MARINER of the SEAS: Review of 1/15 (long & detailed!)

[Yvonne]

Just arrived home Sunday night after our 7-night Western Caribbean cruise on board the Mariner of the Seas. DH and I (both 48) were on this cruise with his two sisters and their husbands. This was DH and my 5th cruise, the others had never cruised before. We spent the night before the cruise at the Radisson at the Port. DH and I had stayed there twice before (in king jacuzzi rooms) and would recommend it to others. We had a regular room with 2 queen beds this time, $139/night which included vouchers for the breakfast buffet.

 

We returned our rental car to Budget and Budget shuttled us over to Royal Caribbean's cruise terminal around 10:30 a.m. Check in at the port was very easy. We waited just a short time before we could get our sea pass cards (had filled our sea pass information out on-line a couple weeks before), then waited another short time to board. We were on board the ship shortly after 11:30 and eating in the Windjammer before noon, the earliest of all our other cruises. The Welcome Aboard lunch was very nice with many hot and cold choices). The only thing I would suggest they do differently is to have trays. I missed the tray to put my plate and drink on to carry back to my table. Especially at breakfast when we had a full plate to carry, and wanted to stop at a drink station to pick up coffee and orange juice. Trays for that would have been nice.

 

After lunch, we walked around the ship exploring until 1:00 when we could go to our rooms. We were on deck #8, balcony rooms. DH and I had #8256, the others had #8254 and #8244. Even though I booked this cruise for all of us a full year in advance, we could not all get rooms side-by-side. Our room was similar to what we'd had on the Disney ships, but a bit smaller and I didn't like the layout on RCI as well as on Disney. On Disney the "sitting area" was by the balcony doors, where on RCI the bed is there. It was still a very nice room though, decorated in aqua/teal tones. When we walked in the door from the hallway the bathroom was on the left. It had the shower (with round doors which was very nice), toilet and sink with small vanity area with mirrored cabinet with 3 shelves on the side for storage. On the right there was a large double-closet with shelves on either side. Plenty of hangers. I had brought a pack of 12 from home, never needed them. The sitting area was next with a couch on the left, and the vanity with mirrors (storage shelves on both sides of the mirror) and a chair and lots of drawers and cabinets. The TV, safe (digital, you program your own code), and refrigerator are on the right as well. There was a glass topped coffee table in front of the couch. The bed was queen-size (seemed larger to me though) with rounded corners and extremely comfortable. We had four pillows and a couple extra blankets if we needed them. The balcony had two chairs and a small round table. The room was well-lighted and we had inter-active TV with which we could check our sea pass account daily (very nice feature!) and there were several channels (and movies) for viewing as well. Our safe didn't work but we called maintenance and they came to reset it for us then we could make up our own 4-digit code to operate it. The refrigerator came stocked with about half-a-dozen cans of soda, two bottles of water, a bottle of Perrier and four candy bars. You are charged for whatever you take out and the price list is right inside the door of the frig. We did use one of the bottles of water but nothing else. We had extra room for drinks of our own. On the vanity was a small tray with a pewter ice bucket (kept full twice daily by the room attendant - they had separate ones for morning and night, not filling the same one each time as on Disney) and 2 covered glasses. We also had 2 covered glasses in holders in the bathroom by the sink which was nice.

 

Our stateroom attendant was Walbert, but I never found out where he was from. Supposedly the attendants work in teams but we never saw the other guy at all. We saw Walbert many times throughout the week and he was always friendly, talkative, smiling and cheerful.

 

We spent the afternoon unpacking as the luggage arrived (we had all of it by 6:00) and exploring the ship. The Mariner is so beautiful, and big!! Muster drill was at 4:15, not fun but necessary and was over fairly quickly. We watched sail-away, from deck #12 for awhile, but it was chilly and windy so we went back to our balcony to watch. Starboard side, which our rooms were on, is the best for viewing sail-away. The Carnival Fantasy left port at 4:30 and the Disney Wonder left at 5:00 (we have sailed both of those) then the Mariner left at 5:30. After sail-away we walked down to the Royal Promenade. I had been anxious to see this part of the ship, and I wasn't disappointed. What a beautiful "street!" Reminded me of what we might see on a street in Paris, with the cafe and bars having small round tables and chairs outside the doors, several shops, etc. A great place to people watch!

