Just off 12/03 Independence the Seas

[nvaldez87]

Just back from the 12/03-12/06 Independence of the Seas! 

 

Disclaimer- these are merely just opinions shared by myself 🙂

 

Overall, great, short, and much needed cruise for us. We haven't cruised since 2019 and truly missed it. 

 

Pros:

Beautiful ship and always love the Christmas décor this time of year

Always clean- never an empty hand sanitizing station, EVER

Great weather for this trip

Coco Cay didn't disappoint

Chops meal was spectacular, along with our waiter

 

 

Cons:

System crash at Check-in

Staff serving in Windjammer

Having to make reservations for shows

 

Annoying:

Wrist bands- weren't bad, but would get in your food if not careful 🤦‍♀️

 

 

System crash and check-in- This.......there was a passenger 911 the night before on the ship which delayed its arrival into Port Canaveral. That is never avoidable and I truly hope that passenger is ok. We were just happy to be cruising again so a bumped time arrival of 3pm, from 12pm, was A-OK with us! We took the time to get some great food at some places on the water right there at the port. But arriving at the port and witnessing the mass hysteria and multiple lines that spanned for what seemed forever, wow.  There seemed to be little organization but the employees, I think, were trying very hard to get a handle on things. I commend them.  They had a lot to already deal with since the ship was late. Then add on hundreds of passengers asking you where to go, why are they so late, they want a refund.  You name it, we heard it. I feel like we only stood outside for only about 30 minutes, so all was still ok. If you've ever flown in and out of Atlanta Hartsfield International Airport, it felt like the security lines there.

So, the line starts moving and the excitement is starting to mount! We get inside, go through security, lines are again moving great, even more excitement mounting! We are directed to a check-in line. My hubby and I looked at each other and both said, "this is it, almost there."  Then.....BAM! All of Royal Caribbean's systems crashed! Ok, no problem. Been at check-in before when things have crashed or moved slowly.  Its normally 5-15 minutes, at most! Nope.  I'm hoping someone that reads this can tell us exactly how long it was down, but it felt like hours. They did eventually make an announcement to let us know they were working very hard in it, but by that time, there were some very restless passengers. Eventually, it came back up and things started moving again! When we were making our way to the gangway, an employee stopped us and thanks us for our patience and told us that in her 14 years of working there, this kind of crash had never happened. We got to the room at 5:36pm. So, we opted for pizza that evening.

 

Windjammer- I'm sure I wont be the only one stating this but the Windjammer staff has ZERO happiness. You can just tell they are 100% over the serving the guest part of the cruise. Is it ideal? Of course not, but they wouldn't be serving us either if they had a choice. We observed several guest be cold or rude to them and its just not necessary. We felt bad for the staff. With that being said, we don't eat in the windjammer that often, but once in a while I just want to go in and build a salad and then wait for dinner. You get in a salad line now where a team member ask you what toppings you would like and they proceeded to put each topping on with 10 other people standing behind you. It's just slow. Again, not ideal, but it worked.  It's just a different interaction all together. 

On that same topic, my mom was telling me that when Golden Corrals reopened, they implemented a "glove" policy. Sounds like they require you to put on disposable gloves at the buffet and it allows the guess to serve themselves. Anyone ever heard of RC maybe implementing this at some point?

 

Forgetting mask- there were several times where I was just running out of the cabin for coffee and never even thought about my mask- OOPS! No one ever said anything, but its very easy to do. 

 

Reservations for shows- I'll be glad when things are back to normal and this isn't necessary. Again, we understand why and its fine, but we are very relaxed cruisers who make last minute decisions at times and its just nice to say 5 minutes before something starts...ok, lets go see this. You cant do that right now. 

 

CoCo Cay- I had been to CoCo Cay many, many times before "Perfect Day" existed and I loved it back then also.  Its great! We loved that you could choose between spots and eateries and just have a really relaxing day. We didn't pay for anything extra.  We spent the entire day in South Beach.  

Food and drinks that day- Crispy chicken sandwich ( great ), Greek salad with grilled chicken ( great ), and a funnel cake ( great, but heavy 🙂 ). Had a Bloody Mary, Mimosa, coupled of daquiris, couple of beers ( used drink package in island ).

 

Chops- We normally treat ourselves to specialty dining since we always cruise on our wedding anniversary. Our waiter, Albert, was spectacular. There is also just the two of us so we like something more a bit intimate with dining. Hubby had the ribeye ( says it was great ), and I had the filet ( really great too ). Shared sides of creamed spinach, baked potato, and asparagus. We've never had a bad Chops experience. 

 

Hope everyone had a great cruise! I'd love to hear our fellow passengers experience from this past weekend also! 

