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4th of July Independence Chaos

sjb317

By sjb317,
in Royal Caribbean International

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sjb317

sjb317

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Our group of 11 family members disembarked from Independence of the Seas on Friday, 7/7. The group consisted of 6 adults, 4 teens and a nine year old.  All were experienced Royal cruisers with the exception of our daughter in law and her two teenagers, this was the first cruise for the 3 of them.  This was the 4th cruise on Independence for my husband and I since January, 2022.  We chose this cruise as it was the only one that worked with the time period  our  Australian relatives wold be with us in Florida.  The following are our observations of this cruise:

 

Embarkation was fairly easy. We had an 11am checkin and had to wait about 10 min at security, we were told by one of the agents they had to get people moving onto the ship as there were too many waiting upstairs.  Once they opened security up again, everything went fairly fast.   One small blip at checkin, we had our almost 18 year old grandson checking in with us, his dad was checking in with his Australian stepson about 6 agents away.  Our agent asked what our relationship was with Ben, my husband replied grandparents, and she asked if he had any parents with him.  My husband said yes, that his dad was here in another line, and she told my husband to have our son raise his hand.  He did, and she accepted that as proof😂.  Keep in mind, our son had no questions asked when checking in with his 16 year old stepson who has a different last name and an Australian passport.

 

The ship was completely packed, we were told capacity was 117% with over 1200 of the passengers children.  With the exception of the DL, every place we went was packed and elevators were impossible, we all did the stairs.   The WJ was always a zoo, crew seemed to be struggling  keeping up with the messes being made.  There seemed to be a lot of spills, we watched one woman slip and fall on spilled pickles, fortunately she did not seem to be hurt.  I am sure there were probably other falls. 
 

Outdoor pools were standing room only as was Solarium pool.    Just like the WJ, crew could not keep up with messes made, public restrooms on the pool deck were in bad shape.  We used our cabin on Deck 8 for bathroom breaks. 
 

Food was hit or miss.  We took our family to Chops the first night as we were celebrating our 50th anniversary. It was very good and service was amazing.  The rest of our dinners were in the MDR, I think we were all somewhat disappointed in the food. Our first time cruisers were very disappointed, which I felt rather sad about as I wanted them to love cruising as much as we do.
 

Entertainment was excellent! We all loved the ice show and the production of Grease was one of the best I have seen.  Our teens loved being out in the evening, meeting new friends and hanging out in Sorentos.  Karaoke was a favorite with them as well!   The teens also enjoyed the escape room. 
 

Disembarkation was a breeze and we were back at our condo by 930!  
 

All in all, we had a great cruise because we were with family, especially since we do not get to see the Australians very often.  I, however, plan to never cruise on over a holiday during any school break again😂😂

 

Sherri🙂
 

 

 


 


 

 

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Merion_Mom

Merion_Mom

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I will also add:  I am observing more messes going unaddressed, because RC has cut the staffing.  It's not just a function of holiday sailings.  There are fewer people than we were accustomed to in the past, and they can only do what they can do.  More staff are needed.

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sjb317

sjb317

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Sorry if I confused some of you, to me, chaos means a disorganized, crazy mess.  This describes the cruise perfectly, especially the WJ. And it was not just the 1200 plus kids causing problems, in fact, I think the adults might have exhibited the worse behavior. 
 

Merion Mom is right that the ships do not have enough staff to deal with the increased number of passengers. 
 

Sherri🙂

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Mum2Mercury

Mum2Mercury

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8 hours ago, sjb317 said:

The ship was completely packed, we were told capacity was 117% with over 1200 of the passengers children.  

Yeah, we sailed once "over capacity".  Until that cruise, I wasn't even aware that was a possibility.  I think over capacity and loads of children go hand-in-hand.  

8 hours ago, sjb317 said:

I, however, plan to never cruise on over a holiday during any school break again

We sailed a holiday ONCE and came to the same decision.  I'm not saying we didn't enjoy that cruise -- we definitely did! -- but the crowds were definitely a negative, we were assigned to a side room instead of the MDR for dinner, and it was an expensive cruise /not a great value.  Fool me once ... 

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Mum2Mercury

Mum2Mercury

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34 minutes ago, DaniDanielle said:

The problem seems to be that people are pulling kids out of school more than they used to so there is always a crowd.