We stopped at the cafe for a snack. They have several different kinds of deli-type sandwiches, desserts, and pizza. Also a water station, and station for coffee, tea, hot chocolate. And it's open 24 hours.

 

Afterward we came back to the room to finish unpacking, shower and dress for dinner. We had late seating at 8:30 (8:45 the first night only). They had our Welcome Aboard show before dinner in the Savoy Theater. The Savoy Theater is a 2-level theater, on decks #3 and #4. They had a gaucho, Dario Alberico, who was very good, and a comedian, John Wing, who we thought was just "okay", not as funny as we thought he would be.

 

We had table #516 (for 6 as I had requested when we made final payment on the cruise) in the "Sound of Music" dining room. The dining room is HUGE, and so beautiful, with three levels. We were on the top level, the second level is "Rhapsody in Blue" and the first level is "Top Hat & Tails." We had Eduard (he was excellent!) from the Philippines as our server, and Oscar (he was good, but did forget coffee with dessert a couple nights) from South Africa as our assistant server. I think they might have been a little unorganized the first night because DH received the wrong appetizer and one person at our table was never asked what they wanted to drink and service was somewhat slow, but it got much better after that night so maybe they just had "first night jitters." We thought the food in the dining room was excellent, and we never felt the need to go to Chops or Portofinos (where they charge an extra $20 per person). The first night I had melon and mango with ginger sauce to start with, a spinach salad, and my entree was prime rib (medium rare) with baked potato/sour cream and root vegetables. For dessert I had the white chocolate fondue with fresh berries. It was all delicious!!

 

The other two couples we were with went to their staterooms after dinner (party poopers!) but DH and I changed clothes and went to watch the "Island-a-Go-Go" parade down the promenade at 10:45. It was very nice and colorful. After it was over we rode in the elevator with the 3 stilt-walkers, so that was a nice experience. Then we went up to deck #12 to walk and see the stars and the ocean below. A great first day on the ship!!

Day #2 to follow.

[jillybabes]

Yvonne, look forward to the following days of your review. The Mariner is a great ship...Have done Eastern on her twice.:cool:

[Yvonne]

We met up with the other two couples for breakfast at the Windjammer shortly after 8:00. It was getting pretty busy, 7:30 might have been better. The food was delicious though, so many choices. I usually had fresh fruit (watermelon, canteloupe, honeydew and pineapple), bacon, a croissant with butter, smoked salmon with cream cheese, and a scoop of corned beef hash.

Afterward we went down to Studio B to pick up tickets for the ice skating show. One person in a group can pick up tickets for everyone, and there were 4 shows to choose from. Then we went to see (and buy!) our Welcome Aboard photo. 8x10's are $19.95 and 5x7's are $9.95. Then I went shopping for souvenirs while DH went up to find a lounge chair in the sun. After I took my purchases back to the room, I went up to find DH and sat with him awhile and had a Diet Coke. I thought about buying the mug ($42 for the week) so I could have Diet Coke whenever I wanted, but didn't really think I would get my money's worth so decided to just buy them as I wanted them and I think I only had 2-3 the whole week. With lemonade, coffee, iced tea, etc. available all the time (and of course the alcoholic drinks!) I really didn't feel the need to drink that much soda. We decided to change into our swim suits and come back up and lay in the sun awhile. It was breezy and felt a bit chilly when the sun went under a cloud, but was so nice when it came out from the clouds! We lounged for about an hour and got a nice start on our tan, and enjoyed listening to the pool band.

 

We went down to Windjammers for lunch about 1:30 and it was extremely busy, had a hard time finding an empty table. We thought it would be less busy than around noon, but we were wrong. The food was delicious though. I loved the roasted vegetables, Greek salad and desserts!! After lunch I came back to the room to take a book out to the balcony and read. DH took his book and went to find a quiet place to read up on deck. He ended up finding the others in our group while they were playing mini-golf (DH and I never did do that, so it's one reason to take another cruise on the Mariner!) and they ended up going in-line skating too. One of the couples also climbed the rock wall. DH and I never felt the desire to do that. After DH came back to the room we decided to go up on deck #11 to get frozen yogurt cones (you could get vanilla, strawberry, chocolate, or vanilla/strawberry twist, or vanilla/chocolate twist). It was good! Then we took a walk on the Royal Promenade and had a snack there. Came back to our room and watched the sunset from our balcony, so beautiful!! Got ready for our first formal night, and went down about 7:30 for the Captain's Welcome Reception (free champagne). We also had a couple formal photos taken (they have different backdrops set up on 3 different floors) of just the two of us, and a couple with the six of us too. Dinner at 8:30 was wonderful. I had the lobster bisque to start with, then Caesar salad, and my entree was truffled wild mushroom linguini Alfredo - it was all very good. For dessert I had the Grand Marnier Souffle, delicious! Went back to our room to change clothes then went to the Savoy Theater at 10:45 for the "BeatleMania Live" show. It was excellent! They looked and sounded just like the Beatles!! Really enjoyed the show a lot! Then we stayed for the 12:15 adult comedy show, with John Wing (we hadn't been impressed with him the night before). He was very good, and very funny! Glad we stayed! Went to sleep shortly after 1:00 a.m.

