Review - Independence - 6 days - Belize, Costa Maya, Cozumel

[Spicester]

Hi Michelle

What time did the Passion Island trip arrive back at the ship? I'm just wondering if there would be enough time to go into town for some shopping after the excursion. I have already put a deposit down for Nachi Cocom , but Passion Island looks great too.

 

Your photos are beautiful and I love the girls dresses!

 

Thanks

SuAnne

[sunandseagirl617]

Michele,

 

Another great review! Your girls look beautiful! DD was just asking about you last night, can't wait to show her!:):D;)

[6MonthsHere6MonthsThere]

Michele,

What a great review, we had JS1406 on the Westbound Transatlantic in November and also have it again for the Eastbound TA crossing in April, the only thing my wife had against this paticular JS was that you do not have the same walk in closet as you do in the other JS's on the Indy, we were on a B2B and were in JS1370 on the first leg and the wife found the really spacious walk in closet great, then when we transferred into 1406 for the second leg she was disappointed with the size of the closet against the one the previous week, although the square footage are the same in the JS's, the two JS's on deck 10 AFT are slightly narrower(hence why no space to walk in the closet) but they are longer, didn;t matter to me as I just love the Aft cabins, just wondered if you had noticed the difference??

[crusinmama06]

Hi Michelle

What time did the Passion Island trip arrive back at the ship? I'm just wondering if there would be enough time to go into town for some shopping after the excursion.

 

Yep, no problem. There were TWO RCCL "Indy" groups on Passion Island that day. One left at 1pm and one left at 2pm. We were in the 2pm group. We were back into the port area by 3pm...so we still had a few hours to shop.

 

Michele,

 

Another great review! Your girls look beautiful! DD was just asking about you last night, can't wait to show her!

 

Thanks! :D:D:D We will have to sail together one day.

 

the two JS's on deck 10 AFT are slightly narrower(hence why no space to walk in the closet) but they are longer, didn;t matter to me as I just love the Aft cabins, just wondered if you had noticed the difference??

 

Nope, didn't notice a thing. It was my first JS AND my first AFT. My last was a GS. I could walk into my closet, even with clothes in it. So you are saying the normal JS's have an even bigger closet? :eek: WOW, I was happy with the one in 1406.

 

I think I can happily give up some closet space for that balcony. :D

 

It was the first time we were able to store all 4 pieces of luggage into a closet. Usually we stow it under the bed. This time, it all fit in the closet. Very nice!

[crusinmama06]

So on to other acitivities in this review - PIRATE PARADE - Kids ages 3-5 and 6-8

The Pirate Parade has been changed. At least on the Freedom class, no more parade through the late seating dinner. The counselors told me that the "other passengers were annoyed by it" :rolleyes:

 

So the kids "take over the theatre" now. They have to be signed into AO by 8pm (better to take them earlier to get the makeup on). By 8:30 they go on stage during the main seating show. Then they do their dance and they continue to march out into the Promenade and they do their act again in front of Sorrento's.

 

I found a Pirate costume after Halloween for a pretty cheap price. So my youngest was thrilled to have her own costume.

 

And some things never change. Some grumpy old bitty got off the elevator and walked past the AO pirate kids waiting with the counselor to get into another elevator. She said "I came on this cruise to get away from THAT". I heard this and said "You picked the wrong cruiseline." and then turned to my husband and said "I came on this cruise to get away from grumpy people, guess it didn't work" :D

 

 

 

[wrp96]

And some things never change. Some grumpy old bitty got off the elevator and walked past the AO pirate kids waiting with the counselor to get into another elevator. She said "I came on this cruise to get away from THAT". I heard this and said "You picked the wrong cruiseline." and then turned to my husband and said "I came on this cruise to get away from grumpy people, guess it didn't work" :D

 

 

Good one Michele!!! You (and your kids) can sail with me anytime!:D

[crusinmama06]

LAST Sea Day - Time to do everything we didn't get a chance to do

 

So today was our last chance to do the things we didn't get to do.

 

So that meant - ICE SKATING

 

There were times throughout the morning and afternoon for ice skating. They are divided into 45 minute sessions. They had "Advanced Skating session" for those who were skilled and brought their own skates. They had "Open Skating" for those who needed to rent skates. The ice rink accepts 50 people at a time. So we arrived about 5 minutes before the scheduled session. No problem, walked right in. Signed our lives away and swore we wouldn't sue Royal Caribbean if something happened.

 

They have skates to fit SMALL children's fit. There were kids that were 3 years old and were trying to skate with their parents. I stayed on the sidelines with my 4 year old. We have skating around here so I didn't want to break my leg so far from home.

 

But I promised my 8 year old...so...

 

 

 

[crusinmama06]

ROCK WALL CLIMBING

 

 

After ice skating, we raced (literally) up to the Rock Climbing Wall because at 2pm, they were going to have an "Adult Speed Climb" and that would have ruled out my daughter.

 

Minimum age to climb the wall - Age 6

 

They have teen climbs, adult speed climbs and kid climbs. But we just visited during "Open Climb"

 

So, MORE signing. No we won't sue Royal Caribbean. We were given a harness, a helmet and some shoes. You must have socks with you to climb.

