Bennie And Cruiserccl Our Trip On The West Coast Mariner!

[Cruiserccl]

Everything YOU Want To Know About The West Coast Mariner!

Chris Harms and Bennie

Cruiserccl

 

To start off this was my 5th time on the Mariner and 9th cruise in all. I was on the Inaugural 7 night sailing of the Mariner from the port of LA which departed on February 22, 2009. I had cabin 8216. I was the very first cabin on deck 8 with a balcony forward. I could see the helipad from my room and if i looked up i could see the bridge wing. I was traveling with my parents who were in a Junior Suite 1609 (handicapped) and my grandma and her friend who were in cabin 9292 just a regular balcony. Due to a school function we flew in Sunday morning. We arrived at the port around 11:45 and it was beautifully decorated with balloons and staff everywhere asking us if we needed anything. There was no wait for check in or security. Everything went very smoothly i was very impressed with RCCL. The port has Royal Caribbean's new "Nation Of Why Not" ads up on everything. I was really excited to see this because i am a fan of the new ads.We got on the ship around 12:45 (I think maybe earlier) and my cabin was ready around 1:15. This cruise was completely sold out.

 

Food

The Mariner just got brand new menus on Sunday (February 22) that features the $14.95 Chops steak in the Main Dinning Room. March 1 the Mariner will be getting new Menus for Chops and Portofino's. This was also the first week they stared charging from Room Service after 12. I talked with MANY cruisers on this cruise some who are cruise veterans and some who this was there first cruise and i'd say 95% of them are ok with the $14.95 steak on the menu and the charge for Room Service after midnight. Some said "If your ordering food that late why shouldn't you be charged?" and "It was to die for! I will be ordering it again tommarow!" My parents ate in Portofino's and Chops for the majority of the cruise. Chops in our minds is definitely better than Portofino's. I was a little disappointed with the food at the Windjammer it was just the same stuff day after day and it wasn't really something where i went WOW that was really good. I ate in the Main Dinning room a few times and again i really didn't go WOW. Room service on the other hand WOW, WOW, WOW its sooooooo good! The food they serve for Room Service is GREAT. The Chicken drummettes are to die for! I ate in Johnny Rockets once and that was REALLY good! My friend and i ate in there one night around 11:30 and we were the only ones in there but the food was great. It did cost $4.95 to get in unless you had a coupon. The Cafe Promenade has also been a favorite of mine. Its a GREAT place just to stop by and grab a slice of pizza or a small sandwich. The food there is ok but not outstanding but by not means bad. I was told MTD would be coming to the Mariner in the up-coming weeks. An employee told me he was so excited because RCCL would have to start paying him a salary. They did have a Mexican Night Party up on the pool deck. On both sides of the ship they had different tables set up with food. It was actually really good!

 

Service/Crew

The service aboard was OK. I feel like some members of the staff could have been more friendly or more attentive but on the other hand there wasn't anything that really affected my cruise experience. For me being a kid i always feel like im not always taken seriously. From what i've heard from other cruises some say "WOW the service is GREAT" and then some say "Its horrible". A cruise is what you make out of it and in the economy i can understand some of the crew's frustration with not making as much as they use to. Our cruise director was Abe Hughes and our captain was Per Kristiffersen. The main loyalty ambassador name is Melissa Broome.

 

Shows

Well since it was my 5th time on the Mariner the shows haven't changed since my first cruise on the Mariner. The main production shows were "Front Row" and "Pure Energy". The Ice show is called "Ice Under The Big Top". After seeing the same shows (Front Row and Pure Energy) 5 times it gets a little boring but if this was you first time seeing both shows i think you would really enjoy them. In fact one lady on the last night of the cruise told me "I cant believe how good the singers are". "Ice Under The Big Top" keeps getting better each time! I LOVE that show. This is one thing you can not miss out on. My favorite part of the show is called "Clowning Around" its GREAT if your ever on the Mariner Of The Seas GO! There were no parades this week. You would think with Mardi Grads they would have but no. At the Captains corner the captain said its due to the fact they just got brand new singers and dancers and they haven't had anytime to practice or set up for any parades. This is one of the very few things that upset me with this cruise. I don't know if any of you guys have seen "Corey In The House" or "That's So Raven" on Disney Channel but the father was an entertainer one night. I REALLY wished i would have seen his show but i was somewhere else that night. The other entertainers were good but there was a lot of comedians/entertainers.

 

The Quest

Was on Day 5 in "Studio B" also known as the ice rink. 18 teams the place was packed!