Day #3 to follow.

[abbypa]

:) hi we are(my family} are going on the same cruise this time next year. love to hear more about your cruise

[mringenoldus]

I booked my friends on this ship (first time cruisers on Eastern route). Looking forward to hearing the rest of your impressions!

[caazcruzin]

Keep the review coming; we will be on the Mariner 7/9/06 in cabins 8354 and 8356. You are getting my excitement way up!!!

[Yvonne]

DH went to breakfast at Windjammers with the rest of our group at 7:00, but I slept in a little while longer then went down about 8:30 (DH came and had another breakfast!). My only complaint at Windjammers was the lack of trays. It would have been nice to have trays for people to put their plates and drinks on to carry to their tables. Especially in the morning for breakfast when we had full plates, plus juice and coffee.

 

After breakfast we went back to the room to get ready to go to Labadee, the private area RCI leases from Haiti for their "beach day." We took a tender about 10:15. Very nice beach area, really pretty. There is a tram you can take, but we walked. There are four separate beaches. We walked to hideaway beach but there weren't many good spots left for chairs and you had to tip the guy who brought chairs to you, and we didn't bring any $1 bills with us so we walked over to the other side, near the buffet area, and set up our own chairs by a palm tree and enjoyed the shade awhile then switched to the sun. Waves were crashing up onto the beach and there was a sign advising people not to swim there, but we did stick our toes in the water. The restrooms had attendants with tip jars, which I wasn't expecting and wasn't prepared for. We enjoyed the BBQ lunch they provided (burgers, hot dogs, ribs, salads, fruit, cookies, etc.) then we started walking back to the ship. We stopped at the market area but the sellers were way too pushy for our taste so we left without looking at anything. I wanted to look, and possibly buy, but not be hassled while doing so. We got back onto the ship about 2:00 and immediately took showers (it was 88 degrees, very sunny, and humid) then went up to deck #4 to relax and read in loungers. DH took a nap there also, but there were workers doing some maintenance near us (most of the area was closed, roped off while they were working) so I couldn't sleep so decided to come back to the room and order room service. I ordered a tropical fruit plate, a cheese plate, chocolate chip cookies (you get 3 in an order), and 2 iced teas. The menu said to allow 40 minutes but it was delivered in 15. No extra charge for room service food, just tip the person who brings it. The fruit and cheeses and cookies were delicious but I was a little disappointed in the crackers. I thought they might have nicer crackers, but they were just plain saltines. DH got back to the room just in time to help me eat everything, which we did on our balcony as we pulled away from Labadee. I read for awhile after we ate and DH took another nap. We dressed for dinner and went down to buy our formal portraits from the night before. At 7:00 we went to the production show in the Savoy Theater, "Front Row." We weren't very impressed with the show. A couple parts were good, but most of it was rather boring to us.

 

Dinner at 8:30 was great again. I had the Maryland crab cake (with cole slaw and horseradish sauce), and the chilled Golden Delicious apple soup. My entree was the pork chop with scalloped potatoes, vegetables and cranberries. Dessert was dolce le leche cheesecake. It was all very, very good. DH and I shared a Baked Alaska that was wonderful too! We were very sleep tonight after dinner, must have been all the sun at Labadee, so we went right to bed after dinner.

 

Day #4 to follow.

[cruisinfever]

I am enjoying reading your review. We are going on the same cruise on February 26th. Did you find it very crowded around the pool? Did they monitor if people were saving chairs?

