London, UK
We had a nice, quick, uneventful flight to London Heathrow this morning. As soon as we came out of the luggage claim we were met by Royal Caribbean reps who put us on the bus to the ship. We were impressed with the cruise terminal at Southampton, and we were quickly checked-in and onboard Independence. She is quite similar to the Navigator so we pretty much knew our way around. But you can definitely tell the difference in size. The Freedom class ships have a water park up on the pool deck which is really cool. And instead of the inline skating rink that they have on the Voyager class ships, there is a Flowrider "surf simulator." We'd packed Jasmine's swimsuit in the carry on, so she was the first one on the Flowrider as soon as it opened. She had a blast!
We have a Jr Suite on this ship, and we really love it!
The first thing I did after checking out our stateroom was go down to the future cruise desk, so I could book a cruise on the new Oasis of the Seas. Today was the first day that bookings opened, and I was able to get a balcony cabin on the Inaugural cruise in Dec 2009!
We actually went to the Dining Room for dinner tonight. We have the "My Time" dining, which means we are not assigned to a specific seating and table each evening. I called and made reservations for a table for 2 with no problems, and we had a nice steak dinner. Later we went to the Welcome Aboard show, and couldn't believe how funny our Cruise Director, Graham, is. He is much more entertaining than the guy we had on Navigator. We then spent some time in the shops, this time actually out of necessity. When our luggage had arrived in our stateroom, my toiletry bag and the bag that had all of our electronics chargers in it were missing! I'm hoping I somehow left them at home, but I thought I remembered them being right on top of the clothes in my suitcase.
At Sea
We both have a bit of a cold; probably from going from the heat of Greece and Turkey to cold/rainy Belgium, so we took it pretty easy. Jasmine did go to the kids club and of course boogie board on the Flowrider. She also checked out the Lazy Donut in the waterpark and reported that it was lots of fun. We had Johnny Rockets for dinner.
The next morning we woke up feeling better, and had quite the busy day. I was running from the spa, to Wii tournaments to wine tasting, to basketball shooting, to line dancing, and a hair appt. Jasmine was just as busy with the club activities, H20 Zone and Flowrider. Somehow we managed to coordinate our schedules to meet up for our daily homework session (Jasmine started 5th grade between cruises, so our luggage is 10 pounds heavier with school books now!) Later we went to tonight's production show "Center Stage" and then 70's night out on the Royal Promenade. It was so much fun!
Gibraltar, UK
This morning we awoke in Gibraltar. We did the ship's "Upper Rock Walking Tour" excursion which included a cable car ride to the top of the rock. Our guide Karen was British with a quick wit and a great sense of humor. Before we went up she explained how the ape's think, and how to avoid having them jump on you or take your possessions. Although she does carry "protection" in the form of a small rubber snake she calls "Hissing Sid." She said if any of us were worried about the apes, we could carry Sid. We got a demonstration of Sid's powers when one of the Ape's stole the hat off of a woman's head. She wasn't in our group, but Karen approached the ape with Sid, and the ape and his buddy quickly high-tailed out of there. Later we saw another ape swoop down and steal an ice cream bar from another woman who'd decided it eat it in plain sight. In addition to lots of apes, we had amazing views of both Europe and Africa from the top of the rock. We also got to tour St Michael's cave and the Siege Tunnels.
At Sea/ Barcelona
We had another busy day today. I was able to spend some time in the adult's only Solarium though which was really nice. Jasmine said the Solarium looked "boring." I told her that we make sure it looks that way when kids are around, and that after the kids leave a big party breaks out! Jasmine climbed the Rock Climbing wall today, which was higher than the one on Navigator We also went to the Ice Show "Freeze Frame" which was wonderful. We didn't arrive in Barcelona until 7pm, so I sent Jasmine to the kids' dinner in Johnny Rockets and had time to go to the gym before we went ashore.
While we were walking in Barcelona, Jasmine said "I need to get out of this heat!" I looked at her and said, "It's 8 o'clock at night, what do you think it'll be like tomorrow???" We took the metro down to the Placa Espanya to see the "Magic Fountains." We thought it was kind of funny the way the crowd oohed and aahed at something we thought was a bit less than magical. I guess we're spoiled. I told Jasmine to keep in mind that the fountain was built in 1929, so it probably was a big deal back then.
