bigque

No issues with arrival time at all. Didn’t do any of the shows on this cruise. Not because I wasn’t interested but I wound up doing other things and would just miss them. That is the problem with short 3 day cruises…. If you want to do something like a show you just have to have made up in your mind to just go in spite of what you might be doing at the time. I did go to the 70’s and 80’s show on the promenade and late night club up in Olive & Twist.

Ok let me do this quick review of my cruise June 10-13 2022 on Independence of the Seas. This is my review of how I saw it and what you have seen may be totally different. I will give an A, B C, D, F grade. This is my first cruise since October 2019 pre pandemic. I have been cruising since 2008 all on Royal. Not putting my C&A status as that will not give anything extra to the review. Had a Western Med cruise booked in 2020 but of course it was canceled. This was my test the water cruise to see how things are going. Arrived in Cocoa Beach the day before as always. Our check-in time for day of cruise was 11:30 and we arrived at the port at 10:00. At that time there was no line of cars and we drove right up to the luggage drop off and dropped off luggage and then right up the ramp to park. Went down to the terminal and first greeted by a rep who checked vaccination cards, set sail pass and and Covid test paperwork and were then allowed to enter. Once inside (No mask required) we were directed to a rep (No lines) who checked everything plus the passports and after everything checked out we were directed to have a seat until boarding starting at 11:00. It was now 10:35. So I don’t know what it’s like later when there are a lot of people but getting there early was pretty smooth. Doors opened at 11:00 and various groups Like pinnacles, Daimond plus, diamond etc. followed by 11:00 folks and then 11:30. 11:30 was actually called about 11:20. Boarded ship and first went to Izumi as we entered right near there to make reservations for Izumi on the 3rd night. We had the Chops + 1 dining package and I had already reserved Chops for the 2nd night in the app. We were eating in the MDR on the first night. Advisable to go and get your reservations done when you 1st board the ship. We went right there and the only time we could get for Izumi was 7:45 on night 3 unless we took 6:00 on the first night which we didn’t want. After going to Izumi we went to the Windjammer for lunch. We purchased one drink package and one refreshment package so at the table outside the Windjammer we picked up our cups that you can use at the soda machines around the ship. If you have a drink, refreshment or soda package get your cup at one of these tables around the ship selling packages or at any of the bars as they do not leave them in your room. I will make a food review down below. After eating lunch and walking around, going to MDR to see where our table was located we then went to the Ale & Anchor on the Promenade to hang out till the rooms were ready. Rooms were ready promptly at 1:30. Review of facilities: Room: Spacious Ocean View Balcony Clean and smelt clean. Nothing unusual or out of place. Bed was firm but not overly and provided a comfortable sleep for the 3 day cruise. Saw the room steward once a day. We only asked him to provide ice each day and that he did. Left towels on the floor to be replaced and he did. Left them hanging to not be replace and he didn’t. Showed his face but was not overbearing. Grade- A Food: Windjammer: Ate here boarding day lunch, 2nd day breakfast and 3 day lunch. Breakfast and lunch was pretty much the same as it’s always been over the years. Plenty of different food items to choose from and I tried different things and I pretty much enjoyed everything I tried. I couldn’t try everything so I can’t speak on everything but as I said what I had was pretty good. I have no issues with serving yourself as that is the way it was pre pandemic and buffets I go to at home is still serve yourself. Grade - B MDR: I had Shrimp Cocktail, Escargot, Caribbean Jerk Pork Chops, Key Lime Pie. - Grade - B She had Chicken Waldorf Salad, Roasted Chicken Breast - Grade- B They did not have the dinner bread basket with all the various types of breads as in times past so that was kind of disappointing. Did not have an assistant waiter so the waiter did everything that he normally does and what the assistant usually do also. Chops: we usually eat at Chops once every cruise just to get away from the hustle and bustle of the MDR for a night. I had the Colossal Jumbo Shrimp Cocktail, and a Crispy Goat Cheese Salad. Both were delicious and big Jumbo shrimp as always. My entree was the 9 oz filet and I paid extra $21 for the 1 1/2 pound Broiled Maine Lobster to have a surf and turf. The lobster was very good with the lemon and drawn butter. My steak was good with flavor but I ordered it Med Rare and half of it was Rare. After eating a portion of it I had the waiter take it back to have them put back on the grill to get some more cook on it which they were happy to do. She had the Maryland Lump Crab Cake, Goat Cheese salad and Organic Roasted Chicken and enjoyed it all. Excellent service and everything moved along at a nice evenly pace. Grade - B but could have been an “A” if my steak would have come out perfectly. Izumi: First time trying this We had the Hibachi Grill side. We were seated with 3 other couples and a single guy. The waiter and the cook were very good and the cook was very entertaining as he prepared the food on the grill before you. If you have ever been to Nakato’s or Kabuto Japanese Steak Houses then this is on par with those land based establishments. I was in the military and stationed in Okinawa Japan for 3 years so it was not good as over there though. Everything was great full of flavor. We had the the chicken and shrimp and they give you plenty of vegetables and fried rice. You leave very full. Oh and the saki no’s very good also! If you really want to do something different for a night this is a good place! Grade - A Room service breakfast: Did this on the 3rd day of the cruise as we like to do breakfast on our balcony at least once. Filled out the menu card and hung outside our door before the prescribed time and put a time for it to be delivered @ 7:00AM. Received the call at about 6:50 to let us know that they were on their way. They knocked on the doors out 7:05. We had ordered items from both the continental side and the hot side of the menu. Everything we ordered came as ordered. Was the hot food piping hot like you were sitting in a restaurant??? No of course not as it has to be transported from the kitchen to your room. It did have a