Jump to content

Independence of the Seas Cruise Report - 2 Jan 2020 - 7 Jan 2020


KWong

Recommended Posts

So a while back I started posting my cruise reports on the DISboards. And I figured that since I'm trying to be more active here that I might try and to a little cross posting. Hope you enjoy!

(Note: When I do these things I write. A lot. I try to inject humour (and pics/gifs) into what amounts to a very long essay, and that seems to break up the monotony.)

Usually, my go-to cruise time is in the summer. Given that I have kids, this makes sense, as I don’t have to deal with any issues associated with missing class during the semester. And yet, here I am, doing a pre-cruise post about a cruise in January. Why? Well, there’s a long story associated with taking this cruise.

On my last cruise, part of a restroom ended up on top of my wife’s foot. While not serious (my wife might disagree), Royal did express concern - consistently - for the rest of the trip. They offered a few incentives to my wife, who decided not to accept any of them. But, at the end of our cruise, they gave us future cruise certificate of roughly $450 CDN to apply to another cruise. So after some clarification as to how the application worked (they agreed that we simply needed to apply the certificate to a cruise prior to the 1 year expiry date), we booked a 4 night Navigator of the Seas cruise out of Miami for January 2020.

Now, you’ll notice that the title of this report says Independence, not Navigator. And that is because in early January 2019 we received the bad news that our cruise had been chartered. For the “Friendship Festival Cruise”, which appears to be an EDM (Electronic Dance Music) festival. We were given the option of moving to the cruise immediately following, but being a bit wary of boarding after a charter cruise, we decided to book Independence for a 5 night out of Fort Lauderdale instead. For rebooking, we received $200 OBC + $75 based on the booking offers at the time.

Ordinarily, you’d think that this would be the end of it, but in March my TA sent me an email saying that my Independence cruise had been chartered - this time for “70,000 Tons of Metal”. Which is an amazing name for a theme cruise, so kudos to them.

This time, the offer allowed us to rebook to a 5 night preceding the metal cruise, and given that this fit our schedule better (kids only miss a couple of school days), we decided to take it. As with the previous cancellation, we received an additional $200 OBC. $475 in OBC is a lot, even after you subtract gratuities from that amount.

Hopefully nothing else delays or cancels this trip. Like, say, 12 inches of snow.
460556

Ahem. Moving on.

Flights
As per usual, I start looking at flights once I get my cruise booked or they become available, whichever comes last. So I suppose it’s fortunate that I hadn’t booked a flight at the time of cancellations, although I would’ve gotten a change fee credit from Royal if I had booked flights. But the less paperwork the better.

The interesting part about the flights to FLL from Toronto was that departures were cheaper on New Year’s Eve (would be a 2 night stay in Florida) than New Year’s Day (1 night stay). Conversely, hotels were more expensive on New Year’s Eve. Go figure. So it was a bit of a dilemma, but this was resolved in part by my starting a new job, and not having any vacation for the end of year. And thus, we are leaving New Year’s Day, and just staying the one night before the cruise.

Hotels
I’m currently booked at one of the more popular cruise hotels, Hyatt Place 17th Street. As usual, I booked via Valuetrips, although the discount at this time of year is not as large as it is in the summer. Unfortunately, I couldn’t find a better deal, but the proximity to various restaurants, shops, grocery stores and Port Everglades made it an appealing place to stay.

Excursions
The cruise has two stops - Grand Cayman and Cozumel.

We’ve been to Grand Cayman once, off Disney Fantasy, and it was a fun beach day along seven mile. Well except for the part where my brother went into the water with his phone in his pocket. Good times.

This time around, we are doing something we wouldn’t normally do - swimming with stingrays. After doing my research, I decided to sign up with the well regarded Stingray Sailing and their sister company, Cayman Eco Adventures. Both appear to be focused on small tours (max 25 people) and being kind to the rays, which seems quite appealing to me.

