Christmas Cruise - Never Again

[loman]

I dont go to malls the month of December to avoid the non stop christmas carols . I pity the mall employees .

[Painter4me]

10 hours ago, LEMJMcC said:

Taken by itself, the cruise on Mariner of the Seas over Christmas was okay.  No doubt it would have been better without having to deal with masks - I really found them to be quite an annoyance and they took much away from our experience.  Mariner seems to be a tired ship needing some much needed maintenance and upkeep - which I realize is a challenge when the ship docks and redeploys in one day, week after week.  Still, you'd have thought that RCI would have taken the opportunity to do some much needed maintenance and "brightening" of their fleet while it was not sailing.

 

Though not at full capacity it still seemed crowded, especially the promenade and the track on deck 12; we did find a pleasant walking experience on deck 4 thouogh with the exception of the smoking area on the port side.  The Windjammer was crowded and just seemed really busy each time we visited it.  We did like having crew handle the serving of the food!  We felt much less cramped on Oasis back in 2018.

 

Speaking of food, our food in the MDR was quite good and this is the dirst cruise that we took all of our evening meals in the MDR.  Service was good and we had very amenable and pleasant dinner mates.  The quality of the food was above good, but not quite great, except for the Beff Stroganoff and the Oso Buko which I found to be delectable!

 

The crew was for the most part very friendly, though I did run across a few who seemed almost annoyed to serve; I felt like I was I was inconveniencing them when it came my turn at the counter; particularly at bars.  Our cabin attendant and waiters were all very good; top notch I must say.  We enjoyed one lunch at Johnny Rockets and Vlad was a hoot!  The only downside was that I became a bit ill in the stomach after that one meal and didn't feel like eating agani until the following evening after returning from Cozumel.

 

Now, as far as Christmas is concerned, it was more like Christless.  Everything was over the top secular with not a hint of the sacred.  Not one traditional Crhistmas song was played on Mariner - though when docked alongside Brilliance at Cozumel we did hear some on that ship!  Nor did we see one manger scene or anything that referred to the reason for the season.  For some perhaps this is not even a consideration, and my wife did ask me what I had expected.  Perhaps I did have unrealistic expectations, but I would have thought that somewhere on the ship the whole reason we have the High Holiday of Christmas would have been acknowledged in some public manner.  They did have Catholic Mass, but as we are not Catholic, we did not attend.  We feel like we literally missed Christmas this past year, though as Dickens states, we try to honor it in our hearts all the days throughout the year regardless.

 

In summary, we will never again take a Christmas cruise; but will likely embark on cruises at other times during the winter seasons to come, once Covid and all its variants are just bad memories.

 

Regards.

 

[Painter4me]

As a practicing Catholic, I know that not all cruises have Catholic Masses each week. If there is a Catholic priest vacationing on a sailing, and chooses to say Mass, that is when there’s a Mass.  You could have attended the Catholic Mass and just not take part in the Communion. just like if I go to a Non-denominational service, when there’s not a Catholic Mass available. I’ve attended services in many other churches and didn’t participate in their monthly communion. 

[Btank]

7 minutes ago, Painter4me said:

  You could have attended the Catholic Mass and just not take part in the Communion. just like if I go to a Non-denominational service, when there’s not a Catholic Mass available. I’ve attended services in many other churches and didn’t participate in their monthly communion. 

And as a Protestant, I've been to many masses where anyone could come down for the Communion; those not taking the Host can cross their arms in front of their chest to receive a blessing by the priest.  And there is no requirement to take part in the liturgical calls and responses; one can simply listen, or take the time to pray to themselves.  "Full participation" is indeed in the eye of the beholder.

 

      --bruce T.

 

[Painter4me]

5 minutes ago, Btank said:

And as a Protestant, I've been to many masses where anyone could come down for the Communion; those not taking the Host can cross their arms in front of their chest to receive a blessing by the priest.  And there is no requirement to take part in the liturgical calls and responses; one can simply listen, or take the time to pray to themselves.  "Full participation" is indeed in the eye of the beholder.

 

      --bruce T.

 

Bruce, I agree!  That totally slipped my mind. Sorry! God Bless!

[Btank]

1 minute ago, Painter4me said:

Bruce, I agree!  That totally slipped my mind. Sorry! God Bless!

I first saw this when my parents were in the hospital - both in critical care at the same time.  They had restricted visiting hours (although the staff cheated a bit for me), so I spent a lot of time in the chapel - aka "my branch office".  With everyone praying for them, it was nice to have someone "watching out" for me.

 

     --bruce T.

 

[CPT Trips]

Wow, we had a similar experience on Anthem this year. We cruised during Saturnalia and despite the general and appropriate revelry there was not one mention of that holiday. In fact they had more of a Christmas theme with officer and staff caroling as well as a Christmas Spectacular in which the actor that played Spectra in Two70 performed a really terrific “O Holy Night.

