Independence of the Seas Cruise Reviews - Reviews

not what my family expected. 2 adjoining ocean view staterooms and one with a view and one with a port hole for my kids since it slept four people. Contacted guest services and boat was at capacity. Contacted but agent quit and on hold too long.  

First off, the service is excellent!!! Our room steward and our waiters (we chose to make dinner reservations, so we always had the same servers), always called us by name. The ship is gorgeous, super clean and beautiful! The pastries and desserts are not up to the Princess cruises that I've been on, and in the promenade, they were not even worth the calories to eat them. The drinks seemed to be much more expensive (even the bottled water). Then you add in Johnny Rockets (which wasn't worth the extra money), cupcakes, Ben and Jerry's and it seems to have more pay items (although, those are choices you don't have to make). The ice skating show is great!  The other shows were about up to par with the other cruises that I've been on (not all that good).  It offered lots of things for different age groups.

The stateroom was beautiful, the entertainment was top notch, the food was very good. The ship was clean and the crew was attentive. The onboard activities were ample.

I HAVE BEEN ON MANY CRUISES AND THIS IS BY FAR THE BEST SHOWS AND PEOPLE YOU HAVE  HAD  A CRUISE, GREAT ICE SHOW WITH A GREAT VIOLINIST .... GOOD COMEDIAN.... ALL ABOARD PERSONAL WERE GREAT..

5 STAR***********

To start we have already booked our next cruise.  The kids had so much fun and didn't want to get off the cruise was absolutely amazing.  That being said there were some noticeable differences with the service on the ship.  When we cruised in the past the service was amazing, this time the service was just mediocre with the exception of one of our dining room servers, she was amazing.  But that was not the norm throughout the ship.  They need to expand the Latin area, the one small bar they had with a band was always packed and the bar there is small and the bartenders were swamped, there were many agitated people there.  Also tons of people love to dance to Latin music so if they were to expand this it would be a huge hit.  I would recommend to everyone to get the drink package, it was defiantly worth the money.  We thoroughly enjoyed RC and will go back again.  Also people who complain about the spring breakers are naïve to the fact that its "SPRING BREAK"  there are going to be tons of kids partying there is no way around that.

This was our first cruise, we loved it until we tried to get off the boat back at port.  It was the most unorganized and frustrating experience.  If they can't handle getting people off the boat in an orderly organized fashion in port I wonder how they could possibly handle an emergency... No communication and no one on the crew seemed to know what was going on.... 

We should have been told this was a spring break cruise . It was loud at night with drunk young people in the hall ways. During the day could not get to pool or pool bars. Lounge chairs were taken around the pool and deck area with towels and personal items on them for hours with no one using them.  This was my forth cruise on Royal Caribbean, all was great except this one. The cruise personal were trying their best, we could see they were as frustrated as we were. I will never take another cruise in March. I feel and Royal Caribbean should have let us know this was going to be a spring break cruise .

We, a party of ten had a great time, relaxing, reflecting and doing "U" on this cruise. Collectively dinning together at dinner then each doing there own thing, Sharing the boat with the Spring Breakers brought back memories of being in my twenties again😘 This was my first cruise in eighteen years, things have changed but it is expensive with all the add ons. However, next time I will budget more!! Now I need a vacation after this vacation to ease back into the real world of self serve instead of being served

