Mariner review w/pics Dec. 4th

[BecciBoo]

Wine list coming up soon.

As for Compass, I usually bring some home but the stack is getting too big and they are all about the same from ship to ship in layout. Just events change and since you are next month, they will be completely different with respect to the activities and entertainment which changes from week to week. On this trip, there was a jewerly making class, the usual scrapping class, dance class and the usual port shopping stuff which is a waste of time IMHO. The music around the ship was lovely and the schedules and venues are listed in Compass. They had a gal trio of 2 violins and synthasizer called Three Seasons who double with the stage band on productions and then do smaller gigs on the promenade and other locations during the day. They were superb! We loved them. One day we were strolling by and heard them playing all the tunes from the movie Titanic that the quartet in the movie played. I filmed that but its not ready to post yet. It'll be a link and you can go there an hear it. Still processing photos/videos...its massive! Anyway, the times will likely be adjusted on every cruise so there is really no way to use the compass to figure out what you will be doing. It also lists the dining venues and times they are open and those times do not change. The Promenade Cafe is open 24/7, The MDR is open for breakfast usually at 7:00 to 9:00 and is closed for lunch on port days, WJ is open at 6:30 and closes for brief spurts to change out meals. Casino has odd times open but mostly on sea days all day and into the night.

Your Meet N Mingle, if you are signed up for it(you need to go to the Roll Call for your cruise here and click on the Sign Up for Meet N Mingle up at the top right hand of the page to register) will be the first sea day, or Monday morning up in the Viking Crown. The ordourves they used to serve were back and we sure liked having them again for the Meet N Mingle, along with juice and tea and coffee. I think it is a worth while activity and your parents may like that. You meet some really great people.

Diamond Happy Hour is also there in the Cloud Nine room and starts at 5:00.

They did the deck grill also on Monday and had a buffet with Mexican food and grilled chicken and a huge pot of chili or something like it. We didn't eat there because there is usually such a long line, but it was sunny and people were enjoying the cook out with the pool deck.

Your plan for arrival and exit is valid. But be careful, you know not to wait too late. We left port at 4:30 this time which is earlier than Voyager did so you must be checked in 90 minutes before that.

We just arrive early because we can't wait to get on board. The last times you can debark are around 10:45. We had tags for 10:15, but as I reported, with all the mishandling of the luggage down on the pier, I wouldn't trust them with our bags. We may wait until they call the first tags to self embark to avoid the crush, but hopefully Mariner will get its act together and get that problem solved before you go. They now know for sure, they have a problem with it!:rolleyes:

[BecciBoo]

Lucky you, I found one of the compasses in our stuff, its for day 3 which was a sea day:

And here is the wine list for Vintages that is changed often, they have much more, but it is printed in negative with white lettering and hard to scan.

[sgermic]

Oh no! I'm sorry that you were misinformed about the balcony door. Our balcony had this high-pitched awful whistle, and we called maintenance. They came right away and stuffed rags into the crevices, and said they would come back the next morning. They did in fact come back, and they took the door off and re-did the rubber seal.

 

We sailed the week before you. This might be a problem in more balconies than we know.

[BecciBoo]

I tried stuffing a wash cloth and cardboard up there, didn't work. O well, maybe someone will get it fixed!

[gelo7]

Excellent review.

[KennyOB]

Becci,

 

Enjoy your review very much.

 

One question: You said that you showed up at about 7:15AM to debark. When did you pass the Custom and were in your car and ready to hit the freeway? Thanks.

[BecciBoo]

In the car by 9:00. It was parked across the street and is the closest to the terminal, Park N Cruise. There is a gate right in the middle of the fence to it that alows you to go right through without walking so far down New Strand. Todd was able to get the car and back to pick me and luggage up in just 10 minutes and we were through customs in about 20 minutes from the time we got into the terminal from the escalator. The most wait time was spent on the outside promenade.

We have done 4 Voyagers without this problem. Were off of her within 20 minutes every time. Hopefully, Mariner will be able to fix this.

[BecciBoo]

Here is a video we love at sailaway from our balcony. As you can see, it was pretty dreary, but any cruise is a good cruise.

View My Video

[BecciBoo]

One thing I wanted to report was that ALL of our contraband arrived in our bags with no detection.....O.K....flame away , my fire retardent suit is on!;)

[BecciBoo]

Here is a walk through the pool area at the Mayan Princess Resort in Roatan:

View My Video

 

And the beach area:

View My Video

[Tulsapoke]

I guess it depends on where you left from. My group of 8 disembarked from the aft at 7:20. We went down to ask them where to wait and they said we could just walk off. They scanned our passes and we headed straight to the customs line. This was the smoothest I have ever disembarked. We were out to the EZ Cruise lot by 8:30am. Many in our party remarked that it couldn't go much easier than that.

[BecciBoo]

The directions on the T.V. and in the compass instructed self assisted debark to gather in Savoy Theater at 7:30 and leave by the forward deck 4 doors. You elected not to follow those instructions. Good for you. If they would open both locations it may have gone better for all of us.

[Becoming]

Hi BecciBoo!

 

Just wondering what is a "memeber of the ship saps"?

 

Last Monday, we were enjoying our cruise! Now it's someone else's turn!

 

I was in group 17 to leave the ship on Sunday and they were only 5 minutes behind so we were leaving The Savoy about 10:20 a.m. Then found my luggage pretty easily and then joined that long line to go through Customs. I got all the way to my car about 11:30 a.m.

 

I wasn't in a rush but that line does take a while to "conquer".

 

The previous Sunday was much easier. Arrived at EZ Cruise Parking at 11 a.m. and only had a couple of cars in front of me. Checked in but they weren't boarding the ship yet. They started calling groups pretty soon after that. I was in group 11 and was walking up the gangway at noon. That's been my best arrival experience so far in 4 cruises.

