Independence of the Seas, 14 Night Med, Half Way Point Review So far

[Peewee14]

I am writing this wile sat just outside the Dog & Badger on deck 5 (Royal Promenade) on the Independence of The Seas. It is day 8 of our 14 Night med cruise out of Southampton.

 

Its very quiet on the ship today, and we have decided to stay on board and just chill out for the day.

 

I was my intention when we booked this cruise to do a live from review, we saw many conflicting reports on this ship through the reviews etc on here I spent a lot of time reading the reviews including the excellent daily review that Nix posted. However I got the feeling it had been done enough so decided against that .

 

Instead I thought I could jot down my thoughts and observations so far, now we are half way in.

 

I suppose every review needs to start with a little background, so you can appreciate maybe my opinions on things.

 

There are 3 of us in our party, Myself, Peter (36) Wife Michaela (35) and Daughter Diana who is 3 and a half. This is our third cruise and our second with RCI, the first one being on the same ship about 2 years ago and the other one a P&O cruise.

 

We originally booked a guarantee Balcony, but without going into too much detail we swapped about cabins a little bit and finally settled on cabin 8200 which is a family oceanview right at the front of the ship overlooking the helipad.

 

It has a living area with sofa bed, a separate small room with Bunk beds, and a third room which is the master bedroom. Needless to say its wonderful for the 3 of us and the space is great. The only downside is you feel the movement of the ship a hell of a lot more at the front! To the point where you cant feel movement on the promenade, dining room etc, but as you get off the elevator on deck 8 and make your way forward you can feel the swaying as you approach the cabin. We are used to it now but I did feel a little queasy on the first few nights, as did my wife. So please consider this if you are looking to book one of these cabins.

 

Our Cabin attendant is well, I don’t really know how to rate him, he does his job, is friendly enough, we don’t see him much, but surely that’s good? He does whats required of him and everything we ask and that’s it, I must admit I feel sorry for him sometimes, our routine is none existent, and I don’t think he knows when to come and service our cabin lol!

 

As I am writing this half way through our cruise, it may not flow in any particular order, and you might find I go off on a tangent a little at times.

 

You might also want to remember when reading this, that we are having a wonderful time, a great cruise so far, so if I am critical or negative in areas please understand they are just my observations so far, and not factors that have had an overly adverse effect on our holiday, I am just honest in my opinions and think they may answer some questions people have about this cruise from Southampton and indeed this ship.

 

Embarkation was simples! We are form Wigan and normally drive down on the morning of the cruise however this time we deiced to come down Friday instead, what should have been a 3 and half hour drive took 6 and a half! We stayed in a local premier inn and it was ok for a pre cruise stay for 1 night.

 

On the way to the port in the morning, I managed to hit a kerb, hard, very hard! Surprised I didn’t smash the wheel off. When we parked up at port I inspected the tyre and its bad, huge egg and deformed tyre. Anyway stuff it, least we are there time to get on the ship and sod the car until we get back.

 

We arrived at port very early I think about 10.15, it was so easy ,on the ship very quickly cant remember waiting anywhere it just seemed to flow and then next thing you knew you are on the ship

 

 

We decided when we booked the cruise that we would order some of the drinks packages, in hindsight now I think that was probably a mistake, we should have waited until we boarded to decide, and to be honest if we had we probably would not have bothered.

 

I don’t drink alcohol at all, however I do drink quite a lot of coffee, sparking water and my major vice is diet coke! I drink way too much but its my drink of choice. Therefore I went for the royal replenish package. My wife does drink so she had the ultimate. My daughter had the soda refill package, although we try not to give her fizzy drinks the thinking was, on some occasions we could get myself a diet coke on her package, and I could get a water on mine and she could have that (hope that makes sense)

 

Anyway, the big problem! The Diet Fountain coke is disgusting; it really is awful it has a terrible after taste and I really cant drink it. My first drink was in the Schooner on boarding and I thought maybe just a bad batch in that bar. However after now trying every bar on board its terrible in all of them, so please consider this if buying the package and diet coke is your drink. Interestingly my wife says the same and she cant drink it on its own, but she says when mixed with vodka it tastes ok! So I now have to pay 2.50 per can of diet coke.

 

Also they do not have diet sprite on the soda fountain, so they do include diet sprite in cans in the package, However confusingly if you ask for a can of diet sprite they will charge you and bring you a can, if you just ask for a diet sprite, the pour it out of the can behind the bar and give it you in a glass and don’t charge.

 

I have found that in the olive & twist they will happily give me diet coke in cans for no charge, so you probably guessed I spend quite a bit of time in there. But on one visit a different waiter tried to charge me for it, until Alisha (she is a great Waitress) told him off for charging me and now I get them for free! But that’s the only place.

 

 

I spoke with guest services and they have offered to refund my package to be fair, but I thought I would probably end up spending what the package is worth on water and coffee etc. So decided to keep it.