Some questions were:

Picture of a car

6 people making a human pyramid

2 people dirty dancing

Largest bra

 

Love and Marriage Game Show

3 teams (Couples) in "La Scala" also known as the theater.

Some questions were:

If Your wife was having a family reunion who would you not want to come?

Whats the sexiest item of clothing your wife owns?

Whats your husbands most annoying habit?

When you wake you, you find your what on her what?

 

Cruise Critic

We had a big group of CC'ers traveling on this cruise. The first day we meet around 3 on the pool deck and only a few people showed up. On The second day we had our official Meet and Mingle a TON of people showed up but i was disappointed with RCCl. They didn't talk for more than 5 minutes but they did have a giveaway i just can remember what they gave out for the raffle. For just showing up you did get a neat little sea pass holder with a notebook! Thanks RCCL and CC. We also had a Cabin Crawl on this cruise. That was so much fun! It was neat to be able to see almost every type of cabin. We also made our donations at the Casino with a slot pull. We each paid $20 and we ended up only winning $11 dollars each. On day 6 we had a white elephant gift exchange. I'd say about 25 people participated. We also planned a group picture. We had to pay $2.50 for each person that wanted to participate and then if you wanted to buy the pictures you would have to then pay for the picture down in the Photo Gallery. The group pictures turned out REALLY nice. I couldn't walk anywhere in the port or on the ship without running into someone i knew. Im not even kidding. I have met some very nice and passionate people this past week who i hope we will continue chatting on out Roll Call. A lot of CC'ers would eat together, got to the ice show, and just get a drink with each other it was a really good group of people to be around.

 

Inaugural

The only reason why picked this cruise is because of its Inaugural status. I was more then disappointed with RCCL. Other than a small video they played on the first night nothing was ever said about this being an inaugural. I talked with a lot of other CC member and other non CC member who also felt the same. The would have sold sooooooooo many t-shirts is the would have sold them. All they would have to say is Inaugural Cruise February 22 Mariner Of The Seas from LA or something like that. I sure hope they do a better job with (on) the Oasis.

 

Ports

 

Cabo- GREAT port the best one out of all of them. The ship is parked right in the middle of everything on the left hand side there's breath taking rock formations. These things were spectacular and on the right side you have downtown and hotels. There is no dock in Cabo and we has to be tendered. The tenders are very small but VERY efficient they hold about 30 people and leave every few minutes and they have a ton of them. One of the best tendering operations i have seen. We were the only ship in port. When we got on land we explored the shops right at the port and then we decided to walk around and hire a tour drive for a glass bottom boat adventure. We paid $9 (sorry i said 8 earlier) for each person. We went out to the rock formation and saw tons of sea lions, fish, birds, crabs. A lot of people also saw whales i personally didn't but then yet again i wasn't really looking. You could see whales from the ship too! Over all Cabo is GREAT!!!!!!

 

Mazatlan - An OK port its very shipping orientated. When you get off the ship you have to get on a tram car that will talk you to the entrance of the port. Once to the main part of the port you have to walk through shops and then you get to a place where there's hundreds of taxis lined up. The taxis are really cool there almost like a dune buggy. Unfortunately we had to many people to fit in a little dune buggy so we hired a van taxi driver for the day. We went all over the place to New Mazatlan to the residential ares. We did a little shopping downtown and then went to lunch. After lunch our diver drove us to a place where would could watch some cliff divers jump off like a 25 foot tall platform. When we got there they wanted $25 before they would jump. We said no and left and our driver said never pay more than like $10.

 

Puerto Vallarta - This was my second time here the first time i stayed here was for a week at a Riu. My dad rented a car right at the port when we got off. We then drove up the mountains and on the ocean shore till we got to a Canopy zip-line tour. We just showed up and they had space for us. We did all 14 different zip-lines and one was 500 feet above a river with rocks and almost a quarter of a mile long. It was a lot of fun! After that fun tour my dad drove us down to the downtown area. On the beach artists were creating these huge sand castle sculptures. There we VERY neat to see. We then got some lunch at my mom's favorite restaurant called "Pipis". It was then off to Walmart to look around for a little bit. The Walmart is right across the street from the port. There is also a Sam's Club too. After a long day it was off to the ship! We were docked right next to the Holland America "Ryndam" a small ship compared to the largest ship on the west coast the Mariner Of The Seas

 

Sea Days

 

First Sea Day - Kinda cold still feeling that LA weather for this time of the year. This was the day we had our CC Meet & Mingle, Cabin Crawl, group picture so it was one busy day. I will post the Cruise Compass.

