b2b IOS review..March 7-15 & March 15-21

[Princess Mummy]

We were lucky enough to sail b2b on IOS, March 7-March 15 and March 15-March 21. We arrived at FLL on Friday afternoon. Rented a car from National at the airport. We stayed at the Westin Diplomat Resort in Hollywood. A beautiful resort!! The grounds are like something out of a magazine. The room was lovely, staff very friendly and helpful. Will definitely stay there again.

 

March 7. DH dropped us off at port while he returned the rental van. It was a nice warm morning while we waited for him to return. It gave us a chance to look at the other ships in port and do some 'comparing'. Dropping off our bags with the porters took no time. Because we had e-docs, we had to write our own cabin numbers on the tags...no big deal. The embarkation process was quick. We were checking out the WJ within 30 minutes..it took us that long to get there, we were so awestruck with the beautiful ship!! Got to our rooms (there are 5 of us) around 1:00. Nicest smelling bathroom we have ever had on any ship. A very good sign!! Met our cabin steward and requested that she clean out our fridge. She did so with a smile, and asked about our family. Very nice lady!! We had late dining, so we took the opportunity to sign up our kids(12,14 & 16) and the requisite waivers for the various activities around the ship. Highly recommend you do this day 1. There are virtually no line ups and my son and husband took advantage of the nonexistent lines to use the flow rider. They spent about 2 hours there with a 1:1 instructor/student ratio. It was great!!Dinner at MDR (Romeo & Juliet) at 8:30. Our waiter and asst. waiter were fabulous and we hit it off right from the start.(Cheers to Daniel and Juan). We had planned to be with another family for this cruise and they had planned for us to sit with them during dinner. Don't know what happened, but we were assigned different tables at opposite ends of the dining room. After 3 visits from 2 people in red jackets and 1 man in black jacket, we ended up spending the rest of the cruise with our friends at their original table. That part was great, but we had developed a great bond with our own waiter and asst waiter so I requested to be placed with at least Daniel for our second cruise. RCCL met my request graciously..thank you so much.Went to the welcome aboard show. Don't usually like them, but this was quite entertaining. Graham Seymour has the same warped sense of humor that we do, so we thoroughly enjoyed it and were looking forward to more.

 

March 8. Clear skies. Kind of choppy seas. Some people were feeling it, but we have been on much, much worse. WJ breakfast was plentiful. Staff there were all very attentive and quick. I think they have radar. Within minutes of sitting down, someone would be there asking if we needed coffee, tea, juice, etc. Never did get a chance to have breakfast in the dining room. The day was spent trying to find our way around the beautiful ship. The promenade is amazing. Our kids anchored Sorrentos and DH and I lived at Promenade Cafe. The walnut raisin loaf is amazing!! The pizza and antipasti at Sorrentos were fabulous, but my kids claim the best part about Sorrentos is the staff. (Do you see a pattern developing?)By Day2, the staff knew the kids' order, which made them feel really special. Signed up for skating lessons for me and my youngest daughter. The kids went to the teens club and loved it, especially Jorge, one of the teen counselors. Saw the production show...wow. Dinner was fabulous. Was really looking forward to getting on land though!

 

March 9. San Juan. Went to Fort San Juan. Absolutely beautiful. Old San Juan was charming. After a warm day walking around, the ship was a haven. Dinner was of course great.

 

March 10. St. Thomas. Went to Coki Point to do some snorkeling. Saw some interesting species of fish. Did some lounging on the beach, and gazed in awe at the beautiful color of the water. Had some extra time when we came back, so we dropped the kids off at the ship while DH and I did some last minute shopping. Found alcohol prices really good, so we picked some up to take home. We gave it over to the ship's personnel when we got aboard to hold until the end of the cruise.Dinner was great, as was the show.

 

March 11. St Maarten. Took an island tour and did some shopping. A very quick day. Back on board for dinner, and some rest.A reception was held for Canadians to get together at the Pyramid Lounge. Decorated in Canadian stuff, with a quick video cameo from Canadians working onboard. Canadian Trivia also held.

 

March 12. At sea. DH and DS participated in the Ping Pong tournaments (one for adults and one for teens.) Both won, which was cool. Went on a Galley tour. It was very state of the art and spotless!! Saw 'Freeze Frame', the ice show. It was really good. We were amazed at how much could be done on such a small piece of ice. Dinner was fabulous.

 

March 13. Labadee. Kids and DH went on Zipline. Worth every penny according to their reviews. Seas were too rough on our side to do much in the water, but it was wonderful to just sit/lay on the beach and get completely spoiled. RCCL had lunch ready for us there..regular BBQ stuff, and it was all very welcome. Walked by the 'flea market' but didn't find much that appealed to us.

 

March 14. At sea. Everyone walking around with sad faces since this was their last day. We smiled..we were only half way!!

 

March 15. We stayed on board with other B2B cruisers(17) in Anthony & Cleopatra room. Once ship was cleared of all passengers, we were escorted to immigration and back, and then had the whole ship to ourselves. We had booked our trips separately, so were not able to keep the same rooms for both cruises. However, all we had to do was pack our safe, drawers and bathroom stuff. The clothes in the closet were left there and our room steward moved everything over to the next room for us. We were offered lunch in the dining room so that we wouldn't have to deal with the crowds in WJ. A very nice and thoughtful touch.

 

March 16. At sea. More ping pong tournaments, eating, walking, meeting friends, etc.

 

March 17. Belize. Took a snorkeling tour with Coral Breeze/Hammerhead. Would highly recommend them. After snorkeling for about an hour, we were taken to 'Stingray' Alley where we got in the water with live stingrays..lots of them. It was amazing. After that, we spent about 1 1/2 hours at Caye Caulker...beautiful. We were then taken back to shore and tendered back to the ship for dinner.

