Royal Caribbean were one of the lines I first looked at sailing with when me and my wife were planning our honeymoon and whilst we chose Norwegian over them, I have always kept an eye on the line.

Sadly, there prices have either been too high or they just have sailed to where we wanted to go since then but a few months before sailing in October 2025, I noticed a big saving on a short cruise of Northern Europe, and I just couldn’t help but book.

It would call into Hamburg and Rotterdam and have two days at sea and whilst I had already been to Rotterdam, I had never visited Hamburg but do enjoy trips to German cities, so this looked a great itinerary, at the right price and on a ship that many had told me that they loved.

It would be the Independence of the Seas we would and whilst she is not the biggest or newest ship in the Royal Caribbean International fleet, she has everything you associate with the line including a climbing wall, the surf rider, an ice rink and internal promenade.

So that should be the perfect journey to get an understanding of the line, and I’d love for you to join me as I take your through my getaway in this trip report.

Right from the time of booking up until a couple of days before departure, the ship was due to sail out of the city Terminal at, but we received an email that we would be moving next door to the Horizon terminal.

So, it would be the newest terminal at the port of Southampton where we would set sail from but thankfully Southampton is what I class as my home port, despite been hours away, so the changes didn’t make much difference as I have sailed out of both and knew what I was doing.

Me and my wife have a routine for sailing out of the port, so we would set off the night before, stay overnight around 45 minutes from the port and then continue on first thing in the morning.

To give us a buffer, we always allow to get to Southampton an hour early and park up at Mayflower Park, right next to the cruise port and that would usually give you a great ship of your cruise ship, especially if sailing out of the City Terminal, or the Horizon if no ship is at city, as was the case for us.

For me, that is always when the cruise holiday starts when sailing out of Southampton as I can see the ship, I’m at the port and are ready to go.

From parking at the port to walking onboard the ship, it took me and wife around 10 minutes which is pretty incredible when you think about it and once again, the staff at Southampton were incredibly friendly and efficient and it proved to be a great start to our first cruise with the line.

My go to first activity on a ship, especially a new one, is to take a wonder around, get to know the main areas such as the Royal Promenade and then head up to the top decks for further exploration before heading to the buffet and that is just what I did on the Indy.

I had a few hours before I could head to my stateroom but as soon as the announcement the rooms were ready was made, we headed to it, had a noisy around it and set off to explore more, without our carry-on bags.

After another trip to the buffet and a quick change it was time to head to Studio B and to watch the ice-skating show known as Freeze Frame.

I have been to a few similar shows before including the Hot Ice show at Blackpool and Disney on Ice and whilst it may not have been at that level, it was still a great show and something that I would highly recommend.

I think the biggest issue was the size of the rink that limited what they could do but the 45-minute show flew by a drew a packed crowd.

The first full day onboard was a day at sea, so me and my wife started at the buffet for breakfast before heading down to the helipad as whilst I had the chance to sail through the Prince Christian Sound at the very front of a ship but never had the experience in the open sea, but sadly no dolphins would grace us with their presence.

From there on in it was simply a day of relaxing, enjoying all on offer including some table tennis and mini golf before heading back to our room to get changed for the only formal night on the ship.

We would start the evening with tea in the Windjammer before heading down to the theatre to see the Invitation to Dance show, a production show that focussed more on dancing than singing, although the ships singers were involved.

Most lines do similar shows and if you have cruised before the chances are that you will know how the show goes and to be honest, it is kind of the quintessential cruise show in the theatre and that is because it just works, and this one was no different, with a quality performance from all involved.

The theatre is just how I personally like it as it has a traditional theatre set up with multiple levels, unlike some ships that have a more auditorium feel to it or the NCL Prima that had a multi-purpose room that wasn’t really fit for the purpose of anything it did!

