Back from Independence... a few thoughts

[dlong1969]

Just back back from the Independence Eastern Itinerary, and thought I would jot down a few thoughts about the cruise.

 

First of all, this is our 10th cruise, all with Royal Caribbean. 4th time on a Freedom Class, first time on Independence.

 

The Freedom has it, hands down over the Indy. Even though they are the same class of ship, the Freedom is just nicer.

 

No Freestyle machines on Indy. The fountain pop tasted weird all week. I think the servers knew it too, because often you would see them pouring from cans instead of using the fountain wand sitting right there.

 

Opinions are subject, but my wife and I, along with other veteran cruisers that we met onboard, agree that the over all experience is being cheapened.

 

If you had never cruised before, you would probably go "WOW" and be fairly impressed with your experience on board. Our cruising experience spans almost a decade... so we have definately seen some degradation.

 

First of all, Diamond benefits. In one short year, they reduced the onbouard benefits for Diamond members by what I would estimate as about 50%. Maybe not that drastic, but enough.... one thing I really disliked was the change to the internet benefits. I am on vacation. I don't WANT 24/7 access to the internet. Especially since I work in IT for a living. I want a BREAK from it... BUT... I need to be able to check on the kids via Skype once a day... so the Diamond benefit of 60 free minutes (120 between my wife and I) was about perfect. 15 or so minutes a night to talk to the 5 year old at home.... but this is no longer the case. Now, you get 24 hours continuous access or 40 dollars off of a package... oh, and you can't combine the 2 diamond benefits and get 80 bucks off a package. In order to use both diamond benefits, you gotta play the system... get 1 free day... then get another free day... then pay for unlimited access for the rest of the cruise at 20 bucks a day.... so what used to be a "free" benefit for us, enabling us to Skype home for 15 minutes a day, now has become a 100.00 add on if we want to talk to the kids each day.. and on TOP of that, now we have access to the rest of the world 24/7 again... which means that either you use it, or you waste the money. Very irritating. They are pushing people to pay for the expensive unlimited access plans... but the internet is ridiculously slow... at one point, we couldn't get access for over 36 hours... missing talking to my son one evening... Why? The system was overloaded, they say... funny, the free links to RC sales websites worked just fine. Overloaded my keester. The IT people on the ship are as adept as the IT people in Miami it would seem.

 

Service: Lacking. Just plain lacking. Our servers in the main dining room just couldn't seem to care less. The past 2 cruises (since they started charging gratuities directly to your seapass account) have shown a vast difference in service than what we had become accustomed to. If you asked a server for an additional entre or appetizer, they seemed to be put out by it.... little looks, etc. The main waiter chewed out his assistant for something stupid in front of EVERYONE.. made a big production out of it, pulling in his head waiter and everything...

 

Bar service: I can't count how many times I saw bar service people just walking aimlessly around the pool areas. Not asking people if they wanted anything. Before the "purchase unlimited booze" packages became available, you had to beat the bar staff off you with a stick. Twice I tried to flag someone down to get a drink only to be basically ignored. I had to get out of the pool and go to the bar. Now, yes, I know that is really whiney... and i really don't care if I have to get out of the pool to get a drink. I am just showing how things have changed. Not to mention bar prices. Yes, they have always been high.... but the price point was at "yeah, it is a little expensive, but I am on vacation, so what the hell".... now it is "really? you really want 10 bucks plus tip for a frozen drink with cheap rum in it?".... usually my drink of choice on a ship is a frozen strawberry daquiri... this time, I drank beer... and most of the time it was during the 5 to 8 PM window when I could use my diamond drink "coupons". I couldn't help but feel like they jacked up the already ridiculous prices so that they could push "ala carte" drinkers to the overpriced all-inclusive drink packages. Looks like I shoulda broke out the rum-runners again.

 

The shows were pretty bad, as people mentioned on another thread. Tired... old... same old/same old....

