Independence of the Seas Cruise Reviews - Reviews

It was the first cruise for me and my wife but it certainly will not be our last. There's never a boring moment with so much to do.

Overall was a great experience, wasn't our first and definitely wont be our last.

First Cruise on Royal Caribbean will book again very soon.

Overall a very nice short cruise. Still feeling some pain points from COVID. Wearing masks everywhere is a ridiculous thing. We all eat and drink without them, so we have all shared the same air, there is no point and its just uncomfortable.

It was a great, quick get away. They could warm the pool water at coco cay so it wasn’t so cold that your legs were numb.

Glad we took the leap of faith that RCL and their protocols would keep us safe because we really needed a break from living in a box. Appreciate how smoothly everything went and how hard everyone worked to keep things clean and safe. Stop thinking about it and JUST GO!

Very short and relaxing. A great getaway for the amount of time

Great quick little getaway. I definitely recommend for a weekend trip!

Cruising during Covid is a weird experience. This was my first cruise since 2019, and the only reason we booked this cruise was because we had to postpone our trip to the UK. I was traveling with my 18 year old daughter during her school break. What I liked: the ship is sizeable. Not the biggest, but nowhere near the smallest, and there was room to spread out and have a good time. According to the Captain, we only had 1,400 guests on board. That was a very good thing because we could social distance and enjoy ourselves without being crowded. Everything was clean. People were constantly cleaning everything. The dining room food was very good. I only had one dinner that wasn't a hit (the duck l'orange was dry) but the lamb shank, the lamb chops and the prime rib were all excellent. We bought the non-alcoholic drink package. I'm not a big drinker and figured if I wanted alcohol, I'd pay for it. I think I had two drinks outside of the cost of my drink package, so I made the right choice. My daughter enjoyed asking for different mocktails. If we had been on a port-intensive cruise, I don't think I'd even get this package, because when in good ports you're off more than you're on. I liked the Captain. We went to a Q & A with Captain Gus and enjoyed listening to him. He was funny and every morning he'd give some words of wisdom over the PA. Due to covid, people can't smoke in the casino anymore. That was a definite positive. What I didn't like: The constant upsell by the spa people made it impossible to walk by the spa and fitness center. They were relentless and it's awful. It puts a damper on the trip. I would use the fitness center and sauna except I don't want to go through the phalanx of salespeople who are desperate to get you into the spa for overpriced services. The weather. Not the ship's fault, but it was cold & rainy for most of the trip. They did switch our at-sea day to our first full day so that we'd at least get some decent weather at Coco Cay, but the trip was cold & rainy for most of it. I never broke out the sunblock. Entertainment: there wasn't enough. Many things were canceled. Whereas there used to be 2-3 columns of entertainment and activities listed in the cruise compass, now there was only one and some of it would be canceled each day. On the last day, the ice shows were canceled. We'd go to listen to music at different venues and some of it would be canceled or switched around. The weirdest was the Latin band at Boleros switching to old white rock like Credence and John Mellencamp. There was no welcome aboard dance party (understandable), no big events. Grease, while good, wasn't Grease. It was the musical selections from Grease without the play. They didn't make that distinction on anything and we found out when we arrived at the theater. We did enjoy it. The cast was very good. The comedian was awful. Honestly, truly awful. There was one woman laughing uproariously at his jokes and my daughter said she's either drunk or his girlfriend. He'd get the occasional laugh about some things, but in the early show he had to keep it clean and it was like he had no material. When we arrived at the show the Independence of the Seas band played some great music, and then a couple of the actors from Grease came out and sang a couple of songs. We thought that the comedian was canceled because it wasn't advertised as a variety show. He came out, did less than a half hour, and I'm glad it was short because it was so bad. His jokes consisted of making fun of fat people at the pool & the buffet, and then making veiled racist jokes. We didn't bother going to the second show which was supposed to be 18+. The only time we saw the cruise director was when he was introducing the comedy show and when he was at a Q&A with the Captain.

Loved everything about the cruise especially our fine dining experience and our servers Ida and Caspher they were exceptional in their service. Thank you for having such nice people working at your ship. We will surely be sailing again and also let our friends and family know about our wonderful experience.

The Independence of the Seas is a beautiful ship with a wide range of activities and a wonderful crew. The weather and COVID regulations (masks) were somewhat limiting, but we had smooth sailing, arrived at ports at the scheduled times and overall enjoyed our 4 night cruise, especially when we returned home to 2 feet of snow!

Overall we were so happy with our cruise. The staff was great and the ship was doing everything they could to make sure people stayed healthy.

Everything about the cruise was amazing! Can't wait to book royal carribean again!

Loved it can’t wait to go back on , Ship was clean

Wish there was better selection of channels. Not a good experience first night in main dinning room. Wish there were more movies in theater.

After the room key fiasco and they also put “My Time Dining” on our key cards when I signed up for the 8 pm late seating, everything else went smoothly. Maybe they made the embarkation process too quick where they don’t go over the details with the guest thoroughly enough? It really made a sour start to our 1st day to spend 2 hours with guest services trying to fix things when I could have been exploring the ship. The rest of our time was enjoyable. Loved lounging in the sun in the Solarium. Coco Cay was excellent. I’m so glad we splurged on a beach bed.

I would like to thanks the personal of the cruise for every second it was worth it. And the waiter and his asistant were amazing. (Ayush and Selvom) They made our stay more enjoyable.

We have sailed ROyal Caribbean a number of times and it’s always been above satisfactory. We selected this cruise as a way to celebrate Christmas with our family onboard. 1. The ship offered some nice decorations but lacked any holiday events. We expected caroling and seeing Santa and maybe a Christmas show. We saw none of these. 2. So often nowadays businesses eliminate things and blame it on Covid. This was quite obvious on this cruise. Primarily in the area of entertainment. A comedian one night a singer the next and on the final night the singer and comedian. I like to listen to music after dinner and it was a piano player in the Schooner lounge and I’m told Bolero had some music at some point. We never heard the ships orchestra perform other than during the shows. Overall the experience was at best ok. We want to try a Christmas cruise again in 2022 but will have to think hard about doing it on Royal.

The cruise was nice. There were some positive surprises like easy access to the pool tables in the sports bar. And both Monday night and Thursday night football were shown there in addition to up on deck at the pool. Some major disappointments, Grease was cancelled, and smoke as more of a problem than any cruise I can remember.

I'm not happy that I was not told about how expensive drink packages would be. I was told everything minus alcohol was inclusive and it was NOT.....I was promised certain ammenties that were the main reason why i chose this cruise and they were not made available. I was screwed out of $420 at the ship just to board which in turn screws their own staff members of getting tipped and screwed the guests from being able to afford everything that the ship charges for that should be included for the prices they charge.