Mariner Review 8/1-8 Part I

[allelect]

We had used the local taxi service in Port Canaveral a couple of times, and found them good and of reasonable cost. We phoned the Yellow Taxi service at 10AM from Ron Jon’s Cape Caribe, asked for a pickup at 11AM for 4 people with luggage, and told them we were going to the Mariner. At 11:20AM, I had to call Yellow Taxi again because they had not shown up. They said they would be at Ron Jon’s for us in a few minutes; they were waiting for “things to clear up at the cruise terminal”. When they had not shown up by 11:40AM, I phoned Arts Shuttle hoping that they could pick us up on such short notice. They were there to get us within 3 minutes! I can’t say enough good things about Arts Shuttle. They transported us from Orlando airport and back too. They are on time, efficient, friendly, and tell you a little about the area. Just fantastic! (I think Yellow Taxi just didn’t want to get bogged down at the terminal, but they should not have agreed to take us in the first place.)

 

We arrived at the cruise terminal about Noon. The line of vehicles was not long, but still it took a half hour of waiting to get to the drop off area. I don’t know why it took so long for passengers with luggage to be dropped off. And the driver told us that usually the line of vehicles extends all the way to the security entry point. Once we parked and exited Arts Shuttle, porters were on hand to load the luggage on carts. The porters work hard, and do a terrific job, and I tipped them accordingly.

 

Even though the Mariner’s check-in area was busy, the line moved swiftly, and ample personnel got us on our way onto the ship in a jiffy. By the time all was said and done, it was 1PM, and we were able to get into our cabins right away. Then, we went immediately to the Windjammer for lunch, and it was half full at most.

 

Unfortunately, rain hampered things for days 1 and 2 of the cruise. Needless to say, we kept busy taking advantage of many things that the Mariner had to offer. It definitely is a beautiful ship, and our cabin stewards Rohan and Kevin took wonderful care of us and our cabins. On our recent cruise on the Navigator this past March, our steward always gave us new bath towels automatically twice a day. I noticed at first our steward only gave us towels once a day. Well, we had to learn how to work with him. The problem was we hung up our towels after use. I learned to throw the towels on the floor after using them, and then he automatically gave us fresh towels twice a day!

 

More to come in the next post...............

[LLM]

Thank you for your review. I'm looking forward to reading more!

 

Lisa

[HB Cruiser]

Richard I have one thing to add about arrival. We took the Avis shuttle as we returned our car that morning. We arrived at the port at about 11:00. The line was very short but the port security was only allowing new passengers to be dropped off very close to the entrance to the terminal due to passengers disembarking a bit late. This was the reason the drop off line was a bit longer than normal. We got off about 11:20 and was on the ship at exactly 12:00 noon.

 

Thanks for the review Richard. Keep it comming!

 

Tim

[echo]

Can I ask how much the shuttle was for 4? We will need to take a taxi back to the Cape Caribe, does anyone know how much this will run 4 of us. We go Sept 19 and I'm about to bust!

[aqusis]

Art's charges $3 per person each way for pick up/drop off at Cocoa Beach area hotels.