Just off the Independence 3/2 to 3/9. Comments and Concerns

[rotchill]

My husband and I were also on Indy last week and everything was great. We ate in the dining room for almost all meals and the service and food was really good. All our servers were attentive, brought drinks, and bread by several times and cleaned our table quickly on a regular basis. Most nights a lead waiter came by to makesure we had everything we wanted. Enjoyed the skating show and production shows alot.

[dz9yvr]

I understand the low morale with the crew, wouldn't you be disappointed if you were leaving Florida to go back to England? :rolleyes:

[nbsjcruiser]

I gotta say, I was on this cruise and reading what you wrote, I'd swear you were on another ship. You sure you were on this cruise? 8 days on the Independence, right?

 

Every time I entered the Windjammer at least 4 or 5 employees said good morning and smiled. Every single morning there were the 2 hand sanitizer girls greeting people and smiling. Unless you had an entrance to the Windjammer that nobody on the ship knows about, you're exaggerating to the extreme on this one.

 

The food is always subjective so I wont go there too much but will say that the new menus were good and the deserts were excellent.

 

Service was at times slow for My Time but where do you have to be? If it takes 2 hours, so what? Does 10 or 15 minutes make that much difference?

 

Chops was its excellent great service and the mud pie delicious.

 

To me, your opening line "This cruise was different, we felt it the minute we walked on. " tells me you had your mind up before you stepped foot on the ship.

 

For the rest of the folks, I'll be putting together a review of this cruise with some pics later in the week. It was a great cruise and we had a ball.

[Floridaman5115]

I was on the Indy end of Jan. I have been on 15 RC cruises and a diamond member. If that was my first cruise with royal it would have been the last.

 

Dinner was terrrible in the WJ that included service, food choices and quality.

Many of the crew members where outright rude and unhelpful. No WOW cards given out on that cruise.

 

I am loyal to royal, but this cruise and staff should stay in England.

I know the bashing towards me will start. Fire away.

[bigeck]

I was on the Indy end of Jan. I have been on 15 RC cruises and a diamond member. If that was my first cruise with royal it would have been the last.

 

Dinner was terrrible in the WJ that included service, food choices and quality.

Many of the crew members where outright rude and unhelpful. No WOW cards given out on that cruise.

 

I am loyal to royal, but this cruise and staff should stay in England.

I know the bashing towards me will start. Fire away.

 

Say it as you see it.

I was unaware all the crew and staff come from England though. That must be a first. Never seen a cruise with all American staff either

[southstaffs3]

We were on this cruise as well and experienced the exact opposite. Beverages were always brought to us in the WJ (one time when I asked for the KiwiStrawberry water and there was none..the server brought me all the other choices available so I could pick)

Dishes were always promptly cleared from our table.

WJ staff always welcomed us at the entrance generally singing and smiling.

 

Our MTD staff (Fernando and Lloyd) were fantastic and we requested them every night. Service was always prompt. One evening our waiter even entertained us by playing the guitar and singing.

 

As far as the new menu (great by the way) there might have been turkey on 2 nights but there was also lamb and prime rib two nights as well which was excellent.

 

I don't know how OP found cruise to be boring..there was so much to do that we found a daily quick nap was always welcomed.

 

Since escargot was not available( head waiter told us they couldn't get it from their supplier and the other supplier didn't meet FDA standards) they offered a similar crab and salmon dish with the same butter and garlic.

 

Overall we had a great cruise the CD Joff and his staff were all high energy.. as well as the singers and dancers. I think a cruise is what you make it and we made it a fantastic 8 days.!!!! Can't wait for our next Royal cruise in Oct.

We were also on this cruise had the best time ever met some lovely people can not wait to do it again

[southstaffs3]

I gotta say, I was on this cruise and reading what you wrote, I'd swear you were on another ship. You sure you were on this cruise? 8 days on the Independence, right?

 

Every time I entered the Windjammer at least 4 or 5 employees said good morning and smiled. Every single morning there were the 2 hand sanitizer girls greeting people and smiling. Unless you had an entrance to the Windjammer that nobody on the ship knows about, you're exaggerating to the extreme on this one.

 

The food is always subjective so I wont go there too much but will say that the new menus were good and the deserts were excellent.

 

Service was at times slow for My Time but where do you have to be? If it takes 2 hours, so what? Does 10 or 15 minutes make that much difference?

 

Chops was its excellent great service and the mud pie delicious.

 

To me, your opening line "This cruise was different, we felt it the minute we walked on. " tells me you had your mind up before you stepped foot on the ship.

 

For the rest of the folks, I'll be putting together a review of this cruise with some pics later in the week. It was a great cruise and we had a ball.

 

So did we :)

[Indy_Girl46]

I was on the Indy end of Jan. I have been on 15 RC cruises and a diamond member. If that was my first cruise with royal it would have been the last.

 

Dinner was terrrible in the WJ that included service, food choices and quality.

