Just Off the Mariner!

We just got off the Mariner yesterday after 9 nights from Galveston. Something has got the be done about the excessive smoking. First of all, both Wig and Gavel and Boleros Bar are smoking which renders them both useless to us. The Champagne Bar is directly above Boloeros and the smoke drifts upward and ruins that bar as well. We went to Eliingtons but smoking is allowe in the 19th Hole and smokes drifts over from that. The port side of the ship on 11 allows smoking and walking by there was like a smoke stack.

To make matters worse, there were smokers in the two balcony rooms forward of us that seemed to smoke all th etime. Each time we went out on our balcony, guess what? We used our balcony less this cruise than in the 15 cruises prior. There was even cigar smoke on the balcony beside us. We did call customer relations and get that stopped.

It seems there were way too many smokers on this cruise. Not sure what to do but it would be nice if a ground swell of support could contact RCCL and ban all smoking.

I'll be on the Mariner this upcoming Sunday and will report what I find with the Smoking situation. I didn't think Texas was big on smoking?

I sailed Liberty back in 2009 and I don't remember smoking being a problem. Perhaps Liberty has a no smoking policy? I can't remember.

Other than the smoking, how was the cruise?

None of the ship's are entirely "no smoking".....

We've never been bothered by smokers....most of the time, the smoke blows right away. Sure, you may smell it for a bit, but it's certainly not like being in an enclosed, smoky space.

I was hoping for something a little more substantial judging by the title. Can you tell us anything else about the cruise? ;) I for one, am dying to know about the regular entertainment - Schooner, Pub, reggae and nighclub bands.

Just conjecture but based on other threads it seems Mariner has a few more smoking OK locations than other ships and it may be due to time spent in Mediteranian area where there are more smokers. Once they set up an area it would be difficult to clean and convert back to non-smoking every year. Perhaps one small reason they left Brilliance in the Med for several years.

RestonCruiser... any of the crew/staff say anything about the April 2012 dry dock and things that might be getting done? Even small stuff?

When Mariner first came to LA, many of us complained about the smoking policy on our comment cards. Eventually they made Bolero's and Wig & Gavel non-smoking. But W&G was empty after that, so it went back to being a smoking bar before Mariner left LA.

I often noticed that the people smoking in Bolero's were wearing uniforms, and that very few passengers lit up, which may be why the economics weren't so bad for that.

Sorry they changed it back. I always hated that lungful of smoke as I came down the stairs.

So an email to C&A might be in order - they do keep track of such things, and it could lead to a change. Good luck!

To make matters worse, there were smokers in the two balcony rooms forward of us that seemed to smoke all the time....

 

It seems there were way too many smokers on this cruise. Not sure what to do but it would be nice if a ground swell of support could contact RCCL and ban all smoking.

Sorry to hear this. We are sensitive to smoke as well. However, you will never get a complete ban on smoking, ever ever. It just will not happen.

...We've never been bothered by smokers....most of the time, the smoke blows right away. Sure, you may smell it for a bit, but it's certainly not like being in an enclosed, smoky space.

:rolleyes: Obviously OP is bothered. Just because you are not does not make their point any less valid. Please try and be a little more sensitive to the situation.

I was hoping for something a little more substantial judging by the title.

Agreed. OP, got anything more for us? :D

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There will never be a complete ban on smoking. So you couldnt use those few spaces. Go somewhere else. As far as your balcony. Im sorry to hear that. But unless RCCL bans smoking on the balcony (which Im not sure about) dont book a balcony. Its pretty simple really. Just avoid the places they allow smoking. But you left out the more important things like....how were the chair hogs?....how were the drunks??? Geesh....

how about the ship, dining, ports, galveston?????

There will never be a complete ban on smoking. So you couldnt use those few spaces. Go somewhere else. As far as your balcony. Im sorry to hear that. But unless RCCL bans smoking on the balcony (which Im not sure about) dont book a balcony. Its pretty simple really. Just avoid the places they allow smoking. But you left out the more important things like....how were the chair hogs?....how were the drunks??? Geesh....

I'm just off the ship too! I agree that the smoking seemed pretty bad, but we found other places to go. We sat outside the Wig & Gavel pub and it wasn't too bad. We went to Vintages Wine Bar and there were hardly any smokers there. We were there quite often and had some good wines! The ship is generally in good shape, although it will go to drydock April 22nd for painting and a general freshening up according to Capt. Flemming, who by the way gave an excellent "Captain's Corner" talk. It was worth attending and he took 30 min. of Q&A's after the talk. There weren't too many chair hogs because this cruise had a huge number of older passengers. We never had a problem getting pool chairs at either pool and did not see very many of the obligatory towels and books saving seats. Lots of people sleeping on the lounges in the afternoons at the Solarium. Hardly any kids on this cruise...only 80. However, this week there are supposed to be 900 kids onboard. Whew!!! The entertainment was good at every venue we went to. Ellington's in the Viking Crown was smoke free and I really didn't smell much smoke coming from the Sports Bar...only 3 people were in the Sports Bar! Not a lot of people overindulging in alcohol either. Like I said, this cruise was an older crowd and I think it had a lot to do with it being a 9 day cruise. Even one of the comedians made a couple of jokes about it.

