Independence of the Seas Cruise Reviews - Reviews

Great ship, loads to do during the day and evening. All 4 of our children love the kids camp. Food good, service generally excellent. Would recommend.

Staff was not helpful or friendly. Scheduled changes in wine tasting Lafitte. Not notified and when inquiring of staff, I was told I should know my schedule. Another staffer tracked down the changes and advised me of new schedule. Chaos in the Windjammer Café.  Kids playing with food and utensils.  More oversight needed by staff to ensure cleanliness and deter contamination. The dining room waiter was exceptionally kind and went out of his way to provide service, I believe his name was Rohan. The food in the dining room was not the best, however Giovanni's Table was superb! There did not appear to be much thought put into planning an coordination of entertainment.

We really liked the ship, and the staff was  very helpful and kind. We are frequent Carnival cruisers, and unfortunately, the little extras didn't seem to compare. 

First time with Royal and was a bit underwhelmed. Was expecting to be a bit more pampered and indulged. Balcony cabin was fine size with plenty of storage but needs a thorough cleaning! Found old food (gross) under sofa and curtains for balcony were very musty smelling. Cabin steward was not up to par, not sure if it was just our guy, only had a couple of towel creatures left to amaze us and had to track him down multiple times to replenish basic supplies.

Ship itself is very pretty, promenade reminded us of a fancy casino in Vegas, lots of glitz and glam. However, shows were not spectacular with exception of the ice show which did have some wow moments. Restaurants were all standard fare, windjammer is limited in selection and times open. Our agent sent us to Chops (specialty) and it was good but glad I didn't pay for it. Johnny Rockets also had an extra charge, very limited selection and not even close to as entertaining as the real thing. Ben & Jerry's has an extra charge as does the coffee place. Nothing special at either, same price as you'd pay at home only coffee isn't nearly as good! Sorrento's is included however, be advised they only have free coffee machines, rest of the drinks are bar items! Felt a bit nickled and dimed as far as the restaurants go. Will say that the wait staff in the main dining room were most impressive! 

Casino was ho hum, fun to play but nothing new or exciting. They do have a smoking area in casino which didn't seem to out of control or annoying. I travel with a portable oxygen concentrator was pleased that it didn't prevent me from spending some time playing the slot machines! 

Noticed that tons of the activities were geared around families, we are a 50+ married couple and were a bit disappointed that some of the games and activities that we enjoy were limited to families. That being said, if I had kids this would probably be an ideal cruise for them! There were tons of kids on board and they all seemed to be having a great time.

As for stops, we did Grand Cayman, Falmouth, Jamaica and Labadee, Haiti.

Grand Cayman is a one day trip, cruise excursion was perfect and we truly enjoyed our day here.

Falmouth is a bit run down and a fairly new port, have a feeling that we would of been better off going to Ocho Rios or Montego Bay. We also arrived after a five day rain which left everything a bit muddy for the morning. Did a cruise excursion in Falmouth that was interesting. The rain returned in the afternoon so we ended up just walking through the port shops and then heading back to the ship.

Labadee is a peninsula that the cruise line leases and has built a resort on. Pretty much everything (other than lunch) is an extra fee. Great for folks loving water sports, zip line, crazy roller coaster ride, couple of beaches. The only thing native is a small arts and craft "village" where you can souvenir shop. For us, not something we would want to do again.

We are booked on another RCL cruise in June and we debated whether or not to change it. Love the itinerary, North Africa and the Canary Islands so think we are going to stay with it and hope for the best. 

This was my first time using to book a trip. Must I say it was a pleasure to use them. They not only matched the price as the cruise price went down, but also gave me a $100 on board credit to use on anything. Our agent Karen was a pleasure to work with. This was my 4th cruise (2 on Royal caribbean and 1 on Disney) the cruise overall was amazing as expected. I will definitely be using again in the future and won't cruise anything other than royal Caribbean.

I booked two staterooms together in March 2014

 *** They put us in different dining rooms initially... they fixed it by the 2nd night.

We tried to watch the bg screen movies

*** Both times the pool person came up to pressure clean the hot tubs and pools. So we either got wet or left, we chose the later of the two.