 

DW had to remind me “All Holidays Matter”

[Cruising Divers]

6 hours ago, Ferry_Watcher said:

HAL usually has a priest on board to lead Mass for crew and passengers. 

 

Our first cruise was a Christmas cruise on HAL (Eurodam in 2015 I believe) and there was a non-denominational service and it was simple but lovely and we thoroughly appreciated the option of it. The ship decorations, the altered food/menu, the crew in Santa hats/etc, the music - all of it was as good as we had hoped for and we would do it again in a heartbeat if we could ever get that week off from work again (permanently blacked-out for DW unfortunately). 
 

Of course I’m not sure of what all aspects

have changed since our trip but based upon our one experience I’d highly recommend a HAL Christmas cruise for anyone looking for more secular options/experience, we enjoyed ours enough to decide that cruising was for us and that we’d like to do it, well, basically for forever. 

[Merion_Mom]

47 minutes ago, CPT Trips said:

Wow, we had a similar experience on Anthem this year. We cruised during Saturnalia and despite the general and appropriate revelry there was not one mention of that holiday. In fact they had more of a Christmas theme with officer and staff caroling as well as a Christmas Spectacular in which the actor that played Spectra in Two70 performed a really terrific “O Holy Night.

 

DW had to remind me “All Holidays Matter”

 

 

[Merion_Mom]

 

[Jldevlin]

We were om Bliss over Christmas and what I found interesting was the crew and C D were all singing Hymns and the regular songs.....There was a family that I assumed was Muslim ( ladies had the hair coverings ) that were listening along .....when it came time for the religious songs they simply sat quietly and when Rudolph was sung the happily joined in        

[Joseph2017China]

How is a ship tired looking when it is old?  I was just on a 32 year old ship, and it was tired looking?

 

As far as services.  The ship had a Catholic Mass because a guest was a priest and was willing to hold it.  I was on an Easter trip, and the Catholic Priest, also held a non-denominational service, which was nothing more that a Catholic Mass without communion.  

 

Anyone can go to a Catholic Service, and not receive Communion.  It is only a persons mind that they can't.  Churches are always open to other faiths.  I have been too many services outside my church, and have always come out of it refreshed.  

[ramja96]

21 hours ago, John&LaLa said:

Mariner was amped 3 years ago. It was very nice in 2019. What was 'tired' about her?

 

20 hours ago, Tee & Chilli said:

We sailed on Mariner in October and didn’t notice any maintenance issues.

 

20 hours ago, lovesthebeach2 said:

I’m curious too, we’re going on Mariner in a few weeks.  We just got off Brilliance this morning and we felt that ship REALLY needs to be updated 

 

To @lovesthebeach2 - No need to worry - I agree with @John&LaLa and @Tee & Chilli - I was on Mariner in October and thought it was in great shape!

Edited January 4, 2022 by ramja96

[nelblu]

36 minutes ago, ramja96 said:

 

 

 

To @lovesthebeach2 - No need to worry - I agree with @John&LaLa and @Tee & Chilli - I was on Mariner in October and thought it was in great shape!

Just my few cents.  I was on Mariner Dec. 4th sail and a couple of items with my cabin.  Cabinets in bathrooms had some rust and the safe needs to be replaced as I basically was pounding on the keyboard to open safe.

Also, the casino needs to be overhauled as I kept losing😄. 

 

Minor items, but over-all it was in good shape.

 

PS.  Noticed that life preserver jackets where in the closet.  Is this normal for non-Oasis/Quantum classes.

[Presbycruiser67]

Nothing wrong with a mixture of sacred and secular music during the Christmas Season, IMO.  It would be a shame if there was no sacred music, even if just the tunes, like Hark the Herald Angels Sing, etc.  But to each his own.

 

As a Protestant pastor, I may just volunteer to lead worship on my solo cruise in October.  

[ONECRUISER]

15 minutes ago, nelblu said:

Just my few cents.  I was on Mariner Dec. 4th sail and a couple of items with my cabin.  Cabinets in bathrooms had some rust and the safe needs to be replaced as I basically was pounding on the k

 

PS.  Noticed that life preserver jackets where in the closet.  Is this normal for non-Oasis/Quantum classes.

Yes it is on the older Ships

[Ptroxx]

11 hours ago, Merion_Mom said:

 

Always 2 sides to every story.   
wonder where to OP went lol.  No comments since original post lol. Maybe his wife won’t let him post anymore lol 

[MISTER 67]

3 hours ago, Joseph2017China said:

How is a ship tired looking when it is old?  I was just on a 32 year old ship, and it was tired looking?

 

As far as services.  The ship had a Catholic Mass because a guest was a priest and was willing to hold it.  I was on an Easter trip, and the Catholic Priest, also held a non-denominational service, which was nothing more that a Catholic Mass without communion.  

