KWong

Day 3 - George Town, Grand Cayman
We’d only been to Grand Cayman once, on a Disney cruise, and we used that time to have a beach day. This time around, we decided to do something we’d never tried before - swimming with Stingrays. After a lot of research, I signed up with Stingray Sailing and their sister company, Cayman Eco Adventures. They have a very good reputation and do excursions with small groups, so I was willing to go with them despite their tour not being the least expensive.
Unfortunately, fate had other things in mind for us. Because of the diversion back to Key West we arrived to Georgetown around 8:00. At this point we’d already eaten breakfast in the MDR but were unable to finagle our way onto one of the first tenders (which went out around 8:30) out to the terminal. Which if things proceeded apace would not have been a huge issue, but after the first two tenders winds and waves caused a temporary stop to the boats. And since it was looking like we wouldn’t be off before 10, I emailed Stingray Sailing (I’d been in contact with them throughout the morning) notifying them that we would have to cancel our tour.

To the credit of the company, they refunded our deposit even though they did not have to based on the contract language. So while I cannot comment on the tour itself, I have to commend the customer service and will more than likely give them another go if and when we come back.
 
So with the tour cancelled, we went with our backup plan – Calico Jack’s and Public Beach. Public Beach is one of the well known locations along the Seven Mile Beach, and Calico Jack’s has been an institution there… but apparently they’re leaving. Don’t know what this means for the area, but I’m sure they’ll be missed.
 Seven Mile is also where my brother once went into the water with a cellphone in his pocket. Oops. But thanks to that incident, I now bring those airtight cellphone pouches (several variations can be found on Amazon) with me, just in case.
 Cab/Minibus fare over to Public Beach was $6 per person, and once there, we rented chairs and an umbrella for $20. And with that, we hit the water. What I love about Grand Cayman is that the beaches have some incredibly clear water, and it’s beautiful.
 
 
We also had some lunch. Kept it simple and had chicken tenders and pan-fried grouper. I’m fairly certain the grouper was previously frozen, but whatever spices they use on it make up for that – very tasty!
 
After a few hours at the beach we headed back to the ship. An interesting note was that on the way back our minibus had members of the Grease cast. Interesting because it seemed like they were mostly from the British Isles or Australia – I have to say that their onstage accents really fooled me, so kudos to them!
 
Once back on the ship we headed to Sorrento’s to grab a couple of slices. Didn’t feel right to overeat at Windjammer when a slice or two would do the trick. And after the snack it we had just enough time to see the Texans win, shower, change and head down for dinner.
Dinner on this day was probably the slowest that I’ve seen on a ship. Ryan had mentioned that this was a new menu combination so it’s possible that the kitchen staff were working the kinks out. It does make me wonder if this was why the dinner was my least favourite of the cruise. I had the sole and everyone else, the short rib, and both seemed heavily reliant on underwhelming sauces to carry them. So I’ll say that if you were on Independence and saw this menu, I’d recommend taking this day to do a specialty restaurant.
 
The show tonight was the ice show, Freeze Frame. Based on our experience with Grease, Hannah and I got there early, and managed to nab some decent seats.

As always, the performers worked hard and generally did a good job with a few tumbles here and there. The highlight was when one of the women did a spin that featured something similar to this:
 
This is what I call a crazy trick.
The plot of the show was a trip through the various dance and music styles from the 40’s to the 70’s. I don’t know that it entirely worked for me. There were some fun moments (for example skating around with handlebars during “Bicycle Race”) but I wasn’t really feeling it.
After the show Hannah went off to sleep while I went down to Playmakers to catch the end of the Patriots-Titans football game. Perhaps unsurprisingly, the crowd was firmly anti-Patriots (I’m sure there were some Titans fans, but people REALLY wanted the Patriots to lose). Not having a horse in this race (I’m a Texans fan, and while I expected us to get smushed, last weekend was a step beyond smushed.), it was fun to watch.
 

Overall, we didn’t get to do what we’d planned, but the pivot to the beach still made for a nice day.

