Mariner Review-just Off It!!

[Kattie]

Embarkation - We arrived via car at the port at 11:20 am. -the drop off/parking is not a very good system. We waited in a car line about 45 min waiting to have a turn to drop off luggage. They would only let about 6 cars thru then hold up the line till the next six -busses were allowed right in. They only have several slots to pull in, unload luggage, then you have to back out and go around again to park -poor system in comparison to Disney's drop off & takes the most time.

Check in was rather quick and easy. We walked on board about 12:35pm.

 

After Boarding at 12:35 straight to Windjammer which was a complete MAD HOUSE and absolutely no available tables or place to sit at all. After they announced at 1pm that staterooms were now available, tables did open up but still very very crowded.

 

We were with a party of 15 - from 4 years to 70 years old with different rooms from inside staterooms, rooms with porthole, to a junior suite all on deck 10. The junior suite was definately nice and much more room to move.

 

CONS: Inside staterooms and rooms with portholes were TINY. Manageable for 2 people but way too small for 3 or 4 people. Disney's staterooms are much larger. Regular rooms do not have alot of draw space either. I would definately not want to have 4 persons in one of these staterooms.

Very hard to hear announcement in your room (even after turning announcement button way up)

RCI really pushes ALCOHOL - drink servers are constantly asking you to buy drinks at the pool, at Labadee, at shows. It was annoying at times. If I want a drink-I'll flag them down or get up and go to the bar. If you just look there way they come running over and asking you. If you don't look, they still ask you-gets old after awhile. Also the drink prices were high and some of them were watery, not much alcohol for the price you pay.

Salt water pools were nasty.

Buffet - most seem to eat at the buffet for breakfast and lunch so it was usually always crowded especially on sea days -they need more tables.

Also the buffet was always the same for breakfast and usually for lunch everyday for 7 days- desserts were not very good either or varied either.

No food at all except for frozen yogurt at the pool -miss the poolside cafe or cookout.

Not many no-smoking areas at all - smoke was very bothersome in the lounges and even by the pool. How about only smoking areas on the upper outside deck of the pool so we all don't have to breathe in smoke and have watery eyes.

Arcade was outrageous prices - most games were $2 and last a minute or so. How about RCI lowing these prices so that not so many kids were bored and hanging on the stairs or elevators, or running around. Also there were little activities for the 12 yrs. on up teens. How about the computers having games, etc. and not costing any money?? How about having xbox or playstation free games and contests between kids. More contests or imaginative activities for these kids to take part in so they wouldnt seem to run around and have nothing to do.

Labadee's layout was not the best - food was only in 2 pavilions and they were a good walk from the beaches. Also, they should have more places for drinks such as water, lemonade, etc. it was very very hot and I saw 2 people taken away by medics for heat exhaution. It seemed to be hard to get drinks for kids etc. unless you bought them or went to lunch.

Quest although said for adults didn't mention how raunchy it is -found it very distasteful.

Shows/entertainment was okay but could be improved on. More activities at night would be nice.

Desserts were limited - the baked alaska was pitiful.

Now for my thoughts on the good:

Absolutely beautiful ship - the layout, the artwork, the colors, the chandeliers, the promendade are all first class and the ship was very clean.

The service was excellent - no complaints with anyone.

The crew was very friendly and very nice!

The food was good but not excellent -

Our waiters were wonderful & if we didn't like something they brought us something else with no problem!! They were very nice to our kids also!!

The midnight buffet was beautiful and the food immense except there was a huge line to get the food so we skipped eating.

Poolside Dance Party under the stars was a lot of fun and there was alot of food.

The odyessea band was great.

The stateroom attendants were very nice & great -room cleaned quickly.

Ice show was very good! Ice skating was also fun.

The pirate parade from the kids club was so cute and my daughter enjoyed having her face painted like a pirate and being in the show.

The Kids Club took good care of my 4 year old and we left her there when we did 2 excursions - it did seem that she got bored after awhile though - alot of coloring that can get boring.

 

PORTS

Ochos Rios - did Pete Taylors's tour and the climb up Dunn's Falls was a blast.

Grand Caymen - Nativeway water sports snorkeling and sting ray island - very nice, great snorkeling.

Cozumel - Paradise Beach then Shopping and Senor Frogs -almost miss dinner this night!

 

Overall, we all had a very nice week, alot of laughs and fun but be prepared that you're not done spending once you pay off your cruise -sea pass adds up!! The Mariner is a beautiful, extravagant ship. Any questions, please post and I will try to answer!! Hope this helps everyone but remember its just our experiences and our opinions, everyone is different!!

