Just back from Mariner 'Alaskan' Riviera cruise...

[scubapro48]

[quote name='klfhngr']EXACTLY! For the first 2 days, that's all the captain would say, 'everything is ok, no worries, nothing to worry about', etc.! Then, WHAMMO, we have to leave Mexico?!![/QUOTE]

We heard the same line on the Serenade. We were told the flu was inland and not affecting coastal areas. We stopped in Huatulco on 4/26 and Acapulco on 4/27. We did not make it to Cabo on 4/29 when the decision was made by RCL to follow the US Gov't recommendation of "no non-essential travel to Mexico".
We did, however, get diverted to San Diego. We were unable to leave the ship for over 3 hrs. until we cleared immigration! SD is a beautiful city and it was sunny.
Our cruise ended in SF on 5/2--and yes it was still raining...

We were thankful that our cruise did not start a few days earlier, or we too would have by-passed 3 Mexican ports!

[klfhngr]

[quote name='land lover']KH(AKA JAMES)....according to past posts, you have been on this itinerary 10+ times and you would not have thought about bringing warm clothes???? Weren't you the weather man on our April 26, thread????

I can see people from the east and mid-west packing only for hot weather. But a So Cal native....you know better, especially on this itinerary.

Okay now I am done giving you a hard time;)

Certainly, everyone on this sailing was disappointed.....especially my SIL from Utah.

Now I am going back to read more than the first post of this thread..........[/QUOTE]

We're familiar with the first day and last days, the weather.. it's not that cold, compared to S.F.!! We've never been rained on during April, but have in Oct... That's not the real issue however...

[land lover]

[quote name='aggieastrosfan']Carnival treated the passengers who yelled and threatened their crew very well by arranging a special stop back in Long Beach just for them to get off the ship. :rolleyes: So the rest of us that stayed missed the few morning hours in San Fran where it didn't rain!!

It could be worse - you could've not gotten Cabo (we didn't), and spent the entire time in San Francisco in the rain (we did). And only get $40/pp shipboard credit.

I managed to have a great time on our ship, but I totally understand where you're coming from! The change in weather was a huge disappointment, the wrap balcony we paid a small fortune for was pretty useless the last 2 1/2 days.[/quote]

I really felt for you guys, as we were watched your ship suddenly appear in the Cabo and then quickly depart and in SF saw the long.....
walk you had to make from your dock...We had a wrap around aft as well and the only day we could use ours was in CABO.... I will say though we enjoyed looking at your lighted ship at night.

[klfhngr]

[quote name='indyguy65']Yes, we also were on the 4/19 sailing and we did not hear a word about the swine flu until Thursday. By then we were headed out of Puerto Vallarta. I don't think when the ship left San Pedron on 4/26 there was a thought it might not be able to make all 3 Mexican stops. This whole flu thing really took off after that and RCI and every other line was scrambling for a solution.[/QUOTE]

See, we had NO IDEA that there was a remote possibility that it would not make all 3 ports, NEVER! This is where the real issue lies... If they new ahead of time, we should've been cautioned/warned! Being that we weren't, I believe we are due more than what was given, period! If we were warned and decided to sail, then ANYTHING they gave and offered would've been appropriate and fair. We were NEVER given a choice nor warned.

[FireIce0010]

[quote name='klfhngr']See, we had NO IDEA that there was a remote possibility that it would not make all 3 ports, NEVER! This is where the real issue lies... If they new ahead of time, we should've been cautioned/warned! Being that we weren't, I believe we are due more than what was given, period! If we were warned and decided to sail, then ANYTHING they gave and offered would've been appropriate and fair. We were NEVER given a choice nor warned.[/quote]

Sounds like you need to take your business back to Carnival since they treated their passengers so much better. NOT!!!!!!!

[klfhngr]

[quote name='scubapro48']We heard the same line on the Serenade. We were told the flu was inland and not affecting coastal areas. We stopped in Huatulco on 4/26 and Acapulco on 4/27. We did not make it to Cabo on 4/29 when the decision was made by RCL to follow the US Gov't recommendation of "no non-essential travel to Mexico".
We did, however, get diverted to San Diego. We were unable to leave the ship for over 3 hrs. until we cleared immigration! SD is a beautiful city and it was sunny.
Our cruise ended in SF on 5/2--and yes it was still raining...

We were thankful that our cruise did not start a few days earlier, or we too would have by-passed 3 Mexican ports![/QUOTE]

Sorry about the rain, happy to hear that you did enjoy a few Mexican ports..

I feel for the people there, they depend so much on the ships.. I wonder if they had any clue that this was going to happen. I saw so many children selling stuff, I wish I could bring them all back with us....

[klfhngr]

[quote name='FireIce0010']Sounds like you need to take your business back to Carnival since they treated their passengers so much better. NOT!!!!!!![/QUOTE]

Good one FireIce..... thanks for the great suggestion/idea... Have any more?

