One cold and dreary November day in central Maryland, I had a brainstorm: why not escape? My family was in serious need of some vacation time, and with several big birthdays to celebrate this year, a Caribbean cruise seemed like just the ticket. I had taken a three night cruise on Royal's Majesty of the Seas a few years ago and ever since then my two daughters had been pining for a chance to experience the cruising life for themselves. (To tell the truth, my 3-nighter aboard Majesty of the Seas back in 2009 with several girlfriends had been OK but not great, but I was determined to have a better experience this time around, and I was not disappointed!) After an afternoon of googling, I came up with the perfect plan: Six nights aboard the Independence of the Seas, departing Ft. Lauderdale on my 50th birthday. We had to pull the girls (ages 13 and 9) out of school for a week but decided the family-time was worth it. DH is a bit of a land-lubber, so I was pleasantly surprised when he jumped at the idea. I got on the phone with Royal Caribbean that very day and booked two cabins -- a balcony for DH and me with an inside cabin right across the hall for the girls. We received the BOGOHO "special" with $300 on board credit at what I considered a fair price, so the plan was hatched. Our itinerary was to include Grand Cayman, Falmouth, and CocoCay. (Actually, I initially thought I was booking a cruise that would include a stop in Labadee, but do to the trickeries of the RCI website, the cruise was actually bound for CocoCay. I had visited CocoCay on my last cruise and really enjoyed it, so I had no gripe about returning, but I do think RCI should do a better job of making sure the planned itinerary for each cruise is as billed on the its site. I even called Customer Service to note the problem and was told, very politely, that Royal Caribbean makes no guarantees about any of its port stops and any confusion on my part is not their problem. Nice. But enough of that.)

We embarked from Port Everglades. DH dropped the girls and me at the terminal with our six very over-stuffed suitcases (yes, despite all the cautions we seriously overpacked) while he returned the rental car to the airport. We had to wait for about an hour for him to get back to us on the National Rental car shuttle -- a very long hour, as we were beyond excited to be boarding. Finally, he returned, and we were all set to go. Check-in was pretty easy, although Terminal 29 at Port Everglades is not exactly a showplace of modernity. We took advantage of my Gold Crown & Anchor status and got through passport control quickly, then off we went. First stop, a giddy picture of the four of us snapped by the RCI photographer in front of the Independence poster, then on to the ship. Hooray!

Upon boarding, we stopped at the Adventure Oceans table, where my 9 year-old was given a wristband to wear while on board. It indicated her muster station in case of emergency. (Note: we noticed that after 3 days in the sun the wristband was completely faded, rendering the info on it useless.) My 13 year-old was told she didn't need a wristband, as she was over the age of 12. This was a great for her: when spotting other tweens / young-teens on the ship, she could immediately tell who was 12 or over. She liked that! Read more