Independence of the Seas B2B review for 12/6 and 12/14 sailings.

My wife and I got off of the Independence of the Seas last weekend after b2b cruises and these are our thoughts on it. We are going to compare it to an 8 night eastern Caribbean cruise we did on IOS in March 2012. On the 8 night cruise with my wife and I were my parents who we treated to a cruise vacation. They had been on a Carnival Cruise 8 years earlier and had never been on a RC cruise before. More about them later.

We stayed at the Embassy Suites on 17th St the night before and we really liked it! The place has a really nice feel to it. Very open and inviting with great rooms! It’s within walking distance to a shopping area and restaurants. We did a little last minute shopping and ate Duffy’s Sports Bar and it was great! The next morning really enjoyed the breakfast buffet and took the shuttle to the pier. We got to the ship around 9:30(a bit early I know) but we just couldn’t sit around anymore! It actually took about an hour and half before we started moving. The actual check in process was pretty painless; it only took about 30 minutes. Once on board, it was like seeing an old friend again!! The ship was spotless! The crew looked tired but we still very friendly. We walked around a bit, hit up the Windjammer and before we knew it our rooms were ready. We had balcony room #9238. Our stateroom attendant was Oral and he’s from St Vincent. He was really nice and worked hard to take care of us, we really appreciated him! Soon it was time to muster. The ONLY problem I had with it was….the other passengers. People who thought they didn’t have to muster..really!? Just take a few minutes out your hectic vacation and do what everyone has to do and get over it! So needless to say that took a while longer than expected. Then we were off!!

Leaving port was great and exciting! We were talking to our family backs home who were watching us leave on the port webcam and they actually saw us which made it fun! Dinner in the MDR was consistent..consistently wonderful! I hear a lot of people mentioning the cost cutting they have noticed the RC over the years and I have to admit I didn’t really notice anything compared to our last cruise. The menu was familiar and delicious with plenty of variety. Our waiter was Stanley from India. He was very friendly and attentive to our wants and needs and never missed a beat! We didn’t have one bad or have to return anything the entire trip. The next day at sea was gloomy so we just spent some time reacquainting ourselves with our old friend. My wife spent some time up in Olive or Twist reading relaxing while I showed my parents the around the ship. Our second sea day the sun came out the party started!! We had a great time by the pools having our drink(s) of the day. The bands on the ship were very good and fun to listen to. We don’t do a lot of the activities that are on the ship, we usually like to relax with a drink in the sun and people watch so we had a really good time. Dinner that night was in the MDR and was great!

In St Maarten we went to Maho Beach and watched the planes come in. My parents had a blast trying to get used to the somewhat large (at least larger than what they are used to) waves coming in and having them get pushed over and pulled into the water! But once they got used to it, they loved it! My dad spent a majority of the day just swimming and bobbing in the waves watching the planes come in. We each rented a lounge chair and shared an umbrella which was $10 per person. We sipped a few beers from the bar (I can’t remember the name of it) and had a great time soaking up some warm Caribbean sun and watching everyone else have a blast! We took a taxi there and back from the pier which cost $9 each roundtrip. Once back at the pier we did a little walking around and got back onto IOS. We were in port with 5 other ships that day and it didn’t seem to be to chaotic. That night the four of us had dinner at Giovanni’s Table. Hands down the BEST food we had the entire trip!! I don’t remember our servers name but he was from Turkey and he was fantastic!! We ordered our starters and he brought some extras that we were thinking about ordering but didn’t! He just put them on our table and said we really needed to try them along with what we ordered and we loved every bit of it! He did the same with our entrees and desserts! It was impeccable service with some of the best food and we left so happy and FULL!!!!!!!!! I totally recommend Giovanni’s!

