soxfanndc

I'm taking my mom on I of the S Feb 8-13 from FLL. I have just a few questions please.
1) We are in an outside stateroom w/ a porthole. I know the room is small and we will have it in 2 twin bed configurations. So just HOW SMALL is the room? can you compare it to anything I might be familiar with? (I know this is a bit nebulous....)
2) How decent is the Internet connection at sea? and is there WiFi in the staterooms ?(I need to work a few hours a day)
3) I try to keep the cruise costs "extras" to a minimum but I did spring for the Chops Grille for one night. how good or bad is this specialty restaurant?
4) we are not paying for shore excursions. Will there be things we can do in either of the two ports that don't require booking a formal shore excursion? ports are Haiti and Jamaica and I assume there will be the obligatory phalanx of vendors near the dock?

Thanks for any advice and if anyone is interested, we've selected the "my time" dining so any thoughts on that are appreciated. thanks again. I must admit that, heretofore, I've been rather UNDERwhelmed w/ RCCL.

pseudoswede

Look on their website?

http://www.royalcaribbean.com/findac...SO&shipCode=ID

Basically, it's a 10ftx16ft room. Of which, 42 sqft will be occupied by a bed. I consider hotel rooms (and rooms on cruise ships) as a place to sleep and shower. Size doesn't really matter since I never plan on spending much time in there.

It is better quality food than the main dining room. Whether it's worth the upcharge is up to the consumer. We thought it was.

CruiseCritic.com forums will have all of your non-cruiseline excursion information.

wrp96

Labadee is one of Royal's private "islands." Everything at Labadee will be controlled by Royal. You'll use your Seapass Card for everything there except for purchasing any souvenirs from the "native" shopping village.

There will be a bbq provided on shore by the cruiseline, there will be beach chairs available, different swimming coves, etc. You can bring your own snorkel gear and use it, although personally the snorkeling there isn't great IMO, and I believe they still require you to rent their vest.

All the other activities though will be charged, and only available through the cruise line. If you absolutely want to do something, then you should book it in advance, otherwise there is no harm in waiting (there is no price difference for booking in advance).


As to the internet connection, it really depends on the satellite. I wouldn't expect it to be extremely fast, but it should hopefully be adequate. Out of my last few cruises with Royal, one ship the internet was fairly reliable and decent, but one I could never connect - although my mother had no troubles.

Most, if not all, Royal ships now provide wifi throughout the ship and have packages you can purchase for unlimited access. Last cruise, I believe the price for unlimited was $40 per day. I think, but am not certain, you are required to buy the unlimited package for the rest of the cruise, so you couldn't buy one day of unlimited internet on the 2nd day for example.

wrp96

As to Chops, I enjoy it. I actually would've recommended not booking it in advance, but rather waiting until onboard and booking one of the specials onboard in order to save some money. For example, they usually offer a discount for booking specialty restaurants for the first night - but the discounts are only available if you book onboard the ship.

For My Time Dining, be aware that you can make reservations in advance. So if you decide you want to eat at 7pm every night, I would go ahead and make that reservation. You can walk up and get a table (easier with smaller groups than bigger groups), but if you show up at the same time as everyone else (7-7:30 pm on a formal night is highly popular on most sailings) you might have to wait a few minutes for a table. Or do some combination of both. Last cruise, I only made reservations for the formal nights, and that was only because we were a large group. Also, if you find a waiter you really like, you can ask to always be seated in his/her section.

MJonTravel

Good answers here. I'll just chime in to say that I'll be on the same ship doing the same itinerary in January, so I'll report back here if I find anything interesting to share. FWIW, we are in an inside cabin. Won't be our first. Our cruise is actually a charter so the pricing is not as favorable as some I've seen for the same cruise on other dates.

I always find Chops to be worth it. Last time I paid extra (yes, an upcharge to the upcharge) for the dry aged New York strip. I was not disappointed.

Labadee is a lot of fun. Good beach day. No need to book any extra shore tours unless you just want to. It's been a few years since I was in Falmouth. The port itself is brand new and pretty nice. Mixed feelings about the town itself. I expect we'll just go to Margaritaville inside the port complex when we are there. I did a zipline tour booked through RCL there last time.

If Independence has had the latest internet upgrades, you may be pleasantly surprised at the speed. I was averaging 15 mbps up and down on Allure a few weeks ago on a trans Atlantic cruise. No, not blistering fast...but pretty darn good for a ship at sea, I think.

MiamiFlyer

Some of the RC ships now have a lobster and champagne brunch at Chops - unlimited of both........yummy

milesinthemiddleeast

I think the new internet is only installed on Quantum and Oasis class vessels.

On all my past cruises with RCCL the internet was painfully slow and I think you will struggle with work if you have to connect to any applications such as Citrix.

DanJ

I think you are right about the ships. I was amazed at how fast the connection was on Oasis 2 weeks ago. We bought the 2 device package with 5 days left on the cruise (long 2 days for the kids those first 2 days when we didn't buy it lol). You can't buy it by the day, but at least you can buy it through the cruise for the days remaining. Not sure how the speeds will be as they roll it out to more ships though.

MJonTravel

I can report that Independence is not equipped with VOOM internet. I did not test the speeds, but they were not fast. It worked well enough for emails and limited social media interaction, but definitely not the speed I had on Allure in November.