Topic: Independence of the Seas - Med cruise August 2010

My first post. This is the 3rd year running that I have taken my family on this ship, it does tick so many boxes for a great family holiday but I find with cruising it really is hit or miss. This time it missed, a change of cruise director means a change of acts for the shows and they were definately not up to the royal caribbeans usual standard, far too many poor music acts (should have know when the cruise review each day failed to mention what type of act is was). The only fun act that had me laughing was a comedic welsh juggler.

The food standards on board have also slipped, We had the main restaurant booked for 6pm daily and only attended once as the meal was sub-standard so we ate in the Windjammer, even here Royal Caribbean are dumbing down the food to suit the more basic boring English palette of pie or fish and chips

On a plus side: My sons aged 9 and 14 had a ball, made some great friends and spent most of their days swimming or on the flowrider and adventure ocean :D.

I always find the cruise to be good value for money and the Grand Suite we had for the 4 of us although a little tight on wardrobe space (probably due to my overpacking) had a great advantage of a private sunbathing area on top deck (a god send on sea days) and a concierge lounge with complimentary pre dinner canape and alcoholic drinks. Will I go again, yes - my sons will make sure of that - I'll try the Oasis of the Seas next year though. Happy cruising ;)

I think you will like Oasis even more! I cruised on her in April:

http://wp.me/PfRKD-Bg

Oh no..... please don't say that. This will be our very first cruise and we are really looking forward to it haveing spoken to people who have been on it last year and recommended we give it a go..... it would be just our luck if things have started to slip....

Please dont feel too depressed. As I said this is our 3rd year running on the ship so we are probably more aware of changes even the minutest. Plus we went in the last 2 weeks of the kids holidays and had more than 4,300 people on board so Im sure that comes into it somewhere down the line and probably explains why we had knobbly knees contests and belly flop contests in the pool on sea days! We all had a great time anyway as cruising is what you make it, theres something on this ship for everyone. ENJOY.

She looks amazing and I quite fancy the 7 nights cruising the caribbean.

QUOTE:

Oh no..... please don't say that. This will be our very first cruise and we are really looking forward to it haveing spoken to people who have been on it last year and recommended we give it a go..... it would be just our luck if things have started to slip....

Don't worry! I had my second cruise on IoTS in June and had a great time. I found the food better than the year before because it was hot instead of tepid, think I only had one tepid meal in the two weeks.

I guess I am a typical British cruise passenger, I don't mind the odd curry but prefer traditional nosh with a few pizzas thrown in. The food suited me pretty well. I could always find something to eat and my husband who likes Indian and oriental food enjoyed the choices.

The set piece entertainment with the resident musicians and dancers was excellent and I was happy to sit through it again a second year running. Similarly the ice shows were fantastic.

I do agree with T Rolfe that the bought in acts were less good but I'm not sure how much that is to do with the new cruise director or whether these are auditioned in the UK by RCI HQ. As far as I know that is probably the case as they jump ship and join other ships after a couple of days.

I don't really go for organised fun, although I like to see people enjoying themselves, but I quite liked Mr Eaton and his patter.

I would go a third time next year (yes, I know it isn't very adventurous) but we have promised our little godson that if we can get the right deal we will join him on Ventura instead.
Liz
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