Xmas Cruise on the Independence, Dec 22-30 2012 Review

Hello!! Encouraged by many of the other reviews that I’ve had the pleasure to read on CC, I’ve decided to write my own!

This was a mother and daughter trip! This was our 1st Christmas cruise and our 1st cruise on a Freedom class ship.

Lets start with some general stuff, then I talk a bit about each day!

Hope you all enjoy it and any questions, i'll try my best to answer.....here goes!

ITINENARY

This was an 8 night trip:

Day 1 - Embark at Port Everglades, FL

Day 2 - At Sea

Day 3 - At Sea

Day 4 (Christmas Day) - St Kitts

Day 5 (Boxing Day - for the Brits!) St Maarten

Day 6 - Puerto Rico

Day 7 - Labadee

Day 8 - Sea day

Day 9 - Disembark at Port Everglades, FL

FOOD – subjective….I know…..I know!!! ;)

For breakfast and the occasional lunch we ate in the Windjammer. For all dinners except one we are in the MDR. We had booked MTD, which we’ve had in the past and it works great for us. Only on one night did we have to wait for about 10mins even though we had reservations (which I booked online prior to boarding). All the food at these venues was good…even when I didn’t care for a particular dish the waiter would bring something else. The food was always hot and all the servers were very good. On more than one occasion we had an additional appetizer or main course to share, which the servers thought we’d like!!!! I’d also confess to having more than one dessert on occasion too!!!LOL!!

We went to Chops Grille one night, which was excellent. One of the best steaks I’ve had, cooked to perfection and the Red Velvet cake is definitely a “2 sittings to eat” dessert…it was huuugggeee BUT very yummy!!!

For snacks we used the café on the promenade most often and also made a stop at Sorrento’s; both were good.

SHOWS & ENTERTAINMENT

We went to the production shows (RC Singers & Dancers), most were ok for evening entertainment. The ‘Once Upon a Time’ show I thought was the best. The Cruise Director Joff Eaton, was good. I thought he was funny and engaged a lot with the guests… we even ended up on his Morning Show!!

Headline act Jeff Tractor(impersonations and singing), who was very interesting, but unless you knew American pop culture then the beginning of the show didn’t make much sense, as you’d not know the characters; he was very entertaining…..sometimes a little cheesy, but it was a great show! There was also a very good comedian….can’t remember his name (maybe someone else can tell us pls??)…very very funny indeed!

The remaining original Drifters also performed, it was good.

I did not enjoy the magician in the Farewell show, didn’t think he was funny or that good at all.

We also went to the Strings Ice Show, which you have to get tickets for in advance or turn up 5mins before show time to see if there’s any space left! I didn’t think this show was as good as the ones I saw on other cruises, but it’s still amazing that they can put on an ice show on that size rink on a cruise ship!!

There was also a very fun 70’s theme party which started on the Promenade and continued into the early hours in the Solarium.

We went to the Quest show, it’s been tamed down quite a bit in my opinion. I’m guessing with all the craziness, health and safety became a huge issue. It was very very entertaining though and if you can stay up to watch it, it’s great fun! The cruise director really made this very funny!

CROWDS, KIDS & XMAS DECORATIONS

I had been a bit apprehensive about doing this cruise as I was almost certain that it would sell out and that it would feel crowded to me on this size ship. It could have been further from the truth!! Even though the cruise did sell out, the only time that it felt crowded was when we returned to the ship through security at Labadee and we were the only ship in port!!!

Being a Xmas cruise, there were loads of kids, but they were all well taken care of in the kids programmes and my experience was that the older kids were very well behaved. Never saw any kids in the Solarium.

The ship was decorated in a Xmas theme with a huge tree at one end of the Promenade. Santa even made an appearance Xmas day, it was awesome to see the little and big kids faces when he came down on the ‘flying bridge’!! There was even some fake snow!!

Looking forward to reading more as we have the Indy booked for the NYE cruise. :)

We left London Heathrow on 21st Dec, travelling via Dallas to Fort Lauderdale; when I booked these flights in March 2012 it was £400 more expensive to travel direct to Miami! After a little bit of a wait at the shuttle ‘bus stop’, we got the courtesy shuttle from the airport to our hotel. I must say that on our evening arrival into FLL it was quite chilly, quite glad I wore my mac!!! There were tons of people also waiting for their respective shuttles. There was also quite a bit of confusion with the hotel names, as some are so similar sounding, so be sure to double-check the full name of your hotel before getting on a shuttle!!

We stayed at the La Quinta Inn & Suites FLL Airport. This is a good hotel for an overnight stay; it’s nicely situated next to the Oakwood Plaza, so within walking distance of restaurants and shopping!!

