Back from Mariner 8/16

[LilNik]

I've always read everything you guys write, but never post so I thought I'd do a quick review because they're always so much fun to read!

We flew into LA from Cleve on Saturday night and stayed at the Ramada Inn at the airport. It was a very nice hotel, convenient, clean, and came with a wonderful-free-breakfast! We had arranged for Sav-a Shuttle to pick us up on Sunday at noon to take us to the ship. She arrived 15 minutes early and we were on our way.

When we got to the pier we were able to bypass the lines outside because we had our luggage tags, quickly signed our H1N1 forms and got in line with our set sail passes. It was 12:30 and the line was so quick we were on the ship within 20 minutes.

We had been on the Mariner last year in the Western Caribbean and stayed in an oceanview suite 8500. This year we were in a Royal Family Suite, 8394 in the back of the ship and it was AMAZING. The cabin had a doorbell, which the kids loved, by the way (Guess I should mention it was me, 37, my kids ages 14, 8 and 7, and my parents 61). We got robes, received a fruit basket, and got 2 chocolates on the pillows each night. The balcony was fabulous and now I understand why you guys say "once you go balcony you never go back." What a wonderful perk that was.

I'm keeping this short so I'll just briefly go over the highlights everyone seems to be interested in. The CD was Abe, who we had last year and we loved. What a great, upbeat guy. This was his last cruise until October, he's going on vacation, so we were glad to have him. The food was... just okay. I'm not a big eater, I tried everything, but needless to say I didn't gain one pound after the trip (yay me!!) Nothing was spectacularly delicious; it was good, but that's about it. My 7 year old barely ate at all and my 8 year old tried everything.

My 14 year old quickly joined the groups the first night and met a bunch of kids. They quickly proved to be great hang out buddies every night until his 1am curfew! The first night though there was a bit of an altercation between my son and another boy. Apparently another boy told my son in front of about 10 witnesses that he was going to punch him for no apparent reason. Some other words were said, but the reason I'm bringing it up is because an RCI woman in charge called the cabin at 12:45a to tell me this and inform me that they had the other boys name and cabin number and were going to be contacting his parents and banning him from some activities. She wanted to tell me that my son was fine, he was innocent, and that the situation was being taken care of. She then let me talk to him to reassure me. I was very impressed with the way it was handled, and although I was nervous about letting him out of my sight, I cut the cord and he was fine the rest of the week.

The seas were actually pretty calm, but Sunday and Monday, and then Saturday and Sunday were actually pretty cool, temperature wise. My kids needed a sweatshirt those nights so there was no swimming for us. And the wind was so very, very strong it was hard to enjoy playing putt putt on those days.

The ports were what I expected them to be. We got off the ship in each port but didn't stay long. In Cabo we were just going to walk around but ended up hiring a glass bottom boat for $40 (kids were free) and rode out to the Sea Lion colony (yes, there were sea lions there), and Lovers Beach. I don't advise getting out of the boat at the beach unless you're spry and in good shape. They let a woman out on our boat and she jumped out and got knocked underwater, completely soaking her and her belongings. It was a fun excursion, a bit dangerous with all the boats and jet skiiers flitting about, and there were no life jackets on the boat but it was definitely an experience.

In Maz we did the Beach, Land and something (sorry, can't remember the name) excursion that included the Paplana Flyers and then a resort to swim. The resort part was nice, pool was wonderful and we were able to go to the beach. The show was not something we were interested in, and the cab ride over to it was dicey at best. I don't personally recommend it, but I'm sure others might have a different view. When we left we actually said that RC should be ashamed of themselves for putting this excursion on there. I'm not one of those people either that gets annoyed by the locals trying to sell their wares, but even during the show they were trying to sell their t-shirts, etc.

In Puerta Vallarta we walked off the boat and hired our own guy. His name was Rene, and he was wonderful and a very interesting man. We got to see what we wanted in the time frame we wanted to do it in. It was well worth the money.

Disembarking was a breeze; because we were suite guests we had priority leaving, but it was quick and painless and we had Sav a Shuttle waiting when we got out.

All in all; the Mariner is a wonderful ship. It's beautiful, the personnel on the ship are great and friendly and treated us wonderfully. We took advantage of the suite perks; concierge, priority seats for the shows, etc. and would definitely love to go on her again. Sadly though, we're already booked for the Freedom for July

[willyguy]

Originally Posted by LilNik

I've always read everything you guys write, but never post so I thought I'd do a quick review because they're always so much fun to read!