 

Anyone can go to a Catholic Service, and not receive Communion.  It is only a persons mind that they can't.  Churches are always open to other faiths.  I have been too many services outside my church, and have always come out of it refreshed.  

As far as a ship being tired looking, we notice worn out carpeting, furniture like chairs and tables needing to be replaced because of worn out upholstery and nicks and scratches. Elevators take a beating and we have noticed banged up doors and walls. Outside areas can become pretty rusty and deck chairs also can become pretty banged up. I've noticed a lot of ships having the 3 or 4 thin white steel railings below the wood railing bent out of shape, I've always wondered how that happens.

[OnTheJourney]

51 minutes ago, Ptroxx said:

wonder where to OP went lol.

Didn't even notice that actually...just assumed he chimed back in somewhere along the way! 

[LEMJMcC]

Well, I've been reading through the responses to my post.  As far as the ship, rust wasn't so much an issue, that's to be expected.  All observations were minor, but when you're paying what we're paying for these cruises, I do expect even minor details to be right.

• The balcony on our Junior Suite had absorbent pigs stacked on one side; I though this odd - never did determine the reason for them, but they were not changed out the whole time.
• The glass on the balcony was filthy, even on departure day.  I asked one crewmember who was cleaning windows elsewhere if we could ours cleaned, but he didn't follow through.  I wouldn't expect it to remain clean throughout the voyage due to the salt air, but on departure day I would have thought it had been cleaned.
• The tub would not drain, until I removed the drain stopper completely. (Granted I probably could have called Maintenance and had it fixed, but since I corrected it, I didn't bother them)
• Some curtains visible from outside the ship  (possible in the crew area?) were partially falling off their rods. 
• The volume of the cabin speaker could not be adjusted so we couldn't hear or understand the announcements that were made (Again, I probably could have reported this and had it fixed, but chose not to)
• The two freestyle machines ran out of certain drinks about midway through the cruise (such as ginger ale) and were not refilled.  This got worse on the day before returning to Port Canaveral when several drinks had run dry.  I found it odd that there were only two of these machines for the whole ship, unless I was just unaware of others??

I'm not opposed to secular content at Christmas, nor do I expect every song to have a faith-based reference.  I did, however, find it odd that not one single traditional Christmas carol was included in the mix.  As far as I could tell there was no caroling offered or advertised. 

 

The crew almost to a person wore some kind of Christmas-themed hat, and almost everyone did wish us a Merry Christmas as opposed to the generic happy holidays. 

 

Did not see a Menorah anywhere either, but Chanukah was well past by the time we boarded.

 

Catholic mass was offered but was not described as "non-denominational" and we did consider attending but elected not to.  No other service was offered.

 

I'm not trying to persuade others to avoid Christmas cruises, whatever floats your boat (or ship in this case).  I would have appreciated some candid reviews of Christmas cruises from a similar perspective before booking ours - it may or may not have changed our decision. 

 

We don't regret taking the cruise, we are very thankful and grateful for the privilege of being able to enjoy such an activity when most of the world cannot.  We've done it and found it lacking so we won't likely do it again.  I'm certain others have enjoyed this very same cruise immensely and I am very glad for them; I hope all who cruise enjoy themselves.

 

It was kind of perplexing to observe some rather odd, angry, and even rude behavior by some other guests at check-in and even walking around the ship.  One guy exploded on the porters at teh drop-off location screaming at them not to touch his luggage!  While most seemed overjoyed to be cruising and had the countenance to demonstrate it, some few others looked absolutely miserable, angry, and 

almost bitter to be out there...fascinating...unless they were seasick.

 

Anyway, we did enjoy ourselves and I didn't intend to come across as complaining or as a malcontent.  We thoroughly enjoyed the company we kept each night in the MDR, and the waiters, waitresses, and our cabin steward were exemplary.  We are truly and undeservedly blessed to able to enjoy such an experience.

 

God bless us all, every one.

 

[2chiefs]

On 1/3/2022 at 1:21 PM, Tee & Chilli said:

We sailed on Mariner in October and didn’t notice any maintenance issues.

It may be in the eye of the beholder. Ships sail on salt water and rust very fast. Sometimes a little rust will cause some people to call it "tired" when, in reality, brand new ships will get a little rust very fast. It's hard for tha maintenance crew to keep up with it. Afterall, they can't correct the rust until it rusts.. LOL  

[time4u2go]

2 hours ago, LEMJMcC said:

The balcony on our Junior Suite had absorbent pigs stacked on one side; I though this odd - never did determine the reason for them, but they were not changed out the whole time.

I have to ask...what is an absorbent pig?

[Presbycruiser67]

I would be bothered if there were pigs attached to my balcony too.

[A&L_Ont]

12 minutes ago, time4u2go said:

I have to ask...what is an absorbent pig?

I too wondered the same thing. 

[shipgeeks]

OP, Thank you for your posts.  They were well-balanced, and I both enjoyed and learned from the responses.  Many good thoughts.