 

Second Sea Day - Very hot sunny GREAT weather. The pool was packed also the same day as the belly flop contest. I hung out with friends this day and went Rock Climbing. Also had CC events to get to!

 

Last Sea Day - In the morning i went to the Captain's Corner where we could ask question him and the cruise director questions and they would answer them for us. Then it was off to get Bennie on a bridge tour. Unfortunately i couldn't join them. I then got invited on a galley tour and me and Bennie and some other CC friends enjoyed that. This is when the weather turned for the bad. There was sooooooo much fog outside. The fog horn was going for most of the day and you couldn't even see the front of the ship. It was the worst weather i think ive ever had on a cruise. I then went rock climbing because the ice rink was closed and the in-line skating rink was under renovations. After rock climbing it was time to got get ready for dinner at Chops when i heard "Alpha, Alpha, Alpha Deck One Zone One" this means medical emergency deck one very front of ship. I was scrambling, running all over the place trying to figure out whats going on i really couldn't see anything from looking down from deck two but at Chops that night our waiter told me a staff member was injured and that's all he knew. Also has CC stuff to get to!

 

Who Was On This Cruise?

There was a lot of older people. Very few kids but i still made friends and had a GREAT time. Most people i talked with were from California.

 

Kids Program

Since there was very few kids aboard they combined Fuel and The Living Room together and there still was about a half as many kids as there are for a Spring Break cruise. The kids compass we really didn't follow or i should say the youth staff didn't but that was ok. For the few times i went into the kids club people were just sitting around and were not doing much. I had already meet some great friends and we all said the same thing that "It just wasn't fun" It could have just been us or just this cruise but i still had an amazing time on this trip. I think it had to do with the type of kids on this cruise. There was a curfew of 1 am and that's what time the kids program ended. They really didn't enforce they curfew because me and my friends we were out till like 3 and i was out till 4:30 most mornings.

 

Cut Backs

Royal Caribbean has cut back some items over the last few months and they have started adding fee's for some items. If you didn't really think about "ohhhhhh yeah i wounder what happened to that" you wouldn't even have noticed. The thing RCCL have cut back aren't major and didn't affect the way i enjoyed my cruise. Except for the chocolates! I miss those things soooooooo much!

 

Vancouver

I'm a strong believer that in 2 years the Mariner will sail from Vancouver. The Freedom Of The Seas will then come take the Mariner's place. I heard this all week from many different employees including one who has worked on this ship since she was launched.

 

Where's Bennie? The RCCL Traveling Bear!

www.wheresbennie.com

Bennie meet sooooooo many new people on this cruise. He was recognized by almost everyone in our group. From bridge tours, galley tour, a day at the spa, ice show, and a day by the pool Bennie has done it all!

Happy Anniversary Bennie! March 16, 2008 Voyager Of The Seas with Cruiserccl

 

Weather

First sea day was a little cold and windy. Second sea day was GREAT. Very sunny and warm. Last sea day was ok but windy and somewhat cold in the morning and then extremely foggy in the afternoon. The fog horn was going off for most of the day. In all the ports the weather was GREAT! Very hot and sunny.

 

Things I Liked

Room Service - Chicken Drumettes

Cafe Promenade - Late Night Pizza

Cruise Critic - Running Into People All Over

LA - I Like LA And The New Ports (Especially Cabo)

Terminal - Loved The New Nation Items And Balloons

Photographers - There Take Some Great Pictures

Chops - Amazing Food

Ice Show - Clowning Around

The Mariner - What A Ship

There Are Many More But Those Are The Main Ones!

 

Things I Didn't Like

No Chocolates

Nothing Special For Inaugural

No Parades

Im Sure Im Missing One Or Two Things But Obviously They Weren't That Bad If I forgot Them!

 

 

All In All

All in All this was a GREAT, GREAT cruise! I would highly recommend that you guys look into booking this ship. Even in the economy the value of a cruise is GREAT. You can get some GREAT deals right. Sure there were thing i wasn't happy with but there were more things i was happy with for example the Ice Show that was GREAT, the Quest was the funniest on I've ever been too, the food was great, the ports were something new and i was impressed. I cant wait till i can sail on the Mariner again! Feel Free to post any questions.

 

I hope you enjoyed my review! Watch for pictures (I took well over 1,500) and videos! Like i said feel free to post any question! If you posted on my other thread i will be getting over there and answering you questions very soon! Hopefully my spelling wasn't that bad! There's only so many times i can reread this! Cruise Compasses and pictures VERY soon!

