Nice little mini break

We usually sail with Celebrity but we decided to celebrate my 30th birthday with a mini cruise on the newly refurbished Independence of the Seas as the dates were perfect. We splashed out on a junior suite which was clean and comfortable but could have done with a bit updating. We had a lovely three days spending some quality time together and chilling out. It was nice to try something different but we did miss some of the extra touches and comforts of Celebrity.

On the first night we had a drink in the sports bar and the lady that served us our drinks seemed rather frustrated with the bewildered look on my face when I ordered a pint of Heineken and was asked whether I would like a small pint or a large pint. I repeated I would like a pint to which she proceeded to educate me by showing me different sizes of “pint” glasses. This gave me a giggle and broke the tension between myself and my other half, caused by the fact I had neglected to tell him the cost of the said pint before booking the holiday. Oops. This brings me on to my only real criticism – there was no alcoholic beverage package available on the three-night cruise and although we aren’t really big drinkers, the prices of drinks on Royal Caribbean are extortionate and we felt we couldn’t really relax about it as we usually would.

We made a big mistake on the first night by not booking for our “my time” dinner and queued down the lobby for the best part of an hour. The same happened the following day at the Windjammer Buffet and we had never experienced this before on other cruise lines. The food as always was lovely and the crew friendly and polite. We really enjoyed the day in Bruges and this will always be a special memory for us. I’m so pleased we did a mini cruise to get a taste of Royal Caribbean and although I would always opt for the perfection of Celebrity in a heartbeat, we had fun and I would be more than happy to give Royal Caribbean another go in the future, perhaps on a newer ship.