 

So it's time to get hooked up....

 

 

 

One step at a time...

 

 

I think I can...

 

 

Um, mom, it's getting a little FREAKY up here! {direct quote...lol}

 

 

Miss it by that much!

 

[crusinmama06]

Time to say goodbye to the rest of the ship....

 

Bye Bye Drink of the Day Guy

 

 

Bye Bye Basketball Court

 

 

Bye Bye H20 zone all lit up at night

 

 

Bye Bye Promenade

 

Bye Bye Towel Animals - I think this was a turtle...lol

 

 

 

Bye Bye Aft Balcony and beautiful weather (the poor kid was so sad)

 

 

We will miss you Independence - we hope to meet again one day.

[Cam6959]

Thank you for the wonderful review. Loved seeing you and your family having such a great time!

[6MonthsHere6MonthsThere]

Yep, no problem. There were TWO RCCL "Indy" groups on Passion Island that day. One left at 1pm and one left at 2pm. We were in the 2pm group. We were back into the port area by 3pm...so we still had a few hours to shop.

 

 

 

Thanks! :D We will have to sail together one day.

 

 

 

Nope, didn't notice a thing. It was my first JS AND my first AFT. My last was a GS. I could walk into my closet, even with clothes in it. So you are saying the normal JS's have an even bigger closet? :eek: WOW, I was happy with the one in 1406.

 

I think I can happily give up some closet space for that balcony. :D

 

It was the first time we were able to store all 4 pieces of luggage into a closet. Usually we stow it under the bed. This time, it all fit in the closet. Very nice!

 

 

 

They certainly are on the "Indy", you could if you so wished:D go and get changed inside the closet;):rolleyes:

[crusinmama06]

They certainly are on the "Indy", you could if you so wished:D go and get changed inside the closet;):rolleyes:

 

Oh I could get changed in the closet in 1406. But someone just told me I could move a bed into the JSs on Mariner. :eek:

 

That would be nice....lol.

[RicardoC]

Day 3 - Belize

 

The ship arrives in Belize at 7am.

 

Some of the people on our Cruise Critic roll call decided to meet and go on a group excursion together. This was the BEST idea yet.

 

We met at 9:45am in Sorrentos. We left and boarded the tender (took about 25 minutes to tender to the port).

 

At the port, we walked through one of the shopping builldings and on the other side was our bus from cave-tubing.com for an ATV JUNGLE ADVENTURE!

 

For $55 per person, (at the end of the trip paid in cash/tip extra), we rode in an air conditioned bus to the jungle trails. It was a one hour trip....but seemed alot quicker because our guides were hysterical. It was a nice little party on the bus. They had music videos...the guide danced for us...lol. It was alot of fun.

 

We arrived at their "hut". We were advised to wear old clothes because we WOULD get muddy. They sold t-shirts for $10 each if anyone wanted to cover up their clothes. They also gave us plastic bags to tie over our shoes.

 

The guides took our cameras and went ahead on each trail to video and to take still pictures of every leg of the trail. NO EXTRA CHARGE. By the time I left, I had a video of our experience on my own camera. And I had pictures, including Before/After mud shots.

 

This was the MOST fun we had ever had on an excusion. They also run Cave Tubing trips. But recently started to do the ATV jungle tours. The age minimum is 12 to drive your own ATV. If you don't know how to drive one or you are unsure about your own skills, the guides will drive for you. One person in our group elected to do that.

 

The ride was 5 miles through the Belize rain forest and it lasted one hour on the ATVs.

 

They sold soda for $1/bottle and Belize Beer for $3. They also had Tamales for $2, ice cream, doritos and cheetos.

There was SOOOO MUCH MUD! We started off clean and ended up VERY MUDDY - but smiling from ear to ear. I would do this tour again in a heartbeat. If I go back when it's warmer, I want to try the cave tubing excursion that they have. The minimum age for their cave tubing is 5 if you have kids.

 

Awesome review and pictures so far....I'm still reading Belize so as I was telling you we did a last minute on the Miracle for the new year and went to Belize :cool: We did cave-tubing...It was one of the best excursions we've ever done....beautiful caves with natural light in some places(over little islands with plants :eek:) in the middle of that HUGE and DARK cave!!!!It was about 20 meters high inside and we used those lights on our heads....I felt like Indiana Jones:D....so it was good....and I just saw u won the Carnival Magic thing???MICHELLE IS GOING TO THE MED:):cool: WOHOOOO

[tms054]

Excellent review, we are going on the IOS March 29th. We did the cave tubing a few years ago and it was great. After your review I think we are going to do the ATV tour. Is there time to do both? How about the clean up after the tour, is it best to take a change of clothes? Thanks for all the helpful info.

[crusinmama06]

Excellent review, we are going on the IOS March 29th. We did the cave tubing a few years ago and it was great. After your review I think we are going to do the ATV tour. Is there time to do both? How about the clean up after the tour, is it best to take a change of clothes? Thanks for all the helpful info.

