Mariner - my short review & GS review ratings

[woodburyhomes]

I thought rather than just give my review I’d try to focus on something that I’ve seen brought up or asked several times. Is the cost of a GS really worth it? How are the GS perks? Throughout this review I’ll try to address the associated perk and rate it on a scale of 1 to 5 (5 being excellent).

A brief history, I had booked a JS for myself, husband and 2 boys. We had a price drop before payment cut off, so I saved $1,000. Then a couple of weeks later the price of a GS dropped and I was able to upgrade for that same $1,000. I booked it, then the price of the GS went back up and it never came down again. That said…

EMBARKATION: I took the advice of some forum folks and parked at the pier rather than Doubletree. Got a great parking space, so glad I did that rather than leave my car at Doubletree.

Once inside there are lines for check in and a separate line for diamond and suite guests. We were the second folks in the suite line for check in. Check in was a breeze, got our gold sea pass cards then sat in the “special” section to wait to board. What was special about it you may ask? The seats are pink instead of green and there’s a short metal divider between the pink section and green section. They ran out of seats in the pink section, many people had to stand. Rating: 4 (for no line to stand in). Rating: 2 for the pink seats. To get a 5, the waiting area would have to be a lounge.

THE GRAND SUITE: Very nice. The extra room was definitely worth it to me. The bathroom was awesome, two sinks, soaking tub, lots of granite and marble. Our balcony had 2 chairs, table and lounge chair. The stateroom attendant brought me an extra chair so all 4 of us could sit outside together.

There were 4 pool towels already in the bathroom-no need to check them out at the pool desk and my sea pass card was never charged for them. There were a couple of robes and little bottles of shampoo, conditioner and bath gel. Rating: 4 (exchanging wet pool towel for dry causes some confusion when you’re not listed as having checked them out in the first place)

Full Room Service Menu: We tried the Windjammer one day and IMO ick. So we used room service for breakfast pretty extensively. I like to lounge anyway and we ate outside – lovely. The menu was more extensive than the breakfast tag you hang on outside your door, so that was nice. Rating: 4

We also used the special room service for dinner on the last night. The food was very good and much better than what I had in the dining room for some reason.

Complimentary snack plates were delivered 3 times I think. They were ok, cheese, a little fruit, some choc dipped strawberries. Rating: 3 (sounds better than they actually tasted).

Invite to meet the captain. We didn’t go we were busy. No rating.

CONCIERGE LOUNGE: The bartenders were the greatest. Super friendly, heavy handed on the pour and whatever we wanted or needed to go. Rating: 5

FOOD: Main Dining Room, just MO but ick again. We only ended up eating there 3 times. Food was either dried out, bland or overly fishy tasting (I eat lots of fish, yes I know what fish is supposed to taste like).

Windjammer – we only ate there once for breakfast and took our meals to CHOPS to sit down. The waiter in CHOPS will pour coffee and juice for you so you don’t have to carry it from the Windjammer. Rating: 3 (to really make it a perk they should open the kitchen in CHOPS and cook your breakfast right there so you don’t have to go into the windjammer at all).

Brassiere 30 (on sea days only) – very good, really enjoyed the chopped salad.

Johnny Rockets – not impressed $33 for 2 burgers 2 dogs and 2 shakes. The dancing waitress was busy continually yelling at the other waiter because he wasn’t outside dancing with her. They both looked like they hated that part of the job.

CHOPS – Very good, worth the $$.

PORTOFINO – Very good, although I surprised myself and preferred CHOPS.

POOL – Lots of people. Used the limited reserved chairs only once and that was just luck as some people left. I think there are about 15 chairs total. The seats were filled with chair hogs or their stuff. No pool monitor in site. Oh well, lots of chairs elsewhere. Rating: 2 (not a really good perk unless you can accommodate more people)

ICE SHOW SEATS – Great show! Used the reserved suite perk seats. They’re kind of in the corner and a little high up, although I don’t think there are really any bad seats in the theatre. The seats did have a seat monitor who rebuffed some guy who wanted to sit there because he had a RFS – to no avail. Once the seat monitor left anyone who wanted to sit did. So if you plan on waiting until 5 minutes before the show because you have reserved seats – don’t count on it. Rating: 4 (like I said all seats looked good to me)

PORTS – no priority tendering in Cabo. Rating 0. No big deal though, the line went quickly. Cabo was fun. Mazatlan – ick. Unless you enjoy poverty and women and children begging on the street why even get off the boat. We did go to El Cid and use the pool, but in general, not worth stopping RCC. Puerta Vallarta – did the Los Verrano zip – awesome fun. Had the biggest spiny lobster at the restaurant after zipping, kids swam in the river. Just a great stop.

DEBARKATION –the debarkation for suite guests was 8:30-8:45 I think. Instead we opted for express carry your own bags off, at 8:15. Got in line at 7:40, off the ship at 7:50, in the car by 8:00 am for the 6 hour drive home. Rating for suite priority debarkation: 2 (I’d rather be on the road 45 minutes earlier).

I may have forgotten something, thanks to everyone whose comment I read before my cruise. Happy cruising.

[Parkay]

Thanks for the detailed review. I noticed you were on Mariner last week? We were in Puerto Vallarta for the week, and we saw Mariner in port. She sure looked beautiful. Glad you liked PV. We have been 3 times now (to stay, not on a cruise although we have been on a cruise there as well). We just love it and it will continue to be a yearly trip for us.

[friedmom]

Since you've just returned, can you answer the much discussed (but never resolved) question of ship time versus local time in PV? Our itinerary says we dock at 8:00 AM; is that 8:00 or 9:00 PV time? Thanks.

[woodburyhomes]

PV is 1 hr ahead of ships time. So ship's time we docked 8 am, but it was really 9 am. We booked 10:45 Los Verranos - left ship at 8:30 (really 9:30) , made it with plenty of time to spare. I think it's confusing because you do move your watch ahead 1 hr in Mexico and so does the ship, but in PV you need to move your watch ahead 1 more hour, but the ship doesn't. I guess because it's just a 1 day stop.

[friedmom]

Thank you sooo much! We, too, have booked the 10:45 Los Veranos, which is why I've been trying to sort this out. You wouldn't believe how confusing it's been - even RCI, after multiple phone calls, couldn't tell me for sure. They said it was "captain's discretion" and to be sure about timing we should book our tours with the ship! Like that's going to happen!