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Mariner of the Seas Review 12/12/10 - Pics Included


Poorplaya

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Mariner of the Seas review 12/12/2010

 

Day 1: Embarkation

The day started off with an 8:10am flight out of Phoenix to LAX, flight was virtually empty which was great, we were in and out of LAX in no time, and caught out pre-booked shuttle straight to the port of San Pedro.

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Embarking at San Pedro was quite easy, no issues at all, checked in within minutes and waited to board the ship for about 20 minutes or so.

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After boarding the ship and getting pictures taken for ship cards, the wife and I headed to the Windjammer for some lunch. Nothing to jump up for joy about, but it hit the spot and actually was not as crazy as I thought it was going to be.

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Rooms were ready at basically 1:00pm on the nose, and within 20 minutes of getting to our room, our room steward Randy from the Philippine Islands introduced himself and made sure we had his direct phone extension to make sure we could contact him if there was ever anything we needed. We has cabin 7598 which is a balcony room, great space in my opinion, very clean, with a great position in the middle of the ship.

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We made sure to head up to deck 12 for the Bon Voyage party, got a few drinks from the sky bar, and watched the sun set over San Pedro. The weather was actually warmer then we had expected it to be, and when we left that day there was not a cloud in site.

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That evening we had dinner in the main dining room, not all of our luggage had arrived before we had left for dinner, but while we were at dinner, Randy our room Steward made sure to bring in all of our remaining bags for us so they did not sit out in the hallway.

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After dinner, we spent a little time in the casino, getting to know the people that would be seeing quite a bit of us over the next 7 days.

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After that it was up to the Wig & Gavel Pub for a few drinks, along with great music by Shane Tapper, who was absolutely fantastic the entire cruise performing music in the Wig & Gavel. I highly suggest that if anyone cruising with RCI in the future and see his name on your cruise compass, please go and see him, his music is great, and he is a great crowd pleaser. It was off to bed after that as it was a long day.

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Some other pictures of Day 1

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Day 2: Sea Day

We had a light breakfast delivered to the room, it was about 25 minutes late, but it was the first morning so it really did not bother us at all. After breakfast, we walked the ship a little bit, checked out some of the other bars and lounges, and of course the wife had to check out the shops along the promenade. The promenade by the way, in my opinion, is one of the best ideas ever thought of.

Of course we had our cruise critic meet and greet on deck 14 at Ellington’s Jazz bar at 11:30am. Great to see so many people there, over 100 for sure and my wife won a t-shirt in the raffle drawing.

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After the meet and greet and a little shopping, it was back to the casino for some more cards and slots. Grabbed lunch at the windjammer, and headed back to the room for an afternoon lay down, the wife took a nice nap, and I just watched some TV and enjoyed the view from our balcony. I must admit after only sailing on Carnival previously, the TV options on RCI were far better than what was available on Carnival. I know most of us are not in the room enough to really watch much TV, but knowing it was available to me if need be was great to know.

Dinner that evening was fantastic, we had a table change because of a mess up with dining arrangements with others in our group, so we moved from deck 3 to deck 4, but the serving crew we ended up with on deck 4 was absolutely great. They were very very friendly and always full of energy every night we came for dinner. Rahmon was our waiter and Donovan (exact spelling of my name) was our assistant waiter. Everyone was dressed great for formal night, and it actually looked like almost everyone at least on our floor actually were dressed to the dress code for the night.

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After dinner it was the usual stop by the Wig & Gavel with my parents, and our other family friends that we were cruising with for drinks and music by Shane Tapper.

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We became very very good friends with the waiters/waitresses and bartenders in the Wig & Gavel, they knew us by name after night one, and knew what it was we were drinking, which was always Crown Royal and spite. Sue Anne, Ransom, and Karen were absolutely fantastic to us, we could not have asked for a better group of people to take care of us night in and night out the entire cruise. We stopped by the casino for a short while and then it was off to bed a little early because it was Cabo San Lucas in the morning.

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I guess I had a few too many that night. :D

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Day 3: Cabo San Lucas

The day started off with watching the sun rise from our balcony and then entering Cabo San Lucas at about 8:30am.

