Here is Part 2 of my Cruise Review
Wednesday-Day 5
Day 5 brought us to St. Maarten. This is one of our favorite ports mainly because of the excursion. This was our second trip to the Tree Top Adventure at Loterie Farms. The excursion is through the trees and combines various rope bridges, zip lines, and climbs through the trees. It’s a blast and we highly recommend it to everyone. I’ve seen kids as young as about 10 and people as old as their 70s complete the course. The one caution I have is that you will sweat. I learned the first time and now take a second shirt to change into as I always sweat through the one I have on when I start the course.
After completing the course, we had to wait about 50 minutes for the last part of our group to finish the course so we had a chance to relax and enjoy the scenery. After getting back into town, we wandered around the town for a bit and then got back on board in time to have a late lunch at Johnny Rockets. The price for Johnny Rockets has gone up to $4.95 and if it wasn’t for the free coupon that we get in our Crown and Anchor booklet, we’d probably skip it. The food is fine, but its not worth the money as its not that much better than Windjammer. The shakes, on the other hand, are very good and worth the extra money.
After a stop at the Diamond Lounge for a pre-show cocktail for the wife and Coke for me, we did make it to the production show with the singers and dancers. This is one area where I’ve noticed an improvement over the years. The onboard singers and dancers have gotten much better and the shows have also improved in quality. I enjoy going to the shows as it always just seems part of the “cruise experience” to me.
After almost winning at trivia, we headed to dinner at Portofino. This is the other specialty restaurant onboard (along with Chops). Our Portofino experience was nicer than our Chops experience in overall décor, service, and experience. In my opinion, the food was better at Chops. My wife enjoyed her seafood skewer more at Portofino. The service staff at Portofino was more attentive and responsive than at Chops but we highly recommend both restaurants and both are worth the extra charge.
Tonight was Quest night and for those of you who have sailed Royal Caribbean before, you know about Quest. For those that haven’t, I won’t spoil the surprise but I will say that Quest is an adult scavenger hunt that shouldn’t be missed. My one complaint about the bigger ships is that Quest is held in Studio B over the ice rink instead of one of the lounges. I really like playing and watching Quest on the smaller ships. In Studio B, the game loses something but it is still a lot of fun to watch.
After Quest, it was time for a little relaxing at the Piano Bar in the Schooner Bar. During our first Royal Caribbean cruise in 2002, we had the best piano bar entertainer in Matt Yee who was simply hilarious. Since then, the singers haven’t measured up but the bar is still a nice place to sing along to piano songs and enjoy the people watching with a nice late night drink.
Thursday-Day 6
Today was an at sea day. We love the at sea days as it lets us just veg out, read, hang out at the whirlpool, nap, whatever. This morning, we got up and headed to the Windjammer to get me some breakfast as I was pretty sure I wouldn’t like anything offered at the Diamond Breakfast. After some quick food, I decided it was time to show off my shuffleboard skills and managed to take 4 games in a row before it was time for the Diamond Breakfast that the ship offers for Diamond members. The company was great as we sat with a bunch of our Cruise Critic friends. The food, on the other hand, left much to be desired. The menu was very limited and for a picky eater like me, there was nothing that looked good.
Prior to the cruise, Cathy, ever the little Miss Organized she is, organized a cabin crawl. We toured several different cabin categories including a very nice Aft balcony. The balcony was HUGE but the best part of the room was the “stripper” poll that was right at the foot of the bed. After running all over the ship looking at cabins, we enjoyed a nice lunch in the main dining room. I had to leave the lunch a bit early to attend to some business (I know it was challenging doing a conference call on my cell from the middle of the Caribbean Sea). The rest of the day was spent relaxing and lounging and eating soft serve ice cream. One little comment here about ice cream. Royal Caribbean has a soft serve machine set up by the pool and this is invariably one of my favorite hangouts all week. I usually average 3 cones a day and I’m not ashamed….somehow, even with all that yummie ice cream (its actually frozen yogurt but saying ice cream makes its taste better) I still mange to hardly gain any weight on a cruise.
That night, we went to the 80s dance party and had a blast hanging out and dancing the night away. I was ready for a late night but I had tuckered out my dance partner.
Friday-Day 7
Friday brought us to Labadee, Royal Caribbean’s private area on the island of Haiti. In the morning, the wife did another spa appointment, this time getting a foot massage, hand and neck massage, eye treatment, scalp treatment, and a mini facial. I lounged around in the whirlpool.
