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Independence Of The Seas B2B with over 100 pictures


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Great review and pictures, Jim! We sailed the 8 day itinerary last year right around the same time as you did. We are currently preparing to sail on Indy's sister, Freedom, so I was looking for reviews to help me get excited. :D As if I needed any help getting excited! :eek: Regardless, your review did the job! I am glad someone found this review and posted on so it made it's way onto page 1 for me to find and read. Thanks for sharing! :cool:

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Brilliant review, thanks very much Jim ( & to whoever bumped it up the forum for me to find! ) Easily the best review on here.

 

Six months to wait until our first time on Independence & your amazing photos and writing are really useful & adding to the excitement [emoji3] thanks again

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

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I just happened to see this review. Great job, thanks for all the information and photos. We are taking a four night cruise on Independence in December which will have two sea days and on in Cozumel, so it was good to see there's plenty to do on the ship.

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  • 2 months later...

Echoing previous responses, a fantastic review, undoubtedly the best I've read on here. Many many thanks for your hard work.

 

You've helped me out twofold.....though my husband and I have sailed previous RC cruises, we have our first on Indy in September this year (10 night Canary Islands), but also have one booked on Indy for April 2017 for Carribean & TA. So I now have a feel of the ship and it's amenities, but also know what to look out for in the Carribean Islands for next year.

 

Thanks again and enjoy your future voyages, be they RC or otherwise.

 

Gill

x

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Our Cabin, Stateroom 7386



 

Cabin7386-IMG_7993.JPG

Cabin 7386 on Royal Caribbean's "Independence Of The Seas"

 

We stayed in a regular balcony cabin... or, as Royal Caribbean calls it, a "superior ocean-view cabin with balcony". It seemed fairly roomy and compared well to the balcony cabins we've had in other cruise ships. The big couch was a handy place to sit to watch a little TV and was also great for spreading out our suitcases when unpacking or packing. The desk had plenty of room, and two electrical outlets... one more than Carnival ships of this era.

 

My only complaint about the cabin was that it was difficult to store our suitcases under the bed because the cabin steward had stashed a whole bunch of stuff down there (a big comforter, for example) which took up a lot of room.

 

Balcony-IMG_7987.JPG

 

The balcony was exceptionally roomy... comparable to an "extended balcony" on Carnival's Spirit-class ships. I liked the way the balcony dividers worked. If you're travelling in a group with multiple cabins together, you can have the stateroom steward slide the balcony dividers open to create a big balcony that your whole group can share. On Carnival, these balcony dividers swing open, and it's a little awkward. Here, the balcony dividers slide open... which makes more sense. Also, notice that the glass door to the cabin slides open and closed rather than swinging open and closed like it does on Carnival. Again, Royal Caribbean's design makes more sense, as it is easy to leave the balcony door open without needing a bungie cord or a door stopper to get the door to stay open.

 

Here's a look at the bathroom in our cabin:

 

Bathroom-IMG_7998.JPG

 

The bathroom was adequate. Not luxurious by any means, but it got the job done. I liked the sliding glass door on the shower, rather than the shower curtains that Carnival uses in their showers. The shower was the bare minimum size that I can accept. I had an issue with the showers in the standard balcony cabins on Princess... they were just too small for me. I absolutely will not stay in a regular balcony cabin on Princess again, because of those annoyingly small shower stalls. Royal Caribbean's were just enough bigger that it was OK. They don't hold a candle to the super-luxurious shower I experienced on my cruise on the Norwegian Getaway, but it's not a fair comparison because that was a more expensive cabin.

 

Loving your review and photos.Do you know if the curtain pulls right across the cabin?Thank you.

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  • 2 months later...

As you can see from my signature this will be #4 for me, but my sister is coming with me and it's #1 for her. I've been hunting and hunting CC for a picture review and yours is the ONLY one out there!!!

 

I want her to fall in love with cruising and if your pictures and review don't do the trick then I'm going to have to pick another sister next time, because she'd be nuts if she doesn't fall in love after looking over your review!!

 

We sail Feb 6 2017....this has made me even more excited to get on the ship. I've never been on a large ship so this is going to be a blast!!

 

Thank you Thank you Thank you for taking the time to put this together, it was amazing!!

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  • 3 months later...

Amazing job! I think you should start working for the cruise line and do this on all the ships! And then the inevitable updates!

 

I know it's dated, but the info and pictures were amazing. There are a few things I would mention - and this is simply My opinion!

 

The dining - I always do dinner in the main Dining Room - maybe a specialty a week, depending. but NEVER the My Time Dining - that's when you get in those little 'table for 2' spots. I can have dinner with my wife 365 days a year - I don't need to be confined on a ship - I agree with you on that. But I do early dining and ask for a large table. I have met and stayed friends with the most amazing people that way.

 

And, I always order at least two different entrees. just in case.... Multiple starters - same reason, and on lobster night - 5 lobsters, keep the veggies. They are small. I actually got those tips before leaving on my very first cruise.

 

The other thing I do with respect to dining is I ask what the Filipino and Indian dishes are for the say. The table waiter will bring over the maitre'd and he will arrange that. There are many times when thye will bring a large plate of naan bread, huge bowls of rice and several big bowls of assorted curries, etc. Sometimes awesome! People at other tables just stare and cannot figure out why we are being treated special. All you have to do is ask.

 

That brings me to another point. Royal Caribbean allows you, immediately upon boarding, to remove the 'automatic gratuities' from your Seapass account - unless you're on the My Time Dining... They will provide you with envelopes just like in the old days, and you can give it to the applicable people personally. I have found that there is a certain level of expectation for tips when someone doesn't even do any thing for you.

 

Classic case is the maitre'd as I mentioned above. On a cruise a couple of years ago he promised me faithfully, for about 5 days, he'd take care of us on one thing or another. He did nothing. I eventually gave up asking because i knew he was just giving lip service. He got NO tip. Instead, my poor waiter, who kept going to ask him daily, got the tip for service above and beyond.

 

I suppose I got to the point where I had a certain level of expectancy for the service and when the bar was set higher and higher, an encounter with someone who clearly wasn't of the same calibre as earlier staff may have jaded me a bit. But, for every one of those staff members, there are dozens lined up begging for the work. They work hard, and I enjoy givign them the cash they need when I leave the ship.

 

Anyway, great writeup! thanks for that!

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I'm glad this review popped back up so I'm "following" it so I can find it later.

I'm just off Indy last Monday and want to compare its appearance on a "normal" cruise to what it looked like on our music charter, with the two pools drained and covered and a huge outdoor stage erected over that area.

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