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We grabbed some breakfast in the windjammer, and then it was off to get ready for the day. We tendered into Cabo about 10:30am, went through the quick bag check point at the pier, and of course, walked through the swarm of locals asking about glass bottom boat tours, and every other tour you could think of out there. Very annoying, I was about ready to lash out at some of the guys that would not let it go, I really wish there was something RCI could do about that because it makes it so hard to just walk off the pier and do your own thing. So we wondered down the pier some more and ended up stopping at a place called Baja Cantina, recommended by our family friends that were cruising with us, the food was fantastic, the service was great, and we had a great view of the pier, some of the nice yachts that were docked, and of course a view of the Mariner tendered in the cove.

After lunch we took a Cab to the Los Cabos Golf Resort where my parents hold a time share. We spent the afternoon by the pool, drinking Corona’s and just relaxing. My parents know the staff there very well, and they were very kind to us. It was a great relaxing afternoon and after that we took a cab back to the pier, and took a tender back to the ship about 4:15ish.

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We headed back up to the room and took a little nap to regain some energy after sitting in the sun all day. About 7:00pm we joined our friends in their grand suite 1598 for a little party with some snacks, beer, and of course Crown Royal. The suite they had was really nice, great space, and the bar set up was fantastic, wish we were able to book one, lol.

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Dinner was fantastic as usual, although there were definitely plenty of empty tables in the dining room that evening, I think it was probably geared towards how much energy people lost on the first port day.

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After dinner it was back to the Wig & Gavel for more drinks with the family and music with Shane. The casino was quite tonight for the first time, again probably because of how tired people were from the day. Headed back up around 1:00am as Mazatlan was our next stop in the morning.

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Day 4: Mazatlan

We got into Mazatlan at about 7:45am and it was very very foggy out that morning. We ended up docking right in between the Carnival Spirit and the Sapphire Princess.

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We got off the ship about 10:15am and took a taxi pick up to the golden zone, $12.00 for 5 people one way. We bartered with a guy on the street. It’s the easiest way to save money out there. They dropped us off right outside of the Diamonds International shop so the cab driver could get his kick back from the store. We walked through some of the shops there, and after a while found a place called Anthony’s which some friends of ours had recommended. We had a few beers and got some guacamole dip which huge for only $4.00. The wife and I shared it and we were both very full afterwards.

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After a nice long lunch, we went through a few more shops before taking another cab ride back to the ship, only $15.00 for 9 people, what a deal. We got back to ship shopping area where we picked up some Cuban cigars at a decent price, the lady would not bargain on that stuff, but it was real so I couldn’t complain that much. We headed back to ship for a little quite time on the balcony which became rudely interrupted by 2 machines tearing apart the cement on the dock as I guess they are doing some construction, very loud, kind of ruined the late afternoon but what can ya do.

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I will say that the wife and I could definitely skip Mazatlan all together, was not a port we enjoyed very much at all, and if we ever do a Mexican Riviera Cruise again, we’ll probably stay on the ship for this port.

That night we went to see the ice show, got some great seats, the first show was much easier to get into then the second one would have as there was about triple the people waiting to see the second show. Glad we went to see the first one. The show was amazing; some really great talent skated in this show. We really enjoyed going and got some great pictures as well.

 

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Dinner was another great menu, however the deserts on this menu for the night overall did not go over well with the table. Cakes were dry, the deserts lacked any overall flavor, which was kind of a bummer.

 

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But oh well, off to the Wig & Gavel for drinks, and music. By this night, not only did everyone working the Wig & Gavel know all 7 of us going on a regular basis, but so did just about everyone else going to the Wig. We became quite popular in that bar which made going back all the more enjoyable because we made some great new friends there. Did a little gambling afterwards and it was off to bed for Puerto Vallarta.

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Day 5: Puerto Vallarta

This port was probably one of the nicest places my wife and I had ever been to. We really liked everything about it, the beaches, the shopping, the food, and the people, just overall much nicer than Cabo or Mazatlan. We walked the shopping area for a while before deciding to stop and grab a bite at the Bubba Gump Shrimp Co. Great place, very lively, amazing food, we loved it. We got some great souvenirs there as well at pretty good prices considering we obviously could not barter with these people at all.

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After that we walked down the beach for a while, and got some great pictures of all of the man made sand sculptures along the beach line. Some of these pieces were absolutely amazing and must have taken quite a bit of time to complete.

