Family cruise On Indy

Time really does go fast. It wasn’t that long ago I was counting down the days until our family cruise, and now it has been and gone. You have probably seen lost of posts on the newly refurbished Independence and here is my take on it.

We went on the 5 night sailing over to Cherbourg and Cobh in May half term. On the day we sailed away it was in the late 20’s which unfortunately didn’t last, but we were lucky it stayed dry. Like previous years we have got up early and travelled down and not gone by our allocated time that royal give us on our tickets. Whether its luck or they don’t really take much notice, we have always got on before 11. This really makes a difference to get your holiday started. I was a little disappointed to the sail away, I think they could have blown the horns more. Maybe that’s just me being too picky.

For lunch, we headed to the Windjammer buffet restaurant and easily got a table. I enjoy eating here as there is so much choice of food. On the first day if you’re a fan of seafood there was plenty to choose from. prawns, lobster tails, scallops, muscles. Mixing this with the array of salad they too I was in my element.

On this sailing, we chose to dine in the MDR a couple of times, and I’m glad we did. I love the grandeur of it, with beautiful staircase at the far end with a piano halfway up and a pianist playing. This is what I imagine traditional cruising to be like. I opted for steak on one occasion and it was cooked perfectly. I am also a soup lover and on offer was my favourite, onion which has the thick layer of cheese on top. Mouthwatering food.

The boys spent most of their time with the other children playing football on the sports court. My youngest did have a go at the Rock Wall- rather him than me as’s fairly high.

They enjoyed the newly the water slides and went on these quite a few times. The only thing we never got to try was the Skypad, and the only reason for this is there was a queue and it was cold to hang around.

Down on Studio B they have the new Laser tag. You have to really want to go on this as we queued for over an hour and a half for the seven minutes you get. It was really good and we’re glad we tried it.

I didn’t go to watch Grease this time as I had been before and decided to watch the show about all the fairy tales- the title escapes me. This show was fantastic, the singing, dancing it was like being at the west end. I’m so glad we went as I think the shows are a massive part of cruising.

One evening we decided to watch a film in the big screen outside, this evening they were showing Victoria & Abdul. We really enjoyed it, if you haven’t seen it then you must. It was a cold evening but the staff provided us with blankets and it was lovely to sit out and relax without having to get dressed up for a change.

So overall we all had a wonderful time and will be looking forward to the next one.