The next day in St Kitts my wife stayed on the boat because she wasn’t feeling well (no it wasn’t noro!) so my parents went on the St. Kitts Rainforest Adventure excursion offer by RC. They really enjoyed it! The guide was very nice and informative. They learned a lot about the island and saw some wildlife and met some great local people. They said they would do it again so based on that I would recommend it. I walked around town and did some of the obligatory souvenir shopping one must do for friends and family. I realized that a lot of the stores on almost all the islands we stopped at sell the same stuff!! I saw the same hats, shirts, dresses, trinkets and whatever else in all the stores! So that was a little disappointing but it still provided what we needed. We all made it back to the ship on time and sailed on for San Juan.

I have a love/hate relationship with San Juan. I love that we have cell phone service again!! But I hate that we have such a short amount of time in port! Old San Juan is beautiful but I would love to have time to spend elsewhere on the island too! That being said what we did do was walk up to the Old Fort and watched some awesome waves come in! They were huge! We had lunch at Barrachina! It was delicious! I had the whole red snapper, my wife had some mofongo. I don’t remember what my parents had by our plated were licked clean! Of course we had some delicious Pina Colada’s! The people and service there were wonderful! If you are ever in San Juan go to Barrachina! After some more of that obligatory shopping I mentioned earlier we made it back to the ship.

LABADEE!!! We love it in Labadee!!! I’m going to bundle both our stops here into one review as they were both awesome! The weather was perfect! On both days we had an over the water cabana on Nellies Beach and on both days we had the same cabana steward Serge (pronounced “surge”). He was great! He even had to keep some people from walking into our cabana! Apparently not everyone knows those are rented out so we had people trying to get into them to take pictures and stuff! But he had towels and cold bottle of water and floating beach mats for all of us! He got us drinks, let us know when the buffet was ready and was very attentive to our needs! On our first visit I took my mom on the zip line. She’s 74 and loved it!! I also got it on video so the rest of our family can see the proof! Dad was once again happy in the water! On both visits we were relaxed and really enjoyed ourselves! Snorkeling was a bit sketchy as the water at nellies that day was a bit murky but on our second visit it was much better. We really like the ambiance and feel of the area. Next time my wife wants to do a massage at the beach spa there! Back onto the ship for formal night and dinner!!

The last day at seas was a good one, lots of relaxing and good food and drinks. Watching everyone soak up that last bit of vacation really made us appreciate the fact that we were going to stay on for the next cruise!

Back to Ft Lauderdale to kick my parents off the ship and start the second cruise! I got up early and had breakfast with my parents and saw them off the ship right away as they had an early flight. They said they had no problems getting through customs and made to FLL with plenty of time to catch the flight. Mom and Dad had a blast on IOS! They were so happy with everything from their balcony room to the food and ship! It was almost like they had cruised again for the first time! They want the whole family to go on a cruise now and they really want to do it on IOS. All of the consecutive cruisers met in the Pyramid lounge and we walked off the ship, showed our passports to the agents, got our new SeaPass cards and got back onto the ship. This was our first time experiencing this and it wasn’t too painful. Everyone made it back onboard in a timely manner. We were treated to a nice lunch in the MDR and then we watched as all of the new and excited and much younger passengers got onboard to enjoy their Western Caribbean cruise! We called some friends and fam to catch up and tell them we were all sunburnt but smiling! My one gripe was we couldn’t go back to our room!! We didn’t change staterooms for our b2b and we couldn’t even go back! That was messed up!! But eventually we got back and we ready to set sail again!

Our first day at sea was fun and we woke up the next day to very cloudy and windy Grand Cayman. Getting to the pier from the ship was easy. We did a stingray excursion through StingraySailing.com. Chip was awesome! Hands down the best guys to do this with!! They knew which side of the sandbar to anchor on and provided a very safe and fun experience! We got the sandbar and there at least six other boats there, much larger and flashier operations then these guys but we had the most sting rays swimming around us and soon had tourists from those other guys coming towards us because we had most of the stingrays!! I cannot stress enough how much we recommend Chip and StingraySailing.com!!! On the way back through town we asked Chip to recommend a place to eat and dropped us off at Rackam's Waterfront Bar and Grill. The place is all outdoor seating, great food and drink and it’s right on the water! You look out over the bay at all of the cruise ships and can even toss a French fry into the water for the tarpon to snack on! We walked a short distance from there to the pier and finished our day with some shopping.

