I recently sailed on a 8 day cruise on the Royal Caribbean Independence of the Sea's and was disappointed on the way a situation was handled with their staff. I was in need of women's sanitary products on day 2 of my 8 day cruise and visited the gift shop to purchase. To my amazement they had a shelf for these products but, only a few products were available. I requested a sale's person for assistance and inquired why they only had a few limited items for a ship of over 4,000 people with approximately 2,000 women? The salesperson stated that they would search for more products in the back and came back and only found one item for me to purchase. I asked them if they planned to stock up on products on the first port and he stated they wouldn't stock up on any depleted items until they docked back in Ft. Lauderdale 6 days later! I requested a manager and expressed my disappointment and not only was he short but, dismissed me as if my request and disappointment was not warranted. In addition, the ship only had a few machines in the lady's restroom and they were all empty so I essentially had no options for a week other than to buy the one package they had available which of course was highly overpriced. I have to say, I have been on many cruises and have never experienced not being able to purchase something that I needed in an emergency situation. Carnival always had a full stocked gift shop and I was really turned off by RC and their attention to detail in this area and sensitivity to women. The manager wasn't even open to providing a discount for the product or provide me anything in lieu of the inconvenience. Royal Caribbean needs to be more invested in the needs of women and provide adequate inventory for necessary items to serve their customer base.

As far as the rest of the cruise experience, the ship overall was beautiful and well designed. I didn't care for the food at all! This was the biggest complaint among many of the people I met on the ship. This was very disappointing because for the expense you would hope to have options that are appealing. They had options that were self pay but, you expect the options that are provided to be of standard or better. I did appreciate that they are big on keeping your hands washed and have hand washing stations as you enter the dining area and multiple published signage throughout the ship.

This was a full ship charter so the activities and entertainment were above board and amazing. The excursions were not the best and overpriced. I wouldn't suggest purchasing an excursion through RC, you are better off taking a cab and experiencing the island on your own or booking a tour of your choice from a local vendor.