Mariner review - Eastern Caribbean 6/13-6/20

This was my 3rd cruise. The first two were with Princess, so this was my first with RCI. I can't really say one was better than the other. There were things I liked better about Princess (the food, the freshwater pools, the 24 hour buffet restaurant, the decor), and things I liked better about RCI (the entertainment, the more spacious rooms, the showers). Overall, I enjoyed the cruises on Princess better, but that isn't a slam on RCI. The reason I enjoyed Princess more was because I discovered the Mariner was a bigger ship than I prefer. I like to feel like I'm on a ship, and a lot of the time I couldn't even tell I was on a ship - especially in the Royal Promenade. However, I wanted to try the Voyager class ships, and since we were taking my two teenage nieces with us it seemed like a good time to do it because of all the ship offers. I'd like to try one of the Radiance class ships and probably will next time. This is just a matter of personal preference and is in no way intended to imply that the ship wasn't wonderful, because it was. The other reason I enjoyed the Princess cruises more has nothing to do with the cruise line. I have no children so I'm not used to traveling with them, and I found traveling with my two teenage nieces to be a bit of a challenge. We'll just call it a "growth experience" and leave it at that.

DAY 1 - We had an early morning flight out of Baltimore and arrived in Orlando at 10:30 am. I had a reservation with Cartier Town Cars and our driver met us at baggage claim with a sign with our name on it. We grabbed our luggage and off we went. Cartier Town Cars includes a complimentary grocery stop, so we stopped and got a case of diet Sprite which I can't seem to live without for a week. We were really happy with this service and I would use Cartier again. We got to the ship about 5 minutes before noon. I don't know if we were just really lucky, or what, but we breezed through the embarkation process and were on the ship by 12:15. It was great. We couldn't get to our room until 1 pm so we went to the Windjammer for lunch. It was extremely crowded and hard to find a table, but we eventually did. At 1 pm we went to our room - #8522 with a balcony. The girls were across the hall from us in an inside room. Wow, these rooms seem so much bigger than princess. We have a full size couch and plenty of room to store our stuff. I think the rooms on Princess are much prettier, but the space here is great. That afternoon we spent exploring and everyone unpacked except me. This is because everyone had their luggage by 2:30 pm except for me. Mine didn't come until almost 6pm. I was getting worried because I was afraid mine was lost. Well, I worried about it a lot until I went up on deck for the sailaway and had a drink (a Love Connection). That mellowed me out quite a bit and my luggage didn't get left behind after all. We had main seating for dinner, so at 6pm we made our way to the dining room. We were on the main floor of the dining room, in Rhapsody in Blue. I have to say that we had the best service in the dining room I've ever had anywhere. Simply amazing. Our room steward, on the other hand, was just okay. Not terrible, but not great. We had no real complaints but he wasn't very friendly and once or twice he forgot to fill our ice bucket, and forgot to give the girls fresh beach towels. Not a big deal, just not outstanding. Dinner the first night wasn't great, but it definately got better throughout the week. I think the first night is always a little difficult for the crew. I got the chicken philadelphia and it wasn't very good. My mom got the fish and it was much better. Oh well - I didn't have to shop for it, cook it or clean up after it so I couldn't complain too much! And like I said, our waiter and assistant waiter were simply outstanding! That evening the girls went to Fuel to check out the teen happenings. They only stayed about 15 minutes and decided it was stupid and no fun. I wish they had stuck it out because I think they would have met other kids, but they were convinced that everyone else brought along a friend and no-one was interested in getting to know them. I find that difficult to believe, but I'd be interested in hearing from other people on the same cruise who had teens with them. Our kids went back again once or twice but never felt comfortable. I discovered that you can't "make" teenagers like something. Just a part of that growth experience I was having. Anyway, all 4 of us went to the Welcome Aboard show. I thought it was kind of fun - the kids thought it was hilarious. Somewhere in there I made my donation to the casino - the first of many donations. We were tired from all the traveling so we went to bed fairly early.

