I sailed on the Independence of the Seas a few weeks ago, on a short 3 day-er wanting to reacquaint myself with line after many years. My previous sailing were on Vision class ships so this Freedom class was a pretty big step up.
Overall, I enjoyed the cruise. As other reviewers have mentioned, we did not get to Nassau (not RCI's fault). I did not disembark in Freeport as I had little interest in that port. I actually had a meeting scheduled for Nassau but luckily was given enough notice that I could cancel via email.
While embarkation was delayed, they did start boarding us prior to the 1pm anticipated time.