the_lovely_voyage

The Trip Begins!

Sunday 11/27 we flew United Airlines from Chicago O’Hare to Fort Lauderdale airport. Since our flight was at 8am, the TSA process wasn’t too bad, but I definitely remembered why we prefer Southwest out of Midway. For those of you who don’t have to deal with Chicago airports, consider yourself lucky. We arrived at FLL a little before noon and were out of the airport and waiting for our hotel shuttle by 12:10. We did a Fly, Snooze, and Cruise package from Quality Inn on Stirling Blvd in Hollywood, FL. We did the same hotel package last year and my reviews were less than stellar about the hotel accommodations, but I went ahead and did it this year to 1) give it a second chance, 2) because it wasn’t completely terrible, and 3) it was the cheapest option I was willing to consider. I called the hotel and requested pick up by the shuttle. The woman who answered the phone was a little confused about where we should go, but ultimately we found the sign to stand under. I’m not sure why she was confused- if you get dozens of phone calls like this a week, you should probably know the correct answer. After 20+ minutes of waiting for the shuttle, my fiance called again, when he was told the shuttle was close to our terminal. The waiting process took 25-30 minutes, which was a little frustrating just because we were getting hungry for lunch and wanted to change out of our “Chicago weather clothes.”

We get to the hotel, check-in went fairly quickly, and up to the room we went. This hotel definitely isn’t the newest or fanciest thing around, but it had clean beds, clean towels, and was a safe play to stay. After changing, we walked to the Taco Bell next door for lunch, and then to the Kmart down the street. It’s about a 10 minute walk, nothing strenuous or lengthy, and it’s convenient to walk instead of having to pay for a taxi or Uber.

A word of advice, the Kmart charges A LOT for sunscreen, mostly because it knows it can. I’m sure a lot of cruise passengers stop at Kmart to get supplies, especially those who didn’t check any luggage at the airport so were limited to 3 oz containers. Maybe it seems extra inflated because we live in Iowa, but one spray bottle of sunscreen was like $11, which is pretty ridiculous. Oh well, we knew we’d have to pay since we didn’t bring our own, but we’ll probably check luggage on our longer trip next November to avoid that again.

The Pool and Bar at the Hotel:

After our Kmart adventure, the four of us sat by the pool and read for about an hour before we got ready for dinner. Last November when my fiance and I were in Fort Lauderdale, we met up with a few friends and had dinner on the Hollywood Boardwalk at Ocean’s 13. It’s right across the street from the beach and we had a great time, so we wanted to show my parents the area this time. We took an Uber for $10-15 and walked around the Boardwalk and beach for a while, before making our way to the restaurant. We definitely thought there was going to be a storm since it was incredibly windy, but any rain must have come overnight, because we lucked out the next day during boarding and sail away. Ocean’s 13 is a bar and grill with not a ton of food options, but the food is definitely good and the atmosphere is very relaxed, so we enjoyed ourselves. I would recommend it if anyone’s looking for a place to check out for a pre-cruise dinner and drink place.

Notice the two cruise ships on the left side of the picture! (Also, we always represent the Hawkeyes while traveling, so it's not the last you'll see of the black and gold!)

The sunset was incredible!

Sorry everyone, I have no clue how a week flew by. I work in the education realm so work has been extra busy before winter break. I'm SUPER excited that all of you are following along and I promise I will start work on this today!! I need to remember how to include pictures in the review but also make sure they're not terribly big either. I'll be messing around with it for a little while, I'm sure.

I will definitely post the Cruise Compasses! I can also speak to both of the specialty restaurants (Chops and Giovannis) and provide our opinions on those.

I know you already know about the casino trick, and since I can't speak to the "cash account" thing that Bob explained, I'm going to suggest the casino trick. I did it last week on the Independence and it was really easy. We looked at our statement on the last night to see how much OBC we had used, how much we had left, and went to the casino to ask for that amount. My fiance just had to sign a receipt indicating that he withdrew the money, and that was it.

Hello everyone!

Between the stress of traveling back after our cruise and trying to get back in to the swing of things at work, I've had virtually no time for Cruise Critic (gasp) or other social media sites. I'm still in the process of resizing pictures and determining which ones to use, but hopefully I can start to do that over the next few days. I know that there hasn’t been a ton of recent reviews of the Independence, so hopefully I can provide a ton of good info for you all with upcoming cruises on the ship. CC is a wealth of knowledge and info, and I'd love to continue to give back to those who provided reviews before me.

Who We Are:

My fiancé and I are originally from the Chicago area but are living life out in Iowa (Go Hawkeyes!). We’re both in our mid 20s, this was my 7th cruise and his 3rd. It was terribly unfortunate that I caught the cruising bug early in life, because now my fiancé has it, and as we all know, the only cure is more cruises. So last year when my fiancé and I returned from the NCL Sky and were telling my parents about it, I had the fantastic idea to invite my parents on our next cruise. Fast forward a year and that was this cruise. Turns out it was a bit of a challenge to spend six straight days with my parents, but we all survived. Definitely looking forward to our next cruises where it’s just the two of us again.