[Yvonne]

We were up by 6:30 this morning and had room service deliver breakfast (they have cards hanging by the door that you fill out and hang outside on your door by 3:00 a.m.) at 7:30. I had scrambled eggs and hash browns along with a croissant, Danish, fruit, coffee and juice. RCI has a much better room service menu than Disney or Carnival. We enjoyed eating on our balcony, which is one of my favorite things to do on a cruise. After breakfast we got ready to go on our excursion, the Original Canopy Tour! Then we went out on the balcony to watch us pull into Ocho Rios, Jamaica. At 9:00 we went down to deck #1 to walk off the ship (we were docked so no need for tendering which was nice) and met up for our tour at 9:30. We had 34 in our group, which was a bit too large. 20 or so would have been better. We had Denise as our guide and Winston as our driver. We drove to Chukka Cove Farm (15-20 minutes) and had a 5-minute bathroom break before starting up the mountain to get to the top of the valley. The road was very narrow and winding, with lots of pot holes and wash outs. The driver kept tooting the horn as we would go around a curve, just in case someone else was coming down. Thankfully we never met another vehicle. I don't know how they would have passed each other!! We had beautiful views going up the mountain though, and the driver stopped once so we could take pictures. After reaching the top of the mountain we got off the bus and gathered at a covered platform to get fitted for our harnesses, helmets and gloves and were given instructions on what to do. Then we had about a 20-minute walk downhill/flat to the first platform. There were 9 separate traverses plus 2 "surprises" (one semi-verticle and one straight down). The last traverse was 600' long and about 200' off the ground!! One by one they hooked us to the cable, told us to lift our feet, and pushed us off and we went whizzing through the jungle!! WHAT AN AWESOME EXPERIENCE!!! It was SO MUCH FUN!!! I had been extremely apprehensive about this excursion as it was way "out of my box!" But it was INCREDIBLE and I would do it again in a heartbeat!! What a beautiful vew of the jungle! I had been concerned about snakes, but never saw any. The only "wildlife" we saw was a lizard on some bamboo while we were standing near a platform waiting for the next line. After we were done zip lining there was a resting/waiting spot by the rushing stream where we took our gear off (we each had to carry our own out of the jungle). The walk out was mostly flat, a little downhill, and muddy in spots so you had to watch where you were going but there were so many beautiful trees, plants, bushes, flowers. I did manage to snap a few pictures as we were walking. We stopped at some picnic tables where they had rum punch, regular punch, and water (there was a tip box) then the bus took us back to Chukka Cove for a brief (too brief!!) stop. They had a computer set up so you could view the pictures they took of you while you were zip lining, and for $30 you could buy the CD with your pictures. We bought it and I'm so glad we did! There are about 12-15 pictures of DH and myself zip lining, plus they added many pictures of the trees, flowers, etc. and put a short video at the end of the zip lining so it was definitely worth the cost!! I had DH wait to look at our pictures and get the CD, while I ran into the gift shop after a quick bathroom break. They had a problem with the credit cards going through, so they had to run them through at the bar area so it took longer and I was next to last getting back on the bus. Really didn't have enough time there. If you did the tour alone you would not have time to use the bathroom, get your pictures and buy anything in the gift shop. The bus drove us back to the parking lot and we tipped our guide and the bus driver extra as we felt it was worth it.

 

The six of us headed for Margaritaville and had a GREAT time there!! Our waitress, Tamika, even gave her little grass skirt to one of DH's sisters when she said their daughter would love a skirt like that! The food there was great, and so were the wonderful margaritas!! We did a little shopping in some of the shops on our way back to the ship. DH bought a bottle of rum and they did confiscate that when we got back on and said it would be delivered to our room Saturday, and it was. We got back on the ship about 3:30 and relaxed awhile.

 

About 5:00 we went down to the cafe for a snack (it seemed like we were eating every 2-3 hours on this cruise...it's no wonder I gained 7 pounds!!) then went to buy a few more souvenirs that I just had to have!! Came back to the room to read and took short naps. At 7:00 we went to the ice show "Under the Big Top", and got there early enough to get front row seats. We really enjoyed the show, it was great. There were several very good skaters and lots of costume changes.

