Just off Independence of the Seas, big decision to make!

[Over Land & Sea]

Finished our France/Spain 7 nighter this weekend and have been left with a real quandry. We are due back on the Indy for a 14 night West Med cruise in August and after last week really don't know if we want to spend 2 weeks on this ship.

I have just completed the RCL survey so am suffering from RSI !!, therefore I'll go into more detail in due course. What I will say is that compared to all our previous cruises we noted a definite drop in standards of service.

[easyboy]

Must be a tough decision to make if past final payment date.

 

 

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[firsttimer57]

We too have just got off and the standards have dropped dramatically. This was our third time on her staring with her maiden season, a further trip about 4 years ago and now this one.

 

I am writing a review, but at the moment I am holding back on it as I want to be objective

 

We did have a really good time and for some special reasons, but it is definitely not the ship it was.

[Over Land & Sea]

Must be a tough decision to make if past final payment date.

 

 

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20 days to go, so plenty of time to mull it over.

[PSCruiser]

Have an upcoming cruise on Indy, so I'd like to hear about the problems you encountered.

[nyroadrunner]

Have an upcoming cruise on Indy, so I'd like to hear about the problems you encountered.

 

 

Yes, please share everyone!

[kruzerci]

Finished our France/Spain 7 nighter this weekend and have been left with a real quandry. We are due back on the Indy for a 14 night West Med cruise in August and after last week really don't know if we want to spend 2 weeks on this ship.

I have just completed the RCL survey so am suffering from RSI !!, therefore I'll go into more detail in due course. What I will say is that compared to all our previous cruises we noted a definite drop in standards of service.

 

If in doubt about whether or not you would enjoy it, cancel it. It is a vacation!

 

Interesting that you said that. We did a 7 night Caribbean cruise on Independence the one summer she replaced Allure in Fort Lauderdale (2015 I believe) and it was our favorite ship after that sailing. We returned a year and a half later (this past December) and it was like a totally different ship. It wasn't nearly as well maintained and just had an 'off' vibe all around from food to service to atmosphere.

[little britain]

Indie out of England, full of Brits, has a very different ambience.... [emoji848][emoji482]

 

 

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[cinnamon]

I have a friend sailing in her later this month so am following this thread with interest.

 

 

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[kctwinmommy]

I'd love to know what the problems were as well. We're on a European cruise on her next month!

[Over Land & Sea]

Indie out of England, full of Brits, has a very different ambience.... [emoji848][emoji482]

 

 

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Prepared for that and it was not the problem.

[Joe12]

Would like to hear more too. Loved my 3 cruises on Indy, albeit all were 5+ years ago.

This is why I think that if you have never sailed a ship or ship class before, you shouldn't automatically book two separate cruises on it.

[beardedladies]

I'm thinking that Royal's service has generally declined over the last few years - I do wonder if this is an Indy thing or a general Royal thing?

[Topo Gigio]

Has excellent service on both Anthem & Allure in the last couple of months.

[Over Land & Sea]

OK now I've got feeling returning to my wrists after completing the survey I'll begin with my review of our cruise.

There was four of us, my partner & two daughters aged 8 &17. My eldest daughter has cerebral palsy and is confined to a wheelchair.

We all enjoy cruising and this was our tenth , we were unable to get an accessible family cabin so booked adjacent interior cabins (9357 & 9359). Several friends had cruised on the Indy a few years back & we had a list of staff to say hello to.

We got to the port at 11.00am and embarkation as usual was easy and we were onboard within 45 minutes and cabins ready by about 1.30. Our muster station was in the Macbeth restaurant so I was able to see where our table was for our 5.30 dinner sitting.

So far so good, I won't do a day by day review but just break it down into categories in bite sized chunks. Any questions I will try to help.

[MrsKC08]

Looking to book a short cruise on Indy with DH and my father. We have sailed Freedom twice and absolutely love this class of ship. I am curious to know what your problems were on this ship. I do take things with a grain of salt because I know that you can't please everyone and european cruises are much different than caribbean cruises.

[kruzerci]

Looking to book a short cruise on Indy with DH and my father. We have sailed Freedom twice and absolutely love this class of ship. I am curious to know what your problems were on this ship. I do take things with a grain of salt because I know that you can't please everyone and european cruises are much different than caribbean cruises.

 

I'm not the OP but I will share how I felt about it last year when doing a short Caribbean cruise.

 

We have sailed on Freedom and Liberty many times and Independence just a couple of times. Remember, a lot of the crew on Freedom have been on the ship for a number years and until a couple of months ago, she had spent her entire 10+ year career doing week-long Caribbean itineraries. Because of that, everything was totally streamlined for the Caribbean cruises and the ship had that natural atmosphere.

 

Independence, as you know, goes back and forth between 14 day sailings out of Southampton and 4/5 nights out of Fort Lauderdale. Naturally, these are completely different clienteles, atmospheres, itineraries, and personality types. To me, that is why the Freedom has a different (friendlier and more natural) feeling. Independence totally changes gears every six months or so. Ship-wise, Independence is fantastic, but in my experiences has not been as well cared for as Freedom and Liberty.

[kctwinmommy]

I'm not the OP but I will share how I felt about it last year when doing a short Caribbean cruise.

 

Independence, as you know, goes back and forth between 14 day sailings out of Southampton and 4/5 nights out of Fort Lauderdale. Naturally, these are completely different clienteles, atmospheres, itineraries, and personality types. To me, that is why the Freedom has a different (friendlier and more natural) feeling. Independence totally changes gears every six months or so. Ship-wise, Independence is fantastic, but in my experiences has not been as well cared for as Freedom and Liberty.

