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There’s a firm NO to FOMO onboard Independence of the Seas®. Hang ten on the FlowRider® surf simulator. Go head to head in a glow-in-the-dark laser tag clash in Battle for Planet Z®. And score game-changing grub at Playmakers℠ Sports Bar & Arcade. From next-level thrills to lowkey chill, celebrate each day at sea exactly how you want.
Let me start by saying embarkation was a breeze. This was my family's first cruise so that matters. I thought the inside of the ship was a great size for our party and easy to navigate (My Dad cannot walk that far and my 6 year old son did not once complain). The ship's pool was wonderful for kids his age; however, seating was difficult to get by the pool on sea days. Coco Cay was awesome for families as well. I thought the excursion we did run by RC was also good. For 1st time cruisers it was idiot-proof. The reason this review is not 5 stars is the food. The food was a generous 7/10 across the board. There were plenty of options for picky eaters but quality and flavor was lacking. The biggest flaw, the buffet. It was just too crowded. More fast service counters are needed elsewhere on the ship to minimize this issue.
When we booked this cruise, we knew what we would get - the kind of cruise we did not usually take. Hubby and I are seniors (late 60s). We prefer quiet cruises on lines such as HAL and the adults-only Viking. However, our daughter and 8-year-old granddaughter were coming with us for this cruise, so we chose a family cruise. We also picked this cruise for the destinations, Spain, Portugal, and the Canaries. BOARDING: We flew in from the US one day early and stayed overnight at a hotel across from the terminal. Our boarding time was 12:30 PM, so we toured the town in the morning. Then we pushed and pulled our luggage into the port. It was not far, but it was still tricky with my overloaded bags! A port worker told us we had to deposit our bags into a bag-holding area, so my daughter and husband grabbed the bags while my granddaughter and I waited in line. There was quite a "queue," as the Brits say, to get inside, but it moved quickly. We had our boarding passes printed out, but showing them on one's phone was also fine. Once we were checked in, we high-tailed it to the ship. Muster drill is done wonderfully on this ship - after answering a few questions on the app, you go to your station. No need to grab or wear the flotation gear. The worker handed my daughter a color-coded wristband for my GD that she would wear the entire cruise; if she was away from us, it alerted the crew to where her muster station was. The band fell off after a couple of days, so we got it replaced at guest services. NOTE: Some families ignored the rule; many kids ran around without the wristband. Once muster was finished, we went to the Windjammer for lunch. That place was PACKED. We managed to get a table and weaved our way through the throngs of people. My first meal on Indy was spaghetti with meat sauce, which I cooked to order. It was very good, although the portion size was HUGE; I could only eat half. I hated to waste it, but I was soon full! CABINS: At 2 PM we were able to go to our cabins. We had booked a Spacious Ocean View Balcony for us and a Spacious Ocean View for the girls. The balcony cabin cost $3,571 more than the girls' ocean view, and it was NOT worth the extra money. For most of the cruise, it was pretty cool outside, not conducive to sitting on the balcony. During the entire 12-day cruise, I sat out there for about 5 minutes. My GD spent more time there than I did. We were also busy 95% of the time and spent little time in the cabins. We should have saved the money. Ironically, the girls' ocean view was bigger than our cabin! I was glad we got cabins on the same floor, close to each other. They were 6 cabins apart. That made it easier to get together and for me to help watch my GD. They were very aft, which was not an issue, and not very close to the elevators, but we liked getting in our daily steps. Our steward, Jainuri, was top-notch. He introduced himself right away and gave us his card. He quickly got me an extension cord for my CPAP, extra pillows, and blankets, and said he would try to get toppers for the beds. He could not get them, so he improvised by using extra duvets - it worked fine. He seemed to work nonstop! I saw him around more than any steward on any ship. He told us immediately that Royal only did one service daily, so we chose morning. I never missed the evening turndown as we tried to keep our room clean. He delivered a hard copy of the daily program to me each evening. The girls' steward couldn't seem to understand that they wanted morning and not night service, but he finally got it. The girls did not complain, but it would have bothered me. Indy is an older ship, and it shows. Despite a refurbishment a few years ago, the cabins look dated. Our carpet was old and faded. I always wore my Crocs or flip-flops because who knows what was on that carpet? Storage space was good. We had adequate drawers and hanging space for our things. The shower has a hard enclosure and not an icky shower curtain in the bathroom. The water pressure was great. A medicine cabinet on the left side of the mirror held our bath items, with a shelf under the sink for more. My folding storage box fit nicely on the shelf. My biggest complaint about the cabin is the lack of convenient outlets. There are none by the bed. That makes it challenging to use a CPAP. The first extension cord that my steward brought was too short to reach from the vanity outlet to the bed. He got a second, longer one, so I gave the first one to my daughter to use with her fans. The second one (green) worked well, but was so unsightly. I taped it as best I could to the floor with some masking tape I'd brought. I saw online that others rigged up the cord along the wall using magnets. I did not bring enough magnets to do that. I had also requested a medical refrigerator for my meds. It looked like a cooler. It took up too much