Fantastic but expensive

Item: Independence of the Seas
Rating: 4.2
Author: doveyy04

Independence of the Seas Cruise Review

doveyy04

Contributor Level: Third Mate

253 Days Till Next Cruise

Cruises: 1 cruise (first)

Reviews: 3

Helpful Votes: 73

Overall rating:

4.2 out of 5

3 Night Royal Sampler (Southampton Roundtrip)

Sail date: August 30, 2019

Ship: Independence of the Seas

Cabin type: Balcony

Cabin number: 6294

Traveled as: Family (young children)

Reviewed: 5 years ago

Review summary

Needed more then 3 days on this ship as there’s plenty to do. We’ve booked Crown Princess next August as Indy was cancelled and Anthem way to expensive but I think going on Indy now has spoilt it for us and my 11yr old child as Crown will never live up to it. Has a great time but it’s way too expensive.

Embarkation

5 out of 5

Really quick, although we arrived about 10:45am so maybe it’s busier later, took about 10-15 minutes to get onto the ship with SetSailPass

Ship experiences

Food and Dining

4 out of 5

Didn’t do main dining room, ate mainly from the buffet as we could come and go as we please. No issues with food at all at buffet, lots of choice.

Onboard Activities

5 out of 5

Plenty to do on the ship for my 11 yr old and that’s without enrolling in any of the children’s clubs.

Service and Staff

3 out of 5

Found our room steward really nice but a bit bossy in which direction we walked, sometimes we wanted to walk through the promenade to the lift for top decks but she insisted we go the quicker way. Found the bar staff had trouble understanding me and 1 time he put my cocktail into my sons souvenir cup!!

Ship Quality

5 out of 5

Very clean throughout

Cabin / Stateroom

5 out of 5

Surprised at how spacious it was as I was thinking it would be cramped, we never felt cluttered. Balcony helped a lot with that.

Ship tip

Bring a flask.

Thumbs up

Ports of call

Cherbourg, France

4 out of 5

Popped into town for an hour or so, very nice but most shops shut on a Sunday.

Thumbs Up 0

Disembarkation

5 out of 5

Fantastic, shame we had to wait half hour for pre-booked taxi but that’s not the ships fault.

3 Comments

doveyy04 5 years ago

Because Royal Caribbean is a fantastic family CruiseLine with great amenities for kids, Princess cruises seems to have a good kids club but nothing else for kids, my son most enjoyed the water slides, ice skating, arcades and crazy golf, Crown has none of these. Yes 3 nights is only a tease but it was just about free thanks to cruise credit from the cancelled Indy trip, was good experience and we learnt a lot about cruising which will help for next years trip to the Med.

Thumbs Up 1

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shopaholic6 5 years ago

How do you know Crown won’t live up to it?

Thumbs Up 0

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ronnyclicks 5 years ago

3 nights is just a tease on a cruise. Personally 8 nights is best amount of time. But glad you had fun

Thumbs Up 1

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Other reviews of this sailing

Different but enjoyable

Not the best experience

A nice short getaway