For Cozumel, we currently have no plans. With only one other boat docked with us, We will probably try out Paradise Beach, since they have a low entry fee and a $10pp minimum food charge.

Onboard
Neither my wife nor I are big drinkers, and as a result the drink package isn’t something that provides a lot of value for us. The argument could be made that one could also find value by purchasing coffees, juices and bottled water in addition to alcoholic beverages. And you’d be right, but here’s the thing - without the package there isn’t much incentive to buy bottled water or fresh squeezed juices. Coffee… well, maybe, and to that end I’ve purchased the coffee card, as we can take that with us onto Symphony in the summer if there are still unused credits. 

We did purchase the photo package (Black Friday discount). Hopefully I’ll be able to include some of the shots, but time will tell.

Boarding will be a different experience. I checked in via the app, and thus have Expedited Arrival privileges. It will be my first time with this, and I’m excited to try this out.

Our room is a 1D Oceanview Balcony. We will be right by the “bump” on the ship so I expect some of our peripheral view to be a bit obstructed but we shall see. I did put in a RoyalUp bid for a Suite, at the minimum cost, and we’ll see if that’s accepted. It be nice if it was, but I'm not counting on it.

For now, it’s less than one week until we get on that plane. Can't wait.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Welcome from the DIS boards and from a fellow Disney Nut.  Looking forward to your journey as it will add some excitement and anticipation for my Oasis sailing on the 12th of January.

Just sailed on the Fantasy myself in September and have finally decided it was time to try something new as the price increases are insane anymore with DCL.  

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Nice!

I've done 3 trips on Allure, 1 on Harmony and an upcoming cruise on Symphony. Only 1 DCL trip but it was fun. Also 1 trip on the old Regal Princess (now Pacific Dawn).

Oasis class is quite different from DCL's Dream class but once you adjust to the different style of ship you'll enjoy it.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • KWong changed the title to Independence of the Seas Cruise Report - 2 Jan 2020 - 7 Jan 2020

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.

 IMG_5592.thumb.JPG.ffc7a0da1eb6179557f2328708e87672.JPG

IMG_5593.thumb.JPG.6cea6190ad30690fb15ce250088bf043.JPG

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.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

7 hours ago, WAAAYTOOO said:

Oh....that seafood looks delicious.  Even at 0100 hours.  Enjoying your blog very much.  

Thanks! One year, we did a road trip out to Maine/Boston. Did a side trip out to Cape Cod and had some amazing fried clam bellies. I'm kind of surprised that places stick with clam strips instead of the whole clam, but maybe Sysco doesn't supply breaded whole clams? ?

40 minutes ago, NerdDad said:

Have a great cruise! Glad it all worked out after all the charterizing. ? Excited to read along!

All the chartering was funny in a way. And realistically, I can't complain about effectively having my gratuities covered by the cruise line.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

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.

tenor.gif

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.

IMG_5596.thumb.JPG.f7c7a2b444f8f8d78e02d58187511524.JPG

IMG_5597.thumb.JPG.60b30ad88e3e839c7d06adc0df0adeae.JPG

IMG_5600.thumb.JPG.32a5fe9f0493819c1be959ac7b663d90.JPG

IMG_5601.thumb.JPG.fd8ae6f00476393833e872a0c7bf17f9.JPG

IMG_5602.thumb.JPG.1bb62b501597b44bc5b3c8f9d647b910.JPG

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

giphy.webp

IMG_5600.JPG

Link to comment
Share on other sites

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.

IMG_5604.thumb.JPG.6e12409424d4687414f9494dc8a45a07.JPGIMG_5605.thumb.JPG.7e12a9e5cb60d3416c718cf9f5e3cde6.JPG

IMG_9874.thumb.JPG.a3c33a8495bae79883304512c970e6d9.JPG

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

IMG_5608.thumb.JPG.491b9f1d3cd4a2d5243b1c4ed9ad7241.JPG

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.

IMG_9888.thumb.JPG.ff29cdffadb8ed648d50077e56edb736.JPG

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

IMG_9889.thumb.JPG.ef5a471241d70c9c301c4a365d245b43.JPG

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).