 

Dinner at 8:30 was fun as it was Caribbean night. I had the tropical fruit (with mango and papaya) to start with, also the cold banana soup, and jerk chicken. I don't remember what I had for dessert but I'm sure it was good, as was everything else. After dinner we came back to the room to change clothes and then went to the "Love and Marriage" show at the Savoy Theater. One couple they chose to play was married 4 days, another married 15 years, and the other 44 years. It was a very cute, and funny show.

 

Day #5 to follow.

[Yvonne]

Cruisinfever: I do think there were a lot of "saved" chairs by the pool but I never really noticed a problem as there were so many chairs. DH and I never had a hard time finding a couple chairs, even if we went to the pool area around noon. We always found chairs available on deck #12, maybe if we would have wanted to be on #11 right beside the pool it would have been more difficult, I don't know. But we could still see the pool from deck #12, and listen to the band.

[Nano]

Yvonne - Thanks so much for an awesome, detailed review! We board the Mariner 3 weeks from tomorrow! It's our third trip, but everytime it's a little different, so I really enjoyed reading about the menu, shows, etc. Beatlemania is new this year...and I've seen a lot of good reviews on it.

Can't wait to read your next installment!

Nancy

[stacyinpa]

Thanks for your tips so far! Cant wait to read the rest of your report.

 

In the windjammeer...for breakfast, do they have pancakes, waffles, omlets...stuff like that in the hot bar? Just wondering.

 

Thanks-Stacy

[Kristina2040]

You are giving such great information. My mom and I are going on this ship on Aug. 27 to do the West Caribbean. It is going to be our first cruise and you are making me much more excited.

[ciship]

Love your detailed review.......can't wait to hear about the rest of the week!

 

Did they have french toast at breakfast? Can I find a tunafish sandwich for lunch?

 

How long did you have to wait in line for ice skating tickets? How far in advance did you go to get good seats for the actual show?

[sherry7]

Nice review! It brings back nice memories of my Mariner cruise last year. :)

[Yvonne]

stacyinpa: Yes, Windjammers does have pancakes and made-to-order omelets. I never ate them, but they do have them. I think for the omelets you put your order in at the omelet station and they give you a number and when your number is called you pick up your omelet. I noticed several people standing around the omelet station waiting for their number to be called. DH got an omelet a couple times and enjoyed them. I don't recall seeing waffles.

 

ciship: Yes, Windjammers had french toast too. Not sure you can find a tuna fish sandwich at lunch, maybe off the room service menu as they did have a variety of sandwiches to order. We didn't wait at all to get tickets for the ice skating. In the daily Compass it told what time-frame they would be available and we had no problem getting them. We had 6 in our group and DH and I were able to get tickets for all of us. As far as getting front row seats for the show, we went down a half-hour early.

[Yvonne]