[critterchick]

[quote name='klfhngr']See, we had NO IDEA that there was a remote possibility that it would not make all 3 ports, NEVER! This is where the real issue lies... If they new ahead of time, we should've been cautioned/warned! Being that we weren't, I believe we are due more than what was given, period! If we were warned and decided to sail, then ANYTHING they gave and offered would've been appropriate and fair. We were NEVER given a choice nor warned.[/quote]

I truly believe that RCI did not know they were going to change your itinerary. They're not that quick on the draw.:rolleyes: They saw Carnival and Princess doing so and finally woke up. I think they saw that there were no reported cases of swine flu anywhere that you were going and probably thought that painting an entire country with one brush was a dumb thing to do. But they had to get on the bandwagon once all the other lines turned tail and fled.

My non-medical, non-WHO two cents is that the entire swine flu "pandemic" story was an overreaction. But if I had to err, it would be on the side of caution.

Start taking Zicam and echinichea (sp) to try to keep your symptoms from getting worse. Also chicken soup and lots of fluids of the non-alcoholic variety.

[klfhngr]

[quote name='critterchick']I truly believe that RCI did not know they were going to change your itinerary. They're not that quick on the draw.:rolleyes: They saw Carnival and Princess doing so and finally woke up. I think they saw that there were no reported cases of swine flu anywhere that you were going and probably thought that painting an entire country with one brush was a dumb thing to do. But they had to get on the bandwagon once all the other lines turned tail and fled.

My non-medical, non-WHO two cents is that the entire swine flu "pandemic" story was an overreaction. But if I had to err, it would be on the side of caution.

Start taking Zicam and echinichea (sp) to try to keep your symptoms from getting worse. Also chicken soup and lots of fluids of the non-alcoholic variety.[/QUOTE]

Thanks for the info. and heads up on 'meds'.. :) Bummer, I was gonna have some whisky to cure the pain!

[FireIce0010]

[quote name='critterchick']I truly believe that RCI did not know they were going to change your itinerary. They're not that quick on the draw.:rolleyes: They saw Carnival and Princess doing so and finally woke up. I think they saw that there were no reported cases of swine flu anywhere that you were going and probably thought that painting an entire country with one brush was a dumb thing to do. But they had to get on the bandwagon once all the other lines turned tail and fled.

My non-medical, non-WHO two cents is that the entire swine flu "pandemic" story was an overreaction. But if I had to err, it would be on the side of caution.

Start taking Zicam and echinichea (sp) to try to keep your symptoms from getting worse. Also chicken soup and lots of fluids of the non-alcoholic variety.[/quote]

Actually it wasn't until Tuesday of last week that everything started to happen. The World Health Organization and CDC came out with the advisories on Tuesday of last week for Mexico and that was when the cruise lines started to react. I think that they did the best that they could concerning the situation and that goes for all of the cruise lines. It takes time to plan the itinerary changes.

[Let'sGo!]

I'm very sorry to hear you had such a lousy cruise. I know we book ours usually a year in advance and it would be awful to look forward to it for so long, to have it all go bad.

I agree with Jean (Critterchick) that RCCL probably pulled the trigger a little late. It would have been so much better to have made the decision as the previous cruise was coming back, rather than in the middle of your cruise.

I know I was on the phone with them as soon as Carnival and Princess announced they weren't going to Mexico - and had to wait an entire day for RCCL to announce what they were going to do.

It doesn't seem fair for them to not offer you the same obc/future cruise deals the next several Mexican Riviera cruisers are getting. Or at least a revised version of it - since you did get to go to Cabo.

Keep after them if you can... if enough people complain, you might actually get a response from them!

Ann

[klfhngr]

[quote name='TexasAnn']I'm very sorry to hear you had such a lousy cruise. I know we book ours usually a year in advance and it would be awful to look forward to it for so long, to have it all go bad.

I agree with Jean (Critterchick) that RCCL probably pulled the trigger a little late. It would have been so much better to have made the decision as the previous cruise was coming back, rather than in the middle of your cruise.

I know I was on the phone with them as soon as Carnival and Princess announced they weren't going to Mexico - and had to wait an entire day for RCCL to announce what they were going to do.

It doesn't seem fair for them to not offer you the same obc/future cruise deals the next several Mexican Riviera cruisers are getting. Or at least a revised version of it - since you did get to go to Cabo.

Keep after them if you can... if enough people complain, you might actually get a response from them!

Ann[/QUOTE]

Thanks for understanding....

[klfhngr]

If you have any questions, I'd be more than happy to answer them. I will not be biased or base my answers on what occured. Food, activities, hang out spots, shows, feel free to ask.

[msett1]

Who was the CD for your cruise? We are on the Mariner 5/24 and hope Abe is back from his vacation by then.

[Merion_Mom]

[quote name='36kruzes']Interesting about that 'fog' you claim you experienced off Mazatlan in April. Is it possible? Sure, anything's possible. Is it common? NO! I've sailed up and down those waters for decades and never experienced more than a slight bit of fog as far south as Mazatlan. My brother is a commercial fisherman along Ca/Mex waters and he says the fog you claim you noticed near Mazatlan would be rare indeed .