After watching the sail away from the balcony, we did some unpacking, and then it was time for dinner. We did get the early seating (5:30 on Independence), and our servers were Ryan and Mutsam (I may have his name wrong). Mutsam was fairly new, and this was in fact his first contract. I thought they did a good job over the course of the cruise. Nothing spectacular, but everything was done competently.
 
My first night main was the Caribbean Jerk Pork Chop. Cooked very nicely, although perhaps not enough jerk flavour. We also asked for extra vegetables for our table. Seems weird, but we do eat a lot of veg, so this worked out for us.
After dinner, we wandered around the promenade a bit. They had singers and musicians doing some standards – it was nice.
 
(So much better than two singers and an iPad)
We then went to register Olivia in Adventure Ocean. Hannah (my older one) was 12 so she went to look in on the Teen club meet and greet, but the kids there were mostly older teens, so she didn’t want to join in. She’s actually quite sociable, but I could definitely understand her apprehension.
After this, I think that we experienced a first day adrenaline dump, as we all felt quite tired. I’d planned on doing some more first night exploring, but, well, sleep beckoned, and tomorrow would be a new day.

There was another reason for staying on Deck 11. Despite the sign indicating a noon start, I figured that Windjammer would open early, and it would be good to get in before the crowds did. And it was!
 I have to say that I like the entrance layout of the Windjammer on Independence. Not only do they have the ubiquitous antibacterial dispensers, but the sides are lined with wash stations, making it easy to clean your hands before entering. The last ship I was on, Allure, didn’t have that. The space feels more open as well, but that might be because we didn’t seem to eat at the absolute peak time for Windjammer, which was the case for us on Harmony and DCL Fantasy. In fact, it was the logjam on Fantasy that led me to try and avoid the main buffet if I could.
 
After eating, there was still some time before staterooms were open, so Olivia (my younger one) decided to do some swimming. As we left the Windjammer, we noticed that the lines were way out the door.
 
After the swim, the rooms were opened so we went down to check our room out. We had a standard Oceanview balcony on deck 7, but it was right at the end of Independence’s “hump” so there was a wee bit more room there. And if I recall correctly, this was the first time that we had a single room with a bathroom/couch/bed setup – we’d gotten bathroom/bed/couch all our other times, or in one case a connecting room. No biggie, just a new thing for us.

After changing back into our regular clothes we decided to explore the ship a bit more. Deck 7 turned out to be quite an advantageous position as it was a short trip down to the Promenade, and a short trip up to the pool deck.
 We started down on the Promenade. I might be mistaken, but the Promenade on Independence is actually longer than that on the Oasis class ships. Granted, the promenade is certainly wider on Oasis class, but it certainly felt as if there wasn’t as much length. Perhaps I should’ve chalked that up to recency bias?
 


Our next stop was the sports deck. Kids tried out the sky climber, and we took a look at the Flow Rider and SkyPads, which at that point had already closed the line due to the upcoming muster drill. We gave the swinging benches a go, and then it was time for the muster drill. We headed down to our room first, and our luggage was waiting in the hall. Nice!
 

(This picture was not taken on the ship. But you can probably guess how we were able to spot our luggage)
Muster drill was what it was. We had some folks who may have taken full advantage of the drink package, and we were outside facing west, so that was… interesting.

The good news is that it gave me some time to explore Deck 11 and 12. Not having been on a Freedom class ship before, I was curious to see the layout. I liked it.
Splashaway Bay has a layout similar to what I saw on Harmony, with the addition of a kiddie pool that hopefully wouldn’t be a “kid soup” pool similar to DCL’s Mickey pool. If you’ve been on DCL, you know what I’m talking about.


The sides of the deck even had some windows open, to let in some air. 

The main pool area had a couple of pools bisected by a deck area, with a few hot tubs surrounding it. There was also a large video screen for movies.

Further back was Solarium, which was actually a nice layout.

In the bar, I noticed a BOGO deal on the drink package. Still more expensive than in the Cruise Planner, but hey, better than paying full price, if one were so inclined to purchase the package (I was not).