One thing that I should give huge credit to Royal Caribbean for is that the ship still had a orchestra on it to play the music for the shows onboard- it really does make such a difference to the experience and for me and my wife, it is something that would tip us towards cruising with a line offering that over one that has removed them to save money- such as NCL.

The next day saw us wake up in the German city of Hamburg as we had an early arrival and missed the sail down the river Elbe- although it would have been in darkness anyway.

With a choice of cruise terminals in Hamburg, including ones within easy walking distance of the city, we would dock at the Steinwerder terminal, which is the farthest away and ever a 75-minute walk or so or a 45-minute shuttle.

We would take the shuttle option, which cost $25, and you needed to book a time for the first leg- although buses from the city to the ship worked as a usual shuttle and you just got the first one back you wanted.

I had booked onto the first time slot of the day, 8:30am but after an early breakfast and seeing we had docked earlier than scheduled, we went down to deck 4 and people were already walking off the ship, so we joined them.

We got straight on a shuttle coach and after a short wait until we filled up, we set off into the city around 15 minutes early.

The drop off was Busparkplatz, close to the warehouse district, and thankfully I had done my research and know where we would be starting our day of exploration.

Aside from an Italian couple on the same coach, nobody else had obviously done any research at all and they just all stood there looking a bit confused and bewildered.

With only ever a short period of time on shore when cruising, I always do some research and come up with a basic walking route around the destination, to save wasting time, but we still wonder off to look at anything we come across the look interesting.

In Hamburg, we would cross the road and head down the Deichstrabe, which is an interesting street in its own right but it does open up to a floating pontoon via a couple of small ginnels, or alley if your not from my neck of the woods, and it is there where you can really appreciate some of the architecture of the buildings in this part of the city.

At the end of the street and across a main road, is the famous St Nikolai Memorial, which is a former church that was destroyed during the war and now only has its spire and some outer walls left standing.

You can go up the spire for a great view of the city, or you can read about what happened to the church in a small memorial museum and that is just what I did before heading further into the city centre and to the city hall.

Known as the Rathaus, it is an impressively rebuilt building built to the same specifications as the original that was also damaged during the war and it now has a great spot in the city surrounded by shops, bars, cafes, restaurants and the beautiful man made Binnenalster lake- complete with boat rides, a huge fountain and tree lined boulevards.

We first left the square in front of the city hall to head to a couple of churches, St Peters Church and St James Church, before heading into the Europa Passage shopping centre for a bite to eat and a drink.

Now rested and refuelled, we had originally planned to jump on the S-Bahn over to the St Pauli district but with the weather as nice as it was, we decided to walk it, which is only around a 30–35-minute walk away.

We headed straight to the historic and famous Reeperbahn, which certainly has a unique feel to it and is somewhere that gives you a different insight into the city when compared to the city centre and the river front.

It is home to theatres, shops and well lots and lots of ‘adult entertainment’ venues which reminded me of the Bangla Street in the party resort of Patong on Phuket.

It had the same juxtaposition of people with obvious struggles in life sitting and laying around tourist walking to see the ‘sights’ and with a mix of police cars cruising along the road, mixing with tourist tour buses.

I do like to visit these sorts of areas as if you only stick to the tourist parts of a destination, you get a unrealistic view of the port you are visiting whilst heading out into other parts can really be eye opening.

Arguably the main, and often only reason for many to head to Reeperbahn is due to it been so intrinsically linked with The Beetles and there is now a monument to the fab 4, or 5 known as Beatles-Platz.

From their it is just a short downhill stroll to the Fischmarkt district, which unsurprisingly is where the cities bustling fish market is found, although it was closed for our visit there, but the building and the square behind it is impressive and well worth visiting even on non-market days.

The walk along the banks of the River Elbe is one I would highly recommend and that is just what we would do next, starting with a look at the U-343, a Soviet submarine which is now a museum attraction.

At bit further along the bank is the entrance to the Elbe Tunnel, which is not only a feat of engineering and a functioning part of the transport infrastructure of the port, but it is also a tourist attraction.

