Just back from Mariner - Any questions?

[cefh]

Alisonoftheseas -

 

Orville Taylor's website is geocities.com/orvilletay/ochorios.html

[time11130]

but the above link does not work. Anyone else have this problem?

Wanting to book the tubing in Jamaica, does anyone know of any other ways to book independently and save money? There are 6 of us so we are looking to save but still have a good time. Thanks for any help you can give us.

Lisa in Indiana - Mariner June 5th- cannot wait!!!!

[3redheads]

Try this:

 

http://www.geocities.com/orvilletay/index.html

[CozSally]

Hello from beautiful Cozumel! I have a quick question for you. On the Mariner did you change your watches to match port time for each port? I am trying to coordinate an appointment with a group coming on the next Western Caribbean run and I could sure use this information!

 

Many thanks.

[Cruzntime]

CozSally,

When we were on the Mariner last year the Captain told us to stay on ship time for the entire cruise. However, that doesn't always mean excursion booked outside of RCL is going to be on ship's time so you'll want to consider and research this carefully.

[OPSoccermom]

OPSoccermom,

 

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

We used Juta tours, although I've also heard great things about Orville Taylor. We paid $60 per person for transportation, tubing, lunch, and the Falls. Our guide was waiting for us on the pier with a sign with our name on it. When you get off the ship, you will see different exit lanes at the pier and a sign directing you based on the tour operator you have. It was a little confusing - glad our guide was there.

 

You could do the tubing on your own - admission is $20 per person for tubing only - just need to get a van at the pier to the tubing spot (approx. 25 to 30 min drive). This was our first time in Ocho Rios, so we wanted a guide.

[OPSoccermom]

Hello from beautiful Cozumel! I have a quick question for you. On the Mariner did you change your watches to match port time for each port? I am trying to coordinate an appointment with a group coming on the next Western Caribbean run and I could sure use this information!

 

Many thanks.

The ship stayed on "ship time" the entire cruise. It was a little confusing for us as we were on board during the change to daylight savings time, and the Mariner did their change on Friday night instead of Saturday.

 

We had arranged our own shore excursion for Cozumel, and had to keep the one hour time difference in mind all day.

[boingy300]

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

 

Jacquelyn- Where do you find changes? I am not sailing until Father's Day but have booked many non-RCCL excursions. I need to double check this.

Thanks,

Karen

[CozSally]

Thank you! That's a huge help!

[ciship]

Were your two balcony cabins connected on the inside where you could interact with each other? Were you able to take the divider out between your balconies to enjoy time together???

[pfleer]

We are going to use Trevor Hudlin. Here are his prices. His email address is trevorhudlin@hotmail.com

 

You can do both the tubing and Dunn's River Falls with him. Can't wait!!

 

 

 

Thanks for your mail and the interest you express in my tour, it will be a pleasure touring you and party.

Here are a few of the package I offer in the Ocho Rios area that your can choose from, just incase you may think of doing something else please let me know.

1. Dunn's River Falls, the Panoramic view of the town, fern Gully, the native village, visit the Pottery Factory, plantation and shopping, beach if required. Cost $33 per adult, $22 per child 12 years under, entrance fee included, estimated time 4 hours.

2. White River Tubing, including tour #1. Cost $55 per adult, $42 per child 12 years under,

entrance fee included estimated time 5 hours.

3. White River Rafting, include tour #1. Cost $60 per person entrance fee included estimated time 5 hours. Each raft carries two persons if there is a single person an added $25

4. Horseback Riding, include tour #1. Cost$65 per adult, $52 per child 12 years and under.

To book all you need is to email and confirm same as soon as you are satisfy with the information, no deposit is needed you pay at the end in US dollars cash. How will you know me? look for my name tag "Trevor Hudlin" ask for me! ask for me! ask for me! one of the tour advisor will direct you to me, meeting time 30 minutes after the ship dock.

Looking forward hearing from and seeing you,

Thanks,

Trevor

1,876,429-2803

[Jacquelyn11]

Jacquelyn- Where do you find changes? I am not sailing until Father's Day but have booked many non-RCCL excursions. I need to double check this.

