Trip Report: Mariner 4D Bahamas April 8-12, 2019

[dstein]

For those interested, I've written up a report of our just-completed 4 day Bahamas trip here:  https://jumpyip.blogspot.com/.

Happy to answer any questions!

Edited April 13, 2019 by dstein
Correct typo.

[CatDad2012]

The link doesn't have any info about this cruise. 

[dstein]

1 minute ago, CatDad2012 said:

The link doesn't have any info about this cruise. 

The link takes you to my landing page.  There's a menu along the top of the screen (with a dark gray background) giving you access to various different trip writeups.  Look for "Bahamas 2019"

[blueridgemama]

Doesn't seem to be working. I clicked on Bahamas 2019 but it didn't open

Edited April 13, 2019 by blueridgemama

[j1d1]

You have to scroll over Bahamas 2019 and move mouse pointer down to click on Intro.

 

Edit:

Or just click here:

https://jumpyip.blogspot.com/p/bahamas-2019.html

Edited April 13, 2019 by j1d1
Added direct link

[dstein]

2 minutes ago, blueridgemama said:

Doesn't seem to be working. I clicked on Bahamas 2019 but it didn't open

 

When you hover of "Bahamas 2019" it opens up some drop-down choices to access different parts of the write-up.  Essentially written as multiple chapters.  You actually have to click one of the sub-menu choices to see anything.  (I use blogger.com so I don't actually have any control over how this works - that's just the way it is!  😀)  

 

I can see the number of page views on various sub-pages incrementing, so I know that others are currently able to read various sections.  Hopefully what I wrote in the previous paragraph will be enough to get you there, too!

[blueridgemama]

11 minutes ago, dstein said:

 

When you hover of "Bahamas 2019" it opens up some drop-down choices to access different parts of the write-up.  Essentially written as multiple chapters.  You actually have to click one of the sub-menu choices to see anything.  (I use blogger.com so I don't actually have any control over how this works - that's just the way it is!  😀)  

 

I can see the number of page views on various sub-pages incrementing, so I know that others are currently able to read various sections.  Hopefully what I wrote in the previous paragraph will be enough to get you there, too!

 

Got it. Thanks. We will be on a 4 night Mariner cruise leaving from Port Canaveral in December

[dstein]

If anyone is interested, I finally scanned and uploaded all the cruise compasses, excursion info, and other miscellaneous items delivered every night to our stateroom.  Content is at https://jumpyip.blogspot.com - make sure you select the "Bahamas 2019" menu item at the top of the display.

[dstein]

I received a couple of questions from folks who read my trip report asking me what the unfinished "Nobel 2014" link was about.  Well, I finally got around to writing up that experience.  Not cruise-related at all, but if this quick extract sounds interesting to you then you're welcome to go check it out!  https://jumpyip.blogspot.com/p/nobel.html

 

On 5/2/2019 at 8:38 PM, dstein said:

Google the phrase “travel blog” and you’ll get over 12,500,000 matches.
Google the phrase “food blog” and you’ll get over 4,200,000 matches.
Hell, google “Barbie blog” and even there you’ll get over 70,000 matches.

Clearly, the world doesn’t need any more travel, food, or Barbie blogs.

But google the phrase “What Was It Like When Your Brother-In-Law Won the 2014 Noble Prize in Chemistry And You Got To Go To Stockholm For the Awards Ceremony Blog” and you get a big fat goose egg.  Amazing.  Almost impossible to believe that there aren’t at least 5,000 matches for this.  And yet.

 

Thus was born this blog, which hopefully can serve as a way for friends, family, and others to learn about something that is likely out of reach for most of us, but is so unusual that one can’t help but be fascinated by the details.  Think of this as “Us Magazine” for the nerdy set.  Fewer pictures of starlets, more words like “nanomicroscopy” and “lutefisk”.  (Microsoft Word just underlined nanomicroscopy as a word it doesn’t know about.  C’mon, Microsoft – get with the program.)

.

