All the planning didn't prepare us for THIS!!!

This will be a review of the Independence of the Seas (our spring break April 8-13 with a lot of Do's and DONTS regarding our trip :)

Pre cruise:

I'm a planner, researcher and love to save money kind of gal but nothing prepared me for our adventure.

My dear son joined the Army after high school this year. What could we do to make his last year special? Of course, go on a cruise! In October, we booked 2 inside rooms for a total of 3 in one room (DH, DD (11) and myself. Room 2 DD (27) DS (18) We got a pretty good price considering it was the week before Easter and the last one in the states. It fit our budget perfectly. The only thing that didn't fit the budget was airfare and hotel. I watched the airfare and in January, booked a one way flight for the 3 girls on the Wednesday prior to sailing for $39 one way (including 2free bags) I figured it was a short sailing (5 days) why not spend a few days in the sunshine rather than give the money to the airline. So for $120 i got 3 people down to Fort lauderdale. My husband does not care for Fort Lauderdale so this looked like such a great little town. Two weeks later, i found an airfare for the boys flying out of Albany for $150 pp. Still great deal. Flights going down were booked.

I chose the Driftwood hotel in Lauderdale by the Sea. It was a one bedroom with pull out couch and they provide a private beach area and beach chairs and towels. PERFECT at $190 a night.

Late February I could get a car rental from FLL for $63 prepaid. Made sense to get a car and do some tourist stuff with kids. Booked thru kayak.

3 weeks prior to the cruise, my husband was hospitalized. No worries, we had 3 weeks. 1 week prior, he had heart ablation and decided there was no way he could go. I teach my kids that you write your own chapters in life. The only person who dictates what your book reads is yourself. As a family, we chose to move forward with the help of our immediate family. The immediate family would come down and stay with DH and me and kids would go on planned trip. Also, we did NOT have insurance. I don't think i would purchase insurance even after this. Off to soccer...will continue!

Oh no - I hope your DH is okay!!

You did a GREAT job on those last minute flights though!!

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Oh no - I hope your DH is okay!!

Yes I hope he is ok. Flying with a heart condition can be very stressful.

You did a GREAT job on those last minute flights though!!

Jetblue can have some great deals from Providence and Worcester, just have to watch the fares like a hawk.

Looking forward to the rest of her review.

Laurie

Looking forward to the rest of your review. Sorry to hear about your husband's illness. Hope he makes a quick and full recovery.

Glad your husband is ok! May I ask why he had an ablation though? I had one in January this year !

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Jetblue can have some great deals from Providence and Worcester, just have to watch the fares like a hawk.

 

 

 

Looking forward to the rest of her review.

 

Laurie

I look often at the NE airport - and I can often get 95-150$ flights on SW or JB, but never do I see $39 to Florida!

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Following

I liked what you said - "I am a planner" When we plan, God laughs!!

I do pray all went well and that the trip was great!

Following along, hope all is well with the hubby!!

Following along. I'm a big planner too so totally get it. Hope your husband is ok.

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following! Hope your husband is feeling better.....

what happened to OP?

what happened to OP?

Apparently soccer practice.

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Interested in the conclusion...

If my DW could not travel because of a recent medical condition, I would not do so without her. Toss the kids on the ship, but I could never be at peace knowing she could not care for herself. Whatever ... to each their own. Flame away.

If my DW could not travel because of a recent medical condition, I would not do so without her. Toss the kids on the ship, but I could never be at peace knowing she could not care for herself. Whatever ... to each their own. Flame away.

As a mom - if you skipped a family vacation because you thought you had to be home with me instead of helping to provide a long planned, memory filled vacation for our children (even if I wanted you to go on the vacation) we would probably be divorced in short time for you not being able to put family in front of your own selfish needs. Lasting memories and a vacation break for the kids are just as important and no point in your being selfish about your need to be with me if I don't need you to be there..

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CONTINUED....

BTW, it was SW out of EWR. I originally booked for $59 at 6 am. At 6pm, it went to $39. You call, they refund you the difference!!! Score!

So DH had ablation 1.5 week prior to sail away. Myself and dr.s felt it was ok to move forward but he was not comfortable with that. No worries. Everyone can choose their comfort level. My motto is "I can sleep when I'm dead." My DH isn't as adventurous. So I got home from work on Tuesday to finish packing and there he is shaking..wth a 104 fever. I immediately problem solved, got all the kids passports and gave the older one cash and said we (DS and I) will see you in Florida Friday. Changed flight reservations (at NO CHARGE) THANK YOU SW. 2 seats open out of EWR for $580 pp. They changed my $39 flight to 6:30 am Friday.