Thanks,

Karen

 

 

This is the link: http://www.caymanport.com/schedule.htm

 

I did check in June and the Marnier IS scheduled for WED for both western sailings. Hopefully RCL will adjust their on line schedule to reflect this. It is on a WED schedule till mid November.

 

Our GC tour with Native Way said "NO WORRIES! We will accomidate you either day!

 

Good luck with your cruise planning!

 

Jacquelyn :D

[boingy300]

This is the link: http://www.caymanport.com/schedule.htm

 

I did check in June and the Marnier IS scheduled for WED for both western sailings. Hopefully RCL will adjust their on line schedule to reflect this. It is on a WED schedule till mid November.

 

Our GC tour with Native Way said "NO WORRIES! We will accomidate you either day!

 

Good luck with your cruise planning!

 

Jacquelyn :D

 

Thanks for the heads up. I checked too and it does have us coming in a day earlier.....so where's the cut? I emailed RCCL for clarification, but no response yet. They do have the right to change the itinerary, so I better get a plan B together. Thanks again and please let me kow if you've heard anything new.

Karen

[travelerfriend]

How do you book ahead for excursions without booking from the ship

[cruiserfan]

I was wondering for those of you who have been on the Mariner. I heard the pool bar is very small. Is this true??

[boingy300]

I was wondering for those of you who have been on the Mariner. I heard the pool bar is very small. Is this true??

I know we were on the sister ship- Explorer and it was small, but there are so many places to have a drink on the ship.

Karen

[pfleer]

Cruiserfan - Yes, the pool bar is very small. I was getting a little irritated trying to watch the pool activities, because there's not much room to see anything.

[EydieG]

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.:)

 

Alison of the Seas:

We will also be on the Mariner June 19th. There is a roll call for this sailing at http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=146080&highlight=Mariner

Come and check it out.

[OPSoccermom]

Were your two balcony cabins connected on the inside where you could interact with each other? Were you able to take the divider out between your balconies to enjoy time together???

Ciship - We were on the Mariner last week and had 5 balcony cabins in a row. We asked our steward as well as Guest Services to open up the partitions between the balconies. The told us they were not able to do to liability issues. Don't know if that is true, but we had no success in getting our partitions opened up. Opening the connecting doors between the cabins was no problem.

[boingy300]

How do you book ahead for excursions without booking from the ship

 

Go to the Ports of call section on Cruise critic (Below RCCL boards). They have TONS of info, and reviews!

Karen

[ciship]

Thanks OPSoccerMOM for that first hand information! Did you enjoy your time on the Mariner? Anything we need to know about? Was it Eastern or Western? How was the motion on the ship?

 

Who is the cruise director and how was he/she??

[Adventure Girl]

OPsoccermom: We were on the Mariner, western itinerary, in January. We had two D-2 balcony cabins next door to eachother. We asked to have our balcony divider opened up. They were not able to open the divider until Friday...because we had high wind and some rain earlier in the week. They finally opened the divider on Friday. We had the balcony open from Friday to Sunday and it was wonderful.

 

Maybe the seas were rough during your sailing and that is why they wouldn't open the divider?

[unique]

cefh,

We were on the same cruise! This was our 5th cruise but our first Royal Carib. Everyone talked about the rooms being so small and I was actually impressed. We had a category E1 balcony room. I liked how all the luggage stored nicely under the bed. I utilized evey drawer and the shelves in the closest.

 

The weather was beautiful except for the last sea day. I really enjoyed Labadee. It was much better than I had anticipated. We got off at 9:10am and went toward the water park area. A guy got us two chairs. I thought it was very relaxing. I ended up renting a jet ski for my husb and 10 year old son. I was afraid to book it ahead of time because it said guided tour. I went over and talked with them to get more info. My husb and son really enjoyed excursion. It was 99.00. I signed them up for 11:30am. There was a 15 min briefing and then they got on the jet skis and away they went. My husb said once they got past the ship they let them go full throttle. They gave them some history about Haiti. They got back about 12:45pm. We ate lunch and then walked a very short distance up the path to a small shopping area. There are two buildings. The first building was good. You could walk through and look and no one bothered or harrassed you. The second place was awful. People were trying to put stuff in my hands and my 10 year olds, begging,etc. I wouldn't go back up there again. You can stay at the bottom and avoid that all together as there are several beach areas to go to.