 

 

 

[brillohead]

Regarding the issue with your cell phone time zone -- 

I always turn my time zone settings to "manual" when I'm on a cruise, because the cell tower on the ship always seems to send out a weird time (maybe it's Greenwich Mean Time / Zulu?). 

This way I can also reset the time to always match Ship Time versus Local Time and not worry about what time I'm supposed to be back on the ship, or whether my phone switched to local time on the island and I didn't notice, etc.  

When I get back to the airport and am waiting for my flight home, I switch it back to the "automatic" setting again.  

[booplesnoople]

Schweet, I'm on the same itinerary but out of PC at the end of October with my husband and brother and I'm already near-psycho levels of planning (says my brother.) Time to go read literally all of this!

[tcmagnum]

Just finished with your review.  Love your writing style and sense of humor.

May I ask what was in your 'frozen go to drink' the 'Coco Loco'?  

 

[dstein]

3 hours ago, tcmagnum said:

Just finished with your review.  Love your writing style and sense of humor.

May I ask what was in your 'frozen go to drink' the 'Coco Loco'?  

 

 

Thank you - that's very kind!

 

Supposedly, this (http://www.*****/info/royal-caribbean-international/beverage-recipes/coco-loco.php) is the recipe for a Coco Loco.  Of course, when watching it get made at the Pool Bar you don't see them use anything other than ice, rum and a carton of premixed mystery ingredients.  So I take it on faith that there's cream of coconut and various other items in the glass.   NOTE: I see that CC doesn't want to honor the link to another site.  Google "royal caribbean coco loco drink recipe" and the first hit should be where I found the recipe.)

 

However, since the definitely IS a LARGE dose of rum (more than the 3/4 oz of the recipe in my estimation)....does it really matter what else did or didn't make it into the drink?  😉

 

5 hours ago, booplesnoople said:

Schweet, I'm on the same itinerary but out of PC at the end of October with my husband and brother and I'm already near-psycho levels of planning (says my brother.) Time to go read literally all of this!

 

There is no such things as "too much planning".  Planning is almost as fun as the vacation itself and - if done correctly - lasts longer than the vacation, too!

 

On 5/26/2019 at 1:29 PM, brillohead said:

I always turn my time zone settings to "manual" when I'm on a cruise, because the cell tower on the ship always seems to send out a weird time (maybe it's Greenwich Mean Time / Zulu?). 

 

In retrospect, I think what happened is that I forgot to keep the phone on airplane mode, so at some point it made a cellular connection with Cellular At Sea and unexpectedly reset the clock.  Fortunately, no unexpected roaming charges resulted.

Edited May 28, 2019 by dstein
Add hint for finding the Coco Loco link

[rmvann]

I'm browsing your review now--thanks for this! I'm on the same itinerary in September and you're right, the planning is almost as fun as the trip itself!

[dstein]

2 hours ago, rmvann said:

I'm browsing your review now--thanks for this! I'm on the same itinerary in September and you're right, the planning is almost as fun as the trip itself!

 

Have fun!  I did post a copy of my infamous Spreadsheet of Fun from our Alaska trip (you can find it under my Alaska review on the Planning tab).  This is my mechanism for tracking everything during the planning cycle.

 

We had taken the same 4D itinerary a few years back on Enchantment, so this trip we intentionally tried Mariner as we hadn't yet been on a Voyager class ship.  We think we actually preferred the smaller Enchantment - we enjoy the Centrum so much more than the Royal Promenade. 

 

So far, Radiance class is our favorite, although as we start contemplating cruises >7D in length we may end up gravitating to the larger variety offered by Oasis class.  Haven't tried Quantum class yet, but sounds like it might be the perfect marriage of what we like about Radiance class + variety of Oasis class.

[Carolina Girl 99]

On 5/28/2019 at 11:56 AM, tcmagnum said:

Just finished with your review.  Love your writing style and sense of humor.

May I ask what was in your 'frozen go to drink' the 'Coco Loco'?