(Slightly less so) Cheapo dad's trip report on Independence of the Seas

[harryfat1]

Only on page 12 right now but I’m sucked in.

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Forums

 

 

No hurry. Take your time. I’ll be here on the back end to answer any questions.

[harryfat1]

What was in your eye? When my oldest son was four, he was looking up at a bird and the seagull pooped in his eye. Thankfully, he was okay but eww.

 

 

Ewww, bird poop is not good. I will discuss shortly what was wrong with my eye – part of the story line. Not sure if I wouldn’t trade what happened to me with a bird poop as with bird droppings, it will wash off and be done. My problem lingers on longer than just few minutes.

[Canadian1]

Ewww, bird poop is not good. I will discuss shortly what was wrong with my eye – part of the story line. Not sure if I wouldn’t trade what happened to me with a bird poop as with bird droppings, it will wash off and be done. My problem lingers on longer than just few minutes.

Uh oh....

[tanyaewa]

Very lovely beach... still reading

[harryfat1]

I'm still here, too! Loving the daily updates. Especially this morning as school is cancelled due to ice- what better way to pass the time than looking at pink beaches and palm trees!

 

So...are you guys not water people? Don't see you swimming or in the water much. When I'm on vacation all I want to do is find the beach, sit on the beach, swim at the beach. So I really appreciate reviews where people actually tour the islands- the Dockyard looked really interesting! Maybe on our next cruise I'll have to schedule some actual tours!

 

Thanks as always Harry, keep up the good work!

 

The California region is having a big heat eaves this past week. We normally should be around 60 degrees this time of the year but we were getting 75+ degrees in some of the cities here. Many record breaking temps here.

 

As for the beach, we were neck deep in water only at Labadee. The rest of the trips we were just knee deep. Couple reasons for that: First is what I discussed with others on the Labadee safety issue. When we were at the wide open beaches, especially with all our electronic equipment & wallet in all the back packs as we were doing the island tours, I feel nervous turning my back away from the towels/back packs s anybody walking by could just take it if we weren't looking. No way would we turn our backs to the sand area and do the toes picture from Labadee over at the other beaches. Only if the inlaws were with us would we venture out far.

 

The other issue is since we are each beach only for 90 minutes as part of these island tours, there isn’t really much time to be frolicking in the water and get dry before getting back on the van. I’m not big on wet butts & lots of sand on car seats, but guess that’s just me.

 

But overall, I agree with your assessment that we are not big beach people. We travel to see different places. Even at Labadee, we supplement it with walking around the other part of the port and not just the beach.

 

The island tour is typically the most basic of all torus when the people are “fresh off the boat” (pun totally intended). Then in subsequent visits, people go to certain areas that they specially wanted to see.

 

We’ll see what we will do next time we are in town if we want to make a straight line to some other beach or see other parts of the island. We had done customized private tours in Cabo and Cozumel on second visits.

[harryfat1]

I'm still here, too. We went to Antigua in 2010; toured with Lawrence of Antigua -- still have his business card somewhere. I don't think we had a beach stop, but I do know we went to the Dockyard and to Devil's Bridge? Reach? I can't even remember. I feel like we've done so many of these tours, they're starting to all blend in to one another. I thought it was Jolly Beach where we stopped to drop off a couple of people; I remember seeing a pig there. Did you happen to see a beach pig? It may have been another island. Once we've toured an island, we usually either just hang around the pier area to visit our uncle in jail or find a beach to go to.

 

Yeah, I saw Lawrence’s tour being highly recommended over at the port of call board but I went with scenic tours as they were offering a big discount for kids.

 

We didn’t see any pigs on the beach while we were there.

 

On subsequent visits, I have done the customized private tours or just do local bus/taxi on our own if there were some areas we didn’t see in our first visit.

 

I had seen that bridge on YouTube as part of my cruise research but our never went to it. I think different tour companies would either have beach time or the bridge. Will put that down as the “to do next time” list.

[harryfat1]

I've been lurking on this thread, love to view/read new material from one of my favorite trip reporters. I don't have any Indy cruises planned but would love to go on a Freedom class ship someday. Thanks for taking me on your cruise with you and your family -- it doesn't get old or boring.

 

Hi, Joe,

 

Thank you for the compliment and appreciate you de-cloaking (Star Trek reference) and posting a comment. Always appreciate folks who do that.

 

It’s like those radio talk shows that you hear the host saying they appreciate the first time callers to show.

 

I admire people that can read a trip report just for entertainment purposes. The ADHD in me can’t even finish most regular trip reports that I need to research for my own future cruise. Trying to read another person’s cruise that I won't be sailing on next would require a focus that I can seldom muster.

