Fantastic 1st Time Cruisers Experience!
Independence of the Seas Cruise Review to Caribbean - Western
Contributor Level:
Purser
Cruises: 1 cruise (first)
Review: 1
Helpful Votes: 15
5 Night Western Caribbean (Ft. Lauderdale Roundtrip)
Sail date: April 29, 2019
Ship: Independence of the Seas
Cabin type: Inside
Cabin number: 6521
Traveled as: Family (young children)
Reviewed: 5 years ago
Review summary
I was absolutely thrilled to have such a fun & successful first time cruise vacation experience, especially as a single mother of two sons of very different ages (15 yrs & 4yrs) I'm confident I chose a fantastic cruiseline & ship offering something for each of us and the Indy truly provided us with lifelong memories to cherish - new experiences, friends, stories to share-I was on a mission of making this family vacation one in which we disconnect to reconnect, leaving the daily hustle & social media far behind so we could enjoy each other and we succeeded! I even booked my next cruise already with a friend and without the kiddos for September so I won't have too long to wait! Bitten by the cruise bug and not ashamed to admit I'm now obsessed!Embarkation
We weren't too thrilled with the feeling like herded cattle thing, but once we got through the initial security checkpoint, it did go fairly quickly. Definitely confusing for us never having experienced this or knowing what to expect and the cruiseline really should provide better/further/ additional info to assist in that situation-ditto for the final morning.
Ship experiences
Food and Dining
Oh.My.God. can I tell you what a rude awakening it was to return hlme and have to prepare meals for myself and kiddos after being so spoiled?! We found that Windjammer was the best & most convenient for breakfast and lunch as the dining room has so lil to offer in comparison for those meals. We utilized the free breakfast room service early mornings specifically to aid in feeding my 4yr old & getting him off to Adventure Club in the morning and some tea/juice and a quick nibble to take my morning meds-incredibly convenient USE THIS AWESOME OPTION to start your day and take time heading to real breakfast! We loved stopping by Sorrentos for pizza (those yummy appetizers & paninis in the showcase are avail no extra cost during the day and so many of us assumed they were premium & cost extra!) Also, before heading to rooms for the night, especially if your dinner is early, you can get a whole pizza to go! My teenager loved that option! I LOVED my late nite routine at Cafe Promenade before turning in, some hot tea and just 1 more dessert shhh, and my little one would get a glass of milk and usually some fruit or a cookie/small snack. Cafe is open ALL night BTW, even when it's a ghostship late night! As for the main dining room, oh how we loved dining there every evening! Your server & assistant are phenomenal and really spoiled us, they made my sons both feel age appropriately special & treated, and the food/ menu/quality was truly exquisite -if anything my only complaint was portions being too large and I had to draw the line when in my hesitations between a couple selections kept resulting in our waiter bringing me both just to further spoil me! I'd get upset over wasted food! Choose the mydining option and schedule on YOUR time around headliners or other activities based upon the compass etc each day -even when we'd forget to reschedule or were running an hour late or early, as long as you are there at your assigned dining room between 5:30 and 8:30 they accommodate you and it's just so very convenient!
Onboard Activities
So SkyPad is out of commission, and as it turned out the lazertag also was unavailable due to an issue at the rink, that also caused ice skating and an ice show to be canceled-the escape room was an additional cost, and it is truly lost to me why the pools are not open late at all! these things really upset me as they were deciding factors on the ship we sailed - Flowrider only has so many available time slots as well as open skate - however, my teen got to use and do almost everything as the teen club had times scheduled specifically for them as an activity so that was phenomenal-Im still bummed the rest of us missed out on ice skating, though. As for Splashaway Bay - they should have better watch from lifeguards as sunbathing and simply not present parents failed to keep careful watch of their own. For example, the water slides climber is for older kids my taller than avg 4/5yr old didn't make the height requirement so was limited to the 1 small slide that larger kids would take over and wreak havoc by not waiting for the bottom to clear out and just pileup and hurt other kids - the horseplay in general that was overly aggressive & dangerous (and aggravating) frequently cut our time short in Splashaway Bay since I saw no RC staff enforcing basic water safety rules and I didn't want to start hollering at other people's kids!