In the adjoining terminal, we could see the Majesty, set to sail out that day as well.

 

Day 1 - Embarkation Day
Whether it’s your first time or your 100th time, boarding your ship on that first day gives you that feeling that “it’s happening”. For me, it’s similar to when I finish checking in at a resort or open the door to my Airbnb. Nothing has really happened yet, but you Just Know that you’re ready for it.
As always, we got the complimentary Hyatt Place breakfast, ensured that we were ready with our carry-on gear, visited the “cruise tag station” (a stand with two staplers some pens and tape and ...waited. Because we’re always ready a wee bit too early.

No matter. We called an Uber around 10:15 and headed out to the terminal. We arrived at the terminal around 10:30, where it looked like there were people still getting out of customs. And it was early enough that few of the baggage carts were loaded up. This… was really early for us.
Naturally we squandered that because we couldn’t find the big sign that said “Expedited Arrival”. I’d checked in via the app, and 3 of us were given Expedited Arrival. My wife, inexplicably, did not. No matter. After about 5 minutes, we were good to go and over to security, which was fast and efficient. A couple of obligatory “heading onboard” pictures and it was up to the ship. On board before 11:00, an estimated 25 brisk minutes from car to ship.





We headed up to Windjammer to grab some lunch and… the sign said it opens at noon. Oops. 

Day 0 - Travel Day
As many people do, we tend to get to the port city the day before the cruise. There have been a couple of exceptions, but overall we’d rather pay for a night at a hotel than be concerned over potential delays flying in the day of.
Being Canadians with fairly frequent travel to the US, we’ve invested in the NEXUS pass, which grants us expedited entry between Canada and the US as well as Global Entry and TSA precheck. And flying out of Toronto Pearson, it’s well worth the cost - I’d estimate that on a busy day it saves at least 45 minutes, and maybe 15 minutes on a light day. Bottom line, if you’re Canadian and fly out of an airport with US pre-clearance, it might be the best $50USD you’ll spend on an airplane-related item.
Back on topic, flying the day before meant that we were flying on New Year’s Day. No big deal for us, as we simply haven’t been big New Year’s Eve partygoers after having kids. There is the nice bonus of not having to deal with any sort of traffic.
Bag drop, customs and the flight were all uneventful. We did notice a bit of a line for folks looking to preclear customs (several Canadian airports have a US departures area complete with CBP officials, so that we don’t have to go through customs when we arrive) but with the NEXUS cards, we were through in about 10 minutes.
After arrival and baggage claim, we took a taxi over to our hotel, the Hyatt Place 17th Street. We’ve stayed at this hotel a few times now, not necessarily out of brand loyalty but because the prices are usually quite good, via a dodgy-looking third party website. It’s also close to a variety of restaurants and shops, in case you forgot something or need to buy wine.
Speaking of which, we effectively checked in, dropped our stuff off in the room, and went to eat a late lunch/early dinner. Based on our experience a couple of years ago, we headed to Kelly’s Landing, which specializes in New England-style seafood. And considering that it was New Year’s Day, with no Boston-related games on, at 3 in the afternoon, the place was quite busy. We ate quite a bit of fried stuff – calamari (my younger one is a sucker for this. Every time, every place), Ipswich clams, crab cakes and clam chowder (or is that chowdah?). The clams for me were the highlight, as they were full bodied clams that were fried very nicely.
 

After that bit of gluttony, we shopped at Ross and TJ Maxx because my girls didn’t bring any fancy(ish) shoes. And in fairness, Hannah, my older one, had outgrown all of hers so this was not an unexpected occurrence. We managed to find some nice shoes, bought some water and some ibuprofen from Publix and it was back to the hotel for a nap.
 After the nap, the kids were a bit peckish so I went to a nearby takeaway to grab some American-style lo mein. And also to get some wine for the trip.
 After this, the kids went to bed, and I did a little reorganizing to get ourselves ready for embarkation day.

Yeah I can't do a "day of" blog either. No idea how Matt manages it. So I jot down notes and revisit when I do the actual writing.
 
One time we had a piece of luggage like Maui so much that it stayed a couple of extra days.