Fever gone, bags packed, husband physically well. We leave the house at 2;30 am get in the car and drive to airport. While in the shuttle at the airport after parking my car, we get a text stating "FLIGHT CANCELLED" I thought that was impossible and laughed.....until we got off the bus and saw a sea of people in line. 3 flights cancelled. Orlando, FLL and Chicaco. 1.5 hours of standing in line at the ticket counter, one phone call to older sister to help problem solve and one ticket agent yelling down the line...we can GUARANTEE you NEXT thurday you will fly out!!!!

I turned to my son and told him we live what we create. You create your world, you choose what you become and what you do in life. While you are still under my roof, i can facilitate your dreams. You tell me what we are doing and I will make it happen. Are you up for 22 hour car ride? He looked at me and smiled and said "I'm up for an adventure." We laughed so hard, said goodbye to our "on line" friends, paid the $18 for 1 hour to park our car and drove STRAIGHT to Fort Lauderdale.

We feared stopping as we felt there might be something us stopping us from going all together, like a dead battery! We were getting there come hell or high water!! 2:30 am-2:30am we DID IT!!! All i kept thinking is, this is a lousy 5 day cruise, not even a 7 day'er! ( I failed to mention that the 2 girls that were sent to florida, ones baggage was destroyed and the other ones bag did not fly to florida but went to Indiana instead. No swimsuit or underwear!) Walgreens and surf shop to the rescue!

The kids stayed at the Driftwood motel in Lauderdale by the Sea. Why aren't more people talking about this town? Its adorable with a beautiful beach (except the fact that they charge $2 to use the pier) I can't say enough about the hospitality, cleanliness and overall everything about this motel. It had every activity needed and even had beach chairs to use. Loved it. Will stay again when I'm in town longer than 4 hours.

Up next..FINALLY! THE CRUISE!

I hope the cruise went well, because getting there sounds like hell. This is a commercial for why to get trip insurance, I am surprised you would still not buy it. Imagine if your Husbands condition happened onboard the ship? They'd put him off at the first port. Glad it happened while home an he is doing better. looking forward to more of your adventure.

We parked at the parking lot next to the pier. I didn't prepare for this so i didn't care how much it cost. In the end, it was $15 per day (much better than Newark at $18 per hour.) Be prepared, it was a long walk. TIP: f i did it again, i would drop luggage and people off first. You drop the luggage to the porters (they ask for a tip if your slow in pulling your money out) and then go inside thru security then to the RCC staff.

Here is where I will speak about cancelling people on your reservation.

First. I called RC and asked what there cancellation policy is being it is only 5 days before the trip. I new I would loose my money but wanted to hear it from them. I explained my situation, the RC rep said, I think we can do something about this. I was like really? He said you have to get your TA to call. So i called the on line travel company i used. Remember, i wanted the best price. I explained my husband is too ill to travel on the cruise. Before I even spoke to anyone, I immediately contacted a supervisor. There is no need to go thru a front line person, I needed this to be done right with a cancellation. She didn't think anything could be done its less than 14 days. Again, i didn't know i could get any money back and I also wanted them to know that I only had 2 in a room that i booked for 3. I wanted them to see if anyone had a waiting list (if there is such a thing) and i would gladly move to a "2" room and see what they said. RC gave us our port money back and 75% of the 3rd passenger for a future cruise.

So back to being in line. Although we canceled husband, my reservation was WRONG!!!! Everyone's name was incorrect and didn't match the passports. At this point, i thought i was going to faint. After direction from the supervisor,it was fixed and we BOARDED!!!

Ship overall- I thought the ship was beautiful. I felt the price we paid matched the quality and service we received. It wasn't the Harmony, but we didn't pay Harmony prices. It was like a Hampton Inn. Great quality but its not the W!

Inside rooms: this is the first time we had stayed in them. I paid for everyone so we saved here so we could spend somewhere else. I thought the rooms were very, very large for the 2 of us. I think 3 would be comfortable 4 you need to be organized. I found it spacious, plenty of room under the beds, clothesline in shower, knobs on bathroom door to hang your bathing suit. It was a little dated, but again, this isn't the W. It was clean and at this point, i felt i got a great deal.

Food: I thought the food was good. We didn't eat at any of the specialty restaurants. Not sure why we would pay more when we had dinner available. Also, were from NY, you can't get better italian on a ship!

Pool area: I thought they had plenty of chairs for the sold out ship. By 11 am, yeah you might have trouble but really, if you're late, what do you expect?

Entertainment was ok but by this point, i was just happy to be not the ship. We did pay $66 for one game of BINGO. Cash prize was $300 but it was something to do. We didn't go down to the shows. We go to the city for broadway shows often and I couldn't wait to see Grease but the kids didn't seem to interested so we didn't.

Sold out ship: It was sold out but I never felt like it was crowded at all. I walked a lot to the venues, we didn't use the elevators as i was on the 9th floor forward. My son on the other hand, felt the ship was so crowded. Guess its all about perception. I heard 1800 kids on board but again it never felt like it. It seemed like there was a great crowd always. Kids karaoke was great!