 

I should have refunded it, as the only coffee I drink is black coffee and its all included anyway, the bottled water is a bit of a joke our plan was to collect a few of these during the day on our package and then take them to the room but this just hasn’t worked so far, bad planning on our part , but when you get a drinks package for convenience its isn’t convenient to have to have some kind of military plan to stock up on water during the day, the other problem being if you do go to get a bottle of water you cant then have a drink to drink on the spot, it probably doesn’t sound too difficult to anyone reading this, but its too much thinking and planning for me just to get some water for the room. Although Hooray!! We managed it last night the wife and I had a competition to see how many bottles of water we could get during the day, and we totaled 5 between us! So I think that’s the key, make it into a game and a competition!

 

Some times though the café or bar has run out of bottles so you only get a glass to carry, its something to think about really, and personally I don’t want to spend all day thinking about where to get water from, which is probably why we have spent about 80 dollars on room service water so far!

 

 

Most of the staff are great, and service has been good, I did bump in to 2 waiters I remembered off our last cruise also!

 

I tend to find a couple of bars I like and intend to spend time in, and give a tip up front in each to a few of the waiters, probably a total of 50 Dollar’s across the bars I like, and a bit in the dining room, needless to say we never have to wait for a drink, we get exceptional service and it’s the way I like it. I know people will say you shouldn’t have to etc etc , but this is just how I like to do it, and find it works for us.

 

There are a few people complaining about the service, but they are the kind of people who are complaining about everything! I just think if you treat the staff on board the way you want them to treat you then everything is wonderful, and they will go above and beyond to make you happy. However you know what some people are like, and I hate to say it but sometimes I am embarrassed to be British with some peoples behavior, the interesting thing is that the older generation seem to be the worst, the children on this sailing are wonderfully behaved some of the older guests could take a lesson in manners off them (as I said before please don’t think this is me having a moan, I am honestly having a great cruise, just my observations that maybe put some of the negative reviews into perspective)

 

While we are on the subject of behavior we will move on to the Kids, they are great! Yes it’s a bit manic on the pool deck on sea days, but you just have to go with it! There is a buzz about the pool decks and its chaos but its fun! You just cant help get high on life with so much energy and enjoyment all around you, I love the layout of the deck, Solarium up front for the adults, main pool deck in the middle which has mainly the younger adults, teenagers, then the H20 zone has a good mix mainly younger kids. It works well!!

 

I was swimming with our daughter one day and 2 ten year olds where racing in the pool, they swam completely over the top of her and dunked her, they hadn’t seen her, but once they realized what they had done they where horrified, came rushing back to her to help her out and couldn’t apologise about it enough, and that’s the story with the kids really, full of energy over excited some times but well mannered, and again with the layout of the ship you don’t really see them much on the lower decks unless with adults, and they certainly don’t roam around in gangs causing havoc. I honestly cant say anything negative about them at all! Apart from one horrible incident where a boy of about 10 decided to have a pee in the H2O zone up against the hot tub wall, while his dad told him not to, but then laughed at him when he just carried on, so only one bad experience in 8 days so far!

 

Most other people are very friendly and we have met some really nice people often sharing a table at dinner, however as I touched on some of the older generation are just blatantly rude and obnoxious, I am sorry if this upsets anyone reading this, but I cant help be honest. I have always tried to teach my daughter to respect the older generation, however its hard to do that with the attitude of some of them. Not to go into too much detail, but the obvious ones are pushing in front of, barging you out of the way, no manners when asking for things, speaking to the staff like they are dirt, (and then complaining the staff are not friendly towards them) I particularly find it hilarious when people are sometimes queuing for the lift, old couple just walks around the corner, lift arrives and they just barge in first. They then of course end up at the rear of the lift and have to fight their way out if it when it arrives at their floor.

 

One occasion I was holding a door open for 2 ladies and an older man just barged them out of the way and walked through in front of them, its funny really and amuses me. It certainly does not bother me, and you just need to laugh and ignore it. I know this point has been brought up on previous reviews which is why I mentioned it, but please don’t let it put you off this great ship, you can get this type of behavior anywhere.

 

Sun bed reserving is at a new level here, you don’t get chance to reserve one, we were relaxing on a bed yesterday, and left our towels on it and bags flip flops etc while we had no more than a 10 minute dip in the hot tub, we came back and found an old couple had moved our bags and rather than move our towels had decided they would lie on them and keep them! We just laughed and found somewhere else.

 

 

 

So our little girl Diana is 3 and a half, although for some reason last night before bed she has decided she is now 4, I am unsure why at this stage but no doubt there is a reason for it.

 

I work away a lot when we are home, so holidays for me are about spending time with the family doing very little! Diana is not usually one for the kids clubs on previous holidays and last time we cruised she was not old enough for adventure ocean, so we where interested to see how she would get on here.

 

My advice is to do what we did and make sure you take them to sign up afternoon on day 1, this is the only time adults are allowed in, and we are really glad we did it as it gave us time to meet other parents and let the kids get to know each other. After this for the first 3 days, all she wanted to do was go to adventure ocean, she loves it, and we couldn’t get her out of it! In fact one night at 9pm I went to get her and she didn’t want to come out! They seem quite structured and she enjoys it so great!