Entertainment
Oh how we adored the entertainment staff & game shows, dance parties, etc - I really truly do suggest finding out how to navigate (& refresh constantly) the ship's app so you don't put off an activity thinking you'll have another opportunity to do it and miss out -for instance Rock-a-rokie singing live with the band is super fun but only happened the 1st & last nights AND there are only 10 slots available so don't sleep on these types of things! The dance parties sounded cheesy to us, but I can't even begin to tell you how much fun they were and even if we werent participating we would've loved spectating! Grab a table outside the cafe or nearby about 30mins in advance for full on spectator involvement! The Lip Sync Battle was SUPER fun (and my teen won the event & the cheesy trophy!) There were so many scheduled activities & events I would've loved knowing further in advance or wished I had my bearings aboard ship better sooner so I could attend but often came upon after the fact - TRY to look over your compass at night before the next day! The entertainment staff are really just such dynamic individuals from all over the world, and we truly enjoyed them, especially a few inparticular that we seemed to bond with, really took a shining to my lil guy and made every evening that much more special for us!
Children's Programs
My almost 5yr old LOVED being an Aquanaut and a week later still tells me daily how much he misses his "teachers!" The themed activities were just superb-truly unique and fun-I never knew what I'd find when picking him up be it superhero facepainted masks to alien slime made of "potty water" gross, but all in good fun! The nighly compass will alert you to the lunches & dinners you can have your kids attend with the staff at Windjammer free of charge as long as you get them signed up specifically for this by a set time-UTILIZE this option and enjoy your dining experiences to the fullest not having to get kids situated or dealing with them eating or not, etc -this was such a great thing for me! It also afforded me special times spent with just myself and my teen when he'd get my undivided attention. Also, on port days there is a full day option for your kiddos to stay from 7:30-6ish i think rather than the usual morning afternoon & evening sessions so parents can plan excursions based upon this convenient option should they feel comfortable rather than give up trying to find ones to accommodate families of all ages (this would've been valuable had I known prior to our cruise as we decided against excursions since there was very little my 4yr old could do that would be worth the $ or expense to us-bummer in retrospect but I now know for next time! As for the teens-my 15yr old was NOT looking forward to my forced encouragement to attend the meet & greet night #1 but he ended up enjoying his first afternoon so much that he wanted to check it out himself -how about he instantly bonded with a bunch of them and literally spent every possible waking hour with them-surprisingly they really enjoyed the scheduled activities, most of them, and it drove me nuts being unable to reach him since our cell phones weren't set up to text etc so helpful suggestion would be prearrange check in times or you may not see your kid again until 1am ship curfew for 17 & unders. I will say, the staff for all ages are absolutely exceptional and more than qualified beyond degrees-their personalities of these individuals are just so amazing and we all adored them, also! Encourage your children of all ages to at least TRY out their club, ALL of you will be so very pleased you did!
Service and Staff
Two words - TOWEL ANIMALS! When you retreat in the evening to your rooms to find hanging monkeys made out of your towels do you really need to ask about the individual attention you receive aboard?! Or servers who know how to read your kids and ensure they eat full meals when they'd otherwise just not eat by paying attention to what they ARE eating-like my lil one really loving something like his veggies & dip starter in the dining room, they brought him more when noticing he was just picking at his spaghetti, then they encouraged him to eat that anyways by promising him an extra special treat-did we need cookies in addition to his huge banana split?! No! But he loved the general idea of it all! Even at Windjammer an awesome attendant bonded with us from day 1, the lovely Miss Leiyla, just from checking on whether she could get us our drinks when we sat turned into great conversation and my lil one lighting up just to see her each time-when he wasn't feeling well she could encourage him to eat soup and stay hydrated, etc. She just knew how to always make us feel special even in a buffet!