I hope the cruise went well, because getting there sounds like hell. This is a commercial for why to get trip insurance, I am surprised you would still not buy it. Imagine if your Husbands condition happened onboard the ship? They'd put him off at the first port. Glad it happened while home an he is doing better. looking forward to more of your adventure.

I hear you but I'm not convinced yet that it would of paid itself. Precondition covered? Have you ever gone to an out of network DR.? yes they pay you....00001% of what you paid. Again, the cruise didn't cost that much so i'm still not a firm believer in extra insurance. But, I will research the insurance before our next cruise! lol

I hear you but I'm not convinced yet that it would of paid itself. Precondition covered? Have you ever gone to an out of network DR.? yes they pay you....00001% of what you paid. Again, the cruise didn't cost that much so i'm still not a firm believer in extra insurance. But, I will research the insurance before our next cruise! lol

I get where you are coming from, for me the trip is already paid for, so if I lose the trip cost I'm not out any extra money, I just don't get the experiences. So on that side reimbursement is nice, but not critical.

However, if I get hurt or injured and have to be left at a foreign port and am facing a $50K bill for a medical flight that could be devastating. I have significant assets to protect and that is what the insurance is for. Insurance can't prevent an accident or illness, it provides me with the known stability of reimbursement in unfortunate circumstances. If I had no assets at all, I might think differently; I'll sign anything because they won't get blood from a stone, but that's not my reality and I'm not willing to gamble with our savings and long term plans over it. For us (younger, no pre-existing conditions) the cost of insurance for a 7 day cruise is about the same as one specialty dinner, so the choice is very easy.

Insurance for our family of 4 is usually around $200 for a week's cruise. After helping my sister navigate the aftermath of a car wreck while on vacation overseas recently, I am really glad we always get insurance.

CONTINUED....

 

The kids stayed at the Driftwood motel in Lauderdale by the Sea. Why aren't more people talking about this town? Its adorable with a beautiful beach (except the fact that they charge $2 to use the pier) I can't say enough about the hospitality, cleanliness and overall everything about this motel. It had every activity needed and even had beach chairs to use. Loved it. Will stay again when I'm in town longer than 4 hours.

 

Up next..FINALLY! THE CRUISE!

Another great place in Lauderdale-by-the-Sea is the Windjammer Resort (one block south of village pump). Right on the ocean - we own timeshare there.

will stay again when i'm in town longer than 4 hours.

lol!

Costa Maya:

Prior to the cruise ( about 4 months out) we booked Maya Chan. We paid in full about a month prior, so I did email Mark and advised we were sailing 1 down. He immediately advised it wasn't a problem and refunded me the money. I believe the cost was around $59. It was quick, like next day back in the account quick. I think they are #1 on TripAdvisor for their customer service. They just go above and beyond to answer questions and emails. We walked to the designated area and the rep showed us pictures of the "seaweed grass" on the beach. At this point, it could of been crabs and it would not have mattered. This was a planned activity and we were going to enjoy it. Enjoy it we did. Beds, hammocks, floats, alcohol, the best chips and guacamole you'll ever have. Life was good. We swam but most of all we just relaxed sitting on the floats. I believe it was $59 pp which included lunch, alcohol and activities. We all opted for a $25 1/2 hour beach massage too. Great day. We will return to Maya Chan

Cozumel:

Originally, I booked a private boat charter to go snorkeling with Chili Charters. They did not require a deposit but we kept in contact the month prior. I advised that our party changed, we were one down. Instead of doing the original 6 hour snorkel, we opted for a 3 hour private snorkel. WOW...what fun! Rene took us out to a few spots. It was like we were in an aquarium and you were just floating watching all the fish. Great time. HIGHLY RECOMMEND. Rene advised us where to eat. I can't remember the place off hand as it wasn't my favorite place to eat. Food was average, service was poor. Maybe it was just a bad day. I wanted to buy vanilla and tequila. I purchased vanilla in a market that was by senior frogs. I can't remember the name but it had pharmaceuticals, t-shirts and vanilla. They had the best price and you didn't have to dicker with the price. The constant haggling was over the top. We ended up buying the tequila right in the port shops, they were pretty reasonable. We bought the blankets there too.

The rest of the the cruise we just enjoyed each others company. Flew the girls back to NJ, (btw paid $156 for a one way for the girls a few months prior. The day of the flight, it went down to $79... got money back for that too!)

We drove to friends in Charleston, SC then to friends in DE then back home.

Husband is doing great, in-laws are gone and btw....WE ENJOYED THIS CRUISE SO MUCH WE BOOKED THE SAME FOR NEXT YEAR ON THE FREEDOM OF THE SEAS !! SPRING BREAK 2018