(Slightly less so) Cheapo dad's trip report on Independence of the Seas

OK, we come back in full circle with last set of ice show pics from the SLR and then we are done here

All done, time to leave

Our dinner theme for tonight is “Thyme” (see the not very straight picture below). They usually follow it with some sort of historical explanation on what it is and how it’s used.

 

If your phone or monitor doesn’t allow zooming in, here is what it says about Thyme – “It pairs well with lamb and is wonderful addition to our al dente pasta dishes”.

 

So you want to have lamb tonight to see what Thyme tastes like with lamb. Except when you look at the main course listing, there is NO LAMB. We had lamb last night but not tonight. Ehhh? I thought it pairs well with lamb? Why aren't they offering lamb tonight instead of last night? How does that work when they say it pairs well with lamb but it's not on the menu?

 

 

 

 

Hi Harry,

Like so many others I love your reviews, your pictures, and your witty sense of humor. I am one of those who does not ask many questions or comment often for fear of being chastised for not knowing how to look up the information myself. People can really be mean on these boards and I've always tried to avoid be the brunt of the ridicule. I appreciate how friendly you are and making it "safe" for newbies to join in. I have to admit I didn't realize there was anyone as anal as me when it comes to planning, etc. but it's nice to know I'm in good company!

Anyway, I had to chime in on your comment about the "thyme" menu and the lack of lamb offering. I too have noticed these inconsistencies. On the RC Navigator last year we had a menu in the MDR one evening highlighting ****ake mushrooms (which are one of my favorites). Anyway, the main section highlighting the mushroom mentioned trying "our own spectacular Chicken Gyoza entree plate", yet the Chicken Gyoza was not an available entrée on the menu. Strange...

Hi there, just want to say what a fantastic report this is. its taken me quite a few weeks to get up to end and really appreciate all the time you have put into this. my family are going on the indi in a few months time so has been nice looking at some parts of the ship. Thanks again and keep up the great reporting.

So sad to be coming to the end of the trip report, Harry:(

Interesting, you guys seemed to visit WJ quite a lot for lunch throughout the cruise. We had a different pattern, had breakfast there the first few mornings and a few lunches, but then we tried the MDR for breakfast about halfway thru the cruise and were more impressed with the food, especially the eggs since they were cooked to order. As for lunch we always found ourselves running around in the middle of the day so it seemed like we got something quick from Cafe Promenade/Sorrentos most days and WJ when we had more time, but we did do WJ for dinner the night we left St. Kitts.

I did want to ask, now that we are at the end, how would you compare this and your Freedom cruise? Besides the fact that it was longer, any bias or differences between the ships since they are almost identical (besides half-filled juices haha)? And which itinerary (islands) did you like better? Just because you go so in-depth, I am sure there are more differences you can point out than most people.

Hi Harry,

Like so many others I love your reviews, your pictures, and your witty sense of humor. I am one of those who does not ask many questions or comment often for fear of being chastised for not knowing how to look up the information myself. People can really be mean on these boards and I've always tried to avoid be the brunt of the ridicule. I appreciate how friendly you are and making it "safe" for newbies to join in. I have to admit I didn't realize there was anyone as anal as me when it comes to planning, etc. but it's nice to know I'm in good company!

Anyway, I had to chime in on your comment about the "thyme" menu and the lack of lamb offering. I too have noticed these inconsistencies. On the RC Navigator last year we had a menu in the MDR one evening highlighting ****ake mushrooms (which are one of my favorites). Anyway, the main section highlighting the mushroom mentioned trying "our own spectacular Chicken Gyoza entree plate", yet the Chicken Gyoza was not an available entrée on the menu. Strange...

Hi,

Thanks for the compliment. Glad you found the material entertaining.

You know, social media is such a two edge sword. The good thing is it provides a platform for people to share info/ideas across the globe that was impossible 30 years ago. The bad thing is we are so much more mean and angrier toward each other with social media.

I have repeatedly said I was old school in many areas. This is certainly one of them. When I was younger, I was repeatedly told that if you have nothing nice to say to someone, don’t say anything at all. Nowadays, if you have nothing nice to say about someone to their face, go on social media and bad mouth them there. Totally different mentality.

