My family of 4 sailed on Independence of The Seas and had a fantastic time. As with anything in life there are good and bad but we had very little to complain about. My wife and I stayed in a JS, while our daughter (age 21) and son (age 25) were in a Promenade cabin.

For all of the discussion about how poor Pier 29 is, it couldn't have been any easier. We arrived at 10:45am and were on board by 11:15am. We were in a JS (cabin 9554) so the priority line made things that much quicker and they let our 2 kids check in with us. The ship was very clean and I really didn't see anything that was worn. Our rooms were ready at 1pm and the luggage arrived around 2pm. We have never stayed in JS before (only balcony's) and were blown away with how nice they are. The amount of storage space is ridiculous. My kids room did have a couple of problems. The window that overlooked the Promenade was cloudy. I don't know if the seal between the panes of glass was open or if the window needed to be cleaned from the outside. Their TV wouldn't allow them to use the inter-active function to check their accounts or use room service...no big deal, they weren't in the cabin that much anyway.

Food - My wife and I only ate in the MDR twice....we did MTD. The food was fine and the service was quick. No problems when we ate their. The two times my son and daughter ate there without us, the headwaiter passed them off to another server. I understand they are young but they deserved to be treated better. The second night they went without us, they left after a hour because they never got their food. We went to Chops and the food and service was great. The rest of the time we ate at the Windjammer and were pleasantly surprised how good it was.In fact the best service we got was from the servers there. I loved the made to order omelets. Read more