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Independence Of the seas 11-16 Dec


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Well , Mr noro came to visit Indi,

Yesterday they only asked not to shake hands , today we are already on DEFCON 1 as they started to serve food in the WJ by the employees and asked us for the last day not to stay in our rooms between 5am and 7 am as they are planning to disinfect the corridors.

I guess whoever going on the ship this Saturday should expect some delays due to extra cleaning effort.

I am not that supprise we have this break as in too many occasions I saw people avoiding using the gel before entering food area and even after using the wash rooms. Shame that people do not understand how they are risking everyone. 

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4 minutes ago, Traveler said:

Well , Mr noro came to visit Indi,

Yesterday they only asked not to shake hands , today we are already on DEFCON 1 as they started to serve food in the WJ by the employees and asked us for the last day not to stay in our rooms between 5am and 7 am as they are planning to disinfect the corridors.

I guess whoever going on the ship this Saturday should expect some delays due to extra cleaning effort.

I am not that supprise we have this break as in too many occasions I saw people avoiding using the gel before entering food area and even after using the wash rooms. Shame that people do not understand how they are risking everyone. 

Very true. I will be on the Brilliance next month. I am sure I will encounter the same thing.

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7 hours ago, Traveler said:

Well , Mr noro came to visit Indi,

Yeah folks on the next cruise are reporting delayed boarding notification.

Maybe it’s me. Two cruises before I boarded Anthem had it, now two cruises before Indy.   I’m going to wash my hands right now here at home.  

Ironically my virus killing wipes I bought on Amazon arrive today.  Good timing, I’ll be bringing them on Indy.  

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9 hours ago, Traveler said:

Well , Mr noro came to visit Indi,

Yesterday they only asked not to shake hands , today we are already on DEFCON 1 as they started to serve food in the WJ by the employees and asked us for the last day not to stay in our rooms between 5am and 7 am as they are planning to disinfect the corridors.

I guess whoever going on the ship this Saturday should expect some delays due to extra cleaning effort.

I am not that supprise we have this break as in too many occasions I saw people avoiding using the gel before entering food area and even after using the wash rooms. Shame that people do not understand how they are risking everyone. 

Saw a boarding notice for the next cruise on another site and they requested guests not board until 2pm.

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Day 4 – Jamaica

 

We woke up to another rainy day, it was funny since during this cruise the nights were dry while during the day allot of this liquid sun.

Breakfast in the WJ was hand served by the crew as the norovirus got worse (I guess,  not that they sharing too much information) which made it slower than usual but still ok.

Oh , and this is how real OJ should like : 

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We arrive at Jamaica around 7 am, weather still was the same so I was not sure if our shore excursion still on or not, quick check in deck 5 acknowledge it was still on.

We sign up for the swimming with the horse activity, again using the 20% discount on one of the super sells.

I read some mixed reviews regarding it but we decide we should  give it a try.

After more than one hour drive (mostly due to the rain which cause some  floods  ) we arrived to the farm.

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The first part of the activity was to ride the horse in the “jungle”, they started to per the horses to the riders, we were 48 people so you can guess it took time (and yes there were enough horses for everyone).

When it came my time to go on one of the horse which was paired to me (I guess mainly by high and weight) they replaced it at the last minute as it was “broken”, the new horse was taller than the “broken” one which did not help much J.

The all process took at least half an hour, I wish they would have split us to two groups somehow.

We were re grouping per the families/friends and start the tour, it was nice tour although it kept raining for most of the time but it added to the experience and atmosphere.

The tour was near the beach inside green lavish flora, from time to time we saw the sea  at the end we went into it, still not swimming but walking near the shore.

During the ride you could see many colorful butterflies, it was nice to watch them.

This part of the tour was around 45 minutes

The next part was with other group of  horses which are train to swim, this time we split for four group, we were on the last group so we took lunch (10 $ for jerk chicken, rice and salad) it was quite good.

The second part was around 10 minutes , you are getting on the horse and it takes you to swim in the sea, 10 minutes is more than enough as it was not easy for me to keep balanced on the horse while my feet were drugged in the water still I am happy we done it 

 

By the way the hH1.thumb.jpg.a765a8021ac05a20ad2be9edde6bae2b.jpgorses were looked as they are well treated, some of them were walking outside the stables minding their own business , I am sure they would have prefer the first stop of the ship would be in Jamaica and not  after four days of people enjoying all the food…

All in all it was a good activity but could be much better with smaller group.