[HB Cruiser]

Katie:

 

Thanks for the review. You stated several somewhat negative points about the cruise which, unlike others, I appreciate. I also appreciate your ending thoughts in which you stated that what you expressed were your opinions and that everyone has different experiences and opinions. In short, I appreciate your bluntness.

 

Hopefully, your next experience with RCL will be somewhat better.

 

Our famiy will be going on the Mariner August 1st and we hope to have a great time.

 

Again, thanks for the review.

 

Tim

[jlx2]

Thanks for the great review! Do you happen to remember what nights the different themes were for dinner? We want to go to Chops and Portifino's and would like to know what nights would be best to go. How was the motion on the ship? Do you remember what time/night the Quest game was? Welcome back home, and thanks again for the review. :)

[winncove]

As I understand it there are no non smoking rms/cabins. Have read the stewards can re-do the clean up/deodorizing if your rm. is not fresh enough.

 

I've never understood complaints about the same menu for breakfast for 7 days. I've read they have many choices and just how many things can you make for breakfast? Do most people have something different every day of the week @ home? I've read here that the lines for the MN buffet are always long so we don't even plan on trying it. Have 2nd seating & know we sure won't need the food anyway. Whatever, I won't have to cook or clean up!

 

Certainly hope we have good entertainment. One of the latest cruises had the Platters but haven't seen another name ever mentioned. That's more important to us than shore excursions. At least we don't have to worry about kids being bored. :)

[cruzinpsycharnp]

What happened at Quest that was so bad? When the guys ended up in the underwear, I thought for sure men should all wear boxers...Other than that I laughed my head off.

[Kattie]

Jlx2 - The 1st nite (sunday) was extremely casual -shorts and t-shirts seem to be the thing that nite.

Monday night was the 1st formal - Captain's Dinner. -most men were in suits, a few tuxes. Most women wore coctail dresses, some had long gowns many of the teens or young girls did have gowns I suppose some had them from proms etc. and they looked very nice.

Tuesday was very strange -it was either decades night-dress like the 60's or 70's or Smart Casual. It was strange to have smart casual night on the same night as decades night -however, barely anyone was dressed like 60's or 70's and most dresses casual.

Wednesday was casual -Caribbean night. Probably a good night to try one of the alternative dining rooms. We just figured we'd spent so much on the trip etc. we would eat each night in the dining room.

Thursday was the 2nd formal night. It was an italian theme dinner.

Friday was casual and Saturday was VERY casual.

There were not any true theme nights.

 

On the motion issue - none of us had any problems what so ever. The weather was beautiful and the seas were calm. My 11 year old son gets car sickness all the time so I was worried about him but he had no problems. The first 2 days I gave my him bonine to head anything off but after that I stopped as he was fine and so was everyone - you feel very little motion and we were on the 10th deck.

 

Winncove - I reported that breakfast AND lunch was pretty much the same.

I think they should change lunch items daily and for breakfast a different assortment of donuts, breads, pastries, cereals would be nice otherwise breakfast was alright.

There were no outstanding performers on the ship. One comedian on Friday night was very funny & ice show was good. The dancing show was not very good but this is just our opinion. The parade was cute but short.

[Kattie]

also winncove -it was not the room that bothered us with smoke like I said in my review it was the lounges and other public areas. I went to watch my brother sing in Karoke and after about an hour my eyes were tearing it was very smoky. Also, sitting by the pool many people would come and sit at the chair right next to me and start smoking and that was also bothersome as I have allergies to smoke and my family are all non-smokers so I wasn't used to that.

 

Crusinpsychamp- As I said at the end of my review this is just our opinion. I found the Quest to be in bad taste -especially the kissing parts. We didn't find it funny but that's us.

[mary07054]

kattie - we are going on the caribbean princ. I was a little upset that there is no arcade for my 2 teens. But after reading your review about the prices i am so happy they do not have one. I can't see spending all that money in an arcade (and don't anybody kid yourself $2.00 a pop adds up very quickly). I am thinking of taking my son's xbox so he can play games in his room for FREE.

[Kattie]

Mary - that's a good idea but I didn't want my kids spending all their time in their room. Before we went on the cruise, I told my 2 sons that $10 a day for the arcade which was $70 each. But $10 only lasted about 15 minutes - no wonder after the 1st day, most kids were running around the arcade or hanging out in it then actually playing games -they must have all run out of money!!

I think that RCI should provide free computer games at least for the teens & maybe some good movies in the theatre. The cinema was only open during excursion days and played Sea Biscuit -come on what about some more newer movies and movie night for teens!!

[mary07054]

katie - yes i was thinking about that if i take the xbox. too much money for this trip to be staying in the room. i hope my son is not bored. oh well i guess i will have to see. thanks for the info

[garnetjanet]

cruzinpsycharnp.....

