Independence of the Seas Review

4.5 / 5.0
1,703 reviews

Independence of the Sea May 08

Review for the Western Mediterranean Cruise on Independence of the Seas
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A8NNC
First Time Cruiser • Age 50s

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Sail Date: May 2008
Traveled with children

My husband daughter (16years) and myself went on the 10 days RCC trip out of Southampton on the cruise to Madeira/Canaries/Spain then back to Southampton. The ship is huge (having already been on 2 other RCC ships) I found this ship exactly the same as the Voyager of the Seas but on a larger scale. The service was good the food was good. However our waiter was not as attentive as the previous ships we have been on, we had to keep waiting for him and waiting for our wine/drinks and it wasn't as if he had lots to do as some of the tables were empty, he was particularly upset when one night none of us turned up, he seemed to sulk the next evening! The Windjammer was always packed, and quite often in the morning you had to walk round quite a few times to get a table, or if there was a waiter nearby he directed you to a table with people on it, to share, not a problem to us but could be to some people. Our daughter went to the teenager club, she loved it, met loads of kids the same sort of age, they all tend to stick together all week doing their own thing. We went to the ice shows (there were 2) they were fantastic,superb, but the shows in the theatre were ok... the RCC dancers and singers are so cheesy....don't sit near the front as it really spoils the illusion. I felt all of their shows were the same, just different songs but same tunes. Some of the acts were really good, but not all. If you get to the theatre too late then you have to sit upstairs and you cannot see anything in fact we were late once and in the end we left the theatre as the seats upstairs are awful and if you are sitting in front of the poles then forget it. The ports that we stopped at were not really very good, Madeira/Funchal was ok and the weather was quite nice, but when we stopped on the Sunday at Las Palmas (i think not sure) all of the shops were closed, why on earth did we bother to stop there was some kind of market on, but it was full of rubbish think car boot sale/jumble shop not somewhere you really want to go. The port of Vigo in Spain is a town, and yet again more shops to be honest the ports were not that well thought out, but we all said we knew why they were chosen, so that they could take this huge ship. It was great travelling from Southampton (but even the service of unloading your bags from your car to the get them on the ship was a nightmare as machine had broken....) but you are able to get on the ship from 11am (even if they do tell you 2pm onwards)and you need to get there early as all of the parking spaces were filled up really quickly. If you live locally go in a cab and you are dropped off at the front and just drop your bags in, so much easier. I don't think we would go on a ship this big again (lots of movement when we left Southampton - well I thought so... and was boring being on a ship for over 2 days in the awful weather as you could not go outside due to the wind, no way could you sunbathe far too cold even in May)but I do like RCC and would def book another one of their cruises...

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