LIVE - Independence simulation cruise 8/1

[lovelife]

1 hour ago, trippintex said:

Where will The Band Dealers  play at ? We to love rock and soul music.

They played in the Star Lounge

[dominicr]

10 hours ago, vplsh said:

Here you go…

thanks for the pictures.   I appreciate it 

[GA Dave]

Back in port.

 

[lovelife]

I found out from the LA this morning there were just shy of 400 passengers on this sailing including 61 Pinnacles.

 

What a pleasant cruise with instant elevators and no crowds. Please, may I do it again? 😍

[lovelife]

Delete

Edited August 5, 2021 by lovelife

[trippintex]

thank you all for great pictures and info. thanks again and be safe.    61 pinnacle that would be great many of them from texas?

[lovelife]

We peeked in the Escape Room on deck 15

 

[lovelife]

2 minutes ago, trippintex said:

thank you all for great pictures and info. thanks again and be safe.    61 pinnacle that would be great many of them from texas?

I would imagine so but don't  know. We had enough air miles to cover our flight from DC.

[wolfganghowell]

Were you able to sit at the Pool Bar?  That's our major hangout on sea days.

[lovelife]

Huge sun deck and mini golf on deck 13

 

[lovelife]

13 minutes ago, wolfganghowell said:

Were you able to sit at the Pool Bar?  That's our major hangout on sea days.

Sorry, I can't remember noticing. I zoomed in on this photo from a morning sea day but that pool bar doesn't appear to be open yet. There were, however, a few chair hogs!

[Sea Dog]

14 hours ago, vplsh said:

Here you go…

Thank you for the pics. I'm always interested to see what brands they have in the shop. Interesting that I see no Blanton's bourbon.

 

Thank you for taking us along. Cheers to you!

[vplsh]

32 minutes ago, wolfganghowell said:

Were you able to sit at the Pool Bar?  That's our major hangout on sea days.

I didn’t see anyone sitting there but there were stools. Remember with less than 400 people on board there were a lot of empty spots!

 

Getting off the ship was a breeze. We got self assist tags and needed to put them on our bags and exit when your group was called or later. We got off a little after 8 and we’re in the car and on our way in about 20 minutes including walking to the garage. No passport checks- you stopped at a facial recognition area and went on your way. Hope they keep that up!!

 

Glad to be able to share this trip with you all. It was fantastic and I can’t wait to be back on independence on September 19 for the 8 day cruise. 

[jillpra]

We just booked this ship for April 25th! The ship appears to be in great shape from the photos! 

[lovelife]

2 hours ago, jillpra said:

We just booked this ship for April 25th! The ship appears to be in great shape from the photos! 

Yes, it is in good shape. I kept commenting how clean and shiny everything looked. You will enjoy it!

 

 

[lovelife]

Never saw anyone on the Sky Pad

 

[sushitex]

4 hours ago, vplsh said:

I didn’t see anyone sitting there but there were stools. Remember with less than 400 people on board there were a lot of empty spots!

 

Getting off the ship was a breeze. We got self assist tags and needed to put them on our bags and exit when your group was called or later. We got off a little after 8 and we’re in the car and on our way in about 20 minutes including walking to the garage. No passport checks- you stopped at a facial recognition area and went on your way. Hope they keep that up!!

 

Glad to be able to share this trip with you all. It was fantastic and I can’t wait to be back on independence on September 19 for the 8 day cruise. 

We are booked B2B2B on the Independence, beginning on September 19th. 
 

We went on the July 17th Carnival Vista cruise out of Galveston, and having no one check our passports on the way out of the terminal took me by surprise - I had those passports in my fanny pack, ready to show, and nothing, lol. I had forgotten about having the photo taken while going through check-in. 

 

The only delay was actually when we had to wait for a taxi - they were few and far-between. After an hour wait, we ended up going back to our hotel to pick up our car by sharing the minivan taxi with other people who were doing the same thing, only staying in an adjacent hotel ( all were vaccinated.)  I’m not sure why there was such a delay, but hubby said that either the cabbie or the porter told him that only Yellow Cab is running to the port, if not all of Galveston. Calling Uber or a Lyft didn’t seem to be viable, either, although another couple waiting at the taxi stand finally booked one. 
 

Anyway, thank you to everyone for posting photos and writing these posts. It’s nice to know that Royal looks as normal as it

can be, and nice to see the Independence. We’ve  sailed on her sister, the Liberty , twice, but never the Independence. 
 

 

 Below is a photo of the Independence that we took from the deck of the Vista on July 17th. 

Edited August 5, 2021 by sushitex

[jcc1025]

43 minutes ago, lovelife said:

Yes, it is in good shape. I kept commenting how clean and shiny everything looked. You will enjoy it!

 

 

Yes, thank you so much. We are up next and it was so nice to get a peek into what the future will hold. We know it will be great to be back with RCCL again. We have sailed Liberty several times but this will be our first trip on Independence so really excited about seeing the differences.