Independence of the Seas Review 3/7/09-3/15/09 Part One

So this is Part 1of my review of our most recent cruise. It was an eight night cruise on Royal Caribbean’s Independence of the Seas from Saturday, March 7 through Sunday, March 15, 2009, out of Fort Lauderdale. A little background about my wife and I. We are both in our mid-30s and this was our 9^th cruise and 8^th on Royal Caribbean. I should warn you, it will be very long as I am an attorney, and by definition, long winded.

As is our normal habit whenever we cruise from a port that we need to fly to, we left a day early. Being from Las Vegas, we had a long flight day on Friday the 6^th and arrived in Fort Lauderdale around 8pm. Unfortunately, there was no shuttle service from the airport to the hotel so we took a cab. We stayed at the Embassy Suites that was very near both the airport and the cruise terminal. The room was very nice with a separate living room and bed room. There was a small fridge in the room which was also nice. After arriving in town, we set out to buy a collapsible cooler and soda. I carried on a 12 pack of Pepsi and my wife carried on a 6 pack of Diet Dr. Pepper with no problems.

Saturday-Day 1

Saturday morning arrived and I made arrangements to use the hotel’s shuttle to the cruise terminal. The earliest shuttle was at 10:15. My wife and I then headed to the “free” breakfast offered at the hotel. My advice is to skip it if you can. The food wasn’t great and it was a scene of chaos with all the cruise passengers getting ready to head out.

We arrived at the cruise terminal and were on board before Noon. The departure terminal at Fort Lauderdale looked like it was set up ok with chairs etc. Being Crown and Anchor Diamond members, we were seated upstairs for priority boarding but there looked to be lots of seating in the main room as well. As is our custom, as soon as we’re on board we head up to make spa appointments for sailaway night. We also managed to switch our reservations for Chops so that we were at dinner during sailaway from San Juan.

A couple of observations about the ship herself. The Independence is still very new (as it was still technically its first season) and as expected was in very nice shape. This was our first Freedom Class of Ship and while we could definitely tell it was bigger, it still felt very familiar when compared to the Voyager Class. The whirlpools sticking out the sides of the ship were very cool and the wife took advantage of them right away.

After lunch in the Windjammer, we headed to check out our cabin and the Diamond Lounge on Deck 14 and then to meet up with Cruise Critic friends at the Schooner Bar. The cabin was a Junior Suite on Deck 9 mid-hump port side. The Diamond Lounge was very nice although the evening cocktails were held in the dance club because of the number of Diamond cruisers.

Prior to the cruise, I had discovered a great webcam site, www.inletcam.com which has a cam right on the inlet of the port as well as a chat feature where people will gather to watch sailaways etc. The owner of the site is a great guy and he takes pictures of sailaways. In that spirit, I had offered our cabin balcony as a gathering place for sailaway and Dale, a fellow Cruise Critic buddy made a banner that we held as we sailed away. My daughters were able to find us and were very excited about seeing us sailaway and I’m told there are some good pictures as well of us and our banner. We had a great time with everyone on our balcony and met a bunch of great people that we would hang with for the week. Hi to Cathy and Jeff, Dale and Jackie, Vicki and Claude, Joanne and Fred, and everyone else.

Dinner in the main dining room was as remembered. Prior to the cruise, I had contacted Royal Caribbean and requested a 6 or 8 top near the Captain’s Table. Well, it turned out we ended up with a 6 top that ended up only having me, my wife, and one other lady. She was very sweet and really an inspiration. She is 94 and travels all over by herself. I can only hope that when I’m that age, I’m as active as she is.

After dinner, we watched the parade on the Royal Promenade and remembered why we usually skip it. After some wandering, we headed to bed to rest up for Day 2.

Sunday-Day 2

Day 2 is at sea and boy it was windy! We noticed the wind almost right after sailing from Fort Lauderdale and it never let us until we hit San Juan. This was due to the ship cruising at over 22 knots the whole way to San Juan.

