Independence of the Seas Review
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Had an amazing time on the Independence this year. Having been on the Adventure of the Seas last year, we booked as soon as we got home for this year. The Ship is bigger but not obviously so, because a bigger ship means more people, so needless to say although the ship is bigger it didn't feel much roomier. It does however have an additional pizza restaurant which is open 24 hours on the promenade that provides pizzas, paninis, cakes etc. and are not chargeable, along with the promenade cafe that sells cookies, croissants etc. so needless to say you will definitely not starve.
We had the same issues with the sunbeds as last year, as in people getting up early to save them, which happens pretty much everywhere I know, but still, when you are on holiday it is so frustrating feeling you have to set your alarm to guarantee a sunbed around the pool on 'at sea' days. The deck attendants are meant to monitor it and remove any towels from beds that have been unattended for 30 minutes or more, but we only saw this happen a couple of times. The most annoying is when guests reserve sunbeds before going to shore, to ensure they have a bed when they return to the ship. Which obviously makes it unfair when other guests return earlier to find all the beds reserved.
The food was amazing as always, we had a fantastic balcony cabin which after having an interior cabin last year was fantastic and completely made our holiday all the more enjoyable. The staff were great and very friendly. The H2O zone for the little ones was excellent and very busy, the areas around this pool and the main pools always have the sunbeds reserved first, so be aware of this if you have young children.
Cabin Review
We had cabins 8638 and 8640, both were a really good size with both 2 single beds and a queen size bed. The balcony's are a decent size and what is even better is that the partition between the balcony's unlocked (by the steward) which enabled us to walk into each others rooms which was great as my children were in one and we were in the other. There were 2 chairs and a small table on each balcony, the chairs can be used to dry clothes if needed as they have a bar on the back. Storage is plentiful for 2 but would be a bit tight if 4 are sharing (as we were in the interior cabin last year), cases can be stored under the bed. These cabins are locked on the centre bubble of the ship that protrudes further out than the others, I doubt this makes much difference to the view, but it was nice. We were worried we might hear lots of noise being close to the lift and stairs, but we didn't. We were told being on Port side we would get the sun most of the time, this is obviously not really the case because it depends on what direction the ship is travelling and where the sun is during the day, but you always got the sun at some point during the day. I asked around and it seems that regardless of whether you are port or starboard or at the back of the ship, you can't possibly get the sun all day long.