Fantastic
Independence of the Seas Cruise Review to Caribbean - Western
4 Night Western Caribbean (Ft. Lauderdale Roundtrip)
Sail date: April 11, 2019
Ship: Independence of the Seas
Cabin number: 7628
Traveled as: Couple
Reviewed: 5 years ago
Review summary
Over all, had such a fun and relaxing time. The ship is fantastic, the crew is fantastic, the facilities are fantastic. Get a refreshment drink package, you'll get your monies worth for sure. The photos we had taken were awesome.Embarkation
Ship experiences
Food and Dining
Pool Bar
Sometimes super fast, sometimes takes forever. Drinks were always good! Staff have a lot to manage so be kind.
Sorrento's Pizza
Good pizza, not like the best thing ever but satisfying. Tasty toppings.
The Labyrinth
SO SAD that this feature has been removed! We were really wanting to visit this club based on the pictures. Has been replaced with more staterooms. :( SO just FYI, this IS NOT THERE ANYMORE!!
Windjammer Marketplace
Love it! very cool. Staff is funny.
Johnny Rockets
Staff and service was 100%. The food..... if you've gone to a on shore Johnny Rockets, drop your expectations by about 6 points or so. Not the same. Cannot comment on milkshakes as we didn't have them, they looked good though.
Main Dining Room
The food, the staff, the experience, all of it was 100% amazing!
Cafe Promenade
Great! There coffee was tasty!
Onboard Activities
Solarium
I'm assuming I'm reviewing the Escape room.... so if this is misplaced, HEY here's a review about the Escape room!I live in Orlando where there are ALOT of escape rooms of various levels of detail, difficulty, and quality. I've done at least 15 rooms before this experience. This room compared to all the other rooms, ranks really high. Beautifully detailed, they really took their time designing the room. Clean, pretty, things weren't beatup or broken. It's different from other escape rooms I've experienced, where you usually unlock 3 or 4 areas of a "room". This experience was all in one space, which was very different for me. Not other room I've played has done this yet still, all the puzzles kept my interest and were pretty involved! Also spacey so we didn't all feel like we were running into each other every moment. They also had the puzzle master stay with us in the room, which was also different from any other room I've done. Usually the puzzle master leaves and you get hints view a screen placed in the room or over a intercom. His hints were good, got the group going in the right direction without ruining the experience of us figuring it out for ourselves. The puzzles were changeling but not ungodly frustrating. I don't recommend this for anyone under the age of 14... maybe 16. It just won't be fun for them I think. Definitely fun over all though! As someone who goes to a lot of escape rooms, this was really done right! You'll enjoy it whether it's your 1st time or 15th. TIP: LISTEN TO YOUR GAME MASTER and LET EVERYONE IN YOUR GROUP LOOK AT THE CLUES
Photo Gallery and Shop
Staff was so helpful. When we had an issue of our special pictures that were taken of our engagement linking with our cloud, they went above and beyond to make sure we had them.
Dunes Mini Golf
Meh, It was so so. We went up there and once my partner and I saw it, we decided to pass. I could see small kids having fun with it.
Guest Services and Explorations!
Victoria is amazing, she helped my (now) fiance set up our proposal and made it super special. She cared. All of the staff really seem to care.
Whirlpools
I liked it! Can get a little crowded but if you go during off times, like mornings, lunch, dining times, evenings, you'll have luck. Plus people don't tend to stay super long cause.... well unless you just are content to boil yourself for hours, you're not gonna want to stay for stupid long. You can take plastic cups in. Water feels nice. View is cool without being frightening.
Swimming Pools
Clean, sometimes crowded of course. Adult pool was truly free of children which I was glad for. Lots of areas to relax. Be mindful that there is only one space to rent towels and that is the the one place you return them. So plan that in that when you're done, you gotta walk back there even if they're ALL THE WAY towards the front and you're hanging out at the wave pool and slides towards the back.
Entertainment
Promenade
Beautiful, interesting, fun!
Children's Programs
Challengers Arcade
Played quite a bit on the air hockey table. Good to ok condition, still fun! They have a game called GO TO JUNGLE that is a HILARIOUSLY bad game. So bad it's good kinda thing that is a gem to experience for any gamer.
Service and Staff
Ship Quality
Cabin / Stateroom
Ship tip
Book a later dining time if you want to avoid most of the kiddos. Avoid the first rush of the lunch buffet the first day, absolute chaos. Go to the promenade for pizza or other snacks instead. Maybe consider bringing a towel with you. There is ONE location to rent towels and sometimes coming back to return your towels there (to avoid charges) was a pain. If you don't have the packing space though, it's not a big deal. Also, Please don't be one of those people that exits the evalvaotr and then just stands there blocking others from getting on. GTF OUTTA THE WAY, then figure out where you're going. If you like whacky fun stuff, look for the elevator piano man. ;) Oh yah, it's a thing!
Ports of call
Ft. Lauderdale (Port Everglades), Florida Did not visit port