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

[harryfat1]

Hopefully not too many will roll their eyes when I say this.... Call up royal directly and ask them just tell them you are planning. I have done it before and they are helpful that way.

 

 

I’m not the type who makes calls. I am the written word type but thanks for the suggestion. If I can’t get my TA to secure me 2 connecting cabins, I might have to give them a call.

[harryfat1]

Thank you very much for your reply to my e-mail. I don’t know where you find the time . You must be a very busy man.

 

You are a terrific source of information.

 

Judy

 

 

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

 

Hi, Judy,

 

Thanks for the kind words. Glad my info was helpful.

 

I’m like Cliff from Cheers. Full of useless info…

[harryfat1]

I think this is the street we were going down when I was smacked in the face with a palm tree. I guess I lifted my head too soon.

 

We stayed at the Holiday Inn right across the street from Bayside Marketplace precruise, but didn't venture too far into the mall. We had a little time, too, before the HOHO bus on debarkation morning (on a bus, off a bus before we even got started!). Didn't know there was a food court upstairs -- we'll save that for another time.

 

Yeah, they should do something about cutting some of these low branches as somebody can get seriously hurt on these with the bus going 30 MPH and if someone’s face/teeth smacked into one of the branches, it’s not going to be pretty.

 

The food court is huge with lots of seats & food options. The only drawback are the bathroom lines. The bathrooms were way too small for the size of the holiday crowd. They brought in few trailer bathroom stalls to help alleviate the lines, but still a long wait, even for the men’s room as typically the men’s room have shorter wait then the ladies’ room in most instances.

[harryfat1]

Just caught up! I don't know about anyone else...but I feel that you just started this report a couple of weeks ago. And I've had fun all the way with you and your family.

 

That fat lady may be singing, but it's such a lovely song. Loved your latest rock pix. And it's nice to get a look around a bit of Miami.

 

31 days until my next land and...gulp 214 to the next cruise.

 

 

Guess time flies when you are having fun but tonight should be the finale. Have few more pictures left to share and then some closing remarks and it’s time to turn out the lights as the party’s over until the next time.

 

Very nice to have a count down for your next cruise. Our next potential cruise is so far out in the future with so much uncertainty it’s hard to put a timer on it other than maybe next summer.

[harryfat1]

Harry - your trip report is wonderful but the BEST part is the joy I see that you have planning and enjoying time with your family.

 

You may be "cheapo" but you are rich in the best possible way:)

 

Hi,

 

Thanks for the compliment.

 

Hopefully these memories will last the kids’ lifetime and they pass on the tradition of family vacations to their kids and so on.

 

Now can I pay my credit card bills with the “rich feeling”?

[harryfat1]

Either they all look exactly alike or this is the same one in SF that my kids took me to. I am not a fan of fast food burgers so I didn't really care one way or another. If it is not grilled by me and topped with garden fresh tomatoes, I am not interested.

 

They do all look alIke! This could be either the one in Waco or the one in Austin that I’ve been to!

 

Yeah, of all the In N Out Burgers, they are pretty much the same cookie cutter style. They are machine like in their approach and consistency.

 

Food is subjective so what one person likes, a different person won’t even sniff it.

 

I have heard of white castle burgers in the middle part of the country is pretty good but we don’t have them in the west coast.

[harryfat1]

Harry,

Thanks for the memories ,it has been swell.

 

You are welcome. Thanks for reading along. Appreciate you and all others that have stuck with me to the bitter end.

[harryfat1]

(OK, Final sprint to the finish line with few more pics)

 

The instruction given to everyone was that for people that want to take the 3 PM shuttle to either FLL or MIA, we need to meet back at the square area by 2:45. There would be one more bus later on that afternoon; I think it’s at 5 PM for all the really late flights. As we have a 6 PM fight, the 3 PM shuttle is the one we need to take.

 

So we showed up around 2:45 and see a whole bunch of people sitting around and not one person from the big bus to give instruction/directions on what will happen. In the meantime, everyone just sit on the cold concrete steps.

