The good, the great, and the bad..... Our family of 6 and a first cruise. This was an inaugural Christmas cruise for the Independence of the Seas. Never cruised before, we were very impressed from breakfast and lunch in the buffet area (Windjammer cafe) to dinner in the elegant dining room that is divided up in three floors. With over 3,000 passengers on this ship, we did not feel crunched by crowds, although we never waited for elevators, as they were always filled or we were waiting too long. We used the stairs to go from floor to floor. Fitness room was wonderful for working out. There was always equipment available. The ship is elegant, classy, and fun. Much to do, if you want. The drawbacks we felt was whenever the captain would give announcements and if you were outside on the deck, the acoustics were poor and we could not hear them. Inside you could. Even though it is stated that you can not save chairs, passengers did early in the morning. The so called "good spots" were taken early on, even though you never saw a passenger sitting in that chair during the day. We cruised to Costa Maya, Cozumel, and Georgetown, G.C. and we enjoyed those short stops. Cozumel probably impressed us the most. Two formal nights were offered and the dinners, we felt, were outstanding. Our waiters were attentive to our needs. We signed up for excursions on the ship, rather than ahead of time, which was a mistake because the lines to do this were always long and the staff signing you up were not there to discuss the programs with you, only sign you up as the lines needed to move. They suggested we read about it in their brochures, then come back to sign up. The guest relations desk always seemed as well to be long, so time would be taken waiting alot in these lines. There is a HUGE mall on the ship which is fun to walk around. Our rooms were on the 8th deck and seemed fairly roomy for us. Can't compare with other lines, but our children didn't seem to mind if they were large or small.

Because we enjoyed our trip soo much, we have already planned on coming back again next December to cruise to new locations and would stay with RCCL because we weren't disappointed at all with our experience. We booked directly with the cruise line and all the advice they suggested was followed thru and we would book direct again. They answered all our questions and gave us a good location on the ship as well. The honored price decreases as they occurred and saved us money as well. Don't know if a travel agent would give us this service of refunds if the price dropped. Would they be checking it as much as we did??