The next morning Jasmine asked if she could stay on the ship today, rather than going into Barcelona. Given that she didn't like the heat in the evening, and that we'll be back in December I agreed that this was probably a good idea. I went ashore in the morning to do some shopping on La Rambla. I was able to find battery chargers for both my digital camera and camcorder, so I had a successful day.
I sat out on our balcony as we sailed away from Barcelona and had time to go to the killer abs class at the gym before dinner. We ate up in Windjammer today rather than getting dressed up for formal night. Later we went to the show "Under the Big Top"
At Sea
Today was another fun-filled sea day. I've collected enough Vitality Points (a token you get everytime you do a sports/fitness activity) to get a visor, and am working on a water bottle! I did my daily line dancing class, and Jas worked on her boogie boarding tricks on the Flow Rider. We managed to meet up for lunch at Johnny Rockets. Later I went out on deck as we sailed back through the Strait of Gibraltar, which was really cool! I went to the comedian show, which was really funny, and then Jas and I went to the "Mr & Mrs Game Show." Graham hosted it and it was hilarious! Then we went to the Rock Brittania party out on the Grand Promenade.
Lisbon, Portugal
I had my morning coffee out on the balcony as we sailed into Lisbon. But I was up on deck when we sailed under the 25th April Bridge. It's the 3rd longest suspension bridge in the world. It was fascinating to watch our huge ship (along with her sisters, the largest in the world) fit under the bridge with just inches to spare!
Jasmine was wiped out from the party last night, so I went around earning more Vitality tokens while I was waiting for her to wake up. When she awakened from her coma we went up to the Windjammer for her daily cheese omelette, and then we took a tram into downtown Lisbon. We enjoyed shopping, exploring St George's castle, and taking a streetside elevator (built in 1929) up for a birds eye view of Lisbon.
Vigo, Spain
We didn't have any "must see" places in Vigo, so we slept in and had a leisurely breakfast before going ashore. Jasmine noticed a department store on the city map and decided we needed to go there. Her rational was, "It''ll be good exercise." Well of course it's hard to argue with that logic! Back onboard we went to the Ice Show "Strings" which was just as amazing as the first. Then dinner in the dining room. Jasmine went to the production show this evening, "Once Upon a Time" and said it was great. She loves everything to do with the shows. On the Navigator one of the dancers gave Hip Hop lessons to her age group which was a big thrill for her.
At Sea
Our last day was spent enjoying the ship as much as possible before we have to get off tomorrow. It was actually overcast and cool today, so I rented a wetsuit for Jasmine to make sure she could get in a last round of boogie boarding. I turned in my tokens and got my visor and water bottle. I also had to finalize our arrangements for tomorrow. We'd originally booked a shore excursion with RCI that included a trip to Stonehenge and then transfer back to Heathrow. Well I just found out the excursion was cancelled, because not enough people signed up. I finally decided to just take the cruise line transfer to the airport, rather than doing it on our own with luggage. Maybe I can change to an earlier flight at the airport (it would've cost me 400 GBPs to do it online!)
Southampton, UK
We were off the ship bright and early for our bus transfer. Jasmine slept all the way to Heathrow. I wasn't able to change our flight without paying an arm and a leg. The ticket agent was sympathetic but said that they have much stricter rules now that they are in terminal 5. She gave us directions to Windsor, so we'd have someplace to hang out during the day. On the way to store our luggage, Jasmine said she'd rather just stay in the airport, even though we had 8 hours to kill. The time actually passed pretty quickly. She took a nice long nap, and I read magazines and reorganized our luggage to keep me occupied. There was Krispy Kreme in the terminal, so hot chocolate and vanilla lattes were close by!
Luckily after the long wait in the airport everything else went smoothly. When we landed at Brussels, our luggage was coming out right when we got to baggage claim, and our bus was sitting outside the airport waiting for us.
We had such a good time, Independence is our new favorite ship, but we can't wait for Oasis of the Seas next year!