This is the “glamour” side of travel that nobody ever talks about. We will never show this picture to friends back home when we go back and show our vacation pictures. We will show the beach/the food/the scenery, but these less exciting pictures will never be shown.

For one, very few picture will even take a picture of it. Two, even if you did take the picture, most likely people don’t care to see it anyway as they don’t care looking at pictures of people sitting on the steps of a mall. Yet this is as much part of your vacation as the blue water beaches. It’s just like making sausages, not too many people care about the process, but only the final product.

 

 

 

 

 

[harryfat1]

So we just sat and waited and around 3 PM, one large greyhound type bus showed up and of course with zero guidance from any workers at the square, we all swarmed to the bus entrance.

 

Only after awhile, was it made cleared that bus was for the FLL airport people, not MIA airport people. Of course, it would have helped if they made that known ahead of time with one worker there to direct things. Guess that’s too much to ask. They suck in organization.

 

So we sat back down and waited another 10 minutes or so for the MIA bus to show up. They have a name roster and they do compare your name with number of luggage they are holding at the bottom of the bus rack to make sure you are good. So after checking in and confirmed they indeed have 4 suitcases, we piled into the bus.

It was a pretty quick ride to MIA as there’s no traffic on a Saturday afternoon the day before NYE. They dropped us off at the weird looking back end of the MIA airport. At first glance, I would say it looked more like a hospital back lot than the airport. But it was the airport all right.

 

First we all had to get our luggage and it’s another chaotic scene as everyone tries to find their suitcases

 

 

[harryfat1]

 

 

Just follow the people

 

Our bus - not the best tour out there but the cruise line doesn't give you a lot of choices nor do they give you a chance to post review/comments on their web site. Too bad as new cruisers have no way of knowing.

 

[harryfat1]

So we walked inside the building and it was the ground floor of baggage claim. So we found a quiet corner to spread out and open our suitcases so we can change to warmer clothes for the plane ride home and the inevitable cold blast when we get off the plane.

 

It’s pretty funny that we are here. No, I am not a Carnival basher. Check my cruise history. I have sailed with them many times so they are ok in my book, just depends on what you are looking for. Nobody working here this late in the afternoon.

 

My hoodie and jeans - ready to be in the cold again

 

[harryfat1]

After we have changed and made our way upstairs to departure and checked into our suitcases with American Airline, time to stand in the long TSA line. As others have said, MIA is much bigger airport than FLL and that also meant more people and longer lines. The TSA line is definitely much longer than the one at SFO or FLL from previous year.

 

The exciting pictures of waiting area at the terminal. So as we sat and waited, it was time for a quick reflection on how quickly the 9 day cruise plus 1 day pre cruise just flew by in the blink of an eye. I have always liked this old Kansas song on fleeting moments of life. But glad we found time (and money) to be on this family vacation.

 

 

 

[harryfat1]

I went and ordered 4 burgers for us to eat on the plane on the way home. Another exciting glamour activity of modern day airline travel.

 

The flight was pretty much on time at 6 PM. I liked the plane as it had a bigger individual TV screen at each seat than the one on Virgin or Jetblue. But it didn’t have live sporting events on Direct TV like those planes do so I couldn’t watch live sporting event, just movies and their large selection of music.

 

For some reason, I always listen to the Boston song when I fly. Don’t know why. Guess it started many years ago and it’s always my flying song as I close my eyes and got ready for the 6.5 hours direct flight back to CA.

 

Didn’t take any pictures while on the plane as I was seated next to some big burly guy that took up all the elbow space on both seats. Why do I always have to sit next to these burly guys on the plane? I had packed my cell phone in the backpack and stored them up in the bins so was too lazy to get it during the flight. So you’ll just have to take my word that the newer AA planes that have the TV screens are nice.

 

Think my wife and the younger one caught some cold bug either from the windy bus ride or on the plane as they slept almost all the way home, other than to eat dinner when they were delivering drinks. As it turned out, my wife had a cold when she came home and later on my younger one and I caught something as well (although I might have caught mine from work, don’t know).

