Mariner of the Seas Review 9/4/2004 (Part 2)

[gattfamily]

More on our shore excursions:

 

COZUMEL! A beautiful place (the captain’s favorite port of call) and a nice place to shop (merchants are friendly).

 

We took a taxi into town (be careful, my husband stubbed his toe on a piece of metal in the taxicab). Cab fare was approximately $6.00.

 

Shopping was fun. No one swore at me if I didn’t buy their merchandise (as in Jamaica). Instead, some said ‘thank you anyways’ or just rolled their eyes.

 

By the way, I personally wouldn’t go to the flea market or ‘inner city’ to shop any more. One tried to sell us a handsome Rolex (not!). I actually got a better deal in the main shops recommended by RCL.

 

Oh, if you haven’t been to Carlos' and Charlie's … gotta go! What an amazingly fun place to eat and drink. Our waiter made the experience even more fun … there’s a picture of him on our web site.

 

Interesting side note: Cozumel has a laundry service just off the pier next to the duty-free shop. They will do your laundry and have it ready in three hours. We didn’t use the service, but we thought it was a clever business.

 

GRAND CAYMAN! Some of the cleanest waters I have ever seen.

 

We took the kids on the snorkel/stingray city tour excursion. The stingrays were very large, and the coral reefs were beautiful. We actually came within feet of a moray eel (not sure if that’s how you pronounce it). The kids jumped off the top of the boat and had no problem with the slimy creatures.

 

There wasn’t much of a city tour. We stopped to look at a couple of iguana at the side of the road, and got stuck in rush hour traffic. Perhaps the ride to and from the boat was the city tour?

 

It was obvious the people that worked the excursion were nervous about Hurricane Ivan. We didn’t realize it was going to affect them until we talked to them on their boat. We met some nice people and hope they are okay.

 

DISEMBARKMENT! It was a breeze. We went to the Windjammer and were greeted by our assistant waiter. From there we went through customs, waited for our ride and were off to Miami!

 

ALL IN ALL! We would sail with RCL again. As a matter of fact, we are already planning our next trip. We feel the pending compensation issues we have with RCL will be resolved, and do not anticipate a problem with Cruisecare insurance with our trip delay claim. I’ll let you know how it turns out.

 

Mariner of the Seas and Vacation Photos. Mostly photos of my kids, but also some photos of the ship:

http://www.ofoto.com/I.jsp?c=c3by5lt.9fehzgft&x=0&y=-hywqjt

[uptheboro]

Enjoyed reading your review, and loved your photos. Your kids seemed to be having a great time. I was interested to hear about the laundry service at Cozumel. Did you use it? Was it much cheaper than the ship, and was it easy to find? Thanks

[gattfamily]

Enjoyed reading your review, and loved your photos. Your kids seemed to be having a great time. I was interested to hear about the laundry service at Cozumel. Did you use it? Was it much cheaper than the ship, and was it easy to find? Thanks

 

We didn't use the laundry service in Cozumel, but had I known I may have if it was closer to the end of the cruise (it took me two days to do laundry when I got home).

 

I don't remember the price list, but i remember thinking, "gee, that's cheap". It's located on the right-hand side at the end of the pier before you enter the duty-free shop. If you end up using the service, you'll have to let the rest of us know how they did.

 

Take care.

[emmy]

gattfamily

 

Loved reading your review and your photos were wonderful. Great looking family

The pics of the room and balcony brought back memories of our Mariner cruise this past May...we had cabin 1692 deck 10 aft

 

Carlos 'n charlies is so much fun :)

 

Thanks for sharing!

 

Emmy

[LLM]

Thank you for your review. I also enjoyed viewing your pictures!

 

Lisa