Comments On Mariner

[srqace]

My wife and I were on the Mariner Nov. 27 - Dec. 4. We had a wonderful time and both agree that this was just about our best cruise out of 8.

We only have 2 negatives to comments.

1. (This one is not the fault of RCI ) The Immigration check on arrival in St Thomas is in my mind not needed.:mad: It is a great inconvenience and, considering the fact that all the passengers were vetted during the boarding process at Port Canaveral and their info including photo is embedded in the Sea Pass Card, the only port in between was Coco Cay and if they had left the ship there they were identified on reboarding by scanning the card just what purpose does this process have other than delaying 3300 people.

My wife has a bad back, nothing serious, she just can't stand for long periods without it seizing up on her. As a result we sat in nice comfortable chairs in one of the bars for something like 90 minutes while a seemingly endless line of people went by us. How many people could enter this country illegally during this length of time on the Texas, Arizona or New Mexico borders. This is a good example of The bumbling Homeland Security Dept. at work.

2. The muster drill. Good, now we know where to go if there is an emergency. That was all we learned. I did not time our stay at location D25 but I would guess 20 - 30 minutes. We stood there ( with my wifes back killing her while someone made a long winded announcement on the PA system not one word of which we understood because of the volumn

and the fact that there was a metal ceiling above us. (We had this problem with all announcements during the cruise, depending on location).

The old way of gathering people in lounges, theatres, etc.,having a crew member do the teaching and demonstrating how to put on your life jacket

and how to jump off if necessary was far superior (At our location none of this was done).

 

Again this was our best cruise! The crew was superior, the food was great, the service was excellant, the dining room staff (including our head waiter) took good care of us. Our cabin attendent did her job to the extent that she got a generous extra tip over and above the reccomened one.

We would ( and plan to) sail the Mariner again on our next cruise. Our two negatives were annoying, especially the immigration situation in St. Thomas, but in the whole scheme of things were just a couple of blips during an otherwise wonderful experience.

Bob:)

[SaraUCF81]

I'm so glad to hear you had a great time. We leave tomorrow!!! So excited!!!:D

 

Sara

[sweetpea916]

Glad to hear you had a good time on Mariner! We're doing B2B cruises on Mariner in March. Unfortunately we'll have the same issue in St. Thomas.

 

When we did our last cruise, on Brilliance, St. Thomas was the first port of call on the cruise, and because we hadn't visited any other country since leaving Miami, we didn't have to clear customs in St. Thomas. I think they should try to make it standard that if the cruise is going to St. Thomas, it should be the first stop!

 

I really can't complain too much though because the "non-US citizens" line up usually has only a few people in it and goes really quickly. On Adventure of the Seas when we had to do this, the line up for US citzens went down the entire length of the ship and back. Our line up had 6 people ahead of us. We cleared customs and then went and had a leisurely breakfast while waiting for everyone else to clear.

[firstcruise05]

Boy, I guess we were lucky when we got to St. Thomas. We went down to the dining room established as the immigration stop, and never had to stop for more than 5 seconds. Walked around the dining room, showed our passports, and walked off the ship. I would say it took all of 5 minutes but that might be stretching it too long even...maybe 3 minutes.

 

It was funny, there was a coffee station set up so I thought that we were supposed to wait there until they called us through. I started to pour a cup of coffee so I could hang out and wait and my husband said "okay, when you're done drinking your coffee, I'll meet you outside" and he walked over to the inspectors. Thats when I realized we didn't have to wait :rolleyes: ...he got a good laugh out of that one.

[csk]

glad you had a good time, we are leaving on the Mariner tomorrow also, this will be our third time on the ship, she is beautiful, I, too, dont understand the St Thomas thing, but we have did it several times, and we to have had no wait, just walk through the dining room, we do try and wait until the end, dont know if that is the case or not,

[wrp96]

2. The muster drill. Good, now we know where to go if there is an emergency. That was all we learned. I did not time our stay at location D25 but I would guess 20 - 30 minutes. We stood there ( with my wifes back killing her while someone made a long winded announcement on the PA system not one word of which we understood because of the volumn

and the fact that there was a metal ceiling above us. (We had this problem with all announcements during the cruise, depending on location).