significant amount of warmth to still be enjoyable though. The food was just ok. The coffee was typical yucky room service coffee. Nonetheless the less we had a nice breakfast enjoying our tradition of breakfast on the balcony. Tipped the room service delivery guy 3 bucks. Grade - C Suggested Dress at Dinners: Over the 3 nights you saw people dressed in various styles of dress including shorts. Other than the Windjammer I think the only thing we didn’t see in the MDR or specialty restaurants was swimwear or tank top shirts. On formal/dress your best night we saw the same around the ship taking pictures and also some in tux and gowns. We ate at Chops on that night so I really don’t know how folks were dressed in the MDR. at Chops and Izumi people were casually dressed on both nights we were there including some folks in shorts and colorful T-shirts. Bars: Bar service was pretty good for the 3 days. Never had a long wait at any bar I went to other than the bar in the casino. Drinks were good. Typical 1 oz shots in the drinks as I watched them pour them when making my drinks and they seem to be careful not to overpour a little extra as in times past. Had the ole traditional Coco Loco on Coco Cay and it is still an old favorite! Couldn’t find a bartender to pour a little extra by giving a nice big tip on this cruise. GRade A- Sorrentos: When I think of the National Chain Pizza places I would compare Sorrentos with Little Caesars with the $5 hot and ready pizza. Definitely not the best pizza but not the worst neither. It gets the job done for late night before heading back to the room after gambling in the casino or partying. Grade - C Perfect Day @ Coco Cay: First time to Coco Cay since they built up Perfect day. A real incredible place. Lots to do and fun for everyone of all ages. Royal did a good job of creating an beach/water park oasis. We rented a day bed on Chill Island and that is where we hung out for the day so sorry no review on the water park. We were docked with Freedom of the Seas and the island did not seem crowded with 2 ships being there. Ate the Free lunch available and this hasn’t changed much over the years and was the typical beach cookout food with burgers, hot dogs, chicken, salads and various side dishes and a very good taco bar. This is not gourmet food so don’t be looking for such. It is what it is so I have nothing to really complain about there. There was staff that walked around taking drink orders but not as many as in times past due to staff shortages and sometimes it was better to just walked to the closest bar to get a drink yourself even though we did order from a staff member once during the day. Biggest disappointments was the cost of cabanas these days. If people want to pay those price well good for them but IMHO I think the price is ridiculously steep to what they were before Perfect Day and the prices at Labadee. Another disappointment was the Jet Ski excursions which I had booked was canceled because they said the seas were too choppy. I had seen much choppier at Coco Cay in times past and they use to refund you money for the excursion only if you decline to do it because of the choppy seas and you could still do it if you wanted to. Now they refund everybody and cancel. All in all it was a great beach day and enjoyed it. Grade -A Nassau: No plans for Nassau other than getting off about 9:00 and walking down Bay Street which is the main drag and looking through the stores and things and went through the straw market for some cheap souvenirs. I did catch a good deal on a watch at one of the jewelry stores. After walking around for about an hour checking out the various stores we headed back to the ship to spend the rest of the day on board. As many have said it is a pretty long walk down the pier till you get out to the street so have good walking shows on. I believe that some folks give Nassau a bad rep as far as saying it is not safe there. Walking around there was never a time were we didn’t feel as safe as any port we have been in. With 5 ships in port there are so many people walking around all over the place as well as a good police presence walking the streets you really do not have much to worry about. Now we are not stupid though and if we looked down a side street and didn’t see much people there we didn’t walk there. Nassau is what it is. You either like it or you don’t. - No grade as we did nothing to grade Disembarkation Day: We opted to do self assist departure rather than leaving our luggage out the night before. The self assis departures start at 7:15 and we got down to the 4th deck at about 7:00 and was greeted with the line from hell. There were two lines and one started at the exit on 4th deck and snaked it’s way through the casino. The other line started at its exit adsnaked it’s way out the other exit by the schooner bar and down the entire length of the outside of the ship on the 4th deck. It seems like everybody does self assist nowadays. They did not start letting people off until about 7:35. This was due to them having to wait to cops boarded the ship to take someone off the ship in handcuffs. Don’t know what he did. Once the line started moving it moved along pretty fast. When you finally made it off you were directed to lines for folks with passports or a line with people with birth certificates. We went to the line with passports and I really like the new customs technology. You just stand on a spot facing a camera that does facial recognition and if it lights up green and says proceed on you are out. Cool! So we were in line at 7:00 and in our car in the parking garage by 8:00. If not for the delay we probably would have been out to the car by 7:30 or so! THis was our 3rd time doing the 3 day Bahama cruise on 3 different ships. On the 3 day I don’t think you get to experience everything you want to do as it moves along so fast and before you know it it’s over. You just go go go all the time to try to get everything in that you might want to do especially the newbies to cruising. Is old timers know how to pace things out and and if we miss something then oh well we just missed it. Biggest excitement for me this cruise was winning big at the roulette table in the casino. Independence is a nice ship and we were use to it having cruises on Freedom before which is the same class of ship. Previous 3 day cruises was on Sovereign and Enchantment so we like this much better. There were some hiccups but for me they were to be expected in this pandemic era we are living in but I think they are doing pretty good with what they have to work with right now and I already booked my next cruise while on board. Overall Cruise Experience Grade - B

