M&JfromSDL

Tough call. With 2 kids in the room and a 12 night cruise, I think I would actually splurge for the balcony.

I wouldn't bother. Just another thing to worry about. All of the porters at the pier have tags to slap on your bags.

Thanks for all the positive comments. I will do my best to post as quickly as possible. I have a long day at work ahead of me.

Loving all the detail!! We are sailing 2/28 first time with RC. any chance you remember a beer list? I have scoured site, and even emailed a request but the response was wine and liquor info. Also love to see food porn, menus and excursion info!

 

 

Jess

Hi Jess. I'm pretty sure I have a photo of the beer list from the pub somewhere. I will look for it. Most of the other bars stock Bud light, Miller Light, Corona and have Heineken and Boddingtons on draft. Some had Stella in place of Boddingtons. Not much in the way of selection. The Dog and Badger had by far the best selection of beer.

I am enjoying your review so much. You even caught a picture of the balcony hump cabin that we will be in on Saturday. Love the pictures and indepthness of it all. I hope most of your cruise will be posted before we head out on Thursday night. Love it, love it and did I say love it!:D

Our plan was to go lay out by the pool but the weather was a little chilly and SUPER windy on Sunday. At one point I looked at one of the TV monitors and we had a 45mph prevailing wind.

So we went to where any warm blooded American would go on vacation, with a full tummy and a cold beer... the casino.

Here's a shot of the standard bar menu onboard. Check it out, no prices!

After we made some money in the casino we returned to our our cabin for a nap. Tonight was formal night and we wanted to enjoy a late night out.

I had a little surprise in store for Mrs. M&JfromSDL. While she was getting ready in the bathroom I put on the mysterious new "black suit" I purchased before the cruise. She was pretty surprised to walk into the cabin and see me there in a full tuxedo.

We love Vintages. I repeat, we LOVE Vintages. So after we dressed we went upstairs sat at the bar, introduced ourselves to Jayesh and enjoyed a couple glasses of Moet.

The Promenade was packed and the crowed looked great. There were quite a few guys in tuxedos.

Sunday, January 4th

We made a point of exploring the gym on Saturday and signed up for a yoga class for Sunday morning.

So bright and early we were up for our 8am Yoga class. The Yoga class was $12 + 15% gratuity each. I actually enjoyed it. It wasn't too difficult. My wife is an experienced yogi and found zero challenge in the class. She understood many people may not be at her level. For $12 the ship offers a variety of exercise classes that allow you to try them without the pressure and environment of say a home gym.

After yoga we worked out in the gym for a bit and then headed to the 10am Meet and Mingle.

Not much as far as pics go. We did see a HAL ship pass us by from Olive and Twist.

The RCCL crew handed out a few pieces of schwag, an couple of internet packages and a handful of bottles of wine. We didn't win anything so we took our trick RCCL notepad/nametag holders and left.

We hit the Windjammer for a late breakfast. I enjoyed the breakfast ham, a great cheesesteak sandwich and some kind of chicken.

This Plaza bar area is the best place to sit at the Windjammer. There's always seats, close to grab a drink (especially the orange juice machine); and offers great people watching of all the people getting attacked by the Purell lady. WASHY WASHY!

Thx! Can't wait to read more..We are going on the 8 night in March..Did you find a good place to be on sail away?

Our favorite place on a Freedom-class ship is the bow. Right at the front. Get there early for a great spot. Later on in the cruise we usually went up to deck 12. There's so much energy on the initial sailaway that you could be in almost any outdoor space and it wouldn't matter.

I was a bad boy and left my camera in the room for dinner. Sorry, no food porn.

This was our first time doing My Time dining. We were apprehensive about the whole thing. We love meeting new people and having the same table mates throughout the cruise. We've had great luck meeting people to explore ports with and just having fun around the ship. We still keep in contact with some of our cruise buddies from years ago.

Luckily tonight our dinner group was excellent! By a stroke of odd luck all of our table mates except 1 were from the Northern VA/DC area. One couple lived around the block from us at one point. The solo traveler at our table is on the Allure right now. Hope she's enjoying her cruise!

For dinner I had the Prime Rib. It was okay, a little thin but cooked as requested and flavorful.

After dinner we did what most do and headed to the casino for a little of our favorite slot machine, Kitty Glitter.

Then we made a donation at the Blackjack table.

The day was sort of a blur. I'm not entirely sure what we did after finishing up in the casino, but it probably involved some exploration of the ship, a stop at Vintages followed by a pre-bed slice of Pizza.

Best sound ever! The crazy wind blocked out the sound of the crowd cheering as we entered the channel and the Captain sounded the horn.

[YOUTUBE]CHYHtaauHHM[/YOUTUBE]

After a few glasses of champagne, we were ready for something with caffeine (and alcohol). So it was down to the Cafe Promenade for a Captain's Call (espresso, whip, cognac, etc.). Then back to the room to get changed for dinner.

One of our suitcases had arrived but it only had shoes. So we went to dinner as we were.

Perfect day to jump on the water taxi and watch the cruise ships sail out. But it was an even better day to be on one of the ships!

Oasis getting further away.

How awesome was the light?

Our turn!

We explored the ship for a bit. Checked out the dining room and then our room was open right at 1pm.

Muster was a P.I.T.A. Kinda long. Missed watching Oasis sail out of the channel.

Liberty's turn. Then the Westerdam.

See ya Sister...

Do we look excited?

You all know the feeling...

