LittleMissMagic's ~INDEPENDENCE~ Christmas Cruise **Photo Review**

I'm so excited that you are posting another review. I just finished reading your Royal Princess one on your blog and came here to see if you went on another holiday cruise... My oldest daughter is going off to college next fall and we are huge vacation travelers. We usually travel the week of Thanksgiving but most colleges don't give you the full week off so I started researching other options. Cruises look fun during Christmas time and so far I was impressed with your weather conditions . The only thing that scares me is airfare. We have done a disney cruise over thanksgiving and the ship was decorated very nice. Do you prefer cruising Christmas week or New Years' week?

Oh, airfare! My first flight from LAX to MCO was booked far in advance at $350 (less than my flight home for Thanksgiving!). My second flight from LAX to FLL... $900! It was also an expensive mistake!

We choose to cruise over Christmas because it's a little bit less expensive than the New Year's cruises. Several year's we've done a cruise and Disney World, and we've considered switching the order so that we do Disney World first, but when adding the additional costs of Disney at Christmas and a cruise at New Year's, it's not nearly as affordable.

Hi Victoria! So glad you posted the link to your new review on your old reviews (I still get the notifications). I was following your blog before Christmas, but haven't had a chance to catch up again.

 

Indy was our spring break 2014 cruise; I'm anxious to get your take on it.

Good, I'm glad you found me! My blog fell a little behind before the holidays with all of my school deadlines, so you didn't miss much!

welcome back

great start

Thank you!

YAY!!!!!:D:D

Victoria, I am SO glad to have come across this review!

LOVE your reviews!!!!

What a hectic start to your vacation. I would FREAK out if I missed my flight.:eek:

Thank GOD for the Dos Equis to calm the nerves.

Cannot WAIT to read more!!!!

 

Where's Max????:confused:

Max will be flattered that he is so missed! He spent Christmas with his family, but joined us after the cruise for a week at Disney World.

I am glad you are back!!! I love your reviews even though I am a Carnival girl for now.... Welcome back and I am glad you made it and that your mom and sister are ok...

Thank you!

Yay, another Victoria photography exhibit :D

 

Congrats on having one of your photos be the CC FB cover photo for a week. :)

 

I didn't know you were going to UCLA. I guess I really should subscribe to your blog and then I wouldn't have to go back and spend hours reading all your L.A. posts to catch up. I haven't been on Flickr much lately either, so I might have missed some L.A. photos there as well. Sigh. I got my degree just up the coast from you. Have you been to Malibu yet?

 

I was in L.A. New Years week (never again :eek: ). Unfortunately, they don't have another Rose Parade in the off season. I'll be posting my photos from my L.A. trip on Flickr as soon as I get them edited, maybe in another month or so :o

 

I'm looking forward to the rest of this review. I haven't been on a Freedom Class ship (yet).

Thank you! I was really excited that my photo was used, and glad that I was told (otherwise, I wouldn't have known!). Hopefully I'll have some more cover-worthy photos in this review.

I haven't been to Malibu, yet! There have been a few weekends when I thought that I should drive up, but never actually went through with it. It wil happen this year.

You went to the Rose Parade? I saw the Princess Cruises float on television, and it looked really cool! I look forward to your photos.

I wondered just the other day if you and your family had taken another Christmas cruise and here it is! Thanks for sharing. We're taking our very first Royal cruise in June and we're super excited!!

Of course! Though we have discussed breaking our Christmas cruise tradition (gasp!) and perhaps going to Hawaii for the holidays this year.

Looking forward to the review! Would you by chance have copies of the cruise compasses? Thanks! Will be on Indy February 14th!

I think I made it back with most of the cruise compasses - I'll let you know when I upload them!

[Day 2] At Sea

Rachel and I spent the morning of our first sea day in bed catching up on some much-needed sleep. Dad called our room at 9:30 in the morning.

Dad - "Hey! What are you up to?"

Rachel - "Sleeping! It's 9:30 AM!"

Dad - "I'm going to get us tickets for the ice show. What time would you like to go? 3:30 or 5:00? Also, we can go today or on the day we're in St. Maarten."

Rachel - "Uhhhh... 5:00 today is good."

We realized that we were sailing along with the Carnival Breeze.

Carnival Breeze by vshingl, on Flickr

I hung our Clemson flag on the balcony so that all of the dolphins who happened to swim by would know that we were Tigers.

Tigers at Sea by vshingl, on Flickr

Rachel and I ate a late breakfast at the Windjammer. It's not very crowded at 11 in the morning, and it's a good thing because I hate waiting in lines at buffets. When I'm hungry, I do not have the patience to watch the person in front of me sift through the bacon to find the best piece. Get out of my way - I need food! That morning I made the disappointing discovery that Royal Caribbean's eggs are most definitely poured out of a carton, and might not even come from a chicken. From how they tasted, I wouldn't be surprised if they were pigeon eggs.

We then made our way to the Vitality Spa to book massages. There wasn't much availability during the afternoon the next day (unless we wanted to do a couples massage, which the lady booking us seemed to be encouraging), but we were able to get 75-minute massage appointments for the next evening.