Best of all it is free to use, so we headed for one of the historic lifts, lined up in one of the old car lines from back when cars could use the lifts and then headed underground.

Nowadays, the tunnel is just for pedestrians and cyclists, with a central bike lane and two pavements in the tunnel itself.

With the other side of the tunnel industrial, we simply walked to the centre of the tunnel and then crossed over to come back again.

Next to the tunnel entrance is where the Hop On Hop Off tour buses start from, so this area is full of tourists and there are plenty of tourist gift shops waiting for you there.

After the shops, boat rides, water taxi stops, and bus stops you arrive at the next riverside attraction and this time it is the chance to look at a couple of historic ships.

First you get to the Rickmer Rickmers, which has a long history doing different jobs for multiple countries down the years but perhaps most fittingly for our trip, it is a Windjammer class of ship launched in 1896.

Next was the Cap San Diego, a cargo ship that was built for the Hamburg Sud line and is now a museum ship, as is the Rickmer Rickmers.

There are plenty of other interesting boats on the river including a Mississippi style paddle steamer and a lighthouse boat and we would see them and more on our walk down to the Elbphilarmonie, which is a concert hall but that has a viewing platform on it, about halfway up that offers great views of not only your cruise ship but of the river and the city.

It is free to go up, but you need to get a ticket but with a huge queue when we got there, we gave up on our plan to head up to it and would take the elevated walkway straight through the warehouse district and back to the pickup point- about 10 minutes away.

On a side note, the Miniatur Wunderland model railway attraction is just behind the pick up and drop off point, so if you want to go there, book a ticket online and not an excursion through your ship.

Back on board, we were too late for the buffet, so we took advantage of the good weather and went to the poolside Fish and Ships chippy were my wife had fish and chips, and I had chicken and chips and have to say that we both really enjoyed them.

The grab and go spot is included in your cruise fare, aside from a lobster tail option, as is the soft serve ice cream machine, so we would grab one of those for dessert.

Hamburg has a great sail out, where you go past the city centre and then the vast commercial port there before heading to the Elbe estuary and into the North Sea, so we would watch us set off and head towards the sea.

We had plans for that evening so we would get changed, grab tea in the buffet and then head down to the internal promenade where I watch the Bob Marley tribute act known as the Hott Sands, who also did plenty of other performances around the ships playing different types of Caribbean inspired music.

From there, it was into the theatre once again to this time watch a Rock and Roll act known as The Boulevards and they were excellent- even with a bit of an issue for the lead singer when his guitar strap broke.

They played a mix of 50s and 60s music and whilst not my favourite type of music, its stuff everybody knows, and they did a great job of performing it.

I should also mention the cruise director, Cruisin Susan, who was one of the better ones as she got across what she needed to and let you get off after the show without taking up too much of your time as so many do.

After a couple of late nights and early starts, the next day was a sea day and that allowed us to have a lie in, so with breakfast missed, we started the day by heading down to the Sorrento’s pizza parlour for a coffee and then another quick walk around the outside promenade deck, before heading up to the buffet for lunch.

With this been out last chance to do a lot of things on the ship, we would take advantage of the decent weather once again in the afternoon to do out favourite things including some more table tennis, mini golf and watching people crash out on the surf simulator.

Then it was back to our room to get changed, check on our new friend, before once more popping up to the Windjammer buffet for tea and the heading down to the theatre for to watch Grease- the ships West End, or Broadway if you prefer, performance.

It is a show I have seen a few times before, both touring ones and on the West End, but have to say that it was one of the better renditions of the show that I have seen and big raps must be given to the cast as they were all excellent.

Following that, we headed straight to the promenade for Rock Britannia Street Party, which is something we have never really experienced on any of the other lines we sailed on and was something that I was personally looking forward to before cruising with Royal Caribbean.