Is there fog along the coast of CA, Oregon border to Mexican border? Yes. And our fog in So. Cal. is usually most common in SUMMER, not spring.

Whatever -- the unhappy cruiser/original poster with the changed itinerary would like to tell his story and he has good reason to be really annoyed. If you had any real fog at all, I am quite certain it was not accompanied by windy freezing cold temps and rain, that's for sure.[/QUOTE]

Thank you for your commentary on my experience with fog in Mazatlan. :rolleyes:

[Merion_Mom]

[quote name='msett1']Who was the CD for your cruise? We are on the Mariner 5/24 and hope Abe is back from his vacation by then.[/QUOTE]

They had Ken Rush. I forgot to ask Abe when he was *really* returning to the Mariner after his vacation.

[klfhngr]

[quote name='msett1']Who was the CD for your cruise? We are on the Mariner 5/24 and hope Abe is back from his vacation by then.[/QUOTE]

It was Ken, he was great...! I know he's eventually going to Oasis, but he might be going elsewhere before then. So you might end up having Abe. The entire CD team was great..

[ByeBye1]

[B]Is there a reason you couldn't use your OBC to buy a sweat shirt in the gift shop? There are things to complain about but getting your health protected is not one of them. [/B]

[klfhngr]

[quote name='Merion_Mom']They had Ken Rush. I forgot to ask Abe when he was *really* returning to the Mariner after his vacation.[/QUOTE]

Thanks for answering a question that was addressed to me! JK!!! ;)

[critterchick]

[quote name='klfhngr']If you have any questions, I'd be more than happy to answer them. I will not be biased or base my answers on what occured. Food, activities, hang out spots, shows, feel free to ask.[/quote]

Tell me about food and service in the MDR. Last year it was a bright spot in the cruise; this year it was hands down the worst service we've ever had on a cruise ship. Slow, forgetful and neglectful. The food wasn't memorable, but I don't remember it being horrid. Just forgettable.

[klfhngr]

[quote name='critterchick']Tell me about food and service in the MDR. Last year it was a bright spot in the cruise; this year it was hands down the worst service we've ever had on a cruise ship. Slow, forgetful and neglectful. The food wasn't memorable, but I don't remember it being horrid. Just forgettable.[/QUOTE]

Food in MDR was not that good.. I'm not picky, as you can tell.. but some of it was plain GROSS! Shrimp was rubbery and even fishy. Steak was hit and miss, sometimes good, sometimes bad. The chicken was real bad, the one that you can order any night. Seemed like it was water logged, or as if they purchased the large frozen bags from Costco.

Service was bad, at least our waiter was. He was not friendly at all. His assistant was good and nice. They forgot soups and salads on some nights or even brought out the wrong dishes! TERRIBLE!

[dickens56]

Did your TA get anymore compensation for you? We tried to contact ours today, but she won't be in until tomorrow. I would really like the $350 towards another cruise. We had organized a group of 18 to take this cruise in October. I have been waiting for phone calls to see if any back out after hearing what happened to us last week.

[startwin]

[quote name='36kruzes']Interesting about that 'fog' you claim you experienced off Mazatlan in April. Is it possible? Sure, anything's possible. Is it common? NO! I've sailed up and down those waters for decades and never experienced more than a slight bit of fog as far south as Mazatlan. My brother is a commercial fisherman along Ca/Mex waters and he says the fog you claim you noticed near Mazatlan would be rare indeed .

Is there fog along the coast of CA, Oregon border to Mexican border? Yes. And our fog in So. Cal. is usually most common in SUMMER, not spring.

Whatever -- the unhappy cruiser/original poster with the changed itinerary would like to tell his story and he has good reason to be really annoyed. If you had any real fog at all, I am quite certain it was not accompanied by windy freezing cold temps and rain, that's for sure.[/quote]

No "claim" - there was most definitely a thick fog, which didn't clear until later in the morning. In fact, it was still quite foggy when we watched the cliff divers pretty close to noon - and I have the photos to prove it, LOL. Just our luck to encounter such a rare fog eh?:D

[sevenseassailor]

When decision was made by RCl, they were relying on CDC and VP Biden's guidance. After a 30 year career as a pilot with a major airline, it always amazed me at how some passengers were so pissed when we rarely had to delay flight or divert because it was too dangerous to fly. All the rumors were absolutely true and ALL airline pilots had women in EVERY city so we wanted to get there too. (My wife made we say that) Back to the issue which is passenger safety. IT SHOULD ALWAYS BE #1! Live to sail another day.

[klfhngr]

[quote name='ByeBye1'][B]Is there a reason you couldn't use your OBC to buy a sweat shirt in the gift shop? There are things to complain about but getting your health protected is not one of them. [/B][/QUOTE]

Now why in the he** would I want to do that?!?