The way back to the ship was much faster as roads were clear by that time , we even had some spare time to check the port shops (not that there is much to see).

The liberty of the Seas was docked next to us so we can took pictures of the sisters.  soon Indi , soon , you will not need to envy any more with your sister water slides.

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4 PM we left Lib1.thumb.jpg.1a52a2f0a974ec0a3b9bf98e2615a418.jpgindilib.thumb.jpg.5ef0b74bfee68d63e22212a0fefa8781.jpga, we went to the  we We run to the shower and to change our cloth as for some unexplained reason we smelled like a horse.

As tonight was a lobster night we first went to the WJ ,on  some of our cruises we found out that during lobster night they serve them also in the WJ , usually in two or three  different way of preparation, but not this night so we went again to the MDR.

Again it was a very good prompt service, although we were using the my time dining ,  lucky for us we were assign all the time to the same table and waiter.

We got both tow lobster plates (we did not even need to asked he just brought us two) .

 

We went to tour some of the bars to see if we can try some more new drinks, soon we realized again our drinking limitations, the good thing we realized it before we had to be carried back to our room.

By the way , I just realized , no dream works characters  on Indi , not sure if it is always like that or only for this cruise , so if you are going to travel with small children better you check it before.

So sorry , I will not be able to share my picture with Alex and Gloria  

 

Tomorrow sea day – the last day.

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3 hours ago, twangster said:

Happy to hear you made the best of a rainy day.

It looks like Liberty carries the extra weight on her rear end very well.  :1_grinning:

I'm looking forward to trying those slides in a few months.

We are not going to let some rain ruin our vacation :1_grinning:

Regarding Liberty , it should be interesting experience with the slides , but she is going out from a problamtic port (transportation mainly)

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We got to the news  https://www.rt.com/news/413407-nautical-norovirus-hits-royalcaribbean/

16 hours ago, twangster said:

Happy to hear you made the best of a rainy day.

It looks like Liberty carries the extra weight on her rear end very well.  :1_grinning:

I'm looking forward to trying those slides in a few months.

I will not going to let some rain 

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On 12/8/2017 at 4:56 AM, Traveler said:

s going to make sure I will stay awake during driving by listen to a binge  RC blog podcasting I calculate after 8 podcast I should arrive safely, you can say many thing about Matt (just good thing don’t worry) but no one can say his  podcast  can be used as lullaby, especially with his enthusiasm

Ok...this is funny in that i play the podcasts to fall asleep while thinking about cruising! Jane

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Day 5 sea day.

The last day arrived, as always too soon, I need to re think about this 5 days cruises, not sure it’s enough but then how many days are enough?

The day started early for such a sea day , around 7:30 am (half an hour after the 2 hours curfew we had so the crew can treat the corridors against the Norovirus.)

We went to the WJ to eat breakfast, all food and plates were handled by the crew as another steps against  the Noro , people were forced to use the jell (finally) and no direct contract between people and food.

I convince my partner to go and drink the morning coffee on the open deck as it was becoming a very nice day from weather perspective. When we started the coffee I told her I need to go down to the room and she can stay and join me later.

I needed an excuse so I can decorate the room for her birthday (and no ,  I did not wanted to pay 45 $ for RC poor  decoration as I could buy more decorations in 8 $ from the local store).

So I quickly inflate some balloons to hang and put outside the happy birthday sign chain just at time before she came back down  to the room and I could give her the present I smuggled in without she will notice it.

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Later on someone decided to rip off the sign , why I do not know.

The rest of the morning we spent mostly on the upper decks, as I said it was a perfect sea day weather for few hours.

By the way, the promenade coffee shop stopped the self-service coffee and water, a crew member was assign to distribute the coffee and other hot drinks.

For lunch we went to Johnny rocket, nothing really to write home about but it’s better than the lines for the WJ that became restricted buffet.

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Spent some time at the casino (I thought they might put a crew member near each machine wearing  a glove and press the buttons for you)

Later we went to rest for an hour or two before heading to see Grease, I saw it already on the Harmony but my partner skipped it last time.

