We travelled to Ft. Lauderdale the day before the cruise on Jet Blue Airlines which was on time for both legs of the flight. We stayed at the Holiday Inn Express which was fine for one night before. Their shuttle system was a little chaotic so we arranged for independent taxi service. There were four of us travelling. I'm 55 and my partner is 65. His brother and sister-in-law were also with us on this trip. I am a platinum member of Royal Caribbean Crown & Anchor. This was our travelling companions first cruise. We had priority boarding which went very smoothly. We were on board and in the Windjammer by about 12:30 p.m. I have been on numerous cruises on Royal Caribbean, Carnival, Princess and Disney. The Independence of the Seas is a beautiful ship and to date my favorite. February 7th I am scheduled to go with my children and grandchildren on the Carnival Pride out of Baltimore. Next January we are already booked on the Oasis of the Seas and will be travelling with my cousin and her husband.

I bet my significant other that if I could ring the bell on the rock wall - then he would sing karaoke on the ship. Since I am an overweight aging grandma it was highly unlikely that I would win the bet but I did give it the college try and was able to get about half way up before calling it quits. Maybe next year I will try again if I can lose 40 to 50 pounds. We enjoyed the first two sea days just exploring the ship and relaxing on our balconies.

Phillipsburg - I have been to this port several times so we just got off and hired a taxi for our own private island tour - $90 for two of us. Our companions took a ship excursion which they had pre-booked - also an island tour. It was a beautiful warm day and we just relaxed on the balcony after we returned from the ship. We found out that day about the devastation in Haiti and began wondering if it was safe to go there. Ultimately, the captain of the ship made an announcement on the ship's channel on our television. He said the determination had been made that the port in Labadee was safe and that we should continue there as they felt an obligation to the Haitians they employed and benefited there to continue as normal. We picked up supplies in San Juan on Thursday and were the first ship to arrive in Haiti with much needed supplies. Also, Royal Caribbean donated all revenue from any water activities to the relief effort for an undetermined time in the future. I felt much better about continuing our vacation there after his speech which seemed genuinely heart felt and full of concern for people they had a relationship with for the last 25 years. Needless to say I think most of us were thinking about the island and her people for the remainder of the trip. Read more