IMG_5606.thumb.JPG.55a167ffa80ca2af5204a3f89ed58ccb.JPG

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

IMG_9885.thumb.JPG.17dd1259fbdc9793e07f6aaf24d68168.JPG

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

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.

 IMG_5610.thumb.JPG.080b15466ebcacf594aec3b2cead8ba9.JPGIMG_5611.thumb.JPG.148324510269f743602eb8c7fb599158.JPG

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.

 IMG_5612.thumb.JPG.9510bd241060f3f5070a55880f90a7e5.JPG

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.

IMG_5617.thumb.JPG.2dc5e5ac3d1fa8641b63de466493c97e.JPGIMG_5616.thumb.JPG.eeb3224c903567dc325d54cf07d186bc.JPGIMG_5615.thumb.JPG.209f7877b88e2b307f2a36b566551ac1.JPG

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?

 IMG_5621.thumb.JPG.31dfbb29f7c5d9234e188f3200bc4705.JPG

IMG_5620.thumb.JPG.c6f0016be3adb62576865896a1b3d3a9.JPGIMG_5619.thumb.JPG.31b3c257c84a9d1c893b8d7a9d14cf44.JPGIMG_5618.thumb.JPG.93f2bfaed47f177269d9a724dabbd5f0.JPG

IMG_5623.thumb.JPG.2a22c84ea27925bc119b90a302b361f4.JPG

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!

 IMG_5624.thumb.JPG.a32dada6bce61f58874b796c11d4e86c.JPG

IMG_5595.thumb.JPG.f253d53566988f74d6478b37dd6e1ac5.JPG

(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.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

IMG_9897.thumb.JPG.9bb3b70de2f3adda289083ca0811a002.JPGIMG_9895.thumb.JPG.cc6b6dd0655fc4e115fbdf02cdc156f5.JPGIMG_9894.thumb.JPG.4490ac6e4d799a9b20d0fdeba6e3fd5a.JPGIMG_9890.thumb.JPG.f2e0060224a71a05e34f9c64b83e3ae4.JPGIMG_9898.thumb.JPG.699c2d4ce0df2d24a4df898456c3fc1d.JPG

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.

 IMG_5630.thumb.JPG.ce525cac6fc145ccf85a99b6654456d1.JPGIMG_5629.thumb.JPG.5cf1fc5f6c5e1101eb4040940afaa353.JPG

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.

 IMG_5632.thumb.JPG.0790d231b5f47c439f79479ec0241f7e.JPGIMG_5633.thumb.JPG.aa3671527227fa2f463ef363b67c78a9.JPG

(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.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

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.

IMG_5640.thumb.JPG.81600b75b93902abccb4167b0a81b333.JPGIMG_5638.thumb.JPG.4c40b27532b91488367a3951c3632a77.JPG

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. IMG_5642.thumb.JPG.9f571c5ee591afa5e4f5ac2d8af8602b.JPG

 

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:

ASingapore-Noodles-LEAD-VERTICAL.thumb.jpg.94920a945b30081cce05fd6d50ec768d.jpg

Instead they looked more like this:

25b6604017a4ece23277152da37517fd.jpg.d67eac55275e567de6a25cc444913f91.jpg 

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

Link to comment
Share on other sites

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.

 IMG_5643.thumb.JPG.262dbd07057baf7dcc3668df1de66174.JPG

 

IMG_5644.thumb.JPG.9bf707dccf32388d2718e024c9d56e41.JPG

IMG_5647.thumb.JPG.d60f3521e651ce0e7d9e924ecbf25bb5.JPG

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.

 509-21306403_1.thumb.jpg.e3bb7e3da3d683b8ff860b329a89c877.jpg

IMG_5650.thumb.JPG.442bb9adbe14e4d8cd750531ea922e9e.JPG

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! 

