Mariner Review E Carib. May 16-23 (long)

[sandyk]

Thanks for all your answers to my questions. Can't wait to be on the Mariner and yes the comments about Chops are so right. It was the BEST food we had all week on the Navigator last year and we enjoyed all the dining room food. It was just a little better at Chops! CAn not wait to return!

 

Sandy

 

Email address kopp6466@hotmail.com

 

Costa Flavia 7/81

NCL Norway 7/83

Carnival Celebration 4/90

Carnival Ecstacy 5/92

Royal Carribean Sovereign 10/00

Royal Carribean Navigator 9/03

Royal Carribean Mariner of the Seas 9/19/04

[Teeara]

I have a question about Ellingtons. Is it very smoky in there? I love jazz, but it is very hard to enjoy it when engulfed in clouds of smoke. This was one of the problems I had with the Pride. I'm very spoiled out here in CA where there is no smoking indoors. Also, what are these theme nights? Is it colors or styles of clothing or ??? Thanks and loved your review!

 

Mariner of the Seas 9/19/04

Carnival Pride 9/28/03

 

 

Time left until the Royal Hounds are let loose!

 

[cusegirl]

Teeara -- When we went to Ellingtons after main seating it was fairly empty. The servers do their best to seat you in a non-smoking or smoking section if there's room. We too are senstitive to smoke and didn't have any problems in Ellingtons. Can't say it's that way all night, but after dinner it was fine.

 

The theme nights are mainly food themes. On Caribbean night there is jerk chicken, pork, fish, etc. and you can wear your Caribbean clothes. On Italian night, same thing -- veal parm, eggplant parm, chicken marsala, etc. and since we were still in the Caribbean you could wear Caribbean clothing to dinner. The food was great both nights.

[iluvdoxies]

Thanks for the review!

We are sailing on her Sep 19. our first cruise with RCL.

Is there a piano bar sing a long like on the Carnival ships? We love the piano bars..

thanks!

 

A lot of NCL ships

The old Emerald Seas

Fantasy 10/01

Pride 01/02

Sensation 6/02 Fantasy 9/02

Legend 1/03. Sensation 3/03

Fantasy 4/03, Pride 6/28/03

Glory 8/30/03 & Glory 12/13/03

Miracle 3/1/04

Legend 12/5/04 yay!

 

And proud member of Dachshund Rescue of North America...rescue one, until there are none.

[Family of 14]

Thanks again for the infomation from both of you that are just off the Mariner. I have arrangements for our limo driver to pick us up at 9:00 also. I will have to rethink that.

 

<MARQUEE>Are you sailing on the Mariner 7/18/04?...Click here!

or HERE!

 

</MARQUEE>

 

Disney Wonder 3/2000 ~ Disney Magic 9/2000 ~ RCI Vision 2/2001 ~ Carnival Victory 12/2001 ~ Celebrity Millennium 3/2003 ~ RCI Adventure OTS 9/2003 ~ RCI Mariner OTS 7/18/2004 ~ RCI Serenade OTS 9/26/2004

[Chloe Girl]

Cusegirl:

 

We were on your sailing.

 

Glad to see that you had a very positive impression of Royal Caribbean. We have only sailed Royal Caribbean in recent years and were going to look at other cruise lines; not any more!

 

V&M

 

Jewel of the Seas April 2005

 

 

Mariner of the Seas May 2004

 

 

Navigator of the Seas May 2003

 

 

Explorer of the Seas November 2001

[dolfan1949]

Thanks so much for your wonderful review. We are going on the Mariner 1/9/05 and can not wait.

[jgwalk]

Many thanks for the review - great. We're looking to do Chops one night and wanted to target Caribbean night in the dining room. By any chance, do you remember which night that was?

Thanks-

 

Cruisin' since the 80's

 

Until Mariner 6/13/2004 Sailing

 

 

[FnyFACEnAL]

I am sure that there might be exceptions but my understanding is that you actually have to show airline tickets with early flights for Express.

