Independence Of The Seas – The Good, The Bad and The Ugly

Last week I sailed on the newly rejuvenated Independence of the Seas. As I’ve mentioned before she’s always been one of my favourite ships, but it’s been a few years since I was last onboard so I was keen to see the changes

I was onboard for 2 mini cruises back to back so I’ll be splitting my review over a couple of blogs

Day 1

Arrived at the port at 12:00 and as a platinum member, I had priority check-in, so thankfully I skipped the huge queue and was onboard within 30 minutes!

After a quick cabin stop, I headed to the pool bar to meet my colleagues.  The fantastic weather and live Reggae band created a great party vibe on deck. We enjoyed soaking up the atmosphere for a couple of hours with a Strawberry Daiquiri or two before heading for 16:00 muster drill.

Post muster drill I headed to the cabin to get freshened up and changed before 18:00 dinner and was surprised my suitcase still hadn’t been delivered. Guest relations advised luggage could be delivered up until 20:00 but with my 12:00 check-in I had a feeling it wasn’t going to be that easy.

So with a quick freshen up (using my colleague’s toiletries) I had no choice but to go to dinner still wearing my travelling clothes.

Knowing we had early dining we had opted for a slice of  Sorrento’s pizza instead of a big lunch, So by 18:00 I was hungry and looking forward to dinner.

I enjoyed starters of escargot followed by onion soup which was delicious. Unfortunately, the main course was a big disappointment. The steak wasn’t great and served with uncooked vegetables.

After dinner my suitcase had still not arrived so after queuing at guest relations I was instructed to check the lost luggage on deck 1, unfortunately, it wasn’t there and guest relations advised the deck managers had checked and no one had found it, Panic was starting to set in!

With a heavy heart, we headed to the theatre for the ice show.

I was delighted to then receive a text from my roomie  “my luggage had finally arrived”

So with a smile on my face and a cocktail in hand, It was time to relax and enjoy the show. I’m not a huge musical fan so the ice shows are always my favourite and this one didn’t disappoint.

Always one to enjoy a dance I suggested to our group we head to the nightclub or maybe a Karaoke booth and was shocked to learn that both have been removed and relplaceded with cabins during the rejuvenation.

A real shame as I’ve thoroughly enjoyed both on previous voyages. Instead, the ice rink is now covered over and used as a popup club know as Studio B.

Not quite the same atmosphere as Labyrinth but to be fair Labyrinth did get pretty cramped so I guess with the extra cabins being added this was the best option and we enjoyed dancing the rest of the night away!

Join me next time as I explorer the ship with a special behind the scenes tour.