 

Any rate, we made it back to SFO at 9:30 PM local time or 12:30 AM east coast time that our body is still on, so we were pretty tired after a very long day as we were up since 6 AM that day.

 

Not much happening this late at night at the terminal. Good to see Peet’s coffee sign as then we know we are back in SF as they are home grown from SF. If you like your coffee strong, try out Peet’s coffee. At fist glance when it comes out of the coffee pot at the shop, it looks more like 10W-40...

 

OK, here is the final picture of the vacation as we waited to gather our suitcases from the carousel as I always do my trip reports airport to airport. The final pic is the baggage claim at SFO (as the fat lady finishes her singing & takes her bow and the curtain comes down).

 

As always, I will have something to say to wrap things up. I’m not the type that just ends here and walk away...

[JohninDC]

Harry - great report -- thanks! :*

 

For future planning, instead of the cruise line tour you could have piled the family and bags into either a mini-van taxi or UberXL and headed straight to MIA; fare should be about $70 for the cab/Uber. You can pay to store your bags at MIA and then you are free to explore Miami/Miami Beach on your own. The Airport Flyer bus will get you from MIA to South Beach for about $3 each, although you still would have been dealing with the cold weather. :(

 

The other option often suggested on the FLA boards is to head straight to SB and pay to store your bags at the Luggage Lounge; then explore SB, sightsee, collect your bags and catch either the Airport Flyer bus, a taxi or an Uber to the airport.

 

Thanks again for an entertaining and informative trip report. :cool:

[bobmacliberty]

Although you're not done yet Harry, the fat lady's song is over so...

[hoopslover]

Enjoyed every day. Thanks Harry

[Disney Sheep]

Welcome back.

 

Glad the info was helpful & happy to know you folks had a good time on the cruise. Family time is important and cruises ae great for that.

 

Yeah, I like the bigger ships as I like them big and round...

 

I need to sail on the Anthem next year as that's still one class of ship we haven't been on. So you folks liked the Anthem?

 

Yes we liked the Anthem of the Seas, but I think I need to put a disclaimer or a clarification in here - and this is all just my opinion. First off, food is food to us. And we do like good quality food, but realistically our servers and the food on all three classes of ship (Oasis, Anthem and Independence for us specifically) were about equal from our perspective. Note that we didn't go to any of the upcharge restaurants on any of the ships.

 

The Solariums on both the classes of the bigger ships were much nicer and more spacious than on the IOS. And they had great restaurants in the Solarium. By comparison, the Solarium on the IOS felt tiny and crowded most of the time.

 

The entertainment on the Oasis class IMHO is superior to that on the Anthem. The venues are probably equal, but Spectre's Cabaret and The Gift just seemed strange to us. Spectre's Cabaret in particular was all about being edgy, and although the talent was there, the show was a little confusing to us - it almost seemed to be more about displaying the technology on the ship in some ways.

 

Actually, what I found was that the Anthem was all about being edgy or different and that wasn't necessarily bad, but I just wasn't excited about the bionic bar or the bumper cars at sea. The 'heartbeat chandelier' was neat and did amuse us for a few minutes. The 'virtual balcony' in the interior cabins was a huge TV- and it pretty much looked like it - but it was a nice really big tv.

 

We did love the iFly, but it was so popular that we only got to do it once. And, some people had their flights cancelled due to rougher (but not really rough IMHO) seas. The North Star was worth trying once, and was a neat experience, but not that exciting.

 

Don't get me wrong, we enjoyed our cruise, but given a choice in the future I would sail Oasis class over Quantum class.

[harryfat1]

Harry - great report -- thanks! :*

 

For future planning, instead of the cruise line tour you could have piled the family and bags into either a mini-van taxi or UberXL and headed straight to MIA; fare should be about $70 for the cab/Uber. You can pay to store your bags at MIA and then you are free to explore Miami/Miami Beach on your own. The Airport Flyer bus will get you from MIA to South Beach for about $3 each, although you still would have been dealing with the cold weather. :(

 

The other option often suggested on the FLA boards is to head straight to SB and pay to store your bags at the Luggage Lounge; then explore SB, sightsee, collect your bags and catch either the Airport Flyer bus, a taxi or an Uber to the airport.

