Independence of the Seas Cruise Reviews - Reviews

Food was a concern, first cruise where I think I lost weight ?,We went to 2 upgrade restaurants, only to find some foods were an additional upgrade, so you have to pay for the upgrade, then pay again. This is not right. Food at the dining facilities had ridiculously small portions. Your drinks were extremely pricey. If I cruise again with Royal Caribbean I will go alcohol free, way too expensive. Two bottles of Evian water in mini bar, should be complimentary, not $6.00 a bottle ( again it's water ). On the positive side, service was good, the boat was clean, our room was clean, staff friendly. I would think twice before booking Royal Caribbean again.

The shows were great- The food I give a 70 out of a 100- I don't like how there wasn't any grills outside by the pool with food- the breakfast buffet I didn't love and was looking forward to. 

The good --

The ship was a great value for a balcony stateroom with the Massachusetts resident discount.  The shows were very entertaining.  Lots of hot tubs that had plenty of room.

The bad --

The service was very lacking across the board.  I suspect this is mostly from overworked, underpaid staff, but also stemming from the leadership, Captain and his officers.  The promenade was filled with a sour odor coming from the pizza eatery.  The casino had so many slot machines, most unused, and only one Texas Hold'em table in the smoking section.  Only two $5 blackjack tables, one of which was in the smoking section, both of which were almost always full.  The balcony was dirty, especially the glass, and the doors that separate the neighbor balconies was VERY loud at night when it was windy out.

The worst by far, was the food -- very cold and bland tasting.  The four of us left the main dining hall very disappointed the first night.  We ended up purchasing a package for speciality dinning.  Unfortunately, the food there wasn't much better, with the same lackluster service.  Very few if none at all vegetarian main courses was a letdown.  Only two speciality restaurants available for the nominal price, both accessible only from the Windjammer buffet, which is not very appetizing when you walk in.

Bottom line --

If you get a good deal on the stateroom, or traveling with your family with kids, go for it!  Otherwise, you'd find better service on the smaller ships.

Great food Great service Great Ship******Every Time****** Go Royal Caribean****

I prefer the Port of Tampa, but with R.C. once your on board its all good. The food in the main dining room is better than the Wind Jammer. If you want a salad or burger (beef or chic) The Wind Jammer is by the pool (very convient). The Ice show was fantastic. A MUST SEE!!!!! All around I give it 4 Stars

We really enjoyed all the amenities on the ship. Always something to do. I would highly recommend to anyone needing a much needed break. The anytime dinning food was the same food in the Windgammer, but the servers and dinning room was beautiful. Also, the shows were amazing and was set up where you could go early or late on various dates so everyone could enjoy the show. 

My favorite part of the cruise were the shows.  Royal Caribbean has some of the best shows (ice skating performance was spectacular).   The food of course was wonderful and the staff that serves the food were great.   That being said, I was very disappointed in the process of obtaining a glass of water.   if you asked for water at the bars , you got a little bit of an attitude and if you want ice, you got the eye roll (like when your kids were teenagers).    I would suggest setting up convenient sites to obtain water, coffee and tea , not just at the Windjammer or at the bars.   

Independence of the Seas is a great ship. Aft balcony was awesome.  Show were great. Enjoyed the ice show and Grease.  Costa Maya is a good Port and People are Not as pushy as those in Cozumel.    

Our favorite part of the cuisine, particularly in the Main Dining Room. I would give it 4-5 stars. Every meal was excellent, and the service polite and superior. Our cabin attendant knew our names the first day, and attended our room every time we left with fresh towels.

More  add-on co0sts than others, frige in room never was fixed, food was ok, staff pleasantness was extremely variable. We bought the nonalcoholic drink package , but that did not cover (we found out later) any fruit juice or tea or hot chocolate---Cranberry juice was 3.95 for 6oz glass

It was a very good trip, I will recommend to others

“Se um reino se divide contra si mesmo, ele não poderá manter-se. Se uma família se divide contra si mesma, não poderá manter-se” (Marcos 3, 24-25).

Hoje, a Palavra de Deus nos chama a uma reflexão sobre o mal da divisão, pois essa é diabólica e demoníaca. Dividir as pessoas, as famílias, a Igreja, os cristãos; todo o trabalho de divisão da humanidade é um trabalho do mal. O mal quer nos dividir, quer nos colocar uns contra os outros.

Desde o princípio, dois irmãos: Caim se colocou contra Abel e dividiu sua família. Se olharmos nos dias de hoje, não existe mal maior que destrói a nossa humanidade do que o terrível joio da divisão, que destrói nossas casas, nossas famílias e comunidades; destrói a unidade do Corpo de Cristo e nossos relacionamentos. Por isso, uma coisa é muito importante: é preciso distinguir divisão de diversidade.

As pessoas podem ter diversidade de opiniões, podem ter opiniões divergentes, pensar diferente. O que não podemos é transformar essa semente do pensar diferente no joio maldito da divisão, porque tudo que se divide se destrói, tudo o que se divide vai eclodindo por si mesmo, tirando a graça e a beleza da unidade.

O Reino de Deus não se conjuga com o mal, porque ele destrói ou quer destruir a força do bem que há em nós. O mal nunca será maior que o bem, mas quando queremos servir o bem e o mal, ou permitimos que as obras do mal estejam em nós, que o maligno exerça fascínio sobre nós, somos os primeiros a ficar divididos. Queremos fazer o bem, mas estamos fazendo o mal; queremos semear o bem, mas estamos seguindo o reino das trevas. Queremos ser pessoas do bem, do amor e da concórdia, mas estamos vivendo, muitas vezes, o ódio, o ressentimento, o rancor. Isso para você perceber que a divisão começa dentro de nós.

