LIVE - Independence simulation cruise 8/1

[vplsh]

My sister ( a travel professional) and I are on board for the four night Independence cruise to Cozumel. Bit of a glitch getting on board as we and several others had received two cabin assignments and when we got to the terminal we waited over an hour for them to figure out how to get us into only one. But once on board we were able to get right into cabins (7398 far aft starboard side balcony). 
Windjammer was well staffed and we were served at the various stations. Such happy and helpful crew members. 
Safety briefing is on the app and you must go to the muster station for a sticker to put on your sea pass card. With 30 minutes to sailing there were still 44 passengers who hadn’t done this. Sail away is set for 5.

Reservations required for all dining and entertainment venues, with vaccinated and everyone designated in the cruise compass and app. 
Dinner tonight in Chops. Bought wifi package so will check back to answer questions and post info. 

[jcc1025]

29 minutes ago, vplsh said:

My sister ( a travel professional) and I are on board for the four night Independence cruise to Cozumel. Bit of a glitch getting on board as we and several others had received two cabin assignments and when we got to the terminal we waited over an hour for them to figure out how to get us into only one. But once on board we were able to get right into cabins (7398 far aft starboard side balcony). 
Windjammer was well staffed and we were served at the various stations. Such happy and helpful crew members. 
Safety briefing is on the app and you must go to the muster station for a sticker to put on your sea pass card. With 30 minutes to sailing there were still 44 passengers who hadn’t done this. Sail away is set for 5.

Reservations required for all dining and entertainment venues, with vaccinated and everyone designated in the cruise compass and app. 
Dinner tonight in Chops. Bought wifi package so will check back to answer questions and post info. 

29 minutes ago, vplsh said:

My sister ( a travel professional) and I are on board for the four night Independence cruise to Cozumel. Bit of a glitch getting on board as we and several others had received two cabin assignments and when we got to the terminal we waited over an hour for them to figure out how to get us into only one. But once on board we were able to get right into cabins (7398 far aft starboard side balcony). 
Windjammer was well staffed and we were served at the various stations. Such happy and helpful crew members. 
Safety briefing is on the app and you must go to the muster station for a sticker to put on your sea pass card. With 30 minutes to sailing there were still 44 passengers who hadn’t done this. Sail away is set for 5.

Reservations required for all dining and entertainment venues, with vaccinated and everyone designated in the cruise compass and app. 
Dinner tonight in Chops. Bought wifi package so will check back to answer questions and post info. 

Great news, look forward to hearing your updates. We are scheduled on the first paying passenger cruise in two weeks so will be interested in hearing what they process is on board. Have fun

[trippintex]

We will also be on the Aug. 15 cruise . Do you know the name of the Diamond lounge concierge and how it will be operating ? Did they test you at the port for covid are did you even need to get one?  Thanks 

[vplsh]

3 hours ago, trippintex said:

We will also be on the Aug. 15 cruise . Do you know the name of the Diamond lounge concierge and how it will be operating ? Did they test you at the port for covid are did you even need to get one?  Thanks 

Will check the diamond lounge later this evening. No testing for vaccinated passengers as we are only a 4 night cruise. However there were people there to test, although I’m not sure why. 

[emeraldcity]

Thank you for inviting us along for the ride. I last cruised the Independence late last February (right before the TA on the Allure). Such a beautiful ship. My daughter and I have great memories of that sailing.

 

Funny story ... we booked the cruise late Wednesday evening for a sailing on Saturday (clearly less than what I thought was the required 72 hours). Anyway, we must have gotten a cabin that someone had cancelled late in the game. We got to our room and discovered a welcome letter on the desk detailing platinum benefits for Kimmy ... but no welcome letter with daughter's diamond benefits and my D+ ones. So we went to Guest Services to ensure our benefits were loaded on our cards ... and they were. So then we went to the dining room to find our dining table and discovered we were at different tables for dinner. So we went to the maitre di to untangle that, and we were told that there were three people in our cabin ... the other person was "Kimmy". No, we advised. Just us. No Kimmy. So they straightened out the dining arrangements and put us at a table of six with a wonderful family of four that we had great experiences with. Anyway ... back we went to our cabin and atop the desk were two shrink-wrapped drink cups. My daughter asked me if I'd brought a beverage package and I said no. We left the drink cups there until the next day to see if the steward would reclaim them. He didn't. So we tore off the wrapping and headed down to the Royal Promenade for flavored lemonades and figured if the charge showed up on the bill, we'd just pay it. But it never did. And every time we filled our cups on the cruise, we'd smile and say "Thank you, Kimmy"

Edited August 2, 2021 by emeraldcity

[trippintex]

17 minutes ago, vplsh said:

Will check the diamond lounge later this evening. No testing for vaccinated passengers as we are only a 4 night cruise. However there were people there to test, although I’m not sure why. 

thanks again

[perfect match]

Thanks for doing this! I’m soaking up every bit of information I can get! 

[vplsh]

Sea day today. Just hanging out in the solarium. Right now we are two of six people here. Had breakfast in the mdr. We had to make a reservation but I don’t think it was necessary. Deck 3 is for vaccinated passengers. Service is excellent. New items in the breakfast menu. I’ll attach it here. 
 

Comedian  last night mentioned that there were 400 people on board and I can believe that’s all there are. In many places there are more crew than passengers. 
 