DAY 2 - NASSAU We went on the Rainbow Reef Snorkeling excursion. RCI is definately not as organized as Princess with their shore excursions. There was a lot of milling about on the pier with no-one really knowing where to go. On Princess we always met in one of the lounges for excursions and it seemed a lot more efficient and stream-lined. But we eventually got going. This was the first time snorkeling for the girls and we all really enjoyed it. Afterwards we walked around the straw market and Samantha (my 14 year old niece) had her hair braided. She was loving me because I was bargaining for her both for the hair braiding and a few things she bought. After that I spent the afternoon at the pool. That night the show was Tony Tillman. We weren't expecting much from it, but wow, he was fantastic. I laughed so hard I was crying. Really entertaining - don't miss him if you have the opportunity! After the show we went down and watched the first round of Karaoke Idol competitions, made our donation to the casino, and went to the late night comedy show with Ralph Achilles. None of thought that it was really worth staying up so late for, but it was okay.

To Be Continued....

Mariner of the Seas 06/2004

Grand Princess 01/2002

Ocean Princess 02/2001

I like your honesty and candidness(sp?). Keep it coming. Sounds like you still had a great cruise all in all!

Sea Ya when I Sea Ya!!!

"We can change the world in our minds, but only our actions will make the difference!"

"Best friends are like broken elevators...They'll never let you down!"

Mariner of the Seas Again 4/05

Mariner of the Seas 7/04

Enchantment of the Seas 09/03

Voyager of the Seas 04/03

Carnival Fantasy 09/01

Honeymooning on the Mariner!

Hi. Glad to hear you also had a good time like us. I had 3 kids with us. My 19 year old son made many friends, which was no surprise to me. He is very outgoing, and can talk to anyone. Now my 16 year old son surprised me. He is not as outgoing, but he also made some friends. My 21 year old daughter was happy hanging with us, or laying by the pool.

Liz

I find myself agreeing with our poster. This was our 1st voyager class plus traveling on season in many years. The ship was beautiful and weather perfect. We had an owners suite which was just wonderful. But as for myself I find I enjoy one class of ship down. Though traveling with almost 3700 passengers the Mariner was handeled well and many times you were not aware of the capacity of the Mariner Our biggest problem we experienced was a great deal of difficulty with the elevators during the cruise. Our bank of elevators which were the aft set. Coming off these were all the restaurants,pools,childrens and sport decks. My mom who could not go up and down 4 or 5 decks via stairs often had to wait 15 to 20 minutes during busy times such as dinner and show time. There was one major problem, if an elevator stoped at your floor and had no room and even though no one was able to get on all the others passed you by even though they had room.

The other problem was not RCL problem but the port. Our poster arrrived via a commerical carrier which had the 1st drop off. We arrived by ourselves at 11:30 and spent 35 minutes trying to get to luggage drop off for passengers driving themselves. You had to drive past the main terminal to reach this point. There were no signs to state this nor anyone to direct you. It was quite confusing and no one seemed to realize you needed to pass the terminal on the outer line to reach the area. My daughter waited 45 minutes in line.

We had a fantastic crew who served us and did have a good time. As I said it is personal to the size of your ship preference. I really enjoyed the Headliners shows, found the new singer/dancers wanting. I also agree with the food statement. Menus on Princess and the Carnival Pride were much more extensive. We have sailed on most lines and find pros and cons on all ships. I also found the inside which my daughters occupied was smaller than Pride I did enjoy this cruise but our next cruise is April to Panama on Radience class ship

Thanks for the review! And don't worry about offending anyone by not liking the Voyager class. ;) That's why they make so many different types of ships. If everyone liked the same ones, they wouldn't be different! :cool:

You're in Powder Springs, We're in Douglasville!

Unfortunatley, we are on the Mariner in November. Have to wait longer I suppose.