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Mariner of the Seas 20-27 March

gramgill

By gramgill,
in Royal Caribbean International

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gramgill

gramgill

Posted
Posted

I just got back from my 3rd cruise this time on the Mariner i am not going into a lengthy review just now suffice to say it was every bit good as my last two, on Royal Carribean's Explorer and Splendour. (i have not found a word to describe it) this was for my wifes 40th and what a time we had, R.C cant do enough for you and although the ship was full 3624 guests it did not seem busy due to the size of the ship (the second largest in the world) I will try and get round to writing a review later but i am a slow typist.

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OfTheGirl

OfTheGirl

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Posted

We were on the Mariner from March 13-March 20 for our honeymoon and we couldn't have had a better time! I highly reccommend Chops, we didn't get to do Portofino, but Chops was above and beyond our expectations. Well worth the $20 each. The ship was full but didn't seem overwhelming. Had a hard time getting sun chairs, but we found other things to do! We did the Palancar Reef Snorkeling in Cozumel - highly reccommend but our Grand Caymen Snorkel and Stingray tour was canceled due to weather. We booked a private tour with Phil LaFayette for Ochos Rios, definately reccommend that too. We went to Dunns River Falls, went river tubing and had a neat tour of Ochos Rios. Good Fun! Labadee was beautiful! I want to go again! Margaritaville was a blast and watching all the drunks stumble back from Senor Frogs was worth the balcony!

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bevo

bevo

Posted
Posted

Hi-

We were on the same Mariner sailing. Our first RC cruise. We had a WONDERFUL time.

My Mini Review:

Comparison to Carnival- Preferred RC slightly. No drastic differences, just little things. Like sliding balcony doors instead of regular doors. Sliding doors were much nicer. Room service menu is much more expansive on RC. That was nice. LOVED having the solarium for a quieter atmosphere.

Embarkation-Got there around 9:30, parked right next to the ship and carried our luggage over. Got in line around 10:30 and we were probably on by 11:15. SOOOO easy. VERY efficient and organized.Went straight to Windjammer b/c we were told to not go to our rooms till 1pm. Ate from the first buffet we saw....excellent food. Found out later there was much, much more variety if we had gone on through Windjammer...but it didn't really matter-we were full and happy.

Walked around then went to our room.

ROOMS-Slighly smaller than Carnival, but lots of great storage space. Didn't even need the shoe thingy for the bathroom door.Little shelves behind the

mirrrors in the "sitting area" and in the bathroom. Lots of drawers and shelves everywhere. VERY well arranged. LOVED the shower. No shower curtain, just curved sliding doors. Very nice. Cabin Steward introduced herself. Very friendly. Said she couldn't open the door between the balcony (we had connecting balcony rooms for our kids) b/c it was deemed dangerous. :( Then she told us she couldn't get us an ice bucket (we had brought some champagne on with us) b/c ice was scarce and we had to conserve it!!!! THAT was weird. Found out later from another steward you can call room service and they will bring a bucket of ice. Of course you have to tip, but oh well. Seems like the cabin steward could have taken care of that for us. But, no big deal. We emptied out the fridge ourselves and stored a couple of bottles of wine and some diet Dr. P. in there. Bed was very comfortable,but bring a flashlight! I don't like sleeping with a light on, even in the bathroom, but it was interesting finding my way to the potty in the night! ;)

First time we ever had 2 rooms for the 4 of us (me, DH, 2 kids 10 and 11). THAT was wonderful! Now I don't know how we will ever go back to just one room!!