 

The one shining aspect with Piano Man David Curtis. The guy is amazing and funny, and is a genius at the keyboard... we had a LOT of fun with him... that is, until his show got hijacked. There were a large group of very talented performers cruising as a group on our sailing. most of the nights they ended up at David's show and basically took the thing over.... He didn't seem to mind and was probably having fun with it... but these are old vaudeville type performers, doing all kinds of old broadway type show tunes... not my cup of tea... when they weren't there, David played a great mix of tunes... he even actually talked me into singing, which I don't normally do in large groups... but he was fun, witty, and engaging. When this group took over, they were the only ones who mattered. We ended up leaving when they started up, because we knew that David's time was pretty much over. I really wish they had found other things to do... but alas, they were having fun, he was having fun, and we were outnumbered greatly... so democracy in action, yes?

 

Cigar lounge.... one of my favorite spots... mostly overrun with cigarette smokers. If you don't smoke cigars, you wouldn't understand. I used to smoke cigarettes years ago, so I am not an anti-cigarette person... BUT... cigarette smoke does not mix well with cigar smoke. Cigar smoke is nuanced, delicate, etc.... and when someone is smoking a cigarette near you, that is all you smell and taste... The bartender in the cigar lounges are usually the most engaging, friendly, knowledgeable, attentive servers on the ship. It's a small venue with easy regulars... this time, not so much. The dude in there may as well not have been. He sat at his little bar and said nothing to no one. He didn't look up from his book or whatever the heck it was he was doing. He never once made the rounds of the room to ask if someone wanted a drink. He emptied the ashtrays dutifully about once every 30 minutes, not speaking to anyone....

 

Maybe I am expecting too much. I would think that as time went by, the experience would be more refined and get better/more wonderful. Unfortunately this is not the trend I am witnessing....

 

Don

[Ren1216]

Don, thank you for sharing your thoughts in regard to your recent Indy sailing. I have to say, as we prepare to embark her in 3 weeks, this was a little disappointing to read. We are also not new to cruising, and therefore, also not as easily WOWed anymore. Expectations change over time and with experience. We're definitely not a demanding lot, more like go-with-the-flow folks. But we do still care about things like service, entertainment, etc... we hope (and expect) to be shown a nice time for our fare paid. Fortunately, we are traveling as a family group (ages 44-88) and have that to somewhat rely on -- meaning, we tend to make our own good time. Might need to do that even more so this time around. Glad to hear the Schooner entertainment is good, we've had other good experiences there before and probably wont meet the same situation you had.

 

I have a few questions, if you don't mind:

 

Though you hit on service in the MDR, you didn't mention food. My mom, grandmother, and aunts really look forward to our dining experiences on board. I know corners have been cut, and cut again. How did you find the food to be this time?

 

And what did you do in San Juan? I'm struggling to organize something to do here, since the forts close at 6pm and the trolley stops running at 7pm. I even contacted a few recommended tour guides from the SJ board, to no avail. No one was interested in our business due to our late arrival.

Edited September 21, 2015 by Ren1216

[Iron-Maiden's-No1-Fan]

Oh...

[dlong1969]

 

I have a few questions, if you don't mind:

 

Though you hit on service in the MDR, you didn't mention food. My mom, grandmother, and aunts really look forward to our dining experiences on board. I know corners have been cut, and cut again. How did you find the food to be this time?

 

And what did you do in San Juan? I'm struggling to organize something to do here, since the forts close at 6pm and the trolley stops running at 7pm. I even contacted a few recommended tour guides from the SJ board, to no avail. No one was interested in our business due to our late arrival.

 

the food was quite good in the MDR. No real complaints there. Chops was another story. The steaks were very good... but they are now upcharging for certain items like the porterhouse which they didn't upcharge for before.. AND they raised the cover charge. Service was pretty much non-existant there as well. very disappointed.

 

San Juan, we walked to the fort, looked around there for a bit, and then just walked around Old San Juan until we headed back to the ship at around 8:00 PM or so.

 

Thanks!

[lv2bcruzin]

It's an interesting take on many things here.

 

I do agree the change in the way internet use is charged for does not provide much value. I just got off the Adventure and was not very happy to see free use for 24hrs. I just need to pop on, send an email to my daughter and get off. That being said, I was never happy with how they charged based on time. It would provide a ton more value if it was based on data usage. I don't care how much time you give me (unless it's unlimited), because I will most likely have to buy more since the connection is so ridiculously slow.