 

The way it works briefly is that on Sea Days 9am-12 then 12-5pm followed by 6.45pm – 10pm after ten 7 dollars per hour. You have to pick them up for lunch, on port days you can leave them in between 12-2 and they have lunch with the other kids.

 

On all days you have the option of leaving them in for dinner between 5pm and 6.45 you just sign them up for it when you drop them off. Diana has done Dinner with them 3 nights out of the 8 so far and has seemed to enjoy it.

 

She has gone off it a little the last day or so though, I am snot sure why, she is still going but not as enthusiastic about it as she was at first.

 

My only slight criticism is on day 2 they called me in the cabin to say Diana had tummy ache and could I go and get her. When I got there I was told sorry they had rang the wrong parent and Diana was fine! They then informed she had a little accident going to the toilet, she is fully potty trained so I was surprised but they said the problem seemed to be she couldn’t get her shorts off in time because the button was difficult (fair enough I could see this and understood) we agreed she would be brought in toilet friendly clothing, however on the next 3-4 sessions every time my wife and I checked her out, they looked at the computer and told us about the same accident, we explained that this was in a previous session, and they looked again and said “oh yes, so it was” however after the 4th time this happened it leaves you a little frustrated and slightly concerned, especially following the wrong parent incident lol!

 

But overall Adventure ocean is a 9 out of 10 , great staff and she does love it, we often pop by to check on her without her seeing us and she always looks like she is having fun.

 

I am afraid the one thing this half way point review will lack is any port information, we have only got off once so far in Lisbon, and I cant see us leaving the ship too much. Our holiday now is about family and our daughter is most important. We got off the ship in Lisbon and she was very hot and irritable and doesn’t really appreciate the ports, and we cant really expect her to, she is happier in the H2O zone, so that’s what we will do! We do have the option of leaving her in adventure ocean while we get off but I personally wouldn’t do this. So it looks like we are going to get to enjoy a lot of this great ship while its nice and quiet on port days. Hence me sat at the Dog & Badger writing this rather than enjoying Barcelona.

 

Just one point on Lisbon, on leaving the ship we were asked did we want a taxi into town, I thought yea why not! 15 Euro he said so I paid him 20 when he dropped us off. After lunch we got a taxi back and it was 5.50!! so a bit ripped off there then! Should have done my research! But oh well, lesson learned.

 

At least I am awake today though!! I have spent so much time relaxing and sleeping its been fantastic! You sometimes feel guilty you are wasting your holiday, but to me this is what a holiday is about, doing whatever I like at what time I like and if I want to sleep for 14 hours in a day, then I am going to do so!

 

I love the promenade, I can sit here for ages just chilling out and watching the people walk by.

 

I have bought the unlimited wifi package, which works ok, but its very slow. So I am typing this in a word document which I will copy and paste across in sections, I would hate to do all this typing and have the connection crash out when I clicked Submit!

 

I still have lots more to write about for those that’s interested, I am sorry my review is not as well structured as a lot of the ones you read on here, I tend to just sit and let my thoughts flow out as they come!

 

Next sections will include the Main Dining room, the Windjammer or “Face Jammer” as I have now renamed it. Room Service, Cupcake Cupboard (just food in general) Ice Show, Joff Eaton (he is Splendid!) and much much more!

 

 

Back soon, off for another cupcake!

[Set to go]

Thank you so much....enjoyed reading this. :D

[rwright261]

Fab, thank you.

 

We board a week today, so I'm really sorry but we are wishing your holiday away!! ;)

 

Can't wait for the next instalment.

[Peewee14]

Right where to start next then!

 

Entertainment I suppose, the little I have seen anyway,

 

Joff Eaton the CD is great in my opinion, he is just funny and entertaining, and a joy to watch, we haven’t seen many of the shows but we did watch freeze frame Ice show, and it was fantastic!

 

I wouldn’t get too worried about the ice show tickets, we didn’t queue for them we just went to guest services after later in the day after the official giving out time and they had plenty left to pick up. There were also seats available for anyone in the stand by line.

 

I did the all access tour on day 6 and I loved it, it really is very good, we saw the kitchens the store rooms the famous I95 both of the crews mess, garbage area, Engine control room backstage, and of course the Bridge. Well worth it and very enjoyable, I wont review this in detail but if anyone has any questions about it I will happily answer them.

 

We also watched the juggling comedian, Something Stamp was his name I think, he was brilliant I laughed out loud a lot!

 

We haven’t really done much more then that , My wife likes the casino, I don’t mind it but always lose, I lost 200 dollars in about 15 minutes on the second night, but the wife managed to come out 600 dollars up! So I am banned from the casino now!

 

My personal opinion is the parades should be a little earlier, I am sure our little girl would love them but at 10.30pm they are a little too late, it also leaves a little dead spot in between, I think a 9pm parade on the promenade would be much better, but of course this is a personal preference that people will have different opinions on.

