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B2B ~ Independence ~ April 20th & 26th: My Diary

maxs mom
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maxs mom

maxs mom

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Hello All!

 

Well.....Max's Mom and Dad...aka Jane and John.....are back from another cruise...or two....or three!! It all started with finding a great price on the April 26th cruise on Indy....so we booked that and called our good cruise buddies (Al and Phyllis in Orlando) and they booked, too. A few weeks went by and we found a great price on the April 20th cruise as well....so we booked that. Then right before we left The May 4th sailing of the Freedom dropped.....so WTH....we booked that, too. (Love the Book & Go!!)

 

So off we drive to Florida from North Carolina, stopping in Jacksonville on the way down. We ended up at the Days Inn at the FLL airport where we found a great price for a room and we left our car there for two weeks....no charge. Worked out great.

 

We are D+ cruisers and have been cruising with RCI for 29 years. We are both retired now, so it's fun taking advantage of some last minute price drops. We've gotten some great deals this year.

 

There was a small outbreak of norovirus on the Indy the week before our cruise, so our embarkation was delayed until 1:30. RCI notified everyone by phone call, text, and e-mail. Looks like everyone got the message because when we arrived at Pier 29 a little after one, there was only a small crowd there.

 

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Even with all that notification, we met a family at the hotel that had no clue about the delay! Amazing!

 

Fortunately our D+ status got us into the zip line and we got very close to the door. They opened up promptly at 1:30 and we quickly got through security, then up to the check in counter, then on to the ship. There was a guy at the check in counter that was part of the sanitation team. He would go and wipe down each counter after each person checked in.....seriously!!

 

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As soon as we boarded we went up one level to Deck 5 and found a comfy place to sit in the Champagne Bar. We got notices that the cabins would not be open until 4:00 because of all the deep cleaning that needed to be done. no problem.....I was glad that they kept us very informed about all of this. So we got settled in, got some snacks, and were OK there. I went on up to Chops and made our reservations there, then back down to the My Time Dining desk and got our reservations there for the rest of the week....no problem at either place.

 

We had too many carry ons to go to the Windjammer, so we just stayed right there at the CB and I got ham and cheese croissants from the Café Promenade for us for lunch.

 

Promptly at 4 they said we could go to our cabins. We were able to snag one of the big family ocean view cabins for this leg at a great price. Our cabin this week is 9200.....allllllll the way forward overlooking the helipad. Something different. This cabin is huge! It sleeps six. We had two big porthole type windows, a very large king sized bed....bigger than other cabins. There is a separate sleeping area as soon as you come in the door with two bunk beds. Also a large sleeper sofa and another sitting area by the windows. We were quite happy with this cabin! We even each had our own closet and one left over!

 

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This cabin was great. I would not hesitate to book this category again. The only thing is that it is a loooooong ass walk to anywhere!!! Even farther than to the aft. but we managed!

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maxs mom

maxs mom

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We quickly unpacked our carry ons because it was already time for muster. We met our cabin steward, DJ, from St. Vincent. We could tell he had been working hard. He looked exhausted. He turned out to be the best cabin steward that we had for the whole three weeks.

 

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Our muster station....thankfully....was in the Pyramid Lounge. I love it when that happens! So we walked on down there. It didn't take very long. Actually it was very fast as musters go!

 

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Back to the cabin and our luggage had arrived, so we were able to get unpacked. We put a couple of luggage tags on a case of water, and that arrived, too!

 

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We had a great view out our windows for sail away, so we watched that as we were unpacking.

 

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maxs mom

maxs mom

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Jane!!!!

What a coincidence that we have an Indy cruise next month ;)

More already!!! :)

 

Sinny!!! Hey girl!! Glad to have you along. Guess you are sailing from Southampton. Wish we could go with you!

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maxs mom

maxs mom

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Here we go!!

 

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This is the new Welcome Back Gift. It is a sealed package with a sleeve of almonds and a sleeve of shortbread cookies. I think I like this much better than the old gifts. I used to throw most of that away. I love almonds. I guess people with nut allergies might not like this so much.

 

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Here are a couple of tips that we always do in our cabin. First of all ......I always bring large rubber bands. If you put one around the handle of the hair dryer, it will stay on without you having to hold down the button the whole time.

 

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Another tip is to bring a full sized bar of soap with you. Those little bars of soap that they provide just don't cut it!!