 IMG_5653.thumb.JPG.ce334a5c114c03a009548ff7bb257dc7.JPG

IMG_5654.thumb.JPG.0a2d201c0f4a4afa883a2d26b95e33a5.JPG

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.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • KWong changed the title to Independence of the Seas Cruise Report - 2 Jan 2020 - 7 Jan 2020 (Updated with Day 2)

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. 

14 minutes ago, WannaCruise said:

DH and I were Independence last December (in the Ben & Jerry cow-but room) and really enjoyed the ship.  

I've always been curious as to how loud those Promenade rooms get with all the activity you can see. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

5 hours ago, KWong said:

I've always been curious as to how loud those Promenade rooms get with all the activity you can see. 

We like the promenade rooms and generally only find one or two times in the evening when it gets loud such as the 70s party.  With our B&J room on Independence, it was a lot of fun...The 70s performers are on the bridge right outside of the room and they waved to us a few times.  So lots of fun.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

18 hours ago, Lovetocruise2002 said:

That is still all sorts of wrong lol.

17 hours ago, KWong said:

Yes, yes it is.

As a big fan of Singapore noodles, seeing that stock photo of the actual final product almost literally made my cry. And I'm betting my local place doesn't even do them 100% proper justice, although I guess I'd have to go to Singapore proper to really know.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

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.

Image result for john oliver cool gif

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.

 Image result for john oliver cool gif

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.

 IMG_5657_a.thumb.JPG.bc7b625eebcf6f77de41b37c21faa405.JPG

 

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!

 IMG_5660.thumb.JPG.c74d859cd97d6fe15c6a063f85ead87c.JPG

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!

 IMG_5665.thumb.JPG.04249fa5040b62fc35eb94156f0c2472.JPG

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.

 IMG_5668.thumb.JPG.46c733e88e9436aab6fcd1c063cf16a8.JPG

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.

IMG_5670.thumb.JPG.b367371661831f87ec3d51fcd62a20bb.JPG

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:

 40d115b87962eb697bf24eed54555654.gif

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.

 IMG_5671.thumb.JPG.fc9170e7c91b4607e6c0b128f9211726.JPG

IMG_5672.thumb.JPG.1c850554b0e618896bf3c1c7c8249f1e.JPG

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

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • KWong changed the title to Independence of the Seas Cruise Report - 2 Jan 2020 - 7 Jan 2020
2 hours ago, KWong said:

Quick note: I'm working on scanning the Cruise Compasses and assorted sheets they gave us. Should I include it here or somewhere else?

You can include them here but I'm sure @Matt would appreciate it if you emailed them to him so he can add them to the Cruise Compass collection on the main blog site:  [email protected]

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Day 4 - Cozumel

The itinerary today found us coming into Cozumel around 10:30. Later than I’m used to, but with only one other ship in port (I think it was Disney Dream), not a big issue. Due to being in port on a Sunday, a lot of the popular beach clubs were closed. As a result, our plan was to go to Paradise Beach, but the backup plan was to stay in and around the port area.

Once we got off the ship, we headed out to the taxi area. The stand captain mentioned that the waters were pretty rough along the beach, but we were willing to risk it. Taxi rates were clearly listed at the stand, so that was good. Overall, it was $20 (incl tip) either way, and was about the same to just about any club in that area.

Paradise Beach has both an all inclusive and a la carte option, and seeing as we weren’t looking to eat and drink too much, the a la carte option (which involves a $3 cover and $10 food/drink minimum per person) seemed like the better option. After confirming this with the host, we headed out to the beach area. Sure enough, the waters were choppy and the floating obstacle course was still on the beach.

We took some beach chairs, and a waiter came by and took our $12 admission. Seeing as it was close to noon, we also ordered some food – guacamole and coconut shrimp, as well as some drinks for the kids. The guac was actually pretty good (although I prefer the one at Nachi Cocom better) but the shrimp was just so-so.