Thankfully, it lived up to the hype and was just some good fun, with people of all ages and nationalities just having a good time together and that is really part of what makes cruising so special.

This particular street party featured the music of British bands and singers from down the years but there were plenty of different options, although an earlier one based on music from musicals clashed with Grease, which seemed poor planning.

The next day saw us wake up pulling into the cruise dock in the heart of Rotterdam for our last full day of our getaway and what a spectacular setting you get when docking in The Netherlands second city.

Behind the terminal are huge skyscrapers and some historic dockside buildings whilst in front of your is the city centre of Rotterdam.

To one side is the start of the vast port of Rotterdam whilst the other side is the iconic Erasmus Bridge, and it is that bridge that the vast majority of those heading off on shore will walk over to start with.

Whilst crossing and from the banks of the river at the other side, you get great views of your cruise ship, and it is the Willemskade waterfront that me and my wife would head to first.

We had an early departure from the city but if we had longer, I would have jumped on the cities underground, where from just a couple of hundred metres from the cruise terminal you can jump on a direct train to Den Hague, or The Hague.

The coastal city is full of history and is somewhere I have wanted to visit for some time but with us having to be back early afternoon, we stuck to the city of Rotterdam itself.

From the banks of the Nieuwe Maas, we continued to the Veerhaven, which is full of older ships and has the feeling of been a museum, despite been a working harbour.

If you are there in summer, you can walk into the Het Park or to the Euromast, but we continued into the city and to the museum quarter starting with looking around some of the outside sculptures of the Kunsthal and then a walk through the museum park to the Art Depot Museum, a art museum which gives a great reflection of the city on its glass outer shell.

From their it was a short walk to the Arminius church, and then a look at Witte street before heading up to the historic Oude Binnenweg shopping street and the Santa Clause statue.

From there, you are at the start or the Westersingel, a tree lined boulevard with a central waterway that has now become a sculpture walk and a busy spot for locals and tourists alike.

It’s around a 1km walk from one end to the other and we did the full length of it as it takes you to the cities train station, which is another striking building and along the way there’s lots to look at including some interesting architecture, some sculptures and a modern church with a ‘different’ look to it.

From the Central Station, it was a short walk, or at least it should have been, but roadworks made it about twice as long as planned, to the New Delft Gate, a piece of art designed on the old gateway into the city, which still houses some of the stonework from the original.

We then headed to the city’s town hall, or Stadhuis, which is impressive but it’s hard to get a really good overview of it with no main square outside it.

It does sit on the Coolsingel main road, which goes straight back to the cruise terminal, via some of the main shopping areas of the city, if that’s your thing but we still had plenty of things to visit and do, starting with a visit to the Pomms food stall, which offers nothing but chips and sauce.

As you would expect, they are very good at it, and it makes for a great snack, but it was chips with peanut sauce that my wife really wanted to try, and they lived up to the billing she had read about online.

We did have to wait for the stall to open, so did some gift shopping at the nearby underground shopping centre, next to the cities World Trade Centre, that links two sections of the Beurs district together and after finishing our snack, we headed to the historic Schielandshuis building.

Next, we headed for the Wezen Bridge which gives you a great view of something altogether different, city centre surfing.

Yes, you read that right! If you are a surfer, why not give it a go surrounded by historic building and modern high rises of the centre of Rotterdam?

I am certainly not a surfer, so after watching some succeed and some fail at it, me and my wife continued to the St Lawrence Church, which backs onto a large walkway with a large market (although it wasn’t on on the day we were there), the cities library, a public transport interchange but perhaps the highlight of this part of town is the cities Market Hall.

Part street food market, part shopping centre and part apartment block, the outer shell of the striking building features some apartments.

Inside, it is a bustling food market, with stalls offering food from across the globe and many having seating above them for you to enjoy your purchases.

We chose a Turkish bakery, where me and my wife shared a cheese PIDE and it tasted just as good as it looked!