You should have kept it. What autocorrect comes up with at times is just... let's go with amazing.

You should have kept it. What autocorrect comes up with at times is just... let's go with amazing.

I'm not sure how your autocorrect came up with Stuart instead of (I assume) steward but this was pretty hilarious.
We do this as well. Sort of. We have a mesh beach bag for the beach and for the pool, and I've got one of those backpacks that fold up into a small pouch for excursions

You should have kept it. What autocorrect comes up with at times is just... let's go with amazing.

We did not have lobster on our recent 5-night on Independence. Formal night was on Day 2
Judging from my cruise, you won't be the only "that guy" on formal night. Lots of guys don't want to get all dressed up for one night, and I completely get it.

After lunch the kids went back to the room for a nap, while my wife went back up to the pool deck to… nap. I went to the promenade to grab a coffee and a latte (for my wife – we got a coffee card) and relaxed on the balcony.
 A little before 3pm, we headed down for our skate session. Seeing as we flew in from Toronto, we wore our “travel” clothing on the ice. I hadn’t done any proper skating in about 4 years, so despite the skates not being a great fit (as to be expected with rentals) it was a lot of fun – like riding a bike. Other folks were not having as much of a good time – as you can see in the photos some were having issues just trying to skate, which if it was one of your first times, is not unexpected.
 
 


Tonight’s dinner was formal night, and as such we took a little extra time to get ready so we could get some photos taken.
 

The show tonight was Grease. Olivia and my wife were a little tired so Hannah and I went to watch. We figured getting to the theatre 15 minutes early would be sufficient for us to get some decent seats. We were wrong. Check out the crowd! And that pillar right in front of me! 
 

Believe it or not, this was the first time I’d seen a production of Grease from start to finish, and I thought the cast did a pretty good job with it. And I know that the musical has some themes that might be considered too mature for kids, but I wasn’t much older than Hannah when I started watching Degrassi Junior High, so I didn’t think this had anything that she couldn’t handle.
 After the musical, Hannah went back to the room and I decided to try my luck at some blackjack. And to say that I had no luck would be understating things. I don’t play with a huge buy-in, but I lost my stake in about 30 minutes thanks to a combination of dealer blackjacks and players that consistently stayed on 14/15 against a 10. I can usually grind myself back to even, but on this night I had no shot.
 With my wallet a slight bit lighter, I went up to grab a couple of slices from Sorrento’s. And was actually surprised as the pizza was better than I’ve had on other Royal ships. Not sure I’d have more than a couple of slices at any one time, but I’d definitely eat it over Big Chain pizza.
 After the pizza and some water, it was time for bed.
 The next day would be our first port – Grand Cayman.

Don't forget to put the "do not disturb" sign outside of your cabin door. If not, your cabin attendant may think you're out of the cabin and barge in on you. ? 

Thought Sorrento's in Indy wasn't bad. Not the best ever, but than your average Large Chain pizza (or as I call it, "replacement level" pizza).

You should have kept it. What autocorrect comes up with at times is just... let's go with amazing.

Yeah I can't do a "day of" blog either. No idea how Matt manages it. So I jot down notes and revisit when I do the actual writing.
 
One time we had a piece of luggage like Maui so much that it stayed a couple of extra days.

I don't have a clue but thanks for pointing it out...Correction made.

It's a bit old school, but you could get a magnetic whiteboard and stick that on the inside of your stateroom door.
Yes, it does create a bit of hassle since you have to go back to the stateroom to read/write updates, but it also costs a lot less than a 4-device VOOM.

