For the next four days, guest contributor John Hoiden is cruising on Royal Caribbean’s Independence of the Seas on an Eastern Caribbean cruise from Miami with one port-of-call, Grand Turk. John is a frequent Royal Caribbean cruiser and recently shared his experience on his first Carnival Cruise Line cruise with us, so I’m happy to have him back for another round of reporting.
As you’ll see in today’s report, this is not John’s first trip on Independence, in fact it’s this third. I also happened to sail on this cruise ship on a Western Caribbean itinerary when it was sailing out of Fort Lauderdale, back in 2015. You can check out that Independence of the Seas review and compare my notes with John’s to see what has changed over the course of nearly a decade!
So with that, I turn things over to John!
Hello there Royal Caribbean die-hards! I’m on Independence of the Seas, the line’s third Freedom-class ship launched in 2007 (maiden voyage in May 2008) and refurbished in 2018. This ship is among the favorites for us “Loyal to Royal” folks as they say and it’s definitely one of mine. So much so, that this is actually my third cruise on this ship, and this time it’s a casino comp! Let’s jump into it.
Our originally planned 4-night Independence of the Seas cruise included a stop at Royal Caribbean’s private island in Labadee. But due to some issues in Haiti (“the craziness going on in Haiti”), we were rerouted to Carnival Cruise Line’s port in Grand Turk. Luckily, Carnival allows Royal Caribbean to use their port on days without Carnival ships, helping Royal reroute from Labadee.
What a day! I woke up at 3:45am to get ready and head to Miami from Tampa. I have never gone out of Miami before, so this is a first for me. Traffic was light until I hit Miami. This drive made me think, “I’m OK if I never come here again”
Anyway, I arrived at the port around 10:40 am, even though my boarding time wasn’t until 11:30 am. Security was incredibly quick – one of the most efficient experiences I’ve ever had on a cruise. We were then directed to the waiting area, and by 11:00 am, they announced, “Boarding time! We don’t care what time you have, let’s go!”
Onboard by 11:00 am, I headed straight to my muster station to get scanned in. I love how Royal Caribbean handles musters. You watch the safety videos on the Royal Caribbean app beforehand, then simply get scanned at your muster station upon boarding.
Straight to Deck 4 for Playmakers, the ship’s sports bar, for my first drink – a Black and Gold, a classic Royal Caribbean choice. Delicious and the perfect way to kick off the cruise! I love Playmakers’ location on this ship; it’s right off the casino and offers plenty of space.
I need to take time and just say it’s so good to be back “home.” I always feel so welcomed and at home on a Royal Caribbean ship. There is definitely a different vibe than when I was on the Carnival Paradise cruise I took in February. But this isn’t the time to be critical of Carnival, so I will just leave it at that until I sail with them again.
This time, I’m cruising with a mixed group: someone totally new to cruising and another who’s never been on Royal Caribbean. After grabbing our first drinks, we headed off to tour the ship, eventually ending up at the Windjammer (the ship’s buffet) for lunch. The food was meh. I got some pasta and a hamburger. I didn’t finish the pasta, it just wasn’t good, and the sauce was very watery and lacked flavor.
Cruising with a larger group this time, I met up with my friends at Playmakers after they boarded. While they grabbed some food, I found someone to shoot a game of pool with.
The room announcement was my cue to wrap up my pool game. With that, I headed off to get my SeaPass card and check out my new stateroom. For this cruise, like I mentioned earlier, I am in a casino comp room and was assigned stateroom 7277 which is a Promenade View Stateroom with windows that overlook the heart of the ship, the Royal Promenade.
The layout of the room is really nice. I was actually surprised by the spaciousness. Stepping inside, you’re greeted by a large closet with a safe on your right and the bathroom on the left. It’s your typical Royal Caribbean bathroom with the tube-like shower where you feel like you are going to get beamed by Snotty. The queen bed looks comfy, and the two small sofas by the window offer a fantastic view of the Promenade, especially the Ale and Anchor Pub.
After checking out the room, I wandered the Promenade to see what deals they had on bourbon. Jackpot! I snagged a Jack Daniel’s Traveler’s Edition Single Barrel for just around $53 thanks to a 10% discount. This bottle usually runs $60-$70, so I was happy with the find!
On my way to catch the sail-away, I bumped into some friends. We decided to head up to Deck 13, the mini-golf course. It was a great chance to catch up – some of these folks I hadn’t seen in ages! We used to work together at Cedar Point, and a few of us even crossed paths again at SeaWorld. Sorry for the lack of photos this time, but I got caught up in the moment of catching up with friends.
Off to dinner! We had My Time dining, where you can go to the main dining room at any time you want to during dinner hours. We arrived at 7:30pm and we ordered right away as we were starving! I ordered tomato soup and spinach artichoke dip as my appetizers (Sorry, no photos! I was so hungry, I just devoured them). Delicious as always! These are two of my go-to appetizers.
For the main course, I took a chance on the prime rib, which can be inconsistent in the main dining room. But tonight, it was a total win! Perfect cut, melt-in-your-mouth tender, and not too fatty. Absolutely a 10/10.
For dessert, I went with the Royal Cheesecake, another guaranteed crowd-pleaser (another 10/10!), but the coffee…well, I think was left over from breakfast.
After dinner, we headed to the Ice Skating show, Freeze Frame. This is one of my favorite shows on the ship, as opposed to the production of Grease in the ship’s main theater. I will not be attending that one as I almost fell asleep and left halfway through last time I was on this ship. But I will always catch Freeze Frame.
Before dinner, I tried my luck in the Casino. Unfortunately, luck wasn’t on my side tonight, and the place was packed! With the crowds, I didn’t stick around long, but I figured I’d give it another shot on the less-busy sea day tomorrow. However, I somehow ended up in the middle of the 80s party on the Royal Promenade. I never really watched this before but it was fun and entertaining.
I met up with some other friends in the Pub for a quick beer and then down to Schooner bar to finish the night off with a Toasted Marshmallow Old Fashioned. What a surprise! A group of friends were in there watching the live entertainment – a guy playing piano and taking requests. I am so glad I stopped by as someone in my group requested Colt 45 by Afroman and to my surprise, he gave a warning about language and sang it! He was giggling at the bad parts, but he made it through the song. Then he got requests for Thong Song, Baby Got Back and Alice.
He played them all!
It was now around 1am and I have been up since 3:30am. So I grabbed a few slices of pizza and headed to my room to start writing this review.
I didn’t get far.
Fell asleep around 2am.
Some quick observations about Independence of the Seas so far, even tho it’s just day 1:
- The ship is very easy to find your way around and it’s very easy to find a restroom. There’s signage everywhere to let you know what floor you are on. These are things I had issues with on Carnival Paradise.
- All bars, restaurants, food stations etc. seem to be fully staffed!
- The staff on this ship are very engaging. So many of them remembered my name and room number, which to me is just so impressive – especially after just a short interaction.
- Top notch service so far, hopefully it keeps up!