The dinnerware was often left on the tables out on the lido deck.

The list of things to do was often just spa items

*** We attempted to attend a seminar on herbal medicine ... after going to 3 different places (based on newspaper and verbal information) we arrived 15 minutes late, it was almost over except to go another place ((Upstairs ... my husband is disabled)) and see what herbs she was talking about. WE DIDN'T GO

Most of the staff you had to step on their foot to get them to speak to you...

*** Even then it was usually just a return "Hello" or "Have a good day."

My husband left his cell phone in the stateroom upon departure .. claim was "It was not there"

I will stick to Carnival.

*** They go to mostly the same ports of call.

Food was less than spectacular.As a retired health inspector,the food was not temperature maintained.As an inspector I would have had them throw out most of the warm,not hot ,food.Eggs ,meats,oatmeal,cooked vegies were room temperature a health NO-NO.Ports of call were OK.Tours were fine.

The food on board was disappointing.  Dining room meals were Very good, but the open dining buffet was not very appealing.   "Chops" the specialty restaurant was superb and we truly like that meal and would probably eat at more specialty restaurants in the future..  We were very glad we took our own water purification system because getting drinkable water for our water bottle was next to impossible and then it had a bad taste.  The activities and amenities were good and the excursion that were offered were very nice. All in all I enjoyed the cruise very much and would recommend it to others.

My wife and I wanted to try a smaller ship than the Oasis class, and Independence did not disappoint. Staff was excellent but not too intrusive. Only minor issues of scheduling meals around shows, and we did miss the Solarium Bistro and Park Café as dining options, but other than that well worth the time and price.

I was totally impressed with the beauty of this ship. It was absolutely gorgeous!! I have been on many vacations in my life and by far this was the best one I have been on in my Life!! I had the time of my life it was a BLAST!!! I loved the comedy show, Karaoke every night, Reggae Band playing in the bar was awesome! and The Night Club was Poppin!!  here was plenty of activities keep myself and my 7 year old nephew busy.And I would love to do it all over again!!

There are 2 things that I would change, I think the there needs to be better activities for the 15-17 age group because were time where my teenaged daughter was bored. and 2. I would also make sure there was a food place open all night. Like on another cruise ship the pizza place was open 24 hours and so was the buyer place. I could get a call one and some fries at 4 in the morning if I wanted to...

shows and entertainment were sparse and poorly done compared to other lines--notable exception was the ice show which was excellent.  Buffet was so-so and dessert choices on buffet were pitiful ( lots of mousse things).  Chops Grille, a specialty restaurant was good.  My Time dining was strongly encouraged to make reservations which resulted in same table mates every night---how is this free-style dining?  TV was a constant barrage--practically EVERY channel --of 'buy me' or 'ain't we great' and would be lucky to find even one regular program--old rerun at that.  Free movies--one daily--not sure if even every day and were only shown for one time period--were shown on a big screen in the open pool area--most dissatisfying.  Free movie could not be seen in your stateroom unless you paid an extra fee---old movies only.  Free 'stretching' again in open pool area.  Found two musicians providing music (sporadically) in two of the bar areas---both were sketchy---one really not good and the other a bit drunk.  There was not a decent show every night-nor decent entertainment in the bar areas--in fact other than the ice show two nights had a passable show.  Jamey, the megalomaniac cruise director would be better off spending his time arranging entertainment instead of being the entertainment.  Bought a premium drinks package--translate expensive and I do not drink that much---but could not get water with a drink ( only one drink at a time).  Exorbitant prices for any extras---would have loved to do yoga daily but...cabin girl may have taken my scissors (unpacked and still cannot find them).  Information regarding the ship itself, ...4 days to discover there was a nice 14th floor area--and HOW to get there---lacking.  Would not take 'Independence of the Seas'  again and since this was the first time on RC, probably will not go on a Royal Caribbean ship again....Definitely not up to snuff.

Went on a family cruise for the first time dec 14-20,2014.

Went in with lil expectations since it was my first time cruising. The staff was courteous and our state room attendant was great. The few times we attended the dining room, our servers were amazing. Overall it was a good experience, i would do it again when my 20 month old is older.