 

Thanks again for an entertaining and informative trip report. :cool:

 

Hi,

 

Thanks for the info & the compliment.

 

Yeah, next time we won't need to do a HOHO. I had looked into doing a shuttle to MIA and then check our luggage at the airport, similar to what we did for the Freedom, but since it was our first visit to MIA, I figure it's best if someone gave us a big picture overall view first.

 

With Miami building new terminal for the Oasis class ships, I am sure we will be making a return visit to Miami sooner or later.

[harryfat1]

Although you're not done yet Harry, the fat lady's song is over so...

 

Hi, Bob,

 

Thanks for the applause. Appreciate you following along again this year and providing the graph info.

 

The entertainment part is over. I just have few items to cover. It's like the cruise where the entertainers are off the stage and the CD comes out and talks about house keeping issues...

[harryfat1]

Enjoyed every day. Thanks Harry

 

Thanks for the compliment. Appreciate folks like you to take time out of your day and read about another family's cruise vacation.

[harryfat1]

Yes we liked the Anthem of the Seas, but I think I need to put a disclaimer or a clarification in here - and this is all just my opinion. First off, food is food to us. And we do like good quality food, but realistically our servers and the food on all three classes of ship (Oasis, Anthem and Independence for us specifically) were about equal from our perspective. Note that we didn't go to any of the upcharge restaurants on any of the ships.

 

The Solariums on both the classes of the bigger ships were much nicer and more spacious than on the IOS. And they had great restaurants in the Solarium. By comparison, the Solarium on the IOS felt tiny and crowded most of the time.

 

The entertainment on the Oasis class IMHO is superior to that on the Anthem. The venues are probably equal, but Spectre's Cabaret and The Gift just seemed strange to us. Spectre's Cabaret in particular was all about being edgy, and although the talent was there, the show was a little confusing to us - it almost seemed to be more about displaying the technology on the ship in some ways.

 

Actually, what I found was that the Anthem was all about being edgy or different and that wasn't necessarily bad, but I just wasn't excited about the bionic bar or the bumper cars at sea. The 'heartbeat chandelier' was neat and did amuse us for a few minutes. The 'virtual balcony' in the interior cabins was a huge TV- and it pretty much looked like it - but it was a nice really big tv.

 

We did love the iFly, but it was so popular that we only got to do it once. And, some people had their flights cancelled due to rougher (but not really rough IMHO) seas. The North Star was worth trying once, and was a neat experience, but not that exciting.

 

Don't get me wrong, we enjoyed our cruise, but given a choice in the future I would sail Oasis class over Quantum class.

 

Hi, Yvonne,

 

Thanks for your take on the Anthem. Appreciate your perspective. I can see how you would prefer the Oasis class more.

 

We would like to try the Anthem or Ovation just once to see what it's like. And with a new ship, it will excite all of us to take more pictures of the ship.

 

So how bad is the ocean water out of NJ? I have read comments from others that the water is rough between NJ and FL. I get motion sick easily. Won't be a pretty sight if I am tossing cookies for half of the cruise...

[harryfat1]

So overall it was a fun vacation. It wasn’t originally supposed to be this cruise as we were looking at either southern Caribbean on the Adventure or switch over to Celebrity, but with the school vacation timing change, we ended up here on the Indy for the long 9 day holiday cruise. We were lucky to have booked the cruise at a decent price given it was a Christmas sailing, which is typically a much more expensive sailing.

 

It was a different experience for us as we had never sailed during Christmas so it’s nice to do the caroling and see other special events such as holiday ice skating just for the holidays. Difficult to say if it was worth the extra premium price the cruise line charges for the holidays but if your vacation schedule forces you to cruise this week because of kids’ school vacation days, it’s a different cruise experience.