It ever cease to amaze me the people who want you to conform to what they think the style should be in a restaurant so that they can feel a certain way! Wow!

If I get the drink package I never think about if I am breaking even or not. I don’t know if I had 4 drinks in a day or 5 or 6 or 3. I don’t go get a Johnny Rocket’s shake or go get a soda or latte just to try to make up for the cost of the package just so I can say it was worth it. It is what it is and at the end of the cruise I am happy and content with however it worked out.

I stayed in a hump cabin on deck 9 on Serenade and if there was a party in the Centrum you could hear but it was more like a low muffled sound and not loud or noisy at all. I only know because I had to go to my room for something while an event was happening but I was in and back out. When I would go to bed at night there was nothing going that would have any noise.

It’s not even like that on the ship. They are not taking it back to the kitchen to give back to a chef to re cook or re heat your food. They are not back there preparing meals to order. Your waiter will just dump what you didn’t want and then go to one of the various stations and ask for another meal. With as many meals they are serving they don’t have time for pettiness. They are sending out food for over a thousand people at each service not a hundred or so like at a land based restaurant.

I got news for some of y’all after having done the ships tour before……….. The MDR food and the Windjammers food Is all cooked in the same kitchen by the same cooks. 👀

I would love for one person to post the written “Code” of dress that actually say no shorts, etc. Not a “suggested” dress attire but a “code” that must be followed!

I’m sure all the cruise lines are fighting for experienced crew members from the same talent pool so it has to be hard to get experience right now!

We like the Chops + 1 concept. We get it just to get away from the hustle and bustle of the MDR a couple of nights and not because the MDR food is not good. People say why do it with all the free offerings. We know what we can get free and when we cruise we save and budget for different things we like on the cruise and a couple of night specialty restaurants is one of those things. I don’t get in looking for some 5 star experience but if we get that fine and if it is less than that then fine also. Don’t cancel your reservation but go and see for yourself and if you don’t like it then don’t do it again.

I have used a debit card on every cruise I have ever been on since 2008 and never had a problem!