If the people at CC who are verbally mean to each other and then go on the cruise at M&M and have the same abusive attitude, I wonder if more brawls wouldn’t break out similar to the Carnival cruise couple weeks ago. How many times do you feel like smacking someone for what they wrote? If nothing else, more people would be reserving the Royal Promenade view cabins and taking their pants off to moon each other…

Another old school adage I was brought up with is – there is no such thing as a dumb question. That was to encourage people in asking as we don’t always know what is going on. But if you look at social media/CC nowadays, some people will make you feel like an idiot for asking a simple/newbie question. To them, there is such thing as a dumb question. Don't ask and don't tell is their motto.

I mean, what is the point of this forum if not to share vacation ideas/info? We’re not here to cure cancer but to make each other’s vacation 0.02% better. Don’t take yourself so seriously.

Another thing that bugs me about CC (As my wife said, I ‘m turning into a grumpy old man as too many things start to bug me – get off my lawn, you dang kids) is when someone had a bad cruise for whatever reason and comes back to post negative comments, so many people take it personally as if the poster is attacking their first born.

Just read every trip report with a grain of sand to see if the negative aspects really will impact your cruise or things are subjective such as food tastes and not enough workers smiling at you.

Personally I look at it from a pragmatic perspective – the more negative the comments are and more people won’t go on the cruise, the harder the cruise lines will need work to fill those cabins. Such that if 50,000 people read each of the bad comments on a RCI cruise and then they tell their friends not to book another RCI cruise and word of mouth spreads, then RCI will be forced to sell the Owners suite at $100/night as nobody wants to sail on their crappy ships per the bad comments on social media. So in that sense, a bad review is a “good” review for your pocket book. So I welcome bad comments myself as then fewer people will sail on the ships and it's better for me...

Sorry, don’t mean to go off the rail on this but that’s one of my major pet peeves about some CC members. Glad everyone is keeping this trip report in the positive tone.

I discuss the anal nature in my previous Freedom report. I have found that no matter how anal you think you are compared to your friends and family, whereby they rank you a 9.8 on a scale of 1 to 10, with 10 being the max anal person. You come to CC or other forum sites and you will see that there are many 9.81+ level people out there that are WAY more anal than you and I.

As for the menu, they had these “named” menus since 2014 when we were on the Allure. I didn’t take pictures of the menu back then so I don’t know how much has been changed in the past few years but if I had to guess, I would say way back in the start of the menu creation phase, marketing department got together with the chefs and created the menu name/type to match each other at the outset such that the named sample food is on that night’s menu.

But as time goes on with the company having cost cutting and swapping out menu items, they didn’t bother to update the description of the theme name. So now the menu listing has nothing to with the theme itself. Now it looks like they are rolling out the new menu so all these theme name old menus are history.

Finally, I guess the software think you said the bad 4 letter “S” word in starring out the name of the mushroom on the menu. Don’t establish a bad reputation here as being potty mouth here at CC…;p

Hi there, just want to say what a fantastic report this is. its taken me quite a few weeks to get up to end and really appreciate all the time you have put into this. my family are going on the indi in a few months time so has been nice looking at some parts of the ship. Thanks again and keep up the great reporting.

Hi,

Thanks for the kind words. Glad you found the info helpful.

For whatever reason, Indy is the least talked about ship in the Freedom class here on CC. There are a lot more chatter on Freedom and Liberty but not too many trip reports on the Indy.

Maybe because it spends many months in Europe and when it is back in the US, it does the shorter cruises and fewer people do detailed reports on the short cruises.

Prior to my Freedom cruise, I was able to find many Freedom trip reports so I was able to get a good idea on the ship itself. But when I was researching for the Indy, there weren’t many detailed cruise trip reports. Although I will admit I wasn’t really looking very hard as we had just sailed don the Freedom the previous year so wasn’t expecting too many surprises for Indy.

Have a wonderful cruise. I believe they are taking the ship to dry dock soon for upgrades. Hope you enjoy the changes.