 IMG_5678.thumb.JPG.a9dbac5f39861b85d7a7616fb9815e29.JPG

IMG_5679_A.thumb.JPG.f3c65c62b8f8c602acef41f5f7b0791c.JPG

IMG_5689_A.thumb.JPG.cbfd06db7f8a54adf928ff549b788993.JPG

IMG_5692.thumb.JPG.308987f90cdceee2ce83c1fd575f4bd4.JPG

Hannah wasn’t actually feeling great on this day so Olivia and I headed to the pool. The pool area was busy but not crowded, so it was easy to maneuver around and enjoy ourselves.

 IMG_5696_A.thumb.JPG.cfb933d12c077bbf7f3e63d6385bf02c.JPG

 

IMG_5701.thumb.JPG.0b5b9345a0adc5a1d5c823837e63bd90.JPG

We decided to leave the club around 2pm.  We were there roughly 3 hours, so at the end of the day, we weren’t there not long enough to truly take advantage of an all-inclusive package, so going a la carte was the best decision for us.

IMG_5702.thumb.JPG.8ac22186636f7922e61339fa166d4a87.JPG

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Dinner on this night featured a souffle. Back in 2006/07, we went on a Princess cruise where the dessert chef made souffles every night, even doing a savory souffle on one occasion. To this day, I feel like that spoiled us because whenever we get a souffle on a cruise, we’re inevitably comparing it to something from (now) 13 years ago. Unfair? You bet it is.

IMG_5705.thumb.JPG.6b43699317875fbba5697946402f8549.JPG

In this case, the souffles were a bit overcooked. It still tasted good, but you could almost imagine Gordon Ramsay throwing a fit and inventing about 20 new curse words to describe the not-perfect souffles. The mains, however, were on point. Kids aren’t big fans of alfredo sauce so we asked to get a red sauce for the linguini – no issues with that substitution.

 After dinner, we went to see the revue show, “Once Upon A Time”. This was a song and dance show with sets based around popular fairy tales. In a sense, it’s similar to what DCL does with their “Wishes” and “Believe” shows, subtracting Disney songs and any semblance of plot, while adding contemporary music and more choreography. Including what I think was an original disco song to open and close the show. The less said about THAT song, the better.

 I will not say that it was the most enjoyable show ever, but it wasn’t the worst I’d seen either. But certainly not a show I’ll need to see again, whereas I happily rewatch Blue Planet (Allure) and Columbus: The Musical (Harmony) again.

 So on my own again, I took another loss at the casino, and then I decided to take in the late night curiosity known as The Quest. I’d heard a bit about this, and after some time to digest this, my main impression is

 giphy.gif

 

I mean the host calls out some task like “I need 5 different shoes attached together by their shoelaces” and suddenly shoes are raining down onto the Studio B floor and I’m all

 Image result for confused what the gif

 So yeah, this game is nuts. There are points awarded. But I think, like in Whose Line Is It Anyway, the points don’t matter.

 IMG_5707.thumb.JPG.cec16dd44acd463fa0b827b13f0817b8.JPG

I tip my virtual hat to those of you with enough guts to be the captains. My team won, I think. Only the captains win a prize, so I guess I had a moral victory. So, yay?

The next day was our final full day on board, as we headed back to Fort Lauderdale.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

One thing I neglected to mention about Cozumel was that, going into the terminal from the ship, they had dogs out to sniff out contraband. But they weren't looking for drugs - they were looking for fruit! I mean, it makes sense that you don't want foreign fruit with potential foreign pests getting into the country, but it's kind of funny (in a serious way) when you're faced with the realization that, yes, this is actually happening.

So as much as you might want to bring in a banana, don't do it!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Great review.  We also went to Paradise Beach this past December.  It's a great option with the choice of the $3 entry fee + $10 food.  And the pool is great plus the beach. We also had a very windy day.  Luckily I was dressed in my Toronto clothes (we're also from there) in my sweatshirt material cardigan and then covered my legs with the towel..but was determined to have some beach time.  Looks like at least the air wasn't as chilly for you?