This Review:

This review will quickly cover our pre-cruise experience, and a lot about the cruise and the ship itself, including menus, cruise compasses, and lots of photos. Of course opinions will be peppered throughout but I think that I’m fair enough that the negative opinions get outweighed by the positive experiences. I don’t want to tell you “how it is,” but only give insight and explanations of the things we encountered, struggled with, and loved. For future Independence cruisers, I truly think you’ll love the ship!! I know vacations are all about what you make them, and ours was extremely wonderful.

Our sailing was November 28, 2016 out of Port Everglades. We had a day at sea, visited Labadee on 11/30, visted Falmouth on 12/1, and another day at sea after that.

Having HUGE issues boarding Terminal 25 out of Port Everglades for Indy. Computers are letting ~15 people on then breaking again and requiring a reboot. Seems to be all 4 computers too. Currently standing on the ship deck waiting to get scanned in. Guess that counts as "being on the ship"!

More of a heads up or general conversation point and not saying "my cruise is ruined" or being overly whiny. I'll be having a boat drink soon enough!

Following along- we board on Monday!! I'm so thrilled that you took a picture of the Christmas tree. I've never done a holiday-time cruise and I'm looking forward to the decorations!

I'd be interested to hear people's input on Grease onboard Independence as well. More specifically, does anyone have a guess or know what time the shows are? I reached out to Royal for my 11/28 sailing and this was the reply:

Unfortunately, we are unable to advise on what days and times Grease will be shown for your sailing on the Independence of the Seas, as this information can change by sailing. We kindly ask you to please consult the daily Cruise Compass once onboard for show times. We apologize for any disappointment this may cause.

I find it a little hard to believe that they don't know when the shows are (I received a reply when our sailing was 10 days out).

We got the same email about our cruise out of PC in February and we are wondering the same thing. Is the switch to Liberty better? worse? the same?

 

Also, does anyone know what repairs or upgrades the Liberty is getting during its dry dock?

Virtually none that will impact passengers. Per Carnival's website:

Carnival Liberty dry dock: 12/01/16 - 12/16/16

In addition to routine hotel maintenance and cosmetic enhancements in lounges and public areas such as new carpeting, wall coverings, tile work and lighting, the following will take place:

Crew area renovations

Edit: it was the first ship to get Fun Ship 2.0 upgrades in 2011, so it's been up to date for a while

Just asked at the Plaza Bar and Red Bull is definitely included.

 

 

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I really appreciate you taking the time to find out, thank you!

Thanks for doing this! 4 weeks until we sail Indy and I'm incredibly impatient about it. :) I'm a little surprised to see that Red Bull was checked as "included" in the Deluxe Package. In the PDF they initially released, it doesn't say Red Bull as an option, but does say Red Bull & vodka as a cocktail option. Can you (or anyone) confirm that getting just a Red Bull is covered by the Deluxe package?

As far as I know, you still have to prepay gratuities if you do MTD. We did this time and we have never had the option not to before.

 

Simon

We didn't have to prepay with our MTD. It started about a year ago where guests with MTD don't have to prepay anymore. You can if you want but there is an option to opt in/out.

They did publish a document that said beverages from the licensed Starbucks venues were included, but within a few days they changed the document and said they were not included.

But premium coffee drinks from Cafe Promenade is still included with the new package, correct?

We will be on the March 2017 cruise! This will be our "there's no way we can wait until December 2017 for our next cruise, so we should book a short one while we wait" cruise. [emoji51]

 

 

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I SO get this. That's exactly what our April 2017 cruise is for our longer November 2017 cruise!!

Hello,

My husband and I will be cruising on Independence at the end of November to labadee and Jamaica. We've never cruised at this time. So, I'm curious about what other people experienced for weather.

 

What can we expect for weather in late November early December?

 

Thanks

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I'm on the same cruise! Join the roll call.

But to give you a quick answer based on almanacs that I put together months ago, this is what things look like:

We'll be at Labadee on 11/30-

Last year on 12/1/15, the sunrise was 6:07 am, sunset was 5:08pm, the High was 88, Low was 68. The historical average for this day is high 87/low 67.

For Falmouth on 12/1-

Last year on 12/1/15, the sunrise was 6:27am, sunset was 5:33pm, the High was 89, Low was 77. The historical average for this day is high 82/low 74

Obviously this doesn't give a full picture, but it can help!

Not to echo what all the other replies say, but I agree. We go 11/28 on a 5 day and it's hard to get SUPER excited without reading reviews! Looking forward to reading any that get written before then, and I'll definitely write one after we return.

Ooh, following along to see a response. I'll be on 11/28 if no one answers before then, I can try to answer

I also received via text. So glad to have heard something!