After a good night’s sleep (the bed was soooooo comfy) and a free breakfast (waffles, fruit, eggs, juice) we headed over to Oakwood Plaza for a bit of retail therapy (I won a Furby at Old Navy!!!!) we headed back to the hotel to check-out. La Quinta also offer a free shuttle to Port Everglades, the drive took about 10minutes and in no time we could see the beautiful Independence of the Seas!! There were many ships in port that day; we also saw Oasis and Liberty.

Dropping off our luggage we headed into the terminal, went through security with our 2 bottles of wine in our hand luggage; didn’t get stopped!!!Yay!! Then saw the C&A Gold priority line. Couldn’t believe our luck, they actually have priority lines for us lowly Gold members!!!LOL!! AND there was no one in it…taking a quick look around the Platinum line was as long as the non C&A member’s line!! We got through check-in and onto the ship in about 30mins. So of course we headed to the Windjammer!! There were already quite a few people there but we were able to find a seat very easily. It was just after 1pm when the announcement was made that the staterooms were ready!!

We got an Oceanview stateroom on Deck 2, midship. We both suffer from motion sickness and have found this the best location for us. Also the only time we spend in the room is to nap, change and sleep. Being close to the gangway is also a bonus. After dumping our stuff in the stateroom, we went to check out the ship. This ship is laid out very much like the Voyager class, so it felt familiar, with some added bits which made exploring even more fun. The kids H2O section is amazing, as are the cantilevered hot tubs! We also took a look at the Flowrider!!

Since the ship was sold out, I thought that receiving the luggage to our rooms before dinner may not happen (also read that on CC), so made sure to pack a change of clothes in my hand luggage. This worked out well, as only mummy’s suitcase showed up before muster, mine came a while later. At dinner that night many guests had still not received their luggageL, but everyone was in good spirits nonetheless! Lots of jeans and shorts in the MDR that night!!LOL

Me and Mummy!!! Excited to be on the ship at last:D

The closest I got to surfing!!LOL!

This girl did very well!

I managed to get about the third of the way up....next time i'm gonna ring that bell!!!:p

Oasis was in bport that day along with Liberty.

The next 2 days were seas days, so we pretty much chilled out on deck. The first day was very windy but warm in the sunshine, the next day was less windy but considerably warmer! I was a bit apprehensive about doing 2 sea days back to back, but it was ok. Don’t think I’d do more than that though…so no hope for me doing a transatlantic!! I didn’t feel the need to take any sea sickness medication the whole time on board which was excellent, the seas were calm.

There were some issues with the so called ‘chair hogs’, I saw quite a few guests talking to the pool attendants who subsequently ‘reassigned’ empty chairs!!

Christmas day we arrived in St Kitts!! Port Zante was very nice, lots of shops and tour operators/taxis vying for your business. We hadn’t pre-booked a tour and decided to play it by ear when we got there. In the end we took an island tour for $25 each negotiated within the cruise terminal. We had great tour mates who were also in fine Xmas spirits!! Our tour and tour guide were excellent; we toured the island and also hit the beach. As the tour included a beach stop, we could decide when we wanted to be picked up, so we made sure to be back at the port by 4pm for a 5.30pm ‘All Aboard’!! Before we left port we browsed the stores, which sold the typical Caribbean wares and jewellery. We re-boarded, left our stuff in the stateroom and went on deck for sail away!

For dinner in the MDR, there was a traditional turkey dinner as well as the ‘Fishermans plate’, but the lobster tails were as small as shrimp (I’m exaggerating a little, but there were quite small)!!! Most waiters were serving more than one lobster tail for the entrée.

Atlantic Ocean on the left Caribbean Sea on the right!!

Looking forward to more of your review. We will be on the IOS March 16.

Does the ship have an adult only pool?

What did you do with your hand luggage before going to your cabin?

Looking forward to reading more as we have the Indy booked for the NYE cruise. :)

Hey I would do this for NYE in a heartbeat, so much added atmosphere because of the holidays!! Also spoke to quite a few cruisers who were doing B2B to well and truly cover off the holidays!!

Your pictures are beautiful, you both look great and like you were having a blast. I can't wait to read the rest, sailing on Indy next month.

Thanks for taking the time!

Looking forward to more of your review. We will be on the IOS March 16.

 

Does the ship have an adult only pool?

 

What did you do with your hand luggage before going to your cabin?

Hello Phabric - yes the adult only pool is in the solarium towards to bow of the ship in the pic below. There is another 'main pool area' mid-ship and the H2O water park for big and little kids alike a bit behind that!!