The next day in Jamaica we were tired and not feeing to hot plus it was raining like crazy so we didn’t get off of the ship. But we did dock next to the Allure of the Seas and we think after seeing her that close we will be sailing on her next time!!

Another fantastic and sunny day at sea wrapped up what proved to be a great vacation! We met some great people both that were guests and employees! If you are on IOS anytime soon you MUST go to Olive or Twist and see Matica and the whole crew up at there! THEY MADE OUR CRUISE!! They treated you like a friend, got to know you and were incredibly hospitable and nice and funny! We miss them!! On our 12/6 sailing I bought the Ultimate Package for drinks. I had no problem with any bartenders or waiters getting drinks whenever I wanted regardless of where I was or how long it had been since I last ordered a drink. On our 12/14 cruise I just got the Preferred package. The only difference was the PP didn’t cover specialty coffees which I was kind of tired of after 8 days. They weren’t bad, but I just didn’t want any more of them. Needless to say, I took full advantage of the drink packages of both cruises and will be getting them again on my next one!! The ship was spotless and well maintained. I did hear of common area bathroom on Deck 4 overflowing and causing some issues but I can’t confirm that.

As far as entertainment is concerned, the ice shows are a must see! The production shows are across the board. Some are great, others you don’t feel bad walking out of. The bands and orchestra are very good.

I do, however, have some gripes. For the most part these are just my opinions but they were consistent over our b2b. First, the cruise director….yeah. I don’t like him. He wasn’t funny. He was a little eccentric for my taste and was too much of a goofball. My wife thought he was good but lot of people I asked shared the same opinion as me. His assistant Allison was very nice! We saw her out and about with the guests A LOT MORE than we saw CD Jamie. He doesn’t seem to be in control of anything, we barely saw him and if we did it was blur as he was running down the Royal Promenade. Our last CD on IOS was Joff Eaton, he was great! He seemed to be running the show!! He was funny and we saw him a lot more then we saw this other guy. Again, just my opinion. The one thing we didn’t like in Labadee was the lines for the food! RC really has to do something about making the process and bit easier and smoother! We found out after our first visit that there’s another buffet kind of tucked in back behind Columbus Cove that isn’t as chaotic as the other areas. But the other areas were a little rough, you almost felt like cattle being driven in to feed and then ushered right back out to play. And the food could really use an upgrade…really. And finally the thing that turned me off the most…some of the other passengers. People, YOU NEED TO RELAX! YOU’RE ON VACATION! So what if the Windjammer is closed and you have to wait a whole 5 MORE MINUTES BEFORE YOU CANT STUFF YOUR FACE! So what if the casino isn’t open in port!! If the coffee is too hot, cool it off with some water or Baileys, don’t tear apart the guys that’s been up since who knows when brewing it fresh for 4000 people! Who cares if you are Diamond or Diamond Plus..NOBODY! I saw on more than one occasion Diamond ,Diamond Plus and some Pinnacle people pull the “Don’t you know who I am?” card on some of the workers there! You know what, no one knows or cares if you are Gold, Diamond or Pinnacle or a first time cruiser!! Shut up and try to enjoy yourself!! Those people working on that ship work 10 hours a day 7 days a weeks to make your vacation all that it can be! At least show a little bit of respect!! You wonder why the ships employee’s call Diamond people “Demons”! They do that because some of them really act like it! I’m not saying they are all like that. Some of the nicest people were met were Diamond and up Crown and Anchor members!! But take a breath people and relax! Making a scene and throwing a fit because you are “inconvenienced” in the smallest way isn’t going to help anything!