 

In Ocho Rios we booked with Trevor Hundlin. Someone that works for him picked us up. We had signed up for horsebackriding and the water falls. The driver picked us up right away and said he was taking us horseback riding first. I tried to get him to take us to the falls first but he didn't. I would never do the horseback riding again. By the time we got to the falls it was 11am. The place was packed. I worked my way up thought the line and we were assigned to a guide. The guide had about 50 people total. We were packed in like sardines. I definetely would have enjoyed the falls more if it weren't so crammed. That night we went to the Ice skating show. I really enjoyed that.

 

Thur we were in Grand Cayman. We booked with Capt Bryan's. That was the best excursion and the cheapest! It is a short walk to their meeting place and the directions are excellent. One everyone showed up they divided us up and drove us to the Catamaran. We had Capt Bryan on the way out. There was a videographer on board. She took all our pictures and then she put on her scuba gear and at each stop she was under water filming everyone. You can purchase a VHS or DVD for 65.00. This includes shipping and everything. They used the motor going out. We stopped to snorkel for about 20 min. Capt Bryan got off and Capt Astor got on. We then went to the stingray sand bar. It was great. Capt Astor and another crew memeber got into the water and they each got a stingray. We all took turns holding it and getting our pictures taken. My son was a little frightened and Capt Astor took him and had him pet the stingray. We were there about 45 min. We then moved over to another snorkeling spot. We stayed there for about 30 min and then Capt Astor put the sail up and opened the bar. Beer was $4.00 a can and water and soda was $2.00. When we got back they dropped us off right downtown and we had about 2 hours to shop. We went into a couple of stores but they were so crowded that we just gave up. This was about 2pm in the afternoon. There were alot of ships in that day.

 

Friday was Cozumel. I booked a dune buggy excursion on my own. We took a cab to the meeting place. We were very early so after checking in we walked around the corner to McDonalds. It was nice and cool in there. We went back to the dunebuggy place and found out that everyone that was doing the excursion was from the Mariner. (I had posted the site I booked so a lot of people signed up). Cozumel is an hour behind us and this excursion was suppose to last 7 hours. We told them we needed to be back at 5p ship time before we left. We all got in our dunebuggys and took off in a line. It was about a 30-40 min drive on the highway and then we got to the beach. The terrain is very rough but my husb and son really enjoyed this. I guess we drove off road for over an hour (there were iced drinks in each dune buggy--water, beer, pepsi, water, and orange drink). We got to a beach spot. We were suppose to be able to snorkel but it was too rough. Several people got in the ocean and the guys that were the leaders made our lunch. Fresh salsa and guacamole! The guacamole was excellent. They also had fried chicken and rice. We were there at least an hour. We got back in and headed back. We got back a little after 5 ship time. We grabbed a cab and shopped at the stores right by the ship.

 

Sat was our last day at sea. The weather wasn't great. It rained most of the day but we had such good weather til then I can't complain.

 

On Sunday we were back at 5:15am. They started letting people off about 7:30am. We were in the first group off and our color was called at 8:15am. It was very organized and actually a piece of cake. The travel lynx guy was holding a sign with our name on it when we got to the lot. We were at the airport and all checked in by 9:30am. Our flight was 11:40am. ( I had booked a 12:45pm flight and the airlines called 6 weeks before the cruise and changed it to 11:40am) This is the best cruise we have taken. Getting on the ship was a piece of cake also.

[cruizeblues]

Were your two balcony cabins connected on the inside where you could interact with each other? Were you able to take the divider out between your balconies to enjoy time together???

 

We were in adjoining D1's with an interior door between the cabins that we left open most of the time, except when the kids wanted to watch cartoons (loudly)or go to sleep before us. Excellent set up because you have two of everything, but still feel "together" and can keep an eye on the kids. The door is on the wall across from the beds, so it doesn't interfere with your cabin space at all.

 

We asked Guest Relations and our room steward to open the glass partition on the balcony and were told by both that they no longer do that (liability, Captain's orders, etc....:confused: ) That would have been great though!

[ciship]

Unique, what is a Travel Linx guy???