My Cruise Review - Independence of the Seas 4/26-5/4 - Plenty of Photos if They All W

[Poorplaya]

Day 3

 

Another relaxing sea day, we woke up to the Norwegian Getaway next to us, it would end up they would be docked next to us on our first stop in St Maarten!

 

 

 

After breakfast and some relaxing time, it was time for our 11am cruise critic Slot Pull. Thanks to Lisa (racergirl88) for organizing last minute, it went off without a hitch!!! We all lost 10 bucks :( but still had lots of fun. We had to leave quickly and have Tim (Riverz) collect our winnings as we were invited to a special Gold Member card only event at Chops to meet some of the ships senior officers in multiple departments. The food and layout they gave us was amazing.

 

 

 

Edited May 4, 2014 by Poorplaya

[norwane]

Great review so far! I'm looking forward to reading more. Did you happen to get one of the drink packages and if so, was it worth it?

[Poorplaya]

Great review so far! I'm looking forward to reading more. Did you happen to get one of the drink packages and if so, was it worth it?

 

 

We both did the Premium Drink Package and for us it was more than worth it. I alone know I drank way more than $440 per person it cost us for our 8 nights. My wife was probably very close if not past the $440 but it allowed her to try drinks she hadn't tried before because if she didn't like them, she just ordered something else. I will never pass up the opportunity to get this if it's being offered to me again, definitely well worth it for us!

 

I'm about to hop on a plane, more to post tonight or tomorrow.

[lovelife]

Thanks for this - enjoying it very much. I have booked my first Indy cruise for January and look forward to your opinions and experience.

[CroozDoggie]

Thanks, Donovan. I just booked the Independence for August 2015-Western itinerary. I took advantage of the BOGOHO deal and was able to get an OS for basically the price of a GS in room 1320! Looking forward to the rest of your review.

[wildcatt99]

We both did the Premium Drink Package and for us it was more than worth it. I alone know I drank way more than $440 per person it cost us for our 8 nights. My wife was probably very close if not past the $440 but it allowed her to try drinks she hadn't tried before because if she didn't like them, she just ordered something else. I will never pass up the opportunity to get this if it's being offered to me again, definitely well worth it for us!

 

I'm about to hop on a plane, more to post tonight or tomorrow.

 

 

Thanks so much for taking the time to write such a detailed review. I can't wait to get to the next day. Glad you had a great cruise, I know you both were happy to get home to the little one. Thanks again!

[lee101224]

Going on Indy in 21 days , so reading with interest .

[Gator0178]

Great review so far! I can't wait to read more. We do this sailing in November & I really can't wait!

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Forums

 

 

 

Hey! me too!! LOL!;)

[Cardinal Cruiser]

Wow, man. I haven't even finished my laundry and you're already posting a review. i too was on this cruise, and had a fantastic time. Im really looking forward to seeing what you thought of the cruise. As with all my vacations, being able to do things I wouldn't normally do (flowrider/curling/snuba) really made the vacation memorable.

 

P.S. I wonder if you had heard anything on why we were sailing SO SLOW on the last sea day. i overheard a conversation of a man overboard, but don't recall the Oscar x3 announcement. i also thought I would have heard something on cruise critic about it.

[Poorplaya]

Wow, man. I haven't even finished my laundry and you're already posting a review. i too was on this cruise, and had a fantastic time. Im really looking forward to seeing what you thought of the cruise. As with all my vacations, being able to do things I wouldn't normally do (flowrider/curling/snuba) really made the vacation memorable.

 

P.S. I wonder if you had heard anything on why we were sailing SO SLOW on the last sea day. i overheard a conversation of a man overboard, but don't recall the Oscar x3 announcement. i also thought I would have heard something on cruise critic about it.

 

 

On the last day we did a bridge tour and asked the captain why it seemed earlier in the morning we were moving so slow, he said we had been at 19 knots since we left Labadee. I didn't hear anything about anyone overboard or the oscar 3x, but my wife and I thought it looked like we were moving really slow too!!! Weird!!

 

P.S. Yes I started my review early, lol, I sat in an airport for nearly 9 hours yesterday in Ft Lauderdale so I had plenty of time to kill lol!

Edited May 5, 2014 by Poorplaya

[Poorplaya]

Thank you everyone for the kind comments, glad you all are enjoying the review so far!!

 

Day 3 Cont'd

 

So the Suite Guest event at Chops was very very nice. We got to meet a view of the senior officers on the ship who were all very nice. As shown in my last post, they sure wined and dined us here!!

 

 

 

After the wonderful event it back down to the casino bar for some more drinks and a 1:00 slot pull for my wife and my mother. I swear just watching these things make my hands hurt lol. No luck unfortunately as they both finished well below the score needed to try and move on. Oh well, they still had fun and that's all we wanted to do on this vacation!!

 

 

[Poorplaya]

Day 3 Cont'd

 

So after the slot tournament and some lunch, we wanted to walk around some more and maybe lay out again! We checked out the flowrider which was packed, it was during the stand up surf session, quite a few experienced and non experienced riders so easy for someone to jump in and try it without feeling nervous or anything like that. I didn't try just because I was unsure of my balancing techniques after 5 hours of drinking lol (it's always 5 o'clock somewhere right)! Definitely looks like it could hurt when falling. We did see a woman later in cruise who we assume fell hard cause she had a huge ice bag on her face and ribs and looked to be in quite some pain. Definitely this was a popular attraction for both surfers and spectators throughout the cruise!!