I'm not sure how your autocorrect came up with Stuart instead of (I assume) steward but this was pretty hilarious.
We do this as well. Sort of. We have a mesh beach bag for the beach and for the pool, and I've got one of those backpacks that fold up into a small pouch for excursions

I'm not sure how your autocorrect came up with Stuart instead of (I assume) steward but this was pretty hilarious.
We do this as well. Sort of. We have a mesh beach bag for the beach and for the pool, and I've got one of those backpacks that fold up into a small pouch for excursions

After lunch the kids went back to the room for a nap, while my wife went back up to the pool deck to… nap. I went to the promenade to grab a coffee and a latte (for my wife – we got a coffee card) and relaxed on the balcony.
 A little before 3pm, we headed down for our skate session. Seeing as we flew in from Toronto, we wore our “travel” clothing on the ice. I hadn’t done any proper skating in about 4 years, so despite the skates not being a great fit (as to be expected with rentals) it was a lot of fun – like riding a bike. Other folks were not having as much of a good time – as you can see in the photos some were having issues just trying to skate, which if it was one of your first times, is not unexpected.
 
 


Tonight’s dinner was formal night, and as such we took a little extra time to get ready so we could get some photos taken.
 

The show tonight was Grease. Olivia and my wife were a little tired so Hannah and I went to watch. We figured getting to the theatre 15 minutes early would be sufficient for us to get some decent seats. We were wrong. Check out the crowd! And that pillar right in front of me! 
 

Believe it or not, this was the first time I’d seen a production of Grease from start to finish, and I thought the cast did a pretty good job with it. And I know that the musical has some themes that might be considered too mature for kids, but I wasn’t much older than Hannah when I started watching Degrassi Junior High, so I didn’t think this had anything that she couldn’t handle.
 After the musical, Hannah went back to the room and I decided to try my luck at some blackjack. And to say that I had no luck would be understating things. I don’t play with a huge buy-in, but I lost my stake in about 30 minutes thanks to a combination of dealer blackjacks and players that consistently stayed on 14/15 against a 10. I can usually grind myself back to even, but on this night I had no shot.
 With my wallet a slight bit lighter, I went up to grab a couple of slices from Sorrento’s. And was actually surprised as the pizza was better than I’ve had on other Royal ships. Not sure I’d have more than a couple of slices at any one time, but I’d definitely eat it over Big Chain pizza.
 After the pizza and some water, it was time for bed.
 The next day would be our first port – Grand Cayman.

After lunch the kids went back to the room for a nap, while my wife went back up to the pool deck to… nap. I went to the promenade to grab a coffee and a latte (for my wife – we got a coffee card) and relaxed on the balcony.
 A little before 3pm, we headed down for our skate session. Seeing as we flew in from Toronto, we wore our “travel” clothing on the ice. I hadn’t done any proper skating in about 4 years, so despite the skates not being a great fit (as to be expected with rentals) it was a lot of fun – like riding a bike. Other folks were not having as much of a good time – as you can see in the photos some were having issues just trying to skate, which if it was one of your first times, is not unexpected.
 
 


Tonight’s dinner was formal night, and as such we took a little extra time to get ready so we could get some photos taken.
 

The show tonight was Grease. Olivia and my wife were a little tired so Hannah and I went to watch. We figured getting to the theatre 15 minutes early would be sufficient for us to get some decent seats. We were wrong. Check out the crowd! And that pillar right in front of me! 
 

Believe it or not, this was the first time I’d seen a production of Grease from start to finish, and I thought the cast did a pretty good job with it. And I know that the musical has some themes that might be considered too mature for kids, but I wasn’t much older than Hannah when I started watching Degrassi Junior High, so I didn’t think this had anything that she couldn’t handle.
 After the musical, Hannah went back to the room and I decided to try my luck at some blackjack. And to say that I had no luck would be understating things. I don’t play with a huge buy-in, but I lost my stake in about 30 minutes thanks to a combination of dealer blackjacks and players that consistently stayed on 14/15 against a 10. I can usually grind myself back to even, but on this night I had no shot.
 With my wallet a slight bit lighter, I went up to grab a couple of slices from Sorrento’s. And was actually surprised as the pizza was better than I’ve had on other Royal ships. Not sure I’d have more than a couple of slices at any one time, but I’d definitely eat it over Big Chain pizza.
 After the pizza and some water, it was time for bed.
 The next day would be our first port – Grand Cayman.

