jam19872016

Uber is on the way. Estimated drop-off at terminal f is 948.

9:04 I actually beat the time. I forgot today was Sunday so less traffic. The drive was actually not terrible. Gonna get my car registered and uber my way to the port.

On the road. Google says I will arrive at the parking lot at 9:05 but there are no slowdowns on 95 yet. My actual arrival will not be that early.

I just tried to type maps into my phone to pull up my app for directions but instead typed naps 🤔.

Good morning everyone. So as I mentioned this is my first time sailing with M in the same roomin nearly three years. She is a bit of a night owl who still gets up as early as she needs to the next morning. I am not. If I stay out all night I like to sleep in. Sleeping through her coming into the room at 3AM after maxing out her 15 and enjoying a few of mine is not an option. She could wake the deaf. I tend to be too tired to fully enjoy myself and its why I like having my own room. She says she is going to try to work on it this cruise. Well we are already off to a poor start. I don't fall asleep well (except on a cruise oddly enough) and I have to kinda decompress. I've said my goodnights and its nearly 1AM and I'm on my phone just about drowsy enough to turn over and fall asleep when I get a knock on the door asking what I'm doing followed by M trying to practically bust down the door to get in. We have words and now I am wide awake. I never really slept at all last night. As sleep quality goes I would rate it "red eye flight to Europe." Long and boring just kind of sitting there never doing more than dozing off for a minute or two at a time. Daylight has appeared so I am getting up, going to pack my last minute items and hit the road. I am hopeful by some miracle my cabin will be ready early and I can grab a nap, but that has not happened since before Covid so I won't count on it .lol.

There are a lot of great reviews going on right now. I debated if I should do one or not because there are definitely better live reviews of this ship already going on. But I enjoy doing them and I am part of the casino Ultra group so can give a different perspective so decided what the heck, can never have too many reviews of a brand new ship. Just don't expect this to be next level like the other great live reviews of this ship 😄 I will be sailing 15 days B2B starting on 12/4 with the second leg starting on 12/11. Both will be eastern Caribbean. I will be sharing a room with my good friend M on the first leg. It is our first time sharing a cabin in almost three years on account that we both usually get free rooms so book solo. This was quite expensive (for a casino rate) so we split the costs. The 8 day I will be solo as she is not able to be away from her business for that long. I am most looking forward to all the food options and it is my goal to eat nothing that I can get on every other Carnival ship. Maybe some gelato since that is only Vista class+. Maybe Cucina since its a complimentary menu. BBQ same thing. And I may do MDR once since M wants to eat there one time. If anyone has a question that they haven't seen covered yet feel free to ask and I will try to find out. I don't plan on doing much in the ports so I'm afraid I can't help there. Also try to keep it related to places I am allowed into. So no kids clubs, specific staterooms, lady's locker room etc. The plan is to be on the road no later than 8 and ideally by 7:30 so I am going to bed now. I'm only about 2 hours from Miami but with morning traffic and getting an Uber from the parking lot I've selected it will take closer to 3. See everyone tomorrow for boarding day.

Wrap Up: All three ships were pretty similar and had similar offerings. I will list some standouts both good and bad between the ships. Dining: Mariner had the best overall dining imho. Although windjammer variety was consistent, quality was definitely better on Mariner. I also enjoyed the complimentary hot dog stand when I wasn't feeling a buffet. Liberty had no equivalent and Indy had an upcharge seafood place. Indy would rank last. I enjoyed the unique option of Sabor on Liberty. Public Spaces and Cabin: I've disscussed in length my thoughs in Liberty needed some sprucing up. Mariner could also use some love in the staterooms, although I have found that to be true in some cabins on all the ships around this age. I can't tell you how many times I've done b2b and had a cabin in great working order and then move to a cabin that is completely busted. It just so happened that all three cabins this time on Mariner were not in the best of shape. Nothing major across any of the ships that should dissuade you from choosing them, just some observations. Entertainment: Mariner seemed to have the most overlapping entertainment with odd planning. For example, Love and Marriage at the same time as a deck party. Then the deck party the same time as a party on the Royal Promenade and Love and Marriage moved to 2pm on a sea day. Strange. The piano guy on Mariner did not seem real popular and I heard a lot of groans from people walking through, but I enjoyed him even if his singing wasn't the best lol. My favorite is the way Indy does their 80's party in the promenade and then we all move to Studio B for the night club. That is always so fun and its the only ship I see ever using that venue as the night club. All Royal ships could stand to have better DJs at their nightclubs but it must be their intention to clear the clubs out by playing bad music because they all start off strong and then get progressively worse as it gets later. Literally, every single time. Service: Service across all three ships is what I've come to expect - good to excellent with a few opportunities. The opportunities are all related to dining in the MDR. The service is so impersonalized to the individual needs of the guest. I don't desire long wait times between courses while I wait for the tables around me to finish their conversations and eat their food. Internet: Internet was less than perfect on Mariner but functioned well most of the time. Liberty really impressed me because I wasn't really buying into the Starlink hype. After sailing on Freedom with Starlink I found it to be slower than before the upgrade so apparently that is an issue specific to that ship. Thanksgiving cruising: I thought I was prepared for the Thanksgiving crowds on the ship. I sailed all summer and was prepared for that level of crowding. It was so much worse than anything I saw all summer. I would probably do it again if I had a casino offer, but I would never pay a premium to sail this time of year unless I did so on a cruise line that was not family oriented. Overall: Overall I enjoyed all my cruises and would easily sail any of them again. At this time Indy is the only one I am scheduled to sail again but that could change when I'm in the market for a short cruise again. Thanks everyone for reading along.