Thank you for writing this review and Merry Christmas to you. We are getting so excited to be going on our first RC cruise in 23 days. Not a first time cruiser by any means, but excited as each cruise is like the first.:)

Thanks, we have a b2b2b soon. Appreciate the info. 😃

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In St Maarten we went to Maho Beach and watched the planes come in. My parents had a blast trying to get used to the somewhat large (at least larger than what they are used to) waves coming in and having them get pushed over and pulled into the water! But once they got used to it, they loved it! My dad spent a majority of the day just swimming and bobbing in the waves watching the planes come in. We each rented a lounge chair and shared an umbrella which was $10 per person. We sipped a few beers from the bar (I can’t remember the name of it) and had a great time soaking up some warm Caribbean sun and watching everyone else have a blast! We took a taxi there and back from the pier which cost $9 each roundtrip.

DH and I are on Indy on the sailing that leaves on Valentine's Day. We are considering going to Maho Beach, so a few questions for you (or anyone else):

How long was the cab ride to and from Maho Beach?

Am I reading your post correctly that it costs about $20 total for the round trip for 2 people to Maho?

How much did it cost to rent the lounge chairs and was there plenty of them available?

Was food easily available to buy?

DH and I are on Indy on the sailing that leaves on Valentine's Day. We are considering going to Maho Beach, so a few questions for you (or anyone else):

 

How long was the cab ride to and from Maho Beach?

Am I reading your post correctly that it costs about $20 total for the round trip for 2 people to Maho?

How much did it cost to rent the lounge chairs and was there plenty of them available?

Was food easily available to buy?

Maho should be about a 20 25 minute ride. You can take a bus for about 2 bucks each way as an alternative to private taxis. 20 round trip for a taxi sounds reasonable too though

Maho should be about a 20 25 minute ride. You can take a bus for about 2 bucks each way as an alternative to private taxis. 20 round trip for a taxi sounds reasonable too though

The price for the cab ride is fine....and good to know the approximate time it will take.

None of the excursions that we read taking us to Maho Beach, sounded like something we wanted -- they all seemed to include too much 'shopping time'.

wow great job

Thanks so much for the review! We don't sail until July, but so looking forward to it! I'm still researching hotels for Ft Laud. Did you fly in? If so, does Embassy offer a free airport shuttle? My immediate family is driving, but the rest of the extended family are all flying in, so it would be nice to have a free airport shuttle, and that hotel looks really nice. Thanks!

Thanks for posting your review. We sail on the Jan 3rd 8-day itinerary on IoS and are getting very excited!

We were also on the 12/6 sailing, and I agree about the CD. Last year on Freedom we had Richard Spacey who is amazing. Other than that, our experience was fantastic as well. A beautiful ship with an amazing crew.

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Thanks so much for the review! We don't sail until July, but so looking forward to it! I'm still researching hotels for Ft Laud. Did you fly in? If so, does Embassy offer a free airport shuttle? My immediate family is driving, but the rest of the extended family are all flying in, so it would be nice to have a free airport shuttle, and that hotel looks really nice. Thanks!

We flew in from MSP. Embassy charged $8 per person on their shuttle. I highly recommend the Embassy Suites on 17th St even with the shuttle charges.

EXCELLENT review.

Will be sailing her on 8/9/15 - 7 day western.

This review just gets me even more excited then I already am.

Great review.

We had Stanley as our waiter about a month ago. Can you tell me if he was still paired up with Ivan from Serbia (I think)?

We loved those guys.

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Great review - thanks so much, we are sailing on IOS Jan 17th - I haven't been on RCI in over ten years (have been cruising another line) DH this will be his first RCI cruise.

We have a cabana reserved but we will be on barefoot beach (we are in a GS) did you happen to see that area?

Thanks for the tip on Olive and Twist - I love a good martini, we will say hello to the bar staff for you ;)

We have also purchased the Ultimate package - where do you get the specialty coffees....was the coffee good?

Any other tips you can give, what about the parades - I guess they are on the Promenade; our SIL has a promenade cabin so we are thinking that would be the best place to watch it

Thanks Again

please share any "tips or tricks" you may have for the Indy.

Would love to hear them all.