FOOD- EXCELLENT. We were worried b/c there were lots of negative comments on here about RC food. We enjoyed Carnival food very much, and we were scared we might actually lose weight or something! No fear! Food was absolutley wonderful...from the breakfast in the windjammer every morning to the great lunch buffets to the sushi before dinner in Jade to the Dining Room every night. Just awesome. Very nice variety. Even had nachos with all the toppings at least one afternoon in windjammer, and delicious chicken wings. If you like Banana Foster, try the Banana crunch cake with vanilla sauce in the windjammer in the afternoon. It was to DIE FOR!!!!!! DH said it was "too sweet" but that is just not possible to me! Cookies were very good, as were the sandwiches in the Promenade. Loved dunking my cookies in coffee every afternoon! Drinks were good...loved the Mango Tango. Pretty swirl glasses (real glass!) that we will use at home. Not cheap-almost 10.00 with the included tip...but they were good and the glasses are pretty! Had a Long Island Iced Tea one night....actually 3 of them....although I am TOLD I didn't even touch the 3rd one (what a waste!!!)....that was the only night we missed dinner in the DR. That was caribbean night. Our fellow tablemates said it was excellent, even though we had heard Caribbean night wasn't that great...they really enjoyed it.

STAFF- Everyone very friendly and helpful. Not one rude comment from any staff member the whole week.Very nice.

SHIP-Spotless. Easy to navigate. Loved the promenade. LOVED LOVED LOVED the solarium. That was the only place, besides the pool, that finding a chair was difficult. Not much chair hogging going on...but a little. After 3 or so every afternoon, more chairs became available in these hot spots.

SHOWS- didn't go to many---went to the 80's show and didn't really care for it. The ice show was VERY good...well worth the time. Don't miss it. Also went to the Captain and Staff Q and A session one morning and was very informative. Captain Olaf (?) has a great sense of humor.

I'll write a bit more later...gotta take the kids to Drama Kids....

Ask questions if you want!

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Cruzntime

Cruzntime

Posted
Posted
I'm leaving in April any info about the ship (Mariner of the Seas)and western carribean excursions will be most helpful. Thanks:)

 

Here are a few things we did and with the exception of one I would highly recommend them.

 

Labadee - A nice day at the beach with a cookout. We rented waverunners and that was really fun and neat. You may be late but try to rent at a time when your trip will not interfere with lunch. I almost missed it but its because I kept putting off making reservations and when I finally did they were almost all sold out.

 

Ocho Rios - Pete Taylor tours doing Dunns River Falls, Fern Gulley, and shopping. He took very good care of us and the excursion was well worth the price.

 

Georgetown - I can't say enough about Captain Marvin’s Adventure. If you want to go snorkeling with the stingrays this is the company to go with. Personal attention and nice equipment. There was one woman terrified of the water and before the trip was over the lady was in the water, without pressure, and on the way back talking about having the most wonderful time.

 

Cozumel - We took a cab to Chankanaab park. It is only a few miles down from the docks ( I think we were at the middle dock). It was about $12/pp to get in. If you like snorkeling there was a lot to see here. If you like the beach though you may want to try Paradise Beach. I have not been to Paradise but I think I will try it next time since it gets good reviews on CC.

 

Have fun.

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110798

110798

Posted
Posted

Here's a review I posted on another thread for the same sailing.

 

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Well we're back from our cruise and happy to see the kids, but I wish they could've joined us for another week! This was the 1st time we've left them for this amount of time and it was hard but relaxing. (We have a 5 year old son and 2 year old twin girls)

 

Day 1-Getting on the ship was quick and painless, it didn't take us more than 10 minutes. This was right around 11:30 or 12:00. We went and ate in the Windjammer, they're are so many choices here that I would recommend scoping it out before you start to load up. Next we gave ourselves a small tour of the ship and by 1:00 our room was ready with our bags in it. Most of this day was spent wandering the ship or napping since we had taken the red eye from Oregon the night before. We had late seating and met our tablemates that night. Kathy, Phillip, Dani, and Andrea...they were lots of fun getting to know! We had prime rib and a watermelon gazpacho which was excellent. I can't remember what we did that night but I know we had fun!

 

Day 2-Bahamas, We went on the snorkel with stingrays excursion booked through the ship. Our personal opinion was that this was very much a waste of time and money. It was also inhumane to the rays as they were kept in a netted area with lots of people and no escape. We ended up going back on an earlier boat to the ship, along with another couple who felt the same. Back on the ship, we played lots of air hockey, bingo (won 290.00), tried to play miniature golf but the wind kept blowing the ball away! We took a nap every late afternoon before getting ready for dinner. I'm really going to miss that. I believe we saw the "clean" comedian that night. He was really funny and kept us laughing! We had a few drinks in various bars, including the Dragon's Lair.

