Written by Kim
We disembarked MSC seashore on Friday in Canaveral drove down to Fort Lauderdale to catch a flight to Philly for Alex’s grandsons birthday party. We stayed at Borgata, a favorite of ours, for one night and did pretty well. We had a comped room, ate with comp in Amphora and took home a few sheckles from them which is always nice. Sadly, the birthday party was cancelled because Liam got sick but we did go into Philly to see Brady (and Liam briefly) along with Alex & Bri. We had a little impromptu pizza and cupcake party to celebrate with Brady before heading back to Lauderdale. Sunday morning we got up early to go to the laundromat and run a few errands before driving to Miami to board Indy. Phew – we’re a bit tired!
This is our 32nd cruise (28 on Royal) but we’ve never been on Independence. It’s an older Freedom class ship that had her maiden voyage in 2008 in Southampton. She was based in Southampton until. 2019 and didn’t return until 2025 for some cruises before coming to Miami October 2025. It is planned she will remain in the US for the next 2 years. The ship looks pretty good for her age. She hasn’t been refurbished since 2018. You see some wear but has held up well with the 4,370 passengers each cruise.
We left from Terminal AA which is labeled a MSC terminal but must be shared by Royal. The terminal is huge. We parked in the garage for a ridiculous $35 a day but our plans were crazy so we didn’t want to deal with shuttles, etc.
We started our trip by cracking open a Fosters in Playmakers before heading to the pool deck for Sailaway. The Playmakers on this ship is on Deck 4 outside the casino. It’s a nice venue. I’ll share more photos in a future post .
Sailaway is always fun on Royal. We enjoyed some football at the pool deck after the party
Dinner was at Chops – a last minute decision to use our BOGO. We bought a 3 night specialty package for $99 which you don’t normally see on the bigger ships so thought we’d add one more night. Chops is outside the Windjammer buffet on this ship like th3 original specialty, Portofino, was on Voyager when it was first launched. Food and service were excellent.
One of my favorite things about cruising is walking on the deck in the morning. It’s so peaceful and sets your head in the right place for the day. It was unusual that the first day was not a sea day but instead a stop at CocoCay, Royal’s private island in the Bahamas, with our sister ship Star of the Seas which is huge!
It really wasn’t a Perfect Day in CocoCay (for those who don’t cruise RCCL they endlessly talk about a perfect day in CocoCay). It was very cool in the 60s and low 70s, windy, and not very sunny. We stayed on board the ship for a bit but ventured out around 11. We purchased a pass for Hideaway Beach for $60 so thought we should use it. We know that the water at CocoCay is cold in January so we’re looking forward to enjoying the adults only heated pool. We ended up just relaxing on a lounger a bit, having some lunch and a few drinks before heading back to the ship. While the pool was heated it was too cool with the wind when you would get out so we didn’t try it. Getting old I guess.
We went to My Time Dining at the dining room and got there at 6:45 when they opened. We got a nice table right by the windows. Dinner was good but service isn’t like it used to be, Alex asked for a different salad dressing and after a short debate with the waiter he just said ok give me Italian. In the end he got the blue cheese he wanted but why the struggle. I know this sounds petty but just a good example of the changes. In the past they would offer or get anything you wanted whether it was in the menu or not. Now the menu is fixed, they’ve even removed some of the standard appetizers you could get any night so you better look at the menu.
Today is a sea day then we have a few ports – Falmouth, Jamaica, Grand Cayman & Cozumel. Until then…
