Independence of the Seas Cruise Reviews - Reviews

The shows were no bad and the staff was good I thought the activities were great , food at fine dining could hav been a little more upper class. There ship was great . Excursion was great

I am a seasoned Royal Caribbean cruiser and have always enjoyed my cruises with them...until this last one.  I don't know if it's because it was only a 5-day/4-night cruise or, as it seemed, that the employees were new and still training, but everything was disorganized; one server had to ask another server where the only ice cream stand on the ship was located at. Who trained those people? The servers were slow to the point where you expected to wait 1/2 hour for your dining room meal to arrive whether at breakfast or dinner.  Or maybe the kitchen workers were having difficulty putting the orders out in a reasonable amount of time?  No matter, RC has been in the business long enough to be able to accommodate a full capacity passenger list.   The saving graces were my cabin attendant who made that part of the cruise delightful via her quick attention to our needs, and the adorable towel sculptures she left on our bed at night, as well as the nightly shows which I enjoyed. The disembarkation was very very long and very very painful.  It took over two hours to go through the whole process.  Again, I never had that issue in the past with RC.   Saving the WORST for last, the food was horrendous! Mushrooms at breakfast were chewy and dry, eggs benedict not only was not presented properly, but dry as well.  I returned a "supposedly" aged steak twice! The first time because it was raw inside, not medium rare, and it had a greyish color.  The second steak also had the greyish color, it was less raw, but tasteless and cold.  The pecan pie was dry, the chocolate cake was dry, the orange juice was like drinking pure sugar, the burgers were ultra salty, the shrimp cocktail was soggy and wet; I could go on and on... and that was only the food I ate; imagine what the rest was like!  I can only speculate that the Executive Chef who put these recipes together imagined he was feeding army personnel.  If that is the case, I am horrified to think that our young troops would eat such food! I am going to take a break from RC until they get their act back together, at least with the IOTS ship.  I was planning on cruising my way from Platinum to Diamond level, but I am putting that on hold and going with other cruise lines for a while.  Too bad, I was so excited about this sweet short trip that turned out to be a terrible experience! 

I enjoyed the menu, the extended hour for serving the food. I liked the shows and the fact that there were various activities on the ship. I would prefer to have more night activitities for teenagers.

Not as good as the Oasis line of ships.

Food was just OK nothing to brag about.

Lacking in the little things like Towel animals each night with chocolate on the pillow.

One the plus the shows were great Grease and the Ice shows excellent and the cruise director very funny 

There was no toilet paper or tissues in our cabin when we arrived, we had to ask for it. There were 3 people in our stateroom with enough towels for 2.  Needed a third life vest for our third person and finally on day 3 was told it was under the bed. Had to go to the pool to get beach towels every time we needed them.  Didn't have the luggage pick up and brought to the airport for an additional charge which is very helpful .

The dining room was the main culprit--it seems with the new mega-ships online Royal has taken experienced staff from the shorter sailings and staffed up the mega ships and hiring new staff for the replacements and it shows--especially in the dinning room. Too busy to visit with the Patrons, or too new to know what to do the main dining is rapidly becoming a fast food experience. You now can get better service at an Appleby's than on Royal--very sad. it alos shows on the pool deck at days at sea--the IOS has 4000 guests on-board but during a sea day only 3 servers were on hand to wait on the pool deck crowd (guess that the succes of pre selling drink packages has offered up the option of no longer needing wait-staff on deck--they already have the money and dont need to provide service to get any more)-- lastly the concierge was completely useless on the IOS--couldn't (or wouldn't ) solve any issues presented and during regular hours was more absent than present in the lounge. Cabin staff and bartenders were excellent. It seems the difference maker between a good cruise and an outstanding one are the little things/touches and Royal has moved more toward larger crowds, bigger ships and less of the little touches that makes the difference between OK and Fantastic.

Overall cruise was good but the food preferences were not honored in the dining. Food menu was good but Indian Veg & non-veg meal needs lot of improvement

The food and shows were exceptional. Ports of call were relaxing with a variety of activities for all age groups and interests. The stateroom looked a little over used and could stand a makeover. Service was exceptional but main bars around the ship could have used more bartenders. The wait time for a drink was up to 10 mins and overcrowded. The ship is full of various activities and things to do. I could have stayed a few more days to do everything.