Not just that:  Online learning went mainstream during the pandemic, and I don't think our area's alone in having added more virtual options.  Some students really thrive in this online environment, and one of the benefits is that they can "attend class" from anywhere.  

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reallyitsmema

reallyitsmema

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55 minutes ago, Mum2Mercury said:

Yeah, we sailed once "over capacity".  Until that cruise, I wasn't even aware that was a possibility.  I think over capacity and loads of children go hand-in-hand.  

We sailed a holiday ONCE and came to the same decision.  I'm not saying we didn't enjoy that cruise -- we definitely did! -- but the crowds were definitely a negative, we were assigned to a side room instead of the MDR for dinner, and it was an expensive cruise /not a great value.  Fool me once ... 

 

Ships sail over capacity all the time, it is not rare at all.  You only really hear about it when they are close to their maximum guest total allowed.

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sjb317

sjb317

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58 minutes ago, Mum2Mercury said:

Yeah, we sailed once "over capacity".  Until that cruise, I wasn't even aware that was a possibility.  I think over capacity and loads of children go hand-in-hand.  

We sailed a holiday ONCE and came to the same decision.  I'm not saying we didn't enjoy that cruise -- we definitely did! -- but the crowds were definitely a negative, we were assigned to a side room instead of the MDR for dinner, and it was an expensive cruise /not a great value.  Fool me once ... 

Agree with you. This was our 67th cruise with Royal including one on Grandeur that was over Christmas and New Years and I don’t think we’ve ever been on a cruise that was this crowded.   And it was expensive but, as I said earlier, this was the only week we could accommodate our family in Australia.  
 

Sherri🙂

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ramja96

ramja96

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22 hours ago, sjb317 said:

I, however, plan to never cruise on over a holiday during any school break again😂😂

Exactly why we don't book cruises in summer.

Edited by ramja96
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RedIguana

RedIguana

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On 7/11/2023 at 9:13 AM, sjb317 said:

One small blip at checkin, we had our almost 18 year old grandson checking in with us, his dad was checking in with his Australian stepson about 6 agents away.  Our agent asked what our relationship was with Ben, my husband replied grandparents, and she asked if he had any parents with him.  My husband said yes, that his dad was here in another line, and she told my husband to have our son raise his hand.  He did, and she accepted that as proof😂.  Keep in mind, our son had no questions asked when checking in with his 16 year old stepson who has a different last name and an Australian passport.

I am not sure why you consider this a blip. Security wanted to know if a parent was traveling with an under 18 year old (but over 16) traveling on a US passport. Parent was present, so no need to ask you for more documentation. I suspect the rules for traveling with an Australian passport are not the same as for a US passport for a 16 year old, hence the lack of questions that a US passport holder might have had to answer. 

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simon.hed

simon.hed

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49 minutes ago, Arzeena said:

@sjb317

Thank you for posting your review. I enjoyed reading it. I am looking forward to seeing Grease again for the nth time. And happy belated anniversary.

Sorry you were chided by some who were expecting more drama.

second this.

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PhillyFan33579

PhillyFan33579

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19 hours ago, Merion_Mom said:

I will also add:  I am observing more messes going unaddressed, because RC has cut the staffing.  It's not just a function of holiday sailings.  There are fewer people than we were accustomed to in the past, and they can only do what they can do.  More staff are needed.


I don’t disagree with your post, but find it interesting other threads here complain about how expensive RCI cruises are these days. Increasing staff would likely lead to even higher prices. I was on Independence last month and according to a few officers we talked to at the Schooner Bar, their ship has been fully staffed for awhile.  

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Tatka

Tatka

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17 hours ago, Tree_skier said:

I opened this thread, expecting to read about people throwing tea in the Boston harbor  

 

LOL.

Independence is not sailing to Boston. We only saw Queen Mary 2 in Boston on 4th

 

We sailed on Queen Mary 2 in 2017 and for July 4th we were in Boston ... answering my question about "How come British ship was in Boston for July 4th?!" captain suggested to do exactly this. 🙂

 

We had about 100 kids on 5 day's cruise to Halifax, NS and Boston. They were all so well behaved ..

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