Dinner tonight in the MDR. We are my time so made a reservation for 7. Will check out the diamond lounge this evening as well and report back. 

[JBSteelerfan]

Hope you have a great time!  Looking forward to hearing more!

[wolfganghowell]

Thanks for taking us along.  An empty solarium would be a dream!

[bobmarychris]

Keep us posted with all the different protocols and tips for Independence..We are on the

Aug 15th sailing..It would be nice to know what to expect..thanks

[vplsh]

30 minutes ago, bobmarychris said:

Keep us posted with all the different protocols and tips for Independence..We are on the

Aug 15th sailing..It would be nice to know what to expect..thanks

The ship is spotless! Crew around all over making sure to sanitize chairs after people get up and every staff member is wearing a mask. Your sailing will certainly have more passengers but I think the ship is ready for them. Be prepared to sanitize your hands all over! But it’s just so great to be back and you’ll have an amazing time!!!

[BSocial]

Thanks for doing this.  Have a great test cruise !

[GA Dave]

3 hours ago, vplsh said:

Sea day today. Just hanging out in the solarium. Right now we are two of six people here. Had breakfast in the mdr. We had to make a reservation but I don’t think it was necessary. Deck 3 is for vaccinated passengers. Service is excellent. New items in the breakfast menu. I’ll attach it here. 
 

Comedian  last night mentioned that there were 400 people on board and I can believe that’s all there are. In many places there are more crew than passengers. 
 

Dinner tonight in the MDR. We are my time so made a reservation for 7. Will check out the diamond lounge this evening as well and report back. 

I have never cruised Royal, but I am scheduled for the 11/12 cruise on the Independence.  Is this a "typical" MDR breakfast menu for Royal?  I see about six things I would love, but I am not sure I could eat them all at one sitting!  🤣

[Biker19]

2 hours ago, GA Dave said:

Is this a "typical" MDR breakfast menu for Royal? 

The RCI app will list the menu of each ship (pick a close in sailing) and most of the time it’s fairly accurate. 

[vplsh]

3 hours ago, GA Dave said:

I have never cruised Royal, but I am scheduled for the 11/12 cruise on the Independence.  Is this a "typical" MDR breakfast menu for Royal?  I see about six things I would love, but I am not sure I could eat them all at one sitting!  🤣

We were told this is a new breakfast menu. 

[jillpra]

We are considering this ship for next April? Do you know if they have did any updates in cabins since last year? Ship looks beautiful from photos! 

[vplsh]

12 hours ago, jillpra said:

We are considering this ship for next April? Do you know if they have did any updates in cabins since last year? Ship looks beautiful from photos! 

The ship is in very good shape. Our cabin seems to have new mattresses and pillows but otherwise are the same. 

[lovelife]

tvMay I add to this review?

 

We are next to Adventure in Cozumel this morning.

 

Edited August 3, 2021 by lovelife

[bobmarychris]

23 hours ago, vplsh said:

The ship is spotless! Crew around all over making sure to sanitize chairs after people get up and every staff member is wearing a mask. Your sailing will certainly have more passengers but I think the ship is ready for them. Be prepared to sanitize your hands all over! But it’s just so great to be back and you’ll have an amazing time!!!

Sounds Great  !!!..Hopefully the Delta Variance dosen"t  mess things up..

 

[lovelife]

I put some photos from this sailing on the other Indy thread.

 

No takers on the flowrider. Just the crew yesterday when I checked.

 

[lovelife]

Ice show last night. Very few in attendance.

 

 

[vplsh]

Welcome to Cozumel!! We were able to book our own excursions so we have headed to Nachi Cocum for the day. Masks are required everywhere in Cozumel and the taxis had us use hand sanitizer before getting in. Here at Nachi we had our temperature taken and wore our mask until we got our chairs. There are only 13 people here today, and if you’ve ever been to Nachi you can imagine how wonderful that is. Adventure is in port with us. 

Last night we had dinner in the mdr and went to the ice show ( an every person event so masks required) then to the show in the theater. 
Tonight is dinner in the mdr again then another headliner show. 
Still haven’t made it to the diamond lounge but definitely will tonight. 

[jcc1025]

5 minutes ago, vplsh said:

Welcome to Cozumel!! We were able to book our own excursions so we have headed to Nachi Cocum for the day. Masks are required everywhere in Cozumel and the taxis had us use hand sanitizer before getting in. Here at Nachi we had our temperature taken and wore our mask until we got our chairs. There are only 13 people here today, and if you’ve ever been to Nachi you can imagine how wonderful that is. Adventure is in port with us. 

Last night we had dinner in the mdr and went to the ice show ( an every person event so masks required) then to the show in the theater. 
Tonight is dinner in the mdr again then another headliner show. 
Still haven’t made it to the diamond lounge but definitely will tonight. 

Thank you for the updates. We are scheduled on the Aug. 15th sailing and can't wait. We have sailed Liberty several times, this will be the first time on Independence and interested in seeing some of the differences between the two sister ships. 

[lovelife]

We discovered the Diamond lounge is closed for this sailing but we were invited to a test Diamond lounge happy hour yesterday. Tomorrow morning we are invited to a test Chops breakfast.

 

We were told the suite lounge is open for those in suites so some were apparently assigned suites. Not us - we only got spacious balcony.