Do you know what was served on the two formal nights for dinner? Someone else posted that the lobster & shrimp were on Fri. after Cozumel. Is this true? Can you tell me what was served any of the other nights as well?

 

HB Cruiser.....

When you go on the 1st, can you find out about the food on the formal nights and any other nights? We will be going on the 15th. Thanks in advance.

Kattie.....

Thanks for the honest review. I love reading anything and everything I can!

[rthiebes]

Yes lobster and shrimp was one of the choices on one of the formal nights...so was prime rib..can't remember what else.

[Kat1613]

Kattie - thanks so much for the honest review and posting many cons as most people only post pros and I like to know what are the things that are negatives also so I can be prepared! I have some friends that were also on the Mariner in July and made many of the same comments that you did. Although they said the trip was great, there always are some drawbacks and its nice to know ahead of time what to expect. Thanks again for your review!

[dad son team]

I was on the Mariner in April, and I will agree to some of the cons of the ship. The arcade is really pricey. $1.50 for a game of pac-man! The bargain was air hockey for $2.50. At least you played until someone scored 7 points so that could take a while. Is Kurt still the CD? I didn't care for him. I thought he was too full of himself.

[Dreamfinders]

I am a new cruiser, just came back from Explorer a couple of weeks ago and the only other one we did was NCL. I am very interested in reading about everyone's trip and am learing that even though all the mega ships are basically the same it seems that every ship/cruise is different. We were amazed on EOS how they did not push drinks, in fact, we've been talking about this since we came back. On NCL last year we had a running joke about the drink waiters. They were VERY pushy. We found on EOS that we almost had to go looking for someone to order a drink. I also found the prices to be so much less than NCL. On NCL they automatically put your drink in a fancy cup and it costs more. On RCL I actually had to ask for our drinks one day to be served in one of those cups because I wanted four to take home. Also formal nights on EOS were VERY formal I found. The majority of men had on tuxes, my men did not and my son now wants one for our next cruise. I guess it's like everything in life, every cruise if different. I like reading about all different opinions and especially reports from experienced cruisers. This site is wonderful.

[Kattie]

Dad son team - the cruise director on July 18 mariner was Becky.

 

Dreamfinders- glad to hear that maybe all RCI ships don't push drinks such as your experience on the Explorer. We felt it was a bit much on the Mariner, we got tired of constantly saying no thank you by the pool, on labadee and while waiting for the shows to start but that was our experience. They also seem to have an abundance of bars/lounges on this ship. I wish they had more free drink stations rather than just coffee in the promenade.

[Kat1613]

Yeah I agree.

[Family of 14]

Embarkation - We arrived via car at the port at 11:20 am. -the drop off/parking is not a very good system. We waited in a car line about 45 min waiting to have a turn to drop off luggage.

My brother, sister and parents arrived at 11:00 am and had absolutely no problems unloading and getting to the garage. They met us inside the ship at 11:30. We ate in the Windjammer at 12:15 and found a table right away for our party of 14 (there were plenty available. I guess we were still eating when you arrived or we could have saved the table for you. Sounds like you were about 30 minutes late in your schedule...all around. :D

 

As for the breakfast and lunch. Breakfast is always the same on ever ship (including Disney) that we have ever been on. We enjoyed ordering room service two mornings during our cruise. The lunch did change daily with different specialty items each day along with the old stand-by's.

 

SMOKING - The port side of the ship, up around the pool deck was non smoking. Never had a problem there. This was announced in the Compass everyday. If you had a problem with smokers on the port side, you should have reported them.

 

Salt water pools were very refreshing to us...I didn't notice them being nasty.

 

I agree that the bar servers can get a little annoying sometimes, but we didn't find this any different on any other of our cruises. The srvers are just trying to make their tips. A tip for future cruisers: Buy one round of drinks and ask the server to keep others away from you and tell him that you will let him know when you are ready for another...not to bother you. It works!

 

I also agree about the inside staterooms. Our three adult children shared an inside and they just about killed each other. Disney's staterooms are much nicer. We had 4 in one of those a few years ago and had plenty of room.

 

We also could not get our announcements to work inside our room. I tried everything. We were on Deck 10 in the famous 1688. My parents had the JS and it is nice (we stayed in one on the AOS last September and have one reserved this September on the Serenade.)

 

One more thing that we agree on is that Labadee is not Castaway Cay. ;) Quite disappointed in Hideaway Beach. Too many people know about that area now and it was over run with people and kids. Hot, hot, hot!