We were also on the 12/6 sailing, and I agree about the CD. Last year on Freedom we had Richard Spacey who is amazing. Other than that, our experience was fantastic as well. A beautiful ship with an amazing crew.

 

 

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We were on the IOS Dec. 6 sailing also. Totally agree with you regarding Jamie, our Cruise Director. While he was entertaining at times, he was quite full of himself. Jamie was a fill-in for another CD, so hopefully they will replace him soon, and he will go back to being an activiities guy. We also had Richard Spacey several years ago on FOS....he is the best..but I think he's with Celebrity now.

We also agree with you that the IOS is a great ship, and we had so much fun! We are now in the process of booking another cruise in the spring and/or fall.

I do, however, have some gripes. For the most part these are just my opinions but they were consistent over our b2b. First, the cruise director….yeah. I don’t like him. He wasn’t funny. He was a little eccentric for my taste and was too much of a goofball. My wife thought he was good but lot of people I asked shared the same opinion as me. His assistant Allison was very nice! We saw her out and about with the guests A LOT MORE than we saw CD Jamie. He doesn’t seem to be in control of anything, we barely saw him and if we did it was blur as he was running down the Royal Promenade. Our last CD on IOS was Joff Eaton, he was great! He seemed to be running the show!! He was funny and we saw him a lot more then we saw this other guy.

We were on the IOS Dec. 6 sailing also. Totally agree with you regarding Jamie, our Cruise Director. While he was entertaining at times, he was quite full of himself. Jamie was a fill-in for another CD, so hopefully they will replace him soon, and he will go back to being an activiities guy. We also had Richard Spacey several years ago on FOS....he is the best..but I think he's with Celebrity now.

 

We also agree with you that the IOS is a great ship, and we had so much fun! We are now in the process of booking another cruise in the spring and/or fall.

We will be on Indy on the Valentines Day 8 day sailing, and expect to have a great time. We have had some terrific CD's and then others who had great staffs that made up for what we did not enjoy from the CD. I like a little bit of a goofball personality -- we had that when Dennis Charles was the CD when we were on Jewel and he was terrific.

What exactly did you wish Jamie did differently?

Thanks for taking the time to write a review.

DH and I have been Diamond in the C&A hierarchy for awhile, and have an early evening drink in the DL before dinner most evenings.

I have never really visited the DL early in the morning....does anyone know if the DL also has coffee (regular and specialty coffees) for the early morning risers?

Appreciate you taking the time to post such a detailed review.

One question: On the eight day cruise, does the ship stay on Florida time the entire cruise or do they move the clocks on the ship an hour ahead to better match up with the islands time (and not have such an early sunrise and sunset)?

DH and I have been Diamond in the C&A hierarchy for awhile, and have an early evening drink in the DL before dinner most evenings.

 

I have never really visited the DL early in the morning....does anyone know if the DL also has coffee (regular and specialty coffees) for the early morning risers?

The DLs and CLs I have visited have specialty coffee machines and 24/7 access.

Appreciate you taking the time to post such a detailed review.

 

One question: On the eight day cruise, does the ship stay on Florida time the entire cruise or do they move the clocks on the ship an hour ahead to better match up with the islands time (and not have such an early sunrise and sunset)?

I have cruised enough to know that the ship STAYS on ship time (Florida time) regardless of what the local time is on any of the islands visited.

My wife and I got off of the Independence of the Seas last weekend after b2b cruises and these are our thoughts on it. We are going to compare it to an 8 night eastern Caribbean cruise we did on IOS in March 2012. On the 8 night cruise with my wife and I were my parents who we treated to a cruise vacation. They had been on a Carnival Cruise 8 years earlier and had never been on a RC cruise before. More about them later.