We aren’t big beach people which is really the bulk of what Labadee is, so this isn’t one of our favorite stops. However, Royal Caribbean did put in the longest zip line over water in the world so we were anxious to try it out. On our last cruise, we had booked this excursion but it was unfortunately cancelled due to head winds. This time, it was almost cancelled because of tail winds. The normal weight limit is 250 pounds. In the 35 minutes it took to do the practice run and drive to the top of the mountain, they had lowered the weight limit to 200 pounds because of the winds. Two poor guys in our group got to the top of the mountain but couldn’t zip down. They strap you into the zipline and your harness becomes a little seat. The ride itself is not all that long but it was a great ride. It didn’t go as fast as I thought it would so you could really take in the surroundings as you came down and over the water.
After completing the zipline, we headed back onboard as we don’t enjoy just sitting on the beach. Managed to make it back in time for the afternoon trivia game and then one of our favorite activities, napping. That evening we made our routine stops at the Diamond lounge before early and late seating dinner to see our friends and enjoy a wine (and a Coke for me). We did make it to the production show (on this cruise they have 3 different production shows) which was again very enjoyable. After dinner in the main dining room, we went to the Family Feud game show which was so-so. Tonight was late night comedy. This is usually a must see for us on cruises and we were looking forward to it. The cruise director, Graham actually does his own stand up routine for the late night comedy. He was very funny and kept us laughing for the whole hour he was on stage. I tried to get the wife to play putt-putt at 1am but would have to settle for a game the following day.
Saturday-Day 8
Ahh the last day. This was another sea day, and it was packed with stuff to do. We slept in and barely made it to the last morning trivia. I had tried to convince the cruise director staff all week to do a flag trivia but to no avail. After grabbing a late breakfast in the Windjammer, it was time to demonstrate my putt-putt greatness. The weather was great, warm and not too windy on deck and I managed to keep my cruise putt-putt record perfect (although only by 2 strokes).
After putt-putt, we wandered to watch the Flowrider. After a few minutes, we saw Dale and Jackie, a couple of friends we had met onboard and through Cruise Critic. They were all deck out in the Cruise Critic T-Shirts and Jackie got in line to try the Flowrider. She did awesome. Now, let me say that I had always planned on trying the Flowrider but made a conscious decision to wait until the last day. Anyone who knows me knows that a ride like the Flowrider and me really don’t mix so I was fully expecting to break or sprain something so I wanted to wait until the last day so that it wouldn’t ruin my vacation (and depending on what happened could’ve extended my time off work). In any event, after Jackie went, I ran back to our cabin and put on my swim trunks. I managed to return just in time to see Dale start his ride and cutting through the waves on the boogie board like a pro. Then it was just up to me to wait in line and hopefully not flop around like a dead fish when it was my turn. Well, eventually, it was my turn and, much to my surprise, I did OK. I didn’t tear it up or anything, but I also managed to stay on for a bit and not break anything. Emboldened, I got back in line and 15 minutes later, I was again riding the wave. This time I did much better and was able to control my movements around the wave and even managed to save myself from wipeouts a couple of times. Not wanting to wipeout, I choose my own time to get out which earned me a rating of “Lame” from the crew member running the show because I wouldn’t wipeout.
While I relaxed in the whirlpool, my wife went off to try and do another wine tasting which was unfortunately, cancelled due to lack of interest. She did, however, have a nice flight of wines and, I’m told, had a nice time at Vintages. A word here about Vintages. I am not a wine drinker (I’m not much of a drinker period although on this cruise I did have 2 beers and 3 glasses of champagne), but my wife loves Vintages. I must admit the atmosphere is very nice inside and I’m sure that if I liked wine, I would spend lots of time there. The crew who work there seem very knowledgeable and its clear they love wine and talking about it which is important in a place like that. I’ve never heard a bad thing about Vintages and its unfortunate that not more people enjoy what they have to offer onboard.
This afternoon we went to the backstage tour of the theater which was very entertaining. We learned a lot and it was cool when they lowered the orchestra pit so we could see how all that worked. Its amazing the shows they put on with all the costume changes etc. in such a small space. After the backstage tour, it was off to afternoon trivia (second again…drat!). We did a little last minute trinket shopping on the Royal Promenade and then met up wit ha couple of friends for a quick drink before it was time for my second shave of the week. I enjoyed the first one so much (and didn’t need to shave for like 2 das after) that I went again. It really is very relaxing and, in the future, I may skip the spa all together and just get shaves. While I was getting pampered, my wife used the time to get to know a couple of more wine varieties and enjoy some time at Vintages.
