Great experience, very expensive.
Independence of the Seas Cruise Review to Caribbean - Western
Contributor Level:
Purser
Cruises: 1 cruise (first)
Review: 1
Helpful Votes: 20
5 Night Western Caribbean (Miami Roundtrip)
Sail date: January 29, 2024
Ship: Independence of the Seas
Cabin type: Balcony
Cabin number: 1402
Traveled as: Family (young children)
Reviewed: 9 months ago
Review summary
It was a great first time cruise. Not sure if I’d do it again anytime soon. But glad we went and got to see Jamaica and the Bahamas. Also, I don’t recommend going into Miami. I had very important items stolen out of our locked rental car and apparently that happens often. Very unfortunate.Embarkation
We didn’t get on the ship until about 3p and it went pretty quickly. Maybe 15 minutes.
Ship experiences
Food and Dining
We did the buffet, pizza shop, main dining, ice cream parlor and free ice cream. All was good. Main dining was amazing and the staff was the best! Loved having the same servers every night. Just wish there were fresh subs or something. Perhaps a deli or more fresh healthy options like wraps. The few alcoholic drinks I had were amazing!! We got the refreshment package and thank goodness because drinks were quite expensive and my family and I drink a lot of water/powerade. Unfortunately, I only seen 1 set of coca-cola stations and one of them were out of order. The second day I found another one in the buffet area but there was no ice available. Often the machines would be out of a lot of options too. The travel cup you have to use to fill up also leaks. Would be nice to at least have one that doesn’t leak.
Onboard Activities
My kids loved the pools and hot tubs that weren’t too hot. The kids pool play area as well. The big water slides were fun! My oldest son did the flow rider and liked it but my 6yo was too young (they said). I waited in line with my oldest for 20min though and ran to change my bottoms (they would have fallen off) and I ran back 4 min later, let my son go on but I had to be there and they wouldn’t let me go. I was pretty upset. The rock climbing was fun and challenging. They had a soccer game but was mixed going and older and the older kids/guys were very rough and worried me that my youngest was trying to play too. They have a climbing area for kids that is open 24/7 which is really nice, they loved it! I did a yoga class but didn’t find out until I got there it cost $20 (I think I was charged $24 though). It seemed like a nice gym. Bingo was fun but quite expensive for only 3 games and 6 cards plus you have to buy a dobber ($3)! But the cash prizes were $150-400 per game. The ice skating show was amazing! I was quite surprised! I really enjoyed it! Also, watching a movie under the stars while my kids swam in the hot tub was a really cool experience!
Entertainment
Ice skaters were seriously incredible! The Bob Marley tribute band was pretty good but the music just sounded off a little. The music by the pool was pretty good too!
Children's Programs
My kids went to the kids daycare place and they weren’t a fan. It did have 2 or 3 big flat screens with Nintendo switches but my kids didn’t get to use them. They said it was boring in there. When I went to pick them up my oldest was sitting in a chair while all the other kids got to ask him questions. They didn’t have service during dinner hours 5-7p and our dinner was at 5:30. Would have been nice to give them a break from sitting at a 2 hour dinner. There wasn’t much else for my 9 and 6yo to be entertained with.
Service and Staff
The staff were all so nice! Our stateroom attendant was so nice and made the cutest towel animals! He would clean our room in the morning when we left and while at dinner. Every staff member I encountered were just the nicest and made us feel appreciated!
Ship Quality
The layout was nice. Would’ve been nice if there was an elevator or steps even near the back of the ship where we were located. The elevators were very slow unfortunately so we had a lot of steps and walking during our week (not necessarily a bad thing). There were tons of lounge chairs all over the ship but better get one early in the morning because people snag them up and save spots.
Cabin / Stateroom
The size was decent enough. The balcony was the best part, it was huge! The room seemed very outdated though. The placement of the only 2 outlets were not ideal. The lights kind of sucked too because it was either like all on or nothing. We were smart enough to bring a cruise approved outlet box with a few extra plugs. We couldn’t have our phones charge near our bed though. The futon was pretty gross and old and stained. The curtain had a bunch of holes in the blackout part. My Dyson hairdryer kept turning off while using it because the plugs weren’t very powerful. Being above the rudders we felt a lot of vibration and heard them. It was very rocky the first day as the waves were pretty big. It took us 3 days on land to not feeling like we were still on a boat.
Ship tip
Be prepared to walk a lot! Try for a later dinner time if doing main dining. Use the app to plan out your activities!
Thumbs up
0
Ports of call
It was very dirty and rundown. Not much room between the ship and the street where tons of people were trying to collect their luggage and get a taxi or Uber. Nothing else to do there.
It was pretty nice. Lots of cute shops to buy very expensive souvenirs. Check out the straw market! It’s like a flea market but all souvenirs. It’s just outside of the port.
We didn’t have much time to just browse here but there was lots of area to hangout and shopping to do.
Disembarkation
I have nothing to compare it to as this was our first cruise but ours went pretty smoothly. We were all sent to different areas of the ship to disembark.