9390 Mariner - Plenty of Pics and Paperwork 📷 📃

[John&LaLa]

8 hours ago, reallyitsmema said:

Was the Solarium pool open during your sailing?  I have seen many pictures from recent sailings of it full of green water and closed or empty and covered.  I am sailing soon with my Mom and she likes to use the Solarium pool.

 

It was open, and not overly full

You'll love the Solarium Cabanas

I'll post thoughts on them soon

Edited January 27, 2020 by John&LaLa

[John&LaLa]

8 hours ago, long4acruise said:

John,

Enjoying your review and like how you posted the Compasses in your unique style.

Appreciate all you do to keep us informed as we get to enjoy YOUR cruises!  Hope to cruise with you and LaLa again soon.

 

Donna & Anthony (MD)

 

Thanks Donna, appreciate the comments on how I've posted them.

will get the last page in now

 

7 days till Harmony

35 days until Allure

[John&LaLa]

Cruise Compass Page 6 (inside supplement)

Evening Planner - mainly food, drink, and hours of operation

There is not one for Day 1

 

Day 2

 

Day 3

 

Day 4

 

Day 4 revised sea day

[John&LaLa]

Solarium Cabana Beds

 

Mariner got these really cool Solarium cabana beds during amplification.

I believe there are 3 Starboard and 3 Port

Two of them don't look out at the ocean, but more likely to be available

 

Much nicer than the ones on Navigator and Oasis in my opinion (Oasis does have USB ports, though)

Navigator may have these in the Solarium as well, I have no idea.

Really comfy, they lay flat, and the cover is silky smooth

 

My POV on the one above around noon on Coco Cay day

Here you can see one facing out on the right

 

Around 30 minutes later I decided to leave, but found one of the outer ones open, so I stuck around

 

Grab one if you can.

 

 

Edited January 27, 2020 by John&LaLa

[John&LaLa]

Beer Hunter😎

 

A couple of years ago, Royal added draft beer to the Diamond Happy Hour list.🍺

It was mainly Heineken, but if you were lucky you could find Newcastle in one or two locations.👍

I noticed you could find Newcastle almost everywhere.🤩

So I decided to document my findings. I really like Newcastle, even the modified non English version we have in FL

 

Ellington's (VCL)

 

Can you say unlimited SL beer😉

 

Casino Bar

 

Spent the last sea day there. That would not have been available if we had gone to Coco Cay

 

Boleros - That was a surprise

 

Schooner

 

This is where I went to get a beer for the show

Hated the show, the beer was a nice consolation

 

Pub - this is where I used to count on finding it. Go figure

 

They also have Strongbow🤢

 

PlayMakers - I figured it would be here as well

 

And a few others

 

Plaza Bar (Windjammer)

 

Star Bar was a bust, only Heineken

Tap handle wasn't out when I took this, but I checked back during Karaoke

 

None of the pool bars had draft beer. 

someone said because no glass pints on pool deck

That's crap, I know Oasis used to have draft beer

 

And my last beer pic.

 

This is here for two reasons

 

1) It's from England. It's either really old, or Royal's distributor get's it shipped to Miami. So maybe the kegs are from England as well. 🤔

 

2) Tao got this for me. Tao is the Suite Concierge. One of the best in my opinion. We sailed with him on the Global Odyssey.

 

On Day 2 Happy Hour he was helping take orders, so I asked him for a Newcastle. I figured it would come from Ellington's. Pretty sure that's where all our drinks were coming from. He came back 15 minutes later, totally out of breath, with this bottle. Said he got it at Playmaker's, they only had a few left, so they would only give him one. So I thanked him, and asked why he didn't get it at Ellington's. I never expected him to get me a bottle. He then got this odd look on his face, excused himself, and ran out the door.  Came back in a minute smiling, and told me this story. 

 

He didn't realize Ellington's had Newcastle, so just to make me happy, he ran down to the pool bar, they didn't have any, so he went to Pub, he didn't want to worry about carrying a draft upstairs, so he went to PlayMakers and found this bottle.

 

He's a great guy.  Needless to say the rest of the trip I was served drafts from Ellington's when in the lounge. 