 

Day 3-At sea, we went rock climbing. It was my 1st time so I was excited to make it to the top fairly quickly. We also did various activities that were offered, including more air hockey. Had lunch at Johnny Rockets, not worth the cover charge in my opinion, the food wasn't very good and you can get burgers and fries free in the Windjammer every day. The onion rings were good though. That night was The Quest. We had so much fun and really participated! (A few shots of courage helped) Definitely do this this but if you want to get really involved, sit in the front row. Sorry, that's all I can say!

 

Day 4-St. Thomas, we shopped in the morning. If you looking for jewelry, this is the place. We just looked around, didn't buy anything. That afternoon we did the Undrewater BOB, (underwater scooters). These were just okay, they go slow and you have to stay in a line with your group. You go for about 15 minutes and snorkel the rest of the time. There wasn't a big variety of underwater sea life to see. A few others on our trip seemed to have the same opinion.

We went to Chops this evening. It was good but we ordered our steak done as you would order in a fine steak house such as Ruths Chris or Mortons. Those places we usually order it a little more done than we would at other places. This was our fault that our steak was overdone, I would recommend ordering exactly as you like it.

That night was the Love and Marriage game show. We wanted to be on it so when they asked for people, my husband stood up, picked me up over his head, started spinning around, and was yelling "for the love of God, pick us!" My husband is normally very quiet. Needless to say, we were chosen. This show ran on the ships TV's the rest of the trip and we got a little taste of what it would be like to be a celebrity. Everywhere we went, people came up to us with some sort of comment.

 

Day 5-St. Martin, we went on the Loterie Tree Farm Treetop Adventure (or something to that effect). This was the best excursion ever! I ready to go back and do it again and in fact wanted to do it again right then. This is a course up in the trees that consists of zip lines, tightropes, and other different traverses. I think there are about 35 in all, and it takes a little over an hour to get through the course. Incredible!

We went to Portofinos this night. Loved the carpaccio and the caprese!

 

Day 6-At sea, I entered the slot tournament and lost my place in the finals at the last second thanks to a stupid move on the final hand on my part. I kept rehashing what I should have done different to have a higher total. Lobster this evening, mine was great but my husband was overdone. No worries, he ate my shrimp...(too garlicky!)

 

Day 7-At sea, the final jackpot bingo was this day, over $12000.00 dollars...we won! Just kidding, but it would have been nice. There was and adult comedian this evening who was pretty good, I actually thought he would be a lot "dirtier" but there were a few kids in the audience and it didn't make me uncomfortable.

 

Disembarkation was as painless as embarkation. It took about 10 minutes even though the line looks a lot longer. If you get a time to disembark that you don't like, just take your tickets near the excursions desk and there's a table to exchange for a different color, no need to talk to anyone.

 

I'll try to answer questions if there are any, alll in all this was an incredible vacation for us and we can wait to cruise again!

 

Stephanie

 

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AmySP

AmySP

Posted
Posted

Thanks to all of you for the great reviews and information on the Mariner. We are doing the Western Caribbean on the Mariner next March and I can't wait. I love reading all this information. Thanks again!!

 

Amy

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gramgill

gramgill

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since a few have asked ithought i would post my opinion. in a word AWSOME this was my 3rd cruse (to celebrate my wifes 40th) and has been by far the best holiday in my life, the organisation by R.C I was great, they managed our flights and arranged for us to fly out a week early to stay in tampa we still used the pre cruise hotel it was just okay but thats another story. the ship itself is just ove a year old, the 2nd largest in the world and was full, 3624 passengers, from 34 different nationalities i think that what the very informative captain said and we were among the 400 foreigners (that is the name given to the non Americans). i was told before going that a cruise is like a floating hotel, well this is like a floating town it has everything on it 3 tier dinning room 2 tier theatre, ice rink (the ice show is simply out of this world), minature golf, basketball, rock climbing, many bars and restaurants. The service was fantastic, treated like royalty rooms cleaned twice daily, several places to choose from to eat or free room service,

they have a full programme of entertainment in the 'compass' published daily and you need to carry that around as there so much going on day or night, evenings you can choose from an international production show in the theatre (which in my opinion was not as good as we had on previous cruises exept the comedian on the last night he was great) or simple piano bar or the casino. and not forgetting the small part of the ports of call, we went eastern carribean which included Charlotte Amalie(St. Thomas), Philipsburg, (St. Maarten) and Nassau, Bahamas.

