Independence of the Seas March 9-15th, Western...mostly picture review.

[Nemomof3]

Great Pictures! Keep them coming!

[missholly24]

Thanks guys. I work today until late, so nothing new until later on tonight. Next up....Cayman Islands!!

[EMED2010]

Nice review. I love looking at pictures too and I have not sailed on that class ship yet so it is interesting. That was the first I heard Cuddy mentioned. We had him on Brilliance in 2010 and I have not seen him mentioned at all since then. We enjoyed him so much - good to see he is still around.

[CRUISEFAN0001]

Thanks guys. I work today until late, so nothing new until later on tonight. Next up....Cayman Islands!!

Cool Beans!

 

Liking this thread...and we'll get to take our own photos coming up this weekend on INDY. She's a great ship.

[traceyleigh15]

Cool Beans!

 

 

 

Liking this thread...and we'll get to take our own photos coming up this weekend on INDY. She's a great ship.

 

 

You must be with us, sailing Sunday? :). Woot woot

 

 

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[joand452]

Sailing on Indy in 21 days!! Our first time on that class ship -- I'm sure we'll love it. (With the exception of jello and pudding for dessert! ;) Any ice cream?)

 

Great pictures, and looking forward to more!!

[missholly24]

Alrighty, day 3 is Cayman Islands. I had done a little research (ok a lot) to find out the closest, nicest, cheapest beach. Royal Palms was the decision. We had breakfast delivered by room service. Works out nice to avoid the Windjammer crowd. The tender line was 4 miles long I swear, but it went super fast. We walked out of the port and grabbed a cab. It ended up being a big bus, I was worried about waiting too long for it to fill up, but 10 min or less and we were on our way. 4 bucks per person. Less than 10 minute drive and we were there. A dad of a family with little ones asked me where I was going and if I had ever been there before. Ended up converting the whole bus. That made me nervous because what if it was awful!?! I've then ruined the day of 20 people. However, it was paradise. The sand felt like flour.

View from the tender. Independence has a big butt.

 

II love the sea, and ships, and captains. For some reason, I loved this photo, maybe because of those three things.

There was some shopping at the pier. Prices were fine. I bought some cool things.

[missholly24]

Ok, finally Royal Palms and the beach!!

The pool. There are two webcams here. My husband and mom were able to see me. (not well, but it was fun)

They had jetskis, volleyball,those flat surf boards that you stand on, a bar/restaurant, pool with swim up bar, and bathrooms. Chairs and umbrellas were for rent, I forget how much. It did get pretty crowded towards the end of the day. Lots of ships in port that day.

 

[Jen49439]

Thank you for posting. Great review anxiously waiting for more. We will be sailing on March 29.

What time did your luggage arrive? We have early dining and I'm concerned that we will not have our clothes. :)

[missholly24]

The shopping was fun. Very cool gift shop.

The tender back.

 

 

Ironic, the next ship I will be on was next to us in port.

[missholly24]

Formal night tonight!! We ate a salad at windjammer so we wouldn't "ruin" our dinner by not being hungry. That is always a struggle for me. If I make it to dinner and am actually hungry, I have succeeded. LOL

 

As much as I love food, I think this was the only "food porn" picture I took. I just felt weird taking a photo of the food set in front of me. Almost like I had never had a nice meal placed before me. ??? I don't know, just felt silly. (not knocking people who do this, I love your reviews and benefit greatly knowing what everything looks like beforehand. haha)

 

Our friend after dinner. I love towel animals. Sadly, we only got 3, and one was completely x rated. Very funny though. FYI while I am trying to keep the photos in chronological order some may be out of order.

 

All of the shows were good. The comedians were hillarious (John Joseph and Johnny B I think were there names) I am going to go out on a limb here and say out loud that I did not enjoy the ice skating show. Now I know that it has a 100% approval rating on Cruise critic, so I realize I must be wrong. LOL. However, the rink is very very small and they crammed 10 people on it. It looked silly. Two people fell. I was so worried they were going to fall I had to hide behind my hands. I don't like stressful situations that could end up embarassing for anyone. The show would have been much better with 4 or 6 people max, heck maybe even 2. The main girl was 7 feet tall. I am not exaggerating. (I don't think) The rink was extra small and she was extra big. The whole thing was odd too me. I know EVERYONE else loved it. I'm sorry.