room on the vanity, so I banished it under the bed and plugged it into the green extension cord. Other than coming unplugged once in a while, that worked all right. DINING: We had chosen 5:15 PM early seating in the MDR. My daughter does not like to eat late, and on many cruises, when we had late seating, we would not finish eating until 9:30 or 10 PM, which is not good for weight control. Sometimes, I wished we had later dining, but the time worked well. Our section of the MDR was not full at all. On the first night, my hubby eyed empty tables by the window and asked if we could be moved. The maitre d' said he would have to wait to see if the assigned diners showed up. By night 3, when they had not, he surprised us by moving us to the window! And best yet, he moved our servers with it. We had already bonded with our excellent waiter and assistant waiter, two of the most pleasant staff members we've ever encountered on any cruise. The food was hit-and-miss. Sometimes, it was good, and other times, not as good. We learned to order multiple items, and something would usually be good. My daughter basically lived on the grilled chicken entree. I like green salads, and we want our GD to get greens, so we also ordered her a salad. Our waiter brought her a green salad with tomatoes and 1000 Island dressing every evening, just like grandma. He called it "Grandma Salad"! Our evening dining was a highlight of the cruise because of our wonderful wait staff. Indy also gets high marks for speed. On other cruises/cruise lines, dining service has been excruciatingly slow, where you sit and twiddle your thumbs waiting to be served. Our wait staff was swift. Orders were taken right away and served right away. We were usually done by 6:25 PM, leaving plenty of time to return to the cabin to change for the evening walk my daughter and I always took at 7 PM after delivering the GD to the kids' club. CHILDREN'S CLUBS: Known as Adventure Ocean, the kids' club is usually divided into Explorers (ages 6-8) and Voyagers (ages 9-11), but due to the number of kids of those ages on this sailing, they were combined. That worked well for our GD, who was on the older side of her age division. The first time she went, she thought it was "boring," but when she went again, there were more kids and more activities, and she began really liking it and asking to go. She went every morning after breakfast while her mom went to the gym and most evenings. Sometimes, she had to be dragged away. She did crafts such as bracelet making and coloring in a pillowcase, and there were many games. Royal gets an A+ for kids' clubs. One caveat; to get to the kids' club, you must go through the arcade. My GD often begged to use the arcade games. I let her do it just once. Those fees can ADD UP. I heard about kids who swiped their cards for $50 and up on those arcade games. My daughter disabled my GD's ability to charge on her sail pass, but it may be possible to do it in the arcade. Happily, she never tried! ENTERTAINMENT: We are not big cruise ship entertainment fans; hubby often skips the shows, and I go occasionally. On this ship, we went just once, to the first time Grease was presented (9 PM show). We got to the theater 40 minutes early. The front row was already taken. We got seats in the second row. Two prime front-row seats had a "reserved" blanket on them. No one ever showed up to claim those seats. I was not impressed with the Indy's theater. The seats are not designed for optimal viewing. I spent the entire showing trying to see through the space between the heads of the tall people in front of me. The show was excellent; it was the best cruise show performance we've ever seen. Well done, Royal. My daughter went to the 2 PM show on the last day of the cruise. Although she also snagged a good seat by coming early, she had the misfortune of sitting behind two women who videotaped the entire show despite a recorded announcement that so doing was forbidden. She had to watch them hold up their phones through the whole thing! There was no enforcement whatsoever of the no videotaping rule. SERVICE: I already mentioned the excellent dining room service in the MDR. We went to brunch a few times, and the service was also excellent, except on the last day of the cruise when it was really slow. Service elsewhere was also good. I went to Sorrento's Pizza a few times, and they were pretty fast. So was the Fish and Chips stand at the pool. The soft-serve ice cream area at the pool could get quite a queue, but it moved fast. Windjammer: We went for breakfast on port days (MDR brunch on sea days). I applaud Royal's system for omelets; instead of having people line up and clog the area waiting for their orders, you state your order and are given a pager. It goes off when it's ready. It's a great system. The omelets were good the first few days, but they must have switched cooks because they were dry afterward. I quit getting them after the first week. POOL AREA: This was a zoo. If you want a pool deck chair, good luck. Sometimes, we got one, and other times - especially when the weather was nice - we did not. My GD and I had to put our stuff on bar stools a couple of times. She was always in motion and didn't sit still anyway, so she didn't care. The so-called rule of 30 minutes for an unattended deck chair was never enforced. I don't know how they could do it if they wanted to. How would the staff know if the chair owner was in the pool or had just abandoned it? I never saw a staff member take anyone's things from a chair. The pool staff was more focused on lifeguarding. They reminded me of Squid Games guards in their all-red uniforms. GD and I loved the "Perfect Storm" Typhoon and Cyclone slides. It was a great cardiovascular workout to climb up 60 steps each time for the yellow or blue slides. GD mastered her fear and tried out the Flow Rider and loved it. It simulates a boogie board ride. Sometimes, the wait was a bit long, but she usually only had to wait a few minutes to use it. GD also enjoyed the kids' Splashaway Bay area. For kids, the