Here's a few more!

This is Nevis!

Thanks to Gambee, who wrote an excellent review and also encouraged me (by his fantastic pics) to use my camera features more and I love the miniature setting!!

Looking forward to more of your review. We will be on the IOS March 16.

 

Does the ship have an adult only pool?

 

What did you do with your hand luggage before going to your cabin?

Forgot to respond about the hand luggage!! My mum had a small cabin size case on wheels and I had a cross body bag, so we were able to keep them with us when we went to Windjammer, whilst there the announcement went out that our cabins were ready so once we finished lunch we ditched our stuff in the cabin!

We arrived in a very sunny Phillipsburg very early. There were 6 other ships in port that day; Disney Wonder, Norwegian Gem, a Princess ship, a lovely private yacht and a couple others I cant remember. So as a consequence the port was heaving!!! Since I’d been to St Maarten before we decided that this would be a great shopping stop. Instead of a regular taxi we took the water taxi ($7 all day return pass) over to the town.

We decided to stay in Phillipsburg (Dutch side) to shop as prices are better; they are in USD as opposed to Marigot (the French side) where the prices are in Euro. Getting off the water taxi you can see the beach, lots of people didn’t get any further than this!!LOL!! We walked off the jetty and immediately you begin to fend off the ‘leaflet/free gift’ people….. after a while it does get a little annoying, but a polite ‘no thanks’ usually does the trick…. There are only so many tiny sapphires you can get as a free gift!!! Or ‘charms’ that you can’t really work out what they’re supposed to be!!LOL!!

We headed to the main shopping avenue, there are mainly jewellery shops located here, but if you turn off this road every so often, there some really usual/boutique type stores along with more local shops/arts/crafts etc. I already knew my shopping included a stop at Pandora!!! Why can’t we ever get a free Pandora charm as the free gift….that would be nice!!! We also picked up some local liquor; Guavaberry liquor and rum. There is a store which allows you to sample all the different flavours….very yummy!!

So…. After blowing our jewellery budgets (but my bracelet sure looks nice!!!) we wondered around a bit more, found some free Wi-Fi then headed back to the jetty to pick up the water taxi. Back at the port, there were lots of people hanging out and enjoying a cocktail (or few) and the steel pans that were playing. We re-boarded, left our stuff in the stateroom and went on deck to hang out in the hot tub before sail away.

Hello Phabric - yes the adult only pool is in the solarium towards to bow of the ship in the pic below. There is another 'main pool area' mid-ship and the H2O water park for big and little kids alike a bit behind that!!

 

Is the solarium free? Is it for adults only? Is the picture of the pool area the solarium pool or the main pool?

Was there stores at the end of pier or do you have to take the water taxi? We just want to wander around the stores, have been there on tours before.

Enjoying your review. Love your photos. very nice!

Awesome review! Your pictures are fabulous!

Count me in on another person enjoying your review! Thanks for doing it!

Awesome review, and great pics! This one really caught my eye, those vivid colors really pop out from the screen.

I was happy to see this review come up since we will be going on Indy next year for our anniversary. Thanks for taking the time to post it!

Great review & pictures. Thanks for posting. I am enjoying reading it and am looking forward to more.

What a great review! And your pix are Gorgeous.

Will be on Indy in 2/16 for the same itin & can hardy wait to hear more.

Thank you,

Meg

Enjoying your review and great pictures.

Is the solarium free? Is it for adults only? Is the picture of the pool area the solarium pool or the main pool?

 

Was there stores at the end of pier or do you have to take the water taxi? We just want to wander around the stores, have been there on tours before.

Yes the Solarium is free and for over 18's only, the pic was of the solarium. the main pool area is much bigger.

In St Maarten, the water taxi is easily accessible at the endof the pier, it is well signposted, you wont miss it! Didnt go on a tour in St Maarten as I'd been there before, we used this stop to do duty free shopping!

Awesome review, and great pics! This one really caught my eye, those vivid colors really pop out from the screen.

 

I was happy to see this review come up since we will be going on Indy next year for our anniversary. Thanks for taking the time to post it!

Thanks I love that pic too, used the 'Vivid' shooting mode on my camera!

Apologies, its taken awhile to update this review!!! I'm almost at the end now....and in the meantime I've even managed to book a Dubai cruise for April...wooohoooo!!!!

Thanks for all the lovely comments, much appreciated. If you have any questions feel free to ask!

The Indy was a lovely ship, quite different for all the negative reviews that I read before going - however that would have never stopped me from taking this cruise!!:D