We stayed at the Embassy Suites on 17th St the night before and we really liked it! The place has a really nice feel to it. Very open and inviting with great rooms! It’s within walking distance to a shopping area and restaurants. We did a little last minute shopping and ate Duffy’s Sports Bar and it was great! The next morning really enjoyed the breakfast buffet and took the shuttle to the pier. We got to the ship around 9:30(a bit early I know) but we just couldn’t sit around anymore! It actually took about an hour and half before we started moving. The actual check in process was pretty painless; it only took about 30 minutes. Once on board, it was like seeing an old friend again!! The ship was spotless! The crew looked tired but we still very friendly. We walked around a bit, hit up the Windjammer and before we knew it our rooms were ready. We had balcony room #9238. Our stateroom attendant was Oral and he’s from St Vincent. He was really nice and worked hard to take care of us, we really appreciated him! Soon it was time to muster. The ONLY problem I had with it was….the other passengers. People who thought they didn’t have to muster..really!? Just take a few minutes out your hectic vacation and do what everyone has to do and get over it! So needless to say that took a while longer than expected. Then we were off!!

Leaving port was great and exciting! We were talking to our family backs home who were watching us leave on the port webcam and they actually saw us which made it fun! Dinner in the MDR was consistent..consistently wonderful! I hear a lot of people mentioning the cost cutting they have noticed the RC over the years and I have to admit I didn’t really notice anything compared to our last cruise. The menu was familiar and delicious with plenty of variety. Our waiter was Stanley from India. He was very friendly and attentive to our wants and needs and never missed a beat! We didn’t have one bad or have to return anything the entire trip. The next day at sea was gloomy so we just spent some time reacquainting ourselves with our old friend. My wife spent some time up in Olive or Twist reading relaxing while I showed my parents the around the ship. Our second sea day the sun came out the party started!! We had a great time by the pools having our drink(s) of the day. The bands on the ship were very good and fun to listen to. We don’t do a lot of the activities that are on the ship, we usually like to relax with a drink in the sun and people watch so we had a really good time. Dinner that night was in the MDR and was great!

In St Maarten we went to Maho Beach and watched the planes come in. My parents had a blast trying to get used to the somewhat large (at least larger than what they are used to) waves coming in and having them get pushed over and pulled into the water! But once they got used to it, they loved it! My dad spent a majority of the day just swimming and bobbing in the waves watching the planes come in. We each rented a lounge chair and shared an umbrella which was $10 per person. We sipped a few beers from the bar (I can’t remember the name of it) and had a great time soaking up some warm Caribbean sun and watching everyone else have a blast! We took a taxi there and back from the pier which cost $9 each roundtrip. Once back at the pier we did a little walking around and got back onto IOS. We were in port with 5 other ships that day and it didn’t seem to be to chaotic. That night the four of us had dinner at Giovanni’s Table. Hands down the BEST food we had the entire trip!! I don’t remember our servers name but he was from Turkey and he was fantastic!! We ordered our starters and he brought some extras that we were thinking about ordering but didn’t! He just put them on our table and said we really needed to try them along with what we ordered and we loved every bit of it! He did the same with our entrees and desserts! It was impeccable service with some of the best food and we left so happy and FULL!!!!!!!!! I totally recommend Giovanni’s!

The next day in St Kitts my wife stayed on the boat because she wasn’t feeling well (no it wasn’t noro!) so my parents went on the St. Kitts Rainforest Adventure excursion offer by RC. They really enjoyed it! The guide was very nice and informative. They learned a lot about the island and saw some wildlife and met some great local people. They said they would do it again so based on that I would recommend it. I walked around town and did some of the obligatory souvenir shopping one must do for friends and family. I realized that a lot of the stores on almost all the islands we stopped at sell the same stuff!! I saw the same hats, shirts, dresses, trinkets and whatever else in all the stores! So that was a little disappointing but it still provided what we needed. We all made it back to the ship on time and sailed on for San Juan.

I have a love/hate relationship with San Juan. I love that we have cell phone service again!! But I hate that we have such a short amount of time in port! Old San Juan is beautiful but I would love to have time to spend elsewhere on the island too! That being said what we did do was walk up to the Old Fort and watched some awesome waves come in! They were huge! We had lunch at Barrachina! It was delicious! I had the whole red snapper, my wife had some mofongo. I don’t remember what my parents had by our plated were licked clean! Of course we had some delicious Pina Colada’s! The people and service there were wonderful! If you are ever in San Juan go to Barrachina! After some more of that obligatory shopping I mentioned earlier we made it back to the ship.