pool area is excellent. I managed to get to the adults-only hot tub just once, which was nice. In the family area, you're in hot tubs with many kids, some chomping away on ice cream cones despite the "no food" in pools rule (never enforced). I am a lap swimmer at home and could NOT do that on the Indy. All the pools are short and shallow, even the adults-only pool. They were also chock-full of people and kids. I got my exercise on the slides and walking the decks. DISEMBARKATION: We nearly missed the opportunity to choose our disembarkation slot because no information about it was placed in our room. Fortunately, I heard about it from an online group I was on! We needed to get off early because we had a morning flight from Heathrow. We chose the self-assist option and asked for 6:15 AM. We got it. We had more than enough time to catch our reserved private shuttle to Heathrow. Disembarking from this ship was the easiest I've had on any ship, despite the many passengers. Handling your own baggage makes it so much quicker (plus you don't have to stress about getting your bags out in time the evening before). I was glad we were on Deck 7 because the gangway was Deck 4, only 3 floors below us, and the gangway was aft like us. EXCURSIONS: We booked a few from Royal. They were all right. My biggest complaint is the "Spanish-speaking only" excursion to Mt. Teide in Tenerife, Canary Islands. Royal did not offer an English-speaking excursion. We were told by several members of staff that this was because they could not find an English-speaking guide. We found out how untrue this was when the tour guide informed us she spoke English! But she had been told she could only speak Spanish and was forbidden to speak English! Most on the bus were English speakers like us. We spent the entire bus ride desperately trying to use our phone translators or get translations from a Cuban-American fellow passenger. We missed almost all the commentary on the volcanoes. The guide was very nice and spoke to us outside the bus, but kept to Spanish inside. Afterward, we complained to the shore excursion staff, but they were indifferent. (Note: I tried hard to find an independent excursion to Mt Teide, but none were running on the day we were there.) FELLOW PASSENGERS: I got these statistics from Guest Services: Pax 4174 out of 4400 capacity. 2300 from the UK. 800 from the USA. 422 pax under age 18. 97 teenagers. Our fellow passengers were overwhelmingly British, which made sense since it was a Southampton-Southampton loop - local for many of them. I envied their ability to drive to the ship rather than take an 11-hour international flight like we had to do! The ship felt crowded. Deck 5, Promenade, was sometimes so full of people that you needed to zig-zag to get anywhere. The bars were always full, which didn't bother me as I am not a drinker. Although there were not many kids, they made themselves known. Crying babies were a fixture in the theater (daughter and I went to one port talk where we had stereo crying babies) and the MDR. But that was not as bad as the teens. I am an adjunct college professor. My class did not end until 5 days after our cruise began, so I had to grade final exams and enter grades. Once I discovered the library had desktop computers, I logged in on one of them because it is a lot easier to do grading on a desktop than on my phone or iPad. Everything was going well until THEY showed up. A gang of British teens had turned the library into their headquarters. They plopped down on the seats behind me and began talking and joking loudly in NON-library voices. As the din increased, I turned around and asked them to please lower their voices. That worked for about 10 seconds. Then they went right back to shouting and laughing. This went on for the entire 4 hours I was in the library that afternoon, grading exams. I went back two nights later to enter grades. The same teens were parked in the library, laughing and carrying on. As I worked on the desktop, one of the kids popped a balloon behind me, making me jump. At no time did they ever lower their voices. Several British teen girls came in and loudly began berating another girl about why she wasn't buying Vape pens for others and how she was caught hiding under a duvet in a boy's cabin. (It was funny because their target, an American, didn't know what a "duvet" was.) When I finished my work, I went by Guest Services to mention that teens had overrun the library and were not staying quiet. The guest service staff member responded, "Teens have the right to every place on the ship like anyone else ."I said sure, but the library is supposed to be quiet! He clearly did not care. He just said he would "make a note of it." I did not use the library after that, except to go duck hunting with my GD. One time we found a vape pen hidden in one of the chairs (we threw the vape pen away)! About halfway through the cruise, my GD made a friend: a 9-year-old British girl. They became fast friends after that. I became friends with the girl’s grandma. That was a nice bonus for this cruise. OTHER: Internet - while expensive, it was fast and very good. I bought a single log-in with 4 devices. We never got the GD's iPad to work, but that was for the best because I needed logins for both my phone and the desktop computers. Duck hunting - I knew this was a "thing" on some cruise ships, but I had never participated. Well, we had an excellent time duck hunting on this one! We turned it into a family competition, with my daughter winning. Every time she turned around, she found a duck. We would occasionally re-hide ducks for my GD to "find," and once, I "won" a duck at the arcade to hide for her! We got so much exercise going up and down the stairwells and around the ship to duck hunt. Thank you to all the wonderful fellow pax who brought and hid ducks. I would love to hide ducks on a future cruise. OVERALL: Would I book this ship again? Probably not. Hubby and I will go back to our more sedate adult-oriented cruises. But for a family cruise, this one worked well.