 

Happy cruising 🙂 

 

[OCruisers]

Thanks for your review!  Enjoyed reading!  😍

[Biker19]

4 minutes ago, nvaldez87 said:

We got to the room at 5:36pm.

Aren't you glad you took your patience pills that day.

[Betsynh]

We’re scheduled for the 4-night in January! This all sounds great. How did you make the reservation for the shows? Can I make reservations online in advance or on board through the app? Have they drastically reduced access for social distancing? Thanks for your advice!

[nvaldez87]

6 minutes ago, Biker19 said:

Aren't you glad you took your patience pills that day.

Sure was! 🤣

[nvaldez87]

2 minutes ago, Betsynh said:

We’re scheduled for the 4-night in January! This all sounds great. How did you make the reservation for the shows? Can I make reservations online in advance or on board through the app? Have they drastically reduced access for social distancing? Thanks for your advice!

You make it on the APP, once onboard and connected to the ship wifi. It was VERY easy and there was always availability. I didn't feel like there was reduced access at all. 

 

Enjoy in January! 

[fl_native]

We were on the same trip.  Agree on the Windjammer serving - we've got a couple of teenagers, so sometimes that's our go-to.  For once, we never had a problem finding a table, but things got really bunched up where the food was being served.

 

As for the delay in boarding, what a *#&#show.  We were delayed from 1:30 to 4:00, which was no big deal.  We had a 4 hour drive, so just meant I didn't get have to get up early to finish my last-minute packing ;-).  Got in line at 3:30, things were moving quickly, then about halfway to the entry (we hadn't even made it to the health check outside) things stalled out.  It ended up being almost 6 by the time we were onboard, and the majority of that time was spent standing outside in the parking garage.  My biggest complaint is that there was absolutely ZERO communication from any of the staff outside policing the lines.  If it wasn't for social media, we would have had no idea about the systems being down.  Nowhere to sit, minimal bathroom access, no water, Florida heat and humidity.  Fun times.  A few periodic updates "our systems are down, we appreciate your patience, we're working on it" would have been better than silence. 

 

Disembarking was very smooth - we carried off our luggage and never got hung up.  Facial recognition made the passport line quick.  All in all, Sat and Sun were great, but Friday was just a hot mess, and for a weekend cruise, it sucked to miss out on those hours.

Edited December 7, 2021 by fl_native

[nvaldez87]

1 minute ago, fl_native said:

We were on the same trip.  Agree on the Windjammer serving - we've got a couple of teenagers, so sometimes that's our go-to.  For once, we never had a problem finding a table, but things got really bunched up where the food was being served.

 

As for the delay in boarding, what a *#&#show.  We were delayed from 1:30 to 4:00, which was no big deal.  We had a 4 hour drive, so just meant I didn't get have to get up early to finish my last-minute packing ;-).  Got in line at 3:30, things were moving quickly, then about halfway to the entry (we hadn't even made it to the health check outside, things stalled out.  It ended up being almost 6 by the time we were onboard, and the majority of that time was spent standing outside in the parking garage.  My biggest complaint is that there was absolutely ZERO communication from any of the staff outside policing the lines.  If it wasn't for social media, we would have had no idea about the systems being down.  Nowhere to sit, minimal bathroom access, no water, Florida heat and humidity.  Fun times.  A few periodic updates "our systems are down, we appreciate your patience, we're working on it" would have been better than silence. 

 

Disembarking was very smooth - we carried off our luggage and never got hung up.  Facial recognition made the passport line quick.  All in all, Sat and Sun were great, but Friday was just a hot mess, and for a weekend cruise, it sucked to miss out on those hours.

Yes!!! The lack of communication was just shocking!  My husband, not on CC, said get on your CC boards and see what the hell is going on 🤣

The fact that they got on the speaker to tell passengers NOT to move chairs but gave no update, is what set everyone off. I have a video of people just sitting or laying on the floors. 

And yes, disembarking was a breeze!

[flamingos]

Thanks for the report!  My friend was on that trip (I originally thought it was the Mariner) and I knew they had the massive glitch in boarding. She was a 1 p.m. moved to a 3 p.m. who got on board about 5:45.  She said they finally sailed about 8.  I was hoping there would at least be a drink loaded onto your Seapass card.  🙂

 

 

[mac66]

We just got off the Oasis yesterday. It was about half booked so lines were minimal and we walked into any show we wanted without reservations. They were never full.  It thought the staff was very welcoming and friendly. Service was the best we ever had on one of these mega ships. 

 

The mask thing was pretty strictly enforced from what I saw.  I occasionally forgot my mask and was always challenged and provided a mask if I didn't have one.

