Just back from Mariner - Any questions?

We just sailed the Western Caribbean route from March 27th - April 3rd.

Mariner is a wonderful ship. It was my family's first time and they were very dubious about cruising but now can't wait till our next one! Hopefully Europe in 2006.

How was the weather??????? We leave on May 8.

Kim

I am glad to hear your family enjoyed the cruise. My family is going in May and they are also a little apprehensive. No questions.

Emily of Samemily

We sailed the Eastern Caribbean in March (look at that negative sign in my countdown clock :( !) We want to sail the Western next year in April. Would love to hear about Labadee and anything else you would like to share about the other ports of call. Thanks.

Did your cruise follow it's itinerary? Our 5/22 sailing has GC being on Wednesday according to the port schedule rather than Thursday!

Hope you had a great time~

Jacquelyn :D

We're going in October and can't wait. I'd love to hear about Labadee and Nassau.

I'm on the Mariner on June 19th. Can't wait!

Do you do any shore excursion? I am having trouble picking one (or several).

I would also love to see a full review.:)

We sailed the Mariner, Eastern, in Nov. and will be sailing her again this Oct.

Really looking forward to taking son and wife for their first cruise.

We love the Voyager ships, the ice show,promenade, and , and ,and

One question. Have they made any changes to the lunch menu in the dining room? Is it still a set menu each day?

O.K. Here are some answers...

We had great weather - beautiful sunny days until we got back to Florida. We did the airboat excursion on our way back to Orlando airport and it was FREEZING!

I wasn't expecting too much from Labadee but it was a beautiful location - just as you would imagine a typical Caribbean island. Very relaxing, with plenty of room for everyone off the ship to have a shady spot. We went on a banana boat and my 9 year old enjoyed the water park (but it was a bit tame!) Sailing away at the end of the day, sitting on our balcony, was one of our favorite moments of the whole trip.

Grand Cayman did follow the regular itinerary - we went on Thursday, along with 6 other cruise ships! The island has really suffered from the hurricane - we rented a car and saw how much devastation it caused.

We ate breakfast and lunch in the main dining room when we were at sea, and there were full menus for both, with excellent, speedy service. It was such a beautiful room that we weren't even tempted to use the Windjammer, except on departure day, and for our kids' dinners when we went to Portofino and Chops. (Both good, but, as you can tell, we loved the dining room too.)

Will write more about the other ports of call in another post.

cefh.

Ports of call:

Labadee - see above post.

Jamaica. We have been three times before so didn't want to climb the Falls again (though this is a great experience if you haven't done it.) I also didn't want to pay RCCL prices for excursions for fiive of us, so we booked Orville Taylor, who was recommended on these boards. He took us in a small bus with about ten other people tubing on the White River. It was perfect - exciting without being dangerous and very pretty scenery. He then dropped us off for lunch at a beautiful restaurant overlooking the Caribbean and picked us up when we had finished to drop us off at the port for some shopping before going back to the ship. He was very flexible and I would recommend him highly. He charged us $15 each, plus entry to the tubing, which was $20 each.

Grand Cayman. We rented a car from Avis. They pick you up close to the port and shuttle you to their office at the airport. Not a lot to see inland, but I gather the stingrays were fantastic. As I mentioned before, the island has been devastated by the hurricane, but we managed to find a nice little restaurant near the turtle farm for lunch. Hell is nothing to write home about!

Cozumel has some beautiful beaches. Once again we rented a car and did our own exploring - went right round the island and found some out of the way places on the east coast and inland. The last beach club on the south end was stunning and more peaceful than those closer to the port. I think it was called Club Playacar.

We are doing the western Mariner on July 31. We were thinking of that river tubing too. What is that river water like? Is it beautiful like the Caribbean? Do you see the falls or any other scenic places before, after, or while tubing? Are there movies shown onboard the Mariner? I see something called a screening room in the bottom. Do they have a list of movies being shown? Was Seven mile beach in grand cayman still in good shape?

Thanks for your information.

Who was your cruise director?

Glad you enjoyed your first cruise...they ARE addicting! :D

I'll be on the Mariner in late August, my only question at this point pertains to the children's programming...did you kids participate in it and what did they think?