Booked the 12 night Canaries cruise on the Indy for several reasons. My wife did not want a long flight this year, so sailing out of Southampton was a no-brainer. It was also her birthday during the cruise and lastly, we ere going to be going back onto the Indy after 6 years away from the UK as this is still our favourite ship and was our first back in 2008, so we were looking very forward to being back on board. Got our embarkation time as 12 noon and planned to walk to the cruise terminal from our hotel as it only takes about 30 minutes, but the wife didn't fancy the walk so took a taxi instead which cost £12 from the town centre. Arrived at 1115 and the queue had already began to form so we joined it. No-one from the staff checked the times on the sea pass and we were on board for 1145. First thing to do was to get the muster out of the way as out station was right where were boarded. Next we went down to the My Time Dinning desk to enquire if we could have a seating earlier than 1930 (which was the start time on the app) and was told we could have the same table for 2 by the window every night if we arrived for 1900. BTW other than one night where a couple of men decided to just move to our table before we arrived, we got the same table and staff every night. I had decided to book a promenade view room on deck 6 above guest services for better stability (as we would have several days in the bay of biscay which can get rough). Also the room I chose was next to the lifts for easy access to the aft area of the ship and these lifts were in a area away from the cabins, so no noisy/drunk people at night waking us up! The stateroom was of a good size with the bed sideways on for more room and all was clean and tidy and all outlets worked. The toilet did whistle from time to time, but other people mentioned the same thing elsewhere around the ship. There were plenty of quizzes and some reasonable RCI prizes too. Won 3 out 5 quizzes I entered, but partly because RCI haven't changed the questions in years. Had a few games of Golf too - the wife won overall. Didn't go skating as last time I fell over and it hurts - but did go to the ice show a few times - there was only one show but it was good and some of the skating was perfect! Went to See Grease (for the 6th time) and again, the cast this time were the best I have seen and heard! The main acts were good too - but my favourite act of all time was on board which is Pete Mathews which his Juggling - sorry, but no other act came close to this. First port of call was Bilbao - another reason for this cruise, not been before, so was looking forward to it. Didn't book a tour, so had to do our own thing. Found out that the city centre is about 10 miles inland, so just had a walk along the sea front for an hour. Came to a strange bridge that took cars and people across a river for E0.55 via a gondola on wires - never seen anything like it so did it. Then heard a train so found the station and took the train into the city centre for E2.20 each way per person. Got out of the station and the wife got sucked into a Primark store across the road. After escaping, we walked along a busy street and found the Guggenheim Museum. After a couple of hours we took the train back to the port and walked back to the ship. The wife was knackered after this, but the next day was a sea day so time to rest. Next port was Lisbon. Been here several times and the ship docked at the new port close to the city centre (which saved a short train journey from the old port near the big bridge). Just got off for a few hours and had a walk around the shops etc. There seemed to be a strike but some trams were running. Glad I went on them last year! After another day at sea we arrived at Lanzarote (which was swapped from Gran Caneria), but it was Sunday so most of the shops were shut. Got off and had a walk around the town for a few hours. Next was Tenerife. Got off and caught the 910 bus for E1.25 each way per person for the 5 mile or so trip to a nice beach just east of the port called Terestistas or something like that, you can't go wrong, the beach is the last stop. It has free toilets, changing rooms and showers. It costs E6 for 2 people to rent a deck chair and parasole on the beach. It also costs E3 for a small cup of coffee. I have been to this beach many times and it is so nice that it it is still kept in good shape and costs so little while other places charge the earth and are a tip. Went for a swim in the sea. Very cold at first, but after a few minutes it feels warmer. I was in it for over an hour. The next Day was Madiera and also the wife's birthday. For this reason, and due to time limits at port, I booked the only shore excursion that was needed - the cable car and tobogan ride. We arrived at Studio B at 0800 to join our group and were quickly taken to a coach and went up to the toboggan ride area first - did the ride 2km down Monte and then were taken by coach back up Monte and then did the cable car ride down. It sounds odd, but by doing this we actually did not have to wait in any queue at all, yet saw other tours with a 2 hour wait. This was well worth the money as although it would have been around £30 cheaper to do it yourself, I doubt you would have had time. I have been here before for longer and still worried about getting back to the ship as if 2 or more ships are in that day then over 10,000 people may try to do the same thing. After the next day at sea, the final stop was A Curuna. It's a nice port with a few shops, but being where it is, it is hit and miss as to whether it will rain or not. Luckily it was still very nice, so we had a walk this time round a old fort which takes about 20 minutes and costs just over a euro to enter. BTW there are free toilets in there! After final sea day, we arrived back in Southampton. As usual, we opted to take our own cases off and had a time of 0845 to disembark. Went up to Windjammer at 0700 for breakfast and said goodbye to a few friends we had made. Got the 1030 train to Waterloo and then after 2 tubes, 2 more trains back to Nottingham. Glad to have been back on the Indy. She is still in very good condition. All the staff seemed very nice and pleasant and we could not find any fault with anything at all. One odd thing was that there seemed to be a lot of families with school aged kids on board whilst not a school holiday. Spoke to a few and they said the kids went for £99 and so it was cheaper to pay the school fine than take them away during the actual school holiday. Its a shame the Indy is only back in the UK for this year. I have my next holiday booked fore July 2026 on the Liberty for 1 week up to Norway as that seems to be the longest cruise she will be doing next year. Not sure what RCI is planning for 2027 but I went to Next Cruise on day one and booked a 12 night Caribbean cruise from Cape Liberty for January 2027 as I don't expect any long cruises from the UK that year- I may be wrong - we will find out in November/December.