We were supposed to be in Grand Cayman today but the water was very rough so the tenders weren't running and we ended up having another "sea day." DH and I had been to Grand Cayman before, and did not have an excursion lined up so we were looking forward to enjoying the ship with less people on board. But we enjoyed the day anyway. About 8:30 we went up to Windjammers for breakfast, it was very busy but we did find a table. I brought a bowl of fresh fruit and a couple donuts back to the room for a snack for later. Went down to watch open ice skating at 10:30, DH was going to skate but he had shorts on and they require long pants so we just watched a few minutes. At 11:00 we went up to the Lotus Lounge to play "Majority Rules", it was fun. After that we went walking on all the decks to take pictures, and we saw dolphins in the water while we were on deck #4. Just happened to be in the right place at the right time. It was fun watching them. The pool area was very busy today, but we did notice a few empty chairs with no towels or anything "saving" them. While I was taking pictures on the royal promenade a man stopped Kirk to complain to him about not being able to go to Grand Cayman. Like my DH could do anything about it! He was such an idiot!! Stopped at Windjammer's to bring iced tea back to the room. We decided to read out on our balcony for awhile as the sun was shining nicely and it was quieter than the pool area. Later we went to deck #4 to relax in the comfortable loungers and read for awhile. Came back and changed into our suits and took the elevator to the solarium to use the hot tub. Had a little brat (her name was Hayley, she had two friends with her and she looked about 10 years old) in the elevator who took great pleasure in pushing all the buttons and messing with the "open door" and "close door" buttons. Her one little friend got off the elevator, she was embarrassed by Hayley's behavior. And her other friend kept telling her to stop but she wouldn't. She had a very sassy mouth too when I confronted her about what she was doing. I had so hoped to meet up with her in an elevator again, WITH HER PARENTS, so I could look at her, smile, and say "don't you want to push all the buttons THIS time like you did LAST time we were in the elevator with you?" Never happened though, darn it. This was the ONLY time we ever had a problem with a child on the ship. We proceeded to the solarium and enjoyed the hot tub awhile. We didn't spend as much time in the solarium as I thought we would though. It was "too accessible" to everyone. I felt it needed to be more private and not have people (including children, parents with strollers, etc.) walking through it all the time. It was never very quiet, just too many people walking through. Our second formal dinner was tonight. I had scallop risotto, and chilled strawberry soup, both were delicious. The entrees tonight were all Italian, and didn't really appeal to me, so I had the Caesar salad and it was great. They always had several "alternative" selections if you didn't like what was on the menu. They stayed the same each night (Casesar salad, a pasta dish, steak, grilled chicken, etc.). Eduard brought a plate of the tiger shrimp for all of us to share, so that was nice. I had the tiramisu for dessert, it was heavenly!! It's one of my favorite desserts. DH had the warm chocolate cake and enjoyed that. Came back to the room to change clothes and went to the show at 10:45 in the Savoy (the rest of our group didn't go, party poopers). It was a production show, "Pure Energy" and we enjoyed this one MUCH more than the first one. After the show I went to get my camera and we went to view the gala buffet. Oh my goodness!! What a lot of work the crew did for this buffet!! It was huge and so beautiful!! I was snapping pictures left and right of the pastry wax figurines, ice sculptures, the food, etc. It was just amazing!! We took a short walk on deck #4, then they opened the doors at 12:30 a.m. for eating. We were NOT hungry AT ALL, but we did manage to load up a couple of plates. Oink oink!! Loved the chocolate covered strawberries! The crew member had a huge tray of them and he didn't even have time to put them on the buffet, he was just putting them onto people's plates! We did get our food "to go" as we wanted to go back to our room. They had a station set up with "to go" tops for the plates, and plastic silverware so that was nice. Finally got to bed about 1:30 a.m.

 

Day #6 to follow.

[kimsbfl]

Thank you for your reviews. We are newbie cruisers booked on Mariner Feb 26 with our 8 yr old daughter. Your reviews were very helpful. Glad to see you enjoyed the food, there have been some poor reviews and was getting a little nervous.

 

Kim

[dbarry]

Eagerly awaiting your next chapter! We are sailing on the Mariner of the Seas February 26, 2006 and are looking for all the info we can get!

 

Kimsbfl - Come join us on our roll call. We are almost to the 25 person minimum required for RCCL and Cruisecritic to "throw" us a reception. Hope to see you there!

 

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?p=4428239#post4428237

[atlcple2]

We will be on the Mariner on Feb 19...less than 3 weeks away! We are very excited about it, our first RCCL cruise! We have cruised on Carnival and Princess previously. Really enjoying reading your posts about your cruise! We are in Rooms 8453 (interior for the kids) and 8350 (balcony - starboard). We upgraded our room to the balcony last week and got a great deal!

[PSCruiser]

What a great review - one of the most detailed I've read. Can't wait for the next installment. Doing the same cruise, but not until next January 14th, that's too long to wait!

[blythe]

Yvonne, we just got back from the 1/22 Eastern on Mariner. Isn't this a beautiful ship. It's fun reading your review and comparing our experiences with yours. The ship is so big that you really can't do and see everything, especially if your main goal is to just relax and take it easy.

 

Atlcple2, you mentioned that you will have cabin 8350. We had 8348 and it was very nice, very conveniently located, fairly close to the stairs and elevators. Rohan was our cabin steward and very personable and responsive to all requests. He even got robes for us, even though our cabin category did not entitle us to them. You will enjoy this ship very much

[Mike Henigan]

Yvonne,

 

Thanks for the review I am reading it all. We leave in less then 2 weeks on the MotS, off on our lovely Valentine's Cruise. So excited, we did family trip on the Carnival Triumph, honeymooned on the Caribbean Princess, now its off to try RCCL, sounding like we will love it.

 

Mike

....Bon Voyage in 12 Days! Valentine's in the Caribbean!