 

As far as the rest of your experience is concerned. It's unfortunate you have so many dislikes or things that did not meet your expectation. I have been cruising for 15 years and I have definitely seen the change. Some value has been lessened, but much has been improved as well. Look at the ship itself. The ship value in my opinion has increased much more than the experience value has decreased. These ships are amazing and the amount of experiences available have increased 10 fold (made up number, but still there has been an increase). However, if the value of your core experiences (experiences you value the most) have decreased than that is a problem. For me my core experiences are still at a very high value. So, while everything is not perfect the value is there and my expectations are still being met.

 

We will be on the Indy in December. Hopefully we still feel the same afterwards.

[dlong1969]

You make a good point about the ships. The Freedom is much nicer than the Sovereign, which was our first ship back in 2006.

 

We had a good time. Don't misunderstand. The time alone with my wife is really what it is all about. We love the caribbean and the sea and the sun... so believe me, we really did relax and enjoy ourselves.

 

The problem is, when you use a product for a long time, you would expect that the product, over time, would improve and would refine itself. Especially in the hospitality industry... but not just there. When you buy a Mercedes, you expect a certain amount of refinement and quality that you don't expect from a Ford. You expect that from anything you purchase.

 

When we started cruising 10 years ago, the service is what made the difference. It was nice to be taken care of so efficiently, so professionally, so courteously.... and with that attitude on the decline, it is bothersome to us.

 

The price increases on board the ship... they appear to be a shameless attempt by corporate to push people to their overpriced all-inclusive packages.

 

It really does feel like the focus is on new customers, and not repeat cruisers. That's the consensus of alot of seasoned cruisers that we met on board.... that's really hard to swallow after spending 10 years of vacations with the company.... Another good example is the Windjammer. How long has it been since they changed the food in there? I mean, really? ON the way up there to get lunch the first day, we were joking around with each other, and we set out to guess exactly what food would be in the Windjammer, and exactly WHERE in the buffet it would be located. Do you know that we were probably well over 80% correct? And we had never been on this ship before! That speaks volumes, in my book!

 

I really do think that this is gonna be the last cruise we take for awhile. I don't post alot here, but I do read ALOT here... and I hear the same kind of contention from other repeat cruisers on other lines. The ships are sailing full... so there is no reason to go out of their way to entice their repeat customers.... kind of like how the airlines ended up... used to be a big deal to fly... now they cram you in so tight, one flight = 1 month in the chiropractic office to recover.. :)

Edited September 21, 2015 by dlong1969

[AlanAllyn]

For the opposite point of view, see the thread Indy Sept 13-20 which is now near the top of the page.

[dlong1969]

Just goes to show how opinions and perspectives are very subjective and unique to the observer, yes?

 

Glad that they had a good time. Does that mean my observations and opinions are somehow invalid?

 

:rolleyes:

Edited September 21, 2015 by dlong1969

[robin13]

I was on this sailing and had a completely different experience. I can't say anything about the Diamond club as I am only Platinum but this was my 19th cruise and I have been sailing since the 1970's on Carnival, NCL, Princess, and of course RCCL. Matter of fact this was my 2nd time on IOS and both times were fantastic.

 

I was at the pool for hours on end and there were plenty of waiters asking me if I wanted a drink. I was even at the H20 pool and they were asking me there if I wanted anything.

 

We ate in the MDR 6 nights out of 7 and had some great meals. We do MTD so we were in the King Lear dining room. Most of the time I ordered two appetizers with no problem and on Lobster night our waiter asked us if we wanted another one. Had a fantastic dinner in Chops on the first night and got a 20% discount. Loved every bite of my meal and it is well worth the price.

 

I never experienced a rude server and my stateroom attendant was excellent. Matter of fact my friend ordered the Tiger Shrimp and she was having a hard time getting it out of the shell. The server saw this and came over and asked her if she wanted him to take them out of the shell.

 

I do agree that the drink prices are very expensive. A glass of wine was almost $11 and the frozen drinks were around $10. I originally was going to do the drink package but my friends don't drink much so I decided to spend my $250 OBC in other ways.

 

My only complaint is that the coffee is really bad in the MDR. I knew this from the last time I was on the ship so I bought my own flavored creamer but even with that it was not good.

 

I had a fantastic time and found the ship to be clean and everyone friendly. When I used to manage movie theaters I always told my employees that you are not going to be able to please every customer but as long as you please most of them you are doing a good job.

 

I hope those of you that will be sailing on IOS in the near future don't let negative reviews get to you. It really is a wonderful ship.

