I'm afraid I'm not really much of a writer, but I thought I would impart our experience aboard the Independence of the Seas.
My wife has suffered quite poor health over the last 12 months or so and could not face the thought of travelling to an airport and sitting in a plane seat for 10 hours so we decided to try cruising from Southampton. We were taking our 7 year old daughter so I spent some time deciding on a family friendly cruise ship that went from Southampton and narrowed the choice down to the IotS and the Ventura. Having read MANY reviews I opted for the IotS as it seemed to have received less poor reviews than the Ventura, although both had received a mixed response.
So, we paid our money and waited until the 14th March to start our adventure. Then came the reports of the dreaded Noro virus! 4 days before we were due to depart we recieved notification that our embarkation would be delayed while they gave the ship another 'Deep Clean'. We were concerned but undeterred by these events.
Cabin was nice. Bunk beds. Plenty of storage. Close to the lifts. Never heard any corridor noise. Plenty of light from the window, and an interesting perspective on things being so low down.