So sad to be coming to the end of the trip report, Harry:(

Interesting, you guys seemed to visit WJ quite a lot for lunch throughout the cruise. We had a different pattern, had breakfast there the first few mornings and a few lunches, but then we tried the MDR for breakfast about halfway thru the cruise and were more impressed with the food, especially the eggs since they were cooked to order. As for lunch we always found ourselves running around in the middle of the day so it seemed like we got something quick from Cafe Promenade/Sorrentos most days and WJ when we had more time, but we did do WJ for dinner the night we left St. Kitts.

 

I did want to ask, now that we are at the end, how would you compare this and your Freedom cruise? Besides the fact that it was longer, any bias or differences between the ships since they are almost identical (besides half-filled juices haha)? And which itinerary (islands) did you like better? Just because you go so in-depth, I am sure there are more differences you can point out than most people.

Hey, Brandon,

Yeah, it’s time to wrap it up by this weekend if nothing weird happens to my schedule. It’s always hard to tell when you can find time to post.

We like WJ as we have varied food tastes so buffet is the best place to provide that and you can see from my lunch preferences that I eat a little of everything and not just one plate of fish or a burger. I rather have chicken/lamb/beef/fish with rice and noodles and whatever else.

We haven’t been on the Freedom for over a year so I don’t know if my perception of her is still valid as things are always changing. But for most part, the ship is similar in size, with Freedom having more people as they packed in more cabins in their last dry dock. Indy will likely be the same by this summer after her dry dock.

I mentioned that the vibe of Freedom seems more “intense” in them constantly trying to sell you drinks packages or specialty dining. There was always a band singer or loud music at RP during middle of the afternoon blasting music as you try to shop. Indy is much more laid back.

But as others have said, Indy’s shopping sucks.

Overall, these are small differences. The “hardware” is pretty much the same with some slight variation of stores. It’ll be the software/people/vibe that will be different but not sure if that impacts you if you are off the ship a lot on the port calls.

(Back to the story line)

People leaving the show

So after show, it’s time for one last set of dessert at the café promenade.

I like the glass staircase – especially the green color. MSC advertises their new ship has Swarovski stair cases that would be neat to see in person

Actually first time taking a picture of the photo store from the casino’s perspective as I normally do it from the staircase view.

Love your family on the different levels Harry.

Nice ! Beautiful photos .

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

Love your family on the different levels Harry.

Nice ! Beautiful photos .

 

 

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

Thanks. This was discussed at the previous Freedom trip report with someone suggesting we have different people at different levels of RP.

So with the trip report winding up, it’s time to share the last set of rock pictures from the Utah trip.

These pictures were from the Arches National Park. This is the state’s pride and joy national park as the picture is on their state’s license plates. That is saying something as they have FIVE national parks within their state boundary line and they selected this one.

Since we can only go when the kids are out of school, we had to visit in June but it was pretty toasty at the park that day at over 90 degrees and the hike to/from the arch is over 3 miles long and over 500 feet of incline. I am not exactly in the best shape and I can tell you I as dying by time we crawled back to the car. Glad I didn’t pass out from heat stroke.

Yes, the only way to see the Arch up close is to walk the trail. No “and”, “or”, “if” about it. You can see it from another parking lot over a mile away but the arch would be like 1 inch tall from that distance. To see it/touch it, the walk is necessary.

Here is the start of the trail. Note the fanny pack and back pack

Slowly walking up the trail to get to the other side of the hill. If you can zoom in, you will see few people at the top of the hill about 1/3 from the right margin

So you must be wondering, dude, how hard can this be? You just need to get to the top of the hill and the arch is on the other side, right?

Ha, like the commercial says, not exactly. We thought that as well. We thought it would be similar to the Horseshoe bend where you can get there quicko pronto. Nope...

Keep walking...

Oh, yes, we made it to the top of the hill. We there yet? Ehhhh, not exactly...

See that next set of hills above you? See where all the people are on the right hand side going up that hill? Yeap, keep walking, you are not even half way there yet...

OK, nice little steep steps here

Yeah, still bunch of smiling happy face group here, but not for long...

Looking back at the path we came up from the other hill. At this point, I am looking for the drinks station from the cruise ships. Where are they? I could use those seats and canopy from RCI/Celebrity cruise right now as you can see, there are NO SHADES to speak of out here in the 90 plus degrees

The road now narrows

Hey, I see a lot of people sitting on top of the rocks on the background. Are we there yet?