 

 Never much of a line or a delay in the Windjammer although we never ate dinner there,  just b'fast and lunch just about every day.   For the first time in a long time we had no trouble getting a lounge chair by the pool on sea days.   I could get used to being on a huge ship that's only half full. 

Edited December 7, 2021 by mac66

[fl_native]

27 minutes ago, nvaldez87 said:

Yes!!! The lack of communication was just shocking!  My husband, not on CC, said get on your CC boards and see what the hell is going on 🤣

My husband was ready to cancel our Iceland/Ireland cruise out of Amsterdam next summer 🤯. "I'm not flying to Europe to have them treat us like this".  Like I said, the rest of the cruise was pretty good, it just seemed to sort of lack that customer service touch that we're used to from our past RC cruises.

[mawvkysc]

Thanks so much. We will be on Indy for a 4 day leaving a week from today.  I’m excited, 2 sea days and CoCoCay. It’s an unusual itinerary to not have Nassau. Sounds great. We love MDR for breakfast, so maybe we’ll try it for lunch as well and avoid the WJ totally. (Or Sorrento’s and Cafe). It’s looking like it’s pretty low capacity. Still lots of cabins available. 

[mawvkysc]

We’re the sauna steam rooms open?

[nvaldez87]

30 minutes ago, mawvkysc said:

We’re the sauna steam rooms open?

The cruise was so short we never even made it that far 🤣

 

[sushitex]

Boy oh boy…we’re on the Adventure for a B2B2B (started last leg this morning) and while the first leg was fantastic, my hubby declared the second to be just the opposite. Being skipped over while in line at the Windjammer twice,  and losing a day of Internet due to it being down (we did receive credit for it a couple of hours ago) wasn’t fun at all. Oh, and one day, maintenance workers decided to close off both sides of the outer deck on deck 4, in mid-afternoon, with plenty of guests ( including us) trying to enjoy a walk or just to go from one place to another. Not guest- friendly and likely, a safety hazard.
 

Reading about  people’s experiences on other Royal ships reminded me that while no ship is perfect, we are still on our favorite kind of vacation. 
 

BTW, we spent 17 nights on the Independence in September and early October and had a phenomenal time. That trip moved the Indy up to being my favorite Royal ship ( so far.) 

Edited December 7, 2021 by sushitex

[LGW59]

5 hours ago, nvaldez87 said:

Just back from the 12/03-12/06 Independence of the Seas! 

 

Disclaimer- these are merely just opinions shared by myself 🙂

 

Overall, great, short, and much needed cruise for us. We haven't cruised since 2019 and truly missed it. 

 

Pros:

Beautiful ship and always love the Christmas décor this time of year

Always clean- never an empty hand sanitizing station, EVER

Great weather for this trip

Coco Cay didn't disappoint

Chops meal was spectacular, along with our waiter

 

 

Cons:

System crash at Check-in

Staff serving in Windjammer

Having to make reservations for shows

 

Annoying:

Wrist bands- weren't bad, but would get in your food if not careful 🤦‍♀️

 

 

System crash and check-in- This.......there was a passenger 911 the night before on the ship which delayed its arrival into Port Canaveral. That is never avoidable and I truly hope that passenger is ok. We were just happy to be cruising again so a bumped time arrival of 3pm, from 12pm, was A-OK with us! We took the time to get some great food at some places on the water right there at the port. But arriving at the port and witnessing the mass hysteria and multiple lines that spanned for what seemed forever, wow.  There seemed to be little organization but the employees, I think, were trying very hard to get a handle on things. I commend them.  They had a lot to already deal with since the ship was late. Then add on hundreds of passengers asking you where to go, why are they so late, they want a refund.  You name it, we heard it. I feel like we only stood outside for only about 30 minutes, so all was still ok. If you've ever flown in and out of Atlanta Hartsfield International Airport, it felt like the security lines there.

So, the line starts moving and the excitement is starting to mount! We get inside, go through security, lines are again moving great, even more excitement mounting! We are directed to a check-in line. My hubby and I looked at each other and both said, "this is it, almost there."  Then.....BAM! All of Royal Caribbean's systems crashed! Ok, no problem. Been at check-in before when things have crashed or moved slowly.  Its normally 5-15 minutes, at most! Nope.  I'm hoping someone that reads this can tell us exactly how long it was down, but it felt like hours. They did eventually make an announcement to let us know they were working very hard in it, but by that time, there were some very restless passengers. Eventually, it came back up and things started moving again! When we were making our way to the gangway, an employee stopped us and thanks us for our patience and told us that in her 14 years of working there, this kind of crash had never happened. We got to the room at 5:36pm. So, we opted for pizza that evening.