 

Next FOOD!!!!

 

We will start here with the Main Dining Room (MDR) we have eaten here for breakfast lunch and dinner.

 

We have had dinner in the MDR every night now, and breakfast and lunch on 2 days.

 

We are on My Time Dining and on the first night we arrived at around 6.30pm and we were seated on a table for 3. I must say this first night was our worst experience of the 7 Nights so far. But the moral of this is if you are not happy with something don’t suffer it and change it!

 

We were seated at a table for 3 on the port side of MTD, our waiter came to our table and immediately and quite abruptly with very little in way of a welcome tried to sell us a bottle of wine, even when we informed if that we had a drinks package and my wife just wanted a glass of rose he insisted we would be better off buying a bottle!

 

It was just a little odd, we finally persuaded him we didn’t want to buy a bottle of wine, so he then insisted on trying to sell us 2 bottles of water, he was very very pushy and I must admit I was little taken aback with his attitude. Once he realized we were not going to pay for any drinks he became kind of sullen towards us and sulked off with our drinks order. He returned 5 minutes later and said our cards wouldn’t work, so he couldn’t get us a drink, he didn’t have a solutions for us, its was just like a “computer says no” moment. I was getting a little fed up of this at this point and politely asked what he expected us to do about it, at which point he scurried off again and finally came back with the bar waiter who sorted it all out no problem at all

 

Anyway this over with, the drinks service was exceptionally slow, but the food was excellent, as it was my first night I had the Escargot and the I paid extra for the chops fillet, it was great!

 

On our second night, I asked to be sat somewhere else, and we were told that we could have a shared table or could wait, we took the shared table and it was the best thing we did. Without boring you all too much we have had the same shared table every night since, some nights with the same people some nights different, met some great people from all over the world some old some young, brilliant! I look forward to dinner every night.

 

The service is fantastic and we tipped a little this second night to our waiters Chakripani is brilliant as is his assistant and the bar waiter, now they know what we drink its waiting in an ice bucket for us every night, and our glasses are never empty.

I regularly have 2 starters and 2 main courses, its encouraged and enjoyed!

 

The food is very good almost excellent but not quite “astounding” certainly nothing to complain about it, I normally get a main course and a curry as a side dish!, I cant remember what we have eaten every night but some of the highlights for me are the Escargot, the breaded mushrooms, the Mushroom soup, Mixed grill and the pork is wonderful. Dishes that where not fantastic - Scallops are about the size of a pea, the cod was just ok not great and the king prawns not as good as expected. If you get something you don’t like, just ask them politely to change it! They really don’t mind and want you to enjoy your meal

 

I suppose the point here is, if your not happy with something just politely tell them about it, don’t suffer it for 14 days, let it ruin your holiday then come home and complain about it afterwards. In the same respect if you are happy with it, tell them you are, I am sure they have also appreciated the positive feedback we have given them, and they really do look after us, if you are sailing Indy soon and on MTD ask for Chakripani, he never writes an order down and on our table of 8 in 7 nights I have not seen him get it wrong once!

 

Anyway, you probably guessed already, we are very happy with the MDR for dinner!

 

We did buffet breakfast also, again everything great, a little bit like a premier inn breakfast for those in the UK who have had that before, in fact I think the sausages are the same!

 

Lunch again also very good, some people might find the portion sizes small, but the easy solutions is to order 2 dishes :D you get to try 2 different things then!

 

Still lots more to follow……….

[star cruiser 1]

Really enjoyed reading your review, looking forward to more. Enjoy the second part of your holiday.

[Peewee14]

I forgot to add on my last post, finishing off on Desserts!! How could i forget, I quite often have 2, and on some occasions 3! The Jaffa Cake Cake is the best!! I like the chocolate signature dish which is on every night, almond glaze on it so a lovely marzipan taste, didn't like the pecan pie and the cheesecake was the only one i really didn't like, it was a white chocolate cheesecake but tasted of lemons, not for me! My wife is a big fan of Creme Brulle she has had it twice now, first time she loved it, second she hated it! Consistency is a slight problem sometimes but I will come on to that more later I think.

[rwright261]

I would be interested in some more info on the all access tour please. We are due to do this on our cruise.

 

How long does it last? Did you stop for a drink in the crew bar half way through? Did you end up in MDR for lunch afterwards. Were cameras allowed? Did you get any freebies?

 

Thanks very much :-)

Edited August 30, 2014 by rwright261

[Peewee14]

A few pictures just to brighten the place up

[Clarea]

I would be interested in some more info on the all access tour please. We are due to do this on our cruise.

 

How long does it last? Did you stop for a drink in the crew bar half way through? Did you end up in MDR for lunch afterwards. Were cameras allowed? Did you get any freebies?

 

Thanks very much :-)

From what I've read, the tour lasts 3 to 3.5 hours. Cameras and video are allowed, except for no video on the bridge.

[Peewee14]

I would be interested in some more info on the all access tour please. We are due to do this on our cruise.