Keep climbing

Check out the rocks

Well, here is the side of the arch but how do you get there as there is a steep drop between here and there

So close yet so far

Only then did we realize that we took a wrong turn at the road back there and we approached it from the back side. Dang. Now we have to drag our tired butts to double back. Pulled out the cell phone trying to get Google map to pop up, but even with Verizon's solid coverage, there isn't much cell phone coverage out here as we were running at 1G speed with lots of buffering.

OK, with Google map's help, we went back on the trail

Hallelujah! We have shade. Guess where everyone else is sitting? Not out in the sun.

Water break...

OK, last push up the narrow path

You don't want to fall off the path onto the other side - it could hurt

And we finally made it to the Delicate Arch (official name)

As the rest of the family was dead tired, they didn't want to walk down to touch the Arch, so to speak. They were happy to just sit at the top and rest. So the wife and I walked down

This is the "waiting area" for people that didn't want to go down

So what do you see when you walk down?

The view of the waiting area from the Arch side

As with everything in life, there is a "waiting line" to go up to the Arch to have your picture taken

We asked someone to take this for us as the rest of the fam is still at the other side

While waiting for us at the top, my son saw this little guy

Here is my wife under the Arch from the other angle

OK, time to head back to the car.

One last pic. If you can't walk this path, you can park your car at the parking lot to the lower right area of the picture and take the picture from there. Just know it's pretty far away but at least you can see you have seen the Arch

Walking back

Good thing it's downhill for some parts going back

This is the only "shade" you will find on the trail

Originally we had planned to see the rest of the park but after the hike, which from start to end, including rests and pics from the Arch, that took 3 hours, we were dead tired. So we just headed back to the condo to get A/C and called it a day...

Hey, Brandon,

 

Yeah, it’s time to wrap it up by this weekend if nothing weird happens to my schedule. It’s always hard to tell when you can find time to post.

 

We like WJ as we have varied food tastes so buffet is the best place to provide that and you can see from my lunch preferences that I eat a little of everything and not just one plate of fish or a burger. I rather have chicken/lamb/beef/fish with rice and noodles and whatever else.

 

We haven’t been on the Freedom for over a year so I don’t know if my perception of her is still valid as things are always changing. But for most part, the ship is similar in size, with Freedom having more people as they packed in more cabins in their last dry dock. Indy will likely be the same by this summer after her dry dock.

 

I mentioned that the vibe of Freedom seems more “intense” in them constantly trying to sell you drinks packages or specialty dining. There was always a band singer or loud music at RP during middle of the afternoon blasting music as you try to shop. Indy is much more laid back.

 

But as others have said, Indy’s shopping sucks.

 

Overall, these are small differences. The “hardware” is pretty much the same with some slight variation of stores. It’ll be the software/people/vibe that will be different but not sure if that impacts you if you are off the ship a lot on the port calls.

Thanks for the info. If all goes to plan, by the time we take our next cruise, we would like to try either one of the Oasis ships or a new cruise line, definitely something bigger. Not that IOS is small or we weren't impressed with RCL, we just like to try new experiences.

I know you said you guys were doing DW this December- we had annual passes a couple years ago so I know lots has changed since we've been there, but the planning today is super important, perfect for planners like you;);). Make sure you get the really popular fastpasses at the 60-day mark, it helps a lot. I'm hoping to get back there sometime in the next year or two.

Thanks so much for the wonderful review of the Independence it was so beautifully written with so much class. We had just gotten off in February and enjoyed reliving our experiences. Our first on RCL after many Carnival cruises and what a difference in fact we booked the Allure for an October sailing. We appreciate the RCL board as people are not bullies here and do seem to help others who ask questions without the nastiness we have experienced on the CCL site. We did notice a difference in clientele and very pleased with our cruise. Thank you again for sharing and the excellent pictures.

Harry - One heck of a review!! Enjoyed reading it. Pictures were awesome!!

I have one question Harry - Post 53 shows a nice spreadsheet with prices/cabins and such. Was wondering where could I get the some of that information? I'm planning a cruise later this year and that would very helpful.....

Thanks - Bill A.

PS - tried the email link from said post and was 'not valid' from my end??