Independence of the Seas Review

Good service, good food, RC not upfront about charges and details.

Review for the Eastern Caribbean Cruise on Independence of the Seas
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veilman
First Time Cruiser • Age 50s

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Additional details

Sail Date: Apr 2016
Cabin: Interior Stateroom

We enjoyed our cruise overall. The ship was nice and clean, had many things to do and many food options. Rooms were what I expected based on what I paid for, small and clean. First complaint, their website said we would leave at 6PM from first port of call. What that really meant was the last tender left at 4PM. We didn't realize this and were kind of panicked about losing those two hours from our excursion. We did not book through RC and they made you pay for that in other ways. We had to stand in line for over an hour to get a tender ticket and there was no specific time that even that would leave. We did manage to salvage the tour and the day but it was very rushed. Many others had the same issues as us.

Secondly, the cellular at sea service basically took over my phone. I neglected to turn off mobile data BEFORE getting on the ship and once I did some texts already came through. This caused a $200 phone bill when I got home. When I called RC to see what they could do they told me I should have known better to turn off my phone before boarding and basically I was an idiot. For the 19 megabytes that came through it was $10 a megabyte...AT&T told me that it was the charges the cruise ship was sending through. This is just so shady...I didn't even think there would be cellular service coming through on the ship and I didn't sign up for their WiFi.

Third complaint, the excursion staff was just rude to me when I had questions about our ports of call. If I didn't book something with them they didn't even want to talk to me, give me any information on how to get around at the places (i.e. ferries and cabs). Based on that I probably won't go on any cruise again. Too many hidden fees and not enough communication.

Cabin Review

Interior Stateroom

Cabin K

Clean and small.

Port Reviews

Belize City

Don't book with the cruise ship. Belize Fun Tours did an excellent job! We had a small group, tour guide was great and we got our lunch in time. The cruise ship tour was there too and they didn't get their lunch until nearly 4PM. We actually beat the cruise ship tour back to the port and had better service with Belize Fun Tours

Cozumel

We bought tickets ahead of time and was able to get a great package at a lower cost than through the cruise ship. XCaret was fun and great service. We could come and go as we pleased.

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