Quick Mariner Review

[Tree_skier]

We just got off a short 3 day weekend Mariner of the Seas cruise so I thought a brief review was in order.  This cruise was booked as a sort of add on to an already planned business trip to West Palm beach. For informational purposes, we had The Key, the UDP and DBP. 

 

Embarkation at Terminal A was a breeze. We arrived at 11 am and walked strait through security to check in which was completed about 30 seconds later.  We then walked strait onto the ship.  The Key made no difference to the process it is so streamlined it couldn't get any easier. From parking the car on level 3 and handing our bags to a porter we were on the ship in 10 minutes.  Upon entering the ship we were greeted warmly but unfortunately the staff greeting people wasn't properly trained about the Key program so our drop off of carry on didn't work like we hoped.  See my comments in the long The Key thread for more details. DW went to find a place to relax until lunch I went to book my evening meals in specialty restaurants.  Outside of Windjammer was a fellow selling dining packages and he was able to get us sorted completely right there.  With that settled off to the Sky Bar for the first Pina Coloda of the day.  It's 5 o'clock somewhere right?  Lunch was at Chops as part of our Key purchase, we could have also gone to Jamies for our embarkation lunch included as part of our UDP but since we were going there for dinner that evening we opted for Chops.

 

Lunch was good, service was excellent and not rushed at all and a definite upgrade over braving the masses at the windjammer. We were in at 12 out by 1245 and drinking our second Pina Coloda by 1253 by the Sky bar watching the pool area fill up below us.  

 

We had access to our room at about 130. Inside we found our Cards, Key Literature, Cruise Compass.  DW decided to rest and I headed down to Playmakers for Strongbows on tap.

 

Dinner at Jamies that evening was very good. Service was perfect however the restaurant was dead.  I saw only a few other tables occupied. It has often been mentioned here on CC about staff begging for 10's on the post cruise survey.  That has not been our experience however at the end of our meal our server did mention the survey, said he hoped he had met met our expectations and that we would respond accordingly on our survey.  That was the one and only mention that we heard of that.

 

That evening was the Ice show.  I loved it. I'm a closet figure skating fan and this show didn't disappoint in the least. We were able to get good seats because of our Key purchase but they weren't necessary as Studio B was only about 2/3 full.

 

Day 2 was Cococay. We had no preplanned excursions or even any kind of plan for our two port days.  So we just ambled off the ship around 11 o'clock and headed down to the beach.  DW decided that she wanted to rent a kayak so off she went and I continued to explore only own.  I looks like it will be a lot of fun when it is all up and running but so far it is just a beach with kiosks to buy stuff and a couple of eating places.  I headed back into the ship to enjoy a mostly empty ship, play a little mini golf and drink more Pina Colada's at the Sky bar.

 

FYI. Kayak rental on Cococay is $40 dollars an hour.  Apparently she could have signed up for an excursion where it was about the same price for a little more time but she is a veteran kayaker and didn't want to be restricted by the group.  

 

She returned to a massage at Vitality Spa which she claims to be one of the better deep tissue massages she has had in a while.  They actually had a package on sale that day that included a bunch of stuff... massage, facials etc. for a discounted price of $169 advertised in the Cruise compass.  However when she went to the spa she enquired about it and they had discounted the package even more so she got the whole thing for $149 plus tip.

 

I continued my investigation into the quality of Strongbow cider while entertaining myself (and losing money) in the casino.

 

Together we had a late lunch at Playmaker, nachos and chicken wings and back to more relaxing by the Sky bar.

 

That evening dinner was Izumi Hibachi.  The food quality was very good and the entertainment of the chef was excellent.  I'm a hibachi fan and this guy was one of the more entertaining and funny ones I have had in quite some time.

 

Day 3 was Nassau.  DW stayed on board and did whatever.  I went and explored Nassau.  Mostly just shopping.  Some shops were closed because it was Sunday.  but a lot were open.  I returned to the ship and repeated Day 2 afternoon but I mixed in some Pina Colada fueled mini golf.  We had dinner in Chops, which was excellent and then off to a second round of Ice show.  This time Key benefits were more valuable as it was more crowded and I walked in 10 before show time and right down to a premier seat on the rail.

 

I capped the night off listening to a very good piano player sing a play in the schooner bar until  bed time.

 

Debarkation was in the main dining room for the special Key breakfast.  It was good service and the food excellent and we headed off the ship.  Getting off was as quick and easy as getting on.

 

Overall a good time was had by all.

 

I'll post a few pics.

 

Any questions go ahead and ask

 

[Tree_skier]

[Tree_skier]

[Tree_skier]

[vanelli56]

Nice quick review. 
We leave on Mariner in 9 days. We have opted for the Unlimited Dinning package.... did you encounter any issues using that at playmakers?

 

Thanks in advance for the info. 

Edited May 1, 2019 by vanelli56

[Tree_skier]

6 minutes ago, vanelli56 said:

Nice quick review. 
We leave on Mariner in 9 days. We have opted for the Unlimited Dinning package.... did you encounter any issues using that at playmakers?

 

Thanks in advance for the info. 