From there, its back outside, diagonally across the main walkway and over the one of the iconic tourist attractions of Rotterdam- Kijk-Kubus Museum, or cube houses.

These striking building, which some are lived in, some are a museum open to look around and some are hotel rooms, but we would just walk through the central walkway that runs through them and onto the Oudehaven- an historic harbour.

This is a beautiful part of the city and has some incredible building around it and it also gives you access to the Wijnhaven, a long waterway that you can walkalong that goes back towards the ship and stops at the cities Maritime Museum.

There is a free to visit outside part of the museum that is well worth visiting and features some historic boats, some cranes, some interactive displays and even a train.

From their it was a straight walk back to the cruise terminal, back across the Erasmus Bridge and after another ice cream, we would get ready to watch us sail from the city centre of Rotterdam to the North Sea, where you sail past the city centre and the massive Rotterdam port.

It is something I have wanted to do for some time as I have visited the port numerous times before on board a ferry, but they dock at the coast, so aside from driving along it for a bit, I have never got to the see the port too much.

If you find working ports interesting like I do, it is a fascinating sail away and something I would recommend getting up on the top deck for as there is lots to see on both sides of the ship.

We even sailed past the Iona cruise ship, which was in dry dock, and one of the ferry’s that I have sailed on and all whilst snacking on chicken and chips from onboard chippy.

We had an early start and a long drive home, so we would simply head down to the balloon drop on the Royal Promenade before grabbing tea and heading back to our room to pack up for the morning.

After departing from the Horizon Terminal, we would arrive at City Terminal, which is where we were originally due to depart from and after a bit of delay to our arrival, we were soon off the ship and back to our car.

The Independence of the Seas, or simply Indy, is a Freedom-class of ship owned by the Royal Caribbean Group and operated by the Royal Caribbean International line.

She was one of the biggest cruise ships in the world when launched in 2007 and whilst many have overtaken her, she still has an impressive size to her, especially her width.

Since launching there have been many changes to her including adding some flumes and a kids splash park, and that has just added to her family friendly nature which was added to on our sailing as it was during the October half term holiday for some kids in the UK, which meant there were plenty of children onboard.

It has a relaxed atmosphere and lots of activities and attractions offering plenty to do around the clock, so if you like to keep busy whilst on holiday, she is a great choice for you.

Without giving too much away from my main review, which I would recommend reading or watching before ailing on her, she is one of my favourite ships and one would love to sail on again.

These are just my brief thoughts on the ship here as I have already done an in-depth review of the Independence of the Seas which can be viewed via the link below.

Our state room was 9403, or room 403 on deck 9, which was right at the back of the ship and an inside cabin.

We usually aim for a more central position but with hardly any choice of cabins left when we booked, we took this one and it was a perfectly fine stateroom position.

There was no noise over passengers or entertainment venues, no movement and no vibrations from the engines, which are all issues I have had in the past.

Despite been an internal, it had plenty of space, plenty of storage and everything you need including a safe, a comfy bed, a large screen tv and a glass shower door.

The only real issue I would say with the room is the lack of plug sockets and especially USB ports which is an easy fix as these can just be added to lights etc, so I am not sure why it hasn’t been done yet and also its position, where you have a long walk to the lifts or stairs but that is something we new before booking, so no complaints overall.

I have only written my brief thoughts on the room here as we have already done an in-depth review of the cabin, which can be viewed via the link below.

So, overall, we had some great days onshore, a fantastic ship, everything went well for departure and arrival at Southampton and even the weather played along, so to sum things up overall I can only say that it was a fantastic getaway and a trip to remember for sure.

A shorter cruise from a local port is an ideal way to try a new line, and that was one of the main reason for booking it and I suppose that the best way to give you an insight in to my overall thoughts is that I would defiantly cruise with Royal Caribbean again and on a longer cruise- in fact I had a look at what was available for next year as soon as I got back off of this one.