Não podemos nos dividir, porque, se nos dividirmos, não seremos pessoas inteiras e plenas, como Deus quer e nos criou dessa forma. Não é questão de dividir o coração, mas de purificar nossa alma, nosso coração, nossa vida, nossos relacionamentos e tudo aquilo que fazemos para não estarmos a serviço do mal, e o mal não nos dividir.

Deus não quer que sua casa nem sua família sejam destruídas, Ele não deseja que elas acabem; então, cuide para que a semente da discórdia, da divisão e do mal não estejam permeando sua casa.

Não podemos ficar nos gladiando, atacando-nos, jogando culpa em cima dos outros e virar aquela bagunça, aquela baderna. “Sou contra esse. Sou contra aquele.” Não é isso! Temos de ser contra aquele que nos divide.

Quem pensa diferente de nós, quem não tem os mesmos pensamentos, tem o nosso respeito. Brigamos apenas contra o reino das trevas, mas entre nós precisamos nos amar. Não podemos permitir, de forma nenhuma, que o divisor, que a palavra “diábulos”, que semeia a divisão no meio de nós, vença. Mas que a Palavra de Cristo opere a unidade e a união.

Volto a dizer: união não é todo mundo pensar igual ou fazer igual. Há uma beleza incrível na diversidade, há uma beleza maravilhosa até nos dedos de nossas mãos, cada um é diferente do outro, cada um têm uma função, cada um têm uma importância; e não precisa brigar, porque um é mais bonito que o outro.

Precisamos entender que cada um tem uma riqueza a dar e não podemos dividir.

Deus abençoe você!

This cruise was awesome. It is beautiful inside out. I would recommend it to any friend and family. There are a lot of activities to do in the cruise.

We've been on a number of cruises before but this was our first non-Carnival cruise in the Caribbean.  With the promise of going to Haiti, we changed plans this year to go on this RC Cruise.  While there were some nice additions -- the food selection was a bit better -- the Independence of the Seas really felt like a step down from the other ships we had been on.   It was extremely difficult to move around on the ship, there were not many activities if you weren't into drinking all day (in contrast to Carnival), staff were just as inclined to give orders on trivial matters as they were to assist and facilities like the gym were time-restricted.   Unfortunately, to cap it off, disembarking was a challenge itself -- there were conflicting instructions that had many passengers move up and down the floors with their luggage trying to find the exit.  As a suggestion, the cruise staff could do far more to make the experience feel like an actual vacation.  As for us, this will be our last Royal Caribbean cruise for a long time.

Boarding Terminal was ok., a little crowded but it was fast anyway and friendly. We boarded the ship and went to the Winfjammer Restaurant, 11 floor, for lunch and it was great. 

Great meals, great ship, great staterroms, great shows I would recommend the ship very much.  

I have only one complaint: The exterior windows of the ship were very dirty all over the ship.

Port of call:

Labadee is nice if you like the beach

Jamaica is a nice port to walk around and make some purchases if you wish

I enjoyed the facilitys of the cruise all 5 days.

This is a nice trip.  Our first day at sea was a little rough with choppy water but the ship handled it well.  We could tell the ship was in the water but it wasn't bad considering we had 10 to 12 foot seas.

The greatest part of the cruise was the combination of service and dining options. Everyone was terrific and the dining options were extremely appealing and delicious.

My least favorite part of the cruise was the entertainment selections; although there were plenty of choices, most were geared for loud parties. There were to few more sedate choices.

I would recommend a cruise of this type to people in their 20's and 30's aas a great vacation option. 

I like cruising in general.

So, that was fine, but the last time I was on this cruise you had Chocolate Chip cookies available when one was lucky enough to get them.  This trip had no Chocolate Chip cookies ever available and I noticed there were always thousands of cookies available because they were cookies that no one ever wanted.

I'm just mentioning it because that was something I really enjoyed on my previous cruise.

Everything was outstanding, especially our server Miller and Vost,and Grease was outstanding!!!!!!!!

James, who booked us, was the absolute best!!!!!!

However, our room was not described properly by Royal Caribbean! The balcony was extremely small! 

15 foot seas not withstanding on the last day - this was a very good cruise.  First time with Royal Caribbean.  Ship was huge, but beautiful and well run. We've used Carnival (never again) and Princess (amazing). RC was definitely on the Princess scale!

Food was good - not exceptional.  Ate dinner in main dining room each night.

Service was top notch throughout the entire ship.

Entertainment was quite good and there was always plenty to do.  

Unexpected pleasant surprises - Comedian was actually hysterical.  Ice Skating show was incredible.

Critique - We would have liked was the ability to borrow cards or board games when we wanted some quiet family time.  Were able to buy cards on board, but never found any board games.

Bingo was prohibitively expensive.  Lower charge would have resulted in more participation - meaning their net profit would've probably been the same with more passengers happily participating.

*Not thrilled with the extra cost associated with some things (activities, certain menu items in the main dining room [lobster for instance], ship tour, etc.) - we found none of these costs to be 'nominal' so we chose not to partake in any of them. 

* realize this might be industry standard now and not just reflective of Royal Caribbean.

the quality of food needs improvement; casino was cool even though i lost money; room was spacious and balcony was very large. drinks at the bar were on point. souvenir shops were full of cheesy trinkets like from china and selling for astronomical prices.

There was something to do for all ages. We had ages ranging from 9 -62 and everyone had an amazing trip. The Jr. Suite was spacious for four (2 adults/2 kids) and the room attendant was always one step ahead of us, which made our stay comfortable. We will definitely do this again!!!