 

Freedom class ships provide a solid value in the RCI family in that they don’t have the high price premium the Oasis/Quantum charges, but the Freedom is still big enough and have enough items to keep a family occupied.

[harryfat1]

Sorry you thought you were talking to yourself Harry! I was a few days behind on reading your review. Going through your pictures from Antigua was fun as we were there a year ago for the holiday cruise on Serenade of the Seas.

 

The bakery that the sign in the picture above refers to had some REALLY tasty items!

 

Yeah, Curtis told us about the bakery and the food place at the Dockyard but we were too busy walking outside taking pictures and visiting uncle in prison to go inside the bakery place.

 

No worries on reading at your own leisure pace. This is like reading a book/magazine such that it’s self pace. I understand everyone is busy with real life schedules. I know I do. It’s just that it got pretty quiet for few days as I was doing the Antigua hills so I figure I must have bored people with that part.

 

I knew St. Maarten and San Juan would have people who are interested to see the latest news post hurricane and Antigua is not on most people’s cruise itinerary unless they do certain southern Caribbean route. It’s just that I enjoy the bantering with people daily but I know it’s difficult as when I post late at night in California time, most of the central and east coast folks are already asleep (with exception of few well noted night owls).

[harryfat1]

Harry, how funny that we got to that beach literally an hour or so after you! We even saw that dog in your photo. We opted to take a cab from the cruise port after stingray city. We also thought jolly beach was beautiful, especially the water and sand (we are very choosy about beaches since we live in FL with so many). So far your tour looks awesome, Antigua was probably our second favorite island after St. Kitts. Thanks for the awesome report so far!

 

Sent from my Moto G (5) Plus using Forums mobile app

 

 

Hi, Brandon,

 

Guess that dog must be a fixture at the beach looking for whatever leftover food people toss at the beach.

 

So who recommended this beach to you guys? Did you research this on your own or heard from word of mouth?

 

We went to the beach at 4 of the 5 ports. I would say this one was the prettiest of all the ones we saw. I could do without the crowd but then you know people tend to flock to the nicer beaches. Next time we go to Antigua, I would opt for a smaller beach like Turners or some lesser known places.

[harryfat1]

Harry....loving every new installment of your epic review...wait a minute...you weren't on the epic.

Looking forward to the next batch of beautiful pictures!

 

 

Hehe, at least you didn’t say “your trip report is solid as a rock”. Speaking of rocks…Nah, not tonight, maybe later in the week.

[harryfat1]

I'm still here too Harry. Can't get rid of me. :D I'm also still tracking your post counts by day to compare against your Allure and Freedom reviews. For information, the current estimated final count for this thread is 1,746. I'll post the summary when you're done. I feel like a creepy stalker. :o

 

Aren’t you supposed to be getting ready for your upcoming cruise in 9 days? What are you wasting your time hanging out with us instead of packing? What islands are you going to? Come back and show us how the other 1% lives in the Grand Suite (per your signature on the PC).

 

Technically the cruise will be 2/3 over when day 6 is in the books. But I think it’s more like 70%+ done as we took more pics on St. Maarten and San Juan, as well as having a whole day pre cruise. So the last 3 cruise days will be faster than the middle 3 days as I am not a big sea day fan. So I think we might be a tad lower at 1,500 as all days are not weighted equally.

[harryfat1]

I've been following along & enjoying as well.

I'm on the Adventure OTS in November going to Labadee, San Juan, St. Maarten & St. Kitts. A very similar itinerary to yours (only 1 port different).

We love to do cultural and/or island tours as well (since it is just a few hours, you can only get so much experience and feel for a place, but I really enjoy it). We also love to 'visit the uncle in prison' as you put it! To follow in your vein, 'cheapo' souvenirs (postcards & magnets & t-shirts) and pretty jewelry ($100 maximum). I am not sure why people don't talk about shopping much on CC. Most of us enjoy it, but I guess shopping isn't what we take away in our memories when we look back at our trip.

 

Hi,

 

Thanks for following along. Oh, yeah, the new Adventure of the Seas route, which she inherited after she switched places with the Freedom. Yeah, it’s similar to our itinerary, minus Antigua.

 

As for souvenirs/visiting uncle in prison, my interpretation is that it’s not as cool/sexy to talk about buying a $5 t-shirt for grandson as grandma rather be displaying the $10 frozen alcohol drink that she is texting back to her bridge buddies from home.

 

Shopping by itself may not the event we remember but the product is what we take home – souvenirs. Isn’t that the entire purpose for souvenirs to exist – so we can remember the vacation?

