Just off Independence of the Seas. My comparison of Indy to DCL

Hello

Just off 8 day cruise in the Med on Independence of the Seas, "Indy". This was our first cruise with RCCL. We have previously done 3 with DCL; including one in the Med in 2014. We have cruised on the Magic and the Wonder on DCL, not the larger ships so this was our first cruise on a ship this size. There are 3 of us, 2 adults and our 17 yo daughter. We thought long and hard about which cruise line. Just thought I'd share some thoughts in case others are considering which line.

Why this one? My daughter has always loved joining the kids clubs on cruises. She is an "only" so it is her way to hang with others her age. She really wanted to do one more cruise before she turned 18 so she could participate in the kids clubs. I had read a long comparison review of RCCL which basically said it was just as good with programming for kids so this is the line I chose to consider.

If we were going to do Disney this year the options were: Alaska (been there), Caribbean (didn't want to do it in the summer) and the Med. Using the weeks available for school vacation there were really only two med itineraries with DCL. One included Greece, we did that a few years ago. The other was a small loop around Italy. I really didn't want to see Italy this way. We plan to spend time in Italy at some point but we want to immerse ourselves there, not on and off the ship. The Indy had a great itinerary: Belgium; Oslo, Norway; Hamburg, Germany; and La Havre, France. This was far more exciting to us.

Basically we were able to do an 8 night cruise on RCCL for almost $2000 less than a 7 night on DCL. AND we preferred the ports. No brainer for me. Took some convincing to the 17 yo.

Odds and Ends comparison:

Check In/ Embarkation: Super, super easy on RCCL. We had no loyalty status with RCCL and were on deck 2. A week or two before our cruise we got an email saying our check in time was 3:00 pm. Thanks to others reports here I learned they would not enforce that. Check in started for all at 11:00. We arrived at the port at 11:15. Luggage was left with a porter. We got in a short line to check in. We had to leave our passports. That was new for me and unsettling as we were in a foreign country. But we did it. (We later got them back I think on day 5). Check in was fast and we were on the ship at 11:30. Faster than DCL. Shorter line. No throng of people hanging and listening for our boarding number to be called. No one announced our family name when we walked on board. Nice touch on DCL but not worth extra $2000.

State rooms felt similar. We have always had an ocean view and did again. The bed was set up under the large porthole window which I didn't love. Don't know if that is the same with all our just on our deck. We did GTY and were assigned to room 2542. I was not happy when I saw it online as it is near a stairwell and I was afraid of noise. We ended up loving our room! It was way forward. It was very close to stairs but there was a small half wall in between the stairs and the rooms. This served was just enough to block out any noise from the stairs. We were one of 4 or 5 rooms at far front. Across from us was this half wall; not other staterooms. So quiet and not a lot of foot traffic. Would highly recommend this room! Luggage was there at 1:00; easy. Our stateroom attendant was sweet, and was fine. Other odds and ends of the room: I missed the DCL split bathroom. I like having the two separate. Also RCCL had a shower stall only and it was not large. No nice shower gels, shampoo etc that you get on DCL. In fact no conditioner at all. But we did get some when I requested it. We had towel animals 3 days out of 8. No chocolates.

Food: Food quality was probably similar. We say "we don't cruise for the food". We ate in MDL 7 out of 8 nights. Did not take advantage of MTD. I had good luck with the appetizers; loved all I chose. My main courses were mostly ok, some better than others. I was disappointed in dessert. There were always 2 dessert choices and two sugar free options. In addition there was always "classics" which were the same every night. Thank God for the classics as the desserts offered really were not appealing. I would have loved more choices. Our wait staff was fine; no better or worse than DCL. I will say I think the head waiter spoke to us once. On DCL we saw much more of the head waiter. But otherwise service was fine.

I wasn't expecting entertainment during dinner like you get with DCL. But I will say I got bored with dinner in the MDL. It was the same thing every night. I realized that whether it was the entertainment for some meals on Disney or the rotational dining I don't know. But it wasn't the same spot, looking at the same people at other tables for 8 nights. One night we just took a break and ate at Windjammer. Large choice there but often not hot food.

Will stop here for now. To be continued. I want to touch on many more areas.

Happy to answer questions

Enjoying your comparison. Following.

Following too. I'll be interested to hear your observations of a trip from the UK and any difference it made having so many Brit fellow cruisers.

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So far I agree with your review. Although it was the North Sea, not the Med. ;)

We had not done RCI before either, so I also plan on doing a comparison between RCI and Carnival once I get a few more days rest. LOL! We're not picky on most things, and we're not necessarily loyal to one brand, it's just been the ones we've picked or because we travel with other people.

Following too. I'll be interested to hear your observations of a trip from the UK and any difference it made having so many Brit fellow cruisers.

