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honeymoon disaster |
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Reviewed By: hanslip, baildon on 27th Jun 2009
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| Cruise Line: Royal Caribbean Cruises |
Times cruised before: 0 |
| Cruise Ship: Independence of the Seas |
Sailed:
May,
2009 |
| Destination: Canaries |
Age: 36-45 |
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This was our first time cruising and decided to push the boat out (lol!), but were left feeling very disappointed! The embarkment was very smooth and whilst we had to wait for our cabin to be ready, we decided to explore the ship! As we were quite hungry and thirsty from our travel down to Southampton, we were ready for a beer or two! As we are both smokers, we had to head for the Labirynth Bar, as it is the only inside area that allows smoking! The prices for 2 beers were extortionate and no better for spirits etc. This soon deflated our excitement and being on our honeymoon and having already paid a premium for this, we felt quite shocked. Our cabin was lovely, however, and the balcony is a must! There is a mini bar, but once again prices are ludicrous! Avoid! The cleanliness was first class and our cabin crew was very efficient and friendly. Tv was great as it had your sea pass account on so you could check what you had spent and order room service. We elected for my time dining in the Macbeth dining room and the food was good not great as it was sometimes luke warm and bit repetative. The waiter service was excellent. However, the windjammer !! what a nigthmare ! No matter what time we went, it was always way too busy and finding a table was sometimes impossible! You felt like you had done a small marathon before you had managed to fill your plate as all the stations were spread about too far from each other. The choice of food however was good as it catered for all types. Trying to find a sunlounger was also a nightmare as only a small part of the ship (deck 11 port side) was allocated to smokers and we soon discovered that alot of non smokers were using them as there clearly wasn't enough loungers for the volume of people on board, very maddening! Also, the loungers were extremely close together and trying to get out from them was an experience in itself! The Labirynth Bar became a regular haunt for us although the dj was absolutely rubbish! We never heard him speak and as the records seemed to repeat, we came to the conclusion that after 12.00pm he must have been playing cds and done a bunk! Also, whenever we asked for a request, funnily enough he never had any of them!! Despite the ship being very impressive, it was far too overcrowded which meant that which ever activity you wanted to try, ie flowrider, rock wall etc, there were queues, queues, queues! I know i sound very negative, but believe you me this was not the honeymoon we we expecting! On the plus side, yes there were a few, The Chops Grille was well worth the extra $25.00, excellent food and service and plenty of it, and also the entertainment was very good. The ship was clean and the staff very good, but all in all, as this was our first cruise it was quite a let down and considering the overall cost, certainly wont be repeated!! Too much pennypinching ie, paper cups in your cabin, no coffee just awful tea, and dont get the breakfast in bed as it was probably the worst breakfast we have ever had, (undescribable)! It states also that room service is free, but we soon discovered that there is a charge after 12.00pm and the menu is very limited ! Another rip off ! Overall, too big, too many people and far too much money !
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