It was nice although the sound was not that good, it was missing this wow effect that you expect from such production, such sound that will feel live and surrounds you and not something that sound like a so/so playback from a nice high school   production.

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Once the show was done we headed to eat dinner in Giovanni, the restaurant was quite empty for a sea day and the service was very quick, we got everything very fast. For the main dish I took the filet , which once again was one of the best filet I was eating, highly recommended. We order the dessert and waiters came to sing happy birthday to my spouse.

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After the restaurant we went to do what most of us do not like to do, pack for disembark.

We packed what need to packed and were ready just on time to go and see the quest.

The game itself was highly impacted from the Noro situation as they cancel all the missions which involved contact or other things which can further contributed to the Noro spreading.

So they came up with new missions that were not as funny as the regular once. The fact that it took place in the Pyramid room and not in studio B did not helped.

Just for perspective, comparing to the news I was reading about the Noro break like “people were waiting to run away from the ship” or “the ship became a ghost ship”  the reality was much different , I rarely saw any activities that was canceled or any facilities that were closed.

I am sure it was not fun for people who got it but for me it was well another cruise with some extra line in the WJ for serving food.

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5 hours ago, twangster said:

That was awesome how you decorated for your spouse's birthday!

I agree on 5 day cruises, way too short.  Since I have to fly I usually go for longer ones.  Even 7 days is too short for me :1_grinning:

How was the disembarking process?

 

I will add more on the disembark (waiting for my suitcase at the airport) but it was very fast , around 10 minutes all in all or even less. 

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6 hours ago, twangster said:

That was awesome how you decorated for your spouse's birthday!

I agree on 5 day cruises, way too short.  Since I have to fly I usually go for longer ones.  Even 7 days is too short for me :1_grinning:

How was the disembarking process?

 

Haha! When I read the bit from @Traveler about 5 days being too short I thought to myself right away that even 7 days is too short too!  If I could have my way it would be always a 10-14 night cruise.  Unfortunately 7 days is about it for now. 

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6 hours ago, twangster said:

I agree on 5 day cruises, way too short.  Since I have to fly I usually go for longer ones.  Even 7 days is too short for me :1_grinning:

 

9 minutes ago, Sabrinaklai said:

Haha! When I read the bit from @Traveler about 5 days being too short I thought to myself right away that even 7 days is too short too!  If I could have my way it would be always a 10-14 night cruise.  Unfortunately 7 days is about it for now. 

There's that "kid jail" thing again. I wanted our first cruise to be 14 nights, but thanks to Spring Break being only a week, I had to "settle" for an 8-night run on Freedom as our first. The 5-night I've booked on Anthem for next October was intentional, since I wanted to just "try out" Anthem and see how I'll like her. If we're a good match, I'll see about one of those 12-night trips that @twangster took, even if the kids can't come along. The older one will be 18 by that October sailing, and quite capable of running the house without burning it down. She'll grouse about missing out on travel, but she'll live. :10_wink:

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20 hours ago, JLMoran said:

 

There's that "kid jail" thing again. I wanted our first cruise to be 14 nights, but thanks to Spring Break being only a week, I had to "settle" for an 8-night run on Freedom as our first. The 5-night I've booked on Anthem for next October was intentional, since I wanted to just "try out" Anthem and see how I'll like her. If we're a good match, I'll see about one of those 12-night trips that @twangster took, even if the kids can't come along. The older one will be 18 by that October sailing, and quite capable of running the house without burning it down. She'll grouse about missing out on travel, but she'll live. :10_wink:

We took the 5 days due to work issues (we wanted to be back on Monday at the office).

Before that cruise we done  a 10 days cruise and it felt just perfect .

On the 5 days cruise it felt from day one like its going to end too soon :10_wink:

Not that we are sorry that we took this cruise , it was , as always a wonderful experience. 

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Day 6 - Last day :58_disappointed_relieved:

We got tags number 10 which indicated we should leave around 7:30 AM.

We woke up around 6:45 and got ready to leave. we went down around 7:30 to eat something in the cafe , I just hate going to the WJ in the last morning , its too chaotic like the first day but with a bad taste.

We took the last coffee and some bagels (they add them now so its not just sweet things anymore) and did our way to the gangway on deck 4.