You know Rachel's not feeling well when she doesn't even want to lay out in the sun to get her tan on. We ended up spending most of the afternoon in my parent's stateroom watching movies on TBS. The commercials are in Spanish, but the movies are in English. I was rather disappointed in Royal Caribbean's television. Lately I've been spoiled by On-Demand offerings on Disney Fantasy and Royal Princess. Royal Caribbean had two decent English channels... only one of which had English commercials.

Strings Ice Show

While passengers are encouraged to obtain complimentary tickets to the ice show that they choose to attend, guests without tickets are allowed to fill remaining seats five minutes before the show begins.

I've seen the cruise ship ice shows before on Mariner of the Seas and Adventure of the Seas, so I wasn't expecting much in the way of choreography. The small ice rink doesn't give the skaters much room to work with, and in the shows I had seen in the past, the choreographer/show-writer seemed to take more advantage of large props and elaborate costumes than the talent of the skaters.

That being said, I was pleasantly surprised by Strings. The narrative follows the violin from its invention and how manipulation of its sound has shaped music throughout history. Music was performed by a live violinist, and besides a chair in the beginning, there wasn't a heavy reliance on props. Costumes fit the time period and style of music thematically, but they didn't restrict the skaters' movement.

Strings - Ice Show by vshingl, on Flickr

Strings - Ice Show by vshingl, on Flickr

There were a lot of really great partner skating routines. Many impressive (to me) lifts and stunts. And I don't believe I saw a single fall throughout the entire show.

Strings - Ice Show by vshingl, on Flickr

Strings - Ice Show by vshingl, on Flickr

The western routine was by far my favorite. The featured female skater for this was very tiny, so there were a lot of cool tricks with her. I believe it was the best part of the show.

Strings - Ice Show by vshingl, on Flickr

Strings - Ice Show by vshingl, on Flickr

Strings - Ice Show by vshingl, on Flickr

Strings - Ice Show by vshingl, on Flickr

I really enjoyed the ice show. I was impressed by the talent of the skaters and how confident they were in the skills they performed. It was also nice to see an ice show not overwhelmed by ridiculous props. And the narrative, Strings, wasn't ridiculously corny, either (maybe a little corny).

Captain's Welcome Aboard Reception

There is one reason and one reason only we get ready an hour before dinner and attend the Captain's Party. Free champagne is perhaps the only reason my family ever arrives anywhere on time. We were actually a little early (this never happens!). We found a seat in the promenade and waited for the bartenders to start passing out the bubbly. 7:30 PM arrives... nothing. 7:40... no drinks, no captain. SOMEONE PLEASE BRING ME SOME CHAMPAGNE!

Rachel wasn't allowed to drink on her medication, so naturally she decided to forgo the meds in favor of alcohol. Rachel needed to start numbing the pain, so I headed to the champagne bar and ordered two 7-7s (R's drink of choice).

Bartender - "That's 14."

Me - "I'm sorry?"

Bartender - "Two 7-7s... that's 14."

Rando lady sitting at bar - "Haha, I get it!"

Me - "No, two 7-7s.... that's 28."

Whatever the number, I got the drinks, and just as soon as I returned with them, out came the free champagne. ARE YOU KIDDING ME?

Royal Promenade by vshingl, on Flickr

Captain's Party by vshingl, on Flickr

Captain's Party by vshingl, on Flickr

Romeo & Juliet Dining Room

We weren't exceptionally late to dinner this time. Imagine that!

For an appetizer, I had the Bay Scallop Gratin. It comes in the escargot dish and looks like escargot, but it is not escargot.

Bay Scallop Gratin by vshingl, on Flickr

Carved Fillet of Beef Tenderloin for my entree. I didn't care much for it, but I did like the mashed potatoes underneath.

Carved Fillet of Beef Tenderloin by vshingl, on Flickr

Dessert Menu by vshingl, on Flickr

And Sky High Lemon Meringue Pie for dessert.

Lemon Meringue by vshingl, on Flickr

Rachel stuck with sorbet.

Sorbet by vshingl, on Flickr

After dinner, Rachel and I went to the ship's club, Labyrinth (really dumb name for a club... but at least it's better than "Jester's" on Adventure of the Seas), for 50% off all Cocktails for Ladies night. Half off cocktails is a really great deal... a dangerously great deal. And they had the half off ladies promotion in Labyrinth twice during the cruise, and on the last night, it was half off premium cocktails (premium is defined as more than two parts) for everyone. I haven't seen this kind of discounting for cocktails on any other cruise line, and it was something I really appreciated.

Towel Animal by vshingl, on Flickr

Following this FANTASTIC review.

Sailing the IOS in Aug. of this year.

Great writing style.

Glad to hear mom and sister are fine after their terrible accident.

Mitch.....

Strings is one of our favorites; we saw it in 2010 on the Dec TA when Indy was new and are happy it still is running. Thinking of booking the 8 night Indy for Jan 2016.

The ice skating pictures are very sharp and the exif files show you bumped up the ISO to 1250 with a 1/400 exposure time. Did you have to massage the original picture much with Photoshop?

