Independence of the Seas Review

4.5 / 5.0
1,703 reviews

My first ever cruise, good but not great!

Review for Canary Islands Cruise on Independence of the Seas
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EmmyJ
First Time Cruiser • Age 40s

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Sail Date: Apr 2011
Cabin: Junior Suite
Traveled with children

Well we returned last week and I have mixed feelings, somethings were fantastic, some were great and some were poor. We chose Royal Caribbean as we thought it was 'family friendly' but actually the main activity for the kids was the kids program that revolved around the parents leaving them for many hours in the club, ok this suits some parents but not us. For example my daughter wanted to see the film toy story 3 which was showing one night, I was happy to go and sit with her but I wasn't aloud?! She didn't enjoy the kids club, not sure why so we didn't use it after the 2nd day, it appeared well run but with no child to staff ratio I didn't feel 100% about leaving her. Many of the indoor activities on board were aimed at the 60+ age group and trust me there were many of them!! Far too many bars as well, what about a soft play area for the kids?!

Our cabin and the room attendant were fantastic, the weather was poor apart from a couple of sunny days. We visited Vigo, Lisbon, Tenerife, Gran Canaria, Madeira and Ferrol, Ferrol was the worst, there was nothing there and the whole town looked quite run down. We didn't get a lot of time in any of the ports of call and I felt like I was constantly looking at my watch, not very relaxing! Food in the buffet was excellent, good choice and staff very friendly. I think the food in the main dining room was poor, the curry evening was by far the best, the rest was average, our waitress was different each evening as we had my time dining. The royal promenade was good, although the shops stocked over-priced rubbish, especially the photo frames and 'gold by the inch', I don't know why so many people thought it was decent stuff!! The spa was good but the treatment was followed by a hard sell to buy products and to book a further treatment!

Well on board I heard a staff member saying that Disney was their main competition for family holidays. We have been to Disney and as soon as I returned home I wanted to book another one, sorry Royal Caribbean but we won't be booking with you again, Disney in Florida is where we are going next year!

Cabin Review

Junior Suite

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