Loved the INDY! March 16-24 sailing review...

[sapphireblue]

We sailed on the Indy on March 16 - 24th. Our Roll Call was very active and I learned a lot from all of the postings that helped me plan our cruise. CC has been an amazing source of information in the past few years and I’d now like to also add my 2 cents worth from our experience this cruise. I have read other reviews of the Indy and it really does seem to make a difference on who you have look after you, which is something that we don’t always have control over. Our experience was very positive this sailing.

 

Some background: I have sailed on 30+ cruises, 15 being on RCI. I began sailing in the 1980’s on the Sun Viking (I thought that ship was huge at the time :) ), so I was able to experience cruising with all their theme nights in the dining room and various other services and amenities. Now we sail as a family and are enjoying the new style of cruising. This sailing was probably one of the best. I sailed with DH, DD (17), DS (19) and his friend (20).

 

Pre Cruise: We arrived in FLL the day prior and stayed at the Holiday Inn Express Fort Lauderdale Cruise/Port. There were 5 of us in a room, so that dictated where we stayed to a certain degree. We liked the hotel and would stay there again. We enjoyed dinner at Bubba Gumps on Ft. Lauderdale Beach and strolled around the beach area before heading back.

 

Sailing date: We learned that it is difficult to find a taxi that will take 5 people, so after some discussion with the helpful hotel staff, we chose to take 2 taxis to Pier 29. We declined the hotel shuttle when we learned that it takes all cruise passengers on a bus and it would take quite a while to get to the pier ( I believe they drop off at the main area where the other ships were first and then head to Pier 29 last). At about 9:30am our 2 taxi’s arrived promptly and off we were. Enroute, our driver kindly advised us to have our picture ID ready for port security on the road ahead. Yikes! My DH and DD were in the taxi ahead of us and I had all the passports. I was ready to leap out with theirs when we stopped - but didn’t need to. My DH showed his drivers license and my DD didn’t need to show anything since she was a minor. Whew!

 

Pier 29: We were dropped off at the very left of the building, gave up our luggage and joined the short line that had already formed. We were about 50th in line at about 9:50am and we watched as people were still streaming out of the main terminal area. At about 10:20 the doors were opened and we strolled in. We noted there was one security station, (seemed unusual....), however we moved through quickly and were at the check in counter shortly after, pictures taken, cards in hand and were shown to the Diamond seating area. We sat for about 25 or so minutes, when we noticed that they had stopped accepting passengers through security. Hmmm! We were then escorted through a set of doors that took us through the main terminal area where the full security and full counters were, and that’s where we noticed the line up was now going to be processed. So, we learned that if you arrive early, they process you in the smaller area while the terminal is being cleared of departing passengers. Well done... in my opinion. We were on board and in front of the Windjammer doors about 10:50am - which they promptly opened when they saw our eager faces. :D.

 

Stateroom: We were in a D1 Stateroom on Deck 6, and the two boys in the inside cabin across the hall. Both cabins were in great shape. We had absolutely no complaints about either of them. Our delightful cabin steward (a lovely lady from Jamaica) was able to bring us one more chair for our balcony so 4 of us could sit. We brought our glass table outside (which we had no problem filling with food daily). Service was impeccable and quick. When DS’s friend wasn’t feeling well, after too much sun one day, she constantly checked on him to ensure he had everything he needed. Wow!

 

Dinners: This time we decided to try MTD for the first time. I was a little apprehensive about how this would work - I really wanted to have the same wait staff every time at dinner, as they can play a big part in the enjoyment of a cruise. We spoke with one of the MTD ladies on Deck 5 and discussed how this would work for us. She said to see her once dinner was done, and if we like the location and our first dinner experience, she would do what she could to have us there all cruise. And she was right! We kept our 8:00pm time, and simply marched right up to her podium every night, and we dined at the same window table nightly. Our waiter and assistant waiter were incredible. Both were from Mauritius (whoa - where is that? I tried to guess, but was way off) and worked together seamlessly. DD loves chocolate milk, which appeared every meal thereafter by her place setting. Our food experience began that first evening. We placed our orders and then were also brought a few more dishes to try. And so it went with the desserts every night. This was the 3rd sailing with the new menus, and I can safely say that we ate/tried most of the main course meals and desserts on the new menus. We were sent to our cabin with a plate FULL of chocolate chip cookies. This would continue throughout the cruise. By the end, the boys were carrying out several plates of various dishes to their cabin. They LOVED it. If we sail the Indy again in the future - I will definitely request these two gentlemen again.

 

(btw - we googled ‘Mauritius’ that evening to see where that was. We came back to dinner the next night, with a little more geography knowledge and lots of questions about their home island.)

 

Our other meals were usually enjoyed in the Windjammer. We simply love the variety that’s offered and never had a hard time finding a table. We did have room service for breakfast once or twice. This gets us up in time for early port of call visits, and we can eat while we get ready.

 

Picture Package: We decided this sailing to purchase the picture package. This is what we learned: I called the company that does the photos (forgot their name), and inquired on how the packages worked. Pre cruise the price was 279.00 per cabin. Onboard it goes up to 299.00. If reservations are linked, such as ours with DS and friend, the 2nd cabin is 1/2 price - only if you order online before you cruise. If this is ordered onboard - there is no discount (this was confirmed by one of the photographers onboard). Now, because the linked reservation was our DS and friend, both minors (under 21), there was no extra charge for any pictures with just the boys. We didn’t order online, so paid the 299.00 minus coupon discount. I made sure that they knew about the linked cabins and minors right away. We decided to have more fun/silly pictures taken this cruise (more fun than we realized) and ended up with over 80 pics which ended up being just over 3.00 per picture. We were very pleased with the outcome.

