Cindy

Now that I'm home and have better internet access, here's what I was told by various people on the Mariner this week...

When we were booking for next year, I asked Christina what she had heard, and I specifically asked if RCCL was leaving Galveston. She said she couldn't imagine them leaving, and thought the more likely scenario was a year-round ship. The captain also alluded to a year-round ship in comments to various people (the captain's comments are second hand information from other passengers).

Last night when we went down to the CL, Luca was all smiles when he told us Navigator would be staying in Galveston. I got the impression it was very new news, and he was sharing it with people as they came in. Right after that we went down to Vintages, and our waiter there also had the same information. He is going on vacation when the ship gets to Asia, and he already has his next contract...in Vintages on the Navigator.

I have no reason to think this is just a rumor...I can't imagine Luca telling everybody if it wasn't official. I know the cruises aren't showing up on the RCCL site yet, but that's their IT department for you!

I think it makes sense for RCCL to bring a full-time ship back to Galveston. They're not making any money in Europe right now, and I don't think they can send the whole fleet to China!:rolleyes: I never thought Royal would pull out of this market completely. Even if they're not the most profitable cruises, they sail full every week without heavy discounting. I think if RCCL pulled out completely they would be conceding a huge chunk of the country to another cruise line. Whether it be Carnival, Princess, or Norwegian, if people became comfortable with those lines when they cruised from Texas, that's probably the first place they'd look when they cruised from another port.

As for the Mariner, wow...by the time she leaves port tonight the ship will already look very different. They were throwing out the casino carpet as we were leaving the ship this morning, and there was a huge crane on the pier to load construction materials. They are taking out a lot of bars (I think they said 7) to make room for more high-end shopping and gambling. The jewelry store was closed all week, and had a "grand re-opening" at noon yesterday. I'm not sure what they did, because it didn't look any different to me. They were doing construction all week to create a new Logo shop in the starboard side of Boleros, and that opened yesterday as well. The big Logo store will be repurposed for a different type of merchandise.

This one makes me sad...Vintages is coming out.:( What a shame! They spent a lot of money on it in the drydock, and it's just lovely. The area off to the side -- where the TV is will already be blocked off for construction when people board today. That part of Vintages is going to be a Michael Kors store, and then the bigger part of Vintages will become a Coach store.

We took a galley tour yesterday. Interestingly, the menu really isn't changing. I think he said they were replacing one soup and two appetizers, but the menu for the most part will be the same.

They are adding lots of Chinese staff, both in the galley and throughout the ship. Some of them, like our cabin steward, are experienced and very good, but there are others who have a LOT to learn. All the employees in the stores now are Chinese, and frankly some of them just don't know what they're doing. Many of the photographers are also Chinese, and they're so new that they have to consult their iPad between each pose to see what shot comes next!

I'm thrilled the Navigator is coming to Galveston, and I hope I love that ship the way I love the Mariner. I do kind of wonder what their thought process was though...why make all the changes to the Mariner to turn around and rip it out a year later, when you have the Navigator that hasn't had the upgrades yet?:confused:

I don't think I would want to be on the TA that's leaving today...the construction is going to be excessive, even though the powers that be claim otherwise. I found it annoying on our cruise, and this morning they were basically loading up and preparing for a major renovation project with passengers on board.

I think that's all. I'll take a look at my iPad later and if I jotted down anything else that was interesting I'll post it! For now I'd better deal with the suitcases and the laundry.:(

Cindy, please make my day and say that Luca is transferring to Navigator. He is my favorite concierge!

I would love that, but unfortunately it looks like Luca is headed to the Legend once the Mariner gets to Asia.:( He said that since the Mariner is replacing the Legend in Asia, quite a few of the staff and crew from the Mariner are going to the Legend, and Legend staff is being transferred to the Mariner.

Disembarkation update...about 15 minutes from Chops to standing outside the terminal! We're on 45 already. :D

Dylan, the concierge just told us it may be earlier than that...it depends on how long it takes to get everything on board.

TEXASMUNK, the staff just got the word yesterday. I figure it will take the IT folks a few days to catch up!

Mariner isn't leaving until 10:00 tonight...they are loading a bunch of construction stuff for "Asianizing" the ship.

Great news, Ms. Cindy!!

 

If you can't trust the Vintages manager and Concierge, then who can you trust?? :p :D

 

VR,

 

T Lex

 

P.S. seriously, it sure looks like something is brewing in respect to Navigator remaining in Galveston after April 2014. Now if Royal will just put that up on their website!

Lots of staff transferring to the Navigator after the Mariner gets to Asia...they are ecstatic. More tomorrow. Cindy

Official...as per the concierge and Vintages manager on the Mariner as of April 20...Navigator is staying in Galveston year-round!!!:)

I'll have more details tomorrow...we've just come back from the Chops wine-pairing dinner, and I'm having a hard time seeing and typing right now!:rolleyes:

Official...as per the concierge and Vintages manager on the Mariner as of April 20...Navigator is staying in Galveston year-round!!!:)

I'm on the Mariner right now. The loyalty ambassador does not think Royal Caribbean is pulling out of Texas. She thinks they will be leaving the Navigator there year-round.

As of 9:00 this morning, they hadn't received new deployment information. Believe me, there are lots of people checking!

The "Asianization" of the Mariner is is full force this week. :(

Update from the Mariner...we talked with Christina (the LA) this morning, and she said she seriously doubts Royal will pull out of Galveston. She said the more likely scenario would be a year-round ship. I mentioned that the information should be out tomorrow, and she said she doesn't think so...they're still waiting for last week's release.