Let me start by saying embarkation was a breeze. This was my family's first cruise so that matters. I thought the inside of the ship was a great size for our party and easy to navigate (My Dad cannot walk that far and my 6 year old son did not once complain). The ship's pool was wonderful for kids his age; however, seating was difficult to get by the pool on sea days. Coco Cay was awesome for families as well. I thought the excursion we did run by RC was also good. For 1st time cruisers it was idiot-proof. The reason this review is not 5 stars is the food. The food was a generous 7/10 across the board. There were plenty of options for picky eaters but quality and flavor was lacking. The biggest flaw, the buffet. It was just too crowded. More fast service counters are needed elsewhere on the ship to minimize this issue.
When we booked this cruise, we knew what we would get - the kind of cruise we did not usually take. Hubby and I are seniors (late 60s). We prefer quiet cruises on lines such as HAL and the adults-only Viking. However, our daughter and 8-year-old granddaughter were coming with us for this cruise, so we chose a family cruise. We also picked this cruise for the destinations, Spain, Portugal, and the Canaries. BOARDING: We flew in from the US one day early and stayed overnight at a hotel across from the terminal. Our boarding time was 12:30 PM, so we toured the town in the morning. Then we pushed and pulled our luggage into the port. It was not far, but it was still tricky with my overloaded bags! A port worker told us we had to deposit our bags into a bag-holding area, so my daughter and husband grabbed the bags while my granddaughter and I waited in line. There was quite a "queue," as the Brits say, to get inside, but it moved quickly. We had our boarding passes printed out, but showing them on one's phone was also fine. Once we were checked in, we high-tailed it to the ship. Muster drill is done wonderfully on this ship - after answering a few questions on the app, you go to your station. No need to grab or wear the flotation gear. The worker handed my daughter a color-coded wristband for my GD that she would wear the entire cruise; if she was away from us, it alerted the crew to where her muster station was. The band fell off after a couple of days, so we got it replaced at guest services. NOTE: Some families ignored the rule; many kids ran around without the wristband. Once muster was finished, we went to the Windjammer for lunch. That place was PACKED. We managed to get a table and weaved our way through the throngs of people. My first meal on Indy was spaghetti with meat sauce, which I cooked to order. It was very good, although the portion size was HUGE; I could only eat half. I hated to waste it, but I was soon full! CABINS: At 2 PM we were able to go to our cabins. We had booked a Spacious Ocean View Balcony for us and a Spacious Ocean View for the girls. The balcony cabin cost $3,571 more than the girls' ocean view, and it was NOT worth the extra money. For most of the cruise, it was pretty cool outside, not conducive to sitting on the balcony. During the entire 12-day cruise, I sat out there for about 5 minutes. My GD spent more time there than I did. We were also busy 95% of the time and spent little time in the cabins. We should have saved the money. Ironically, the girls' ocean view was bigger than our cabin! I was glad we got cabins on the same floor, close to each other. They were 6 cabins apart. That made it easier to get together and for me to help watch my GD. They were very aft, which was not an issue, and not very close to the elevators, but we liked getting in our daily steps. Our steward, Jainuri, was top-notch. He introduced himself right away and gave us his card. He quickly got me an extension cord for my CPAP, extra pillows, and blankets, and said he would try to get toppers for the beds. He could not get them, so he improvised by using extra duvets - it worked fine. He seemed to work nonstop! I saw him around more than any steward on any ship. He told us immediately that Royal only did one service daily, so we chose morning. I never missed the evening turndown as we tried to keep our room clean. He delivered a hard copy of the daily program to me each evening. The girls' steward couldn't seem to understand that they wanted morning and not night service, but he finally got it. The girls did not complain, but it would have bothered me. Indy is an older ship, and it shows. Despite a refurbishment a few years ago, the cabins look dated. Our carpet was old and faded. I always wore my Crocs or flip-flops because who knows what was on that carpet? Storage space was good. We had adequate drawers and hanging space for our things. The shower has a hard enclosure and not an icky shower curtain in the bathroom. The water pressure was great. A medicine cabinet on the left side of the mirror held our bath items, with a shelf under the sink for more. My folding storage box fit nicely on the shelf. My biggest complaint about the cabin is the lack of convenient outlets. There are none by the bed. That makes it challenging to use a CPAP. The first extension cord that my steward brought was too short to reach from the vanity outlet to the bed. He got a second, longer one, so I gave the first one