Mariner of the Seas 1/13/2013 PHOTO REVIEW

Day 1

Sorry this is a bit late but having to come back to school after being on vacation really makes coming back that much harder. Anyways, this is the story of a family vacation starring myself, my DW, son, BIL & SIL, and my wife’s parents.

Our vacation begins with a drive from Katy, TX to Galveston Sunday morning. Katy is just west of Houston so it was about an hour and a half drive to the port. We dropped the girls off at the terminal and parked the cars and headed in to start the check-in process.

We had heard about the long waits during both embarkation and disembarkation in Galveston this year but we had no issued on either this trip. Last year we had a fog delay during embarkation and we had to sit for 2 hours until they even let us in the terminal. We didn’t even leave the port until about 9pm.

This time, about noon, we walked right through security, checked in, and headed straight to the ship and were on by 12:20pm. Once on board we headed straight to the windjammer and we know it starts getting crowded real quick for lunch if you make onboard that early. My wife went straight for the honey stung friend chicken and of course it did not disappoint.

I have to say, after that meal, I don’t think any of us ever felt hungry the rest of the trip. There was always something to eat and I think we all took full advantage of that.

My DW and I splurged a bit this trip and booked GS #1578. Man what a room! I’m not sure how we will ever be able to go back to a balcony. Not that a balcony is a bad room or anything but just wow what a difference.

Thanks for your review! I love the pictures! Will you be posting any more? :D

So after showing off our room to the rest of the family, we walked around the boat a bit and then all met back at our room for sail away and to watch the Texans game. Sailaway was nice and pretty chilly but obviously the Texans game was not.

Waiting for the muster drill.

After the game we got ready for dinner and headed to the Welcome Aboard Show. We have seen a few of these but they are always entertaining. We got a sneak peak at the comedian, Jeff Nease . He was pretty funny. After the show we headed to the MDR for late seating dinner.

Our waiter was Hongshan Li and our assistant waiter was Mohammad Fekih. Both were great and we enjoyed their service as well as their company for the entire week.

For dinner, I had the fruit medley, Caesar salad (I have one of these every night!), mushroom pasta, and chocolate cake with ice cream. My DW had tortilla soup (not very good) and prime rib (very good!).

Tortilla Soup:

Fruit Medley (forgot to take a pic of a full bowl. It looked so good!)

Mushroom Pasta (again looked so good I forgot to take a picture)

Prime Rib

Chocolate cake and ice cream (see a trend here)

After all the anticipation of the day we were pretty worn out so we headed up to our room to enjoy that a little.

Day 1 in the books!

Looking forward to more. Thanks.

Thanks for the report!

Great review! Grand Suites are so comfortable! We are forever spoiled! :p

Great review! Grand Suites are so comfortable! We are forever spoiled! :p

Thanks. I think we are too. Might have to wait a but more in between cruises to be able to afford a GS!

Thanks for your review! I love the pictures! Will you be posting any more? :D

Oh yes we took almost 700 this trip so may more pics to come.

Oh yes we took almost 700 this trip so may more pics to come.

Yea!!!!!!!!! :D

Great review! Grand Suites are so comfortable! We are forever spoiled! :p

Try an Owners Suite and you will be even more spoiled! :D

Right on time needed to feed my addiction we board Mariner next Sunday yippee one week left

The Mariner was our first RCI ship, and we sailed in suite 1568........

It was a great sailing.

We enjoyed her also

Later

Great pics and review!! Looking forward to more!

Enjoying your review, thanks for posting it.

Great start! Thanks for all the FOOD PORN!!

Betty

Just started following, the room looks huge, thanks for doing this :)

Excellent pictures and review thanks

Can't wait for the rest!

NIce to see your pictures. We were on the same cruise. I brought the camera, but didn't take even 1 picture, probably because we'd been to all the ports many, many times. We too were in a GS -1278. DH won't go in anything less on RCI as he got spoiled a few years back when I surprised him with the upgrade.

NIce to see your pictures. We were on the same cruise. I brought the camera, but didn't take even 1 picture, probably because we'd been to all the ports many, many times. We too were in a GS -1278. DH won't go in anything less on RCI as he got spoiled a few years back when I surprised him with the upgrade.

Yes I'm afraid that is what is going to happen to us. If the price is right, you just can't beat the extra space.

Great start! Thanks for all the FOOD PORN!!

 

Betty

I LOVE FOOD PORN!!! (Nothing weird like windjammer food porn though :D)

Day 2

I have to mention here we have been on the other RC itinerary out of Galveston that goes to Cozumel, Grand Cayman, and Jamaica twice before and the first 2 sea days are at the end of the week. With our itinerary this week, the 2 sea days are at the beginning of the week and I have to say I do like having them towards the end of the week. We found ourselves very excited to get this cruise going so having to be on the ship 2 days to start kinda left us being impatient and wanting the ports to get here. I also like having 2 sea days to relax on the way home after 3 straight port stops. Yes, that is it. That has to be the one “complaint” I have on this cruise and it’s not like it’s controllable so I go over it real quick!

Ok, day 2 was all about my DW! Her birthday was a few days before we left so this was the day we set to celebrate it on the ship. I had reservations setup for lunch at Giovanni’s Table and it did not disappoint! We ate family style so we all tried a bit of everything. I don’t know how any family could eat all the food they gave us! I also have to say that the tiramisu was THE BEST I’ve ever had (Sorry mom). We had a little bit everything and I can't find one thing I didn't like. All great food.

Chicken stuffed with ricotta cheese

Giant stuffed shrimp

Lasagna

Eggplant Parmesan

Chocolate cake and tiramisu (OMG)

While I’m thinking about it, I do have another bone to pick. I couldn’t make a reservation for 7 people for lunch that day online so I called the RCI line to find out if they could. I checked many lunches and dinners throughout the week and nothing seemed to be available. I ended up making 2 different reservations for 3 and 4 people at the same time for the lunch online and then just had the concierge put the reservations together and that was no problem. When we got to lunch, the restaurant was EMPTYYYYYYYYYY!!!!! I don’t mean only a few tables, I mean COMPLETELY EMPTY the entire 2 hours we were there. I only mention this for people who may have had a similar experience with making reservations by calling or online. Make sure you check with the restaurant itself when you board because obviously there is a big disconnect between the ship and the RCI system.

Moving on…………

I also set up a massage for my DW while the rest of the family hung out by the pool. The weather was great on Monday although the water was a BIT cold! That didn’t stop my son though as he had a blast sloshing around the water while the ship was rocking. After that big lunch and playing around, we went to relax in the room a bit and get ready for our first formal night.

I have to say, we are not tuxedo and cocktail dress people so I do apologize to the people who find that unacceptable. We are dress and tie people though so we didn’t try to go in with shorts and tank tops either so I hope we get points for that.

For dinner, I had some type of seafood ricotta appetizer (sorry forgot the name), chicken marsala, and tiramisu. All was very good! My DW had roasted garlic soup (her favorite), chicken marsala, and a chocolate mousse cake. As another surprise, I had a birthday cake brought out for dinner for all us as well. We were so full between lunch and dinner that I don’t know how we ate that cake but man it was SO GOOD! They sang happy birthday to my DW which was nice except that I think we heard the happy birthday song about 8 other times that night too. It must have been a popular night to bring out the birthday wishes. It was a great day for her I hope.

Roasted Garlic Soup

Ricotta Appetizer

Chicken Marsala

Waiters Singing for us

Chocolate Mousse Cake

Tiramisu

We went back to the room after dinner and met our first towel animal. My son was very excited to see him. Pretty cool elephant.

Elephant

Great review, thanks for the post.