June 2017 - 7 Night Canada & New England Discovery (Boston To Montreal) Cruise on Maasdam
wyland14
Third Mate
Joined 12/2016
2
Cruises1
Review29
Helpful VotesPast cruises
January 2017 - 4 Night Western Caribbean (Ft. Lauderdale Roundtrip) Cruise on Independence of the Seas
Pleasantly surprised
Independence of the Seas
Sail date: January 05, 2017
15 foot seas not withstanding on the last day - this was a very good cruise. First time with Royal Caribbean. Ship was huge, but beautiful and well run. We've used Carnival (never again) and Princess (amazing). RC was definitely on the Princess scale!
Food was good - not exceptional. Ate dinner in main dining room each night.
Service was top notch throughout the entire ship.
Entertainment was quite good and there was always plenty to do.
Unexpected pleasant surprises - Comedian was actually hysterical. Ice Skating show was incredible.
Critique - We would have liked was the ability to borrow cards or board games when we wanted some quiet family time. Were able to buy cards on board, but never found any board games.
Bingo was prohibitively expensive. Lower charge would have resulted in more participation - meaning their net profit would've probably been the same with more passengers happily participating.
*Not thrilled with the extra cost associated with some things (activities, certain menu items in the main dining room [lobster for instance], ship tour, etc.) - we found none of these costs to be 'nominal' so we chose not to partake in any of them.
* realize this might be industry standard now and not just reflective of Royal Caribbean.
Cruise tips
Went on Mayan Ruins - Island Overview with Cesar. He was fascinating and amazing! Hand downs best guide and excursion we've ever had. We really weren't expecting much - but am pleased to say that if we were expecting a phenomenal excursion - our expectations still would have been exceeded. Pretty sure it was CESAR himself that earned this rating. (His assistant, Armando was also good.)
Independence of the Seas
Go to the ice skating show, even if ice skating is not particularly your thing. Rocky seas mean show will be cancelled for skaters' safety (you'll understand if you see the show) so make sure to go to the first possible show.
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15 foot seas not withstanding on the last day - this was a very good cruise. First time with Royal Caribbean. Ship was huge, but beautiful and well run. We've used Carnival (never again) and Princess (amazing). RC was definitely on the Princess scale!
Food was good - not exceptional. Ate dinner in main dining room each night.
Service was top notch throughout the entire ship.
Entertainment was quite good and there was always plenty to do.
Unexpected pleasant surprises - Comedian was actually hysterical. Ice Skating show was incredible.
Critique - We would have liked was the ability to borrow cards or board games when we wanted some quiet family time. Were able to buy cards on board, but never found any board games.
Bingo was prohibitively expensive. Lower charge would have resulted in more participation - meaning their net profit would've probably been the same with more passengers happily participating.
*Not thrilled with the extra cost associated with some things (activities, certain menu items in the main dining room [lobster for instance], ship tour, etc.) - we found none of these costs to be 'nominal' so we chose not to partake in any of them.
* realize this might be industry standard now and not just reflective of Royal Caribbean.