Actually, they were telling us how surprised they were with the number of US citizens on board. There were just over 2,000 Americans on this cruise! That's about 40% of the passengers. Considering they all had to travel to the UK to take this cruise, they said this was a lot more than they expected. We heard about it from the crew at our Meet & Mingle.

Actually, they were telling us how surprised they were with the number of US citizens on board. There were just over 2,000 Americans on this cruise! That's about 40% of the passengers. Considering they all had to travel to the UK to take this cruise, they said this was a lot more than they expected. We heard about it from the crew at our Meet & Mingle.

HI Cindy. Will be interested in reading your review as well. I was going to estimate the number of Americans onboard. I would have said around that. But I didn't hear those numbers as I wasn't at the Meet and Mingle; never received an invitation although I did sign up from home weeks before the cruise. I was really sad to hear I missed it; missed my opportunity to "put faces to names" etc. We did an excursion with two other couples we arranged from our roll call. One of the other couples also didn't get an invitation. The one couple who did said it wasn't that crowded! Cuz they left off a bunch of us!

Okay comparison RCCL to DCL Part Two:

Friendliness of staff/ customer service. I went in not expecting much. After all everyone knows Disney excels at customer service. People go to Florida to take courses on "the Disney Way". Apparently the staff on RCCL (or it appears it is now RCI) took the course. Everyone I came in contact was just as friendly and wanting to please as on DCL. If you passed a crew member on the stairs they smiled and said good morning regardless of their "position" or job title. I experienced no difference in the customer service here compared to DCL. Only thing I was aware of is that there weren't people calling the little girls "princess" all the time.

Number of children and make up of other passengers. OK so I don't have hard facts. I heard someone say that there were 4200 passengers onboard. On more than one occasion I was at an activity when someone asked for show of hands for where people were from. Each time the group was at least half American. There were also clearly very many British people. I would estimate 80- 85% of the passengers were either British or American. The remaining appeared to be an eclectic mix.

There were WAY less children on board than on DCL. Particularly less younger children as I saw plenty of teens. Obviously there were kids, and babies. But no where near the amount you have on DCL. When I was sitting with my daughter waiting for the afternoon performance of Grease to begin I told her that although I thought there were so few children on board; at that moment it felt like every single one of them was in the theater to see Grease.

Although there were over 4000 passengers truly I never felt it. Not during embarkation, not walking around the ship, not at restaurants or shows. Okay maybe the night we tried to see Grease and ran around crazily and couldn't find two seats together that weren't behind a pole. That night was frustrating; and the theater was crowded. But no other time. The ship was huge and absorbed the masses well.

We have avoided the larger Disney ships because we love the small ones and didn't think we would like the large and crowded ships. Now we get it about a large ship and wouldn't hesitate to try one of DCL large ones. BTW Grease ran again in the afternoon of the next sea day and that day we were able to get in no problem.

One more thing about the passengers, and I don't want to anger anyone, this is just my observations and opinions. But I felt like I saw less people complaining and acting "entitled" than I have seen on DCL. I wonder if it has to do with paying so much to cruise DCL and then feeling angry if something doesn't live up. On one cruise with DCL I was at guest services on Day 1 and next to me was a man who was just completing going off because he didn't like his stateroom and wanted to be moved to another. They were kindly telling him that the ship was full and there were no other rooms available but he wasn't stopping and was letting it rip. Another example on DCL was the woman who was insisting she was supposed to board before anyone else (I wasn't close enough to hear why) and the crew member was explaining that "family of the day" went on first etc. This same woman set out a jigsaw puzzle on a prime table on pool deck by the window. Sometimes she was there with one or more of her kids working on the puzzle or sitting in the sun by the window. But whether she was there or not her puzzle was there saving her spot for her for THE DURATION OF THE CRUISE.

On this cruise with RCI I felt like we were a melting pot of ages and races and nationalities but I never saw anyone acting like they deserved to be treated, shall we say, "special".

Since I mentioned Grease let's talk about the shows. I didn't go to many. I went to Grease, the ice show- Strings, and the magic show. All top notch. I have no complaints. Before going I had read about the ice show "it's amazing what they can do on a rink that size" and I couldn't agree more. Really, really good. My expectation with the shows on DCL were high. I expected a lot from Disney and by and large they delivered. My expectations on RCI were not as high and they exceeded them. I would say that for the shows I went to the quality was equivalent.

Entertainment that was not equivalent: the sail away party. Much, much better on DCL. From the dancing on deck, characters dancing on stage, to countdown to the blowing of the horn as you start to sail away, that makes it all really special. Other thing that was lackluster on RCI was the parade. On night 1 there was a parade on deck 5, Promenade. The costumes, the dancing, the flow and/or script was, in my opinion, cheesy and lower quality. Would not go to that again.

