My review: Mariner of the Seas 8/9-8/16/2009

[eurodl]

 

Muster Drill

 

I typically don’t write much about the muster drill, but I thought this one warranted reflection. I’ve had an intense summer job so I’ve not been on Cruise Critic much this summer and feel a bit out of the loop. However, we were told that we were the first cruise on the Mariner where passengers were asked to leave their life vests in their cabins and just report to their muster stations (which were printed very largely on the SeaPass).

 

I may have differing opinions on this than others, but by not taking the life vest, the whole thing seemed completely worthless. Perhaps it makes a difference because we were seated in a lounge, but no one paid attention during the entire drill. Seriously, everyone was chatting with traveling companions or on the phone during the entire drill, even when the cruise director or captain was talking. When it came time for a crew member to demonstrate putting on a life vest, our station’s crew member (who I was sitting next to), grabbed the vest, started to unhook it, then noticed that ABSOLUTELY NO ONE was paying attention to him and simply set the vest back down. I don’t know if it was different out on the decks or in different venues, but I know in the Lotus Lounge that the room was lost. No one wanted to or could control the room, and thus none of the passengers took it seriously. Personally, I felt this was a failure of this more lax program. Yes, it’s wonderful not to have to wear the vest or worry about tripping over it or hearing people blow on their darn whistles, but the cost seemed to be even more loss of attention at an important and mandatory event that already had only a tenuous grasp on people’s attentions as it was.

 

Seems to me that if there was an emergency that required passengers to don life vests how would they know how to put them on if they don't take them to muster. I don't think anyone actually enjoys these things but they have them for a very important reason - to save your life!

[Kurbanfan]

Captain Johnny started his 10 weeks off on July 12, so by my calculations, he's due back September 20...

 

Bummer.........thanks!

[silentbob007]

Seems to me that if there was an emergency that required passengers to don life vests how would they know how to put them on if they don't take them to muster. I don't think anyone actually enjoys these things but they have them for a very important reason - to save your life!

 

My comment was that I can't believe that the Coast Guard would be happy with the way this drill was conducted, but it comes down to .... what do I know? :)

[critterchick]

I actually had a conversation with Captain Johnny about that during our July 5 sailing... He said he's expecting to have about 3 more rotations on Mariner before going to Oasis. Apparently it won't be until next Fall.

 

Thanks for the accurate information!:)

[CAT GIRL]

Bob,

I know what you mean about the saet savers. We had a large group of about 30 people. At most, we saved about 5 seats (for about 5 minutes at most) while some of the older family members with limited mobility arrived.

 

We enjoyed the Ice show the most as well. Except for one incident which really made our large family very upset. Before the start of the show, 2 of the kids (ages 6 and 8) were selected to be part of the show and told to sit in a specially marked area. They were supposed to be picked and seated in the train that the clowns run on the ice. Anyways, as their turn came, some kids came from no where (actually from the top of the side aisles) and pushed aside our 2 kids to get on the train. The clowns were pointing to the guard/floor manager to stop this, but he seemed helpless. When the kids were let off the train, the 2 kids ran upstairs to the proud rantings of their parents. Needless to say, the 2 kids were so upset that they couldn't go on. They were even more upset as they sat away from their families during the show. They didn't ask to be in the show, they were selected and then denied their opportunity. Sorry for the rant, but this one incident is our sore point on the whole cruise. I wander what these parents are teaching their kids - not to respect others and not to respect queues.

 

To the credit of the production manager, they offered to have the kids return for the next and last show or to meet the cast. Unfortunatley, we could not go to the last show as we had reserved a photopgrapher for family portaits at the same time as the show.

 

We went to most of the shows and this was by far our favorite.

 

Wow, this story ticks me off. The nerve of some people.

 

Great review Bob. I like your style of writing.

[eurodl]

My comment was that I can't believe that the Coast Guard would be happy with the way this drill was conducted, but it comes down to .... what do I know? :)

 

I'm sure they would be very disappointed.

[Cruisedreamer1]

Did you notice in any of your daily newsletters whether this exercise class is offered on board? Thanks.

[silentbob007]

I can't say that I noticed that particular class but I may have missed it.

[elleluv]

Did you notice in any of your daily newsletters whether this exercise class is offered on board? Thanks.

 

 

They didn't offer it on Mariner in July... they did offer it on the 3rd leg of the Mariner RTH repo in February...