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After that we decided to head back to the ship for a little afternoon power nap so we could get pictures of the sunset and watch the Carnival Spirit leave port before us, hoping they wouldn’t be backing into any piers of anything like that lol.

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That night we checked out the ventriloquist show with Ron Lucas. He was absolutely hysterical. He put on a great show, great for the family, but we were really glad we did not miss that show.

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We headed to dinner after that for some much needed sustenance before heading to the Wig & Gavel to get a great view of the 70’s show going on in the promenade.

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After a few drinks it was off to the casino with a quick stop in the Dragon’s Lair Night Club before heading off to bed around 2:00am

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Day 6 & 7: Sea Day

The next two sea days for us were quite relaxing for us; we got a late start to both days sleeping in a bit without having to stop at any ports. The wife and my mother played in the day 6 slot tournament, my wife made it to the finals but did not win unfortunately, the grand prize was a cruise for 2 on the Freedom of the seas for the Royal slot tournament which I thought was a crazy prize.

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After the slot tournament it was lunch at good ol’ Johnny Rockets. Great food there, very busy, but we loved it, my wife and mother even got up to dance with the waiters, it was surely amusing.

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Dinner that night was our second formal night; it was a very nice night. The rest of the time was spent relaxing around the ship, gambling in the casino, and spending time in the Wig & Gavel.

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We did check out the Variety show on day 6, it was ok, but not something I would highly recommend you get great seats for on your next cruise.

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Overall Thoughts:

The vacation was fantastic; Mariner of the Seas is a great ship with great people working on it. If I had any complaints at all, it would be the people working in the shops were not very nice, but I can ignore that, finding an ash tray in the casino was harder than trying to win money, and the casino pays out slots in actual coin, either quarters or dollars, that was kind of annoying. But you know if that is all I have to complain about, then the trip went pretty darn well. I would to thank Randy our room steward again for his service, he was amazing, very nice, and really made our trip something to remember.

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We can’t forget of course Sue Anne, Karen, and Ransom in the Wig & Gavel for their fantastic service throughout the cruise, they were absolutely great and I highly recommend if you are traveling on the Mariner soon, please go and check them out. Please if you have any questions at all, please feel free to ask, I’ll be happy to answer whatever I can.

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Very nice review Donovan...and I loved all of the photo's you included. Pleased that your overall take on the lovely Mariner of the Seas was positive, especially the staff :)

 

Would like to get several of the photo's you included, primarily the ones that have several of our Roll Call folks in them as I recognized many people you captured unaware :p

 

I'll go back thru your review & list which photo's I would appreciate receiving (hope your willing to share), such as day ?, photo # etc. Should I post my request here, or on the AZ thread? I will also include my email addy, if needed.

 

Again, fabulous job on your review :D

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Day 4: Mazatlan...Dinner was another great menu, however the deserts on this menu for the night overall did not go over well with the table. Cakes were dry, the deserts lacked any overall flavor, which was kind of a bummer.

 

Yeah, sometimes I find this true in the MDR. Fortunately, I can always get good desserts in Cafe Promenade. Plus, there is always scoop ice cream for dessert in the MDR.

Maybe next year you can come to Galveston for another Mariner OTS cruise -- or New Orleans for a Voyager OTS cruise.

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Hi Donovan...thank you for such a wonderful review! You and your wife make such a cute couple.:)

 

My question is in regards to the differences between Carnival and RCI. I know you mention the television, which matters some to me, because hubby sometimes spends time in the room laying around :o. I have not been on RCI and I am looking now at some different class ships.

 

We are not very picky cruisers and often go with the flow, so tell me some more differences/similiarities please? Thanks!

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Very nice review Donovan...and I loved all of the photo's you included. Pleased that your overall take on the lovely Mariner of the Seas was positive, especially the staff :)

 

Would like to get several of the photo's you included, primarily the ones that have several of our Roll Call folks in them as I recognized many people you captured unaware :p

 

I'll go back thru your review & list which photo's I would appreciate receiving (hope your willing to share), such as day ?, photo # etc. Should I post my request here, or on the AZ thread? I will also include my email addy, if needed.

 

Again, fabulous job on your review :D

 

Hey Nonnie, just post them in the az thread, i'll be sure to keep an eye out for the posting, then we can exchange emails and I can email you everything. Glad you enjoyed the review, and the cruise.

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