Spring Break on the Independence: Max's Mom's Diary

[maxs mom]

Wednesday ~ April 3rd ~ St. Kitts

Up early again and to the CL for coffee and journal writing.

Breakfast in the MDR.....there was a new waiter there and he was very attentive and gave good service. He called us by name every time he saw us the rest of the week. I really like that!

We met Al and Phyllis on the pier at 9:30 and we took a taxi over to the Marriott for the day. We've tried a lot of beaches here but this one is our favorite. They accept cruise passengers most days and have a Day Pass for $35 pp.

This is the lobby of the Marriott.

Al and Phyllis told another couple about going here so we met them there out on the beach. They had already gotten a cabana and some chairs out there for us and were in the process of getting massages.

This was a very nice beach day......just perfect weather. Here are some shots from the beach.

[maxs mom]

More beach shots:

[maxs mom]

We had a nice walk on the beach. Then some of us went up to the pool area for lunch. They are very SLOW here!! The trick is to go for lunch as early as you can.....at least by 11:30. If you don't, you will be waiting for a while for your food. The food is good here. A little pricy, but good. This place could be run so much more efficiently, but they didn't ask me.

The pool area is very nice here! We didn't get a chance to use it today, but the next time we come I will have a better plan and will eat earlier and use the pool after lunch.

[maxs mom]

We stayed here until around 2:45. Plenty of taxis available to take you back to the ship....reasonable rates. There is a casino here and with the Day Pass we got $10 free slot pulls. Al went in and put his in an got $35. Not bad. Here are a few shots as we were leaving.

These are the new friends that we met today.....Vernon and Melissa from PA.

To me .....this is the best place to go in St, Kitts. Like I said....we've tried a lot of the beaches out here and none compare to this. But that's just my opinion.

[maxs mom]

There's a nice little shopping area near the ship. St. Kitts is a very nice port of call. Always enjoy coming here.

[maxs mom]

We got back to the ship in time for a nice rest.

I had to go see the Loyalty Ambassador at 5:00. We were invited to eat dinner with the Hotel Director on the next formal night, but since John didn't bring any formal clothes, we had to decline......darn it! I love those dinners! Oh well. We booked Portofino for that night.

I strolled down the Promenade on the way back to the cabin and ran into a couple of CCer's and we had a nice visit.

Back to the CL at 7. It was nice visit with everyone again tonight. They say that the Diamond Lounge is packed. It's a nice area with nice views, but we are enjoying the people that we've met in the CL, and besides, Raj is in the CL and he is so good to us.

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Edited April 13, 2013 by max'smom

[kleo30]

I am loving your review :)

[maxs mom]

On the way to dinner tonight we got an overhead shot of my favorite bridge:

In the dining room we were escorted to a table that we did not like. It was right in the middle of a service area. We asked for another table and in a few minutes we were seated at another table that was much better.... and Allen was our waiter there. Honestly....I don't know how many tables he had, but he was everywhere! We chatted with a nice man who was sitting next to us. He was by himself. His wife had recently passed away and he was staying on board for the crossing next cruise.

John had the turkey tonight and I had the New York Strip. The taste of the steak was fine, but it was very tough. I should have known better than to order a steak in the MDR. Tonight's dessert was a chocolate Kahlua cake and it was really, really good. That made up for the tough steak. They also had John's SF chocolate again. I was very impressed.

After dinner....another bridge photo:

They were getting all of the silverware ready for breakfast:

We took a short stroll on the Promenade, then John went back to the cabin and I played the slots for a while or until my $20 ran out. On to bed after that.

[maxs mom]

I am loving your review :)

 

Thanks for reading!!

[maxs mom]

Thursday ~ April 4th ~ San Juan

Slept in a little today. Same morning routine. The new waiter in the MDR remembered all our preferences......great service!

We walked off the ship and found the local Starbucks. Didn't want to do any shopping today. The Starbucks is right up the street directly in front of where we docked. My iPhone got us there! We docked right in front of the Sheraton. Just walk directly up the street beside the Sheraton and the Starbucks is right there. We just wanted to use the free wifi. You get the wifi code from the cashier. If there is more than one of you, be sure and get a code for each person.

We just relaxed there for a while. It was nice to check e-mail and Facebook. We just went back to the ship after that. Very low key day.

All the Harley's were lined up ready to get back on board.

We left SJ at around 2:00.

[tracyedw]

I'm loving your review. I'm doing the same cruise in Feb 2014, so love reading about it!

[maxs mom]

Went to the WJ for lunch again at about 12:45. When we were leaving we ran into Easow Pramod who had been the Maitre' D on the Serenade when we were on for a B2B a couple of years ago. We befriended him at that time......he was so nice to us. It was so good to see him again and we had a nice chat.