 

I mean, why we people have 20+ magnets in their house from vacations? It’s not like they NEED all those magnets, it’s because they want to remember their vacation when they use/see the magnet. Souvenirs are supposed to trigger that memory process of what you did when you were there and what store/tour you were on when you bought it.

 

What major cruise lines build ships have no gift shops? What islands you visit have no gift shops? Everywhere I go, I see people in the shops looking and maybe buying something either on the ship or at the port stops.

 

Like you, we are not big shoppers. We don’t make a straight line into Diamonds international or Del Sol store at every stop. I just point it out as part of the process during our stay. I didn’t even go to any port talks this cruise – although if you do go, sit in the first 2 rows as you can get freebie gifts.

 

I won a gift raffle years ago on the Mariner cruise to Mexico Riviera when Mariner was based in California. The prize was a free couples massages at the spa. My first and only time visiting the spa. It’s pretty wasted prize in all honesty. It’s like a Vegan winning a dinner at the House of Prime Ribs. Totally useless for me.

 

Too bad I couldn’t sell it to someone and gotten cash out of it…

[harryfat1]

I look every day for new posts,Harry.And getting depressed that your cruise days review is winding down.

 

 

Awww, thanks for the kind words.

 

We’re not done yet. Remember, this was a 9 day cruise, not 6 or 7. So we have few more days to go.

 

The fat lady is not even in the building yet to sing the finale. I think she is over at the spa getting her nails done…

[harryfat1]

Uh oh....

 

Eye injuries are the worst!! I've been enjoying your review, but now I'm worried about your eye!

 

Thanks for the concern. It eventually worked out. But it did cause me some problems as I will explain later in the story-line (shameless cliff hanger self promo...)

[harryfat1]

Very lovely beach... still reading

 

Yes, the beach itself is very pretty with its different shades of blue and the sand is very clean. Just a bit too commercialized for me with all the chairs and umbrellas.

 

It's a personal preference thing.

[harryfat1]

(OK, time to continue on with the story line. We were just heading back toward the cruise terminal)

We made it back to the cruise terminal with no problem. Did some basic obligatory visit to uncle in prison (aka shopping for simple souvenirs) at the dockside and then walked back to the ship.

 

Costa ship here along with the P&O ship Arcadia. I must admit I don't know much about either ships

We are the only ship that backed in - proudly displaying our round butt

 

 

Ahh, as we walked by the MSC Seaside, it still has the “new ship smell” as it was just recently launched.

 

 

[harryfat1]

As the Indy “backed into the harbor”, it was easy for us to just walk up one flight and cut over since our cabins are very near the aft elevators. I gave out this tip back on the Freedom trip report but don’t think I said here yet.

 

When you come back from an excursion and get back onto the ship, DO NOT just walk into the nearest elevator on deck 1 as everybody and their cousin is piling into it. You will be packed like sardines and most likely be stuck with people sweating and reeking of suntan lotion. Ewww, not good.

 

Instead, walk up 1 flight of stairs and go across to the other side of the ship and take those elevators. Those elevators should be relatively empty as they would only be used by people already on the ship, not people coming back from excursions.

 

For example, if you get back to the ship in the aft section on deck 1 on the starboard side, walk up to deck 2 go across and take elevator on deck 2 from the port side and you will have avoided the sweaty/smelly masses.

 

Now the same theory also works if you go back to your cabin to freshen up and dump your gears before heading for buffet. Using the same example as above, if the gangway is on the starboard side and your cabin is in same side of the ship, say deck 6.

 

When you go back to your cabin and come back out, don’t be lazy and brain dead and automatically take the elevator on the starboard side to go to deck 11. You will catch the same beach crowd coming up from deck 1.

 

Instead, go over to other side of deck 6 to go up to deck 11. Your nose will thank me…

[harryfat1]

OK, same routine as before. Back to cabin to freshen up and go off to windjammer for late lunch. I went to the bathroom to look at my eye. Noticed one grain of sand over on the outer edge of my retina. If looking at the mirror, it was situated around the 8 o’clock region. Tried to wash to off with water and wash cloth. No luck. Whatever. Didn’t hurt too much, will deal with it later. Lunch first before WJ closes on us.

 

This picture is the big old round table at the end of straight away before the ship curves out toward the aft. The gazebo looking place. I’m sure all that have been to WJ on the Freedom class ship knows where I am talking about. It’s one huge table area that we all walk pass it but never sat in it until now as it was always too big for our family size but today we have 8 people that can stretch across the table.

 

I like the reflection off the shiny table.