 

Of the five ports we visited, three are brand new to us and one was a revisit from 20 plus years ago (St. Maarten) and that was special also as we were there to see the place as the second RCI ship going back post hurricane damage. It was good to see the island slowly recovering after the devastating hurricanes of 2017.

[harryfat1]

I have always advocated that a cruise is the ultimate buffet of vacations. Just as different people will eat different selection of food at the buffet, no two families will have the same cruise experience even on the same sailing.

I believe we have several people from my sailing that have been following along (Brandon/RMH/Cyclone/Dr. Truth), but most likely they will tell you they had a different cruise experience even though they were on the same ship with us for 9 days.

 

That to me is the best thing about being on a cruise. It’s like those cooking competitions where you are given one ingredient, like chicken breast, and ask all the contestants to make something from it. Chances are everyone will cook something different from it. Same with cruises. There is no right or wrong way to do it. Well, unless you get into a brawl and gets kicked off the ship…

 

I was born overseas and I grew up learning the parable of the 6 blind men and the elephant. Wiki can explain the background better than I can:

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blind_men_and_an_elephant

So in essence all of us are the blind men feeling out just one part of the elephant (the cruise vacation) on every cruise. It always makes me chuckle every time I see a heated debate on CC when someone comes back from a cruise and had a bad experience but someone else from the same cruise will debate that they were on same cruise but had a good cruise. Neither person realizes they can both be right.

 

In school, if you can achieve a 95% rating constantly, you will be a straight “A” student. In travel industry, if you can get 95% satisfactory rating on 4,000 people sailing that would imply 5% (or 200 people) were dissatisfied.

 

Chances are some of those 200 people will find their way to CC or some other forum to vent their dissatisfaction while the majority of 95% people will just go home and be happy with their vacation. So don’t let some of the bad reviews scare you off from booking a cruise you like. Just be skeptical to see what they didn’t like about the cruise and see if they will really impact you.

[harryfat1]

This is my third installment of the Cheapo dad series. Even though the number of posts was below projection, it has taken me the longest time complete as I was pretty much done with the first two by middle of February. Of course, this being a 9 day cruise necessitates a longer trip report than the previous two cruises.

 

Back in 2014 in my research for the Allure cruise, I went back as far as 2012 to read other peoples’ trip reports as I knew the Oasis class ships are special and needs extra preparation. So as I read the various trip reports, I noticed that many reviewers that were single/couples with no kids and their reviews focus mainly on balcony cabins/specialty dining/alcoholic drink/relax in solarium.

 

That’s all fine in what they do but I felt that only represented one facet of cruising but I wanted to get the message out that there is more than one way to enjoy a cruise vacation. I know I am tainted in traveling only during the kids break time but the cruises I have been on, there is a big percentage of kids on board and that implies families are on board since kids can’t sail by themselves.

 

When you have 22% of the ship being kids and they need at least 1 adult with them (sometimes both parents and grandparents are there also), you are looking at more than half of the ship being families. So where are all the moms and dad reviewers?

 

I’m sure there are people who cruise and their final onboard cruise bills are nil or close to it as other than the tips and some minor souvenir purchases, they don’t spend much money on anything else.

 

So by combining these frugal aspects and the family angle, I came up with my altered ego. I hope more money conscience parents will also write about their cruise experiences as you don’t need to spend extra money on the cruise and still have good time on a family vacation.

[harryfat1]

So this part will sound like the Oscar awards show when I thank everybody that has ever heard of my name…

 

I want to thank everyone for following along the past 2 months. Appreciate all the feedback and bantering discussions. It made the process more fun and less laboring.

 

Also thanks to Bob for providing the graphs. That was a big hit.

 

Every trip report is different similar to every party is different. With different participants reading every time and the side topics are different. This time the main topics were to be number of posts and size of the orange juice drinks. I want to thank everyone for commenting and contributing to help steer this trip report in certain direction.

 

Special thanks for some of the people that have read all three of my trip reports. You folks definitely need to go on a cruise (or B2B) after suffering through such torture…