On day two when I used it for the first time I mentioned when ordering to the server that we had the UDP and asked if we could use that here which he said we could.  The second time I did it I never mentioned it and I got a receipt showing I owed $6 for the potato skins.  I questioned this and they corrected it.  It would appear that the computer doesn't automatically pick this up and server must notice it on your account when punching in your order/running your seapass card.  Mentioning it may save you effort later if the server is busy and not paying close attention to whatever shows up on the computer screen. The bar was fairly busy the time it didn't work for me.

[vanelli56]

4 minutes ago, Tree_skier said:

On day two when I used it for the first time I mentioned when ordering to the server that we had the UDP and asked if we could use that here which he said we could.  The second time I did it I never mentioned it and I got a receipt showing I owed $6 for the potato skins.  I questioned this and they corrected it.  It would appear that the computer doesn't automatically pick this up and server must notice it on your account when punching in your order/running your seapass card.  Mentioning it may save you effort later if the server is busy and not paying close attention to whatever shows up on the computer screen. The bar was fairly busy the time it didn't work for me.

Thanks for the heads up on that. 

[TYMAN]

Thanks for the review. Will be on her Monday, sailing out of Port Canaveral. How was the food in Playmakers? I heard the Strongbow cider was good. 😉 

Edited May 1, 2019 by TYMAN

[kyrie]

Can you link in your key review? We are considering doing it on the Mariner and debating. I see you did the ulimited dining plan. For a 3 day was it worth it? We are diamond plus and get a discount a little bit the first night already. Curious if the math works out. Thanks! Great review. 

[Tree_skier]

4 hours ago, kyrie said:

Can you link in your key review? We are considering doing it on the Mariner and debating. I see you did the ulimited dining plan. For a 3 day was it worth it? We are diamond plus and get a discount a little bit the first night already. Curious if the math works out. Thanks! Great review. 

 

My Key review is broken up over three different posts on the long Key thread.

 

 

 

 

 

I think the UDP was worth it but I think I only paid $69 for it.  That worked out to $23 dollar per dinner which I thought was fair.  There was no lunch option available during day 2 and 3 as there weren't any sea days but Playmakers opened early afternoon so that was my lunch and it was included with the UDP.  I wasn't ready to eat at noon anyways since breakfast in the Windjammer seemed not that long ago so 2pm or so for lunch wasn't bad at all. Especially since we had later dinner reservations

 

I don't know how the D+ discount works into it so your mileage may vary  but I think the new UDP plan including Playmakers tips the balance of scales for us.  We have three more RCi cruises booked and we will purchase it for two of them.  The next one is a complicated family cruise with several folks having complex food allergies so we're going to be sticking to one dining venue to keep things simple.

 

 

 

[kyrie]

2 hours ago, Tree_skier said:

 

My Key review is broken up over three different posts on the long Key thread.

 

 

 

 

 

I think the UDP was worth it but I think I only paid $69 for it.  That worked out to $23 dollar per dinner which I thought was fair.  There was no lunch option available during day 2 and 3 as there weren't any sea days but Playmakers opened early afternoon so that was my lunch and it was included with the UDP.  I wasn't ready to eat at noon anyways since breakfast in the Windjammer seemed not that long ago so 2pm or so for lunch wasn't bad at all. Especially since we had later dinner reservations

 

I don't know how the D+ discount works into it so your mileage may vary  but I think the new UDP plan including Playmakers tips the balance of scales for us.  We have three more RCi cruises booked and we will purchase it for two of them.  The next one is a complicated family cruise with several folks having complex food allergies so we're going to be sticking to one dining venue to keep things simple.

 

 

 

Thanks!

[SC_Floaters]

Thank You For The Nice Review...

 

The 3 & 4 Day Venues from Pt. Canaveral are one of our favorites. We've sailed there on the Sovereign, Majesty, Monarch & Enchantment a total of about 29 times.

 

We have not sailed the Mariner since 2008 and we are looking forward to our 4 Night cruise coming up on July 22...

 

Again, Thanks for the Review

 

Dennis & Sue

[kyrie]

15 minutes ago, SC_Floaters said:

Thank You For The Nice Review...

 

The 3 & 4 Day Venues from Pt. Canaveral are one of our favorites. We've sailed there on the Sovereign, Majesty, Monarch & Enchantment a total of about 29 times.

 

We have not sailed the Mariner since 2008 and we are looking forward to our 4 Night cruise coming up on July 22...

 

Again, Thanks for the Review

 

Dennis & Sue

Just out of curiousity. Where did you get the image for your signature? I like it!

[SC_Floaters]

22 hours ago, kyrie said:

Just out of curiousity. Where did you get the image for your signature? I like it!

I used the Diamond Logo from Royal Caribbeans Site, and the mail part of the logo from a website Cruise-Ships.com (their timeline does not work anymore). I put it all in microsoft publisher, update the numbers after each cruise and snip it as a graphic and upload...

[kyrie]

On 7/12/2019 at 8:16 AM, SC_Floaters said:

I used the Diamond Logo from Royal Caribbeans Site, and the mail part of the logo from a website Cruise-Ships.com (their timeline does not work anymore). I put it all in microsoft publisher, update the numbers after each cruise and snip it as a graphic and upload...

Thx it looks lovely!