I am not a good writer of reviews and would take too long to type a lengthy review which i would end up missing parts anyway, suffice to say this was a fantastic holiday and if i find out how i will post some photos, but please any questions on this beautifull ship please post. we booked while on board to go back on the Explorer next Jan.

Elizanessie - i didnt try the steak my wife did, cooked to perfection i had mostly the fish again excellent

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Jacquelyn11

Jacquelyn11

Posted
Posted

Did your kids go to any of the Adventure Ocean Activites? My sons are the same age (11 & 12) and I wanted to know how they enjoyed it. Also, how did they enjoy the food? Was the kids menu adequate for them?

 

Did you have a D1 cabin? Where was it located? Did you use any kind of walkie-talkie communication with your kids?

 

Did they have the room upgrade bingo?

 

I get my turn in about 7 weeks!

 

Jacquelyn :D

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ciship

ciship

Posted
Posted

I am considering booking RC for the first time. Always been on Carnival. My question is regarding cabins. We have always gotten a balcony cabin on Carnival with an INSIDE connected to it for our kids. I can't find anything like this on the Mariner. Does anyone have suggestions regarding two cabins and WHERE a good location on the ship would be for the kids benefit? Has anyone had the Family Suite or the Grand Suite? Do they have balconys connected to insides or are they all across the hall instead?

 

Any help would be great!

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bevo

bevo

Posted
Posted
Did your kids go to any of the Adventure Ocean Activites? My sons are the same age (11 & 12) and I wanted to know how they enjoyed it. Also, how did they enjoy the food? Was the kids menu adequate for them?

 

Did you have a D1 cabin? Where was it located? Did you use any kind of walkie-talkie communication with your kids?

 

Did they have the room upgrade bingo?

 

I get my turn in about 7 weeks!

 

Jacquelyn :D

Jacquelyn- Kids went once to Adventure Ocean. They didn't care for it, BUT I think they would have liked it if they had given it another chance. They had friends with them, so they didn't feel the "need". I have never heard anything but RAVE reviews for the kids club. I think your kids will probably love it. They had plenty of food choices. Kids menu was more than adequate, but even the regular menu and buffet had lots of choices...and my girls aren't real adventuresome eaters. We did not get the coke sticker b/c my kids only drink about 1 coke a day, and they drank the free water, lemonade or milk the other times...

We had D1 rooms on the 7th floor, toward aft. Great rooms, very quiet. TONS of storage space, in my opinion.

We did use walkie talkies....GRS (?) that were much much better than the regular ones that most people use. We got ours through a catalog a couple of years ago, but DH saw some good ones at Academy Sports that would be good if you don't have any yet.

Don't know anything about upgrade bingo. Sorry...

I wish I was going again this week!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

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peggyy

peggyy

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Posted

To all of you people about to sail on the Mariner. YOU WILL HATE IT. I, however, will make the supreme sacrifice and take your place.

 

Seriously though folks, just off the Mariner in February and it was AWESOME. You will have a fantastic time and I'm jealous. I have to wait 5 more months for the Radiance.

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Jobro2

Jobro2

Posted
Posted

CISHIP:

 

Yes, you do have the option of a D1 Balcony connecting to an interior. We have this booked for our upcoming June Mariner cruise. A very helpful cc recommended this option to us, as we have always cruised before (Disney) 4 in a room...abit cramped, but it was "doable"..anyway, the Mariner only has 2 of these room layouts. They are on Deck 9 all the way in the aft. They are the last rooms before you get to the aft balconies, on the port side they are staterooms 9676/9681 (we have these booked) and on the starboard side they are 9376/9381. This cost us only around $500(around that..but a surprisingly reasonable difference) more than one D1 balcony room and we now have 2 bathrooms which will be great. Hope this helps!

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