LABADEE!!! We love it in Labadee!!! I’m going to bundle both our stops here into one review as they were both awesome! The weather was perfect! On both days we had an over the water cabana on Nellies Beach and on both days we had the same cabana steward Serge (pronounced “surge”). He was great! He even had to keep some people from walking into our cabana! Apparently not everyone knows those are rented out so we had people trying to get into them to take pictures and stuff! But he had towels and cold bottle of water and floating beach mats for all of us! He got us drinks, let us know when the buffet was ready and was very attentive to our needs! On our first visit I took my mom on the zip line. She’s 74 and loved it!! I also got it on video so the rest of our family can see the proof! Dad was once again happy in the water! On both visits we were relaxed and really enjoyed ourselves! Snorkeling was a bit sketchy as the water at nellies that day was a bit murky but on our second visit it was much better. We really like the ambiance and feel of the area. Next time my wife wants to do a massage at the beach spa there! Back onto the ship for formal night and dinner!!

The last day at seas was a good one, lots of relaxing and good food and drinks. Watching everyone soak up that last bit of vacation really made us appreciate the fact that we were going to stay on for the next cruise!

Back to Ft Lauderdale to kick my parents off the ship and start the second cruise! I got up early and had breakfast with my parents and saw them off the ship right away as they had an early flight. They said they had no problems getting through customs and made to FLL with plenty of time to catch the flight. Mom and Dad had a blast on IOS! They were so happy with everything from their balcony room to the food and ship! It was almost like they had cruised again for the first time! They want the whole family to go on a cruise now and they really want to do it on IOS. All of the consecutive cruisers met in the Pyramid lounge and we walked off the ship, showed our passports to the agents, got our new SeaPass cards and got back onto the ship. This was our first time experiencing this and it wasn’t too painful. Everyone made it back onboard in a timely manner. We were treated to a nice lunch in the MDR and then we watched as all of the new and excited and much younger passengers got onboard to enjoy their Western Caribbean cruise! We called some friends and fam to catch up and tell them we were all sunburnt but smiling! My one gripe was we couldn’t go back to our room!! We didn’t change staterooms for our b2b and we couldn’t even go back! That was messed up!! But eventually we got back and we ready to set sail again!

Our first day at sea was fun and we woke up the next day to very cloudy and windy Grand Cayman. Getting to the pier from the ship was easy. We did a stingray excursion through StingraySailing.com. Chip was awesome! Hands down the best guys to do this with!! They knew which side of the sandbar to anchor on and provided a very safe and fun experience! We got the sandbar and there at least six other boats there, much larger and flashier operations then these guys but we had the most sting rays swimming around us and soon had tourists from those other guys coming towards us because we had most of the stingrays!! I cannot stress enough how much we recommend Chip and StingraySailing.com!!! On the way back through town we asked Chip to recommend a place to eat and dropped us off at Rackam's Waterfront Bar and Grill. The place is all outdoor seating, great food and drink and it’s right on the water! You look out over the bay at all of the cruise ships and can even toss a French fry into the water for the tarpon to snack on! We walked a short distance from there to the pier and finished our day with some shopping.

The next day in Jamaica we were tired and not feeing to hot plus it was raining like crazy so we didn’t get off of the ship. But we did dock next to the Allure of the Seas and we think after seeing her that close we will be sailing on her next time!!