 

 

 

[missholly24]

Sailing on Indy in 21 days!! Our first time on that class ship -- I'm sure we'll love it. (With the exception of jello and pudding for dessert! ;) Any ice cream?)

 

Great pictures, and looking forward to more!!

 

Yes, they had ice cream. Soft serve during the day. Not 24 hrs like Carnival though! (+1 Carnival) We like to be silly and go grab ice cream at 1am. They also had scoop vanilla one day with all sorts of toppings in the Windjammer. That was yummy.

[missholly24]

Thank you for posting. Great review anxiously waiting for more. We will be sailing on March 29.

What time did your luggage arrive? We have early dining and I'm concerned that we will not have our clothes. :)

 

It was there around 4, but I know they don't guarantee that. My guess is that they aren't that strict on dress codes the first day.

[missholly24]

Here are some more random photos of the ship at night. Such a beautiful place and atmosphere. Spotless and the lighting was very well done.

 

[missholly24]

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Alrighty folks, I am going to bed. I work all day tomorrow as well, so I won't be posting until night time. I knew I took 400 photos for some reason! LOL....Tomorrow Jamaica!!!

[missholly24]

Sorry for the duplicate. I'm tired.:rolleyes:

[meaclasact2]

We will be on our first RCI cruise on the IOS in about 200 plus a few days. Your pictures are wonderful...you put a huge smile on my face...I know we are in for a sensational cruise. Have been on NCL primarily but it's time to try something new. And....I like what you said about the desserts too :D! We're sailing out of England and want that British feel for our trip!

 

Again thank you for taking the time to post - it takes a lot of work and effort.

 

Happy sailing! :)

[itolduso]

Enjoying your review so far. Looking forward to more

 

krystal

sent from my broken Samsung

[traceyleigh15]

This is wonderful! I leave to board my plane in one hour, it will be our first time on Indy

 

 

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[LBumb]

nice pics

[Nick28]

Thanks for the pics...we too sailed on this sailing!!! Someone told us there were 1800 cruisers under 18 on the sailing...but we never felt crowded! Good times.

[dleafy]

Great review so far. Lovin the photos. :)

[missholly24]

Thanks for the pics...we too sailed on this sailing!!! Someone told us there were 1800 cruisers under 18 on the sailing...but we never felt crowded! Good times.

 

Oh wow! Thats a lot. Yes I only felt crowded when we tried to find a deck chair on sea days in the sun. Not a huge deal though. Some nice folks saw us make round two and gave up 2 chairs. Otherwise, it had a young fun carefree feeling. The energy was great.

[missholly24]

Ok, so I forgot. Before Jamaica, I have a few pictures of the Parade on the promenade after formal night. We watched from a "lookout" on our floor. The space between port and starboard on each floor had seats. I think it was called the "Mad Hatters" parade.

 

 

[missholly24]

Jamaica!! Since we were traveling "alone" as in without my bodyguard husband, I was adamant about only doing a ship sponsored excursion (which I have NEVER done on any of my cruises.) The other option was just stay at the port. I had done quite a bit of research and nothing jumped out at me as a safe, nice, close beach. The enclosed port actually sounded pretty nice according to everyone's reviews.

 

and it didn't disappoint....

 

I can't really remember too much about the Falmouth Port except that the shopping was expensive and um......eclectic. As in a bong shaped like male genitalia. Very strange right out in the open. Glad I didn't have to explain to my boys. LOLOL.....We ended up deciding on a beach excursion called Montego Bay at your leisure. We didnt want to go to Red Stripe beach because it was close and cheap. I was willing to bed EVERY spring breaker was going there. Also, the others were expensive 80 and up. We didnt plan on getting sloppy drunk, so that wasn't necessary. I think Montego Bay excursion was $48 ish.