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Independence 26th October 2008 |
| Reviewed By: Gale, Newport on 27th Nov 2008 |
| Cruise Line: Royal Caribbean Cruises |
Times cruised before: 6-10 |
| Cruise Ship: Independence of the Seas |
Sailed:
October,
2008 |
| Destination: Canaries |
Age: 56-65 |
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This was our first cruise on the Independence and our first from Southampton, so we were really excited about the trip. We arrived at Southampton a little after 11:00 and by 11:45 we were on the ship! How easy is that! We knew we couldn't get our stateroom until 1pm so we made the most of the still quiet ship to look at the promenade and take some piccies, then went and had some lunch in the Windjammer.
Stateroom
Our balcony room was lovely and clean and kept that way by a lovely lady named Eunice.The room was great but perhaps we could have done with a bit more wardrobe space. The balcony was larger than we thought and positioned on "the hump" on the 7th floor near the library.
Food
We found good with plenty of choice. We ate breakfast in the Windjammer and lunch sometimes there and sometimes in the dining room. But the place which was the most fun was "johnny Rockets" which was well worth the £3.95 cover charge. The staff there were just great and they danced every 20 minutes or so. (we went there twice). The dining room food was good and we never had a problem in finding something we liked. We didn;t use either of the speciality restaurants as we were satisfied with the dining room so I can't comment on those. Service as ever was very good .
Drink
Perhaps this is the one area where "drinkers" will find a little difficult to swallow. The average pint is around $7 and cocktails around $10 so if you tend to drink a lot it could work out expensive. But as we don't it wasn't a problem.
The ship itself is beautiful. It was the first time that had been on a Royal Caribbean ship and if will definitely not be our last. You didn't really get the feeling that it was crowded even though we were there when the schools were on half term. They were so well behaved. Unfortunately I can't say much about the sunbathing facilities as it rained most of the time.
The entertainment was excellent with lots to choose from We went to the theatre most evenings and saw Darren Day, The Drifters, Zoe from "Loose Women" and a magician as well as the ships own team which was 6 singers, 10 dancers and an orchestra. There were two ice shows which were superb and they did the show 3 or 4 time each so everyone could get to see them. They also had some great classical violinists which we saw one evening which was really good as well. They had lots of quizzes etc and we went to an good talk on digital cameras for beginners which was easy to understand (It must have been for me to have learnt something). They also had wine tasting etc as they do on most ships.
The trips organised by the ship are expensive as they always seem to be on any line, but they were no more expensive than any other. We tended to do our own with the exception of Fire mountain in Lanzarote.
All in all well worth the £1000 or so we paid each for the 11 night cruise with balcony cabin and we will definitely go with RCI again
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| Quality of Food |  |
| Windjammer | | Entertainment | |
| Ice shows, Cruise director Graham | | Shore Excursions |  |
| Only did one to Lanzarote so cant really say | | Staff | |
| The stateroom lady | | Children's Facilities | n/a |
| | Onboard Activities |  |
| Lots to do, quizzes talks etc | | Cabins | |
| Could have done with a bit more wardrobe space | | Overall Rating | |
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