We flew into LA from Cleve on Saturday night and stayed at the Ramada Inn at the airport. It was a very nice hotel, convenient, clean, and came with a wonderful-free-breakfast! We had arranged for Sav-a Shuttle to pick us up on Sunday at noon to take us to the ship. She arrived 15 minutes early and we were on our way.

When we got to the pier we were able to bypass the lines outside because we had our luggage tags, quickly signed our H1N1 forms and got in line with our set sail passes. It was 12:30 and the line was so quick we were on the ship within 20 minutes.

We had been on the Mariner last year in the Western Caribbean and stayed in an oceanview suite 8500. This year we were in a Royal Family Suite, 8394 in the back of the ship and it was AMAZING. The cabin had a doorbell, which the kids loved, by the way (Guess I should mention it was me, 37, my kids ages 14, 8 and 7, and my parents 61). We got robes, received a fruit basket, and got 2 chocolates on the pillows each night. The balcony was fabulous and now I understand why you guys say "once you go balcony you never go back." What a wonderful perk that was.

I'm keeping this short so I'll just briefly go over the highlights everyone seems to be interested in. The CD was Abe, who we had last year and we loved. What a great, upbeat guy. This was his last cruise until October, he's going on vacation, so we were glad to have him. The food was... just okay. I'm not a big eater, I tried everything, but needless to say I didn't gain one pound after the trip (yay me!!) Nothing was spectacularly delicious; it was good, but that's about it. My 7 year old barely ate at all and my 8 year old tried everything.

My 14 year old quickly joined the groups the first night and met a bunch of kids. They quickly proved to be great hang out buddies every night until his 1am curfew! The first night though there was a bit of an altercation between my son and another boy. Apparently another boy told my son in front of about 10 witnesses that he was going to punch him for no apparent reason. Some other words were said, but the reason I'm bringing it up is because an RCI woman in charge called the cabin at 12:45a to tell me this and inform me that they had the other boys name and cabin number and were going to be contacting his parents and banning him from some activities. She wanted to tell me that my son was fine, he was innocent, and that the situation was being taken care of. She then let me talk to him to reassure me. I was very impressed with the way it was handled, and although I was nervous about letting him out of my sight, I cut the cord and he was fine the rest of the week.

The seas were actually pretty calm, but Sunday and Monday, and then Saturday and Sunday were actually pretty cool, temperature wise. My kids needed a sweatshirt those nights so there was no swimming for us. And the wind was so very, very strong it was hard to enjoy playing putt putt on those days.

The ports were what I expected them to be. We got off the ship in each port but didn't stay long. In Cabo we were just going to walk around but ended up hiring a glass bottom boat for $40 (kids were free) and rode out to the Sea Lion colony (yes, there were sea lions there), and Lovers Beach. I don't advise getting out of the boat at the beach unless you're spry and in good shape. They let a woman out on our boat and she jumped out and got knocked underwater, completely soaking her and her belongings. It was a fun excursion, a bit dangerous with all the boats and jet skiiers flitting about, and there were no life jackets on the boat but it was definitely an experience.

In Maz we did the Beach, Land and something (sorry, can't remember the name) excursion that included the Paplana Flyers and then a resort to swim. The resort part was nice, pool was wonderful and we were able to go to the beach. The show was not something we were interested in, and the cab ride over to it was dicey at best. I don't personally recommend it, but I'm sure others might have a different view. When we left we actually said that RC should be ashamed of themselves for putting this excursion on there. I'm not one of those people either that gets annoyed by the locals trying to sell their wares, but even during the show they were trying to sell their t-shirts, etc.

In Puerta Vallarta we walked off the boat and hired our own guy. His name was Rene, and he was wonderful and a very interesting man. We got to see what we wanted in the time frame we wanted to do it in. It was well worth the money.

Disembarking was a breeze; because we were suite guests we had priority leaving, but it was quick and painless and we had Sav a Shuttle waiting when we got out.

All in all; the Mariner is a wonderful ship. It's beautiful, the personnel on the ship are great and friendly and treated us wonderfully. We took advantage of the suite perks; concierge, priority seats for the shows, etc. and would definitely love to go on her again. Sadly though, we're already booked for the Freedom for July

Thank you so much for all of the information looking forward so how many people were in the room and how many can it hold? Thank you.

[LilNik]

The room sleeps up to 8 people. There is a master bedroom with a bathroom (and tub), there is another bedroom that sleeps 4; there are 4 twin beds. Then the living room couch pulls out to sleep another 2.
We had 6 people, 3 kids and there was MORE than enough room for us, plus tons of closet space!