Lots of ships in port with us

Oasis

Liberty

2 Princess Ships

2 Holland America

We sat down at the Champagne bar and had our first glass [of many] Moet and Chandon. We turned into champagne snobs on this cruise. By the 3rd day we would encounter the odd bar that didn't carry the good stuff and we were t stuff and tried to suffer through the Domaine Chandon. LOL

Saturday, January 3rd

We took a cab to the airport instead of the hotel shuttle. Cab ride was $20 and we enjoyed the ride in a nice Cadillac Escalade.

Embarkation:

Smooooovvvvvv… We arrived at Port Everglades around 10am and were sitting at the Champagne bar by 11am.

We were within the first 100-200 people onboard. It was pretty neat to walk around the ship with so few people onboard.

We didn’t realize until well into the cruise but the nice lady at the check in counter forgot to give us WOW cards and Guest Services does not carry them.

We made our way to the first drink package table, signed some paperwork and got our first of 2 UP drink stickers attached to our SeaPass cards.

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Looking forward to your review! Any chance that you will be posting the Cruise Compass? I know there is an older version posted but I'd be interested to see a more recent copy since we are on the ship in March.

 

Thank you for taking the time to do a review!

I have most of the Compass' and will try to scan and add to the thread.

Friday, January 2nd

We flew down to Fort Lauderdale nonstop on JetBlue. I think JetBlue has one of the best coach products in domestic travel today. We flew out of Reagan National, which is easy to reach via cab. We had enough to time to grab a pre-vacation beer and a burger.

Takeoff over the Pentagon

We landed in Fort Lauderdale just before midnight. Our hotel was the Sheraton Fort Lauderdale Hotel and Cruiseport. Hotel rates that night were off the charts so I burned some points for the night. The hotel was disappointing. Rooms were outdated, elevators were scary.

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Independence of the Seas

January 3, 2015

8-day Eastern Caribbean Cruise

Little about us:

We are an early-30-something couple from Virginia. This is my (DH) 6th cruise and the wife’s 4th. Our first cruise together was on Radiance, Allure next and then we were engaged on Freedom a little over 2 years ago and have done a handful of land vacations since then. Cruising holds a special place in our heart and when the sea called roughly 3 weeks before sailing, we grabbed our shell phone and answered. :D

My wife is well into graduate school so I booked this trip to reward her for her hard work and because well… I wanted to go on a cruise. I booked via USAA. Got a great deal on an oceanview cabin (3548). We missed the balcony from our previous cruise exactly…once. I was glad to have the extra scratch to buy an Ultimate drink package and I used the savings to treat my birthday girl to a cabana day in Labadee.

I have a habit of writing wordy reviews, which no one reads. I know everyone wants to skim and look at pictures (including me). So I’ll save the blah and add some extra pics.

I ended up going with the Ultimate Package for our upcoming cruise due to the champagne promotion RCCL is offering. It ended up being about $100 more but saves me from having to buy 2 bottles of Champagne to carry on board so I basically break even.

Thanks for posting your review. We sail on the Jan 3rd 8-day itinerary on IoS and are getting very excited!

I was looking to book one for our Indy cruise. It says to check onboard when searching through the shore excursion page. I was hoping to reserve one for my wife and I to celebrate her birthday.

I learned the other day that we are docked in Labadee along with Grandeur so they may be reserved at this point.

Thanks for sharing. I was in high school back in 2001 when my family booked a cruise on the Empress. Our sailing was the one directly after the fire cruise, so we were rebooked on Enchantment.

I can remember watching her sail down the Hudson River in the weeks ahead of our cruise. Beautiful ship.

We are having a similar debate in our house.

Allure Eastern 7 day

Indy Eastern 8 Day

We've sailed on Allure and Freedom. We love the restaurants, Solarium and some of the amenities on Allure. We love the overall size of Freedom, people watching from Vintages on Freedom-class. What adds further debate is for the same money...Boardwalk balcony on Allure...Oceanview balcony on Indy. #firstworldproblems

Assuming the price difference isn't much or is within the vacation budget, I'd take the ocean view balcony any day of the week.

I can sit on my balcony and stare at the open ocean for hours...listening to the waves and relaxing. I think I would enjoy the boardwalk balcony but would miss the privacy of the ocean view.

There is quite the debate in the M&JfromSDL household right now. We are trying to choose between an oceanview balcony on a Freedom-class ship vs. a boardwalk balcony on Allure. Decisions... decisions...

I sailed on Radiance a few years back (Mexican Riviera). On the way back to San Diego we were getting tossed around in our foward cabin so bad we could not stand in the room to pack. So off we went to the lounge at the rear of the ship to play cards until the seas calmed down.

Needless to say it's midship and aft cabins for us from now on.

We've sailed both and are looking to book another cruise for January 2015. Honestly, we were a little disappointed when we realized FoS is going to drydock and we will have to sail on Allure. While the ship is gorgeous, has tons of amenities and great restaurants Freedom just always seemed like the right size and scale.

Morning carafe of coffee from room service; pre-dinner cocktail and/or a night cap on the balcony are our favorite uses. Enjoy your vacation!

When I checked the price of the cruise I booked for next August and saw the price increase, I knew there was a "sale" coming up:eek:

 

Sea Ya

I've been burned by the WOW Sale before. Got in with the low deposit then a week after my cabin price dropped by $500. A few days ago, I went to book an OV balcony on Allure for January 2015...$1800/pp. Just like you I smelled an upcoming "sale" and decided to hold off. I think I'll wait a bit longer.