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Bit of a miss

Independence of the Seas Cruise Review

Cruises: 4-6 cruises
Reviews: 2
Helpful Votes: 17

Overall rating:

3.5 out of 5
Independence of the Seas

14 Night Italian Mediterranean (Southampton Roundtrip)

Sail date: June 15, 2019

Ship: Independence of the Seas

Cabin type: Oceanview

Cabin number: 3348

Traveled as: Couple

Reviewed: 5 years ago

Review summary

Far too busy - not enough deck chairs or general seats. Over booked and ruined the whole holiday. If it was quieter it would have been much better. Despite going outwith school holidays there were over 500 kids on board

Embarkation

4 out of 5

Ship experiences

Food and Dining

3 out of 5
Not much selection

Onboard Activities

3 out of 5
A few things to do but they wanted extra for pretty much everything

Service and Staff

4 out of 5
Bar and restaurant staff are amazing

Ship Quality

3 out of 5
Easy lay out - not very clean. Caught a virus 2nd last day before home port and was cabin bound

Cabin / Stateroom

4 out of 5
Cabin was spacious, balcony was great. A little out dated

Ship tip

Take extra cash to do anything, they will shake you down for anything and everything!

Thumbs up

Ports of call

Gibraltar (U.K.)

3 out of 5
Beach transfer - traffic was awful and we were 2 hours late back to the boat but the beach was great
Thumbs Up

Civitavecchia (Rome), Italy

3 out of 5
Port is an industrial port - Rome was too busy
Thumbs Up

Villefranche-Sur-Mer, France

4 out of 5
Just stunning - not much to do if wandering around
Thumbs Up

La Spezia, Italy

4 out of 5
Lovely port
Thumbs Up

Naples, Italy

4 out of 5

Disembarkation

2 out of 5
Staff had no idea what was going on!
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4 Comments

Sarahs58    5 years ago

The trouble when there are a lot of children on board is not so much the behaviour, it is more that with an occupancy of three or more in a lot of the cabins there will be more people on the ship. It is a lot busier since they added the extra cabins. The main thing we found slightly disappointing is that since they got rid of the nightclub, they have put the DJ in the Olive or Twist rather than having live music like the reggae band. Fortunately when we went, as we are diamond level we were able to use the diamond lounge as a refuge .
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Radish    5 years ago

It never used to be quite that bad until they had the refit putting in all the new state rooms but not changing the infrastructure. Consequently not enough room everywhere else.
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CruzeFan    5 years ago

If you want fewer children, travel when school is in session or try a more upscale line such as Crystal, Symphony or Viking.
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dminium    5 years ago

Independence is a mega ship. There will always be thousands of people cruising with you. I sailed in March and loved every minute. Sorry you had a less than enjoyable cruise.
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Other reviews of this sailing

Lovely ports - ship was a disappointment
Wonderful and enlightening cruise to the med