boys made their way to the Windjammer for breakfast and I settled in with my Kindle. The waters were still very calm and the weather was perfect! It wasn't long before most of the lounge chairs were all claimed! But, I'm happy to report that Pool Attendants were out in force and notating all of the "reserved" chairs. If 30 minutes went by, their stuff was moved to the towel exchange area. I was very happy to see this!

I will say that up on deck is one of the main places where I noticed the age of the ship and the fact that certain things had been "let go" or not maintained as well as you normally find on a cruise. It is pretty evident that the fact the ship is soon going into dry dock that there is no initiative to touch up paint, fix broken things, or maintain facilities. An example of this was the two hot tubs in the Solarium. The jets were not working properly and there was no one working on these at any time during our cruise. The ice cream machine was taken apart a few times, but then you wouldn't see anyone really working on it...it was just pulled apart and not functioning.

Lunch on this day was in the MDR on deck 3. We did go to our room and change out of our swim suits before we went to lunch, although there were many people who were in their bathing suits. Didn't bother me, I'm just letting those of you who would be interested to know that for lunch, it seems that anything goes for attire.

They did offer a menu to order from for lunch, but the three of us opted to get items from the small buffet they had in the dining room which consisted of "build your own" salad bar, a pasta bar and some other hot items as well as plenty of different dessert options.

ICE SKATING SHOW:

I just love the Ice Shows that Royal Caribbean offers on their ships. I remember the first time on Freedom being amazed that these people were able to skate on a small rink on a moving cruise ship. It still amazes me, as do the high divers in the aqua theater shows!

Our show was Freeze Frame and it was excellent. Dad surely enjoyed this show. They were all great skaters and the costumes and music were all songs that we knew, which was fun to sing along. The parents of one of the skaters were sitting right in front of us and you could see the pure joy that they had watching their daughter perform.

The only negative that I had about the ice show was needing to have the ticket, and that the show was in the middle of the afternoon instead of in the evening. I felt that it took away from the downtime/relaxation time that we have in the middle of the day. Not to mention, we would have been dressed differently and warmer if it was in the evening, instead of in shorts. It can get chilly in there.

WHAT DO YOU MEAN, NO LOBSTER?

Due to a change in activities for the night, we decided to change our dining reservations from what I had pre-reserved before our cruise. When I went down to the dining room that afternoon after our ice show, I glanced at the menu for the evening and noticed that lobster and prime rib were no where to be found. The only "lobster" on the menu was lobster bisque. When I requested the change to our dining time, I asked about the menu and was informed that there is no lobster on 4 night cruises. Funny, I was informed the night before that there would be lobster on tonights menu. When I changed the reservation, I also asked that we not be sat with the same dining staff that we had the night before. Of course, the question as to "why" came up and I explained my feelings about night one. I also mentioned that it was pretty sad that the wait staff didn't even know the menu!

FORMAL NIGHT:

There are those who love it and those that hate it, we are on the side that LOVE formal night. We always look forward to dressing up, matter of fact it is probably my favorite part about cruising. Yes, hubs normally always wears a tux one night and a nice suite the next. I on the other hand, always wear a gown and cocktail dress. It's just our way, and we embrace it. Where else do you have the opportunity to get all dolled up?

This cruise however, was just a 4 night so only had 1 formal night. We also didn't want to make my dad feel left out so we decided to tone it down considerably with our attire.

Can you tell me what times at night most of the shows start? We will be doing MTD, and since you don't pre-book your dining or entertainment reservations on the Indy as you do on Oasis class ships, I don't want to risk a conflict in scheduling. Thank you for your review and answering questions.

Lynn, that dress is FABULOUS! :D

Can you tell me what times at night most of the shows start? We will be doing MTD, and since you don't pre-book your dining or entertainment reservations on the Indy as you do on Oasis class ships, I don't want to risk a conflict in scheduling. Thank you for your review and answering questions.

Hi there. I will scan the cruise compasses tomorrow when I get to work. Of hand I can't remember all the show times.