We booked Navigator for April 6th next year...the Roatan itinerary. :)

Boarding was very late today...it was pushing 12:30 before they started. By the time they started boarding, it had gotten very uncomfortable in the terminal.

No matter...we're here now!

Cindy, have a great FINAL cruise on Mariner! Almost posted on your Roll Call but figured it was gauche to "crash" it. :p

 

Sure hope for good news next Thursday. And we're locked and cocked for Navigator next March.

 

In YOUR favorite cabin, of course! :D :D

 

BR,

 

T Lex

Thanks! We're leaving in about 30 minutes!:)

Do you still have the gmail account? I have some pictures I want to send you when we get back. Nothing like waiting a year!:rolleyes::o

Welcome back, Mariner! If you folks who are on the ship right now would be so kind as to disembark quickly, I would appreciate it!:D Thank you very much!

Does anybody know if Luca is back on the Mariner, or if Sebastian is still there? I need to send an e-mail to make a request for next week.:)

 

Thanks!

Update...Luca is back in the CL on the Mariner. I got an email from him about 9:30 this morning.:D

Does anybody know if Luca is back on the Mariner, or if Sebastian is still there? I need to send an e-mail to make a request for next week.:)

Thanks!

When you devise a new plan, there is always one option you forgot.

 

In the case of self-disembark...it means you get to stand in linen with 1,300 other people wondering why you thought you were so clever for carrying all your own stuff of the ship.

 

I love it, it moves all those folks into one long conga line while the rest of us grab a porter and breeze through customs!

 

I encourage more folks to join the CONGA line in the future!

I need a "LIKE" button for this!:D

Thanks Carla, we'll definitely follow that advice!

 

This week is creeping.........:rolleyes:

Hey Becci! I have some cruise instructions for you...please bring her back in good shape and on time!:D Have fun!

I don't really trust anything that's free...there has to be a catch!:rolleyes: I went with Smug Mug when Webshots became Smile:) which was really more of a Frown:( to me. I chose a "Power" account, and I have been extremely pleased with the site and the available products. Yes, it's a little more expensive than some of the other options out there, but I like that I can easily make my pictures public or private as I wish, and uploading/rearranging/putting pictures on CC:D is simple!

About the available products...I discovered "Blurb" through Smug Mug, and made a good friend of ours a photo book for Christmas. It was beautiful! I have made a couple other albums through Shutterfly and Snapfish, but I thought the Blurb book I made was exceptional. One of my long-term projects is to get a lot of my old photos organized and printed into albums, and I will use Blurb again.

Carla,

Separating the self-assist from the regular disembark passengers should help. Last March we had the escorted suite departure, but it didn't matter because we still got stuck behind the line of over a thousand self-assisters.

That is just what we're saying Lex, there is just no rhyme nor reason why Galveston seems to be having these problems...especially since we never had the problem with Voyager, it started at least for us with Mariner???

 

We have done most of the Florida ports and never had the problem we have here. In past cruises out of Galveston before Mariner, we were off and in our car in about 30 minutes sometimes less! All our Mariner cruises here in Texas have been the Western Itin that included Roatan and then finally they added Belize. I do think the increase in self assist has something to do with it. We are going to go by our exit colors this time. I plan on sitting as long as possible. We'll see what Texas Munk has to say...hope to hear from him tonight.

We had the same thing happen getting off the Voyager in 2008, and that was the Jamaica-Cayman-Coz itinerary. It was afternoon before we walked out of the terminal.:(

I think the unlimited/uncontrolled self-assist contributes to the problem. If over 1,000 people get off all at once, there's no effective or fast way to process them, so the line backs up for everyone else.

I know Princess capacity controls theirs, and on my one HAL cruise they did also. Even self-assist passengers get a number and they are let off in groups just like the regular tag passengers are.

The long lines doesn't happen every week, when I went this last March it was fine. Two weeks before our cruise it was very bad but found out 4 customs officer's called in sick that morning with no replacements and they only had two. This isn't RCI problem it's the terminal.

I agree that the port has to bear some of the responsibility, but we've had two nightmare (3 hours) disembarkations in Galveston...one off the Voyager and last year off the Mariner. It really ends a trip on a sour note. We've taken 6 non-RCCL cruises from Galveston -- all very crowded times on big ships -- and we've never had a problem disembarking.

A Galveston disembarkation note...

I picked my mom up from the Crown Princess yesterday morning. It only took her 25 minutes from being on the ship to standing outside the terminal waiting for me.:)

I'm still hearing stories about LONG disembarkations off the Mariner. I wonder why RCCL seems to have such a hard time improving the Galveston disembark?:confused: If Princess, Disney, and Carnival can get it figured out, Royal Caribbean should be able to do it also!

Wow! This thread sure fell off of the radar...had to plow down to page 12 to find it. Hope my post wasn't the " kiss of death " to it! :D

 

Cindy, if you're still with us, would appreciate if you...or any of the long time cruisers out of Texas...would check out post no. 59 on our thread for spring break, March 9, 2014. Looking for possible sanity check on something I recently didn't find on RCL itineraries for TA 2014. :rolleyes:

 

Thanks!

 

VR,

 

T Lex

I'm not holding my breath...I saw a post a couple days ago from someone who's on the last Galveston cruise that's currently available and they said suites are sold out already (in anticipation of the TA/doing a back-to-back). However, since I will be on the Mariner on April 18th, I may just have to mosey on down to the LA that day and get the scoop!:D

You're right...no crawl will ever end the way last year's did! We don't even have an OS this time...we downsized to a GS. We got a little spoiled with those awesome prices last year!

A few more favorites --

HAL Noordam in Half Moon Cay

Oasis in St. Thomas

All lined up in St. Maarten!