[Yvonne]

We had room service deliver breakfast this morning at 7:20. The only problem was that we ordered 2 fruit plates and only received 1, so we just shared. We ate on our balcony watching us "drop anchor" in Cozumel. We could see visible hurricane Wilma damage. Apparently they'd had hurricane winds for over 60 hours!! We got ready and went down to the Savoy Theater at 9:30 for our Cozumel Highlights and Shopping tour ($45 each). We took a tender over to the pier and met up with our guide, Margarita, for the tour. We boarded the bus and rode around part of the island, stopping at a Mayan ruin where there were a few shops set up as well. A little girl was tending the ladies room and she had a basket for tips on the counter, I tipped her $1, she was so cute. The sellers at the shops were too pushy. Margarita gave us a lot of the island's history (on the bus) and more about the Mayan ruin then we had time to walk around by ourselves. Back on the bus to go further around the island, and we stopped at a public beach which was very pretty with coral and limestone formations and water crashing up but so much trash all over (and along the roadsides, in the vegetation, etc.), it was sad. It's like they don't take pride in their island to keep it clean. There was lots and lots of destruction from the hurricane. Margarita said 75% damage, but not one person killed. We could still see many homes/businesses damaged, no roofs, thatched roofs in the process of being repaired, foundations still standing but nothing else, trees uprooted, etc. But they are slowly working to rebuild their island. Their economy depends on tourists from the cruise ships and for several weeks no ships were allowed to come, but now they are coming back so they are able to start rebuilding. The island has 90% vegetation, only 3 gas stations on the entire island. At the beach stop there was lots of coral, sponges, etc. on the beach. There were a few vendors, but they were not pushy at all. The bus took us into town and we had almost 2 hours there to shop before meeting the bus in front of the museum to go back to the ship. The salespeople were pushy, especially the ones at the jewelry stores, and the side streets were even worse. We did buy several souvenirs but I must have said "no thank you" a million times!!

 

It started to sprinkle just a little by the time we got back on the bus, it was a 3-mile ride back to the pier. We walked to the tender boat and got back on the ship about 4:00. We hadn't had lunch (too busy shopping for souvenirs for the kids and grandkids) and we were starving. Windjammer was closed, so we opted to go to Johnny Rockets ($3.95 cover charge for each person). They have indoor and outdoor seating but since it was still raining we ate indoors. Right after we were seated they brought us a platter of fries, onion rings and Ranch dressing. DH ordered a cheeseburger, and I ordered a grilled chicken club sandwich. Both were very good. We also had chocolate Cokes, and our waiter brought ones "to go" for us to take back to our room, that was really nice of him to do. The staff sang and danced to "R-E-S-P-E-C-T", and we enjoyed that. After reading and relaxing for about 2 hours, we got ready to go to dinner. Stopped at Guest Relations on deck #5 to turn in our tip sheet (we had our tips put on our sea-pass account, $68.25 per person to be divided among the stateroom attendant, dining room server, assistant server and head waiter - unfortunately you are not allowed to raise the tips so we also put some cash in the envelopes the next night). Dinner tonight was wonderful. I had a smoked salmon and cucumber starter, the chilled peach soup, and fisherman's platter which consisted of a huge lobster tail and shrimp. It was delicious! Wish I would have ordered another tail! A table nearby us ordered more, the waiter brought out a platter of 6 and gave each person 1. For dessert we had the sampler platter which included flourless chocolate cake (out-of-this-world!), cheesecake and savarin, it was all really good. We took a walk on deck #4 to burn off a few of those dinner calories then went to the 10:45 show in the Savoy Theater to see The Platters. There is only one original Platter (Herb Reed) left, but they sounded great, really enjoyed listening to them. After the show we walked around the ship looking for some good bar entertainment. We went to Wig & Gavel but there was a girl playing guitar and screeching out a song so we didn't stay. Also went to Dragon's Lair and nothing much was happening there. Didn't go to Bolero's as it's Latin music and we don't care for it. Finally went to Ellington's and a man was playing guitar there, easy listening and it was nice but still not what we were really looking for. A good band would have been better. But we did stay and have one drink. I guess if I had any complaints about our Mariner cruise, it would be the lack of good bar entertainment, in our opinion. DH went to use the hot tub in the solarium and I went back to our room to write in my journal. Got to bed about 1:00 a.m.

 

Day #7 to follow.