 

There is time to do both. Some had done the combo tour but I don't know how it works. Yes, after doing it, we would have been smarter to bring a change of clothes. My shirt wasn't too bad, just splattered with mud. The plastic bags protected my shoes - but wear ones that you could stand to lose. Some just bought the $10 shirt and wore that.

 

The video is here if you want to see exactly what we did...

 

http://www.4shared.com/file/87236765/4bc466c5/BelizeCaveTubing_0002.html

 

We had a blast.

 

And this is NOT the tour offered through the cruise line. We booked directly with cave-tubing.com

 

Our prices were alot lower.

[suekiel]

What a great review. We're going on Indy at the end of March..

do you have day 5 and 6 of The Compass? Or have I just missed it?

 

thanx

[jonsmom]

I have yet another Passion Island question....did you book through an independent operator or through the ship? Did you feel at all unsafe if you booked independently? I had read another post that mentioned they were driven to a location that looked like a setup for a robbery or something so it made me nervous.

[maggieq]

Hi Michele,

 

We just got home today from the 2/7 eastern cruise.

 

We had a fantasitic time...we were told that your week was pretty bad weather wise but you pictures show a different story.....

 

I loved this cruise and we are thinking about going on it again next year.

 

today was another story.....another passenger had a porter take our bag (short story we both flipped out and almost has a panic attack) filled out a missing baggage report while other passengers stepped over me. A few feet from getting out of customs my bf sees the passenger with a bag that looks like ours with a port employee guiding her to the other colors (not grey) area and I go in for the kill and get it...ok heart goes back to normal. Then we land in Newark to find out that we get that suitcase but not the other........

 

I will say that I did not like getting off the ship in FLL....much more hectic than MIA,SJU or MCO. They need to address this asap.

 

Other than that, we had 4 days of no sun and wind and then 4 beautiful days and a fantastic cruise experience.

 

Your girls are beautiful and look like they enjoyed the cruise.

[Loucat]

I thought that I read somewhere that there were kettles in the staterooms for heating water. Can anyone confirm this.. I would love to be able to use Folgers singles to make a cup of coffee in the room and not have to call room service for my morning caffine jolt out on the balcony. And also do they have hot cups or do I bring myown ????? Thanks for any information that you can give me. Sailing on 3/1/09

They do have an electric pot with two cups that you could use for coffee or tea. Bring some hot cups as they can run out and they did not always have covers. Have a great cruise. We were on IOS in January.:)

[Cruises n Vegas]

I thought that I read somewhere that there were kettles in the staterooms for heating water. Can anyone confirm this.. I would love to be able to use Folgers singles to make a cup of coffee in the room and not have to call room service for my morning caffine jolt out on the balcony. And also do they have hot cups or do I bring myown ????? Thanks for any information that you can give me. Sailing on 3/1/09

 

Yes there are electric kettles in the staterooms. But if you are in a suite, you get a tray with an electric tea kettle, a French Coffee Press a bag each of regular & decaf coffee that is replenished daily, 2 large coffee mugs, non-dairy creamer cups, 2 spoons & suger/sweet n lo/splenda.

 

I have never used a coffee press before so I was intimidated for the first few days & didn't use it. But then I noticed that there was a small instructions sheet so I took a look at it & tried it out. I was hooked. The coffee was fantastic. So much so that when I got home, I went straight to Bed Bath & Beyond & bought my own. It's the only way to drink coffee.

 

Hint: the non-dairy creamer cups are terrible. I took a carton of milk from the Windjammer & kept it in my firdge to use in my coffee.

[crusinmama06]

What a great review. We're going on Indy at the end of March..

do you have day 5 and 6 of The Compass? Or have I just missed it?

 

thanx

 

No you haven't missed them. I have to scan them yet. :) Stay tuned.

 

I have yet another Passion Island question....did you book through an independent operator or through the ship? Did you feel at all unsafe if you booked independently? I had read another post that mentioned they were driven to a location that looked like a setup for a robbery or something so it made me nervous.

 

Nope, Passion Island is a cruiseline tour. It must be made through the cruise line (as far as I understand it). The island holds 600 guests. There were only 120 on it that day - 2 from Indy and some from Carnival

 

Hi Michele,

 

We just got home today from the 2/7 eastern cruise.

 

We had a fantasitic time...we were told that your week was pretty bad weather wise but you pictures show a different story.....

 

I loved this cruise and we are thinking about going on it again next year.

 

today was another story.....another passenger had a porter take our bag.

 

It was COLD at times (like on the sea days). But in port, it was warm and beautiful. Sorry about your bag. That would have given me a heart attack. :(

[crusinmama06]

Cruise Compass - Day 5 - Cozumel

 

 

 

 

[crusinmama06]

Cruise Compass - Day 6 - Sea Day

 

 

 

[crusinmama06]

Luggage Valet Program

 

 

[crusinmama06]

Royal Caribbean Program for infants/tots 6 month - 36 month olds.

 

They also had book and toy lending in place. You can pick up the schedule outside of Adventure Ocean. This is for babies and their parents, no dropping off programs yet (not till Oasis of the Seas)