 

Anything with lines and shapes, you can pretty much be assured it came from me.

 

 

OK, took another picture of the water guys at this lunch setting, all drinks are nearly full. I am sure people have their theory so I won’t say anything more.

 

 

 

 

As before, we grabbed soup/salad/main dish/dessert all at the same time knowing the place will close on us. We got so much food for 8 people that my camera couldn’t fit all the plates.

 

 

When we left, the doors to WJ were all closed with no workers in the front section so we didn’t know how to leave the place initially. Oh, no, we are trapped in WJ with no exit…

[tb4]

Hi Harry. I used your elevator tip on Explorer last year. Worked perfectly. I'll be using it again on my cruise next month. Tracey

 

Sent from my SM-G920I using Forums mobile app

[harryfat1]

Hi Harry. I used your elevator tip on Explorer last year. Worked perfectly. I'll be using it again on my cruise next month. Tracey

 

Sent from my SM-G920I using Forums mobile app

 

Yeah, it's a simple concept of just avoiding where the people are in taking elevators as everybody is tired and hot when they come back from the excursions in the afternoon. So they will just grab the first set of elevators by gangway on deck 1. You don't want to be with those folks.

 

Have a great cruise next month - what places will you be seeing out in NZ and Australia area on this cruise? One day I need to make it down there.

[harryfat1]

After the late lunch, time to go back to the cabin and shower. I had thought I could just shower and wash off the one measly grain of sand from my eye. But somehow that sucker is stuck on there as if it had super glue on it. Good thing my wife wears contacts and she had some eye drops and I placed couple drops on the eye and just lay down in bed with my eyes closed as the eye wasn’t feeling that great.

 

You don’t realize how often you blink until you have eye issues as every time I blink, my eye notices the sand on the eye and it’s not happy. It’s like when you have a cold and can’t breathe easily, that’s when you realize you breathe many times in a minute's span.

 

So the solutions just close my eyes and not blink. But the boys wanted to play miniature golf with their cousins so the whole clan went up to top deck while I just lay there in bed pondering the meaning of life.

 

As I have no answers to the meaning of life (unlike Monty Python), I became bored quickly and tried to take a picture of the Costa ship across the harbor just so I don’t go stir crazy.

 

 

OK, that kept me busy for 30 seconds. Now what? Hey, how about take a picture of the free bags we got today at the pier? Cool. That killed another few minutes. (Be sure to get your free bags when you get off the ship)

 

 

OK, now what?

 

Hey about take a picture of the bed as I don't think I have done that...

 

 

Now what? Man, this resting thing on vacation isn’t going to be easy. Fine, try close the eye and rest.

 

Think happy thoughts...

[tb4]

We are cruising the east coast of Australia. Sydney to the Great Barrier Reef and back. Mostly people from US on roll call, some lucky ones doing b2b or even b2b2b.

 

Sent from my SM-G920I using Forums mobile app

[micmacmissy]

Are you sure MSC Seaside had that "new ship" smell? It's getting some pretty horrible reviews over on the MSC board...apparently there is a sewage smell that has permeated a lot of the ship.

 

It has been very entertaining to read all the awful reviews...I went over there to check it out thinking it would be an interesting ship to try but NOPE - sounds like MSC has a big (smelly) problem with their new build!

[micmacmissy]

I'm also hoping you were able to get the sand out of your eye- that is the WORST feeling. I actually travel now with eyewash and a little eyecup- that happened to me once and it was terrible.

[cruisemeister8]

Shopping by itself may not the event we remember but the product is what we take home – souvenirs. Isn’t that the entire purpose for souvenirs to exist – so we can remember the vacation? …

 

I agree with you, luv1cruise, and others who have been in on the shopping discussion. The houseful of cruise souvenirs is a testament. Until reading your trip reports, I didn't realize I had so many uncles in prison! :o But each got visited in due time, and I still have the stuff and the memories. The magnets are on the fridge all positioned like a map. (You know those little rubber state-shaped magnets?) The US is up on the freezer, and the Caribbean is arranged further south on the fridge. I've got my fleet of ship models. I still wear my favorite ship t-shirts. And don't even ask about the mug collection! :eek: I love souvenirs, and dare I say that I drop more on the sea pass in the logo shop than in the bars and specialty restaurants. If I ever wrote a trip report, people would be bored by day 3, "I ate, and then I stopped in the logo shop again to see if they had any new mugs that they'd been holding out on me." And I laughed, because like you, I could win spa time and it would be a waste. That's what's so great about cruising. Whether it's splurging on comfort, experiences, or stuff, everybody can do their own thing. Happy cruising to all!