[Yvonne]

Our last day on the beautiful Mariner. :( Went to Windjammers for breakfast this morning, great as usual. DH wandered the ship and I went shopping "one more time." A few things were on sale, so that was nice, and I bought the "cruise in review" CD at the photo shop too. DH went ice skating at 10:30, he really enjoyed it as it had been years since he'd been skating. I just watched him and took pictures. Was waiting for him to fall down so I could get a picture of that but it never happened. :) About noon we went up to deck #12 to lounge in the sun. It was very, very windy and a little chilly when the sun went under a cloud. About 1:00 it started to rain and with the wind it was pretty cold so we came back to the room. The rain stopped and DH sat on our balcony in the sun (he used the second chair to prop his feet up on). I went down to Windjammers and brought lunch back. DH went down a little later and had lunch at the cafe. He went to use the hot tub while I started the dreaded task of packing up the suitcases. :( After the task was completed I laid down to read and take a nap. About 5:30 we got ready for the evening, and went down to the farewell variety show at 7:00 in the Savoy. It was GREAT!! The gaucho was back and he was great again, and the comedian (Don Barnhart) was very, very funny. Plus Captain Gerry played his guitar and sang "Brown Eyed Girl", which was the highlight of the show and where was my camera, darn it! They also had a parade of some of the workers. It was an excellent show and we really enjoyed it. I have to say Captain Gerry was the best captain we've had on any of our cruises. He was very personable, very visible the entire cruise.

 

Dinner was very good again. I had shrimp cocktail and squash soup, and the grilled New York stip steak (excellent and had some kind of sauce that was delicious). Dessert was brownie madness. And DH and I shared a piece of key lime pie too. We said our goodbyes and gave out the tip envelopes. I had gotten them ready in the afternoon, and also included extra cash and personal notes to thank them. The only thing I didn't like was that our stateroom attendant went through the envelopes and took his out (I had planned on giving it to him when we saw him in the hall later). I didn't think he should have done that, as his was on the bottom of the stack so he had to go through all of them. No real big deal, but I just thought it wasn't right that he would do that. Back to our room after dinner and we found a tray on the vanity with a bottle of champagne chilling, two wine glasses, and a plate of chocolate covered strawberries. No note! Later we found out it was from one of DH's sisters and her husband, to thank us for all the planning, reserving, booking we did for the cruise. What a nice surprise!! We finished packing the suitcases and put them out in the hall (they need to be out by midnight for them to be picked up). Went up to deck #12 but it was very windy, so we went down a floor and walked around the ship "one more time." Walked the promenade "one more time" then went down to Studio B to watch the "Karaoke Idol Search." There were 8 contenstants: 4 male, 4 female. They were all good but the last 3 were very, very good. One woman sang "Crazy", one guy sand "Unchained Melody" and another guy sang "Mustang Sally." We really enjoyed listening to them. Back to our room to eat our strawberries and drink our champagne and go to sleep.

 

Day #8: Sunday We were up about 5:30, our fantastic cruise is over! :(

We watched us pull into Port Canaveral from our balcony, got dressed and went down to Windjammers shortly after 6:30 for breakfast. I thought it might only be continental offerings, but it was a regular full breakfast so that was nice. Went back to our room to finish packing the carry-on (our state-

room attendant had asked, while we were at breakfast, if he could strip and remake the bed and we said that was fine so he did that while we were gone) and we left our room at 7:15 (you have until 8:00). Went down to the Savoy Theater to wait for our color (yellow #1) to be called to get our luggage and disembark the ship. Our color was called shortly after 8:30. Going through customs was easy, just showed our passports. We found the luggage, got a porter and he took us to where we needed to wait for the Budget shuttle. Very simple and painless.

 

A few minutes later the shuttle pulled up and took us to get our rental car to go to the airport (Orlando/Sanford). By 9:45 a.m. we were on our way out of town. Stopped for an early lunch at IHOP, then turned in the rental car and they shuttled us to the airport. Our flight was to leave at 3:45 and we were onboard the plane when they let us know the plane was grounded as they found a small oil leak. So by the time we disembarked the plane, they fueled and prepped another plane, loaded up the passengers and transferred the luggage we didn't leave until 5:15. Touched down in Lansing at 7:20 (an hour later than we were supposed to) and it was good to be home.

 

Can't wait to cruise again, and would definitely go on another Royal Caribbean ship. We had a FANTASTIC time!! Loved every minute!!

 

Thanks to all of you who have enjoyed reading my review, I'm glad you enjoyed it.