We went to Tabyana Beach and snorkeled in Roatan. We thoroughly enjoyed it. It was a pretty beach (had lots of shade trees) and it was wade-in snorkeling at a beautiful coral reef. We had a great guide on our snorkel tour. I would definitely recommend it! Belize was a little rustic. It's a 15 min. tender from the ship! The water is very shallow around the island and the captain said they probably don't have the money to dredge for a port. Reminds me a little of Jamaica. We did the river cruise and Belize zoo. It was a 7 hour excursion in the sun and rainforest. Too hot and too long! In Cozumel we just got off the ship and shopped then stopped for Some lunch at Abuelo de Gerrardo's on 10th Ave. Norte (upon someone's recommendation). It was good food and great prices! In Grand Cayman we caught a cab and went to Seven Mile Beach. Rented umbrellas and beach chairs and ate a burger at the grill there ($18 for burger & small coke). We've snorkeled with the Sting Rays before and that is great! You don't arrive in GC until 10 a.m. and leave at 6 p.m. This is ship's time so it really got dark at around 5 p.m. ship's time. Last tender is at 5:15 p.m. in GC. It took about 2 hours to get everybody tendered into GC. You will have to get a tender ticket unless you are on a ship's tour. After 4 ports we were pretty tired and definitely ready for those last 2 relaxing sea days.

Paul Rutter is the cruise director and he did a good job with all the shows, the Love & Marriage Show, the Quest, etc., and all the other activities onboard. He was very approachable and a nice guy.

Embarkation was a little hectic due to personnel shortages (we sailed on a Friday) and all the crew having to get cleared thru immigration. They didn't let anybody on the ship until 1 p.m. so you can imagine how many people were crowded in there waiting. Debarkation went pretty smoothly, except the escalator broke down so everybody had to be rerouted down to Deck 1. Not a big glitch, but unexpected for sure. We were the 2nd group (after self-disembarking passengers) and we were out of there by about 10:45. Took about 1 hr. 15 min. after disembarking before we got luggage, went through customs and into the car.

Hope this info helps a little... :)

To those who just got off...do you recall if Gregory or Josten are still around in the Champagne Bar or Vintages? Thanks.

Thanks for all the info CGBCRUISER.

I do have a question about Grand Cayman.... If you arrived 10am ship time, that would be 11am Grand Cayman time. I have an excursion scheduled in Grand Cayman and it says to meet them at noon (grand cayman time). Do you think this would be doable? I'm sailing in a GS and I think we get priority tendering but may be wrong (first time in a suite). Also how long does the tendering take? thanks.

I haven't put down a deposit yet for this excursion so I still have time to cancel. I'm sailing Mariner on Sunday.

Thanks.

Thanks for all the info CGBCRUISER.

 

I do have a question about Grand Cayman.... If you arrived 10am ship time, that would be 11am Grand Cayman time. I have an excursion scheduled in Grand Cayman and it says to meet them at noon (grand cayman time). Do you think this would be doable? I'm sailing in a GS and I think we get priority tendering but may be wrong (first time in a suite). Also how long does the tendering take? thanks.

I haven't put down a deposit yet for this excursion so I still have time to cancel. I'm sailing Mariner on Sunday.

 

Thanks.

Yes, 10 a.m. ship time is 11 a.m. Grand Cayman time. It only takes about 5 minutes to tender into the dock in GC, but we didn't get off the boat until 11 a.m. because we didn't have a ship's tour scheduled. You could definitely be there by Noon. They told us they were handing out tender tickets at 9 a.m. in the Lotus Lounge but they ended up handing them out beginning at 8:30. We were group #9 to get off the ship and we got the tender tickets at about 8:55.

To those who just got off...do you recall if Gregory or Josten are still around in the Champagne Bar or Vintages? Thanks.

I never saw any entertainment in Vintages. We never really were at the Champagne Bar...just walking past it.

We had a tour in Grand Cayman that also met at 11:00. We got tickets for tender #3 which, was called first with #1 & #2. We were off the tender at 10:30 and had 30 minutes to shop before meeting Native Way. We took the tender back at 5:00 ship time and one of my favorite memories of the cruise was tendering back to the ship in the dark and seeing the ship all lit up! As said previously, they starting handing out tender tickets before 9:00, so get there by 8:30 if you need to be one of the first off the ship.