Thanks for following along. I think I would have preferred it on the cruise where I could rest and recuperate instead of when I had people depending on me to be places and do things. But thankfully after about 24 hours the pain started easing up and I'm almost 100% now. I wasn't going to do a review because two of the most prolific live reviewers are already doing lives from the ship, and another top tier live reviewer is doing a review from another ship on the Carnival boards but I like doing them and I am with a casino group so have a slightly different perspective to add so I think I am going to do one. There will be a lot of reviews on the Carnival board lol. Thanks. I healed quickly and am almost back to 100%.

I was on for 33 days from September to October this year. I had no issues with internet in Alaska which I was prepared to deal with due to how far north we were. On the Panama Canal crossing it slowed down and finally went out completely for I believe 3 or 4 days. I received what amounted to about a 40% refund but guest services made me work for it acting like there was no issue despite it being a ship wide outage. When it came back it was basically unusable and frequently had speeds that were slower than dial up when I did a speed test. I still purchased it in the Caribbean because I require it for work. It was still slow after docking in Miami twice where I would think the speed issue could have been resolved. Then it went down completely again. This time no amount of haggling would get me a reimbursement despite about 30 hours of no wifi. They simply would not budge. When it came back speed was what i would call normal. So in theory it is ok now but it was fine when I boarded so keep in mind it could crash again at be useless for you. Literally the worse wifi I have experienced on any carnival ship. Good luck, it's a great ship other than that.

In the car and in the road. Googling my symptoms it seems I may have an ear infection. I sure regret not stocking up on antibiotics in cozumel now I'm not sure I have any. I'll have a wrapup probably tomorrow I'm gonna lay down and rest for a bit when I get home.

On the shuttle back to my car.

Good morning. We are docked already so I think I gonna go line up with the masses. Last night was rough. I got a large amount of water in my ear the other day and last night I woke up in terrible pain from inside my ear. Had a hard time sleeping most of the night. I'm hoping some peroxide in the ear cam clear up whatever is going on in there.

I'm back in the room. All packed and ready to roll off the ship in the morning. Gonna lay down and hopefully fall asleep soon so not too tired in the morning. Intermittent fasting means no coffee in the morning 😬

Truffle burger $9. Campfire cookie without the marshmallows $6. The key to playmakers is to pace yourself. The food is very heavy but so delicious. Now I start my intermittent fasting so I can do it all again for 15 days on Carnival Celebration 😆

Mariner was my weekend ship when that was all I could get away for when I had a traditional job. Then it became independence. It was nice seeing the same crew again amd again especially the good ones like victoriano. MDR is kind of a no go for me because of the late start time and then the line up chaos. Then lately when I do get in the service is just too slow for me. A great waiter like victoriano picks up on my pace and adjusts service. Too often in the mdr it's a choreograph of serving everyone in a section at the same pace. I'm still debating on udp for oasis. I've never tried it on Oasis class and it is my last cruise before I transition out of cruising full time. But I don't know if I can get full use of it. I might just do the 3 plan and my bogo. Edit: unless I find a good deal on it, which I doubt. Haven't see a good price on udp since capacity ramped back up.

At Playmakers for my final supper of the trip.

Great guy. I don't have any more trips on Mariner so I hope I run into him again someday.

The rain did clear but it was very muggy now and I just didn't feel up to going on the island so it was time for a new lunch plan. Checked the buffet. Meh pass. Went to playmakers but there was a riveting 0-0 match up that had the place packed. Went by Johnny rockets and there was nobody there. A private serenade of Johnny Be Good is awkward borderline cringe so I decided to pass on that as well. I landed on the doghouse. I enjoyed it back in the room with one my squirreled away drinks.

It's been overcast all day and now it is raining. I may end up not making onto the island today afterall. Debating now on either playmakers or Johnny rockets for lunch if things don't clear up soon.

Thanks! I've enjoyed the cruise and posting about my trip. Sad too that it's almost over.

A little light breakfast to hold me over till the island lunch begins.

I've not had great success with Loyalty ambassadors before. But the one on Mariner has restored my faith in the position. Bit of a rocky start with the champagne issue but she came through for me this cruise making sure it was delivered without me asking and today she got me my block no questions asked. I'm used to being made to jump through hoops to prove how many points I have.

Good morning. The last day of the cruise hits a little different when it's really your last day I don't think I'm going to spend much time ashore today in coco cay. Just grab some lunch and come back. Too early for lunch so I'm not gonna head out just yet.

Going to bed. Only one day left and it's gonna be a perfect day. Or at least a very nice one. Good night everyone.

Quest was a blast. Gonna wander a little see if I get a second wind but I think I'm done for the evening.