to my daughter to use with her fans. The second one (green) worked well, but was so unsightly. I taped it as best I could to the floor with some masking tape I'd brought. I saw online that others rigged up the cord along the wall using magnets. I did not bring enough magnets to do that. I had also requested a medical refrigerator for my meds. It looked like a cooler. It took up too much room on the vanity, so I banished it under the bed and plugged it into the green extension cord. Other than coming unplugged once in a while, that worked all right. DINING: We had chosen 5:15 PM early seating in the MDR. My daughter does not like to eat late, and on many cruises, when we had late seating, we would not finish eating until 9:30 or 10 PM, which is not good for weight control. Sometimes, I wished we had later dining, but the time worked well. Our section of the MDR was not full at all. On the first night, my hubby eyed empty tables by the window and asked if we could be moved. The maitre d' said he would have to wait to see if the assigned diners showed up. By night 3, when they had not, he surprised us by moving us to the window! And best yet, he moved our servers with it. We had already bonded with our excellent waiter and assistant waiter, two of the most pleasant staff members we've ever encountered on any cruise. The food was hit-and-miss. Sometimes, it was good, and other times, not as good. We learned to order multiple items, and something would usually be good. My daughter basically lived on the grilled chicken entree. I like green salads, and we want our GD to get greens, so we also ordered her a salad. Our waiter brought her a green salad with tomatoes and 1000 Island dressing every evening, just like grandma. He called it "Grandma Salad"! Our evening dining was a highlight of the cruise because of our wonderful wait staff. Indy also gets high marks for speed. On other cruises/cruise lines, dining service has been excruciatingly slow, where you sit and twiddle your thumbs waiting to be served. Our wait staff was swift. Orders were taken right away and served right away. We were usually done by 6:25 PM, leaving plenty of time to return to the cabin to change for the evening walk my daughter and I always took at 7 PM after delivering the GD to the kids' club. CHILDREN'S CLUBS: Known as Adventure Ocean, the kids' club is usually divided into Explorers (ages 6-8) and Voyagers (ages 9-11), but due to the number of kids of those ages on this sailing, they were combined. That worked well for our GD, who was on the older side of her age division. The first time she went, she thought it was "boring," but when she went again, there were more kids and more activities, and she began really liking it and asking to go. She went every morning after breakfast while her mom went to the gym and most evenings. Sometimes, she had to be dragged away. She did crafts such as bracelet making and coloring in a pillowcase, and there were many games. Royal gets an A+ for kids' clubs. One caveat; to get to the kids' club, you must go through the arcade. My GD often begged to use the arcade games. I let her do it just once. Those fees can ADD UP. I heard about kids who swiped their cards for $50 and up on those arcade games. My daughter disabled my GD's ability to charge on her sail pass, but it may be possible to do it in the arcade. Happily, she never tried! ENTERTAINMENT: We are not big cruise ship entertainment fans; hubby often skips the shows, and I go occasionally. On this ship, we went just once, to the first time Grease was presented (9 PM show). We got to the theater 40 minutes early. The front row was already taken. We got seats in the second row. Two prime front-row seats had a "reserved" blanket on them. No one ever showed up to claim those seats. I was not impressed with the Indy's theater. The seats are not designed for optimal viewing. I spent the entire showing trying to see through the space between the heads of the tall people in front of me. The show was excellent; it was the best cruise show performance we've ever seen. Well done, Royal. My daughter went to the 2 PM show on the last day of the cruise. Although she also snagged a good seat by coming early, she had the misfortune of sitting behind two women who videotaped the entire show despite a recorded announcement that so doing was forbidden. She had to watch them hold up their phones through the whole thing! There was no enforcement whatsoever of the no videotaping rule. SERVICE: I already mentioned the excellent dining room service in the MDR. We went to brunch a few times, and the service was also excellent, except on the last day of the cruise when it was really slow. Service elsewhere was also good. I went to Sorrento's Pizza a few times, and they were pretty fast. So was the Fish and Chips stand at the pool. The soft-serve ice cream area at the pool could get quite a queue, but it moved fast. Windjammer: We went for breakfast on port days (MDR brunch on sea days). I applaud Royal's system for omelets; instead of having people line up and clog the area waiting for their orders, you state your order and are given a pager. It goes off when it's ready. It's a great system. The omelets were good the first few days, but they must have switched cooks because they