[Ninner]

Excellent journal/review of the Mariner Chris. Thanks so much. We're sailing Thanksgiving week. Got such a chuckle over your story of Ladies A, B, and C. Can't wait to sit in some saved seats!! I love the challenge! :p

[Sailaways_]

Thanks for posting this review, it was really great. I really like your style of writing and observations, it makes for a nice story and it's fun to read.

 

BTW, I totally agree with you on the napkin thing - it totally grosses me out to see all these adults swinging their napkins - I'm always like, for real? Gross! :eek:

[PhoenixCruiser]

My comment was that I can't believe that the Coast Guard would be happy with the way this drill was conducted, but it comes down to .... what do I know? :)

 

Bob, they did get approval from the Coast Guard. A few ships have been "practicing" this new procedure for several months now.

 

###

[Chigirlcruzin]

Double post.

[Chigirlcruzin]

Thanks so much! After 10 Carnival cruises, I'm doing my first RCCL cruise on the Mariner in 10 weeks! Really appreciate the info on the pre-cruise hotels and Priceline bidding. Going to go check out your ship photos from the May cruise now :)

[lyssa13]

I used that site for competing prices and found a travel agent that offered both a fare discount and prepaid tips

 

Can someone please let me know what website this is? You can email me at alyssa.rechtman at gmail.com

[cruizin_again]

Did you notice in any of your daily newsletters whether this exercise class is offered on board? Thanks.

I remember seeing strech classes in the morning that led to excercising. A few people in our group were raving about the instructor and the whole class. This was during the week of Aug 9th.

[silentbob007]

Hi all, I had to make a last minute trip this weekend so unfortanately my "capper" won't be until Monday. Sorry for the long spaces and the long review but am glad you are enjoying it. :)

[silentbob007]

Bob, they did get approval from the Coast Guard. A few ships have been "practicing" this new procedure for several months now.

 

###

I knew they had to of, but I somehow doubt it was practiced the way it was written out/drilled for the CG.

[silentbob007]

Excellent journal/review of the Mariner Chris. Thanks so much. We're sailing Thanksgiving week. Got such a chuckle over your story of Ladies A, B, and C. Can't wait to sit in some saved seats!! I love the challenge! :p

 

I always get it in my head to do something like that and it never tends to work out well for me ... I always pick the four seats being save for the handicapped war-orhpaned children or something. ;)

[Ninner]

I always get it in my head to do something like that and it never tends to work out well for me ... I always pick the four seats being save for the handicapped war-orhpaned children or something. ;)

 

This makes me laugh...yeah, karma does work that way sometimes but I just stare it right back in the face! :cool:

 

I tried your advice about getting a hotel in San Pedro on Priceline and it worked! Got the Crowne Plaza for $70! Thanks Chris. Your thread/posts have been ever so helpful.

[silentbob007]

I know it's late and other have more current stories to tell, but I'll add one more piece to this thread.

 

Meet and Mingle

 

We had a fairly sedate M&M as we barely made it past the 25 cutoff. I'm guessing maybe 15 people attended the event and there were so many prizes that maybe 3-4 people didn't win something. This event was attended by the M&M organizer and one of the cruise director's staff.

 

Crown and Anchor

 

Being a diamond member, this cruise I received my coupon book and access to the concierge lounge. The coupon book, as many have reported, was close to worthless. I believe I redeemed my free coffee drink coupon, my internet coupon, and my "spin to win" coupon and that's it. All other coupons were either uninteresting, had no relevance (Alaskan cruise-tours only), had ridiculous restrictions (20% your 2nd bottle of wine over $100) or were BOGO (wine, milkshakes at Johnny Rocket's after paying the cover charge). These coupons were quite a change from the nice, old books I received on my PNW Mariner crusie where they had old books and left all of the goodies in (free photo, etc). I was surprised, however, that we received a very heavy, nice RCCL tote-bag as a C&A gift, especially considering we I did not receive a gift on my May Mariner cruise ... not sure if this is using up the inventory or a reinstatement of perks.

 

As for the Concierge Lounge, it was ever-so-crowded before first dinner, when a majority of the guests onboard appeared to be eating. Long lines and no seats were common as an alternate venue was not opened up for this sailing. After 6:00 the place quieted down so that's when we made our appearance before our 6:30 standing MTD reservation. The crew working the conceirge lounge, however, were obviously working hard at pleasing as many people as they could.