 

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maxs mom

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Off we go to the Concierge Lounge for drinks at 7PM. How wonderfully uncrowded it was!!! When we were on in December, it was very hard to ever get a seat! Here we meet Jorge, the bar waiter.

 

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Jorge was great!! He always had our drinks for us practically before we could even sit down every evening. What great service!

 

After a while....I thought I recognized "Scotsman" from Cruise Critic, so I went over and introduced myself to him and we ended up sitting with him for the remainder of the evening. We had been on the same cruise before, but had never met. I corresponded with him on Facebook a little before the cruise. (we have mutual friends) I didn't post on the roll call for these cruises because we were trying to surprise some cruise buddies who were going to be on the next leg. Sadly, though, they had to cancel because of health reasons.

 

We had a delightful visit with George, a Pinnacle member, and Randy, originally from NC, who was to have his "Pinnacle Coronation" this week!

 

On the way out we introduced ourselves to the Concierge, Nizar. We've known and sailed with the usual Concierge, Raj Bhugwath, for years, but he had just gone on vacation. We really missed him!

 

It was Chops for dinner tonight and it was not very crowded. They were very attentive here and remembered us from past cruises. We asked about our friend, Promod, who is in charge of ALL the restaurants on board. Before we knew it, the Chops manager had him on the phone! It was nice to talk to him again and he said he would get up with us as soon as he could.

 

Dinner was quite good with excellent and prompt service. They offered to let us use our BOGO for another night, but we decided to do that next week instead.

 

I had my usual Chops Salad and petit filet......wonderful! But when it came time for dessert.....my most favorite one of all.....Mud Pie....they brought out an imposter!!!! The consistency was gelatinous. There was no almond accompaniment and it just tasted like Jello pudding. We ate it, but it just wasn't right.

 

Here is my delicious filet:

 

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Come to find out....they used to outsource the Mud Pies for $14 a pie. To cut back on expenses, they have started making the Mud Pie in house. Well in house just doesn't cut it. So sad!!

 

Here is the old Mud Pie:

 

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Here is the imposter:

 

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Yuk! Yuk! Yuk!

 

Well.....we didn't let this spoil our dinner. I always look forward to eating at Chops on the first night.

 

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After dinner we hit the casino. I found my favorite slot machines from December....but they didn't remember me at all!! They sucked down my night's allotment in about 2 minutes! john was able to get slightly ahead, so we left and turned in for the evening.

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maxs mom

maxs mom

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Thank you= Thank you = Thank you

 

Your suggestion for using rubber bands on the hair dryer is the tip of the decade!!!

 

Thanks for sharing this amazing trick.

 

LOL!! A few years ago, I found a rubber band on our hair dryer and I soon figured out what it was for. It is a great trick!!

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maxs mom

maxs mom

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Woot woot, another GREAT review from Jane!!!

Thank you for taking me along with you :( wish I was there :) for real!!

Franca

 

 

Sent with my iPhone

 

Oh Franca!! My first time at trying to surprise somebody!! The surprise was on us! So sorry that you and Bill couldn't make the trip.....but we'll do it again for sure. Love you guys!!

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maxs mom

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Monday ~ April 21st ~ At Sea

 

Up around 7:30.....looks like a beautiful day. I went to the Concierge Lounge for some coffee and to write in my journal. There was hardly anyone there. The coffee was great. I ran into George (Scotsman) who came in to get his breakfast.

 

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Made the long walk back to the cabin. On the way I snapped this picture of my favorite part of the ship.....the bridge.

 

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John and I made the loooong walk back to the dining room for breakfast. There was a long line, but it moved quickly. Thankfully, the Independence has a special area in the MDR for D+/P members. It was very nice and quiet over there and it wasn't crowded at all. They told us to come through the back door from now on. There is a hallway of cabins right off this part of the dining room. Who knew!!? Very cool. The waiters were all very attentive. Many seemed to remember us. Breakfast was excellent.

 

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Another loooong walk back to the cabin. We are going to have to plan a little better for this cabin location! We waited for DJ to come and clean the room and then we grabbed our iPads and went down to the Promenade to sit at Vintages to read and do a little people watching.

 

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cw2go

cw2go

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The mud pie imposter is a huge disappointment! I always look forward to Chops just for dessert and with the new menu rolling out, I'm not so sure I will be visiting Chops on the Indy in Feb :(

 

Your reviews are great and I love following along,

Patty

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