were dry afterward. I quit getting them after the first week. POOL AREA: This was a zoo. If you want a pool deck chair, good luck. Sometimes, we got one, and other times - especially when the weather was nice - we did not. My GD and I had to put our stuff on bar stools a couple of times. She was always in motion and didn't sit still anyway, so she didn't care. The so-called rule of 30 minutes for an unattended deck chair was never enforced. I don't know how they could do it if they wanted to. How would the staff know if the chair owner was in the pool or had just abandoned it? I never saw a staff member take anyone's things from a chair. The pool staff was more focused on lifeguarding. They reminded me of Squid Games guards in their all-red uniforms. GD and I loved the "Perfect Storm" Typhoon and Cyclone slides. It was a great cardiovascular workout to climb up 60 steps each time for the yellow or blue slides. GD mastered her fear and tried out the Flow Rider and loved it. It simulates a boogie board ride. Sometimes, the wait was a bit long, but she usually only had to wait a few minutes to use it. GD also enjoyed the kids' Splashaway Bay area. For kids, the pool area is excellent. I managed to get to the adults-only hot tub just once, which was nice. In the family area, you're in hot tubs with many kids, some chomping away on ice cream cones despite the "no food" in pools rule (never enforced). I am a lap swimmer at home and could NOT do that on the Indy. All the pools are short and shallow, even the adults-only pool. They were also chock-full of people and kids. I got my exercise on the slides and walking the decks. DISEMBARKATION: We nearly missed the opportunity to choose our disembarkation slot because no information about it was placed in our room. Fortunately, I heard about it from an online group I was on! We needed to get off early because we had a morning flight from Heathrow. We chose the self-assist option and asked for 6:15 AM. We got it. We had more than enough time to catch our reserved private shuttle to Heathrow. Disembarking from this ship was the easiest I've had on any ship, despite the many passengers. Handling your own baggage makes it so much quicker (plus you don't have to stress about getting your bags out in time the evening before). I was glad we were on Deck 7 because the gangway was Deck 4, only 3 floors below us, and the gangway was aft like us. EXCURSIONS: We booked a few from Royal. They were all right. My biggest complaint is the "Spanish-speaking only" excursion to Mt. Teide in Tenerife, Canary Islands. Royal did not offer an English-speaking excursion. We were told by several members of staff that this was because they could not find an English-speaking guide. We found out how untrue this was when the tour guide informed us she spoke English! But she had been told she could only speak Spanish and was forbidden to speak English! Most on the bus were English speakers like us. We spent the entire bus ride desperately trying to use our phone translators or get translations from a Cuban-American fellow passenger. We missed almost all the commentary on the volcanoes. The guide was very nice and spoke to us outside the bus, but kept to Spanish inside. Afterward, we complained to the shore excursion staff, but they were indifferent. (Note: I tried hard to find an independent excursion to Mt Teide, but none were running on the day we were there.) FELLOW PASSENGERS: I got these statistics from Guest Services: Pax 4174 out of 4400 capacity. 2300 from the UK. 800 from the USA. 422 pax under age 18. 97 teenagers. Our fellow passengers were overwhelmingly British, which made sense since it was a Southampton-Southampton loop - local for many of them. I envied their ability to drive to the ship rather than take an 11-hour international flight like we had to do! The ship felt crowded. Deck 5, Promenade, was sometimes so full of people that you needed to zig-zag to get anywhere. The bars were always full, which didn't bother me as I am not a drinker. Although there were not many kids, they made themselves known. Crying babies were a fixture in the theater (daughter and I went to one port talk where we had stereo crying babies) and the MDR. But that was not as bad as the teens. I am an adjunct college professor. My class did not end until 5 days after our cruise began, so I had to grade final exams and enter grades. Once I discovered the library had desktop computers, I logged in on one of them because it is a lot easier to do grading on a desktop than on my phone or iPad. Everything was going well until THEY showed up. A gang of British teens had turned the library into their headquarters. They plopped down on the seats behind me and began talking and joking loudly in NON-library voices. As the din increased, I turned around and asked them to please lower their voices. That worked for about 10 seconds. Then they went right back to shouting and laughing. This went on for the entire 4 hours I was in the library that afternoon, grading exams. I went back two nights later to enter grades. The same teens were parked in the library, laughing and carrying on. As I worked on the desktop, one of the kids popped a balloon behind me, making me jump. At no time did they ever lower their voices. Several British