[readyk]

I had a great time. i would pick freedom over indy but service was great. Me and my two best friend turn fifty this year and all had the drink package. We knew from the first day that we would be ahead. Bar service was great and my waiter at dinner was one of the best i have had. The ice show was great also. The show wasnt that good to me.

[thjeepster]

I was on this sailing and had a completely different experience. I can't say anything about the Diamond club as I am only Platinum but this was my 19th cruise and I have been sailing since the 1970's on Carnival, NCL, Princess, and of course RCCL. Matter of fact this was my 2nd time on IOS and both times were fantastic.

 

I was at the pool for hours on end and there were plenty of waiters asking me if I wanted a drink. I was even at the H20 pool and they were asking me there if I wanted anything.

 

We ate in the MDR 6 nights out of 7 and had some great meals. We do MTD so we were in the King Lear dining room. Most of the time I ordered two appetizers with no problem and on Lobster night our waiter asked us if we wanted another one. Had a fantastic dinner in Chops on the first night and got a 20% discount. Loved every bite of my meal and it is well worth the price.

 

I never experienced a rude server and my stateroom attendant was excellent. Matter of fact my friend ordered the Tiger Shrimp and she was having a hard time getting it out of the shell. The server saw this and came over and asked her if she wanted him to take them out of the shell.

 

I do agree that the drink prices are very expensive. A glass of wine was almost $11 and the frozen drinks were around $10. I originally was going to do the drink package but my friends don't drink much so I decided to spend my $250 OBC in other ways.

 

My only complaint is that the coffee is really bad in the MDR. I knew this from the last time I was on the ship so I bought my own flavored creamer but even with that it was not good.

 

I had a fantastic time and found the ship to be clean and everyone friendly. When I used to manage movie theaters I always told my employees that you are not going to be able to please every customer but as long as you please most of them you are doing a good job.

 

I hope those of you that will be sailing on IOS in the near future don't let negative reviews get to you. It really is a wonderful ship.

 

 

 

Thank you for the open and honest review....I understand there will be negatives to every cruise but it's also nice to hear the great reviews too. Not everyone will be happy...but any cruise is better than being at work for 9 hours a day!!!!!

 

Is there anything that is a don't miss on the ship? We will be on it in 3 1/2 days!!!!....can't wait!

 

Thank you again!

[robin13]

Try not to miss The Quest. It is so fun but can get a little risqué so they only want people 18 and over. It is only played once and ours was on Thursday at 10:30pm. Also I heard good things about the ice show. They now go by your muster station number so no need for tickets. Hope you have a great cruise!!

[scootersdad]

:eek:

Just goes to show how opinions and perspectives are very subjective and unique to the observer, yes?

 

Glad that they had a good time. Does that mean my observations and opinions are somehow invalid?

 

:rolleyes:

 

Since they added prepaid Gratuities I agree they don't put out the same effort.

Why they push MTD. Guaranteed $

[berylde]

cleo1611 just did a review and said they had lunch in the MDR on embarkation day. Was it open on your cruise?

[cb at sea]

The cruising experience continually declines... new cruisers don't know what they're missing, since they never experienced cruising 15 years ago! Drink prices have soared...they used to be really cheap! (I'm talking $4 for a cocktail and $2.25 for a beer) The food was excellent..not banquet fare at all...and the presentation was too pretty to eat (almost!!). The service made you feel like a king (or queen, as the case may be). Cruising is still a fun vacation, but it's certainly not like it used to be, that's for sure!

[pamrose228]

Thanks for your observations. We are on the Indy this Sunday. We have been on a dozen or so cruises mostly with CCL. One on the EOS 9 years ago which didn't excite me. Nine years later we are kind of bored with same old same old Carnival and wanted to try another Royal. Hoping it's more good than not.

 

The one thing that really angers me is SJ port. Why bother. No forts rain forest Bacardi. Does a RC excursion offer more perhaps?

 

I am going to purchase the Replenish drink package. Any comments about thus?