 

And that's the tale of the Beer Hunter

 

 

 

 

 

[CJMini]

Hi John,

As a huge fan of your reviews, I was thrilled to read your information on the Mariner of the Seas.  We are sailing on the Mariner this Thanksgiving.  Our adult children and their spouses are interested in the Escape Room, Laser Tag, and the Sky Pad.  I wasn’t able to see any mention of those in the Cruise Compass you posted.  The Escape Room is a fee excursion (plan to book through RC Cruise Planner) but wondered why it was not listed in the Compass for passengers to possibly “walk-in” if there were available spaces?  Are there certain times the Laser Tag and Sky Pad are open?

 

Thank you for any insight you might provide.

 

CJ

[John&LaLa]

3 hours ago, CJMini said:

Hi John,

As a huge fan of your reviews, I was thrilled to read your information on the Mariner of the Seas.  We are sailing on the Mariner this Thanksgiving.  Our adult children and their spouses are interested in the Escape Room, Laser Tag, and the Sky Pad.  I wasn’t able to see any mention of those in the Cruise Compass you posted.  The Escape Room is a fee excursion (plan to book through RC Cruise Planner) but wondered why it was not listed in the Compass for passengers to possibly “walk-in” if there were available spaces?  Are there certain times the Laser Tag and Sky Pad are open?

 

Thank you for any insight you might provide.

 

CJ

 

I'm not sure. I didn't realize it was free. It seemed pretty busy. They qued up just outside the SL. 

 

Sky Pad stayed busy as well. I meant to try it, but I'm not as mobile as I used to be. That was another thing I watched a lot due to proximity to SL. Do you see a pattern here.😉 It ran at night, and while that sounds cool, you are wearing a headset, so I wouldn't think it would matter.

 

Never noticed Lazer Tag, but I did see lines outside Studio B. I assumed it was for free skate. Once again something I considered, but I just dont have mobility for that.

 

Really surprised you don't see them in the compass. 

[Sea Dog]

Love the "Beer Hunter" posts as it's always interesting to see how things vary from bar to bar. One question for you John. I saw the pic of outlets and the knob to turn on or off the announcements. When we were on Harmony in October I remarked to my wife that I wish I could of heard the announcements in our cabin. Is there a similar knob on Harmony and if so do you know where it was? I did not see anything obvious to me. Love the pics, cheers.

Greg 

[John&LaLa]

2 hours ago, Sea Dog said:

Love the "Beer Hunter" posts as it's always interesting to see how things vary from bar to bar. One question for you John. I saw the pic of outlets and the knob to turn on or off the announcements. When we were on Harmony in October I remarked to my wife that I wish I could of heard the announcements in our cabin. Is there a similar knob on Harmony and if so do you know where it was? I did not see anything obvious to me. Love the pics, cheers.

Greg 

 

Those knobs notoriously don't work

 

I'll check Harmony next week

[Sea Dog]

Thanks John. I’m curious to know as I always thought the captains announcements were piped into the cabin.

[John&LaLa]

Not much more to discuss other than the easiest departure ever. Seriously.

 

Entire credit goes to Tao.

 

Very organized

 

Regular departure info

 

continued

 

so we did self assist.

Met in Schooner, even had coffee

 

Tao met us there, and had this neat sign where we dropped our bags

 

He took our bags and placed them on the other side of the fire door.

Guess who's bags were first in line😉

 

the beauty here was Tao asked us to stand next to our bags right before we left

It was a nice touch

No standing in line, shuffling for position. Our total wait by the time we got to outer deck was maybe 5 minutes

And no dirty looks from those unfortunate enough not to be under Tao's care

If this makes me sound elitist, I apologize, but it was really nice from our vantage.

 

Now based on my limited mobility, I didn't stay at the front of the herd the entire trip through the Terminal, but we made it out 3rd and 4th if anyone cares. Facial recognition was a breeze, getting a taxi was easy, and we were home unpacking before 7:30

 

Farewell from Mariner

 

 

 

[John&LaLa]

One last post, had to grab my phone.

 

Jerry dropped Bella off at 9am

 

Like I said, not much more to say, but I can answer questions if anyone has any.

 

Need to go work on Oasis Compass project