Happy Sailing!

[the cruise is on]

Great review!

 

We were also on the May 16th Mariner cruise, so I'll add a few observations.

 

1. We never made it to Ellington's, but I highly recommend that you spend an evening with Matt Yee in the Schooner's Bar. If you love great interactive entertainment, you'll have a great time!!

 

2. We were traveling by car. When you check in, they give you a slip of paper where you have to indicate your return travel arrangements. Choices include air travel. I checked "Other" and was pleasantly surprised to find that we were included in the 4th color called. We were on the road home by 8:45 am. We have previously cruised with Carnival and always dreaded the lines and waits. RCI has their act together!!!

 

3. Original poster was exactly right regarding the ship's motion. We had lots of motion on Sunday and Monday, but what can you expect with 50 mph winds and 9' waves. The remainder of the week was smooth cruising!

 

4. I loved the comedians and special shows. However, I thought the production shows were fair, at best. Ice show is good!

 

4. Enjoyed the Love and Marriage show and the Karoke finals.

 

5. We did not try Chops or Portifino's. However, we did try Johnny Rockets and we enjoyed the food!

 

WE had a great time. If you have any questions, I'll try to answer.

 

Fantasy 5/1992

Norway 5/1997

Victory 9/2000

Triumph 5/2002

Mariner of the Sea 5/16/2004

 

Time to our departure on the Mariner

[tpr142]

hello everyone

 

we also just came back from the mariner of the seas, we had an outstanding time.it was our first cruise and we have no complaints.we ate at chops and the service and the food their was excellent, so if anyone has the chance to eat there they should take,we didn't have any problems getting reservation but other people did, they said that they fill up fast, and they do.it really is a beautiful ship and i hope whoever is sailing out next has a great time. we did

[emmy]

Thanks for the great review and taking the time to do it.

 

Hello to Margo and Tom from another fellow May 16 cruiser who also had a great time on Mariner.

 

Tom, it was great meeting you and Kim and hope married life is going well for you both! Wasn't Rhino Rider fun! Congratulations.

 

Agree with what Margo has said. The Quest game is also a lot of fun. An adult kind of scavenger hunt.

 

Great place for sailaway is the helipad. Mariner and all the Voyager class ships are wonderful....

 

Get out there and enjoy!

 

Emmy

 

Mariner of the Seas ~ May 2004

Navigator of the Seas ~ May 2003

Sun Princess ~ April 2002

Enchantment of the Seas ~ April 2000

Nordic Empress ~ May 1998

Splendour of the Seas ~ April 1997

Star Princess ~ February 1995

 

Journey on the Jewel April 23 2005

[cusegirl]

We didn't have to show our airline tickets or reservations to prove we had an early flight. The guest relations agent did make a comment that if you are on the early departure list already (white tags, lavender tags, etc.) that you can't get express departure. We originally had lavendar tags which had an est. departure time of 8:25 a.m. I simply told the agent that we had a 10 a.m. flight and needed to be off sooner -- which was the truth, we caught Delta's 10 a.m. flight from Olando. Anyway, once I pressed the issue he handed over the tickets.

 

jgwalk -- Caribbean night was Wed. night. Italian night was Thurs. night. They corresponded to the St.Thomas/ST.Martin port days.

 

Also, something I forgot to mention in the original post was the wine package. I had read several posts before we left that said the wine pakage (like the soda card) didn't exist. We were pleasantly suprised to see a coupon in our first Cruise Compass that had seven bottles for $140 or four bottles for $99 -- this is a huge savings if you plan to drink a bottle each night, which my parents did. If purchased separately, you'll spend at least $30/bottle. Now, you do have to select your wine from a specific list and the list doesn't change, but there was enough of a selection to keep my parents happy -- and they are from the Finger Lakes region of NY, so they know their wine.