The ship was awesome.  Every staff member we came across went above and beyond to to kind, helpful and professional.   Our room steward was great as well as our dining room staff.  The ship had a lot to do and had great shows.

Great cruise just always to short!! Love RCCL but can tell they are really cutting back on perks for diamond members. Food was plentiful but have to admit I missed the hamburgers & hotdogs around the pool area, also the 24 hr ice cream that Carnival has. But love cruising on all ships!

Overall more plusses than minuses.

Plusses    Good ship, great staff, brilliant food, real drinks, top class entertainment. etc. I could go on with the complements.

Impressed with the Captain turning the ship around after leaving Puerto Rico to enable  a very ill guest to get hospital treatment.

Also after an immigration check fiasco before getting off at St Thomas the Captain informed us all that he would delay sailing so that we could have longer on the Island.

Minuses   Taking the kettles out of the cabins before leaving Southampton, We are very British, although we used room service  it wasn't as good as making your own  when you wake up.

Work going on around the deck ( I know it has to be done some time )

Weather did not improve until the 5th day not allowing people to sun bathe on the open decks.   No ones fault unless RCI hadn't paid the sunshine tax.

Biggest moan which probably isn't RCI direct fault but they could have some future input.

Disembarking at Fort Lauderdale was a complete shambles. After collecting our luggage we  had to catch a coach to Fort Lauderdale Airport. What a nightmare. There was a nice well organised queue for people going to Miami but for us going to FL we were crammed in to a small area with everybody trying to book in with a girl who had not got a clue what to do, then after that we had to try to get our luggage on to the coach. The drivers were getting no help from the girl, tempers were getting short. If only there had been some one there to organise  a proper queue and informing us that there was no panic as there would be other coaches, I know it didn't help because we were all delayed by about an hour disembarking because of customs.  The flight from FL to Atlanta, great ,a very nice Delta plane plenty of leg room and good comfortable seats.  But the flight from Atlanta to Manchester on a Virgin Airbus 330, a different story. Boarded ok Captain was very cheerful telling us there was a good tail wind and should arrive in Manchester early , fine, then every 10 minutes or so the Captain kept apologising for a delay in taking off because the " paper work was wrong" One hour later we were in the air. After the Delta flight the Virgin Airbus seemed so cramped, ( not as much room as a budget airline plane to Greece ). After eight hours tired, back ache, shoulder ache through trying to use the touch screen, we landed in Manchester. Home to our own beds for a few hours sleep.

Just on a personal note the high light of the holiday was the cabana we booked on Labadee   what a fab day. This we booked direct with RCI  costing £175  ( four of us sharing )  as we arrived one and a half hours late we did not have the full time there. It would have been a nice touch if RCI offered us some form of compensation. We realised the Captain did every thing possible to make up the lost time and I hope the guest is ok and making a good recovery who had to taken off.

I would not hesitate in cruising again with RCI and in particular the Independence of the Seas which I think is a great ship.

On a final note I have been very please with the service of Cruise 118 keeping us updated and flagging up when we should be doing certain things as it was 18 months from booking it to actually going.

The shows were great! The repairs to the poolside areas while we were in warm weather seemed that they could have been done on the first few day after we left Southampton. Leaving the ship in ft.Lauderale was a disaster stood in line for 1&1/2 hrs.

Very pleased with all aspects of the cruise.

My two items of feedback are:

- I booked 3 cabins for a party of 7, but had to make 3 bookings which created unnecessary work and then not all seated at same table (though we managed to rearrange this - wasting our time and staff time)

- Also I found the web-site awkward to use and unhelpful, eg regarding whether we needed to book entertainment

This trip was primarily to give my Grandchildren their first ever cruise at 1/2 term and for me to experience RC as a product having cruised with both P&O and Cunard. Most of the 1st day was spent locating myself and getting used to the lay out of the ship and understanding what was complimentary or what I would be charged for, given my budget was small. I also struggled with the dollar conversion so again was slightly apprehensive & cautious about any purchasing as I had not been allocated any onboard spending as part of the initial cruise price.

The ship was well appointed for children and there seemed to be enough room so that everyone could enjoy the experience.  I particularly enjoyed The Ice dancing performance which I thought was spectacular and both children enjoyed the theatre show Grease.  

It is natural to compare products and I guess if asked 'would I go again', I would consider it for the children but perhaps not for me which could only be down to becoming more familiar with RC and what it offers.  

