RCI's Independence 8nt review with kids and a few pics

[Cdncruisefam]

Hi all,

 

First off I want to thank all the cruise critic members out there who take the time to post advice and suggestions, provide reviews and get involved in roll calls. You've been a great resource for me from helping me find people to tour with in St. Petersburg to suggesting I pack clothes pins! I hope I can pay it forward a little bit with this review of our recent and fantastic 8 night cruise on the Independence. I'm also posting this review on the RCI site.

 

I welcome any questions you may have and thanks for reading along!

__________________

[Cdncruisefam]

Day One - Winter to Sunny Florida?

 

We flew direct flight from our home in Canada to Fort Lauderdale. This was the first flight for our youngest 18 mt old dd so were wondering how it would go. No fears, she's just like her 5 yr old sister - a great traveler!

 

We had debated back and forth about car seats, transportation and hotel location. There was much research on the cruise critics boards for inspiration. You'd think we were first time cruisers. Nope! We just seem to do things just a little bit different every time . Last year we drove down with the 2 kids so the car seat dilemma wasn't even an issue. The time before that our daughter flew in her car seat, so again no prob. This time our youngest was a lap traveler and we'd need a booster for our oldest. We finally hit on the solution again thanks to cruise critic members and my DH who took all these arrangements on!

 

Since we arrived on a Thursday and weren't sailing until Saturday we decided to rent a car from the airport. The reason why...free shuttle to the port after we drop the car off. Score!!! But now we have to transport a booster and a car seat. With a $27 investment we had that taken care of!

 

 

To get to the rental car centre we needed to take a separate shuttle from the terminal we arrived at. We flew Air Canada so I'm not sure if it's like that for most folks. Something to keep in mind if you're like us and have 2 kids, 1 stroller, 1 granny and 5 suitcases!! It all worked out just fine though.

 

Getting the car was easy and we were on our way. We stayed at the Best Western Oceanside Inn. Not the fanciest hotel but was clean and comfortable and within walking distance to the beach and had a heated pool. Since Florida was experiencing unusually cold weather upon our arrival that last point was an important one

 

Thing to note about the Best Western, our room was facing the street not the pool so was a little noisy especially since there's a fire station located close by . We ended up sleeping just fine but if you're thinking of this hotel, you might want to try to get a pool view room.

 

Ordered take out from the dining room and nighty night!

[chica]

Waiting to hear more...taking my four year old on. Indy inMarch.

[Cdncruisefam]

Hi Chica

 

Thanks for reading along! This is my first review and it's taking longer than I thought it would :eek:

 

I will try to copy over my posts later today but I have updated more here:

 

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=1981602

 

We love Indy and I would be happy to answer any questions you might have :)