Let me start by saying this cruise line is by far superior to other cruise lines we have taken in the past.  The ship is immaculate, the food outstanding and the staff extremely accommodating.  Even the water on board was superb!  The housekeeping staff and the wait staff in the main dining room was better than any 5 star hotel or upscale restaurant we have experienced in our home  state of Florida.  We will only book with Royal Caribbean from now on due to the excellent service that we experienced with this cruise line.

I like Royal Caribbean as they are the top notch of cruise lines. I have been on 2 other separate cruise lines, and not that they weren't good, but Royal Caribbean just passes them by in excellency. Not only their service, their food, choices of excursions and activities. They were very courteous when I had to cancel a shore excursion, with no questions asked. I and my whole family travel on Royal Caribbean and we will not use another cruise line. This particular cruise I went on to to go to San Juan, and even though we didn't get a chance to spend a full day there, I still had a great time. I love going to Labadee, and cannot believe how much it has built up to do many different things. I first went to Labadee on Royal Caribbean and we had to be tendered in. Now there is a dock, and many more exciting excursions to choose from. 

This was a Great vacation!!  The Independence of the Seas is a beautiful ship with all of the amenities.  The staff is always courteous, friendly and helpful.  Food was outstanding at dinner time and at the windjammer.  Johnny Rockets was good also.  We all really enjoyed Labadee.

Labadee is a beautiful island in Haiti.  All of the ports were beautiful.  Overall this was a wonderful vacation.  Would highly recommend the Eastern Caribbean sailing.

We had a great trip. Maybe not a 5 star but 4.5. The caymens was a nice stop, really enjoyed riding the  

segways at Falmouth, and the stop at Labedee was great. 

nice accommodations  friendly crew   good food and service   what was terrible was the boarding and exit process.   Waiting in very long lines to be checked in and when leaving after picking up baggage a very long line to leave.   My husband wesley schiemann is now in the hospital with possible heart problems.  This was  totally unacceptable for an 88 year old man  to wait and carry luggage.

I felt the cruise itself was fine, perfect weather, clean quarters and well kept ship.  The food, however, on this particular cruise did not seem up to par.  On every other cruise we have taken, I could not say enough about the food.  The exception, however, was Chops Grille.  Everything in there was superb!

Also, to me, the cruise this time seemed to lack a bit of personal touch. We hardly ever saw our stateroom attendant (he always did his job), we just didn't see him.  We used to get little candies on our pillow at night, fresh ice every day and little things like that.  We did not receive an invitation to the Captain's Champagne Welcome, which we always do.  The entertainment was not the greatest this time either.

Enough of the criticism.  It sounds like we did not enjoy the cruise, which we did.  We definitely would cruise with Royal Caribbean agai.

We booked over Thanksgiving by accident and were not prepared for 1,000 children.  It changed our experience quite a bit.  We try to pick times when children are in school, but we really goofed.  That being said, the Windjammer was always difficult to navigate, so we changed our dining times a bit to compensate for the strollers, etc.  Overall, it was a good cruise - good ports, good weather.  The only disappointing part was that no matter how many times we request a large dinner table, we seem to get a small one.  It was impossible to change with this many families on board.  We had, for the very first time, an exceptionally bad waiter and experience in the dining room late seating.  We boycotted one evening and went to Johnny Rockets and it was noticed, but by then it was too late and  never became a terrific experience as it usually is for us. Out stateroom was great as was out attendant and we fell in love with the two waiters we made friends with in Olive or Twist.  It is nice that as Diamond members we can chose where to have our before dinner cocktails and get the benefits, especially when traveling with those who are not yet Diamond members.   Those two gentlemen were terrific and truly helped to make up for the dining staff.  We loved the ice show and the brought in entertainment was really good.  We wish for more varied dance music, but it was so crowded we really couldn't have done much dancing.  We are sailing again in January, but not when children are out of school.  As always, we look forward to our Royal Caribbean cruises!

Too many children out of control.  The late dinner seating was noisy.  Our server was very good.  The food was diverse and well prepared.  Comedy guy was not that funny - did a lot of hopping around, clown like.