Good cruise

Independence of the Seas Cruise Review

parkyy2k

Contributor Level: Second Mate

3 Days Till Next Cruise

Cruises: 4-6 cruises

Review: 1

Helpful Votes: 40

Overall rating:

4.3 out of 5

12 Night Canaries Adventure (Southampton Roundtrip)

Sail date: September 14, 2019

Ship: Independence of the Seas

Cabin type: Oceanview

Cabin number: 2598

Traveled as: Couple

Reviewed: 5 years ago

Review summary

Over all we did enjoy our cruise but there was a few niggles to mention.. The ship really was over crowded! I’ve been on two other Royal Caribbean ships and I’ve never noticed them being crowded before. People will reserving their sunbeds early! We walked past at 7am and saw towels and people actually sat out on them! The sunbeds were so squashed together! We struggled every night getting seats in all the bars, we planned on taking part in quizzes but the bars couldn’t cope with the capacity and we often had to just walk to the next bar or find something else to do. Windjammers for breakfast and lunch was horrendously busy! Queuing for food and then walking round looking for a table whilst your food goes cold. I believe from previous over crowding reviews this is since the latest refurbishment when they added lots more state rooms. I noticed that at some of the ports the staff were asking everyone to wash there hands before boarding, this is a first for me! Every ships I’ve been on this is heavily enforced! The ship has had a big revamp last year but they didn’t do the whole ship up and you can see it does look tired in areas.. the staterooms – bedding was very bobbly, pillows needed replacing. The main TV screen near the pools needs replacing! All the LED’s were blue! The ping pong tables looked worn out, with bitten paddles. The staff were great, the main pool bar staff were superb – I would literally walk up to the bar and be served instantly. The food was great! Especially the main dining room! Grease show – We had to wait until day 10 of 12 of the cruise for the main show! Royal Caribbean staff had warned us to get there early and possibility of queues. We got there 1 hour 15 mins before and there was around 100 people queueing, we joined the queue up the theatre stairs, people arrived thick and fast - most joining the queue! Some people pushing in, it was chaos! A lot of angry people ending up booing the people that pushed in! Royal Caribbean provided 3 members of staff to help with the queue which I can only imagine stretched the whole length of the Royal promenade! Utter madness – I don’t know why they didn’t just open the doors to the theatre early and let people wait in their seats on a first come first serviced bases. The ice skating shows were brilliant! The best shows on the ship! Entertainment in the theatre was a mix, some were great – some terrible! The first night there was a comedian called Phil, about 200 people walked out of his show it was that bad! He even made a comment towards the end about people leaving and then loads more did! How have Royal Caribbean not noticed this, it can’t be the first time! There was a different comedian on a few days later and he was brilliant! I didn’t see anyone walk out. I think there is a lot of wasted space on the ship where Royal Caribbean are trying to upsell without any success. The fish and ships, the ice cream place and Johnny Rockets, I saw a couple of people at these places in the whole 12 days on the cruise! They should never have replaced the free burger station with Fish and Ships, this surely would have eased the demand in Windjammers! The silent disco’s were a highlight! Always had lots of fun! Shame there weren’t 3 music channels to choose from like on previous cruises though! Over all I did really enjoy this cruise but next time I’ll be booking through a Celebrity cruise.