There was long line but we knew there is another exist so we crossed the Casino to see that the other exit was without any lines (always good to check).

It took us around 1 minute to get into the terminal (it was terminal 29) were we took a porter , another minute we identify all our suitcases and went to the custom lines .

There was not any special lines for porters but it went very fast , 2 minutes no more.

As I was booking a car in the airport we took the ship shuttle to FLL , that was a big mistake I have done , i thought it will be better than a cab as we had big suitcases,

Although there might be a shuttle service  of the car rental , I did not find them in the internet (not for the airport anyway).

We found  the RC shuttle very quick but we were one of the first people in the buss so we had to wait 45 minutes until it start to do its way to the airport.

Lucky for us our flight was only around 5 PM ...

We took the car from the airport and started our way to Miami airport , stopping at several shops for last minutes things, after all we had another folded duffel bag we need to fill :1_grinning:

Getting to Miami airport was quite easy , we dropped the car and went to our gate to start our long flight back home. 

 

To conclude , it was another excellent cruise , Indi is well kept and have a very good crew that gives excellent service, the freedom class is just the right size.

Although the Noro outbreak I do not feel as if our experience was harmed or compromised, RC did a good job handled it.

 

Until the next time (currently Sep on Symphony) 

 

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Thanks for another great live blog, @Traveler! You and @twangster, and your live blogs, are the only things keeping from going nuts and jumping up and down shouting "I want it NOW!!" as I'm only 3 days away from starting the double-digit dance for my March cruise on Freedom. Not sure I can hold until your next cruises for another bit of "therapy blog reading"! :3_grin:

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5 minutes ago, JLMoran said:

Thanks for another great live blog, @Traveler! You and @twangster, and your live blogs, are the only things keeping from going nuts and jumping up and down shouting "I want it NOW!!" as I'm only 3 days away from starting the double-digit dance for my March cruise on Freedom. Not sure I can hold until your next cruises for another bit of "therapy blog reading"! :3_grin:

Woohoo!!! Double digits is an exciting milestone!

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Indeed thanks for the great live blog!

11 minutes ago, JLMoran said:

Thanks for another great live blog, @Traveler! You and @twangster, and your live blogs, are the only things keeping from going nuts and jumping up and down shouting "I want it NOW!!" as I'm only 3 days away from starting the double-digit dance for my March cruise on Freedom. Not sure I can hold until your next cruises for another bit of "therapy blog reading"! :3_grin:

I started doing the double digit dance yesterday!  99 hours until Indy...

I'm not sure I need to live blog this upcoming cruise on Indy.  Between @Matt a few weeks ago and now @Traveler what more is there to say?

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2 minutes ago, twangster said:

Indeed thanks for the great live blog!

I started doing the double digit dance yesterday!  99 hours until Indy...

I'm not sure I need to live blog this upcoming cruise on Indy.  Between @Matt a few weeks ago and now @Traveler what more is there to say?

If you're live blogging, I'm still following!  Sadly, Indy is far for me.  But I wanted to wait until after re-furb for the slides.

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28 minutes ago, JLMoran said:

Thanks for another great live blog, @Traveler! You and @twangster, and your live blogs, are the only things keeping from going nuts and jumping up and down shouting "I want it NOW!!" as I'm only 3 days away from starting the double-digit dance for my March cruise on Freedom. Not sure I can hold until your next cruises for another bit of "therapy blog reading"! :3_grin:

Thanks, 

Beside the live blogs I am using Matt podcasts as weekly therapy  :1_grinning:

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17 minutes ago, twangster said:

Indeed thanks for the great live blog!

I started doing the double digit dance yesterday!  99 hours until Indy...

I'm not sure I need to live blog this upcoming cruise on Indy.  Between @Matt a few weeks ago and now @Traveler what more is there to say?

Come on , after my fuzzy pictures its time to give Indi the respect she deserve with some pre  re-furb  pictures.

 

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19 minutes ago, Traveler said:

Totally understood  I accumulate them and some time goes back to old podcasts , but I think we should start a petition for more frequent/longer podcasts :1_grinning: 

 

25 minutes ago, JLMoran said:

Once a week cruise therapy is not enough. I need several times a day! :4_joy:

Hello?  Periscope!  @Matt does a near daily live session on Periscope and some days on Facebook Live.  

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