Ship Quality
I just loved our ship, everything was beautiful and clean! The hand washing station outside Windjammer eventually rid me of my norovirus phobia and hearing famous / popular songs sang in handwashing parodies by the banjo playing singers was one more fun element we are still laughing about! WASHY-WASHY!!!
Cabin / Stateroom
Was just fine for myself and two kids - you don't spend much time in your room and we'd crash the second our heads hit pillow! We left our bed as 1 large bed rather than broken into bunks as the sign for them stated age requirements for the top bunk and it wasn't worth the aggravations I knew Id deal with trying to keep my lil one confined to the bottom. I do wish I'd have known prior to our last night the "hot" temperature was & could be easily adjusted by turning the other side-I thought it was a fixed maxxed out default temperature and since it at least was hot enough it wasn't reason to complain or question for me. We didn't need to bring a surge bar for extra outlets or hairdryers or quite a few things articles & tips suggest be brought as we had all these conveniences in our room! We even had basic toiletries and a hairdryer several outkets-even an extra clothesline hang in our shower to dry clothes! We brought things assuming thered be none like soap, etc. Also, there are tons of drawers and cabinets with more than enough room for items of all size and tons of loose hangers in your closet along with extra shelves & a safe that's easy to use & access. I even found tissue boxes pads of paper & pens etc in our drawers all stuff I'd read everywhere to bring because they wouldn't be provided-we had the cheapest interior stateroom and we enjoyed it very much! Save your packing space - Royal Caribbean really does take care of you contrary to what you may read in "helpful" articles!
Ship tip
Browse your compass every night for extras (promos discounts highlighted events & opportunities etc! ) Also, I had no idea a ship specific tv channel broadcasted from the events and activities from the day before-you'll have fun finding yourselves on tv and reliving some of the fun the next day! Make sure you download & use the app custom designed to your cruise and you can schedule within etc and refresh to update often -go to cust serv specifically to show u how from the start to fully utilize so much more than you can imagine-it only took a couple minutes they're very efficient! Down in the medical center on Deck 1 there are cheap trial sized packets of at least 20+ diff types of medications from dramamine to benadryl advil etc huge variety for 50 cents to $1.00 and is accessible during closed clinic hours in its lobby! Save yourself cash by checking those out before paying for overpriced stuff in the market in the promenade-ALSO, the nurse has a huge closet full of otc meds avail to charge to your room that can also save $ for instance I was able to buy a 4oz bottle of liquid benadryl for $5 instead of $15 in the market and full size robitussin for $10 as opposed to $15 - even if the clinic is closed call the nurse as one is there behind closed doors and avail should an allergy or illness appear in the middle of the night-and it does not cost a dime to see the nurse at any time! I thought for sure a visit would be costly! First time cruisers and/or those traveling with kids-read my detailed comments in this review as I'm certain they'll be helpful!
Thumbs up
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Ports of call
We ventured out to try to find flipflops only to be badgered and annoyed among the shops, but I guess we got the ceremonial COZUMEL sign photo opp in - there's a Bubba Gumps, Senor Frogs, other chain restaurants to eat at right in the immediate area but we really just wanted to get back to our ship.
Disembarkation
We really again found ourselves victim to our lack of prior cruise experience ignorance-bring water with you from the ship to wait in a very hot and stuffy closed up building as you're herded like cattle in very very long lines to go through customs-thats the very end so no worries on having to dump or waste your beverage-believe me you'll need it, and something to entertain the kids because I think it was at least an hour spent waiting in line and it was miserable! On the plus side, we booked an Uber to the airport that arrived in 3 mins and only cost $4.30!!! Don't waste money on shuttles and taxis, there were at least 20 Ubers avail cheap and immediately!!
Traveler Photos
2 Comments
tomika75 5 years ago
Great comprehensive review. I had no idea of what to expect on my first cruise too. I would recommend looking at cruise ship tours on YouTube to get acclimated to certain ships and Google questions that may show up on other cruise blogs to better prepare you for your vacation. I joined other blogs, but mostly as a spectator. Royal Caribbean blog is a great resource. Looking forward to your next review, thanks again for sharing!