B2B on Indy ~ Dec. 1 & 7 ~ My Diary

[maxs mom]

Enjoyed your review and looking forward to reading about your second week on which we sailed this leg with you.

 

Yes, Lauren! I have lots of good pictures from that leg...."The Senior Cruise"!! LOL!! Keep checking back!

[WWbytheSEA]

Hi Jane, Do you know if Captain Teo will still be the Indy Captain when I get onboard this coming Sunday. I have looked at the current Captain thread but it looks like he is on a 10 week rotation which he started on October 19 so he may be off??

 

Did you get a chance to meet him??

[knittinggirl]

Yes.....they are on almost every ship.....every one that we've been on except the Freedom. They have had this going on for several years now. One of our favorite perks!

I thought it was only on the ships w/o a diamond lounge. Was it listed in the letter from our Concierge? We've enjoyed it on several ships that didn't have the Diamond lounge. BTW, we're just diamonds, so I'm talking about the Diamond Concierge.

Edited December 24, 2013 by knittinggirl

[CRUISEMAMI]

Hi Jane, Do you know if Captain Teo will still be the Indy Captain when I get onboard this coming Sunday. I have looked at the current Captain thread but it looks like he is on a 10 week rotation which he started on October 19 so he may be off??

 

Did you get a chance to meet him??

 

Captain Remo will return to Indy, jan 12!!!

 

 

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[Silvery Seas Cruiser]

My goodness! Delroy was our waiter too! Delroy and Omdish. Omdish told us the last night that he was just promoted and will be a full waiter on the very next cruise. We really liked both of them.

 

We always requested them when we went to the MTD around 8:00PM. They must have been very popular because the person who assigned tables at the entrance seemed to always act as if it would be difficut to get Delroy and Omdish, bit somehow we did get them every time.

 

One night it was so funny. Delroy had a name tag with the name Petra. Come to find out, she is his fiance and also works in the MDR. She is Bulgarian. Delroy was in a hurry to get to his post and picked up her name tag by mistake. So we called him Petra the rest of the evening. He was very good natured about it.

 

I'm just loving your review. Post some more. We must have been running around right in your footsteps everywhere. My son and DIL even went to the Flowrider competition the last night. They must have seen you too.

[Silvery Seas Cruiser]

Yes' date=' Lauren! I have lots of good pictures from that leg...."The Senior Cruise"!! LOL!! Keep checking back!

 

 

WE didn't realize that we were on a "senior Cruise" until our son and DIL who are in their late thirties pointed out to us that they felt very young on the ship. We are seventy and we felt young too.

 

I asked Raj in the CL, trying to phrase it delicately, that I noticed that a large majority of passengers seemed to be in the eighties and even more senior than that. I wondered if Independence is always like that or was it a special group cruise or what.

 

His answer ws very interesting. He told me these seniors love to cruise in December but do not enjoy the massive number of children on the holiday cruises. He said the next two cruises would have over one thousand children on each cruise.

 

Some of the seniors were very inspiring. There was a couple dancing in Boleros who had to be every bit of ninety plus. I really admired them for ther energy. I vowed then and there that Hubby and I would dance in Boleros when we are in our mid-nineties. (We might even be Pinnacle by then...maybe.)

[maxs mom]

Hi Jane, Do you know if Captain Teo will still be the Indy Captain when I get onboard this coming Sunday. I have looked at the current Captain thread but it looks like he is on a 10 week rotation which he started on October 19 so he may be off??

 

Did you get a chance to meet him??

 

Yes....I did meet Captain Teo. Very personable. He noticed my camera and we struck up a conversation about it and the photography that he enjoys. As Franca said.....Captain Remo will be back on board Jan.12th....and she should know. She and Capt. Remo are big buddies!

[maxs mom]

I thought it was only on the ships w/o a diamond lounge. Was it listed in the letter from our Concierge? We've enjoyed it on several ships that didn't have the Diamond lounge. BTW, we're just diamonds, so I'm talking about the Diamond Concierge.

 

Yes....I thought that, too......but it is alive and well on the Indy. But as I said.....we did not have it on Freedom. Those are the only two Freedom Class ships that we have been on.

[maxs mom]

Gangway Style......Yes.....we must have been following each other for the whole time!! We ate in MTD around 8:30 every night. When I first made the reservations with Cynde, I asked her to give us the best and she put us with Delroy. We were in a different part of the dining room the next week, though.