Having two young daughters means that no matter how much we try on vacation, we never sleep in real late. We were up and in the main dining room by 9 for breakfast. We usually just grab something in the Windjammer or have breakfast delivered and eat on our balcony but wanted to try the main dining room once. It was nice but not being a big breakfast person, I could take it or leave it. The first sea day is traditionally the Cruise Critic Meet and Mingle and this one was one of the beat (and longest) we’ve been to. I swear Royal Caribbean was trying to empty out its prize closet as they must have given away like 20 prizes. Cathy, one of the great people we met, organized a gift exchange online via our roll call. Each couple was to bring a small item from their town or state to exchange with another couple. Being from Vegas, we brought a mini-Welcome to Las Vegas sign and a deck of cards from the Bellagio. In the exchange, I got a real nice Michigan State sweatshirt which came in handy because of the winds on deck.

After a looooooong nap, I headed to the whirlpools which the wife worked out. Sunday was formal night so we got all dressed up (only time I can wear my tux so I take advantage). In general, I found the food on this cruise in the main dining room to be much better than my last couple of cruises. After dinner, we caught the Millionaire game show and then enjoyed watching the adult karaoke with Jeff and Cathy and Vicki and Claude which was always good for some laughs.

Monday-Day 3

Day 3 was our first port, San Juan. We had been to San Juan a couple of times before so we had no specific plans in port. After lounging around a bit, we went into town and just strolled around. Visited the Cathedral and then on to the birthplace of the Pina Colada where the drink was as good as my wife remembered from our last trip.

After getting back on board, I decided to try out one of the new things on the Freedom Class that I was looking forward to (no, not the Flowrider, that’s later in the week). I made an appointment for a shave at A Close Shave. It was very cool and I would highly recommend it to any guy. It started with hot towels and more hot towels and then a shave and more hot towels and then a second shave and more hot towels. Then there was a facial and a hand and arm massage. It was fabulous and I enjoyed it more than the massage I had gotten on Day 1. The only downside to it was that it was on the Royal Promenade so it was a bit noisy with people coming back on board from San Juan.

Throughout the week, we participated in many trivia games as anyone who knows me can attest that I have a very trivial mind and enjoy the games. I can’t remember exactly when we did them but this ship, unlike others had at least two games a day (usually at 10 and 3) so I got lots of games in. For the week, I didn’t do too badly and managed to win twice (once with lots of help from a Cruise Critic friend Stan), came in second a few times, and third a couple of times.

Dinner was at Chops, the specialty restaurant/steakhouse. The food and service were fabulous as always and well worth the extra price. We had a wonderful table by the windows and were able to watch as we sailed out of San Juan.

Well, it’s Day 3 and we finally managed to make it to the theater for a show. This was a comedian who was very funny. We try and make as many shows as possible during the week but somehow hadn’t managed to make it either the Welcome Aboard or first production show.

Tuesday-Day 4

Day 4 brings us into St. Thomas. We have been to St. Thomas a couple of times before and had done snorkeling and scuba diving before so this time we wanted to get out of the main shopping area. We booked a private tour with Spiderman Tours and had a very nice trip. After giving us a couple of hours to just wander around the shopping area, he took our group up to the mountain top where there were banana daquiris and wonderful views. One of the interesting things that I learned was the big difference between the temperatures on the Atlantic side of the island compared to the Caribbean side. It was a good ten degrees cooler on the Atlantic side. After the banana daquiris, we went to another area with wonderful views where the specialty was a mango daiquiri. Being one who doesn’t really drink, I take my wife’s word for it that both were very yummy. After seeing some more the island sights off the beaten track, we went back to the ship and relaxed in the whirlpools.

Tonight was the Welcome Back party for past cruisers and we had fun sitting with Cathy and Jeff and I began lamenting the lack of any chocolate covered strawberries which O love and they used to have the welcome back party. As is standard procedure, they gave little pep talks about how much they loved having back on board etc. and made a hard push for the Oasis.

Tonight was an early night for me as I had a headache and went back to the cabin right after dinner. My wife went to the Love and Marriage show which she said was excellent and much funnier than on past cruises mostly because of the Cruise Director Graham.

A quick word about Graham Seymour the Cruise Director. He was, by far, my favorite CD. He was funny and spirited and when I watched the replay of the Love and Marriage show, he really did make that show. One thing he did that I loved was that every morning he had a short show on the TV where he would go through the daily compass and crack jokes about events etc. (I particularly liked the day when the Drink of the Day tasted like feet and we learned way too much about Graham’s past love like). While I got the impression that he thought quite a lot of himself and his self worth, I thought he was quite funny and he managed to make even the lame stuff funny.

Back Soon With Part 2