Looks like the website is now! At least they were doing e-mails and texts.

Very strange, this most recent update posted above isn't listed on the Royal site yet. That one is still dated from yesterday 6 pm EST. Hopefully they update the site soon for those who don't peruse CC!

Thank you! Mine still says premium ... Maybe it just hasn't switched over yet.

Mine still says Premium too, can't wait until it says Deluxe!

To anyone who might use this as a reference to solve their own problems receiving Chef's Table confirmation, I want to provide a final update. 9 days after my first e-mail to Polina, I e-mailed her again re-asking for her help in contacting the Steakhouse manager to receive a confirmation (or denial) about my Chef's Table request. Polina once again replied very quickly and said she'd check on things for me.

Almost 7 weeks after my initial request and 8 contact attempts, I -finally- received my Chef's Table confirmation! Huge thank you to stargate fan who suggested I e-mail Polina and to MistyRo76 for agreeing that method of communication worked!

Hopefully no one else has to wait 7 weeks, but I'm just so glad it's finally official :)

morninsun86 - I emailed Polina yesterday and included all of my previous attempts at booking the Chef's Table and lack of responses. Polina emailed me back within 12 hours and said that she was copying the Vista Steakhouse Manager on her email as that is who was taking care of Chef's Table requests now. Within 2 hours after I received Polina's email, I received an email from Karina, the Vista Steakhouse Manager, confirming my request.

To follow up, I sent an e-mail to Polina on July 21st, and she replied like 6 minutes later. I was very impressed with the quick reply and she said the same thing, that she copied the Steakhouse manager and she would contact me with availability. It's been almost 72 hours and I'm still waiting. I'm really starting to think that it's not going to happen.

morninsun86 - I emailed Polina yesterday and included all of my previous attempts at booking the Chef's Table and lack of responses. Polina emailed me back within 12 hours and said that she was copying the Vista Steakhouse Manager on her email as that is who was taking care of Chef's Table requests now. Within 2 hours after I received Polina's email, I received an email from Karina, the Vista Steakhouse Manager, confirming my request. The exact note I received is copied below:

 

Your reservation request for 2 guests at The Chef’s Table is confirmed!

 

The final date and time will be finalized once you are onboard.

 

Should your plans change please keep us advised at Vssupper@carnival.com.

 

We look forward to serving you!

 

Give it a try!

Oh wow, that's awesome! I'm so happy that worked for you. :D I'll definitely compose an e-mail to her right now and hopefully have a positive update in the next few days!

You can actually book your reservation from the website now. I think this is really new, because I went through the whole email rigamarole too.

 

Go to the site, manage my booking, and it's listed at the bottom of all the things you can manage (shore excursions at the top). You can select the steakhouse, Cucina (if your ship has it) and Chef's table.

 

I made our Cucina del Capitano reservations here too.

 

I don't think I'd risk waiting to book it until boarding. I think space is pretty limited.

 

Hope this helps!

Big thanks to you and the other replies about booking it online via the Carnival website. I just went ahead and sent a reservation request through My Cruise Manager, so we'll see what comes of that!

Try emailing Vista Steakhouse Manageress Polina at PGrytsenko@carnival.com

Oh wow, awesome! I will definitely keep this in mind in case I still don't hear anything back from trying it through the Cruise Manager. Thanks :)

I don't have any other suggestions for you...just wanted to let you know that I am in the same boat! We're on the November 12, 2017 sailing on the Vista. I've tried submitting the form online, emailing event planning, emailing the steakhouse manager and putting a note on John Heald's FB page. Nothing back other than standard auto-replies. Someone else on here said that they got a confirmation for their Jan., 2018 Vista cruise, so I can't imagine that it's the timing of the cruise that is holding things up. It is very frustrating!

Ugh. Not the boat I want to be in, as I'm sure you agree! We're right before you on the Nov. 4th sailing, but it's weird that Jan. 2018 already can be confirmed. Well here's hoping someone has some input that can help both of us get to that table!

Alright, I've been patient trying to wait to hear back from Carnival. I totally get they are a large corporation and processes move slow, but I've waited 5 weeks to hear about my Chef's Table request for next November on the Vista. It'll be my honeymoon cruise and I know we both would love to experience Chef's Table for the first time.

I sent an email request to Event Planning on June 13th, sent an e-mail to the Vista Maitre'D on June 22nd (who said he would send my request to the Steakhouse manager who would contact me but hasn't), I sent a follow-up e-mail on July 6th to the Maitre'D, and I was in contact with CCL Support via Twitter and e-mail on July 8th (who said I'd hear back within 7 days).

What's my next step? I -REALLY- don't want to just give up. This would be a very special addition to our honeymoon cruise. I know people reach out to John Heald via FB but I feel like my request would get lost among other wall posts. Does it normally take 5 weeks to hear any sort of yes/no confirmation? I'd really appreciate any expertise and advice on this!