 

There was a platinum and above party on the second formal night with the standard drinks, dancing, and comments.

 

Upsell

 

There were occasional announcements on the loudspeaker for Bingo, but I didn't notice other sales calls for the shops or standard Inch-of-Gold. There seemed to be more opportunities to spend this trip though as a caricature artist and a generic "build a bear" have been added to the Royal Promenade. I suppose this is just a taste of what Oasis will be like with even more opportunities to "make your cruise vacation even more special." Art auctions were packed and evidently there were still healthy lines for Johnny Rocket's and Ben and Jerry's.

 

Debarkation

 

Debarkation offerings were both express (walk off with your bags) and traditional (put your bags out the night before and pick them up off the ship). We opted for express departure which was scheduled to leave around 8:15 on the last morning. This offered plenty of time for breakfast at either the main dining room or the WindJammer (though no egg station the last morning). Express departure people were to wait in either the Schooner Bar or Casino and of course people started lining up early. By 7:45 or so it was standing room only with new-parking in the middle of the hallway instead of heading towards the "back" of the line. Debarkation started on time though it was the usual mess. Without anyone watching or enforcing the line, side-lines formed from shorter routes cutting off those who had been waiting as they were supposed to. There were the usual amount of pushy people shoving their way through the line and counting that no one would say anythign to them. As I mentioned in an ealier post, one lady send her daughter weaving through the line, then followed with the bags saying "I need through to catch up to my daughter." She the proceeded to hold up the entire line because she had packed her SeaPass ... typical.

 

We were off quickly, however, with customs taking only a cursory glance at our declaration ... not like with the Monarch's old terminal where you had to stop at a desk. We were at the curb by 8:30 or so (debarkation actually started at around 8:05, even while still calling for international people to check-in). There is an island in the middle of traffic to pick-up shared-ride shuttle as both SuperShuttle and PrimeTime have representatives at the pier (no need for a reservation).

 

This will be a little wierd, but I actually booked our departure out of Ontario Airport (ONT). Flying out of any closer airport was about $100/pp more and I booked a SuperShuttle shared-ride van there for $70 for the two of us. This evidently did not sit well with the driver, however, as he was visibly upset at having to take us to ONT and started questioning when we had arrived as if one of the other drivers had turned us down to take a more lucrative jaunt to LAX. After waiting for 20 minutes or so, our driver loaded some passengers to John Wayne Airport and we departed. Since we had to go to Orange County first, our little excursion to ONT ended up taking about 1.5 hours, though thankfully we had plenty of time with our flight. So I guess my advice is, make sure you book an afternoon flight if you are going out of ONT and be prepared to have a sour driver.

 

Parting Words

 

OK ... finally at the end. This was a nice cruise with some interesting stops. The Mariner is a great ship and has a friendly, outgoing crew. If pricing worked out I wouldn't mind doing this cruise again as there seemed to be plenty to do both on land and on the ship.

 

My next review will probably be my Rhapsody adventure in Australia/New Zealand over Christmas and New Years though who knows what will happen in between. ;) Thanks for your patience with my review, I know that it's what you would call very long and scattered, but I hope you enjoyed the ride.

 

chris

[lyssa13]

Still hoping someone will give me a link for this website that compares cruise prices and the perks travel agents are offering for each sailing -

 

anybody?

 

alyssa.rechtman at gmail.com

 

 

Thanks!

[germ6664]

alyssa

You might google cruise compete. That would be the one you want. You put in what ship you want and when and you'll have TAs giving you their quote for what you want.

 

Jim

(silentbob's dad):)

[lyssa13]

alyssa

You might google cruise compete. That would be the one you want. You put in what ship you want and when and you'll have TAs giving you their quote for what you want.

 

Jim

(silentbob's dad):)

 

Thank you so much! Someone else emailed that to me. I can't believe I didn't know about this website sooner, I wish I had known about it when booking my October cruise. Oh well! I can't complain much, that is only 399 for 7 days with some onboard credit.

 

This is going to make future cruising very dangerous =-) When I find a deal, I find it hard to say no!

[silentbob007]

Thank you so much! Someone else emailed that to me. I can't believe I didn't know about this website sooner, I wish I had known about it when booking my October cruise. Oh well! I can't complain much, that is only 399 for 7 days with some onboard credit.

 

This is going to make future cruising very dangerous =-) When I find a deal, I find it hard to say no!

 

You do have to do your homework just as with any TA, but it is a good resource .....