 

I could understand that causing issues, that does make sense. I'd like to hear what the OP had problems with though as we're doing a European cruise. And our cruise is unique, it's the only one they're offering with this itinerary! Which has made it really hard to find reviews on it even. I don't know if they've not done it before, or super rare. It's an 8-night cruise. At least all the ports are found on other cruises, so we can find port info at least.

[Cinders411]

Have an upcoming cruise on Indy, so I'd like to hear about the problems you encountered.

 

Me too! We have a B2B booked this fall.

[Scotland01]

We are sailing on Independence June 17 and am disappointed to read your comments. The most recent reviews on CC have been somewhat critical as well. We have had many RCI cruises and have always avoided sailing from Southampton because it is much easier for us in Scotland to fly to either Rome or Barcelona. In the last year we had 6 RCI cruiseshave noticed a fall in food quality and much cost cutting however without exception service and cleanliness has not been compromised. Am interested in what your disappointments were. Did you complain to the senior staff?

[Over Land & Sea]

Review continues;

 

State of the ship

Having sailed on the sister ship Liberty we knew what to expect and Indy compared favourably at first glance. The public areas were fine and kept clean & tidy, however as the day progressed continued cleaning was often lacking.

Wear & tear was evident throughout most public areas with some make do remedial work carried out. Sitting by the windows on the pool decks I was surprised how much black mould was evident around the glazing, certainly a first on a cruise for me.

A dry dock is scheduled for next year hopefully this will reduce a lot of the negatives but I think also may have created a laissez faire attitude to freshening the public areas in the meantime.

 

Cabins

The basic interior cabin (9357) which I was in was fine, I shared the room with our 8 yr old daughter. Had I been with an adult space and storage may have been a bit tight. There was very little space between the sides ot the bed and either wall. Again wear & tear was noted especially around the shower which had several layers of bonding at low level.

The accesible cabin (9359) was very spacious not a lot smaller than an interior family cabin we had on a Disney cruise, as a result my youngest said she would stay with her mum and sister. I naturally took great offence and consoled myself with the late night pass I had got!

The fridge was not working so a small fridge had been left on the floor, this along with the pointless coffee table drastically reduced the floor space inhibiting my daughter's wheelchair from getting around the cabin. We got these two items removed by our cabin steward and just used the fridge next door.

Whilst I commented on the fabric of the cabins my partner wasn't impressed by the fabrics, feeling the whole look was dated and dull.

Both cabins had a kettle and a few sachets, approx 16 coat hangers, 2 of each US & euro sockets (we bought a 4 gang adaptor for the many phones, tablets etc). Basic shampoo dispenser in shower and soap and good bathroom storage.

 

Though 9359 was classed as accessible neither the cabin or bathroom doors opened automatically and there was a small raised threshold on both doors. This was not a problem for us as we pushed our daughter, but for anyone in a wheelchair travelling solo it may cause a problem as both are quite heavy. The cabin door had a lower peephole and most of the light switches could have been reached.

The toilet had a rail and emergency cord, the shower had a secondary hand spray and a small shower chair although this was very stiff to move.

[Over Land & Sea]

Ports

Our itinerary was Le Havre, Cherbourg, sea day, Bilbao, Gijon & sea day. Having gone through the excursions on offer before setting sail we did not find anything that took our fancy, so decided that we would wait and see whether we got off on either of the Spanish stops. We felt that we didn't want to see either of the French ports and would rather get used to the ship. Ultimately we stayed on board for the whole duration of the cruise.

 

Bars

As the cruise was from the UK the majority of passengers were on an all inclusive package as a result a lot of people looking to get there money's worth. Having sailed on the Anthem last year on a similar deal I knew what to expect. However there appeared to be a reduced number of bar staff in many of the bars often leading to extended waits for drink.

We didn't go to the late night venues such as Labyrinth or Olive'n'Twist but had at least a few drinks in most of the others.

Sky Bar & Windjammer Bar were the slowest & most inefficient service we encountered, at both bars staff just asked who's next & you had to hope for the good grace of the other drinkers. A couple of visits & these two were off my list very quickly.

Pyramid Lounge was mainly an afternoon visit and staff were pretty good, Schooner was often long waits especially evenings & quizzes one extra staff needed.

Pool bar was usually a wait, this was run by 3 West Indians who to say the least were laid back, they also were prone to talking patois to each other in front of customers often followed by much laughter. Apart from being rude quite a few people left the bar annoyed, also they would always make an excuse for not blending the alcohol in the Daiquiris and just pouring the mix onto the rum. The only time my partner got a Daiquiri how she likes it was when one of the other staff were on duty, I guess they didn't want to wash the blender jugs as there was always some in the bottom each time they started a new drink.

At about 2.00pm each day a pop up bar was opened adjacent to the lifeguard station usually run by Joy. This was my go to bar on the pool deck, it was usually run by Joy, a cheerful chatty guy who was one of the few bar staff I encountered who seemed to genuinely enjoy his job. As I would usually sit near the bar he would often call out to see if I needed a refill also he made our drinks exactly as we wanted them.

The promenade venues were usually rammed and as a consequence there was often a bit of a wait. The Dog & Badger had Guiness on tap but the staff couldn't pour a decent pint, the beer would invariably end up with a head bigger than Donald Trump's.

We probably spent most of our evenings in the champagne bar, the staff were very good and in Lorenzo had the best barman we encountered. The drinks were mixed well and he knew all the regulars by name and had a very dry sense of humour.

 

All in all a real mixed bag of bars and I found myself gravitating to just a couple rather than being happy to drink wherever I was on the ship at any given time as I had on previous cruises.