 

Those seniors!!! OMG! I'll get into that later in the review! But that was something else!

[CRUISEMAMI]

Yes....I thought that' date=' too......but it is alive and well on the Indy. But as I said.....we did not have it on Freedom. Those are the only two Freedom Class ships that we have been on. [/size']

 

Hope they will have it on Liberty!

I'll report as soon as we get home!!!

MERRY CHRISTMAS TO ALL!

 

 

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[wolfganghowell]

More more more! Oh boy Christmas is going to get in the way of reading more on your 8 day cruise - our itinerary! Thank you for taking the time to do this.

 

Great info about Raj - I look forward to meeting him. Since you know him, any advice on when would be a good time to email him to reserve a cabana for our 3/1 cruise? Should I drop your name? ;) So…what was the great book you couldn't put down? I always over think what books to take. I want it to be good but not so good that I spend too much time reading! Decisions…decisions.

 

On the 8 night itinerary, what night do you think would be good for Giovanni's Table? I am leaning towards San Juan unless the MDR is special that night. We have had the new menus already so no major surprises for us. Please tell me Indy has escargot!!!

 

thanks again

[maxs mom]

Saturday ~ Dec. 7th ~ Fort Lauderdale

 

Good Morning Fort Lauderdale!!!

 

 

Even though we weren't getting off today, we still had to get up early. The dining room closed at 8 o'clock.....so no sleeping in. We made it to breakfast (no D/D+ area this morning) and we sat with two other couples who were getting off today.

 

We went back to the cabin until 10 when we had to meet in the Pyramid Lounge for our walk off and back on again. While we were in our cabin, the maintainance people opened all the balconies up for cleaning. Kinda neat!

 

 

 

We met in the Pyramid Lounge at 10 to do our turn around thing and go through immigration. They were very organized and it didn't take long at all. There were 126 of us, but they had all our seapass cards ready. We walked off and showed our passports to immigration and walked right back on. We were all done before 11.

 

 

 

Ding......back on board.....yay!

 

[maxs mom]

When we got back on board, we could have gone anywhere or back to our cabin, but we just relaxed in Bolero's because our friends would be getting on board soon. We directed them to come in through Bolero's so that we could be there to meet them. Franca and Bill came with us. We were waiting for Karen and Dan from Florida and Michael and Andrea from Los Angeles. I spoke to them by phone already so I knew they were on the way!

 

We had to go to a special lunch at 12:00, but at about 11:55 Karen and Dan come walking up!! It was great to see them!!

 

 

Andrea and Michael were still checking in, but we had to go to a luncheon, so we left Karen and Dan to wait for them while we ate. We had a very nice luncheon in the MDR. I had a nice fish entrée.

 

 

It didn't take us long to eat, and by the time we got back to Bolero's, Andrea and Michael had gotten on board. Yay!! Let the reunion begin. So good to see everyone. We just hugged and hugged!

 

[maxs mom]

Next we went up to deck 10 to Andrea and Michael's Owner's Suite! So cool! They were celebrating their 40th wedding anniversary.

 

 

 

 

 

 

[The Big Booper]

Yowza! That is one big cabin.

[maxs mom]

Here's one more:

 

 

Next we went to the WJ so that they could get some lunch. It was about 2 o'clock and it was still jammed up there. It was then that we noticed that the demographics for this cruise was dramatically different from the last one. I swear.....I didn't see many people under 90 and there were walkers and scooters everywhere!!! Oh my! There was a lot of confusion among the people and rudeness!! Again.....oh my! We finally found a place to sit and everybody enjoyed lunch.

 

At 3 o'clock I went up to the Sky Bar for a pre meet and greet of our roll call, but only Franca and another couple were there. Briefly another couple stopped by who had just gotten in....but they were starving and went off in search of food. We all chatted for just a little bit, but no one else came.

 

 

 

So back to the cabin, then to Muster at 4:45......dining room......painless! I saw Raj when we were done and as I was hugging him I mentioned that there was no one under 90 on this cruise! He said that was a good observation and just smiled!!

[maxs mom]

Yowza! That is one big cabin.

 

Oh......it was wonderful!!

[maxs mom]

It was almost dark at sail away, but really pretty with all the lights on the ships. At least it wasn't raining this week!

 

 

 

Karen and Dan's cabin was just below ours!!

