Mariner 6/13-6/20 review--what a great week!

[cruzinpsycharnp]

I was on this cruise as well. I agree, the ship is beautiful even if the art is somewhat funky. The casino entrance was fun with the carnival mirrors and the floor.

 

The coffee was good, I thought, but the food was hit and miss. My daughter got a very nice prime rib and a baked potatoe. The waiter offered her sour cream which it turned out was SOUR! I had a beautiful puff pastry in the shape of a swan but it too was SOUR! The filet was a nice piece of meat but had no flavor at all. Unless you asked there was way too much dressing on the ceasar salad. Lobster was good. Shrimp coctail only so-so and the coctail sauce was served after 10 minutes. The wait staff were great. We had a table just as you walked into the 2nd tier which at first seemed like a bad spot but was actually very nice and looked out over the chandeleir. (sp). I did not like most of the food in the Windjammer. The Cafe Prommenade was a joke...a few croissant sandwiches and pizza which wasn't very good. One night we ended up eating dinner at 4:30 at Johnny Rocket's because we had tickets for the 7pm ice show and Jr's is closed from 5 to 7pm for Adventure Ocean. None of us wanted what was in the Windjammer.

 

Our cabin was an aft. Talk about a huge balcony!! It was about 14 feet deep and wide! We had 2 lounge chairs and 4 chairs and a table!! That said, I do not get the mystique of aft cabins and prefer the side. One of the beds had a metal contraption under it that fit the life jackets so luggage would not fit under that part. Ended up putting one of five suitcases on the balcony. We knew we took too much stuff! The ball gowns did not get at all wrinkled after putting them in plastic bags. Nice bathroom and shower without the hated curtain! Our room steward was great! That has to be the world's smallest ice bucket! One third the size of a hotel ice bucket. We had taken a collapsable cooler which the steward kept filled all week.

 

Bingo was fun as were art auctions. I did not find John Pinette all that funny...one hour of fat and bathroom jokes?? And I agree that the Baltic/Russian circus theme was strange but the ice show was fun. No one checked for tickets. QUEST was the funniest thing on the sea!

 

We spent a fair amount of time at the Champagne bar where Andres was the waiter. He was very entertaining. He bet he could pour eight different drinks out of eight shakers into a pyrammid of glasses which he did to the approval of those there. My son would do card tricks which stumped everyone. That was a lot of fun.

 

I managed to get good and lost a few times and my son would guide me with the walkie talky. How he knew where I was is beyond me since I didn't know.

 

Pool chair hogs not as bad as on other lines. There were few people even at the pool until after 9:30 am. On day two I did see a crew member move a bunch of towels etc. saving seats. The offenders apparently got the message.

 

Rock climbing and ice skating were my kid's favorites. I wish I didn't have to sign the release every day though. I just like sitting by the pool people watching.

 

We did the America's Cup in St. Maarten. We lost by 15 feet but had a great time. In St. Thomas Godfrey picked us up as planned and we did a great tour of the island. In Nassau we also did a tour. Saw The Dig at Atlantis. Very beautiful. At the end of the 2.5 hour tour one of the couples with us gave the driver $2!!!!!! as a tip. A dollar apiece! I was shocked anyone would be that cheap.

 

The poor showing at the meet and mingle was a dissappointment. Yes, that was my angry son with that stupid post just before the board changed. Boy, did he get flamed.

 

Plenty of ameneties. Don't forget to go up to the bridge where you can watch especially going into a port.