This ship is enormous

Just back from a four night trip aboard Royal Caribbean’s Independence of the Seas, our fourth Royal Caribbean ship. The ship itself was on an 18-night cruise from Southampton, going round the Med. We joined it in Barcelona and left in Naples.

It was not long ago that this was the largest ship in the world, and still looks enormous when you are close by.

Like other Royal Caribbean ships, it is packed with facilities that contradict the traditional view of cruising that all there is to do is play shuffle board and eat.

Ice show - guests can skate as well

Apart from the numerous bars, restaurants, theatre, casino, gym and spa, this ship has a rock climbing wall, boxing ring, miniature golf course, basketball court, ice rink and a ‘flo rider’ a device that shoots water up a slope so you can surf standing still! The kids clubs are so good that kids may take some persuading to get off, and there is a ‘teens only’ area on the ship with a curfew of 1.00am – well they can’t go anywhere!

Pisa, one of the many places within easy reach

It was great to see so many senior people being able to have a great holiday, and there was no lack of fun and laughter. One guy on a tour of Pisa with us in an electric mobility scooter was more than happy to put other passengers’ bottles of water in his basket, although he was threatening to sell them to the locals for three euros a bottle!!

Sadly, just as we were getting into the swing of things it was time to leave relatively warm and sunny Italy and fly back to a very cold London. Still, we'd had our first trip of the year and it was only mid-January. Here’s to the next one!