 

 

 

 

After the flowrider we decided to walk back over and check to see if we could find some open seats in the solarium. On our way over we saw a volleyball game between the crew members and guests. It looked like a lot of fun and people were all over deck 11 and 12 looking for good space to check this out!!

 

 

[Doglady]

We were also on this cruise and it was just the best! The big stand out for us was the Rock The Boat Band in the Pyramid Lounge! They were amazing! Wonderful food, service and best of all, the weather!

[robin13]

I was also on this cruise and had a fantastic time! So glad that you are doing this review so I can relive it. BTW, did anyone see the lady being taken off the ship in handcuffs about 7am? I was standing in line at customs and the couple behind me pointed her out. They put a towel over her hands but I saw the silver handcuffs and they were leading her into a back room. She was in her 40's with blond hair and not showing any expression on her face. Wonder if she stole a towel animal (lol)?

[remharri]

Woohoo! One of our best cruises ever! And thanks for sharing your cabin on the cabin crawl!

[Poorplaya]

I was also on this cruise and had a fantastic time! So glad that you are doing this review so I can relive it. BTW, did anyone see the lady being taken off the ship in handcuffs about 7am? I was standing in line at customs and the couple behind me pointed her out. They put a towel over her hands but I saw the silver handcuffs and they were leading her into a back room. She was in her 40's with blond hair and not showing any expression on her face. Wonder if she stole a towel animal (lol)?

 

Definitely didn't see that but i wish i had now!!! Wonder what happened!

[Poorplaya]

Woohoo! One of our best cruises ever! And thanks for sharing your cabin on the cabin crawl!

 

Hey Regina no problem, the cabin crawl was awesome, loved getting to see the different types of rooms and everyone really had a good time, we had a great cruise critic group on this cruise for sure!!!!

[Poorplaya]

Well everyone i am sorry for taking so long to get back to this, i have spent a ton of time tonight trying to load photos to photo bucket and it doesn't seem to like me tonight and is taking FOREVER!!!! hopefully tomorrow night i can continue my review of my IOS cruise!!!!

 

Thank you everyone for your kind comments and words, I feel horrible not getting more don't on this review!

[perfect match]

Donovan, thank you very much for taking the time to post this review and all the pictures! I was really happy to see it since we are sailing this same itinerary on the Indy in April 2015. I will be following along to hear about the rest of your trip. :D

[dleafy]

Looking forward to the rest of this...........Take your time..................and hurry up about it!!!!!!!

:D

[Poorplaya]

Alright everyone I'm back, photobucket isn't wanting to cooperate for me so I apologize for the smaller pictures I'm attaching from my iPhone.

 

I believe I left off at in the middle of day 3. We left the volleyball game of guests against crew and laid out again for a while in the solarium. Peaceful and able to find some chairs no problem. The ship was definitely moving side to side a bit as while sitting in the pool you could see the water sloshing from one side to the other.

 

After some relaxing time we got showered up and dresses for the Tony Tillman show at 7pm. I didn't quite know what to expect from the show, but my parents insisted my wife and I go. I am sure glad the pushed us to go as Tony put on one heck of a show. Such energy, engagement with the crowd, if you ever see this man on your cruise compass and haven't seen him before, I highly recommend you check him out. He plays music for just about everyone and tells some pretty hilarious jokes too. I guess I have heard and seen through research Tony Tillman is a fairly well known cruise ship performer, but I would see him again in a heart beat!!

 

 

 

 

After the amazing show it was off to dinner. Tonight's dinner theme was basil. Tonight's dinner was unfortunately probably the worst meal we had in he main dining room. Luckily our waiter took care of replacing a few meals with steaks and other things for the people who didn't like their dishes. I will say other than this night, the Main Dining Room did quite a good job with the meals they put out and we never ventured into one of the specialty restaurants.

 

[Poorplaya]

Here was the menu for the evening.

 

 

 

 

The pictures of some of the food to follow!

[Poorplaya]

 

Crab Cake with a Basil Aioli

 

 

Braised Beef Duo - Best dish on the main course menu tonight

 

 

Orecchiette Pasta - Not great, lacked overall flavor

 

 

Chicken Cordon Bleu - Worst dish of the night, very dry

 

After dinner we made a little trip to the casino to visit with Raul, Eddie and our casino bar crew!!!! I still can't say enough about these guys, just so personable and fun to hang out with and talk to. After some time here we checked out the 70's night going on upstairs. Man was there a huge turnout for this, way way way more people then I was expecting to see. After this we headed up to the room for some rest as we were snorkeling in St. Maarten tomorrow.

 

[Poorplaya]

Day 4 - St. Maarten

 

So we woke up and was able to see the ship dock right on time. As I mentioned earlier in the review, the Norwegian Getaway was docked next to us but no other ships in the port that made congestion and lots of people really more bearable. Well we headed off the ship around 9:20 and found our cruise tour guidd. B

 

M

 

 

More to come tomorrow people, I'm am exhausted, thank you everyone did tuning in, more tomorrow!

[lovelife]

Thanks again for taking the time to do the review. Have you tried selecting medium or large for your photo size in Photo Bucket?