BrianAlt Posted July 18, 2017 Report Share Posted July 18, 2017 Hello everyone! Just got back from a cruise on Independence of the Seas out of Southampton, England. It was an 8-night Northern European Cities cruise. We spent three days in London beforehand. Arrived Monday night, toured London and surrounding areas for 3 days and then got on the ship on Friday. Took the train from London to Southampton, which worked out perfectly! The weather was mostly good, but not quite warm enough to sit out too often. The Solarium isn't covered, so the cool North Sea breezes whipped around in there. It did rain in Hamburg, but we made the most of it. The itinerary is attached and in the picture album. Here's a short review: FOOD: The food was GREAT! 4 nights in the MDR, one night in Chops, one night at Giovanni's, one night at Chef's Table and one night at the Mystery Dinner. Chef's Table is located on the bridge between Deck 4 and 5 in the Dining Room. Not a quiet space, but a fun one! Great meal and wines! Mystery Dinner was fun and glad we did it. MDR was surprisingly very good. ENTERTAINMENT: All very enjoyable. Grease was well done (for the 3rd time on a ship). Ice Skating show was great! Cruise Director Joff Eaton was surprisingly fun after I figured out his sense of humor. Didn't see if there was a Love and Marriage show. Maybe because the ports were so late. ZOOM: NOT GOOD! Slow. 2 MB transfer speeds. All you Periscopers would have been sorely disappointed. Was good enough for most of what I was doing. PORTS: Great! Loved Bruges. Oslo is surprisingly small. Hamburg was very good. The Royal sponsored shuttle to the city was terrible. We did a free walking tour. It rained all day! Le Havre we visited Normandy. See my pics in the link below. SERVICE: Excellent as always! But maybe better than it's been. Our cabin steward was practically perfect in every way. Her name was Anna, not Mary Poppins. SHIP: Reports of disrepair were greatly exaggerated. Didn't see any wear on the ship at all! Please enjoy my pictures below. I'd be glad to answer any questions anyone has! Photo Album of my Trip to London and Northern European Cities Matt, Sarah and Farminger 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest toodle68 Posted July 18, 2017 Report Share Posted July 18, 2017 I used to be able to see Windsor Castle from my kitchen window when I lived there.. I loved Windsor high street and the country pubs around it.. many happy years.. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Matt Posted July 18, 2017 Report Share Posted July 18, 2017 Sounds like you had a great time! I'm looking forward to trying Indy in Thanksgiving for the first time. BrianAlt 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mom2mybugs Posted July 18, 2017 Report Share Posted July 18, 2017 Thanks so much----loved your pictures. They were so easy to scroll through and I liked having the maps, because I'm very geographically challenged! My fave pic is the unhappy last picture--whis is how I always look leaving the cruise! Thanks again :) Jane BrianAlt 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
monorailmedic Posted July 18, 2017 Report Share Posted July 18, 2017 Glad you enjoyed. We were on Indy last Thanksgiving and really enjoyed, even planned to go again a few months later but ended up changing it. 6 minutes ago, mom2mybugs said: Thanks so much----loved your pictures. They were so easy to scroll through and I liked having the maps, because I'm very geographically challenged! Google Photos is fantastic, free, and very simple to use. Install it on your device and you can have it backup all your photos as well so you never lose a thing. From there you can easily share, create albums, and even search for people/objects/etc which it recognizes automatically. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mom2mybugs Posted July 18, 2017 Report Share Posted July 18, 2017 Just now, monorailmedic said: Glad you enjoyed. We were on Indy last Thanksgiving and really enjoyed, even planned to go again a few months later but ended up changing it. Google Photos is fantastic, free, and very simple to use. Install it on your device and you can have it backup all your photos as well so you never lose a thing. From there you can easily share, create albums, and even search for people/objects/etc which it recognizes automatically. I desperately need a photo backup...I finally got an external hard drive. Do you find (not to hijack the thread but...) it better than amazon primes (which we have as well). I absolutely have not had good luck with dropbox. Jane Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BrianAlt Posted July 18, 2017 Author Report Share Posted July 18, 2017 12 minutes ago, mom2mybugs said: Thanks so much----loved your pictures. They were so easy to scroll through and I liked having the maps, because I'm very geographically challenged! My fave pic is the unhappy last picture--whis is how I always look leaving the cruise! Thanks again :) Jane Google did that for me! Pretty cool. Also, that's probably around 1/3 of the pictures I took, but a pretty good sample. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mom2mybugs Posted July 18, 2017 Report Share Posted July 18, 2017 Just now, BrianAlt said: Google did that for me! Pretty cool. Also, that's probably around 1/3 of the pictures I took, but a pretty good sample. I take so many pictures its scary. I need organization lol! I take a ton on the cruises, but you should see how many I take for each Disney trip...1000s! Jane Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest toodle68 Posted July 18, 2017 Report Share Posted July 18, 2017 I use dropbox and love it.. all photos are automatically uploaded from both mine and the wifes phone and then I organize them in folders which are replicated to other devices. I have a main folder for pictures.. then year.. then a folder for the event or vacation. I just move all the pictures under the right folder. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BrianAlt Posted July 18, 2017 Author Report Share Posted July 18, 2017 I actually use both DropBox and Google Photos. When DropBox gets filled up, I go on my desktop and transfer half or so of the photos off. Google Photos has two options, full size photos where your storage will quickly be used up and you have to buy space from them or compressed photos where you lose some quality. I do the compressed option which I think tend to be good enough. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pamw Posted July 18, 2017 Report Share Posted July 18, 2017 Thank you for taking time to write the review which I enjoyed reading - great pictures too. We enjoy the Indy as well. This year we did a Transatlantic on her to the UK and have booked to sail with her on the Canaries next year. Have to add I didn't think she was in disrepair in April this year either. BrianAlt 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Farminger Posted July 18, 2017 Report Share Posted July 18, 2017 Great photos! Thank you @BrianAlt for sharing them! BrianAlt 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BrianAlt Posted July 19, 2017 Author Report Share Posted July 19, 2017 13 hours ago, Farminger said: Great photos! Thank you @BrianAlt for sharing them! Thanks! Glad to share. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sarah Posted July 23, 2017 Report Share Posted July 23, 2017 Thank you for your review. I was on Indy at the end of June (for the 4th time). Joff is a great cruise director. No Love & Marriage game show on our cruise either - is thing something the cruise director decides whether to put on? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BrianAlt Posted July 24, 2017 Author Report Share Posted July 24, 2017 22 hours ago, Sarah said: Thank you for your review. I was on Indy at the end of June (for the 4th time). Joff is a great cruise director. No Love & Marriage game show on our cruise either - is thing something the cruise director decides whether to put on? You're welcome! I think it is the CD's choice. But thinking about the itinerary, I think it would have been tough to do it. The only good time would have been an afternoon on a sea day. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
monctonguy Posted July 24, 2017 Report Share Posted July 24, 2017 Glad to hear Indy is still good...enjoyed my cruise on her and thought she was great.(really liked the 2 person CD team too and glad I got to see them before RCCL fired them) Everyone in my group thought they were some of the best and funniest ever. First experience on a ship with a promenade so it was one to remember for me. Would love to get back on her sometime. BrianAlt 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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