 

We didn't have to worry about the arcade as my son isn't in to that. Besides, we are on a cruise to relax, swim, sun and have together time. No need for extra entertainment.

 

The shows were OK. We had seen both production shows before and were bored this go around. The comedian you mentioned was great and that little boy, "towel animal" was a scream!

 

We didn't lack for any food while sunning. We either went to the Windjammer, Johnny Rockets or the Promenade Cafe. Only had the yogurt a couple of times. The dining room food was fine because I didn't have to do anything but dress. Loved the appetizers and soups. By the time the main entree came out, I was full. We had the best servers and room stewards as well! We didn't go to Chop's or Portofino's either.

 

Which Nativeway excursion were you on...morning or afternoon? We were in the morning group, but don't recall seeing anyone on our boat with a toddler.

 

Glad you had a good time!

[Kattie]

To Family of 14 -I'm sure your experiences might be different like I said these were our experiences and opinions. I was not exagerating when we arrived at the gate and had to wait over 40 minutes to pull up and drop our bags off - I guess your experience was different and I'm glad for you but after 11:15 that was not the norm. I'm glad your family of 14 were able to sit together at lunch when embarking at 12:15 and you must have still be in the windjammer at 12:40 when we tried to get just one seat and so were tons of other people -I'm not sure how you could not see how crowded and what a zoo it was because this was definately what we encountered.

As far as you like salt water pools that is fine, we don't and that's our preference and our opinion that we find them nasty.

As far as your son not into arcade games well that was fine for him. However, most of our kids were into the arcade and I guess we all go on vacations for different reasons. It's nice your family wanted to spend so much time together, in our 15 we like to do different things and come

together when we want and that's what's enjoyable about our vacation.

We were on the Nativeway morning snorkeling tour and there were 2 children on our boat about 4 and 5 not toddlers and they were very scared of the stingrays.

There were people smoking on the lower level of the pool deck and all of the lounges I went for such as Karoke etc. were very smoky and bothersome to us.

I have been on other cruises also and don't remembered constantly being bothered by servers for alcohol and we found this annoying.Like I said that was our review which is based on our experiences and our opinions - I've said that several times. I don't think I should have to argue each point I made. everyone had different likes and dislikes on their vacation and I don't feel like I should have to defend my own review of my experiences.

[Candi]

I agree with you Kattie- a review is your opinion and it shouldn't be refuted as others can write their own review.

I do agree with alot of what you said and value your opinion and experience. We also thought that servers were annoying at times by the pool. Windjammer is a crazy house before 1 pm on embarkation day - very very hard to find a table. Actually it was always hard to find a table on sea day for breakfast in there. I guess most people eat break and lunch in there and they seem to need more tables. It was also a good point about the arcade being so expensive if it was more reasonable then maybe teens/kids wouldn't just be hanging out in the halls, stairs, and running around so much. Most kids do enjoy video games. Anyway, like you said everyone had different opinions and I value all reviews without questioning them.

[yarlenna]

Loved your review. Next cruise - ask a server for a napkin when they try to sell you a drink. Tell them you will take it off the table when you want a beverage. Other servers will think you have a drink coming and will generally leave you alone. At least that has always worked for me.

[Kat1613]

Good idea about the napkin! As a non-drinker, I also don't like constantly being bugged to buy a drink - if I want one -I'll get one!!

I agree about hearing so much about the Windjammer being hard to find a table during peak hours.

As the Mariner is a beautiful ship but there's always room for improvement!!

[ou812]

Hi

 

Thanks for your review.

 

I too, would be bothered by smoke. I questioned RC about smoking areas before booking our first cruise (next week Mariner). I was told by them that there is no smoking allowed anywhere inside on the ship except bars/lounges. Smoking is only allowed on outside decks and areas other than the bars/lounges. I am very sorry to hear what you have said about that. We hate to breathe in smoke. Do they allow it in the dining room? I hope not.

 

As far as the waiters bothering you to buy drinks, that's annoying. We are not big drinkers and would rather just drink water or iced tea most of the time. Don't have a lot of money to be buying expensive drinks. It's just not that important to us. I hope they are not too annoying.

 

Thanks for your review.

[ou812]

Well, I just returned this past Sunday, and I did not find the same things to be true for the most part. We were never bothered by smokers, waiters only asked once at each venue if we wanted drinks and never bothered us again if we said no. Embarkation took all of about 15 minutes. Disembarking went smoothly as well. The food was good, not perfect. There were a few things I did not care for. I simply said I did not care for something and they brought me something else no ques. asked. I suppose it is hard to prepare food for 3,600 people a day and have everyone like it.

[LLM]

ou812, what time did you go to Port Canaveral and board the Mariner?

 

Lisa