We took our first cruise on Independence of the Seas (June 20-July 4, 2009) and loved it. I thought most of the voyagers would be in bath chairs so was surprised to be lapped on the jogging track by an ancient mariner in running shoes.Embarkation at Southampton was easy. We stayed in the neighbouring Holiday Inn right next to Dock Gate 8 so the ship was right at our door. We drove the 100 yards to the terminal at 10.30am and were on the ship around 11am. We weren't sure what to expect but it lived up to our expectations in all except one way. The public accommodation was stunning, we often stay in four star hotels in the UK but this was better. Our promenade cabin was a little larger than we expected and there was no noise from parades or anything else in the Royal Promenade. The bathroom was small and functional. All the facilities, the lounges, bars, sporting facilities like the Flow Rider were first class and the staff were also attentive and very keen to please.The ship was spotless and cleaning was going on unobtrusively all the time. Where we did have a problem was the temperature of the food and I'm going to take this up with Royal Caribbean. I've seen quite a number of complaints in other reviews that the food was often only tepid and unfortunately this was our experience too. Sometimes, in the restaurant at night it was excellent, when it was hot, but too often it wasn't hot and certainly in the Windjammer it was lukewarm a lot of the time. On one occasion I had a slice of meat carved from a new joint and it was nearly cold. We didn't see anyone testing the temperature of the food with probes either.Bit of a safety risk I think. However, we did enjoy a lot of the food so don't think that it spoiled our holiday because it didn't. We understand that mass catering isn't always easy but we think that if RCI invested in more powerful warming cabinets there would be less waste as people were leaving food because it was cold before they had finished. Occasionally it was hard to find seats in the Windjammer and sometimes we ate breakfast and lunch in the main restaurant for a change. The ice shows were superb, didn't mind queueing for tickets for those, and we enjoyed many of the shows in the theatre too. We were usually too tired to go to the bars but from what we could see they seemed popular. The cruise director Graham Seymour jollied things along pretty well but I wish he would switch the banal muzak off sometimes although my ears tuned it out after a while. We usually rose early and had the ship more or less to ourselves while docking in places like Gibraltar and Livorno. In the early evening you could also stroll around in the warm sunshine as the decks were deserted. It was difficult sometimes to find two sunbeds together but we usually managed it. The pools were cold though but we enjoyed the jacuzzis. The ports were great, we booked too many trips really, it would have been very easy to do them ourselves but as it was our first time cruising  we weren't sure how easy they would be to do. If you go to Florence then book the longest trip you can so that you can really explore. We didn't have anything like enough time in an hour and a half. Also, the Barcelona trip wasn't very good but the one to Obidos from Lisbon was superb, well worth the price, as were the ones in Gibraltar and Malaga. Cannes was our favourite place and the only one where we didn't book a trip so we enjoyed wandering around on our own. Seven trips is really a few too many, I couldn't make the final one to Santiago as I was too tired so we had a long walk around Vigo where we got involved in a workers' demo (not sure what that was about) and watched some men fighting in a turf war over handbags. It sounds rough but Vigo was charming and we loved it. We met some lovely people and had some long chats down at the bow with Arnold and Pat and in the restaurant with Billy and Denise who we are still in touch with. Also had a long talk about the Jersey Militia with Barry so there were people with hugely diverse interests on board. We didn't try the specialist restaurants, not sure why, we just didn't get around to it. Neither did we try the spa as it was very expensive for northern folk. Goodness knows what it would have cost to shampoo the whippet. If you want to buy bargains on board wait until the second week as we bought a lovely Eco Citizen watch for the equivalent of £70 and a $106 handbag for $26. We didn't think drinks were expensive, we'd bought a seven bottle wine package before leaving the UK and the cocktails at $6.95 were OK if rather sickly. We thought the prices were about the same as a four star hotel in the UK and they seem to have dropped the 15% drinks gratuity. There is tea (of a sort) in the cabin but it doesn't go well with the coffee creamer they provide and you need to take a small jar of instant with you as the free coffee is a little tasteless. Take a small box of Yorkshire Tea if you want a decent cuppa and get a carton of milk from the Windjammer each morning to keep in your fridge. There is free iced water and lemon or cherry squash available pretty much all day in the Windjammer so you don't need to buy a soda package. I was told there was 500 children on board but they seemed to be in their own area most of the time or in the H20 zone. No misbehaviour at all that I could see. Most passengers were Brits with a few Canadians and Americans. Afraid some older Brits were a little rude in the lifts pushing their way in while others were trying to get out. A word of warning..... check your Seapass account on your cabin TV screen every day. Two days in to the trip we had bought one item and found it had been double charged. Apparently it was due to a computer error but it was only after I had gone to guest relations and queried it that I was told it was an error. There didn't seem to be any way of deducting a double charge automatically, I was told they had lots of complaints about it. We had My Time Dining which we loved as we could book a table every night for two. There were no drawbacks and you paid the gratuities up front so that on the last night our steward delivered envelopes and vouchers. Apparently all the waiters' vouchers went into a pot and were divided up which was good because our waiters changed half way through the cruise and we were pleased they all had a share of it. Disembarkation was a little chaotic. We had to wait in the Alhambra Theatre until our colour was called and we were about 40 minutes late leaving. The arrivals hall was pandemonium as our five heavy cases (we travel light) were not in one place. However, once we had retrieved them we were on the road home within 15 minutes. Despite the tepid food, we loved the Independence of the Seas, the itinerary was great and we are booking the same trip again next June.