All staff and the food choices (especially the free ice cream) were excellent.  

Checking in was slick and very quick. 

The only place to have breakfast and lunch was Windjammers which, although ok, did not have the usual range of food and we prefer to dine in the proper restaurants which had been open during the last taster cruise in 2013.

We noticed the quality of the entertainment was not so good as in previous cruises and there seemed to be less staff serving drinks during performances.  In actuality, there seemed to be less staff anyway!  Nowhere near enough bar-staff and not enough (or well enough trained) staff in the restaurants in the evening.  There were always queues at the bar!  Also, I'd bought a drinks package with champagne (sparkling wine!) and asked for dry and on two occasions was served what can only be described as sugary syrup Freixenet with assurances that it was dry.  Undrinkable and disappointing until I watched the bar staff serve other people and worked out what I needed to order!

The Next Cruise person I spoke to just could not be bothered.  She was more intent on eating a slice of pizza that her niece who was a passenger had brought for her.  It really was like a scene from Little Britain in terms of "computer says no" with no attempt to offer alternatives to my request for information on Far East or Arabian Gulf cruises for next summer - most disappointing!!

The cabin was spotless and extremely well attended by our lovely man Charles and as usual the staff on board were generally courteous and helpful. 

We were 9 people,3 generations from grandparents down to 3 teenagers.

Everyone had a great time because there was something for all of us.

The show on Ice was fantastic and "Grease" was a great show for all of us .

Breakfast in the "Windjammer" was very crowded but meals in the main restaurant were very good

We really enjoyed our time on the Independence of the Seas. The ship is a carbon copy of the Liberty of the Seas which we have also been on. The balcony room was nice and spacious for two with the balcony giving us a different view every morning. The attendant was very friendly and always cleaned the room to a very good standard. His towel folding skills was a nice touch.

The food was good especially in the Chops Grill which for a little extra charge was well worth it. The Windjammer at peak times was overcrowded and a few times we struggled to find a seat but this didn't spoil the wide variety of buffet menu and friendly attendants. The Main Restaurant at night was where we had most evening meals. The menu was very good and the waiters were very efficient. Being more upmarket than the "Jammer" its was nice to dress up and eat in style.

The promenade offered various bars to try but again at night time it was almost impossible to get a seat in any of them.

The shows were excellent with the Ice Show and Grease warranting a special mention.

A couple of the places we stopped at were disappointing. Not for the actual place but for the day and time the ship docked. Sunday when the shops were closed and an 11.00am docking meant the shops closed an hour after we got there. I am not complaining at all but my wife was upset.

Madeira is lovely island and a must to see. Don't be frightened if a taxi driver approaches you offering a site seeing ride. We took one up on the offer and he got us to the front of the basket ride before taking us round the island stopping at various places to take photos etc. This was well worth the cost especially if you are in a party of 4.

Overall this was a very nice enjoyable cruise with only a few teething faults which in no way spoilt our time on the Independance. 

The venues/ ports were what we wanted. The organised tours we booked were mostly good but quite pricey and sometimes returned earlier than the stated times.

Frontline staff on board were mostly very good. Some of the entertainment was good- especially the band.

Unfortunately, compared to previous cruising experiences, I can't rate this a good.

The main reasons for the poor rating are

1. Quality of the food was disappointing - quite a limited menu in the Freetime  dining restaurant  and the charges for booking in the specialist restaurants quite unreasonable.

2. The 18% surcharge on everything we purchased on board plus a total of 33% whenever in a Spanish port. was quite outrageous.  None of this was explicit at the time of booking or in any other information received prior to boarding so it came as a surprise.

3. The charges for WiFi access - daily per device- quite inflexible and outrageously prohibitive.

4. Facilities in the cabin were very basic- what I would expect in a two star hotel for an overnight stay- very disappointing. I could go on but enough said.

I would not travel with this company again.

we enjoyed the holiday, nice to meet old friends within the staff, good food, nice venues visited, looking to book again next year. Have been on this ship several times before and have never had a bad cruise. Love the oliver twist bar along with all the entertianment

1st time on a large ship travelled with

 my sister both have walking  problems  had one hire a wheelchair  on pushing my sister pretending to do a F1 chicane heard a quote nice to see old folks enjoying themselves .... I,m not old in my prime . Ship and staff were amazing helpful and entertainment superb