The old way of gathering people in lounges, theatres, etc.,having a crew member do the teaching and demonstrating how to put on your life jacket

and how to jump off if necessary was far superior (At our location none of this was done).

 

For the next muster drill, advise the crew member in charge of your station that your wife can't stand for long periods of time. They usually will allow people to sit in a chair if they need to.

[cruzincurt]

We were on the same cruise November 27 to December 4th. Our only negative comment was posted elsewhere on this site concerning the poor sound of the recordings in the dining room. Time to discontinue the waiters singing and dancing. A great time was had by all.

 

As the captain announced, at first only one immigration officer showed up and he was late. The captain finally got some more to show up and the lines moved quickly.

[HB Cruiser]

Bob

 

How did you like the itinerary with CocoCay, St. Thomas, and St. Marteen? We have went eastern and went to St Thomas and St Marteen and San Juan but this itinerary looked very good, specially with the two sea days back to back on the way back to Port Canaveral.

 

Tim

[Slam308]

Sweetpea,

DH and I will be on the Mariner for the second leg of your back to back. That will be the first week of our first back to back. I'm so excited.

There will hopefully be a meet and mingle. We still need more people to register if you're group is interested.

Slam

[Cincy-David]

BobHow did you like the itinerary with CocoCay, St. Thomas, and St. Marteen? We have went eastern and went to St Thomas and St Marteen and San Juan but this itinerary looked very good, specially with the two sea days back to back on the way back to Port Canaveral.Tim

 

Hey Guys, I was on the 11-27 Mariner Cruise also. A great time was had by our entire group.

 

I agree, the St. THomas immigration line is unneeded in IMHO. How many illegals could possibly be hiding out in CoCo Cay???

 

Could all of this be avoided if RCCL scheduled St. Thomas as the first stop and then tendered at CoCo Cay on the way back to Port Canaveral? Just wondering....

[sweetpea916]

Hi Slam308, we're not registered for the Meet & Mingle yet but I'll check it out. :cool: We haven't done a B2B before but are really looking forward to it... seems like the way to go because just one 7 day cruise is NOT nearly enough!!

[wrp96]

 

I agree, the St. THomas immigration line is unneeded in IMHO. How many illegals could possibly be hiding out in CoCo Cay???

 

Could all of this be avoided if RCCL scheduled St. Thomas as the first stop and then tendered at CoCo Cay on the way back to Port Canaveral? Just wondering....

 

After my last Voyager cruise, I thought the same thing. But then I got to thinking. Almost all cruises leave on Saturdays or Sundays. If everybody went to St. Thomas first, before going to any foreign ports, then St. Thomas would be even more crowded then it already was (the day we were there there were at least 6 ships). I think I would rather put up with waiting in the immigration line and not having a crowded port, then having every ship in the same ports on the same days.

[cruzincurt]

We prefer the eastern St. Thomas/St. Maarten trip. Having Coco Cay instead of Nassau was even better. We also like those days at sea. We dislike San Jaun.

 

The trip was great, the ship was great, the weather was great.

 

Immigration is necessary at St. Thomas since once ashore, a person can fly directly to the mainland without a passport or visa. It would be like traveling from Buffalo to Chicago. We did take a trip on NCL that went directly to St. Thomas from Miami, hence no immigration stuff at St. Thomas.

[brn2crz]

Our entire immigration process on Mariner might have taken 8-10 min...

It was a pretty long line,but it moved constantly...Very efficient.

[Cincy-David]

I think I would rather put up with waiting in the immigration line and not having a crowded port, then having every ship in the same ports on the same days.

 

Very Good Point, never thought of it that way....