brew99

Toddcan - great review. We were on the Indy as well and just returned today after a night in Ft Lauderdale. First time on RCI for us and was quite impressed. A few things stood out:

Not Over-crowded - even though this sailing was completely sold out (lots of school breaks including ours in Ontario), I rarely felt like the ship was too crowded. The pools were busy on sea days but not overwhelming. MDR was quite full but it did not detract from service. All other venues were easy to manage and find a seat.

Ship the right size - while massive, it felt manageable and well planned out. I have heard of others complaining of Oasis class being too big but the Indy felt just about right.

Great itinerary - when looking back in Sept/Oct I wanted an itinerary that offered interesting ports of call plus a private island type experience having previously been to Castaway Cay with Disney. Very happy with this itinerary and with Labadee.

Skip the Wifi - while it was a little painful it was good for us and our kids to be without for the week. For a quick fix, restaurants and bars in port offered free wifi to paying customers.

Food was really good all around - MDR quality of food was impressive and we liked both Chops and Giovanni's. Most of our group actually liked Giovanni's better than Chops.

Service - all around very good. MDR staff were excellent and everyone seemed in good spirits across the ship. An area for improvement however could be wait staff in some of the lounges and in the pub when sometime it seemed like they disappeared for a long time.

Overall, an excellent time!

Does anyone have any recommendations on which is the best place to snorkel? looking for relatively easy experience that the kids will be able to handle (10 year old). Thanks!!!

Does anyone have any recommendations on which is the best place to snorkel? looking for relatively easy experience that the kids will be able to handle (10 year old). Thanks!!!

Does anyone have any recommendations on which is the best place to snorkel? looking for relatively easy experience that the kids will be able to handle (10 year old). Thanks!!!

Safes are safe.

I called and just added a second $499 USD via gifts and gear at the same 1.10 exchange rate. I added my first OBC a few days back.

Oh dear, now I am really worried!

 

We don't want two weeks of being over a noisy kitchen!

 

If anyone has any information we would be out grateful!

 

Thank you.:confused::eek:

I asked a similar question a while back as we are in 6664. The responses in this thread made me feel much better:

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=2143148

Just added $499 USD OBC at 1.10 exchange rate. Any amount of $500 or over needs a faxed request to 800-722-5810 with photo ID and both sides of credit card along with letter requesting amount, name, reservation number.

I asked if an email with all of the same info in a scanned attachment would work and unfortunately the answer is no. I don't even remember the last time I used a fax machine or where it even is at the office!

Ok folks, I think that the OP got her question answered and then some. Shall we move along?

Hello TL, See the below link:

http://media.royalcaribbean.com/content/shared_assets/pdf/menus/beverage_packages.pdf

Also see this thread:

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=2116872

Glad I found this thread!

I noticed the price of the premium beverage package has jumped from around $950 cdn to just over $1,100 cdn (8-day cruise for two people) over the last few weeks. Quite the jump in price in only a few short weeks!

At this price RCI is charging a 1.23 exchange rate USD to CDN (or 0.81 CDN to USD) based on the comparable price point in US funds for the premium drink pkg. This is better than the current prevailing bank of CDA rate by a few cents and likely better by a few more compared to your bank.

Question, can I apply an OBC to the cost of the beverage pkg?

I am wondering if any exceptions are made for kids moving to a different age range for the Adventure Ocean Youth programs? Our DD who is 10 would really like to hang out with her buddy who is 12 but according to the age breaks they will be in separate groups (9-11 and 12-14). I cam imagine that she will likely also make friends but it may be tough to get her to event try if her buddy is not along with her. Has anyone had any similar experiences and do they make exceptions?

My parents did a reservation for 11 in Chops on our cruise in December. That was just the adults. The 7 kids weren't invited, and none of them (7 and younger) would have appreciated the food anyway. :D

So it sounds like they can accommodate larger parties which is good. I believe that the specialty restaurants all have kids menus otherwise my kids would starve (or eat just bread). :)

We are getting closer to our March sailing on Indy and wondering about specialty dining and kids. We have two families that include 4 adults and 5 kids. The kids range in age from 6 to 13.

I believe that I saw somewhere that the largest party size for specialty dining is 6 people. If we did two reservations, one for 5 and one for 4 would they generally try to seat you together? Also wondering if they would permit all 5 kids to sit by themselves and the 4 adults sit at the other table?

We already have some adult only specialty reservations but wonder if it's doable to bring the kids along somehow.

Thx!!!

We are in 6664 so I hope not!!!!

Note that the ONLY rental car company that provides a shuttle from the airport to the port is National/ Alamo. The other companies have offices closer to the Port in addition to being at the airport. Make sure that your drop off location is one that services the port.

 

Thom

Very handy to know as we plan to use National given my status with them. Now do I drop the wife and kids off first or not......hmmm....

Your post just made me realize that we'll be on Independence for St Paddy's! What might we expect other than green beer?

Excellent - thanks for the re-assurance!!! Great to hear from others who have stayed right in that same area - thanks!!

Thanks for the feedback. I spent some time searching through the site and in particular the cabin reviews and did not see any concerns in any posts. Based on the deck plans it looks like these rooms would not be directly over the dining room but over the kitchen facilities so my guess is they have it well engineered.

Hi, quick question on the cabin we have selected on the Independence. We are in cabin 6664 (D1) for March 14th Eastern Caribbean sailing. As I am checking out the deck plans, I notice that we might be over top of the kitchen area on deck 5 for the King Lear Dining room (or that is my assumption). Does anyone know if cabins toward the aft past the hump have any noise issues from deck 5 below? Thx!