Royal Caribbean's Independence of the Seas

Setting out on a cruise can be a bit scary, whether you are a seasoned veteran at cruising or it's your inaugural cruise ship experience.  Going on a cruise is one of the most rewarding vacation experiences, especially if you have some knowledge of the ship and what it has to offer before arriving.  In this blog post, I want to cover five essential things to know about Royal Caribbean's Independence of the Seas. 

#1 Its Terminal A 

One thing to realize when traveling out of Port Miami is that each cruise ship company has its own terminal.  These terminals are close to each other, but they are each the length of a gigantic ship! Unless you tell your taxi or Uber driver which terminal to drop you at, you may end up at Terminal F and have to walk 1.5 miles to Terminal A to board the Independence or any other Royal Caribbean ship.  We only know it’s that far because we may have had this exact thing happen! We don’t want to talk about it! 😉 Whatever cruise line you sail with, check which terminal they board their ships. 

#2 Early dining is the way to go 

With the Independence, you can choose when booking if you want early, late, or flexible seating for dinner.  Our preference was early seating between 5 & 5:30 p.m. This allowed us to walk right into the dining room with no wait whatsoever, directly to our table.  Our four-course dinner never took more than an hour from start to finish.  The beauty of eating early is that if you get hungry, you can always go to the Windjammer buffet and eat there until 9:30 p.m. Another option is grabbing a slice of Pizza until 2 a.m. at Sorento's in the promenade.  If you wait for a later seating for dinner or use your flex seating, you will wait in line until your table is available. Early dining equals no wait. 

#3 Head back to the ship early on port days 

The great thing about any port day is that the cruise ship is usually a ghost town.  When stopping at Coco Cay, we headed back to the ship at 2 p.m. rather than 4:30 p.m. to enjoy the ship with fewer people.  The first thing we did was head to the adult hot tub in the adults-only area.  There were maybe 6-8 other people in a tub with a capacity of 15.  After enjoying the tub, head up to the miniature golf course for a round! We had the entire course to ourselves! After that, we went down and played a few games of shuffleboard on Deck 4.  Again, absolutely no one around.  Enjoy your port day, but give yourself some time to enjoy the boat with less people.  

#4 Don’t worry about getting to the show early 

Shows are always one of our favorite things to do on a cruise, and the Independence was no exception.  We attended their Ice show twice, two comedy shows, and one main show, “Invitation to Dance”.  We arrived at the first comedy show about 30 minutes before the show time and the doors to the theatre were already open.  We basically took any seat we wanted because the theatre was almost empty.  We realized most people were not coming in until about 10 minutes before the show started.  The theatre is huge and never filled up for any show.  Also, a quick tip: if you need to use the restroom, sit close to an aisle as the seating is a bit close, and you won't get out until the show is over.  There is plenty of wheelchair accessible seating in all venues on board. Don’t worry about rushing to the theatre on the Independence.  

#5 Don’t be afraid to ask!  

When we arrived on the day we set sail, the entire experience was smooth until we stepped onto the ship.  We didn’t know which way to go to the elevators or staterooms and ended up turning right when we needed to turn left.  We then noticed staff wearing “ask me” lanyards.  So, we thought, why not? We ran into a very cordial staff member who was a dealer in the casino, who gave us directions to our stateroom as well as to our safety briefing.  After leaving our luggage in our stateroom, we had another question about our dinner timing and headed to the dining room to ask.  Again, we found a very friendly hostess who answered our questions.  On a ship, don’t be afraid to ask! Everyone is trained to answer just about any question you have.  If they don’t know, they will get you to the right person!  

As you step onto the Independence of the Seas, you’ll be stepping onto a very clean and well-organized cruise ship experience.  A few other tips: always carry your Sea Pass no matter where you are, purchase the soda package if you drink soda, and don’t forget to try the daily cocktail if you enjoy an alcoholic beverage.  The special is about half the price of a usual cocktail on the ship.  

Visit our website today at www.takeiteasytravel.info, schedule your consultation, and let us plan the cruise experience of a lifetime!