Another sign of Aging in this cabin is down here look at this what’s going on there is that mold or is that like from salt water or something doesn’t look Nice good morning everybody I am just waking up here on the Independence of the Seas I guess I’ve been awake for maybe like 40 5 minutes I’ve been awake long enough to put on clothes brush my teeth and film The Cabin tour which is probably online already and I have a
Little bit of time in the cabin alone because my sister who I’m cruising with who is cruising for the very first time has gone to breakfast in the main dining room and if you know anything about me and my eating habits you know I ain’t going to breakfast in the main dining
Room and if you don’t know anything about me I’m Morgan from the very unofficial travel guides I’ve been making travel videos for over 15 years of popular and not so popular tourist destinations to give you a very honest unofficial look at what it’s like to be
There nobody pays me to go anywhere and see anything I just kind of go there and tell you like it is and I also have a book out telling a little bit about what I did before I started making YouTube videos how I started making YouTube videos and then there’s 10 true stories
Of things that have actually happened to me while traveling around the world including having to get stitches on a cruise ship and that’s the title of the book it’s available on Amazon now check it out okay today I wanted to go through some of the things that my sister has
Been talking about that just for me as somebody who’s been on a lot of cruise ships have made me think hm and unfortunately a lot of them are kind of negative points and the reason I say unfortunately is because it’s my sister’s first cruise and I wanted it to
Be fantastic for her obviously unfortunate because I feel like the trend at the moment on YouTube is to be actively negative because that is somehow what YouTube likes to push out out into people’s YouTube feeds and unfortunate because I feel like I don’t know I hope it’s just this ship but I
Feel like Royal Caribbean might be kind of going downhill a little bit this cruise that we are on is like I said on the Independence of the Seas we left Miami we had a sea day we had a day in lobid which was amazing now we have
Another Cay to sail back to Miami and we disembark tomorrow so it it’s a shortish cruise with just one stop in yeah if you have to stop one place lobid pretty good place to do it and first of all I want to tell you about some things that have
Been really great in addition to our day on lobid the pool deck and the amplifications that Royal has added to the top deck of this ship are really great they added some water slides they added this big round thing that I think used to be something else and now it’s
Kind of used as a multi-purpose place where we’ve gone up there to play ladder ball and we’ve played bean bag toss and they have other activities in there but can somebody please tell me me what was that originally it it had something to do with like bungee cords and VR glasses
Right if you know what it is please write it in the comments below not the comments above the comments below why do why do we say that like they are only below I’m sorry we people who make YouTube videos sometimes we just get into habits also the shows we’ve seen so
Far we saw a show called invitation to dance I think is what it was called and uh the ice skating show which was called Freeze Frame the talent amazing the costumes amazing however both of these shows are the old school style of Royal Caribbean shows which in a way I
Prefer because they’re not trying to tell some kind of artsy story it’s really just about singing and dancing and entertaining and having fun or ice skating and having fun but just as an FYI the technology used in these shows is still older technology so the newer shows have people flying through the air
They have drones they have many more moving light objects if there are projections happening in the show they will be the highest resolution of projections available at the moment on this ship the opening curtain of the dance show that we saw it looked like you can buy a projector that will make a
Better signal than this projector for like $180 at Target now than what they’re using on the Independence of the Seas the first impression of this show was that it is really outdated just because this projection was so bad and I know I know these are all first world problems
Because hey I’m on a cruise we’re having a fantastic time that’s not what this video or any video on the very unofficial travel guides is about this is about sharing my experience with you so you know what to expect when you get here and if you have been on one of the
Royal Caribbean ships with the newer shows I think you’re going to be kind of surprised if you come on the Independence of the Seas because these are older style shows I have to say this in between the service on board has been absolutely topnotch we’ve had great experiences with our cabin Steward with
The weight staff in the main dining room in the buffet and my sister is such a fan of the cruise director already she she thinks that would be such a fun job which yeah of course I think it would be too and we also had a great time playing
Name that tune Disney even though we didn’t win two of the other activities we’ve done that I talked about have been ladder ball and bean bag toss or in the midwest we call it cornhole cornhole and these are sort of like yard games that you play at picnics and things like that
I think most of you know how these games work and we played and we had a good time and my sister almost won ladder ball go Minnesota girl and I also went to play pickle ball one morning and actually pickle Ball’s happening right now but I didn’t go and I’ll tell you
Why the conditions of the like apparatuses I don’t know how to say it in English right now the stuff that we were using to play pickle ball and ladder ball and bean bag toss very tired people like falling apart tired and this is something that I didn’t even really
Think about and I think I you know I’m in the luxurious position that I cruise many times a year my sister is in like the opposite position that this is her first cruise ever and it’s you know because of that there’s a lot of expectations a lot of things Weighing on
It I wouldn’t have even thought of it but my sister mentioned to me last night when we were having a nice glass of wine that she’s surprised at the poor state of those fun things and I thought yeah you know you’re right like how difficult is it to replace a broken cornhole board
I mean these things were like falling apart I don’t know if I got a video of it but they are like way bent in the middle and the legs they have to stand up kept collapsing and they had to put it back up and I just thought yeah come
On Royal Caribbean can’t you buy a new one is that what you want to be presenting your guests the handles on pickle ball were also just totally falling apart and threadbear and the one I had to use like my hand was all sticky afterwards because the glue was
Disintegrating and I know this is just a minor thing but I guess like I said for somebody like my sister who it’s her first cruise and so many other people who may only do you know one Cruise a year or one Cruise every couple of years you kind of want everything to be