We went back to the cabin and had a nice afternoon of relaxation and reading time. Pramod called and asked if we wanted to have dinner with one of the officers that evening, but I had to explain to him about John's formal wear and that we had reservations at Portofino. We had to decline once again. Oh well.

We had to get ready a little early tonight because we were invited to a private cocktail party with the Captain that was being held at Vintages at 5:15. John didn't go and opted to rest a little more, but I went and had a very nice time. I ran into Brian and his wife, Joan, there and we chatted for a while.

Soon Captain Remo came over and chatted with us for about 10 minutes. He was very personable and we enjoyed the conversation with him. We talked about landing helicopters on the ship. Too bad John wasn't there to tell of his experiences!

Sailing into the sunset was really pretty tonight.

We made it to the CL at 7.

[maxs mom]

I'm loving your review. I'm doing the same cruise in Feb 2014, so love reading about it!

 

Great! You can't go wrong with this cruise! We've got it booked again ourselves!

[CRUISEMAMI]

Hope that your arm is OK!!!!

Love all your pics!!! one with the Captain, is my favorite ... Hehehe

At one time we had a promenade cabin, right over the 'wok'

If i look closely I can see it!!! Love the Indy!!

Come back with more, please...

Franca

[Ocean Boy]

I have to tell you I really like the Promenade bridge too. When getting off of the aft elevators I usually made a point of walking across the bridge instead of around by the Champaign Bar.

[fish6]

Jane your picture reviews are always amazing. Thank you for taking the time to do them and take care of that arm :)

[DragonOfTheSeas]

Thank you--I always enjoy your reviews.

 

I had to laugh at two things. When you described the cruise director and said, "bless his heart" If you are from the south and someone starts a description with "bless his heart" you know the rest will not be good!:p

 

 

The second thing was about DH not bringing formal clothes. I bet you make him throw in a jacket or sports coat from now on. :D

[Realtor at Sea]

Hope your arm feels better soon!!! Ouch!

[maxs mom]

Thank you--I always enjoy your reviews.

 

I had to laugh at two things. When you described the cruise director and said, "bless his heart" If you are from the south and someone starts a description with "bless his heart" you know the rest will not be good!:p

 

 

The second thing was about DH not bringing formal clothes. I bet you make him throw in a jacket or sports coat from now on. :D

 

LOL!! That gave us a good laugh! Thanks for that! Trying to keep things light around here......I've never had a broken bone before so I have nothing to go on........but I have a suspicion that that's the case. We'll see.

[maxs mom]

So dinner was at Portofino tonight. We prefer Chops, but this is a nice change from the dining room. I hope they change this over to Giovanni's Table during the refurb.

I had the shrimp risotto for an appetizer and I don't know when I will ever learn that I should just order this as an entrée. It's so good and I fill up on this. I don't have room for the rest of the dinner. This and a salad would be perfect. But instead I ordered the seafood skewer. Even though I wasn't hungry.....this was very nice and not overcooked as I have experienced in the past.

During dinner we had a nice surprise. The manager of Portofino came over to talk to us and he said that dinner tonight was on Pramod! Wow! How nice!

We got the dessert sampler to share and then we waddled out of there!

We thought that we would take our usual stroll along the Promenade tonight, but there was a parade going on! So we walked the length of the ship back to our cabin on deck 4, then back up. We got a peek at the parade from an end balcony. It looked nice. The parades are really cool. It's just hard for us to stand for long periods of time.

Time for bed. I am miserably full and I vow that I won't eat as much tomorrow! But that never works.

Edited April 14, 2013 by max'smom

[Thenewsatchell]

enjoying your review....your pictures are GREAT!!

[maxs mom]

Friday ~ April 5th ~ Labadee

Up around 7:30 and the usual routine. Looking forward to one last beach day. We didn't dock in Labadee until 10:00 so we didn't have to rush. I enjoyed watching the sail in and docking process. Thankfully we were the only ship there today.

[PCWalton1]

Jane,

Thank you for another of your terrific cruise reviews. We have six more weeks till Allure, this is helping us get through. :)

Bill

[johndru]

I'm getting a kick out of your review. We were on Indy on the March 16th sailing - the previous 8 day sailing to yours. We loved the Freedom class ship, which was our first time on this class. Our only issue was that this ship was set up for European cruisers, so from what I understand, the shops are not set up the same as other Freedom class ships. We did like the ship, though.

We saw that Jeff Arpin was the cruise director during your cruise on another thread, and wondered what happened to Casey from Canada, who was our cruise director. He replaced Jeff Eaton (sp?), who was well liked, but he's off contract right now. Ironically, Jeff Arpin was our cruise director on Monarch of the Seas in 1996, along with Capt Remo as our captain! Jeff was a great cruise director "back in the day," but I can see how someone would think he's past his prime!

Thanks for sharing your memories!

[Quadsd]

I am on the same cruise! I started a roll call, but I am the only one there:)

Come over and join me:)

 

I did :D