We had a tour in Grand Cayman that also met at 11:00. We got tickets for tender #3 which, was called first with #1 & #2. We were off the tender at 10:30 and had 30 minutes to shop before meeting Native Way. We took the tender back at 5:00 ship time and one of my favorite memories of the cruise was tendering back to the ship in the dark and seeing the ship all lit up! As said previously, they starting handing out tender tickets before 9:00, so get there by 8:30 if you need to be one of the first off the ship.

Thanks Marie and CGBcruiser for info about the Grand Cayman tendering.

Marie, when you said you had a tour that met at 11am, is that shiptime or grand cayman time? If the ship docked at 10am that's 11am grand cayman time, so wouldn't you of missed your tour?

I'm thinking of doing the Stingray Sandbar excurssion. It looks like a lot of fun and I'm nervous I won't make a 12:00 noon meet. They said the meeting point is the Royal Walter Cruiseship Terminal.

I'm surprised the ship is arriving at 11am local time, I'm used to 7am-8am docking times.

Sailing on mariner in Feburary and I haven't booked my flight home. I have been shopping and was wondering if I got a noon flight if I would have trouble making that flight. Probably going to fly out of Bush.

Sailing on mariner in Feburary and I haven't booked my flight home. I have been shopping and was wondering if I got a noon flight if I would have trouble making that flight. Probably going to fly out of Bush.

I wouldn't recommend a flight that early. Everything would have to go perfectly to make the flight.

Sailing on mariner in Feburary and I haven't booked my flight home. I have been shopping and was wondering if I got a noon flight if I would have trouble making that flight. Probably going to fly out of Bush.

When I got off the Magic this past Sunday at 6:30 a.m. the Mariner was already docked also. I do not know if they were already debarking. You would be able to make a noon flight if this holds true in the future and there are no problems with customs. But if the ship does not dock until 8:00 a.m. like in the past you would be cutting it very very close. It takes approximately 1-1/2 to 2 hours to get to Bush from Galveston on most Sundays once you leave Galveston.

Sailing on mariner in Feburary and I haven't booked my flight home. I have been shopping and was wondering if I got a noon flight if I would have trouble making that flight. Probably going to fly out of Bush.

Customs is a lot slower there than most places, the self debarkation started around 7:30 - with the escalator mess we were early with luggage and got out of the terminal at 9:30. They cannot handle crowds there - Fort Lauderdale has everyone off and cleared usually by 10:00 AM.

pilotboy...our tour met at 11:00 ship time and our meeting place was right as you walked off the tender (the covered area). Your meeting place is probably a 3 minute walk from where the tender dropped us off. We did the Rays, Reef & Rum Point tour with Native Way and I would highly recommend them. I have also done stingray city with Captain Bryan and Captain Marvin and they were just as good.

There will never be a complete ban on smoking. So you couldnt use those few spaces. Go somewhere else. As far as your balcony. Im sorry to hear that. But unless RCCL bans smoking on the balcony (which Im not sure about) dont book a balcony. Its pretty simple really. Just avoid the places they allow smoking. But you left out the more important things like....how were the chair hogs?....how were the drunks??? Geesh....

DON'T book a balcony? Really? Now that is a wonderful suggestion. You are kidding right? Wow.

I definitely would book a balcony! The smoking was not an issue on the balcony at all. I actually can't imagine NOT having a balcony!

We just got off the Mariner yesterday after 9 nights from Galveston. Something has got the be done about the excessive smoking. First of all, both Wig and Gavel and Boleros Bar are smoking which renders them both useless to us. The Champagne Bar is directly above Boloeros and the smoke drifts upward and ruins that bar as well. We went to Eliingtons but smoking is allowe in the 19th Hole and smokes drifts over from that. The port side of the ship on 11 allows smoking and walking by there was like a smoke stack.

 

To make matters worse, there were smokers in the two balcony rooms forward of us that seemed to smoke all th etime. Each time we went out on our balcony, guess what? We used our balcony less this cruise than in the 15 cruises prior. There was even cigar smoke on the balcony beside us. We did call customer relations and get that stopped.

 

It seems there were way too many smokers on this cruise. Not sure what to do but it would be nice if a ground swell of support could contact RCCL and ban all smoking.

.....our EXACT same issue too.....including the balcony smokers up wind from us 3 and 4balconies in front of us

Thanks for all the info CGBCRUISER.

 

I do have a question about Grand Cayman.... If you arrived 10am ship time, that would be 11am Grand Cayman time. I have an excursion scheduled in Grand Cayman and it says to meet them at noon (grand cayman time). Do you think this would be doable? I'm sailing in a GS and I think we get priority tendering but may be wrong (first time in a suite). Also how long does the tendering take? thanks.

I haven't put down a deposit yet for this excursion so I still have time to cancel. I'm sailing Mariner on Sunday.

 

Thanks.

We had an excursion at 1pm Grand Cayman time.....We would not have made it if it was noon. We were in tender group 11. If you have a "gold card".....you will make it with priorty tender....."gold card"=suite accomodations.