Another fantastic and sunny day at sea wrapped up what proved to be a great vacation! We met some great people both that were guests and employees! If you are on IOS anytime soon you MUST go to Olive or Twist and see Matica and the whole crew up at there! THEY MADE OUR CRUISE!! They treated you like a friend, got to know you and were incredibly hospitable and nice and funny! We miss them!! On our 12/6 sailing I bought the Ultimate Package for drinks. I had no problem with any bartenders or waiters getting drinks whenever I wanted regardless of where I was or how long it had been since I last ordered a drink. On our 12/14 cruise I just got the Preferred package. The only difference was the PP didn’t cover specialty coffees which I was kind of tired of after 8 days. They weren’t bad, but I just didn’t want any more of them. Needless to say, I took full advantage of the drink packages of both cruises and will be getting them again on my next one!! The ship was spotless and well maintained. I did hear of common area bathroom on Deck 4 overflowing and causing some issues but I can’t confirm that.

As far as entertainment is concerned, the ice shows are a must see! The production shows are across the board. Some are great, others you don’t feel bad walking out of. The bands and orchestra are very good.

I do, however, have some gripes. For the most part these are just my opinions but they were consistent over our b2b. First, the cruise director….yeah. I don’t like him. He wasn’t funny. He was a little eccentric for my taste and was too much of a goofball. My wife thought he was good but lot of people I asked shared the same opinion as me. His assistant Allison was very nice! We saw her out and about with the guests A LOT MORE than we saw CD Jamie. He doesn’t seem to be in control of anything, we barely saw him and if we did it was blur as he was running down the Royal Promenade. Our last CD on IOS was Joff Eaton, he was great! He seemed to be running the show!! He was funny and we saw him a lot more then we saw this other guy. Again, just my opinion. The one thing we didn’t like in Labadee was the lines for the food! RC really has to do something about making the process and bit easier and smoother! We found out after our first visit that there’s another buffet kind of tucked in back behind Columbus Cove that isn’t as chaotic as the other areas. But the other areas were a little rough, you almost felt like cattle being driven in to feed and then ushered right back out to play. And the food could really use an upgrade…really. And finally the thing that turned me off the most…some of the other passengers. People, YOU NEED TO RELAX! YOU’RE ON VACATION! So what if the Windjammer is closed and you have to wait a whole 5 MORE MINUTES BEFORE YOU CANT STUFF YOUR FACE! So what if the casino isn’t open in port!! If the coffee is too hot, cool it off with some water or Baileys, don’t tear apart the guys that’s been up since who knows when brewing it fresh for 4000 people! Who cares if you are Diamond or Diamond Plus..NOBODY! I saw on more than one occasion Diamond ,Diamond Plus and some Pinnacle people pull the “Don’t you know who I am?” card on some of the workers there! You know what, no one knows or cares if you are Gold, Diamond or Pinnacle or a first time cruiser!! Shut up and try to enjoy yourself!! Those people working on that ship work 10 hours a day 7 days a weeks to make your vacation all that it can be! At least show a little bit of respect!! You wonder why the ships employee’s call Diamond people “Demons”! They do that because some of them really act like it! I’m not saying they are all like that. Some of the nicest people were met were Diamond and up Crown and Anchor members!! But take a breath people and relax! Making a scene and throwing a fit because you are “inconvenienced” in the smallest way isn’t going to help anything!

I'm curious - we are booked with stingray sailing in april. Did you have any trouble tendering? Were you on one of the first few? Thanks, its the only thing I'm nervous about with the whole excursion.

We will be on Indy on the Valentines Day 8 day sailing, and expect to have a great time. We have had some terrific CD's and then others who had great staffs that made up for what we did not enjoy from the CD. I like a little bit of a goofball personality -- we had that when Dennis Charles was the CD when we were on Jewel and he was terrific.

 

What exactly did you wish Jamie did differently?

Jamie took over from Tim (I think) on our TA in November. He is doing a fill in role at present but I liked him to be honest.

He has a 'very British' personality and does like to play the goof ball (I think that's how you day it).

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I have cruised enough to know that the ship STAYS on ship time (Florida time) regardless of what the local time is on any of the islands visited.

We were on the 12/05 ios sailing and we had to turn move our clocks forward on the 3rd night and then back on the 7th night. So maybe you need to go on the cruise to know diffferently.