Just back from Mariner of the Seas

[Montanagirlalways]

It was an amazing once probably (hopefully) in a life time welcome back to cruising experience. Staff to cruisers ratio was about 3:1. Elevators-OMG, never have I experienced empty elevators most of the time. Everyone was happy to be cruising. We were not hounded to wear masks but everyone knew to wear them inside. If you can get a chance to get in some of these early come back cruises I would recommend it. 

Let me know if you have questions. 

[Fat and funny]

great news. I have high hopes for my Symphony cruise in November 

[sandc4e]

Excited for our October cruise!

 

[cvschmitt]

Someone told me that you needed to make reservations for the shows and even trivia. Hadn't heard that about trivia. Can you confirm or deny this? Thanks.

 

[GTO-Girl]

We were lucky enough to get chosen for her 2 day test cruise.  One of the best crew ever!!!

[flamingos]

We are going on the 17th, have our test scheduled for the 15th and have a Binax backup (that we can save for another cruise in October).

 

Were you able to go straight to your cabins since boarding started so late?

 

Where was lunch available on boarding day?

 

How crowded was CocoCay? We are scheduled to be there with Freedom, I think.

 

Hot tubs and pools, especially in the Solarium - what was capacity, were they crowded?

 

 

Thanks so much!

Edited September 6, 2021 by flamingos

[mafig]

how was spacing in the restaurant.  

 

Did you have to make reservations for dinner?  Did you get your requested time?

 

What was it like around the pool"?

 

 

[Montanagirlalways]

1 hour ago, cvschmitt said:

Someone told me that you needed to make reservations for the shows and even trivia. Hadn't heard that about trivia. Can you confirm or deny this? Thanks.

 

The app asked for reservations so I did that for 2 shows. No one ever checked for reservations as we entered. So the third show I didn't make reservations-just walked in. They were only checking to make sure you were wearing the trackers and the bracelet for vaccination. Very few people at the shows in the theatre. We didn't go to the ice show. 

[Montanagirlalways]

40 minutes ago, flamingos said:

We are going on the 17th, have our test scheduled for the 15th and have a Binax backup (that we can save for another cruise in October).

 

Were you able to go straight to your cabins since boarding started so late?

we boarded about 1:30 and the cabins were open. 

Where was lunch available on boarding day?

We just went to the windjammer for lunch. I saw people at johnny rockets and possibly jamies was open

How crowded was CocoCay? We are scheduled to be there with Freedom, I think.

freedom was at cococay also when we were there. not crowded. but that can change as capacity hopefully increases for them

Hot tubs and pools, especially in the Solarium - what was capacity, were they crowded?

 

I dont think they limited how many people could be in the pools. Solarium was vax only. I think you had to be vaxed to get in the pools.

Thanks so much!

 

[Montanagirlalways]

37 minutes ago, mafig said:

how was spacing in the restaurant.  

we ate in the main dining room. not many people. spaced well

Did you have to make reservations for dinner?  Did you get your requested time?

did my time.No problem. but then not many people onboard

What was it like around the pool"?

Pool as usual got a little crowded. 

 

 

[Montanagirlalways]

1 hour ago, GTO-Girl said:

We were lucky enough to get chosen for her 2 day test cruise.  One of the best crew ever!!!

yes you were lucky. We were hoping to as we live like 7 minutes from the port. they selected us to go to NJ. Decided with travel costs we could just pay to go on the Mariner and glad we did. Thats when the hurricane was up there

[smplybcause]

1 hour ago, flamingos said:

We are going on the 17th, have our test scheduled for the 15th and have a Binax backup (that we can save for another cruise in October).

 

Were you able to go straight to your cabins since boarding started so late?

 

Where was lunch available on boarding day?

 

How crowded was CocoCay? We are scheduled to be there with Freedom, I think.

 

Hot tubs and pools, especially in the Solarium - what was capacity, were they crowded?

 

 

Thanks so much!

 

So I just got off the weekend one. There was over 1500 passengers on there. Most of any sailing they had by far. 

 

Had a 230 boarding time and went right to room. 

 

Wind jammer is only until 330 so late boarding people might have to do the Cafe. That's what we did because after dropping off bags, completing muster, and getting a drink it was after 330.

 

We were there with freedom as well. As they are still keeping the loungers limited and spaced if you get off later you might not find loungers by the pool, but there was plenty on the beach. A friend got off pretty quick and saved spots. We met up around 10 and there weren't really open loungers by the pool. But it was easy enough getting food. The swim up bar was always a few people deep once it was around 11. It wasn't shoulder to shoulder in the pool unless you wanted to be right by the bar, but at least where we were you didn't have massive amount of space. (I likely wouldn't have been comfortable if it wasn't all adults vaxxed given how close you were to people.) I think freedom had about the same number so it was around 3000 on the island. 

 

They weren't limiting capacity in the solarium. Hot tubs always had a few people. Pool had anywhere from 6-20 people in it or sitting on the edge. There were always some loungers available, but may or may not have been in the best location. 

Edited September 6, 2021 by smplybcause