Day 1-3: Southampton (Boarding, The Ship, Cabin #1700)
Day 2-3: At Sea, At Sea – includes Chops Grill specialty restaurant
Day 4-5: Gibraltar & Cartagena
Day 6-7: Palma De Mallorca & Barcelona
Day 8-9: Valencia & Malaga
Day 10-11: Cadiz & Lisbon
Day 12-14: Sea Days (including Giovanni’s) and Conclusion (You are Here)
Day Twelve & 13 – At Sea
Well, our trip was almost over, as we had two sea days back to the UK. The Independence of the Seas is such a massive ship that a sea day is as adventurous as a port day. Between all the places to eat, swim, climb, ice skate, shows, movies, bars, golf, even surf – you’ll never be bored on board the ship! I didn’t keep a journal of the last two days as I was intending to write it up as soon as I got home. Between one thing and another, it ended up being a full year before I looked at my notes again to start writing this. It’s a little scary but also awe inspiring now looking back at my writing when I was pregnant, and then looking at my 6 month old son and realising how much my life has changed in between.
During the last two sea days we played golf, Ben went on the flow rider and did the rock climbing wall:
We also ate at Giovanni’s, where the food was delicious, but we felt the service was poor and we thought our waitress was actually very condescending and rude:
We lost money in the casino, and we sorted out our photos, ending up with over 150 prints and a CD to get more! We ate lots of food, swam in the pools and lounged in the bars, ate endless icecream and drank frozen mocktails even as we cruised back into the grey skies and rain approaching Southampton. I would not worry about sea days on a ship this size – even if you have an entire family in tow. There is simply never time to be bored. I could have used a bit more time to relax, but there was always something to do!
Disembarkation was extremely efficient, as we had asked for an early disembark. We hopped off the ship, grabbed our luggage and were on our way home by 9am. I was a little sad it was over, as I knew it’d be a few years before I got to cruise again, with a new family to look after.
Cruising whilst Pregnant
I think a cruise is a perfect holiday whilst pregnant, since you can see a slice of the world from your bedroom window if you’re not feeling up to it. The buffet offers a lot of casual, quick choices even if your stomach is not up to the rich flavours and meats of the main dining room and not having to do any cooking or cleaning for a bit is a welcome break in itself.
If you’re on a port intensive cruise like this one, especially in a hotter climate than you’re used to, you might have to sacrifice a few days or keep your excursions simple, depending on how you’re feeling – but really, there is no reason why you can’t do (almost) anything you’d planned before.
The only slight worries for me was the fact that if anything went wrong, I would be going to a hospital in a foreign country and wasn’t that confident of the care we’d receive. Good travel insurance put my mind at ease slightly, but I paid a pretty hefty premium to disclose my pregnancy so that it would be covered.
Royal Caribbean
I’m not sure how I feel about RCCL as a cruise line and I feel like I’ve been a little more negative and critical in this trip report than I was in the past. Although the ship was amazing, she was a little on the big side for my personal taste. The staff were friendly and welcoming, but we did have those issues with the drinks and tours, with what I’d consider to be poor customer service from guest services. Our photo package was awesome, and all the photography staff were so much fun and really enhanced our trip. The food was good, but very predictable and it didn’t really come close to the quality of previous lines, even in the specialty restaurants.
There was a definite family feel to the ship and I would be confident if traveling with kids that there was plenty to do on board to keep them entertained, but I didn’t really feel like it was a good fit for us. We have so far traveled with Thomson, Princess, Celebrity and now RCCL. I still very much enjoyed my vacation and I try to focus on the positive, but if I had to rate them in order, RCCL would be at the bottom of the list with Princess at the top and Celebrity coming second. That being said, I would still travel with RCCL again and on The Independence of the Seas, if there was an itinerary that called to us. Bottom isn’t bad, it just wasn’t quite as good as the rest. We’re very much about the itinerary and will take all the positives from the experience that we can!
If you have any questions about this cruise or any of the ports at all, don’t hesitate to ask in the comments and I’ll happily wrack my memories and try to answer them for you!
We have plans for cruising in 2019, this time with a 1 year old baby, so that’ll be a brand new experience for us which I’m looking forward to sharing.
Go back and check out the other posts on this trip:
Day 1-3: Southampton (Boarding, The Ship, Cabin #1700)
Day 2-3: At Sea, At Sea – includes Chops Grill specialty restaurant
Day 4-5: Gibraltar & Cartagena
Day 6-7: Palma De Mallorca & Barcelona
Day 8-9: Valencia & Malaga
Day 10-11: Cadiz & Lisbon
Day 12-14: Sea Days (including Giovanni’s) and Conclusion (You are Here)
2 Comments
What a trip report. I’ve just read through it all and it looks like a lot of fun. We are going on the Independence at the end of the year. Hopefully my wife is not pregnant since we already have 3 kids and we’re leaving them behind with their grandparents for a romantic getaway. You mentioned the speciality restaurants, did you think they were good value?
Hi Barney. I think you’ll have a fabulous time without any little surprises like mine! We bought the pack of three speciality restaurants. I would recommend it if you like a more intimate atmosphere than the main dining room. I think the food is slightly better as well and we bought the package that worked out at £25/pp for 3 evenings which I thought was decent value. It is definitely more romantic than the dining room just because it is so much quieter and spacious.