We are always raving about Royal's high standards and took the in-laws along this time only to be highly disappointed in the vacation.  We got on the ship only to find it was over run by obnoxious spring breakers (we thought we had another week before that would be the case).  There were countless incidents on the cruise with a very large number being handed over to police.  Getting to the bar and getting served was almost impossible so we wasted a premium drink package essentially.  Our children had to deal with college kids spilling alcohol on them in the elevator (and this was at 6 pm), people being loud in the hallway at night, food on the floors of the hallway in the morning.  We hurried back to the ship when at port in attempt to get a few hours of normalness which was sad considering part of the reason we cruise is to visit other places.  The crew itself could do little to change the effect the students had because they can only do so much.  Every person we spoke to that was not on spring break complained of the actions, dress, etc they had to deal with while on this cruise.  I know this is a review of the cruise in general; however, it was difficult to separate the state the students put the ship in from the ACTUAL experience we could have had.  I will say the behind the scenes tour of the ship was nice even though we had to duck out early to get the kids from Adventure Ocean.  Zipline was a great experience as well.  The ports of call were nice.  I would say the cruise would have been the typical experience from Royal, just do NOT go in late Feb, March, or April unless you like essentially no clothing, no shoes, loud crowds all the time, and people being rude the entirety of the trip.

Disembarkment resulted in us being 2 hours later than we should have been leaving the lounge area thanks to so many self carrying and not going down until 9 am.  It was a very frustrating trip.

We had a horrible time on our cruise. Just so happen our cruise was catering to the spring break kids. The spring breakers took over the entire cruise. Out of 5 days we cruise we were not able to enjoy the pool side or the hot tub and we stood in line for ever waiting to get drinks from the bar. We were looking forward to our cruise with our friends but it was a waste of our money and we did not have the chance to enjoy the cruise. The young ladies were half naked in their swim suit and it was completely offensive to the older cruiser and the children that were on board. They were fighting on board and pushing and the staff had no control over the situation.

No complaints, excellent cruise

Windjammer and Jade were fantastic places to eat your breakfast and lunces

Dining area was awesome Mcbeath was the place I ate at table 487.

Jose was awesome.

Geillion King was my cabin housekeeper, she gets an A+!!!

The entire cruise staff was awesome.

til next year!!

My husband and I just returned from our 5 day cruise on the Independence of the Seas out of Fort Lauderdale.  We sailed March 7th-12th.

We were very disappointed to find thousands of "spring breakers" on this cruise.   I wasn't aware that our cruise was an advertised party cruise for college students by a third party travel group.  I think this should of been conveyed to all passengers or been a charted cruise.  

  Bars were five or six people deep most of the time. We purchased the drink package and spent most of our cruise/vacation waiting in a 30 minute line just to get a drink.  We tried going to other bars on the ship and the college kids had taken over every single bar.  Even way up in Oliver or Twist lounge. Because of the packed pool deck, we didn't even have waiters coming around asking if we wanted cocktails.  We had to physically go to a bar each time, and wait 30 minutes to get one drink!  Ridiculous!

We witnessed multiple incidents of young peoplebeing disrespectful with very loud conversations with cursing and filthy language.  We had college kids two cabins down with a loud bomb box, although that did stop after day 2 of the cruise (I'm sure security came and shut them down).  These same kids somehow figured out how to open the dividers between balconies.  They opened them all the way down, banging on our balcony door from the outside.  Scared me to death hearing someone knocking on my glass door.  I wasn't worried about pulling the curtains because we were out to sea and I knew nobody could see in my cabin.  Not true the 1st night of sailing!  Our cabin was 7626.

Our stop in Labadee was no better, we were not even able to get a drink on the island.  The college kids took over the couple bars there and after ordering their drink, would not leave the bar itself.  They would just stand there so as not to give up their spot in line.  They would just drink there until they were ready to order another!  

We finally decided to go back on the ship to enjoy the pool area and have a few cocktails without all the crowd.  Totally not fair that we had to sacrifice our beach day because of a bunch of drunken kids.

They also took over the casino bar once the other bars on the ship were closed.  The $572 we spent on the drink package (one select and one premium) was not worth it because of the hassle to get a drink.  We also never once saw a cocktail waiter coming around for service.

The worst part was, I tried two weeks before sailing to change my cruise to the Oasis, leaving the same port a day earlier.  Not because of the spring breakers, because we didn't know about them until we got on the ship.  I tried to get a longer cruise because our scheduled allowed it last minute.  I really wanted to transfer my fare over to the Oasis and then dish out more money for the additional days.  I was told that could not be done, even though the Oasis had availability and the Independence was fully booked.  Whey wouldn't RCCL want the addition money with us paying a higher fare and put us on the Oasis?  If a cabin is going to sit empty, why not on the 5 days cruise. 