 

Ports: We took no tours this time. DD and I had done these ports last year, so we had our own agenda which looked like this:

 

St Maarten: Taxi to Marigot. Desserts at Sarafina’s. Mmmmmm! A little visit to the market and then on to Maho Beach to see the airplanes. Wow - was that beach packed! There were 5 ships in that day, so I guess that was to be expected. We were only there for about 1 1/2 hours, and in that time were able to see several planes landing (one large one) and one taking off. The planes taking off, in my opinion, is the fun part. We have hilarious pictures of people taking cover or running after their things as they fly into the water. We beat the crowds, and headed into town for some shopping and little beach time, before taking the water taxi back to the ship.

 

St. Kitts: Transportation to Cockleshell Beach. We loved it so much last year, we just had to go back. We found chairs with umbrella’s and were offered beverages shortly after. There is a bar there where you can also enjoy snacks and a meal. The same guy (Joe - I think) with his little monkey (Jimmy Buffet) came early. I told him we’d seen him last year, and we ended up holding, feeding and playing with the monkey for about 1/2 hour. We have the BEST photos. Last year he asked for $5.00 for 2 pics. He didn’t ask for anything this year, but I gave him the same amount for each of us that enjoyed his little monkey. After about 3 hours on the beach our transportation was back as we arranged, and we headed back to the shopping area by the pier. This is a beautiful area filled with many, many shops, some bars and restaurants. FYI - there are also guys at the pier with monkeys - I am not sure what they were asking for this year for a picture with their monkey, but last year it was $30.00. Gah!

 

San Juan: We sailed in early and had a short stay there. We headed for Starbucks (free wifi) and then opted to just walk around a little. I found the Coach store, as I’d read on CC that there were sometimes good deals to be had. I found it with ease, and was not disappointed with my finds. There were a few other outlet stores in the same area that others on our sailing had great success with also. I was a happy little shopper that day.

 

Labadee: Ah - the favorite port! This was the first time we had booked an over the water cabana on Nellie’s Beach. This was absolute heaven and by far the biggest hit for everyone in my party. We all agreed that we could stay there for a week easily! We just enjoyed the cabana, floated around in the water. We were escorted to get our lunch by our cabana guy. One note about one of the amazing bar waiters: he stopped by our cabana with the famous Labadoozies. We asked for water, as ours hadn’t arrived yet. He said he’d be right back. He came back some time later out of breath. He had run all the way back to the gangway to get our waters. We were blown away that he had run all that way for us. Now..... that is service!! We happily provided a generous tip for his awesome effort.

 

Shopping onboard: We learned that the shops are operated by different companies, I believe based in the UK, than some of the other RCI ships we’ve been on. I had tried to return/exchange a watch that I had purchased one year ago on the Explorer that wasn’t working. This is when I found this out, as they could not help me with my watch. What the gentleman in the store did however, is search for the address and contact info for the company based in Miami for me to contact. I was impressed with his service as he did go out of his way to help me. Some of the pricing, deals, offerings were different than what we were used to. On the positive side - we didn’t spend as much.

 

Internet: This was incredibly slow. The slowest in my experience. We learned that the later at night we went, the better it got. Perhaps this is one of the upgrades the Indy will get. We did see technicians installing wifi boxes in our hallway during our cruise.

 

Casey Pelter was our Cruise Director. He did a great job from the few times I saw him. This sailing we did not go to any shows, as our dining sometimes conflicted with the shows, or we simply didn’t want to. We did go to the Quest this time and he was great!! It was our first time, and others around us commented that this Quest was the best they’d ever been to.

 

We only saw the Captain once and that was in the dining room as he and some of his officers sang with the waiters. That was cool! We didn’t go to any of the cocktail parties, where I know he would have been. We did, however, hear his announcements every day and enjoyed his wit and humor.

 

We LOVED the Indy and would absolutely go back on her again.

[jbrezen]

We loved this sailing too, so much that I am considering booking again for next year. It was simply wonderful. We have done all three Freedom class ships and we all agreed this has been our favorite.

[simply coffee]

Hi Sapphire Blue! Welcome home to SUNNY weather (thank goodness! Hope it lasts a bit).

 

I'm not sure if my dd met up with yours or not ... she did meet teens from WhiteRock, Richmond, Ladner, Burnaby, Abbotsford, Delta, etc. (I was surprised at the amt. of passengers from our area)

 

We had a fantastic cruise. Couldn't have asked for anything better.

 

I left comments about our cruise experience in these 2 threads.

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=1816000

 

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=1817089

 

RE: Casey the Cruise Director. We thought he did a bang up job. But, I did hear another couple complain that he was the most "unheard from" CD they'd experiences. Which, in our opinion, is a GOOD thing. LOL. Who wants to listen to someone yatter on all the time ...

[sapphireblue]

jbrezen - I completely agree with you - this cruise was wonderful. I did rebook onboard, and booked the same ship and same cabins:) again for next year - same time.

 

simply coffee - Oh my - do we ever have lovely weather right now. I have actually been enjoying the sun in our back yard - topping up the tan .... just a little. It's back to work (@ school) next week, and I'm grabbing every last moment of relaxing that I can.

 

I'm not sure if our dd's met. Mine did not participate in the Teen activities this time. And unfortunately, we didn't manage to meet you. Perhaps next time.

 

Enjoy our lovely weather! I am enjoying organizing all our pictures. Lots of wonderful memories this cruise. It went WAY too fast.