That evening, we got ready and headed down to the Diamond lounge and then caught part of the farewell show just to see the promo for the Cruise in Review Video. We ran upstairs to finish our packing and then pack down to the Diamond Lounge to say a final goodbye to some of our friends there. We went to the main dining room for dinner and enjoyed our final night with our waiters and tablemate. We have a cruise tradition that we started a long time ago that we have carried forward since. On the lat night of the cruise, we arrange to have a bottle of champagne for our table (or in this case our table plus a table of friends nearby since our table was so small) to celebrate another wonderful vacation and of meeting new people.
After dinner, we went to the final adult karaoke and cheered on Cathy as she “brought the house down” with her “singing” of Wild Thing. By this time, it was after midnight and we knew we had an early morning of getting off the ship and activities in Fort Lauderdale.
A word here about our wait staff and stateroom attendant. Our stateroom attendant, Jonathan was very good. While we didn’t see him as much as other attendants we have had in the last, he was great in keeping my collapsible cooler filled with ice for my Pepsi and the stateroom was always perfect. Our wait staff, Murat and Steve got off to a rocky start but, by the end of the week, were great. I think a large part of the problem at the beginning of the week was the weird situation with our table and tablemates (or lack thereof). Murat didn’t seem overly social but, as the week went on, he became much more social and animated and was a very good waiter. Steve, our assistant waiter took a couple of days to remember my drink preference at dinner (Coke of course) but by the 3rd or 4th night, he had them lined up and waiting for me. This was the first cruise we’ve had where our Head Waiter actually impacted our dinner experience. Jason, our head waiter, was excellent and was able to smooth over a few problems quickly and very nicely. We usually think the Head Waiter is unnecessary, but Jason really did a wonderful job in enhancing our dining room experience.
Sunday-Day 9
Well, time to get off the ship. We always fly in a day early and fly out the day after we disembark so we don’t have to rush or have any travel problems. This allows us to loiter on the ship and we are always one of the last off. We had no problems with disembarking and were able to get our bags right away and catch our shuttle to the hotel.
After stowing our bags at the hotel, we caught the city trolley to the beach area and then off to catch an afternoon harbor cruise on the CarrieB. This was an hour and a half cruise around the harbor on the Carrie B which looked like a paddlewheel boat. Their website is http://www.carriebcruises.com/index3.html and it was a lot of fun. I learned of the tour through www.inletcam.com as the Captain of the Carrie B hangs out in the chat area. Seaton was a great captain and we learned a lot about the houses on the water and the local flavor. I would highly recommend the tour to anyone who has the time either before or after their cruise or if you’re just going to Fort Lauderdale.
After the tour, we walked around the beach area and then headed back to the hotel. We had a nice dinner with Jeff and Cathy and Joanne and Fred who were also staying in town for the night and then it was off to bed for our flight home the next day.
A few final observations. First, Independence is a great ship. Very familiar feel from the Voyager Class but still a little different. She was beautiful and the crew was great. The additions made to the Freedom Class, mainly the cantilevered whirlpools, the Flowrider, and a Close Shave were excellent. I was a bit disappointed that they removed the bookstore and replaced it with the Loyalty Ambassador. The other disappointing thing was the selection of merchandise onboard. I don’t know if Royal Caribbean changed vendors for the onboard shops, but I thought the selection, variety, and just the overall experience were not as good as on past cruises.
Several things made this trip very special. The first was the great group we had from Cruise Critic. We made several sets of new friends and at least three are planning on visiting Las Vegas in the next year which will be very nice. A big thank you to Cathy and Jeff, Dale and Jackie, Vicki and Claude, Joanne and Fred, Ronnie and Grant and all our other Cruise Critic friends we met during the week. The second was the availability of the inletcam and the www.inletcam.com website. Wiley does a wonderful job with his site and chat and it was very special for our daughters and family to get to watch sailaway and chat with us as we sailed away. I’m looking forward to seeing the pictures that Wiley took of the sailaway soon. The last was the cruise on the Carrie B. Seaton and his crew were excellent and we really enjoyed the tour. It was an excellent cap to a great vacation.
Well, until next time (hopefully the Oasis next year)
