chihlidog

Recently sailed on Independence and we loved it so much we booked a 9 night on the Liberty for 2024. The lack of freestyle machines has me reconsidering. Seriously. I dont drink alcohol but I'm a soda fiend so its definitely a big deal to me. Very very frustrating, I really don't want to spend 9 days drinking only sprite (I limit my caffeine intake so coke, while I like it, has to be limited). Again, yes, total first world problem but thats a lot of time and money to spend on a vacation to NOT be able to habe something I enjoy lol

I haven't been on a cruise in almost 40 years (I would have been 7 or so my only other cruise I've taken). So this may as well be my first time. My wife and kids had never been on a cruise previously. We sailed on Indy over the weekend and some things stood out in relation to a lot of what I've read here and other places, both things that I felt lined up with what everyone said, and things that I thoroughly disagree with a lot of posters I've read. First - what an INCREDIBLE ship! I know it isn't the biggest anymore, but WOW what a lovely vessel to sail on! My family all agree, we loved her! The crew, the captain, the ship overall, just an absolutely fantastic way to travel. Really hard to believe there are much larger ships in regular use!! Lol she absolutely did not feel small. LOVE the promenade deck, LOVE being able to go to the bow. The third night we sailed through fairly rough seas and she rocked and rolled. My youngest (13) got seasick. But none of them were afraid. Some of us actually enjoyed watching the waves hit our porthole as the ship got tossed around a bit. Food - I read a lot about the desserts not being anything to write home about. I gotta agree on that one. Even the cheesecake, which is one of my favorite things usually, was just "meh". But aside from that I really do not understand the people that complain about it. We didnt go to any specialty dining and we NEVER went hungry and were never in a situation where we couldn't all find something we really liked. My prime rib in the MDR was tender and delicious and probably one of my favorite things I ate. (I've seen multiple posts staging the prime rib was bad). Windjammer was hit or miss. There was always at least a portion of what was being served that was really good. The roast turkey was delicious (I always go dark meat though so maybe the white meat wasnt). Even the steaks on the WJ were perfectly edible and tasty. I saw a lot of comments before I sailed that the Indian food on board was good and it REALLY was. But plenty of other offerings in the WJ were quite tasty as well. It IS too busy which can be frustrating but I expected that. Cafe promenade was impressive. Always open and always quality, tasty snacks. Sorrento's was perfectly tasty as well and my wife, who is gluten free, also liked their GF pizza. Fish and Ships was GOOD!! The only extra we spent on food was Ben and Jerry's and we all enjoyed all of our dining the whole time. The food on Coco Cay was, we all agree, really really good! The shaved ribeye sandwich was probably my favorite. The Cuban was also good. Of course the taco bar was great and most of my crew said that was their favorite on the island. Coco Cay itself is, in a word, fantastic. Just beautiful beyond description. The crew was, without exception, top notch. All of them. My nitpicks: I really wish they had more freestyle machines. Having to wait in line everytime and hope it has ice was a little frustrating especially when you're REALLY thirsty. (Matters more to me than most probably because I dont drink alcohol and Im a bit of a soda fiend) The elevators being so full so often got annoying when we were trying to get somewhere. Minor and expected. The wifi signal in our stateroom wasn't very good. Nothing I couldn't live with, and on higher decks it worked really well. Overall, I, and the rest of my family, absolutely loved our experience. My wife wanted to start with a short one to see how she and our kids would like it. I think the best way to summarize how we all felt about it is the fact that we went to NextCruise on our final night and booked a 9 night to Canada for 2024. (On Indy's sister ship, no less). Cannot wait to sail again!

Just got off Indy. Had no problem with bringing 2 noise machines on board. Didn't need them as it turns out, being on deck 2 the engine noise was perfect.

First time poster here - sailing on Independence on Friday and I genuinely can't wait. I've heard/read 2 things that are concerning me now. I bought the voom package and the soda package. Both are important to me (especially as I do not drink alcohol). I'm consistently reading that the service is pretty bad with Starlink on the indy, and that the freestyle machines are not only crowded out but also frequently either out of service or out of most flavors. Anyone on Indy recently that can confirm, or state with any confidence that the fuss about these issues is overblown? Thanks!