Independence of the Seas 1/28/17 to 2/2/17

[Eileen G]

Just back from a great cruise on the Independence. We booked this cruise 4 weeks out and had a price for a balcony guarantee we couldn’t resist. Both my husband and I celebrated our birthdays on the ship so it was perfect. We are in our early 60’s and diamond plus members.

 

We parked at Park and Go outside port Everglades and it worked great because the ship returned to a different pier then we left from. It was so easy. Embarkation went OK. The lines were pretty long but we found the Gold, Emerald, Platinum and Diamond line to go through security so we didn’t wait too long. Once inside the terminal there were separate lines for each C & A class so check-in was pretty fast.

 

This was our first cruise on a Freedom class ship. We have sailed all the other class ships with the Radiance class being our favorite. We very much enjoyed the Indy. It was so nice to be able to go to the helipad and we did so a few times. The last few Princess ships we have been on you couldn’t even get to the front of the ship on any deck unless you paid extra. We loved the outside promenade deck where you could walk all the way around the ship. The inside promenade was fun too.

 

We had a balcony cabin on the 7th deck right by the front elevator. This is our favorite room location. The front elevators are not as busy as the rear elevators and we had no trouble getting one. The balcony is a good size about twice the size of the regular balconies on Princess. The bed was near the balcony and the couch was plenty big.

 

We did early seating but didn’t like the location of our table right at the entrance. We were changed to a very nice table of 6 by the window. Our table mates were great. The maitre d’ made sure he sat us with people our age. We normally eat in the Windjammer a few nights but this cruise we ate every night in the dining room. Our waiter was very good and brought us whatever we wanted.

 

The CD John Blair and his wife Katrina were very high energy and did a great job. We enjoyed going to the Ice skating show on our first sea day. The entertainment was very good and varied. They didn’t do Grease until the last night and had only 2 shows.

 

Our two ports were Costa Maya and Cozumel. In Costa Maya we booked a private excursion with Native Choice to the Mayan ruins at Dzibanche. It was a two hour ride in a very nice large van. We had 9 people on our tour and a guide. We were able to climb to the top of two of the temples. Our guide was very knowledgeable and loved his job. Since this ruin is further from Costa Maya there were few other people there.

 

In Cozumel we took the ferry over to Playa del Carmen. We have been to Coz many times and wanted to do something different. The ferry was very nice and easy to take from down town San Jose. The ferries run every hour both ways so no worry about catching one back. We took the 10AM ferry over and the 2PM ferry back. We had plenty of time to walk down the beach, walk 5th Ave and have a nice lunch.

 

Being Diamond plus we each had 2 twenty four hour internet packages which covered the whole cruise. I’m glad we weren’t using minutes since it was often difficult to get on and stay on. I often got an ‘error try latter’ message. We only use the internet to check in at home so it wasn’t a problem. We just tried latter and usually got on.

 

The food was not nearly as good as we remembered. It is obvious they are cutting corners. I understand they are trying to keep prices competitive and the cost of cruising has stayed the same over the last 10 years. Most food we got was just OK with a few things being really good. The Windjammer was very repetitive but we always found something to eat. We don’t cruise for the food so it didn’t bother us that much.

 

We choose to do self disembarkation since the first number wasn’t supposed to be called until 8:45. The ship arrived at 7 and started letting people off about 7:30. We left at 7:50 and were out of the terminal at 8:30. We did use the mobile passport app. But there were no signs for it when self disembarking. The signs were in the middle of the luggage area and we didn’t see them. We asked someone and found the mobile app line which at that time was much shorter than the regular line. You do need to have your passport along with the app. Since it was Thursday we were docked at terminal 18 where Allure and Harmony usually are.

 

We very much enjoyed our cruise on the Indy and would definitely sail on her again. She is a stunning ship and well laid out. It was very different from our last cruise two months ago on the NCL Getaway where we walked around the ship saying ‘What were they thinking?’ to walking around Indy saying ‘Wow how beautiful’.

[masonpips]

What a nice review! We were on Indy last summer out of Southampton and really enjoyed our 14 nights as well!

 

 

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[riclop]

Thanks for the review.