Day 2 - At Sea
When I last posted, I talked about an adrenaline dump. Well, that must have left me more tired than normal, as this guy, who wakes up at 6am nearly every day, woke up closer to 8. And as everyone was waking up, we got news that the ship had actually turned around and was heading to Key West due to a medical emergency. Obviously disappointing, as it would delay our arrival into Grand Cayman, but clearly, not the biggest concern here. But apparently the coast guard or a medical boat was able to get out to the ship once we were close enough to transfer the patient, so we were able to turn around and resume course after a few hours.
While we were heading back to Key West, we decided to eat breakfast in the Main Dining Room, since my wife wanted an omelette to order and we knew you could get one there. Setup was familiar – seating on deck 3 with a small buffet and waffle iron in the centre. Apart from Olivia (who I should mention had gotten braces just before Christmas and it was affecting her appetite) we ordered off the menu and it was atypically slow for what I’m accustomed to on Royal – maybe 20 minutes where a breakfast order normally takes 10. At the end of the day, it’s not that concerting, seeing as we weren’t in a rush to go anywhere, but still, strange.
Today’s plan was to take Olivia to Adventure Ocean, and for Hannah to see if any tweens showed up at the Living Room. We went up to Adventure Ocean at 9 and… no kids yet. Seemed a bit strange, given the long-ish lineups to register for the program, but at the same time, this cruise was crossing over into the start of school after Christmas break. No matter – this gave us some time to scope out the pool deck and see where the best places to relax were. (spoiler alert: Unless you’re a smoker, it’s on the starboard side, along the glass.)
After looking around, we went back up to Adventure Ocean and there were a few kids there, so Olivia happily went in. A quick peek into the Living Room showed that it was not open yet. So the rest of us headed over to Sky Pad.

Hannah and I gave this a shot with the VR unit on and it was quite the experience. As one might expect, the VR unit blocks your vision from seeing anything but the animation, and it’s quite a trip doing the bouncing while travelling along this virtual path. It’s actually funny how, when you’re watching people, you wonder how they could possibly bounce off the trampolines, but once you’re strapped in you can feel when you’re getting close to the edges. Lots of fun, and on a longer cruise, I might have been inclined to try it a few more times. But for this trip, we were one and one, in part because we wanted to sign up for some ice skating. This was being done down in Studio B, and so Hannah and my wife went to soak in some more rays up top, I headed all the way down to Deck 3 to do the signup.
On the way back down, we took another look into the Living Room, which was now opened. It was empty. 
Because I like to multitask, I also visited the adjoining Focus photo area to sign the photo waivers and ensure that our photo package was ready to go. It’s a pretty nice area despite being in the bowels of the ship, and a bit surprising to me as they appeared to be 100% digital with no stacks of photo binders in sight. Surprising, but nice to see.
Sign up was pretty quick. Since I didn’t have the kids’ Sea Passes with me, I could only sign the waiver and have their cards punched later. Since I was signing up for the afternoon skate and not the one happening right after, this was fine.
But for now, it was time for lunch. After a trip upstairs to grab Olivia we headed back downstairs to the MDR for lunch. We like the MDR because they have a menu, but also a limited buffet and the infamous tutti salad station.
 
And while we did order from the menu, Hannah and I couldn’t resist the call of the tutti, which may or may not sound like this:
https://youtu.be/1VDA_6MYSQ0
Ahem. Anyway, this lunch was a bit of a fail. The steak sandwich was tasty, but the pappardelle was way overcooked, the yakitori was bland, and the “Singapore noodles” did not look like this:
A
Instead they looked more like this:
 
and tasted akin to a very ketchupy pad Thai. There was a waiter who was walking around asking about the food and service, so we did tell her about the noodles. She actually agreed, although being from Thailand she did not agree with my pad Thai comparison. Go figure

About the photo - I chose a pic where I look the least fat. Ha!
I should also note that formal night dress (for those that are curious) ran the gauntlet for guys. I think "worst" was jeans and a polo, while "best" was full tux. My look here was basically my work clothes plus a jacket. Nothing too fancy, I think. 
I've always been curious as to how loud those Promenade rooms get with all the activity you can see.