[molsonschooner]

We were on this same cruise. Over all we had a good vacation. In the mdr the food was mostly very good, I only had 1 thing that I would not order again. We had very good service. We spent a lot of time at the pub where got excellent service(dw had the premium package). I can't comment on bar service on the pool deck as DW never went to the pool. We did have 1 negative experience in Bolero's. Dw ordered a drink, I did not want anything. The server said he would have to charge DW double if I wasn't going to have a drink. This made no sense, as I said before she had the package. We just went to another bar and got what we wanted. Our cabin steward impressed us so little that he got no extra tip. (MDR and pub servers all got extra tips.

[Wine Luvuh]

Thank you for the open and honest review....I understand there will be negatives to every cruise but it's also nice to hear the great reviews too. Not everyone will be happy...but any cruise is better than being at work for 9 hours a day!!!!!

 

Is there anything that is a don't miss on the ship? We will be on it in 3 1/2 days!!!!....can't wait!

 

Thank you again!

 

I second Quest! It was different than the ones I had seen in the past - very unique challenges!

 

Deon at the pool bar was awesome!

 

Don - I agree with you on most of your points...To the point where the Diamond Concierge was offensive to me - I feel that tainted my week a bit and that was disappointing.

 

I will still take any day at sea over a day at work but just felt like the crew was eh...

[wolfcathorse]

We did have 1 negative experience in Bolero's. Dw ordered a drink, I did not want anything. The server said he would have to charge DW double if I wasn't going to have a drink. This made no sense, as I said before she had the package.

 

I hope you reported this to Guest Services or left a note to be delivered to the Food & Beverage Manager. What the bartender did was to try and get an extra gratuity for himself. I hope you reported the extortionist!

[molsonschooner]

I hope you reported this to Guest Services or left a note to be delivered to the Food & Beverage Manager. What the bartender did was to try and get an extra gratuity for himself. I hope you reported the extortionist!

 

No , I did not think of that. I wish i had of.

[mcatmcat]

I went on the INDY and I didn't like it but I love the freedom class. Liberty is an amazing ship but for some reasons I didn't like the independence. MDR was slow but that was my luck, the waiter next to our table was super fast and funny. But overall the workers were sort of sad and that was right after the tip increased so I was expecting them to be super excited. I didn't have the unlimited drink nor I paid for a single drink but bar employees were in a " I don't care mode" walking by the pool. Most of the time I pay for 2 or 3 non alcohol drinks but this time I rarely saw any one to ask for a drink.

[A&L_Ont]

Dlong1969, I wish you had a more positive experience in relation to the negatives you encountered. I do want to ask you about skypeing home. Was the connection good, was it choppy or did you lose connection frequently. We are going to be sailing on Indy in just under a month and are used to the Oasis Class and it's fast internet. Sadly I will also use it for work.

 

Thanks for your feedback.

Edited September 24, 2015 by A&L_Ont

[robin13]

I second Quest! It was different than the ones I had seen in the past - very unique challenges!

 

Deon at the pool bar was awesome!

 

Don - I agree with you on most of your points...To the point where the Diamond Concierge was offensive to me - I feel that tainted my week a bit and that was disappointing.

 

I will still take any day at sea over a day at work but just felt like the crew was eh...

 

It is so funny that you said that about The Quest. This was my third time to experience it and boy there were some very unique challenges. I was with newbies and kept telling them I had never seen these "quests" before. They loved it and I hadn't laughed that hard in a long time.

[Wine Luvuh]

Dlong1969, I wish you had a more positive experience in relation to the negatives you encountered. I do want to ask you about skypeing home. Was the connection good, was it choppy or did you lose connection frequently. We are going to be sailing on Indy in just under a month and are used to the Oasis Class and it's fast internet. Sadly I will also use it for work.

 

Thanks for your feedback.

 

It was TERRIBLE at the beginning of the week to the point that they gave D+ and extra day at the end of the week. It was not great after that but you could get on and surf around towards the end of the week. We were told that it was "fixed" and seemed that way as people could not get on at all early in the week.

 

It is so funny that you said that about The Quest. This was my third time to experience it and boy there were some very unique challenges. I was with newbies and kept telling them I had never seen these "quests" before. They loved it and I hadn't laughed that hard in a long time.

 

It was HYSTERICAL! I thought Ricky was dry but it worked for that Quest. I have never seen so much clothing tossed and the ballerina dancers! I was dying! :eek:

[JamesEM]

I agree that cruising has changed over the last 10 years and not for the better, but the decline and picked-up speed in the last few years.