It shows you how tastes are different.  Once Upon a Time is one of my favorite "Royal old style production shows" (i.e. non-Oasis class shows written by Royal).  I liked how they mixed the fairy tales with the known music.  

Lol... I like your Quest reaction.

Btw...who is your cruise director?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

3 minutes ago, WannaCruise said:

Looks like at least the air wasn't as chilly for you?

No, it wasn't as windy, but the water was definitely choppy. A little chilly, but nowhere near Lake Ontario-in-summer frigid, if you know what I mean.

14 minutes ago, WannaCruise said:

Lol... I like your Quest reaction.

To be honest, I had stronger feelings, but I was trying to keep it PG. 

 

17 minutes ago, WannaCruise said:

Btw...who is your cruise director?

Cruise Compass says it was Cuddy. But in my mind I saw him as Not James Corden.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Day 5 - At Sea

Final day. I hate final days, because you know you have get off the ship and head back to the Real World. Unless, of course, you’re Super Mario. But I think even he gets off the ships every once in a while.

Despite the late night, I was up relatively early, and we ate breakfast at WindJammer. The lack of speed in the MDR made us give up on them as an option, and besides, the buffet never seemed crowded. The only real drawback is that one could easily overdo things at breakfast, so I tried to limit myself to one pass at the buffet. Seemed to work, as I was able to load my plate but not to excess.

After breakfast, we took Olivia up to Adventure Ocean and… there were no kids in the 9-11 room. Curious. Since it was exactly 9 we figured that maybe some kids would come in later. Olivia didn’t want to be the only one there, so we took a walk around the upper deck and came back about 10 minutes later. Still no kids. Looking into the 6-8 club, there were very few kids in there as well. As a result, Olivia opted to hang out with the rest of us by the pool.

This was, to be honest, a bit of a strange phenomenon for the kids. During our August cruises, the kids clubs were usually full, so there wasn’t much concern about meeting new kids and having fun. But here it was the opposite, and I can see why Royal has started to move towards a merged 6-11 program.

Since Hannah and I had sushi making mid-morning, we opted not to swim and instead played a round of minigolf – something that I’d yet to do on a cruise. It was fun, as far as minigolf goes, plus the views were really nice at the front of the ship.

 IMG_5708.thumb.JPG.a60cfa65f26b6ec63984678aad8ee348.JPG

On A Roll took place, unsurprisingly, at Izumi. The idea here is that all the items you need to create your sushi are mise en place, and the chef instructs you on how to assemble each item. We made a California Roll, Shrimp/Avocado Roll, Spicy Tuna Hand Roll, and two Ebi Nigiri. As you can see from the pictures (and Matt has described before in the blog), this is a massive amount of food, which we then got to eat!

 IMG_5712.thumb.JPG.11e4fb6aa195daf22e543e5580ef879c.JPG

IMG_5717.thumb.JPG.1a28d66aaf9df4a99373b04d88a39753.JPG

IMG_5723.thumb.JPG.3fa36a64a4adfb7584b364640919865e.JPG

Note: We were not allowed to take the food out of the restaurant (apparently there is a health regulation against this), so I highly recommend you bring along a “non-participant” to “help dispose” of the sushi.

 IMG_5727.thumb.JPG.e4b56f1147223c449764229c4ed17920.JPG

IMG_5728.thumb.JPG.94373533e5397b8035940dfb7c03c88b.JPG

Once we were stuffed to bursting, we headed back upstairs to meet with my wife and Olivia. They were now hungry, so we headed over to Windjammer. Hannah and I weren’t all that hungry due to maki overload, but we still grabbed some veg in order to balance out our food pyramids.

