Independence of the Seas April 3-8 we survived.....

Just got home from a 5 day cruise on The Independence of the Seas. I'll try a shot at a review.

First a little back ground and introductions......

Myself, Teresa, 53years old, previously been on 2 Carnival cruises and 1 other cruise on IotS.

Hubby, Mark, 54 years old, previously been on 1 Carnival cruise and 1 other cruise on IotS.

Oldest son, Mike, 37 years old, never cruised

Middle daughter, Kelli, 33 years old, never cruised

Youngest son, Kyle, 26 years old, never cruised

Being the over planner that I am and in order to make sure everyone could get the time off work we started planning this trip in January of 2016. We invited the kids to go with us to celebrate out 25th wedding anniversary. All 3 are hubby's kids but as you can see I've know them for most of their lives.

DAY 1

Our adventure began on Sunday morning at about 3am......hubby and myself got up and showered, nearly typical day for us as we get up early for work. We then had to pry the youngest son out of bed (he normally works 2nd shift). We loaded our suitcases in the car and headed to the airport. The older 2 kids met us at the airport as they are each on their own. We all live between 20-45 minutes from the airport so it was a short drive for everyone. We each checked 1 bag and we tested our over packing skills, mine and hubbys 48 & 49 lbs, Kelli exactly 50. The other 2 well...they are guys, about 35 lbs. We got to the gate for an on time departure from our little Moline Illinois hometown airport to Atlanta.

We had a 3 hour layover in Atlanta, got some breakfast and walked around a bit before hopping on the flight from Atlanta to Fort Lauderdale.

We arrived in Fort Lauderdale at approximately 2pm, everything went as planned. We gathered our luggage and headed to the taxi stand. I gazed down the lineup of taxis and seen no vans so we just opted to take 2 cabs to the Embassy Suites on 17th St. I had chosen our rooms with the Hilton app and got the kids a room facing the port on the 7th floor and ours directly around the corner from them. Our rooms were ready when we checked in at about 2:30pm. Not sure if it was luck or my status with Hilton but everyone checking in around me was being told there rooms weren't ready.

We dropped our bags and headed over to Duffy's for a late lunch/early dinner. Food and service were good just as we remembered from our previous trip. When we returned the lobby was packed with people, I am not really sure if they had all just arrived or were waiting for their rooms to be ready, it was exactly 4pm, which is their check in time We then just sat around the pool and enjoyed the weather. The evening cocktail hour was from 5:30-7:30 and there was plenty of alcohol available. Everyone had a few drinks and then we retired for the evening.

DAY 2

I got up first and went out to the little lookout balcony on our floor just in time to see the Indy pulling in at about 7:20. Shortly after the kids were up and could see her from their room. They were starting to get excited but they really had no concept of the size of a ship yet.

We all went down and got breakfast. Breakfast, while not spectacular, was good and adequate, after all we are about to embark on 5 days of eating.

Everyone got cleaned up and packed up and we headed to the lobby. I had ordered a car from Larry's Limo for pickup at 10:30. When I made the reservation it was for SUV or Limo, first available, I was really hoping for a limo. About 10:25 in pulled a very nice large SUV. I was sad no limo, but none the less excited, it was a short journey to the port. The driver was professionally dressed and loaded our bags in the back. We all hopped in and we were on our way. Our driver was very polite, ok he was downright entertaining. It was a fun but short trip to the port. I would highly recommend Larry's limo and I will definitely use them again. He unloaded our bags and gave them to the porters. I gave him a few bucks extra tip (20% was automatic) as I tipped the porters and we were off to the terminal.

There were already quite a few people waiting in line, since we were in a suite we breezed right through and were at a check in counter in no time. Got checked in and received our gold sea pass cards. We headed upstairs to the suite waiting area. We waited a few minutes, I didn't really make note of the time and then it was time to board. We were probably about 20th on the ship.

Once on board, the kids had the wow factor and they wanted to see it all. We wandered....ok they walked my legs off wanting to see everything. We grabbed some lunch in the Windjammer, it was getting pretty busy but we found a table. After lunch the doors were open for the rooms to be ready and we made the first of many journeys all the way to the back of the ship.

We were in cabin 8414, a Royal Family Suite, which is an aft cabin. The room was amazing, the first bedroom had 2 singles and 2 pull down uppers (which we only used 1) and down the hall the master bedroom with a king sized bed. Both hard there own bathrooms and then we had a living room with a L shaped couch and chair. A big balcony with 4 loungers and a table with 4 chairs.

DAY2 cont'

Hubby and the kids went to do some more exploring and test out the beverage package. :) I waited in the cabin, enjoying the balcony hoping for luggage to arrive. Unfortunately luggage arrived did not arrive prior to muster, I went down to deck 4 and met up with my family for muster. Muster seemed like it took forever but honestly wasn't horrible. I then went back to the cabin and still no luggage. It arrived shortly after and our steward rang my doorbell and brought it in our cabin. I got mostly unpacked when I noticed the tug off our balcony and knew it was nearly time to sail. I hurried up tp deck 12 and met up with hubby and the kids to watch sail away.

Once we were underway we headed back to the cabin to finish unpacking and get ready for dinner.

We were in the King Lear dining room on deck 3. I had requested a table for just our family near the window and that is what we got. Our dining room servers were great and the food was very good,

I went to the Welcome Aboard show, while everyone else went bar hopping. I sat in the reserved suite seating which is center section top level. Show was good and comedian was funny.

I then met up with the family for a night cap, hit Sarentos for a slice of pizza and off to bed for hubby, myself and Kelli, the boys partied a little later.

DAY 2 (of the cruise) Tried to edit the other posts to say precruise day and day 1 but couldn't find an edit button :(

Day 2 was a sea day, we did a lot of exploring the ship and relaxing. I did go to the Ice skating show "strings" and it was really good. There was also a late night adult comedy show that was fun.

DAY 3

Day 3 was spent in Labadee. I did not explore the area, just hoped on the shuttle to Barefoot Beach and spent the day. Barefoot Beach was wonderful, we had our chairs set up in the shade and split our time between lounging in them and relaxing in the water. Our attendant took very good care of us and the lunch that was served was very good. The evening show was a concert by the band Private Stock and they may have been my favorite evening production.

Can't wait to read more!

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DAY 4 Falmouth Jamacia

This day we spent some time browsing the shops in the port area. Went to Jimmy Buffet's Margaritaville and had a margarita. We then enjoyed the quietness of the ship. The headliner at night was a comedian and he was hilarious and had everyone laughing.

Thanks for the review.

Thank you for writing!