Another review of Mariner 3/13 - 20

[sailon3520]

If anyone has read my other postings about my teens drinking on board, I'll skip that part. I think I've expressed my feelings about that. I'll try to do this quickly:

Embarkment was incredible - fast, friendly and painless. We were dropped off at the terminal at 11:30 and were at our staterooms at 12:15. We were allowed to drop off bags but they asked us to come back at 1 to unpack.

Windjammer for lunch - food was mediocore and didn't get any better all week. I wished they had more tables outside. I wanted to sit by the pool and eat lunch.

By then it was 1 and we went back to check out the stateroom. We had the 4 boys on deck 2 in a quad. It was a tight squeeze but they survived. I'm not sure that their steward did, though. We were on 7 in a good size balcony. The room was spacious and LOTS of storage. Our luggage was in our rooms by 3 pm.

Hung out by the pool and met some great folks from Canada. We decided to skip the dining room as we had early seating and the boys were still off exploring.

The next day was a day at sea and everything that I had read was correct. People had been up and "saved" seats. By 10 we couldn't find an empty lounge chair. We asked a deck patrol and he said move any towels that were unattended. We finally did get a couple of chairs but it was so incredibly congested that it was hard to relax and enjoy. This was also the first formal night. There were tuxes and suits, cocktail dresses, pants and lots of prom dresses. I don't think you can go wrong in whatever you choose (no shorts or t's). There were limited portrait stations and times so get there early if you want a picture. Dinner was so-so. Our waiter was nice but we had a very tough time understanding his English. Bread was cold and the coffee was terrible. It was bad all week in every place we tried. If you don't like bitter or strong coffee, take your own coffee pot.

 

After dinner we tried the casino. It's a good size casino with many slots but not so many tables. There were crowds around the table most of the time.

 

Labadee is beautiful. Go across the "island" and go left for seclusion. There are lots of chairs. The food was hamburgers/dogs/ribs - nothing great. The shopping was interesting but the vendors were very pushy. I wish that Royal Carib didn't charge for the water park and wading area. They own the place and I think it should be included. I can see charging for motorized sports but not those.

 

Jamaica was actually great. We had a Peat Taylor tour and he is phenominal. Took us wherever we wanted. Falls were nice but so crowded that they were dangerous. If anyone had fallen, they would have taken out a hundred people below them!

 

Cayman was a mess - both from Ivan damage and the current weather conditions. It was so windy that the tenders eventually stopped going over. We did make it to the island but most excursions were cancelled. Cayman is expensive. This is a good place to take lots of bottled water and something to snack on. Coming back to the ship turned out to be an adventure. We rocked and pitched so hard in the tender that it took 45 minutes to unload the tender. It was a little scary.

 

Cozumel was beautiful as always. We docked at the International Pier which is not the one by Carlos and Charlie's. They were giving away free cab fare coupons to go into San Miguel (just as we exited the gangplank). But we went up to a great beach - Nachi-Cocom (sp?). It was quiet, secluded and totally relaxing. The cab ride each way for 6 was about $30 but there is no entry fee. They do ask you to purchase a minimum of $5 in food/drinks which was easy to do. Kids did some shopping around the pier when we returned and we made it back to ship for dinner. They did push back the dinner times by 15 minutes which helped.

 

Comedy show was good. Quest for adults was fun and definitely for adults. The ship is so big that you could walk for hours and see new things. Explore and check out every deck. You can also go all week and not find the friends you made on the first night. It's also very easy to lose your children. Trust me - they can get into tons of trouble in a few hours!

 

The jacuzzi in the spa is very good. Check out the bridge view from deck 12. Ask any questions.

[randallcruiser]

What can you tell us about the supposed "revised" menus? What was on them?

Thanks!

 

Randall

[Morgan32]

hi! glad to hear you had a good time too:) I completely agree about that coffee... I thought it was just me as I like my coffee so weak that it's barely coffee!

Getting off that tender in Grand Cayman was something else...the tires on the side of our tender left these huge black marks on the side of the ship and even chipped off pieces of paint. It was crazy.