 IMG_5730.thumb.JPG.f46c92631a54478e4250ffbe7ae262f9.JPG

I should note that at Windjammer they have an assistant waiter there with a guitar whose sole purpose is to sing songs featuring “washy-washy”. They are not great songs, but I definitely appreciate their attempts to hammer the point home about washing hands.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

After lunch, we decided to try out the Perfect Storm waterslides. During minigolf, we were talking to a couple of older teens from Michigan about the slides, and they thought that the slides weren’t great, and that they were slow to the point of almost getting stuck in the tubes. But after we went on a few times, I have to conclude that they perhaps adjusted the water flow, because while the slides weren’t as fast as what you might find at an onland waterpark, they had more than enough speed to get you to the bottom in a hurry.

 If I had a gripe about the slides, it’s that there aren’t enough clear panels to let you see out of the tubes, especially where you travel to the edge of the ship. Really felt like a missed opportunity.

 After we went on the slides, the kids wanted to hit the pool, so they went there while my wife and I relaxed. While we were there, we had the fortune (misfortune?) to witness the Sexiest Man contest. This was definitely… something. Still not sure what, exactly, but it was something. All I will say is that the guy in the Rey Mysterio mask was robbed.

 IMG_5732.thumb.JPG.58ad393aced7f30869990f0dca0cb3ef.JPG

Our final dinner featured Rack of Lamb and Steak Diane, both of which were wonderful. It also featured “Asian pork tacos”, which based on the description, we guessed was actually pork bao. And that’s exactly what it was. I can’t say it was great.

 IMG_5733.thumb.JPG.b11bf51f411bb40eece1369c4235f352.JPG

An interesting note was that for the last day, they were trying to get people to go to Chops at a 50% discount. It was tempting, but at the end of the day my wife and the girls wanted lamb chops, and why forgo the included lamb chops in the MDR in order to pay for lamb chops at the specialty restaurant? For us, the value add was simply not there.

 After dinner, we did our final packing and set the bags outside the room. After everyone else went to sleep I took a final trip across the pool deck, where it was pretty quiet.

 IMG_5736.thumb.JPG.f5727abc46e534fdc547f0c5887ceb80.JPG

IMG_5738_A.thumb.JPG.304a0ba9c68b962a765352c2f77d74e6.JPG

IMG_5739_A.thumb.JPG.0a28574750d1e898ff7445d8e2eab2e9.JPG

Going back downstairs, I went to the theatre to watch the comedian, Anthony Acosta. I had a bit of an incident where I wanted to exercise my 2-for-1 beer voucher (I think everyone gets this?) and the bartender was utterly confused by this, thinking I wanted a Diamond happy hour drink. We did get it sorted out and before the show started he came over to apologize to me. Which was nice, but completely unnecessary, since we weren’t arguing – just trying to sort out what voucher I was redeeming. In any case, he gave me another beer, so I ended up with 3 beers for the price of 1. Yeah, that was a lot. Thankfully it was a macrobrew as opposed to something with a lot of flavour, so I got through them all.

The comedian, Anthony Acosta, was pretty good I thought, but his style is quite edgy, self-deprecating and plays a lot off of his ethnicity, and could easily rub people the wrong way. If you watched his act and did not enjoy it at all, well, I wouldn’t blame you one bit.

After the show, I went over to Sorrentos to wash down the beer with some food, and headed to bed.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Thank you for the great report!! I noticed everyone was wearing helmets at the ice rink. Is it a requirement? Do you recall if there was any kind of waiver you could sign to choose not to wear it? (Asking on behalf of my figure skater daughter, who will moan and groan and act like she can't possibly skate if she's made to wear a helmet. ? ) I don't remember that being the case several years ago...

Link to comment
Share on other sites

On 1/24/2020 at 1:17 PM, gailecn said:

Thank you for the great report!! I noticed everyone was wearing helmets at the ice rink. Is it a requirement? Do you recall if there was any kind of waiver you could sign to choose not to wear it? (Asking on behalf of my figure skater daughter, who will moan and groan and act like she can't possibly skate if she's made to wear a helmet. ? ) I don't remember that being the case several years ago...

The helmets (which I believe were skateboard helmets) were a requirement.  I don't recall there being a release waiver for the helmets. I sympathize with your daughter though - I'd not wear a helmet if I could avoid it.

