Independence of the Seas Cruise 2011- Page 1: Southampton - Simplon Postcards

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	Independence of the Seas Cruise Royal Caribbean International (RCI) Page 1: Southampton - Friday 25th March 2011 Sea Day - Saturday 26th March 2011 Ship Name: Independence of the Seas - Ship Type: Passenger - Year Built: 2008 - Length x Breadth: 339m x 38m Dead Weight: 10600 t - Flag: Bahamas - Call Sign: C6WW4 - IMO: 9349681 - MMSI: 309374000 This page is under construction
	This page is one of a series showing mainly shipping and other transport images from an 11 night cruise on Independence of the Seas in March 2011 to Vigo, Lisbon and the Atlantic Isles. We travelled in balcony cabin 7548, Deck 7 on the port side, adjacent to the forward end of the Royal Promenade. This page covers embarkation and departure from Southampton. My first impression of the Independence of the Seas was that she impressed with her sheer size and facilities, but that none of the interior spaces were particularly stylish or interesting. Decoration and furniture in most rooms was pretty dull, with the Pyramid Lounge and Labyrinth Disco just being weird. The exception was the artwork throughout the ship which I found fascinating. All works followed the theme of re-interpreting earlier masterpieces, with extremely varied and interesting results. This is the only area of the design which I thought rivalled the style of sister company Celebrity's Solstice Class. The Royal Promenade which runs along the centre of the ship with cabins looking into it is innovative for a cruise ship (although used by Silja Line on ferries in the 1990s) but gets extremely busy at times. The use of the deck below, walking through the little-used (in Europe) casino is a much faster way to get from one end of the ship to the other. Nearly all the cabins facing into to the Royal Promenade kept their cabin curtains permanently drawn, since passengers soon learnt they were extremely exposed at all times of the day. The ship has probably the best open promenade deck of any ship I have been on, albeit not wooden. This deck, combined with a total lack of high glass screens around upper decks, makes this ship one of the best for photographing other vessels. Her great height allows almost aerial shots of most vessels. The enormous three-floor restaurant actually feels quite cosy when seated. The lower two floors each have two sittings each evening whilst the top floor is used for My Time dining which worked very well for us. We could decide each day when to eat and book it before 4pm and sat in the same area overlooking the sea at a twin table each night. Food is more than adequate but not very adventurous. Puddings are typically US over-sweet concoctions and the 'International Cheese Plate' consists of the same four tasteless industrial grade cheeses each night. Americans just do not understand cheese. My birthday fell during the cruise and we celebrated in the Chops Grill, which costs $25pp. The food is mainly steaks, very simply but beautifully prepared and it was probably the best filet mignon I have ever eaten. However, the limitations of the menu meant that we did not return. Other eating options were rather dull and we did not bother with the Italian restaurant which offered the usual mainstays for $20pp extra. Whilst we made little use of them, the three pool areas looked superb, particularly the area for younger children. This is very much a warm weather ship and none of the three pool areas had a roof, fixed or movable. This meant that when the weather was poor the Royal Promenade became extremely busy. The Captain said that the first of the new 'Sunshine Class' ships would replace the Independence of the Seas at Southampton, allowing the Indy to be moved to the Mediterranean. Maybe the new design will be more suited to the uncertainties of Northern European weather. Service throughout the ship was excellent, with a multinational crew that was always cheerful, friendly and helpful. All aspects of the running of ship were extremely efficient and impressive. Technically the ship is very impressive too. The power of the Azipods and thrusters is amazing and this enormous ship moves away from the berth or spins on her axis faster than any other ship I have seen. There is no vibration whatsoever when moving forwards or moving sideways. Aft, she has two Azipods and one Fixipod (a term I had not heard before), with four thrusters at the bow. We did not meet any rough seas to test her sea keeping and in fact movement was so minimal for the first 24 hours it was hard to tell that one was on a ship at all. The cabin was absolutely silent apart from a minimal hum from the air conditioning. Would I rush to travel on this class of ship again? Probably not. I thoroughly enjoyed the cruise, and appreciated many aspects of the design, particularly the generous promenade deck, a neglected feature on many recent designs. However, I felt no affection for the ship, as I did almost immediately for the Celebrity Eclipse in September 2010 and in Spring 2012 we have booked on Eclipse again.

Our only previous Royal Caribbean cruise had been on Splendour of the Seas in 2002. On Independence of the Seas we travelled in balcony cabin 7548, Deck 7 on the port side, adjacent to the forward end of the Royal Promenade.

On departure day, embarkation was delayed due to an intensive clean following 'a very small number of people with sickness & diarrhoea' on the previous cruise. Queues formed out of the terminal building and into the car park and it took about an hour to get to the ship, and that with priority boarding. Cabin 7548 was not particularly spacious for the best grade below a suite, but certainly adequate for two people. Power outlets are just US and European, odd for a ship that has been based in the UK for some time, but we had been pre-warned. Wardrobe space was quite good, but drawers are limited, as is storage space in the bathroom which had a shower only. There was a general lack of information in the cabin, no deck plans and no TV guide for example. It took some time to find that channel 20, out of a total of 50, showed a list of what was available. Why not use Channel 1?

