We (myself, wife and 13 yr old son) sailed on Independence of the Seas: 1/25/2019. This was a 6-night sailing that stopped in Nassau, Labadee and Falmouth. This was our forth cruise with RCCL and 7th overall since 2014. We had a very nice time and even some poor weather did not affect us that much. There was just so much to do on ship that we did not get around to everything.
Embarkation was smooth. We arrived at the port about 10:15 and were on the ship by 11:30. Our cabin was ready at 1:00 and our luggage was delivered around 5:00.
We did attend most, but not all of the shows. The ABBA (ABBACADABRA) show was nice and the production of Grease had us toe tapping and singing along. We’re in our early 50s and grew up to much of that music. Kudos to the production teams of both of those shows. Also attended a comedy show (Rondell Sheridan) who was very funny in both in the ‘family’ show and the ‘Adults Only’ show. The ice show was very entertaining as well and very similar to what we experienced on the ‘Freedom of the Seas’ back in 2016.
We had stateroom 8500, which is an Ultra Spacious Ocean View cabin at the very front of the ship. This was an amazing cabin for the three of us and could easily handle 4 to 5 passengers comfortably. It had two separate bedrooms with four large port-holes facing the front of the ship overlooking the helipad. One room had a king size bed with desk, closet and it’s own TV . The other room had a bunk bed with a nice long table where my son actually did much of his school work during downtimes. In between the two bedrooms is a ‘living room’ space with a large couch (Sleeper) and a couple nice chairs with foot stools plus a refrigerator. There was also a TV in this room which made it very nice when someone would get up early or be up later than the others in the cabin. You could go to the ‘living room’ area to read or watch tv and not bother others still sleeping. The bathroom was manageable although a bit on the small side but no real complaints.