Okay, I lied another couple of questions. :rolleyes:

- What stateroom category did you have -- any comments about your room?

- Which dining did you have with kids, early or late? Any comments on dining?

Thanks for sharing your experience! :)

RCI - CD on the Mariner through mid-May is Kirk

Macbasset, we just did the river tubing in Jamaica last week. It was a blast. The water is incredibly clear and refreshing. One tip - book independently. We did for our party of six and had 2 guides and just us the whole trip. We got to stop when we wanted (there is an area with a vine to swing on, etc), and had fun spashing, etc. the whole way down the river. We made arrangements prior to tubing to have lunch waiting for us (jerk chicken and cold Red Stripes!!!) when we completed the tube trip. While we were eating, the ship's tubing tour came off the river in droves. Sure glad it was just the 6 of us taking our own sweet time.

The tubing was one of the best times we've had in a shore excusion - I highly recommend it.

Opsoccermom - Who did you use for your river tubing excursion? We're debating between this and horseback riding. Did the falls last year and want to try something else. Thanks for the info!

OPSoccermom,

How do you book that river tubing independently? Who do you contact and how?

Another question about the river tubing, if you do it alone, say our family of 3, how do you know where you are going and when you have arrived there? Any chance of getting lost or overshooting the place you are to be picked up at? I mean if you arrange this independently.

Macbasset -

I would highly recommend the river tubing, and if you go with Orville he will meet you off the ship and take you anywhere you want to go. His website is geocities.com/orvilletay/ochorios.html.

There is a small screening room and they show movies on port days only. (Seems to be the wrong way round to me, but there it is.) They also show a couple of movies all day long on the stateroom tv's. We had The Terminal, Stepford Wives, Harry Potter etc. They are listed on one of the channels, and the Screening Room movies are listed in the Compass.

Seven Mile Beach seemed to be OK, the worst damage was on the other side of the island.

Ella2 -

The kids program was OK. Our 14 year old twin girls refused to take part in any of the teen activities, but our 9 year old boy enjoyed some of the activities for his age group. He picked and chose from the Kids' Compass that was left on his bed each night, but he got a bit frustrated with the fact that he went for specific events and they invariably changed them round so he had to do something different. Nevertheless, he had a good time.

Mariner has done a lot for teens, but from our point of view it would have been better if they'd left the water slide up and not added the teen rooms (which were empty every time we looked, and the ship was FULL of teens the week we went.)

We picked early dinner, which was a rush for us all to get ready, but the late seating meant that we would have to wait for the late show, which we wanted to see with the kids, and started at around 10:30 or so. Neither seating is perfect, but we preferred to compromise in order to dress up and eat in the beautiful dining room, which felt far more special than serving ourselves in the Windjammer.

We had two balcony staterooms on Deck 8 which, despite being small were incredibly ergonomic nad not at all claustrophobic, which we were worried about. The shower was great, the closet had plenty of space and lots of coathangers. We spent quite a bit of time on the balcony and it was very peaceful - even though it was a full ship. I would recommend taking your own shampoos, conditioner, body wash etc. They do provide the basics, but they are very basic!

From a personal point of view, I took my own down pillow, which I was glad about as they only have foam now.

We will be on Mariner in July and have heard different reports of the shows being before late dining and after late dining. Were the shows after on your cruise? Or is it different every night. Thanks.

Not meaning to hijack the thread, but another couple of questions about tubing and orville...

-I have a 7 year old son. Is this tame enough for someone this age?

-I'm at orville's website, but I can't get specific info. It won't click to take me to another page? How much was it to book directly through them and how did you arrange to get there?

Thanks so much! I really can't wait for this trip :D

Peggy13 -

The shows were after, except for the first night, which had one show between sittings.

The show for the early sitting was at 9:00.

3redheads -

Your 7 year old will be fine. The guides are great and he will love it - just fast enough to be exciting without being dangerous.

You can e-mail Orville at orvilletay@yahoo.com and tell him exactly what you want to do. He was very prompt at getting back to me.

Does Orville Taylor have a website?

Thanks cepf for the info. on the shows. We do prefer to have the shows after dinner.