teen girls came in and loudly began berating another girl about why she wasn't buying Vape pens for others and how she was caught hiding under a duvet in a boy's cabin. (It was funny because their target, an American, didn't know what a "duvet" was.) When I finished my work, I went by Guest Services to mention that teens had overrun the library and were not staying quiet. The guest service staff member responded, "Teens have the right to every place on the ship like anyone else ."I said sure, but the library is supposed to be quiet! He clearly did not care. He just said he would "make a note of it." I did not use the library after that, except to go duck hunting with my GD. One time we found a vape pen hidden in one of the chairs (we threw the vape pen away)! About halfway through the cruise, my GD made a friend: a 9-year-old British girl. They became fast friends after that. I became friends with the girl’s grandma. That was a nice bonus for this cruise. OTHER: Internet - while expensive, it was fast and very good. I bought a single log-in with 4 devices. We never got the GD's iPad to work, but that was for the best because I needed logins for both my phone and the desktop computers. Duck hunting - I knew this was a "thing" on some cruise ships, but I had never participated. Well, we had an excellent time duck hunting on this one! We turned it into a family competition, with my daughter winning. Every time she turned around, she found a duck. We would occasionally re-hide ducks for my GD to "find," and once, I "won" a duck at the arcade to hide for her! We got so much exercise going up and down the stairwells and around the ship to duck hunt. Thank you to all the wonderful fellow pax who brought and hid ducks. I would love to hide ducks on a future cruise. OVERALL: Would I book this ship again? Probably not. Hubby and I will go back to our more sedate adult-oriented cruises. But for a family cruise, this one worked well.
AWARD-WINNING AWE-INSPIRING ACCOMMODATION
Redefining the cruising experience one room at a time. Our staterooms are an alluring escape from the non-stop action that our cruise ships are known for. From our spectacular views to our deluxe amenities, a stay with us is like nothing else at sea.
TASTE THE BOLD
Savour every bite of batter fried goodness poolside at the new Fish & Ships℠ seafood spot. Take your taste buds on a trip to the Far East at Izumi, where fresh Asian-inspired flavours are literally on a roll. Or indulge in prime cuts of meat and steakhouse classics at Chops Grille℠. Whatever you’re craving, you’ll find plenty of delicious ways to fuel up between adventures onboard.
FISH & SHIPS℠
Order up batter-fried favourites at Fish & Ships℠ – the new seafood spot that’s just within splashing distance of the pool.
IZUMI
Say “Konnichiwa” to a reimagined favourite. Sushi, sashimi and more, all made to order with intense flavours, the best ingredients and impeccable presentation. Now that's fresh.
CHOP'S GRILLE℠
For more than a decade, the chefs of Chops Grille℠ have proudly presented quality, hand-cut prime steaks at this hallmark Royal Caribbean restaurant.
GO ON A WINNING STREAK OR LOAD UP ON EPIC SWEETS
You’ll find endless new surprises onboard just waiting to thrill you – whatever your age. At Playmakers℠ Sports Bar & Arcade, both kids and adults will have a blast making their own legendary plays at the arcade – all while tucking in to match-day favourites like wings, popcorn shrimp and burgers. Just make sure to save room dessert at Sugar Beach℠, where over-the-top ice cream creations and sugar-coated surprises will make even the most seasoned sweet tooths feel like kids again.
PLAYMAKERS℠ SPORTS BAR & ARCADE
It’s always game on at Playmakers℠ Sports Bar & Arcade, where you can catch your home team live on 50 screens or face off against your friends. With a menu of game day favourites and icy-cold draughts on tap, anything you order is a winner. Like the signature Playmakers Burger, the buffalo wings or the four-scoop Touchdown Sundae.
SUGAR BEACH℠
Treat your sweet tooth to every sweet under the sun – plus a few sugar-coated surprises. Sugar Beach℠ is stocked to maximum candy capacity with all your favourite confections.
Enrichment programs or classes cover a wide range of topics, from wine tasting to arts and crafts.
MAXED OUT ON THRILLS
Forget everything you thought you knew about cruising and get ready for next level thrills at every turn.
THE PERFECT STORM℠
Grab a buddy and plunge through three storeys of twisting, turning thrills to the bottom of the dual racer slides Typhoon℠ and Cyclone℠. The conditions are just right – for The Perfect Storm℠.
Treat yourself to some TLC onboard Independence of the Seas®, with an incredible selection of health and wellness options, from luxurious spa treatments to high energy workouts.
With a wealth of amazing features especially for kids and teens, plus fantastic entertainment and activities that families can enjoy together, it’s easy to see why Independence of the Seas® was voted the best cruise ship for families in the Cruise Critic Cruisers’ Choice Awards in 2015.
SPLASHAWAY BAY℠
The fun comes in gallons. This bigger, better kids' aqua park features slides, water cannons, waterfalls and more. And when the drench bucket gets full, everyone gets wet.