 

How long does it last? Did you stop for a drink in the crew bar half way through? Did you end up in MDR for lunch afterwards. We're cameras allowed? Did you get any freebies?

 

Thanks very much :-)

 

The tour started at 9.15 am and we met up in the Champagne bar. We had to sign some forms and get some id cards.

 

There were 13 of us on the tour.

 

We started off in the Kitchens behind Deck 5, this part of the tour was conducted by a chef called Dominic from the NE of England he was very good. I didn't realise but each dining room has its own kitchen on the same deck, main prep is done on deck 3 then brought up and cooked in the kitchen for the dining room. We then proceeded down through each decks kitchen, I wasn't looking forward to this part, but it actually turned out to be one of the most interesting, he explained how the orders are taken and how the waiters pick up the dishes, and he was very honest in explaining some of the problems they encounter, for example waiters not waiting where they are supposed to, picking up 3 out of 4 dishes for a table too soon waiting for dish number 4 while other 3 dishes go cold on his trolley rather than waiting on all 4 to be ready etc etc.

 

He explained about what each person did, what the coloured scarves meant, showed us all the areas it was really very very good, the crew has 2 mess halls, small one on deck 4 large on deck 3, the small one used to be officers and large other crew, but they don't separate anymore, instead europenan food on deck 4, "word foods" on deck 3.

 

we then came out on deck 3 MDR and offered pastries and juice.

 

We then went down to what they call I-95 very busy crews main corridor, we then had a tour of all the food prep and storage areas, very interesting again, finished off with a tour of the garbage area, and recycling.

 

Then we had to have a search and securtiy scan and then engine control room, again i don't want to ruin it for you by telling you everything, but very very good..

 

Pictures allowed and encouraged throughout.

 

We then went backstage to the ice rink, i found this a bit boring but the women on the tour liked it. Then we were supposed to go back stage to alahmabra, but the evening show which was big top was having problems so we could not go backstage, but we got to watch them rehearse for a good while which was excellent.

 

Then security search again and then the bridge, which was brilliant, full tour loads of questions apprentice officer did the tour of the bridge and he was great, then cpatian Henrik came out for pictures and more questions, you then just left when you were ready, not rushed at all.

 

so no lunch, just the snack I mentioned, excellent tour though I though,

 

We got a woven shopping back, a yellow highlighter pen and an apron, shopping bad has become handy in our quest for bottled water!!

 

 

More to follow soon..

[Peewee14]

Sorry I should have said, I left the bridge at 1pm as my wife had a massage booked for 1.15, but people where still not he bridge looking around.

[rwright261]

The tour started at 9.15 am and we met up in the Champagne bar. We had to sign some forms and get some id cards.

 

There were 13 of us on the tour.

 

We started off in the Kitchens behind Deck 5, this part of the tour was conducted by a chef called Dominic from the NE of England he was very good. I didn't realise but each dining room has its own kitchen on the same deck, main prep is done on deck 3 then brought up and cooked in the kitchen for the dining room. We then proceeded down through each decks kitchen, I wasn't looking forward to this part, but it actually turned out to be one of the most interesting, he explained how the orders are taken and how the waiters pick up the dishes, and he was very honest in explaining some of the problems they encounter, for example waiters not waiting where they are supposed to, picking up 3 out of 4 dishes for a table too soon waiting for dish number 4 while other 3 dishes go cold on his trolley rather than waiting on all 4 to be ready etc etc.

 

He explained about what each person did, what the coloured scarves meant, showed us all the areas it was really very very good, the crew has 2 mess halls, small one on deck 4 large on deck 3, the small one used to be officers and large other crew, but they don't separate anymore, instead europenan food on deck 4, "word foods" on deck 3.

 

we then came out on deck 3 MDR and offered pastries and juice.

 

We then went down to what they call I-95 very busy crews main corridor, we then had a tour of all the food prep and storage areas, very interesting again, finished off with a tour of the garbage area, and recycling.

 

Then we had to have a search and securtiy scan and then engine control room, again i don't want to ruin it for you by telling you everything, but very very good..

 

Pictures allowed and encouraged throughout.

 

We then went backstage to the ice rink, i found this a bit boring but the women on the tour liked it. Then we were supposed to go back stage to alahmabra, but the evening show which was big top was having problems so we could not go backstage, but we got to watch them rehearse for a good while which was excellent.

 

Then security search again and then the bridge, which was brilliant, full tour loads of questions apprentice officer did the tour of the bridge and he was great, then cpatian Henrik came out for pictures and more questions, you then just left when you were ready, not rushed at all.

 

so no lunch, just the snack I mentioned, excellent tour though I though,

 

We got a woven shopping back, a yellow highlighter pen and an apron, shopping bad has become handy in our quest for bottled water!!

 

 

More to follow soon..

 

 

Thanks so much for the info. It's great to hear about the tour first hand especially so close to ours. I'm really looking forward to it.

 

Thanks again for explaining it in such detail.

[Peewee14]

More about food!

 

The Windjammer, or FaceJammer.