 

March 18. Costa Maya. Went to the Dzibanche ruins with Native Choice Tours. A very long drive one way (2 hours) but worth the time. Our guide was Noel, and she was not only informative, but very passionate about the ruins and the ancient Mayan civilization. All of us, including our teenagers were enthralled...which says a lot!!

 

March 19. Cozumel. Took a cab to Chankanaab Park. It was absolutely amazing there. The snorkeling was great!!, the beach amazing. Even though there were I think 5 ships in port that day, the beach did not seem crowded at all. There is a wonderful lagoon, as well as a replica Mayan village for people to wander through. Truly one day is not enough to spend at this park. If you wanted to, you could also swim with dolphins, but we chose not to..there was plenty other things to do.

 

March 20. At sea. Ok, so now we had the sad faces. It was hard to say goodbye to all the wonderful staff on RCCL, especially the kids.

 

March 21. FLL. Disembarkation. We chose to carry off our own luggage. Our flight wasn't leaving until 2:50, so we weren't in any hurry. The entire disembarkation process, including immigration was very quick...probably not more than 30 minutes. We took a shuttle to the airport and was at FLL with plenty of time to spare and reflect on a wonderful holiday. To all who made these 2 weeks so special for our family...thank you. To all who wonder if they should book IOS, absolutely! Would we do it again...in a heartbeat!!

[caribbeanboy]

Great ship indeed! loved her so much in December, that as soon as I reached home I booked the Liberty.

[Nancynurse]

Thanks for the review...We will be cruising back to back in May on the Liberty.

 

How much time did it take for the whole process of disembarkation and getting back on board the ship take?

 

You mentioned the Flow rider... was this up and running on the embarkation day? I know my boys would be thrilled for a little one on one time especially if no-one else is on board.

 

We did a back to back last year on the Radiance and I remember how great it felt to be able to stay on board for another week.

 

Sounds like you had a great trip!

 

Nancy

[Princess Mummy]

Thanks for the review...We will be cruising back to back in May on the Liberty.

 

How much time did it take for the whole process of disembarkation and getting back on board the ship take?

 

You mentioned the Flow rider... was this up and running on the embarkation day? I know my boys would be thrilled for a little one on one time especially if no-one else is on board.

 

We did a back to back last year on the Radiance and I remember how great it felt to be able to stay on board for another week.

 

Sounds like you had a great trip!

 

Nancy

 

Hi Nancy

 

The whole process of disembarkation and getting back on board was very quick. We were escorted by RCCL off the ship to immigration where we handed over the blue customs declaration form. Immigration looked at our passports, counted to make sure the number of heads matched the number of passports and we went back on the ship. We 'pinged' out with our old sea pass cards and 'pinged' in with our new ones. In all, maybe 15 minutes.

 

Yes, the flow rider was open on embarkation day...I believe it opened up around 2:00pm.

 

We had such a great time on IOS b2b that we are thinking of doing b2b on Liberty next year!! Hope you have a wonderful time...looking forward to hearing how your trip goes!!

 

Pauline

[Princess Mummy]

Pictures of interest.... "Strings" Ice Show on the IOS Mar. 15-21

http://www.flickr.com/photos/36772156@N03/

[tms054]

Thanks for the info! We are leaving for B2B on the Independence this Sunday. We were curious about how the turn around day works. Sounds like it's no big deal at all.

Thanks again!!

[Princess Mummy]

Thanks for the info! We are leaving for B2B on the Independence this Sunday. We were curious about how the turn around day works. Sounds like it's no big deal at all.

Thanks again!!

 

Lunch is also provided in the dining room for b2b cruisers so that you don't have to work your way through the buffet crowd in WJ. By the time lunch is finished, you can go to your room..officially.

 

Have a great time!!!

[jgolfer1]

Just a few things to ad. We were on IOS 3/7-3/15 also. The cruise line's entertainers were wonderful - terrific singers and dancers. We also thought Graham Seymour, our cruise director, was GREAT!!! The ice show is a must see so get tickets when you can. If they do THE QUEST game, get there early to make sure you get in. It was lots of laughs.

 

I did the wave runner excursion in Haiti and it was an experience. The seas were a bit on the rough side and even tho you are on a "tour" with experienced guides, you still need to navigate fairly rough waters. It was tons of fun, but I would prefer to do it again in calmer conditions.

 

Food overall was good. Service was excellent in the MDR but desserts left a lot to be desired. We thought it odd, but we ate in Chop's on 3/8 and everything, including desserts, were wonderful. It was just the desserts in the MDR that were so so which could be looked at as a good thing since it was a few less pounds we had to worry about gaining. Johnny Rockets was what we expected, but they ran out of onion rings the day we were there. Sorrento's for pizza and antipasto became a daily stop and somedays more than once/day. We bought some alcohol at AH Riise (http://www.ahriise.com/) in St. Thomas and they deliver it to the ship so you don't have to carry it around and their prices seemed to be pretty good. It was then brought to our cabin the night before we got back to Ft. Lauderdale.

 

Embarkation was excellent - very quick and eating lunch in WJ within 30 minutes of dropping luggage. Getting off was surprisngly easy also. I had read some reviews from December cruises detailing long waits to get off but we did not have that problem. We waited in our assigned area and I asked a crew member about our color and she said we were already called ahead of schedule so please proceed to the line to debark. We did and were off within 30 minutes with our luggage. Perhaps there were problems in December and they have gotten resolved, but we had NO problem at all.

 

All in all, the trip was GREAT and we can't wait to go on our next cruise.:)

[Spicester]

Thanks for the great review...hmmm..now you really have me thinking about a b2b cruise :)