Mariner / Asian sailing newbie questions

We have just booked our second ever cruise, family of 4 (2 kids aged 5 and 1yo). We've booked a very similar itinerary to our first cruise, as the choices in our neck of the woods - we are Australian - are relatively limited if we want to avoid long flights. So we have chosen a 7 day cruise on Mariner OTS out of Singapore, with stops in Lankawi, Penang, Phuket and KL. The itinerary looks great, but I want to make the most of the ship, having been a bit let down by some aspects last time. So I'm hoping I can draw on the extensive knowledge base here to minimise hassle and maximize fun.

So, questions ;

1. Evening entertainment- do I have to reserve shows? Can I even find out what is on ahead of time? There is nothing showing on the website.

2. The ice rink and climbing wall are big attractions for me, but last time access to both was extremely limited, there was one opportunity to skate, and i never saw the rock wall open once. Is that typical? Should I set my expectations low?

3. Some of the excursions on the downloaded brochure aren't available to book on the website. Am I better off booking a second choice that is available or wait until we're aboard and hope the one we want appears?

4. How does royal babies work? What about booking babysitting? We will want to use this at least a little to have a bit of couple time during the cruise.

To be continued... Baby is calling...

5. We have the early seating in the MDR, on our previous sailing we were seated with an elderly couple who spoke Mandarin, and and their middle aged, and child-free sons. We were very uncomfortable with our then 3yo being a kid (not badly behaved but not perfect table manners) and also that we could either talk to the sons and leave the older couple out, or not talk to them and feel like we were ignoring them. We did ask for a new table, but preferably with another family but it seemed like a very challenging request for the MDR staff. We found staff in the MDR generally pleasant but certainly not accommodating the way others say they are in the American market. Very few options on the menu actually appealed, so we ended up going with the buffet later in the cruise, as preferable to the awkwardness and very average food. Would love to know how others found the MDR on Singaporean itineraries.

6. Similarly to the dining staff, we had lots of issues with getting info on... pretty much everything. None seemed to know what was happening or when, particularly for the kids club, where we got different answers from different people and things one person assured us of just didn't happen (like the kids coming down to dinner). It was really hard to find out basic things like when we could go ice skating, the staff just didn't seem to know much about the ship. This was a couple of years ago now, and I guess the Singapore routes were still fairly new, so has that improved?

Obviously we still enjoyed ourselves, we wouldn't have booked the same ship from the same port otherwise, but i am hoping that we can avoid some of the disappointments this time around.

1. Reservations are not required nor are they available for shows on Mariner. There will be 2 ships daily, one geared for early dinner and the other geared for late dinner seatings.

You can e mail web_reservations@rccl.com about 3 weeks before your cruise for a list of the entertainment on board however it will not be complete and will not break it down by day or time.

2. I have found that the times are limited for the ice skating (maybe 3 or 4 times) but the rock wall should have been open more. Times will be listed in your cruise compass so better to plan those rather than just hoping it will be open as you pass by.

3. For excursions, make sure that you are selecting the port that you want to view the excursions for. If you just leave it as showing excursions for all ports I have found that it only gives you the top few excursions for each individual port and not the complete list.

Brilliant, thanks Ken. Good to know I'm not missing out by not making reservations, will try to remember to email the reservations closer to sail date. I thought that might be the case with the skating, I'll just have to make sure I don't oversell it to my daughter. Hopefully we catch the rock climbing this time if I keep a closer eye on the compass. I'll keep trying with the excursions, though I think I was searching by port, might have to resort to calling rci.

Thanks again for the tips.

Ken is right. Was on the ship 2 weeks ago.

Funny booking for ice show. If you book mtd you will get second show if you eat in the restaurant.

If you book traditional dining and eat in the restaurant you get to go on the earlier show.

Once you register for the ice skating you can go on as many as 3 sessions per day.

So there are more than 2 sessions for skating, yay! I think it's what my little girl is looking forward to most..

Next question, how early do you disembark? We might be flying home the same day and want to make sure we aren't in a mad rush to get to airport.

I have disembark as early as 8.15. But I have only carry on luggage.

Best to read other threads on this. The problem is when your check in luggage is ready to pick up.

So there are more than 2 sessions for skating, yay! I think it's what my little girl is looking forward to most..

 

Next question, how early do you disembark? We might be flying home the same day and want to make sure we aren't in a mad rush to get to airport.

Usually embarkation is 8-10am and if needed, you can always go to guest service to request for a different luggage tag if you need to disembark earlier. Never had an issue changing luggage tags so far as i go fairly early.