 

My opinion my differ to some, in fact it even differs to my wifes view on this place, she quite likes it

 

I just hate it.

 

I have eaten here 3 times now, and I must say I prefer it alone, it becomes more frustrating with the family and a 3 (sometimes 4 ) year old.

 

At least on your own, you can get into the zone! And not worry about anyone else, just go , take your place at the trough, feed and exit.

 

There should be a sign outside saying “welcome to the faceJammer, please leave all your manners in the basket outside, forget everything you thought you knew about personal space, wash your hands and pick up a dose of feeding frenzy on the way in”

 

I have never liked this place and doubt I ever will, although I must admit the food I have had was good, the curry in particular.

 

Just get in, get your food and eat, don’t worry about the how close the guy behind you is stood ,he is not trying to hump your leg as it may seem he just doesn’t like the fact you have taken longer than 2.5 seconds to select which sausage you like, after all there is only another 20 more trays of sausages to choose from.

 

It is a bit like that sketch out of Scooby doo where they are running down the corridor and you see it’s the same backdrop….. picture, table vase, picture table vase and so on, the food is plentiful but its just the same repeated over and over.

 

Anyway don’t let my opinion put you off, go try it for yourself.

 

Moving on

 

Jonny Rockets, what can I say about this place, I love it and so does my daughter if it wasn’t for the wife stopping me I would eat here every day! Been 3 days already, and its just brilliant, I love the food, love the staff and the milkshakes are great! And so is the chilli, I really do love Jonny rockets,

 

Did I tell you how good jonny rockets is ?

 

Sprinkles ice cream machine is also great, daughter loves it, and so do I, although we tend to eat all the ice cream off and leave the cone, then get another one, sometimes a third if we are being greedy ☺

 

 

 

Other dining venues, Sorrentos Pizza, is pizza and Panini its ok, sometimes good sometimes not so, and this is the consistency thing I mentioned, I think it just depends on when you get there and when its come out the oven, its also the kind of thing you are starting to bore of after 8 days. Coming from Wigan I was excited to see the large words shouting PIE! At me, however they don’t do pie, I was going to complain at guest services about this, however there was long queue of people waiting behind a lady who complaining that the sea was the wrong shade of blue.

 

Park café is similar its usually good, great mud slide cookies and brownies, the coffee is good I find, just a bit boring now. Would be nice if these venues did a salad or something, I am starting to feel a little carb overload now, kebabs would be awesome!

 

We have spent a fortune in Ben & Jerrys! Little one loves pink ice cream with sprinkles, although once she has licked off all the sprinkles she loses interest in the ice cream

 

We are also spending too much time in the Cup Cake cupboard, they are just fantastic!! Think between myself and Diana we have tried every flavor more than once, again quality varies on time of day, get them earlier they tend to be very moist, late on a little drier but still very very good!!

 

room service, this is where the consistency is the biggest issue, you just don’t know how good its going to be, sometimes good, sometimes awful

 

For example, got a burger one day, was really good! Got one last night, awful and dry. Got 2 portions of honey stung chicken in the same order at the same time, one was lovely the other only fit for the bin. I had the steak sandwich for lunch though and it was really good, so my wife told me anyway because she pinched it. The pizza though is better than sorrentos and is fresher!

 

We have not tried any specialty dining yet, we didn’t intend to either, although I must admit getting a little (only a little) bored of the same thing, problem is I love the MDR and enjoy our shared table there and the staff, so still not sure yet, we still have time left.

 

I think that about covers food so far, unless anyone has any questions,

 

Little Princess and Big princess are due back any minute and I am looking out of our window (back in the cabin now) as we just cast off from Barcelona, so I will be back later tonight or maybe in the morning with some more on Sunburn! Spa Treatments! And other stuff..

 

 

Hope your enjoying the review and hope my writing style is not too irritating for you!

[Nix111]

Great to see you are having a lovely holiday and glad to hear my posts were useful :) I'm very jealous of you onboard, definitely try Giovanni's if you can, it's well worth it.

 

They do serve Pie one night in the MDR if you are missing the Wigan ones too much :) I did find sausage rolls in the buffet one day too, as a fellow northerner I'm partial to a pastry snack!

 

Keep the posts coming and I can relive my holiday.

 

Nix

 

 

Sent from my iPad using Forums

[Gingerbint]

Just popped by to say how much I am enjoying reading your post - I love the Indy and we have been on her 4 times. Will be sad when she departs for good to the US :(

You are witty and funny in the way you present and describe what's been going on and I laughed out loud in relation to your 'facejammer' descriptive!

It was interesting to read about the back tour as we have thought about it but felt it is quite expensive. Do you think it's worth the money?

You've yet to come to Joff but he is our fav CD - he is as you put it 'splendid' are you doing his progressive quiz? Great fun. Wait for the Quest too as that is done very well by him and his team!

Enjoy the rest of your cruise and I'll pop back to catch up on your post!