Many of the crew members where outright rude and unhelpful. No WOW cards given out on that cruise.

 

I am loyal to royal, but this cruise and staff should stay in England.

I know the bashing towards me will start. Fire away.

 

Why should the cruise and staff stay in England ????

[deanna41]

My inlaws were on this ship 2-10, and they had a good time but, did comment that alot of things were not done the same as on other ship and not available. Shows were good and they liked the new menu, but compared to the Freedom it was lacking something.

[Docdan48]

We were on this cruise and experienced the opposite in most cases. We departed the ship 3/10.

 

We had great interaction with the crew from the bar service to the stateroom attendant (who was one of the best we have had).

 

Shows were very good, especially the RC Singers and Dancers!

 

Food was very good to great, I know, subjective. However, I agree that MDR service was slow due to serving teams getting used to the new menus.

 

WJ staff was excellent. Right when you first walk in you hear a friendly "Washee Washee!" to the staff manning the tables they were all pleasant and helpful. I would say the WJ staff offered coffee/beverage service for the morning 90% of the time, the other 10% we just got it from the beverage stations which were also well staffed. We ate in there a fairly busy times, too. We thought the quality and selection in the WJ was good. Cafe Promenade sandwiches were an excellent snack.

 

We would never have a boring cruise, it is what the customer makes of it. The ship was full of things to do. We did find it odd there was no parade in the Royal Promenade like on previous sailings in this class of ship.

 

Agree on Chops was just ok, would not do it again. However, 3 words - Red Velvet Cake - it was the best!

 

I think the last midnight buffet I remember was back in 2007, none have been offered since then and nor did we expect it - usually what we ate during the day was enough.

 

It is interesting how the same cruise can provide a different experience for others. This was a great cruise for us and will be planning on another soon.

 

We just got off of the Independence on Mar 10. We had a great time our 1st experience with MTD was great. My only complaint was that the ice in the drinks melted to quickly (see how stupid some of the complaints sound).

[ticktoneer]

My husband and I have been on a few cruises and we usually enjoy every minute of it. I can make the best of any situation and have fun no matter what :)

 

This cruise was different, we felt it the minute we walked on.

 

I've been thinking of doing this post since Wednesday and the only way I can describe it as is it seems to be very low morale among the crew.

 

Previous cruises the crew was smiling, accommodating and seemed to enjoy their job and it was overall a good time.

 

The service was basically horrible. In the past breakfast in the windjammer there were staff greetings everywhere, coffee juice and drinks brought to your table. We saw none of this the entire 8 night cruise except for 1 lunch.

 

Disappointed in the 'new' menu...Turkey twice in 1 week? really?

 

My husband misses the Escargot.

 

The dining room service was beyond slow (yawn). We had my time dining and our waiter couldn't really understand English. I said "I need a fork, please", he said "Enjoy your dinner" and went off to wait on another table. (That was FUNNY, I'll admit)

 

Chops was another yawner as well. It was only 2 of us we ordered off the menu but I don't believe the dinner should of had to last 2 hours.

 

The food was good, the shows were awesome.

 

The first two sea days were basically boring. I don't know why they have the late night comedian the night before a port day instead of in between the 2 sea days.

 

There was no Midnight (11pm) buffet. :(

 

Was wondering if anyone else notice this as well?

Oh my gosh, you're gonna get flamed - ha ha ha !!

 

Good luck !

[KirkNC]

Thanks for the report!

[Ocean Boy]

Where's Ocean Boy when you need him? I think he was on this cruise.

 

I think you're right...its always interesting to get other perspectives:)

 

Here are some of my thoughts.....

 

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?p=37510501#post37510501

[luvsunnydayz]

Thank you for your post OP. I'm sorry that you had a not so great time on your cruise. It sounds like you may have had a different experience on the ship than some others on this post had. That's OK. Your experience on the ship is just as valid as those who had a wonderful time. It's always good to hear different perspectives. I hope that your next cruise will be a better one. ;)

[AFsouth]

Based on all objective reviews of this ship, obviously, "something" is not right. Royal, please correct this before my Nov 2013 cruise. :eek:

[berylde]

RCL is our favorite line and have never had a "bad" cruise

However, we were on the IOS in December, 2012, for the first time, and we also felt something about the ship was just not right.

