This was our third cruise with RCI, and the first on Independence. First impressions were good, the stateroom was lovely and the ship looked great. But oh dear how things have slipped at RCI. While the quality overall of the food was ok, the choice was abysmal and almost wholly "British" - we are Brits ourselves but if we'd wanted this we'd have chosen P & O! I mean seriously one night there were fish fingers on the menu in the main dining room! Other choices like shepherds pie, roast dinners, mixed grill - felt more like we were eating in a Harvester! And we noticed in the Windjammer that whereas before there would be different choices at each food station now they were all the same. The only high point in the food experience was Johnny Rockets - great fun (although of course with RCI if you want anything good you have to pay extra for it).

And I'm afraid there's more. Like many others on board that we spoke to in our age group (mid 50s) we found that sadly there was almost nothing to do during the day. All the activities were very heavily sports and young family related and while we are not ready for SAGA just yet these just weren't for us. I would echo the comments of others on here that it was very much Butlins on Sea, really dumbed down and poor. The entertainment in the evening was good on the face of it, but we had seen the comedy juggler three times before, the hypnotist twice before etc etc - how about some actual variety maybe? And to emphasise the focus on families on the last night in the main theatre the entertainment was a young lad on the stage doing tricks on a BMX bike. Great if you are 15 I suppose.

Unfortunately due to bad weather we had to miss Lisbon from the itinerary, which was understandable for the safety of the ship, passengers and crew. Did we get our port taxes back? No. All we got was another tedious day at sea with nothing extra put on by way of entertainment to make up for it. They knew 5 days before (ie before the ship left Southampton) that Lisbon was dodgy. Could we have gone somewhere else such as Gibraltar, Tangier, or Casablanca? Maybe, but that might have cost RCI money so we took the cheap way out and sailed on. Read more