The first impression of the Independence is its sheer size. To set out and check out the whole ship in one go as usual was not really an option. It was like visiting a new city, where you make separate forays to check out different areas. The ship has a very impressive promenade deck which circumnavigates the whole ship, with some steps to reach the forward end, which extends to the tip of the bow where one can sand on the helicopter landing pad and look back up to the bridge (from where the captain gave us a friendly wave when we ventured out there on the first morning). The open promenade is extremely wide, with plenty of deck chairs, unlike Splendour of the Seas where the open promenade decks had no connections either fore or aft and no seating of any kind. Unfortunately the promenade deck is covered in a non-slip surface, not wood or pseudo-wood, apart from short sections on each side which extend some way out of the ship around the panoramic windows of the restaurant.

We had pre-booked a wine package which offered savings of 'around 25%'. The cost of our chosen package worked out at $38 per bottle (prices overall are quite expensive by UK standards), but it was very difficult to find any detailed descriptions of the offered wines or their normal prices. They would not allow us to borrow a full wine list from a restaurant and there was not the usual station outside the restaurant pre-selling wines, as there has been on almost every other ship I have ever sailed on. A lengthy exercise comparing prices from various other sources showed that many of the offered wines would only cost $33 or $31 if bought from the waiters (the restaurants do not have specialized wine staff) so it would be easy to lose money on this 'money saving' package. Once we had deduced all the prices, we found that half the wines were above the $38 average cost, and half were lower, so picking wines randomly would not make any saving at all. RCI seem to go out of their way to stop you checking the value of the wine packages. We had chosen 'My Time' dining where one can choose when to eat in the King Lear, the highest Deck 5 level of the three deck restaurant (Macbeth is on deck 4 and Romeo & Juliet on deck 3). service on the first night was extremely efficient and the food was better than expected.

None of the bars provided price lists on the tables, although waiters would show you one if asked. This is a recent development following the previous week's norovirus scare. Presumably if it continues they will display some prices on the walls somewhere.

Breakfast in the Macbeth Restaurant the following morning (a sea day) was less efficient and we spent the time waiting for service checking the ingredients of the wide selection of jams and marmalades trying to find one that had any actual fruit in it. We failed. Independence is very much a warm weather ship, with three extensive outdoor pool areas. At least one of these really needs to be an enclosed area for use in northern waters. On the first sea day very few people were out on the open decks, so all available seating within the bars and cafes rapidly filled. The Royal Promenade, the internal 'street' within the ship based on the design of the 1990s Silja Line ferries Silja Serenade and Silja Symphony, was virtually a log jam of humanity for much of the day, not helped by lengthy queues for cheap tobacco and alcohol. the only place for lunch with any seats was Johnny Rockets diner on deck 12, which has both indoor and outdoor seating. This is based on a traditional (Hollywood-style) diner serving burgers etc for a $4.95 charge. The waiters here occasionally do a stupid dance to deafening music. The multinational but largely European waiters are not ideally suited to this - only Americans can make a complete fool of themselves like this without looking totally embarrassed. The food was good within the limitations of the genre. I think it was at this point that I decided never to take the short Carnival cruise that I once thought I might do for a laugh.

	Sections on this Page Independence of the Seas Images Independence of the Seas - Cabin 7548 Ventura - P&O Cruises Other Shipping Ships on this Page:- Independence of the Seas Cruise Itinerary:- Fri 25th March 2011 - Southampton Sat 26th March 2011 - At Sea Sun 27th March 2011 - Vigo, Spain Mon 28th March 2011 - Lisbon, Portugal Tue 29th March 2011 - At Sea Wed 30th March 2011 - Tenerife, Canary Islands Thu 31st March 2011 - Las Palmas, Gran Canaria Fri 1st April 2011 - Funchal, Madeira Sat 2nd April 2011 - At Sea Sun 3rd April 2011 - La Coruña, Spain Mon 4th April 2011 - At Sea Tue 5th April 2011 - Southampton Contacts Royal Caribbean UK Home Page - www.royalcaribbean.co.uk/ Celebrity Cruises UK Home Page - www.celebritycruises.co.uk	Associated Pages Cruise Ships Ocean Liners UK Excursion Vessels World Ferry Fleets Simplon Postcards. Home Page Simplon Postcards - Recent Updates - Simplon Postcards facebook page Royal Caribbean Pages:- Royal Caribbean Cruises Page 1 Royal Caribbean Cruises Page 2 Celebrity Cruises Pages:- Celebrity Cruises - Header Page Celebrity Constellation Celebrity Constellation 2007 Cruise Celebrity Eclipse Celebrity Eclipse 2010 Cruise Celebrity Equinox Celebrity Infinity Celebrity Solstice References Click on images for more details - www.overviewpress.co.uk - info@overviewpress.co.uk
Other Independence of the Seas Cruise Pages:- Southampton - sea day 1 - Vigo - Lisbon - sea day 2 - Tenerife - Gran Canaria - Madeira - sea day 3 - La Coruña - sea day 4 - Southampton - Search the Simplon Website