Mariner 12/24/18 sailing-random thoughts

[RCCLNYMETS41]

Just off Mariner yesterday.  4 night Bahamas in cabin 8560.

This was our 15th RCI cruise.

We had a great cruise!

Parking & the boarding & departure process at Miami Terminal A was as easy as could be.

We were on the ship at 10:35am & eating at the Windjammer at 11:00.

Coco Cay cancelled due to weather so ship stayed overnight in Nassau until 5pm next day. Captain kept us well informed the day before about the possibility of it being cancelled.

Quick random thoughts.

-We enjoyed Ricky Matthews as CD.

-For me, Food in main dining room, café promenade & Windjammer was very good.  We tried MTD for 1st time & personally did not care for it.  We determined we enjoy traditional because we really like to get to know our table mates & the waitstaff.  I like when they already have my drink waiting for me & know some special requests that I like to have every night.

-Entertainment was excellent.

-"Stowaway" piano player (Bongi) was great!  The elevator opened & there he was. (1st time we finally experienced the "Stowaway")

-Having been on the Harmony last July (all around our best cruise ever so far), we did enjoy having a shorter walk from 1 end of the Mariner to the other.

-Casino was surprisingly accommodating for a "fair" blackjack game.  They offered $15, 3-2, 6-deck hand shuffled tables. Of course they still had more 6-5 continuous shuffling tables.

At one point there was an empty $50 table.  I asked the pit boss if he could make it a $25 table & he did.  They also had $5 minimum roulette tables.

-my adult kids enjoyed the flow rider & the bungee trampoline

-Ever crew member we passed gave us a friendly greeting & always wished us a good day.  The tone of the crew on the ship was very upbeat & friendly.  The crew really seemed to want to genuinely do whatever they could to make us have a great cruise.  More so than on some of our other cruises.

-a note about the diamond lounge...do not go out the sliding doors at the back even though they open & say "Exit" on them...Thank goodness there was someone in the DL to let us back in.  The doors do not open from the outside & there is no where to go. The stairs down are blocked off & so was the Rock climbing wall area.

 

We did not do any shore excursions, Wi-Fi, specialty restaurants or drinks.

I'd be happy to try to answer any questions.

[SAmome]

Thank you for sharing thoughts, appreciate the info.

[rberns6171]

thanks for blackjack info  going in 2 weeks and looking forward to shoes and 3/2 blackjack payouts at $15 and $25 tables

[RCCLNYMETS41]

rberns-you're welcome.  Also, if a 3-2 table is not open when you enter the casino, ask the pit boss when it will open.  It was always within 15 minutes of me asking.  I refuse to sit at a 6-5. I don't want to give the casino another 1+% house edge.

[rberns6171]

totally agree    was on harmony in october and only table with a shoe and 3/2 blackjack was $50.00   it was empty 80% of the time and i asked the pit boss numerous time to drop to $25.00 and he refused saying there was nothing he could do   totally stupid as there were 4 of us that would have played $25.00 minimums but didnt want to be bullied into $50.00 minimums so table was empty   0 customer service or business sense  to have the table empty !!!!

[blueridgemama]

Was the ship decorated for Christmas? Did they have any special events to celebrate the holidays?

[RCCLNYMETS41]

 Ship was all decked out for Christmas. Huge Christmas tree on the royal promenade. They did caroling on Christmas Eve. On Christmas Day Santa stroll through the promenade with the horn section playing Santa Claus is coming to town. For over two hours he was in studio B handing out presents to the little kids. 

[blueridgemama]

Was the wait long for the My Time Dining? We are a family of 4 and would like to have our own table with MTD. Did you notice if there are tables for 4?

[torbs]

25 minutes ago, blueridgemama said:

Was the wait long for the My Time Dining? We are a family of 4 and would like to have our own table with MTD. Did you notice if there are tables for 4?

Was on MOS in August and did MTD..  Plenty of tables for 4.

[SAmome]

On 12/29/2018 at 3:28 PM, RCCLNYMETS41 said:

Just off Mariner yesterday. 

I'd be happy to try to answer any questions.

 

Did you get off the ship in Nassau? If stayed on did they have a lot open such that it felt less crowded to do thinks like flowrider or skypad?

 

Thanks

[RCCLNYMETS41]

We were actually in Nassau for two days because bad weather kept us from going to Coco Cay. First day we stayed on the ship as we planned. There were no lines to do activities such as sky pad and Flowrider. For the entire four night cruise, there really were not any crazy lines for any of the activities.

[RCCLNYMETS41]

Has already mentioned, there are plenty of tables for four. We had a reservation every night and were seated immediately

[RCCLNYMETS41]

Anthem was also closed out of coco cay so they were in Nassau with us for both days as well. It was a treat to actually see North Star in action. Never saw quantum class ship before