Perfect and of course it’s never going to be all perfect there’s always going to be Things That Go differently than you expected or a little bit less than what you were hoping for but like I was talking about with my sister replacing uh cornhole board or re getting a new
Ladder ball ladder or you know wrapping a new grip around a pickle ball paddle those are like really easy wins that Royal Caribbean at least on this ship seem to be kind of overlooking there’s been another huge issue that I want to tell you about that I would never have
Noticed or thought about if I hadn’t done this cruise with my sister and before I tell you about that I would just really like to invite you to subscribe to the very unofficial travel guides I don’t only do cruising videos but kind of mostly do cruising videos
The next big trip I have planned is going to be another trip to Orlando where I will be showing you some of the fun things to expect in the theme parks from my perspective as an almost 50-year-old man who still likes to ride roller coasters so if you’re interested
In seeing videos about all that kind of stuff and more consider subscribing and pressing the notification button all right if you’ve been watching videos on the very unofficial travel guides for a while you know I have a specific diet and I’m kind of a picky eater because I
Don’t like to eat meat and I also don’t like to eat certain very popular vegetables like mushrooms G who likes mushrooms and that can sometimes make going out to eat at restaurants on land or especially here on the ship going to the main dining room that can make
Things complicated for me well my sister eats just about everything except gluten so my sister is Gluten Sensitive that means she can eat a little bit of bread or have a sip of beer or something but if she goes too far then it just doesn’t end well let’s say that and I didn’t
Realize this and I assumed actually the exact opposite but at least here on the Independence of the Seas this is kind of a big problem my sister has been having kind of a struggle finding gluten-free options especially in the buffet I need to be maybe a little bit more specific
And I can do it from my perspective as well as somebody who eats vegetarian that doesn’t mean that I just like to eat vegetables people who don’t eat meat don’t just eat salads for every meal there are so many other options like tasty p pasta things like Mexican food
Like Indian food like Mediterranean food there are so many great dishes that can be prepared as a main dish or an appetizer that don’t have meat in them not just salads so I guess one of the main complications that we have run into for people who need to eat gluten
Friendly on this ship is not necessarily that there aren’t glutenfree things offered like salads like fresh fruit and things like that it’s been more or that the things that they prepare specifically as gluten-free have just not been good like gluten-free pancakes gluten-free bread gluten-free buns I
Don’t eat gluten-free so I don’t know I have to take my sister’s word for it but she’s been saying that those specific gluten-free products are like the lowest level of gluten-free products that you can get now that I’m back home I just want to elaborate on this food situation
A little bit more here is a perfect example of the independence of the or Royal Caribbean just kind of missing the ball as far as gluten-free options goes in the buffet for several meals the only gluten-free desserts being offered were ice cream fresh fruit or Jello-O and my
Sister’s like yeah I mean I like ice cream but there’s just so many easy options to make gluten-free desserts and there should have been some there and I know from spending time with her and her family now in Orlando just a couple months ago actually that was just last month
Doesn’t matter there are so many really tasty prepackaged gluten-free cookies and brownies and baked goods and like how hard is it to just have a bowl of prepackaged cookies and brownies at the buffet seems like an easy win but nope you want a dessert have some Jello-O
Also up on the pool deck there’s a relatively new dining venue called fish and chips they offer fried fish french fries or chips and chicken tenders and they had nothing gluten-free and my sister’s like you can go to literally any sporting event in the United States just about any restaurant any fast food
Restaurant and definitely any Disney park and it is super easy to get gluten-free chicken tenders it’s like one of the Staples of glutenfree items anywhere on any menu how can it be that Royal Caribbean one of these like leading entertainment travel Cruise companies does not offer gluten-free
Chicken tenders it’s like step one so yeah I mean it might be nitpicking but I can understand from her perspective that when so many other things have been disappointing and then you think okay there’s always gluten-free chicken tenders I’m just going to get some gluten-free chicken tenders it’s kind of
Like comfort food and then they don’t even have that I get it I can understand why that would be disappointing I thought Royal Caribbean would be more in tune to catering to that specific uh dietary restriction because I know how much better oops the battery ran out on
My camera so I’m filming with my iPhone now anyways I’m just saying that I was surprised that Royal Caribbean apparently doesn’t cater more to the gluten-free or gluten friendly diet people please let me know if this has been your experience as well if you are somebody who has a gluten situation let
Me know which Cruise Line do it better if it is all together on Royal Caribbean or is it maybe just that the chef here on the Independence of the Seas kind of doesn’t do it it’s not something I really thought about because that doesn’t affect me specifically and I’ve
Been finding the vegetarian options really just kind of okay on this cruise but like I said I don’t put like so much weight on it because for me it’s just one of many cruises but from my sister it’s a really special thing and so that’s why she notices it even more I
Guess as always I’m interested to hear your opinion on not just the gluten-free thing but all these things have you cruised with Royal Caribbean lately how has the experience been have you noticed like I have now that like the last couple of Royal Caribbean ships I have
Cruised on have been the harmony of the Seas and The Wonder of the Seas two really big really much newer ships and you know I know that the Independence of the Seas is not one of their newer ships but I know that it had been Amplified I
Was just also in a little bit more expecting it to just look a little bit more new and it hasn’t been like that in case you haven’t watched the cabin tour let me just show you the couch real quick do you see how nasty this looks is
That what you would expect from Royal Caribbean you know what I mean another sign of Aging in this cabin is down here look at this what’s going on there is that mold or is that like from salt water or something doesn’t look nice is Royal Caribbean going downhill or is it just
This ship or just this Cruise let me know what you think about all that in the comments and I look forward to seeing you here again soon Bye-bye he
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