Strings is one of our favorites; we saw it in 2010 on the Dec TA when Indy was new and are happy it still is running. Thinking of booking the 8 night Indy for Jan 2016.

 

The ice skating pictures are very sharp and the exif files show you bumped up the ISO to 1250 with a 1/400 exposure time. Did you have to massage the original picture much with Photoshop?

That image is actually a JPEG (I switched to RAW later in the cruise), and I made very minimal adjustments to it in Lightroom - just cropping and bumping contrast. The D7100 performs pretty well at high ISO, and the Tamron 17-50mm f/2.8 is a fast lens. I just wish I had a greater focal length for stage shows and the like.... but at the same time, I don't know if I really want to add the weight to my camera bag.

Victoria! Welcome back!

I will be following along on your latest adventure as it unfolds.

I watched the Indy sail away on your cruise, not realizing it was carrying VIPs...

Norris

We would love to cruise over New Year's week. Unfortunately, every time I've looked the economic reality slaps me - we can either do 3 cruises during lower demand times, or one at New Years for about the same amount of money - so we've not ended up cruising over New Year's so far!

We also cruised on the Independence of the Seas for New Year's Eve this year. The key for us to financially make it happen was that we booked it the previous New Year's when the prices were still pretty low. We also downgraded from a balcony to an inside for this cruise. That made the cost of this cruise almost comparable to any other cruise during the year.

Cruising over New Year's was definitely worth it! It was an experience to behold!

Sent from my iPhone using Forums

Would love to see the compasses as well. The main thing I'm looking for is the page with what dining places are open at what times. We cruise Indy Eastern in July, and we are in San Juan from 4pm-11pm (doing Bioluminescent Bay, can't wait!). I want to see if anything is open to eat before we leave the ship for our excursion. I saw on some compasses from March 2014 that WJ was open somedays from 3:30-5:30 for snacks, so was wondering if it was the same. And, what "snacks" mean.

Yayy love your reviews!! We will probably be going on Indy in nov... can't wait for more!

I absolutely love your reviews. I just caught up on your Breeze and Disney reviews. I hope you are enjoying life as a Bruin. Best wishes to you on your studies and next adventure.

Thanks for another great review! So glad you made the ship and that Rachel and your Mom were both alright. Can't wait to read more.

GREAT review. Whew! You made the ship. I would have FREAKED!

Thanks much, Mary

Love your review so far. Interesting info for the cocktails and champagne. Keep the great tips coming. We head out on this same ship/itinerary in March.

We LOVE RCCL! Glad I found your cruise reviews again. Really enjoy all the pics and commentary. BTW, as you can see from my signature, we are doing the ALLURE Med. this summer (plus 3 day pre cruise in Barcelona), so seeing your cruise pics and comments from the EPIC really will help in the planning the stuff to see. Was gonna use Barcelona Day tours, but after your less than flattering recommendation; will have to re-think. Will definitely look into Rome by Limo for Pisa/Florence

Victoria, I'm so happy you're writing another review. Like always, your pictures and stories are FANtastic! I'm glad Rachel & your mother are doing better after the accident and that you were able to make it to the ship on time.

I am booked on the Indy in October for Halloween and your review is making me really want to board now.

Can I just say how welcome an LMM Caribbean review is right now? It was 8 degrees this morning!!

So glad your mom and Rachel are all right, and what an entrance you made to the ship!

You really do a fantastic job with these reviews. The writing is light and fun, and the recaps are just detailed enough to learn from the trip planning (or perhaps non-planning) but still fast-paced. That's a tricky balance.

Looking forward to reading more! (And I hope you do a Disney TR, too!)

Sent using the Cruise Critic forums app

great pics

keep them coming

SNIP....

 

The bathrooms are a fair size for a cruise ship stateroom. One of my complaints is that if you try to adjust the water temperature before you actually get in the shower, it's a little difficult to keep from getting water all over the bathroom floor.

 

And my other gripe is that they no longer stock the tissue containers with tissues. Apparently, people had been flushing tissues down the toilet which can clog them. Though I find it completely understandable that people were using tissues in place of toilet paper because the TP provided was nearly transparent and as soft as a fine-grain sandpaper. Is that too much bathroom talk for you?

....SNIP

Great to see this review. I was on this cruise with my family and am looking forward to hearing/seeing someone else's perspective

For the shower, a piece of advice. Take the shower head out of its holder, point it to the floor and adjust the temperature before spraying it on yourself. I found that this worked well.

I, too, noticed that there was no longer tissue in the bathroom. However, I found the box of tissue in vanity drawer. Good thing too, because I caught a cold and went through the whole box of tissue!

Suzanne

ready for more

I love your reviews! I went looking for a Christmas review knowing you'd be on another cruise. Your reviews are my favorite to read because your family reminds me so much of my own and what I can expect from my 2 daughters in about 10 years. :)

We are doing the Freedom for Spring Break this year and spending a few days in WDW beforehand. My girls haven't been there since they were toddlers and have no memory of it. I will have to find your trip review of the Disney portion too.

Thanks for taking the time to entertain all of us. I'm sorry to hear about that terrible car accident your mom and sister were involved in. My heart also went out to you on missing your flight to Florida.

Excited to read more!