With that said, there were enough first timers on the rink that I took the stance that the helmet would help protect me somewhat from them. I saw a lot of wipeouts, and thankfully I didn't add to that total.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Apparently I forgot to add this:

Day 6 – Debarkation Day (aka You don’t have to go home but you can’t stay here)

I know people don’t like talking about this day, but I’ve always found it helpful to know how people got home, especially when you have to fly. For us, we had a 2pm flight back to Toronto, so realistically we had plenty of time to get off the ship.

For this trip, we were assigned tag number 32, with an estimated debarkation time of 9:30am – about as middle of the road an assignment as one can get, I think. This gave us, in theory, plenty of time to get ready, pack up and leave.

When we woke up (roughly 6:30-ish), I looked outside and discovered that we were in the process of docking, so barring any unforeseen clearance issues, we’d be getting off the ship shortly.

We got dressed (in our travel clothes… le sigh), and headed up to Windjammer one final time. The buffet was actually not that busy, perhaps a testament to our going up a little later than the norm. And this worked out well for us. Not that we were going to overdo it on food, but certainly we weren’t “fighting” the masses to find a seat.

After breakfast, we went back to the room to do finish packing our carry-off bags and do a final sweep of the room. After exchanging goodbyes with our attendant, we headed down to the Promenade to wait.

 giphy.gif

 While we were waiting, we saw some of the charter cruise workers come in with display boards for their t-shirt stands. In hindsight, I should’ve taken a picture and/or bought a shirt. Not that I’m a huge metal fan or anything, but “70,000 Tons of Metal”? You know you’d want a shirt with that on it as well.

 Regardless, we were called ahead of schedule, around 9:15, and dutifully made our way to the 4th deck and the exit ramp. Unlike previous Oasis class cruises, we headed straight down to the baggage area – a nice surprise, given that I was expecting a 30-60 minute wait to go down. The lines were indeed kind of long – I estimated about 45 minutes for the Suites, 60-90 for everyone – but since we have NEXUS, it was a simple matter of picking up our bags, showing the officer in the centre exit our cards, and heading through customs. Our debarkation, from ship to outside the terminal, took us under 10 minutes.

 With so much time before our flight, we debated going somewhere else for an hour or two, but we decided just to go to the airport. Bit of a misstep on our part, because we were at the terminal well before 10am, and the 3 hour bag drop window was still over an hour away. So that meant some waiting.

 giphy.gif

Once the window opened, there was somehow only one Westjet employee at the counter helping three separate lines (special assistance, check in and bag drop). So this was… interesting, but eventually some other agents made their way to the counter to help out. This was not ideal, but since we’d checked in on the ship and had TSA Pre-Check, we had very little concern about making our flight. And indeed, we were through security around 12. A little later than I expected, but still nothing to worry about at all.

We got a pre-flight meal at Shula Burger (note: onion rings look much better than they taste), and with little fanfare, got on the flight home.

Once at Toronto Pearson, we went over to the NEXUS line, where there appeared to be only a few NEXUS kiosks working. Fortunately, there were several of the standard kiosks available, which we used to breeze through customs. Easy peasy, and after picking up our luggage and car, we headed home.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 2 weeks later...

I'm so enjoying your blog! We are heading out on Indy April 13th for the same itinerary with 3 grandparents in tow. This is giving me some great ideas and information!

Where do you sign up for ice skating? I was thinking I had read that it was just first-come, first-served at Studio B when it was happening? 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

44 minutes ago, SSprouse said:

I'm so enjoying your blog! We are heading out on Indy April 13th for the same itinerary with 3 grandparents in tow. This is giving me some great ideas and information!

Where do you sign up for ice skating? I was thinking I had read that it was just first-come, first-served at Studio B when it was happening? 

I believe the compass had an item about signups. Happened roughly 2 hours before the first skating session in Studio B. 
 

thanks for reading! 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

Loading...
×
×
  • Create New...