[Lady Chew]

[FONT=Arial Narrow][SIZE=3][COLOR=seagreen][B]We were aboard for the Feb 16 cruise. We had a great cruise ... but we did notice that many of the activities & humor were geared towards the British ... no wonder, since the CD & many (most) of his assts are Brits. [/B][/COLOR][/SIZE][/FONT]
[FONT=Arial Narrow][SIZE=3][COLOR=seagreen][/COLOR][/SIZE][/FONT]
[FONT=Arial Narrow][SIZE=3][COLOR=seagreen][B]Embarkation day, after lunch, we were wandering around exploring the ship and met a bartender up in the Viking Crown ... she was from Sarajevo, and told us that "most" of the crew hated being in the Caribbean and couldn't wait to get back to Europe ... there was nothing in the islands except beaches, it was boring, etc etc. She also implied that we were dumb Americans for wanting to just relax in the Caribbean instead of exploring Europe, which was "much more interesting" than the tropics. She seemed amazed that we knew where Sarajevo was and had actually been to Europe a few times. She said that a lot of crew elected to stay in Europe when the ship came over to Ft. Lauderdale, and they had taken on a lot of new hires who weren't very good, from Jamaica and "places like that" [/B][/COLOR][/SIZE][/FONT]
[FONT=Arial Narrow][SIZE=3][COLOR=seagreen][/COLOR][/SIZE][/FONT]
[FONT=Arial Narrow][SIZE=3][COLOR=seagreen][B]Needless to say, we didn't visit the Viking Crown again![/B][/COLOR][/SIZE][/FONT]
[FONT=Arial Narrow][SIZE=3][COLOR=seagreen][/COLOR][/SIZE][/FONT]
[FONT=Arial Narrow][SIZE=3][COLOR=seagreen][B]We did encounter similar attitudes from a few crew during the 8 days, but most of them were warm & welcoming, and the service was great (especially in the Windjammer!)[/B][/COLOR][/SIZE][/FONT]

[Ocean Boy]

[quote name='Lady Chew'][FONT=Arial Narrow][SIZE=3][COLOR=seagreen][B]We were aboard for the Feb 16 cruise. We had a great cruise ... but we did notice that many of the activities & humor were geared towards the British ... no wonder, since the CD & many (most) of his assts are Brits. [/B][/COLOR][/SIZE][/FONT]
[FONT=Arial Narrow][SIZE=3][COLOR=seagreen][/COLOR][/SIZE][/FONT]
[FONT=Arial Narrow][SIZE=3][COLOR=seagreen][B]Embarkation day, after lunch, we were wandering around exploring the ship and met a bartender up in the Viking Crown ... she was from Sarajevo, and told us that "most" of the crew hated being in the Caribbean and couldn't wait to get back to Europe ... there was nothing in the islands except beaches, it was boring, etc etc. She also implied that we were dumb Americans for wanting to just relax in the Caribbean instead of exploring Europe, which was "much more interesting" than the tropics. She seemed amazed that we knew where Sarajevo was and had actually been to Europe a few times. She said that a lot of crew elected to stay in Europe when the ship came over to Ft. Lauderdale, and they had taken on a lot of new hires who weren't very good, from Jamaica and "places like that" [/B][/COLOR][/SIZE][/FONT]
[FONT=Arial Narrow][SIZE=3][COLOR=seagreen][/COLOR][/SIZE][/FONT]
[FONT=Arial Narrow][SIZE=3][COLOR=seagreen][B]Needless to say, we didn't visit the Viking Crown again![/B][/COLOR][/SIZE][/FONT]
[FONT=Arial Narrow][SIZE=3][COLOR=seagreen][/COLOR][/SIZE][/FONT]
[FONT=Arial Narrow][SIZE=3][COLOR=seagreen][B]We did encounter similar attitudes from a few crew during the 8 days, but most of them were warm & welcoming, and the service was great (especially in the Windjammer!)[/B][/COLOR][/SIZE][/FONT][/QUOTE]

Three years ago I was on Indy shortly before the ship was to go to the UK for the first time. I heard the saem stories from the crew about being unhappy about the move over to Europe. They wanted to stay in the Caribbean. I guess Indy needs a double crew depending upon where the ship is sailing out of.

[Jetdriver787]

[QUOTE]Three years ago I was on Indy shortly before the ship was to go to the UK for the first time. I heard the same stories from the crew about being unhappy about the move over to Europe. They wanted to stay in the Caribbean. I guess Indy needs a double crew depending upon where the ship is sailing out of. [/QUOTE]

Indy started her life cruising from the UK after her launch 5 years ago. We sailed on her during her inaugural year (and every year since.) I suspect this is the usual "crew gossip." When in Europe the stories revolve around the crew looking forward to their Winters in the Caribbean with the "Big tippers." It seems when there they look forward to "Culture and the tightwads." Perhaps the grass is always greener, or the sea is always [I]bluer[/I]

I guess a job is always a job! :)

[tasbm1]

Now that tips will be automatic, I wonder if crew attitudes will change? The rumors were that crew liked the Caribbean because of the American big tippers. Europe had more to explore at the ports but the tips were lower.

[monkeyinhat]

We cruised Indy mid January. Honestly, this was the first RCCL cruise we have had drink service in the Windjammer, no one before every offered or brought us drinks. This staff was so friendly

I have found the MTD is very slow. they are serving different courses different times and service isn't as good.

I had a girl in the shop go out of her way to help. all in all we found good service and had a good time. But we are not High maintenance type people.

I have read over and over people say something was off, but it was definately on for us.