[Peewee14]

Thanks for your reply GingerBint, yes I do think the tour is worth the money if your interested in that kind of stuff. I am not doing the quiz, I am usually too busy sleeping! I don't think the quest has been on yet, and i hope to see it. On our last cruise I was one of the participants! and loved it, although had to spend the next day seeing myself in lipstick and underwear on the RCTV channel and the rest of the guests pointing and laughing at me the whole day!

 

a bit more to add...

 

Well since I left you last, we have been out for the evening, its now almost 11pm and I am back in the cabin with Diana watching Gnomeo and Juliet for about the 15th time this cruise, although it does make a refreshing change from Frozen. Michaela is in the casino having a good time no doubt

 

Speaking of Frozen, Diana has enjoyed formal nights the most as we have brought her Elsa dress and she gets to wear it on the formal nights.

 

After I last finished off the ladies returned after having fun in the pool and we got dressed for dinner, we really wanted to make the 9pm showing of once upon a time, and we cut it a little fine only arriving for dinner at about 7.40pm.

 

We were seated at our usual shared table in the same section and met some new faces and some old, great company again and great service.

 

We didn’t get off today in Barcelona, but the general feedback from people we spoke to tonight was that most really enjoyed it and best port so far, especially for the ladies who enjoyed the shopping, then men folk said it was very very busy and over crowded, a comment was also made about the fact numbers of policemen where stationed on most street corners, I couldn’t grasp if this was intended to be a positive remark or a negative really! Other feedback received was that queuing for the RCI shuttle was a nightmare and took ages, where as jumping on the local bus was much cheaper quicker and easier.

 

A little tip is to listen to the waiter, every night Chakripani goes through the menu and tells you about each dish and what he thinks about them, a few nights ago when he came to the fish he said it was just so-so and not recommended, my wife who usually knows better ordered it anyway, and when it came she didn’t like it. Well tonight I did the same I went for the new York strip after him saying he didn’t recommend it and to wait for the beef tomorrow, I ordered it anyway and left it, it was tough and stringy and just not very nice at all, so I had 2 portions of curry instead which was amazing!!

 

Our assistant waiter is our most favourite person onboard his name is Aveenash Santokee from Mauritius and he is just brilliant, tonight he made Diana a bird out of a napkin and gave her a little bag of brown sugar and told her it was bird seed! She adores it and we have carried it around everywhere since, telling everyone who will listen to look at her birdie and her bird seed. I am dreading the moment the thing falls apart!! However I have noticed in the cruise compass for tomorrow there is napkin folding lessons, I would normally avoid these things like the plague, but It is now my fatherly duty to attend this class so I can resurrect birdie when she inevitably falls apart.

 

We skipped dessert and headed for the show, now a good time to talk more about Joff Eaton, he is great, the kind of guy you just cant help but like, he is naturally funny. The last time I sailed Indy we had Luke Aerosmith, who I didn’t like at all and thought he was more suited to a shopping channel like QVC, but Joff is very different. In fact I have been mistaken for him and stopped in the promenade! My wife thinks its funny, but I reckon I have more hair!

 

Speaking of my wife and the staff, she has a “thing” for captain Henrik, its actually quite sad watching her drool when he appears on the TV. When we did the all access tour and I met him on the bridge I told him in front of everyone else that my wife really fancied him and I had been instructed not to come back without a picture! He was a little embarrassed but posed for the picture. My wife was delighted when I get came back with a good picture of him, until I explained to her how I got it! She is now dreading bumping into him on the ship!

 

The show was good, and Diana enjoyed it, although I think with the promise of pink ice cream with sprinkles and her new birdie she would have enjoyed doing the ice bucket challenge just as much. I do like the shows, they are just the right duration I think, although it must be frustrating for the cast and Joff when people start to leave as its ending rather than just wait an extra 3 minutes for them to finish properly, they obviously put a lot of effort into getting it right, as I witnessed during the tour and the rehearsal we saw.

 

Show finished , a stroll down the promenade which is very busy but nicely so after a show, Ben & Jerrys for Ice cream and 3 cup cakes for me from next door. A pleading look from the wife which meant “can I go gamble?” and as I said I am now back in the cabin.

 

Feeling quite awake tonight so I will probably write a little more shortly about the cruise in general and the ship, I never intended this to be so in depth, but I have actually found I am quite enjoying writing about our holiday! Its also making me realise even more how much I am enjoying myself!

[Peewee14]

Final Instalment for tonight guys

 

In other news!

 

Well me being quite stupid, as my wife has pointed out to me at least 4 times a day since Lisbon, I have suffered from sun burn!

 

Our second port of Lisbon was our first hot day, and I took the little one into the H2O zone, she was obviously really well covered in cream and sun hat etc, but with me being superman and only planning on being out in it for half an hour or so I thought I was immune to that big ball of fire in the sky.

 

My daughter though it was hilarious to go into the hot tub, get bored after 30 seconds and then make me take her in the main pool which is freezing, bored again after a minute, back into the hot tub, back into the pool, this continued for a good while much to the amusement of my dear daughter and onlookers , I am surprised I didn’t start appearing in cracks with all the expansion and contraction my body and other “parts” of me had to endure.