 

Windjammer- I'm sure I wont be the only one stating this but the Windjammer staff has ZERO happiness. You can just tell they are 100% over the serving the guest part of the cruise. Is it ideal? Of course not, but they wouldn't be serving us either if they had a choice. We observed several guest be cold or rude to them and its just not necessary. We felt bad for the staff. With that being said, we don't eat in the windjammer that often, but once in a while I just want to go in and build a salad and then wait for dinner. You get in a salad line now where a team member ask you what toppings you would like and they proceeded to put each topping on with 10 other people standing behind you. It's just slow. Again, not ideal, but it worked.  It's just a different interaction all together. 

On that same topic, my mom was telling me that when Golden Corrals reopened, they implemented a "glove" policy. Sounds like they require you to put on disposable gloves at the buffet and it allows the guess to serve themselves. Anyone ever heard of RC maybe implementing this at some point?

 

Forgetting mask- there were several times where I was just running out of the cabin for coffee and never even thought about my mask- OOPS! No one ever said anything, but its very easy to do. 

 

Reservations for shows- I'll be glad when things are back to normal and this isn't necessary. Again, we understand why and its fine, but we are very relaxed cruisers who make last minute decisions at times and its just nice to say 5 minutes before something starts...ok, lets go see this. You cant do that right now. 

 

CoCo Cay- I had been to CoCo Cay many, many times before "Perfect Day" existed and I loved it back then also.  Its great! We loved that you could choose between spots and eateries and just have a really relaxing day. We didn't pay for anything extra.  We spent the entire day in South Beach.  

Food and drinks that day- Crispy chicken sandwich ( great ), Greek salad with grilled chicken ( great ), and a funnel cake ( great, but heavy 🙂 ). Had a Bloody Mary, Mimosa, coupled of daquiris, couple of beers ( used drink package in island ).

 

Chops- We normally treat ourselves to specialty dining since we always cruise on our wedding anniversary. Our waiter, Albert, was spectacular. There is also just the two of us so we like something more a bit intimate with dining. Hubby had the ribeye ( says it was great ), and I had the filet ( really great too ). Shared sides of creamed spinach, baked potato, and asparagus. We've never had a bad Chops experience. 

 

Hope everyone had a great cruise! I'd love to hear our fellow passengers experience from this past weekend also! 

 

Happy cruising 🙂 

 

A buffet is a buffet is a buffet, whether self serve or being served.  Something just happens to many people when they get in the buffet, I find it disgusting, well I find them disgusting.  Certainly not all, but IMO many, and it’s not human nature, it’s greed.  You’d think they never saw food in their lives.  The staff working there deserve combat pay!

[molly361]

On the Indy now. You can also make reservations on the phone there is a number for the box office. I couldn't make them on my app for some reason

[UNCFanatik]

I was on the Oasis Thanksgiving week and headed on a 3 night cruise on the Independence on Dec 17

 

The buffet lines werent too bad on the Oasis but I agree that as capacity is expanded, the staff serving buffets will be a problem. I think they should go back to self serve in the buffets. No one is going to get Covid from tongs or serving spoon. I know there are other issues with people serving themselves at the buffets because some people are just nasty but how sustainable is it for staff to keep serving buffets and maintaining Customer satisfaction? But I can see where the staff serving the buffets reduces food costs but that probably ends up being a wash when you consider the increased labor costs

 

I have been to local buffets in the Southern US since the pandemic and as mentioned above, they require customers to put on gloves before serving themselves and I have not heard of any Covid breakouts from Buffet restaurants. 

[Ozzie26]

We were also on that  sailing. I can confirm that yes the sauna and steam rooms were open. Used them Saturday and Sunday and completely alone both days. 

[nvaldez87]

8 hours ago, LGW59 said:

A buffet is a buffet is a buffet, whether self serve or being served.  Something just happens to many people when they get in the buffet, I find it disgusting, well I find them disgusting.  Certainly not all, but IMO many, and it’s not human nature, it’s greed.  You’d think they never saw food in their lives.  The staff working there deserve combat pay!

Very true statement! And for the most part, I would only go in there for a salad real fast and then walk back out with it. People were being so ugly to the staff and I felt horrible for them. 

[Maitaivegas]

3 hours ago, nvaldez87 said:

Very true statement! And for the most part, I would only go in there for a salad real fast and then walk back out with it. People were being so ugly to the staff and I felt horrible for them. 

First off Thank you to Nvaldez87 for your trip report, I enjoyed all of it.

Personally I would have no problem checking someone’s nastiness toward a staff member. I don’t get challenged often due to my angry face.