Formal night: way, way more people dressed up in formal attire on RCI. I had read that we would see everything on formal night, from formal to not formal but dressy to shorts, and we did. We didn't bring true formal attire; it's not our thing. We went with "dressy". But many, many people did which was fun to see. I wondered if since so many people bring clothes for pirate night on DCL less also bring formal wear. You can only schlep so much and still fit the necessities. Just a wild guess. We saw groups of people, families maybe, dressed in formal attire native to their countries which was lovely. Lots of lots of tuxes and beaded gowns. Again not my thing but I enjoyed seeing others enjoy themselves in that way.

Couple of random observations:

General ship upkeep: more on DCL. On every cruise I have been on with DCL there were times when I would pass someone painting or sanding or polishing something. It looks like a labor of love to always keep her looking her best. On RCI I saw them cleaning, vacuuming stairways etc, but not doing larger upkeep things.

Luggage tags: On DCL prior to departure date you get nice luggage tags in the mail. Helps you get excited for your upcoming cruise. On RCL you get a page to print out on your computer and directions on how to fold it and to use tape or staples to secure it. Was I disappointed at first? Yeah sure. Was it worth extra $2000? Nope. Did it do the job and get our bags to us? You bet

Food location: There is large buffet, Windjammer, on deck 11; three Main Dining Rooms and Promenade on Deck 5 which has all kinds of food, and snacks. Oh and there is Johnny Rockets on deck 12, for a fee, and frozen yogurt on deck 11, free. What was lacking on Indy was a place to get "snacks" by the pools. We did not spend too much time at the pools; most days it was too cold and windy. But our first sea day we did. When we wanted a snack there was no where right there to just grab something. You would have had to go down from 11 or 12 to deck 5. On DCL classic ships on pool level there is pizza, hot dogs, desserts in coffee area etc. Easy to stay up by the pool, grab a quick bite and return to your lounger.

Will stop here. I have left the biggies: teen programming and activities and stores/sales. Will get to those in next installment

Nice review going, we're doing a short cruise on Indy at Thanksgiving, so nice to read the items on it. We've sailed RCL a number of times, and been on one of the sister ships (Liberty) twice. We've sailed 3 times on DCL ourselves as well Don't be afraid of the larger ships, much like with Indy, you don't feel too crowded. Plus, the AquaDuck water ride is a lot of fun! :)

The no snacks by the pool is a regular thing people notice when sailing on RCL the first time. Most people just run into the Windjammer buffet to get snacks (when it's open at least). A lot of the ships are getting a Park Café, usually in the solarium, but suspect Indy isn't getting that until next year.

Looking forward to the rest of the review. I pretty much agree with your experiences comparing the two lines. Though DCL has a better buffet to me. (Presuming they're still doing the crab legs and shrimp *grin*) And we also like the split bathrooms.

Very interested in your next part thanks for taking the time to write I'm going to hire a tux and really get into the spirit of the ship when I go why do it half assed is my motto .... my bil who is coming will be the complete opposite so I hope it all works out ...

I've watched titanic and want to be one of the first class passengers for an evening to match my wife's beauty for once ☺️

Very interested in your next part thanks for taking the time to write I'm going to hire a tux and really get into the spirit of the ship when I go why do it half assed is my motto .... my bil who is coming will be the complete opposite so I hope it all works out ...

 

I've watched titanic and want to be one of the first class passengers for an evening to match my wife's beauty for once ☺️

Good for you!!:cool:

Nice review going, we're doing a short cruise on Indy at Thanksgiving, so nice to read the items on it. We've sailed RCL a number of times, and been on one of the sister ships (Liberty) twice. We've sailed 3 times on DCL ourselves as well Don't be afraid of the larger ships, much like with Indy, you don't feel too crowded. Plus, the AquaDuck water ride is a lot of fun! :)

 

The no snacks by the pool is a regular thing people notice when sailing on RCL the first time. Most people just run into the Windjammer buffet to get snacks (when it's open at least). A lot of the ships are getting a Park Café, usually in the solarium, but suspect Indy isn't getting that until next year.

 

Looking forward to the rest of the review. I pretty much agree with your experiences comparing the two lines. Though DCL has a better buffet to me. (Presuming they're still doing the crab legs and shrimp *grin*) And we also like the split bathrooms.

Glad they are adding snacks by the pool. It's the little things that make a difference

Very interested in your next part thanks for taking the time to write I'm going to hire a tux and really get into the spirit of the ship when I go why do it half assed is my motto .... my bil who is coming will be the complete opposite so I hope it all works out ...

 

I've watched titanic and want to be one of the first class passengers for an evening to match my wife's beauty for once ☺️

Awwww. Hope you have a fabulous time