First of all, a little about who we are to put this review in proper context: Husband and I are in our early 50s. And cruising is our favorite! On this trip, we brought our son (15) and two of his closest friends. We are from the West Coast, but flew in from New Jersey for this cruise as first toured NYC and West Point (college tour) for a couple of days before flying again to FLL and then relaxing onboard Independence of the Seas to Cozumel and Belize before returning home.

We are Loyal to Royal and choose our cruises based on the following priorities: 1) non-suite cabin with large balcony 2) service, love interacting with the crew 3) dates/itinerary. We are not foodies, we keep ourselves on a tight budget, so we don’t drink onboard, we don’t even buy the soda card and we are not about being exhausted on a cruise vacation. We like a variety of activities available. And usually choose 1 great pricey excursion. We used to cruise Carnival (more budget friendly) until we began to feel that honorable treatment in service is not their top priority. Switching to Royal was the best decision!

Embarkation: this was the first time EVER we got to fly same day as embarkation. We are from the West Coast so we usually must fly all day and sleep in a hotel before catching a cab or Uber (I don’t like buses) to the port. Our flight arrived at FLL at 10am on schedule and we were onboard, after waiting a short time in the cruise building before Noon. And we were in our rooms just before 2pm. Read more