First let me start off with the only bad thing I have to say about this vacation and it has NOTHING to do with the ship or Royal Caribbean. I saw a great rate on an internet site (I won't mention which one) right around Thanksgiving. It was $479 for a balcony guarantee and $816 for a Junior Suite. My brother wanted a Grand Suite or above, but they weren't on sale and the person I spoke to at the agency I booked with assured me he would be able to upgrade (obviously he knew he had to pay for it) before we left. He said the suites were wide open. Well, needless to say the prices kept going up and up and never went back down until 72 hours before we cruised when Royal Caribbean released Florida Resident rates. The result...sold out cruise. This was my sixth Royal Caribbean cruise, I've been on Disney twice and NCL twice. With NCL, I was called and offered an upsell to an owner's suite before I left on the inaugural cruise of the Star in Hawaii (which we happily took, best $1000 I ever spent) and on both Disney cruises I upgraded at the pier to Cat. 3 one bedroom suites for a VERY nominal fee. I have also upgraded at the pier on every RCI cruise. My Aunt sailed on RCI right before I did and they were begging her to upgrade once she got on the ship. No such luck on our cruise. I spoke to someone while I was booking my next cruise on the Oasis and he said the Indy sails full almost every sailing and has a higher occupancy rate than the Oasis. Lesson learned! I will never again take for granted that I may be able to upgrade. Those days appear to be over, at least on the Freedom and Oasis class ships.

We flew into West Palm Beach on Saturday. There were six of us and the flights to Fort Lauderdale were very expensive due to the Pro Bowl, I assume. As were the hotels. I was able to get three rooms at the brand new Hyatt Place South Fort Lauderdale for about $200 each. Beautiful rooms, nice hotel, but if you stay there be sure to ask for a room that does not face 95. I wrote a full review on Trip Advisor for anyone interested. We were up early and at the pier by 10am. Check in was a breeze. Most organized and speedy check in ever. I sailed the Norwegian Gem the week before the Indy and those NCL folks should take a page from RCI on how to get people on the ship. Very impressed with the entire process.

Once one the ship, we headed directly to the Royal Promenade to take pictures and buy the soda package (which I found to be worth the cost) and then we went to the Windjammer for lunch. Yes, it was incredibly crowded, but I know to expect that on embarkation day. At 1pm the rooms were ready and we went to unpack. The weather wasn't great, but we headed up to deck 11 to check out all the outdoor spaces. We attended the pretty lame sail away party and then back down to the Royal Promenade we went. Read more