 

With all this “fun” I forgot about the sun and needless to say have burnt all my back and shoulders and I am still sore now a few days later.

 

My wife and I had both booked a massage and a facial for the day after Lisbon, she really enjoyed hers, but I went up to ask to re schedule as I was sore, before I knew it my appointment is rescheduled for Monday and I am now also booked in straight away for a milk wrap, apparently it’s the only thing for sunburn and before I could say “pull the udder one” I was sat in the relaxation room my sea pass card was charged accordingly and I was drinking iced mint water while filling in a form and waiting for my milk wrap miracle sun burn cure.

 

My therapist was called Ace she was as her name suggests. She talked a lot about Coller germs or something and skin proteins and a load off other stuff, but if I am honest I wasn’t really listening by this point until she mentioned paper under pants, yes! she made me wear paper underpants, and lets just say I am glad I hadn’t just gotten out of the cold pool.

 

I was laid out on tin foil, massaged and covered in milk then wrapped up in it and left to marinate while she massaged my head. I have to say I really enjoyed it and it was worth every penny, and it did also really ease the sun burn, I walked out with a telling off about wearing sun cream, a bottle of “stuff” in a language I couldn’t read that I had been charged another 40 dollars for and a general feeling of not knowing how I had managed to go to reschedule a massage appointment and return having now been booked in for a second treatment, covered in goo holding a bottle I didn’t know if I was supposed to drink or pour over me, but in all feeling good about it all and life in general.

 

I do think though for the second part of the cruise we need to control the spending a little, its easy to get carried away when your having such a good time, It’s the problem when your not actually spending cash, you don’t feel it as much I suppose. We have emptied the mini bar twice, and I am now on first name terms with the shop staff, we have lollies and Menthos packs and chocolate eggs, 2 small dogs, 1 large dog, 1 purple mermaid that apparently is not Ariel but it doesn’t matter because she loves her anyway, a pink turtle and a purple turtle, a pink lanyard, 2 pink pens a pink notebook and a serious bar bill for cans of diet coke, cup cakes and ben & jerrys ice cream!!

 

Its great, I love this ship, love my family and love this holiday so far!

 

I will update as I go along with anything I think worth pointing out, feel free to ask any questions, if I am not sleeping I will find out for you, and I will update with quite a few pictures when I can get a good enough speed to finish uploading them

[PathfinderEss]

Enjoying your review and looking forward to the next half.

[Quislet]

Thanks for the review - I am boarding Indy on Saturday and cannot wait!

 

Could you tell us how much the unlimited wifi package costs for the 14 day trip please?

[sddsddean]

Thanks for a great well balanced review. I have to agree with you about Joff. He is the best CD we have ever had. Spent 2 weeks on transatlantic with him about 4 years ago. A brilliant bloke!!

 

Simon

[Barnum42]

Peewee regarding the disappointment of seeing "Pie" at the pizza place and finding no steak and ale with shortcrust pastry:

 

I believe this is an instance of "American English". The full name of a pizza is "Pizza Pie". You can get pizza by the slice or by the pie - the pie being the whole round.

 

I was happy to see that the food you had at Facejammer was nice. We sailed Adventure earlier in the year and the food there was dull, repetitive, cold or rock solid.

 

We'll be on a four night jaunt on Indy in October, so looking forward to seeing what else you have to say on your trip.

[Peewee14]

i have to be honest and say, I have only had the curry in the faceJammer! not tried anything else!

 

well this morning has been interesting for most I suspect, Palma looks Beautiful from our cabin window,

 

I am afraid I missed this morning as we slept in until about 12pm (oops) Michaela came back a little tipsy from the Casino without any winnings! So we didn't get to bed until about 1am.

 

Michaela and Diana went off to the Jammer, and I went down to deck 5, so Glad I did!! Saw a sign at sorrentos saying Daily special, Roast beef Sandwiches! They are amazing! I had 4 !

 

Went to try and find the ladies and couldn't so had a cheeky ice cream from sprinkles and back in the cabin to relax and read a bit, and thought why I was here I would get my pictures in order. If I leave it until I get home it just won't happen as its straight back to work and I know its going to be chaotic with lots of working away, so will be posting some pics shortly.

[Peewee14]

Right lets see If I can master this this picture thing,

 

 

before I carry on , just something funny I was just reminded of, if you have been reading the review you will know our waiter is called Chakripani, but our daughter calls him Chocolate Barney, it really makes me laugh!

 

Anyway Pictures!

 

This one is Myself and Daughter Diana first formal Night

 

Edited August 31, 2014 by Peewee14

[Clarea]

Right lets see If I can master this this picture thing,

 

 

before I carry on , just something funny I was just reminded of, if you have been reading the review you will know our waiter is called Chakripani, but our daughter calls him Chocolate Barney, it really makes me laugh!

 

Anyway Pictures!

 

This one is Myself and Daughter Diana first formal Night

No pictures yet.

[Peewee14]

need to work on this , back soon