Great New Year's Eve Cruise on the Mariner of the Seas

[MildredK]

We are just home from our New Year's Cruise on the Mariner - great cruise!

 

Here are some impressions and details.

 

Pre cruise. We flew into Houston used Galveston Limousine and they were great even though we arrived an hour late! We stayed at the Tremont Hotel Beautiful rooms. They have billboard on the freeway about their terrific service - which was terrific with the exception of the doorman who watched me try to drag my suitcase up the stairs myself before he ran over to help! We would stay there again. They have shuttle to the pier

 

Embarkation It sure looked chaotic when we arrived at about 1:00pm to board. Better signage would be an improvement We are gold members of Crown and Anchor so we asked around to see if there was priority line we could use there was and we sailed right through.

 

Cabins I love the JS on Mariner but we decided to go with balcony (E1) 8318. I was worried I would be unhappy with the smaller size but it actually was just fine - plenty of space. Friends were in 8316 and, depending on how the wind hit the balcony divider, had an ongoing whistle. People had stuffed old cruise compasses in various places trying to stop the whistle but it was still there. We could hear it in our cabin as well. It didn't really bother any of us but I think a light sleeper might be bothered.

 

New Year's Eve Very fun! It was a formal night. We had hats and noise makers on our tables. Lots of choices for count downs. We choose to jam in with everyone on the Promenade under the balloon drop. We were packed in, big screens for the count down, champagne - lots of fun!!!

 

Shore Excursions. Our shore excursions were great. I often feel rushed but not on these.

 

In Roatan we did the Underwater museum snorkeling. Great! Lots of interesting fish. Very good equipment and great guide in the water. We had a lot of time to snorkel but I really love the water and snorkeling so I would have liked even more time and some time to snorkel on our own.

 

In Belize we did the Crystal Cave tubing. Amazing!! I had no idea what to expect and this was something we had never done and was just amazing! It was a unique experience. Way cool!!

 

In Cozumel we did the Tulum and beach break. The ferry ride from the Cozumel to the mainland was extreme rough and many people got sick to the point the ferry crew were walking up and down the aisles with seasick bags. I use a patch and had no problem. Our guide for the tour was very informative. We had our own transmitters so we could hear him easily. I would have like even more detail from him and less time to wander ourselves. We had lunch at a beautiful beach! It was a tour with 47 people and at Tulum and after lunch we had people return very late to bus which was just plain rude to the rest of us. We got in line to get back on the ship in plenty of time but it was crowded that at 3:30 (the all on board time) there were still hundreds (I do not exaggerate) trying to get through Cozumel port security!

 

Dining and Onboard Activities Random thoughts. The crew very friendly We had fun at dinners (2nd Seating). Each night we tried a different "dessert shooter":) The glasses a really pretty. The dining room bartender was just great and brought us bubble wrap for our glasses. Now we just need to learn how to pour our own layered drinks. The ice show is still great. I just wonder why room service coffee tastes so much better than Windjammer coffee. We had fun and won in the Casino. Although there were lots of activities that sounded like fun we really didn't do very many onboard organized activities.

 

Debarkation This had the potential to be a real mess but worked out fine. Our tag time didn't work with our flights. So we asked three different crew members at guest services how we should disembark and got three different answers! Unsettling. We ultimately decided to keep our luggage and get off early (We have never done this) YIKES! The hallway, and staircase and elevators were jammed with people trying to do the same thing - it was so packed it was a bit scary. And it is very difficult to carry suitcases down stairs. We remembered that Gold C&A members had special lounge so we clawed our way through the masses, went to the Lotus Lounge which had only about 8 people, a crew member stopped by and took us down our own gangway and we were out in less then 20 minutes - from massive chaos crowd to shuttle! A Galveston Limo shuttle was there already and we asked it we could take that shuttle rather than wait and we did.

 

Anyway some our thoughts - we had a great time!

[KirkNC]

Thanks for the review! Glad you had a good time.