Very disappointed in the the 2,000 drunks on the ship.  With that said, the ship was one of the most beautiful we have ever been on.  The Main Dining Room food was acceptable, but nothing to write home about.  The lobster was very good on night 4.  I have to say the wait staff was excellent in the Main Dining Room.  Our cabin steward was very good and the bartenders did as well as can be expected with the volume they had on that cruise.

We booked our cruise not expecting that approximately 3,000 college students would also be cruising on the very same ship. Royal Carribbean handled the boisterous situations compassionately and it seemed as though there was plenty of room on the ship for all activities except the pools and hot tubs.

When booking this cruise for our family we did not realize and were not told that it was a "College Spring Break" cruise.  Unfortunately my 13 year old son was never able to swim in the pool and my husband and I were not able to enjoy the casino.  The crew was not able to control these kids and the drinking, running through halls naked and partying was enough to make me want to jump overboard. We had planned this trip for so long and it was our first "family" cruise and was so incredibly disappointing.  I couldn't wait until it was over !!!!!

We really enjoyed everything about our cruise to Mexico. The food was good, the service in the dining room was prompt and friendly. Our stateroom was kept clean, although we didn't see our steward much, there wasn't really a need to! We enjoyed the entertainment and relaxed by the pool. It was clean and other than the wind, we had zero complaints. :) The excursion we went on in the underground Mayan caves was amazing. Our guide was knowledgeable and extremely funny. We loved everything about it...except the bathrooms...they were gross. Not enough to deter us though, we would do that excursion again!  We would most definitely cruise with Royal Caribbean again!

Really exceeded expectations in entertainment, ship, service. Food was OK sit down dining buffet plentiful Would prefer if ice & water were provided in rooms  would be only real improvement I;d suggest to enhonce service. Obverall 9 out of 10. We enjoyed cruise was good value.

This is the second time we have gone on this ship in the last 4 months. Just perfect.  The food, the employees the promenade just great.  Will be on it again shortly.  Give it a try, you will like it.

Really exceeded expectations in entertainment, ship, service. Food was OK sit down dining buffet plentiful Would prefer if ice & water were provided in rooms  would be only real improvement I;d suggest to enhonce service. Obverall 9 out of 10. We enjoyed cruise was good value.

The ship was very nice including all the employees.  The entertainment was very good with the exception of the Headliner Showtime starring Finis Henderson international recording artist.  This show was the best show I have ever seen on any cruise ship.  I put a value of this show at an easy $150 per ticket if I were to see it in Vegas.  ***** 5 stars.  All in all a good time.  My girlfriend and I wish more of the employees smiled a bit more but we're glad to have taken this cruise.

We thoroughly enjoyed our time aboard the Independence. This was our first cruise and first trip alone without our children. The room (ocean view/port hole) was spacious enough, so so clean, functional, and comfortable. The ship had plenty to do, rarely to never felt crowded, and was so clean and relaxing. I didn't really know what to expect, but it exceeded my expectations in nearly every category. The SERVICE IS AWESOME! The wait staff and room attendants were superb. The shows were of good quality, the cover band was ridiculously amazing, and the food was pretty amazing too. 

My only cons if I had to come up with any are that all of the extras on board are SO expensive (especially the spa). It also isn't clear for first time cruisers what is included and what is extra (so I always felt unsure and had to ask but I got the hang of it quickly.).

Overall, we loved our trip. 4 nights was just perfect to enjoy all the boat had to offer, visit Cozumel, and not be away from our kids too long. However, I could have easily spent another night or 2 on board if I had my kids with me. Speaking of kids, the families on board were never a disruption to our couples getaway. We always felt as though there was plenty of room for everyone.