 

Now to start dreaming about the next cruise!

 

Patti

[BecciBoo]

Hi Patti:

Ship Saps are people who shed a tear at the silliest things on a cruise, like the blue water, or saying goodby to your waiter, or ships horns...or whatever. I found some others who do that too so we came up with a new group...Ship Saps.

[Mickeygrl71]

Here is a video we love at sailaway from our balcony. As you can see, it was pretty dreary, but any cruise is a good cruise.

 

View My Video

 

I LOVE YOUR SONG!!!! I can feel the wind on my face right now! We have 13 days!

[vernsy]

im verrrrrry excited so see these pictures!!!! how big was it compared to other ships and how were the employees?? and do they have coconut creme brulee? sorry so many questions but im going on this ship in a about a week so im EXCITED(: lol(:

[phill635]

For those of you on the Galveston Port Watch Group, here is a pic of boarding and the web cam is located on the red brick building in the distance:

 

As you can see, it rained off and on all day. Cpt. Per managed to sail us out of the front by morning so our M&M at 11:00 Mon. morning up in Viking Crown was pleasant. Our role call elected to do a Duct Tape contest in which we made items out of it and the Asst. Cruise director, Nicki judged. I will have a pic of the winner and the group later. Some very creative people...a men's tie, women's purses, men's belt and the winner did jewerly, flipflops and a head band out of duct tape...so much fun! It was one of the best meet and mingles we've attended...a lively group with lots of participation. This time, the ordourves (good ones) returned so we were impressed!

 

Where on the site is the webcam i could'nt find it?

[Darkwolfe]

This is a dizzying picture of the centrum, but the garlands were pretty:

 

More to come............:)

 

 

It's a silly thing, but I noticed last January that the airplanes up there have suffered a bit over the years. Rather nice models, but there's a stabilizer missing from the big one and some other issues. Hope they fix or replace that little detail in the dry-dock. Nit picky model builders (yes, me) are so annoying! :D

 

Bit over 6 weeks to go and we'll claim space aboard for a week. Thanks for doing the review Becci!

[Carguylee]

Becci, were you able to figure anything out on the flip cam? I'll have to re-read your reviews...I think I have some questions :)

[BecciBoo]

Where on the site is the webcam i could'nt find it?

 

The port web cams are on Galveston dot com.

[BecciBoo]

im verrrrrry excited so see these pictures!!!! how big was it compared to other ships and how were the employees?? and do they have coconut creme brulee? sorry so many questions but im going on this ship in a about a week so im EXCITED(: lol(:

 

Chops had Coconut Creme Brulee and even the WindJammer had a big plate of it on their dessert center. The Rhapsody had better in individual pots way back when, but it was still good. I noted the Carnival Magic was about the same size when we passed her, but she is a Voyager class ship so if you were on Vger you will know her well. As I reported, you can't beat RCCL employees, they are trained very well to be as pleasant as possible.

[BecciBoo]

Becci, were you able to figure anything out on the flip cam? I'll have to re-read your reviews...I think I have some questions :)

 

Still working on the FLIP videos. Rather complicated. We should not have counted on it to make photos from frames though. Should have taken more with our Olympus or the Rebel, which we left at home. I took lots of video of all the ships art, this is so extensive and covered almost all the walls of every stair well and corridor that I missed a lot on other decks, but it is a large job to convert them to stills so they can be posted. But I'm still trying to do just that. Maybe will start a new thread when I can post them.

[BecciBoo]

It's a silly thing, but I noticed last January that the airplanes up there have suffered a bit over the years. Rather nice models, but there's a stabilizer missing from the big one and some other issues. Hope they fix or replace that little detail in the dry-dock. Nit picky model builders (yes, me) are so annoying! :D

quote]

 

Yes, lots of pieces have suffered the ravages of thoughtless vandalism over the last 7 years and my favorites, the little moving pieces that you crank a handle to activate(Jason and the Argonauts), are not all working...need to be restrung. I think people have just thrown things at them and abused them. Don't know if they will take the amount of time necessary to fix these. Voyager's artwork is in pretty bad shape too, with pieces falling off their anchoring behind the glass, etc.

One thing I noticed on this trip, and don't everyone hate me, but there were only 150 or so kids this time out, and ALL of my door decorations (Christmas) were unscathed! Lots of deco up and down our corridor and nothing went broken or missing. Adults just don't do that sort of thing IMHO. One lady had an miniature wreath on her door with real blown glass ornaments, it was still there the last night.

[Carguylee]

Still working on the FLIP videos. Rather complicated. We should not have counted on it to make photos from frames though. Should have taken more with our Olympus or the Rebel, which we left at home. I took lots of video of all the ships art, this is so extensive and covered almost all the walls of every stair well and corridor that I missed a lot on other decks, but it is a large job to convert them to stills so they can be posted. But I'm still trying to do just that. Maybe will start a new thread when I can post them.

 

Yeah I have trouble with that stuff myself. But thanks for trying, and thanks for the review....Jan 29th is coming up quick for us! :D

[wolfganghowell]

Hi Becci, glad you had fun. What a bummer - we both had bad weather but sounds like we made the best of it. They did have hand sanitizers out on our sailing - too bad about the noro. Still getting over the cold/cruise crud I got halfway through the week - been 2 weeks now. One ear still plugged up, I'm tired of being half deaf! Agree on the MDR- we have made a pact that next time we will skip a few nights - that 1.5 - 2 hours can get old after awhile. It kind of kills the buzz! :D We too had some service issues and quality issues in Chops - minor but a little surprising.