 

 

 

 

[maxs mom]

The Concierge Lounge was absurdly crowded this evening as it was all this week. It was hard to find seats, especially together.....but eventually we always found a spot to visit. Like I've said before.....we've never experienced crowding like this before.....but we've not cruised at this particular time of year before. We have been cruising during school vacation times and the more experienced cruisers don't usually cruise then.

 

 

We had reservations at Chops at 8:30 and we had a wonderful dinner. Not sure what this appetizer is but it looks great!

 

 

I had the Chops salad:

 

 

The petit filet was my entrée.

 

 

Great reunion celebration tonight and we were stuffed!

 

 

But of course we had room for:

 

Edited December 24, 2013 by max'smom

[maxs mom]

A couple of bridge pictures tonight before heading off to the casino.

 

 

 

No results in the casino tonight, so it was off to bed after that.

[The Big Booper]

The 2nd leg sounds like a typical HAL or Princess cruise out of Florida in December, assisted living. We didn't have that on Allure; half the pax mix came from out of USA and Canada. And they were family oriented.I counted only 4 scooters the whole week.:)

[CRUISEMAMI]

When we got back on board' date=' we could have gone anywhere or back to our cabin, but we just relaxed in Bolero's because our friends would be getting on board soon. We directed them to come in through Bolero's so that we could be there to meet them. Franca and Bill came with us. We were waiting for Karen and Dan from Florida and Michael and Andrea from Los Angeles. I spoke to them by phone already so I knew they were on the way!

 

We had to go to a special lunch at 12:00, but at about 11:55 Karen and Dan come walking up!! It was great to see them!!

 

 

Andrea and Michael were still checking in, but we had to go to a luncheon, so we left Karen and Dan to wait for them while we ate. We had a very nice luncheon in the MDR. I had a nice fish entrée.

 

 

It didn't take us long to eat, and by the time we got back to Bolero's, Andrea and Michael had gotten on board. Yay!! Let the reunion begin. So good to see everyone. We just hugged and hugged!

 

 

It was sooo nice being reunited, after 6 years! Hope that we'll be cruising together real soon! Can't wait another 6 years (by then, me and Bill, will be the 'real old ones') :) :)

Nice review, Jane

Your favorite bridge :)

 

 

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[maxs mom]

Sunday ~ Dec. 8th ~ At Sea

 

I was up about 7:30. Went to the Concierge Lounge for coffee. They brought on Poinsettias yesterday and they magically appeared everywhere. These were outside the CL this morning.

 

 

When I went back to the cabin to get John.....I discovered that he was still asleep!! We would not make it to the MDR in time to beat the crowds. We got down there about 9 and the line to get in was way past the elevator bank. We were not doing that, so we went back to the CL for breakfast. It was actually pretty good. But it's mostly all carbs in there and I can't do that every day. Usually when I go to the CL in the mornings.....I'm just about the only one in there.....Not this week! The place was packed every day. ugh!! There goes one of my quiet spots in the morning!

 

This was the line outside the dining room. It just went on and on and on!

 

 

After breakfast we went back to the cabin....but soon it was time to go to the Meet and Mingle.

 

Let me just say here that we had the best cabin steward!! His name was Valent. He had our cabin made up very quickly every single morning. He was always there with ice every day for us. If we had a maintainance problem, it was fixed before we could turn around. He definitely earned an extra tip and a WOW card from us!!

 

Edited December 24, 2013 by max'smom

[maxs mom]

The 2nd leg sounds like a typical HAL or Princess cruise out of Florida in December, assisted living. We didn't have that on Allure; half the pax mix came from out of USA and Canada. And they were family oriented.I counted only 4 scooters the whole week.:)

 

Oh Dave.....It was worse!!! I've read about cruises like this and laughed about them but I've never experienced it. It was unbelievable. We heard from some friends that they won't go on the Allure, so that is something to keep in mind this time of year.

 

I overheard some ladies talking and they were saying how many busloads they brought with them.....all from retirement communities in Florida. Unbelieveable! I was so glad that we had our own little group this week!

[maxs mom]

It was sooo nice being reunited, after 6 years! Hope that we'll be cruising together real soon! Can't wait another 6 years (by then, me and Bill, will be the 'real old ones') :) :)

Nice review, Jane [ATTACH]296432[/ATTACH]

Your favorite bridge :)

 

 

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No Franca.....we will NOT wait another 6 years!