A great ship with one or two things which could be better

Independence of the Seas Cruise Review to Europe - Western Mediterranean

DJS53

Contributor Level: Purser

Cruises: 7+ cruises

Review: 1

Helpful Votes: 6

Overall rating:

4.1 out of 5

14 Night Mediterranean Cities (Southampton Roundtrip)

Sail date: June 30, 2018

Ship: Independence of the Seas

Cabin type: Inside

Cabin number: 3249

Traveled as: Family (older children)

Reviewed: 6 years ago

Review summary

A beautiful ship with many good qualities and great staff, BUT the bars are very hard to get a seat in at night since the refit - 400 extra people with some public spaces taken away to make more cabins (eg the nightclub is gone) makes evenings in particular hard work. Sunbeds can be a problem - but providing you are adaptable and don't need to be near the main pools this is ok as there is room at the aft and bow ends if you are less fussy....bars are more of a problem because you have less choice and there just isn't enough room. One idea would be to make Studio B even more adaptable than it already is - an ice rink, a laser quest, AND a dance club/bar by night? I found the shows good, but at times a bit outdated - quite a lot of comedians/entertainers telling sexist jokes for 40% of their act (which is too much, I felt). Grease is well done and largely popular, but again rather dated and even unpleasant to modern styles of romantic relationships. The Boheniams (Queen tribute) were very good indeed. The quizes lacked variety and don't have enough seats available and there was not a wide variety of entertainment to choose from. The musicians on board were generally very good as was the choice of drinks at the bar (if you could get a seat at night). The food was good to very good rather than excellent, but there was a lot of choice except at night in the MDR when it got a little samey after about half way throught the cruise. Service is excellent, however. The international staff are consistently helpful. I wish they'd put the vegetarian options and salads in the buffet away from the meat/tuna as a couple of times, careless people scooped up and dropped inappropriate food in the wrong container as they moved it towards their plate...but this was a minor problem as normally it was fine, though it could be easily solved. The ship is really very keen on cleanliness and there were numerous ways that they encouraged washing hands - the Washy Washy Man is a legend whom everybody loved. If you like having your photo taken, the photo packages are great value. The drinks packages may or may not be depending on your consumption. Overall, I'm impressed with RCL but they miss the top marks for not putting attention into adding extra bar seating as they do extra cabins.