 

Cruiserccl (Chris) and Bennie! :D

[David4]

Great review Chris. Some day you will be replacing or co-hosting Samantha Brown.

[paradise08]

Everything YOU Want To Know About The West Coast Mariner!

Chris Harms and Bennie

Cruiserccl

 

 

 

 

Vancouver

I'm a strong believer that in 2 years the Mariner will sail from Vancouver. The Freedom Of The Seas will then come take the Mariner's place. I heard this all week from many different employees including one who has worked on this ship since she was launched.

 

 

Cruiserccl (Chris) and Bennie! :D

 

Chris - Great review! Glad you had a good time. Sorry to tell you but Mariner and Freedom won't be sailing from Vancouver anytime soon. They are too large to fit under the bridge. Unless Vancouver is going to raise it this just won't happen.

 

Donna

[Cruiserccl]

Chris - Great review! Glad you had a good time. Sorry to tell you but Mariner and Freedom won't be sailing from Vancouver anytime soon. They are too large to fit under the bridge. Unless Vancouver is going to raise it this just won't happen.

 

Donna

Ohhhhh thanks for reminding me!!!! Someone asked the captain this! The bridge is 200 feet and the ship is 207 feet tall but at full speed the ship will sink in the water 16 more feet! So the Mariner could be sailing from Vancouver! Thanks for the complement! :D

[stanford's girl]

Outstanding review, Chris!!!! :D :cool:

[paradise08]

Ohhhhh thanks for reminding me!!!! Someone asked the captain this! The bridge is 200 feet and the ship is 207 feet tall but at full speed the ship will sink in the water 16 more feet! So the Mariner could be sailing from Vancouver! Thanks for the complement! :D

 

I think he is pulling your leg. There is no way the ship would go full speed in the harbor!:D

[Rancher Dave]

Sounds like Bennie and you had a good time. You should share what happened the other night. Did Bennie get toasted in the CL?

 

Hope it was not too much of a letdown to be back in school. Tomorrow is big testing day for DD so she is pretty psyched for that.

[Cruiserccl]

I think he is pulling your leg. There is no way the ship would go full speed in the harbor!:D

I don't know where the bridge but a ship will sink down in the water at full speed i think he said just like the Freedom Class had to do when leaving Finland! :D

[AdamKnows]

I don't know where the bridge but a ship will sink down in the water at full speed i think he said just like the Freedom Class had to do when leaving Finland! :D

 

I remember watching a video of the Freedom going full speed to clear the bridge when she left the shipyard for the first time.

[Cruiserccl]

I remember watching a video of the Freedom going full speed to clear the bridge when she left the shipyard for the first time.

Yeah they had like a foot of clearance! :eek:

[barnismom]

Chris,

 

Thank you for taking the time to write your review...I still cannot find a photo of moi with dear Bennie! Oh well, I will keep trying.

 

I too was disappointed that this cruise wasn't special. It would not have cost Royal Caribbean that much more to do a little something special...I know the concentration was on the 1 night and 2 night pre-inaugural sailings so our 2-22-09 was truly the first revenue sailing for the West coast based Mariner. WE KNOW it was special in the new friends made!

 

Chris, look forward to seeing you again!

 

Janice and Patrick

AKA Barnismom and Barnisdad

[klfhngr]

Great review, we really enjoyed it! I heard that they are going to remove the Viking Crown Lounge the night before it arrives in Vancouver so that it fits under the bridge, they'll put it on again when it leaves.... Just a rumor...

[Merion_Mom]

Love and Marriage Game Show

3 teams (Couples) in "La Scala" also known as the theater.

 

Savoy. ;)

[takeavacation]

I'm just curious....did you have your own room -- or did you share with someone? And -with RCL being so strict on booking your kids either next door or directly across the hall--- how did you end up on a totally different deck than your parents?

 

Glad to hear that you had a good cruise! Sounds like fun!!

[critterchick]

Very nice review, thanks for posting it!

[lauraapp]

What kind of gifts did you get in your room? Any special Diamond gifts? Are they still giving baseball caps?

[MilliesMom]

Great review Chris. Looking forward to seeing your photos and videos. Let us know when they are ready to view and the link.

[pscruzinboyz]

Hey Chris,

Awesome reveiw, I could not think of nothing you did not say, I hope RCCL gets a copy, like you said, Many, Many people were very disappointed that since this was the inagural cruise of the first BIG ship on the west coast, they could have done " Something Special ".

For the people that see this " KID " writing this reveiw, you need to meet him, He is quite the SMART YOUNG MAN who knows more about cruising and RCCL then anybody that I have met or read about. The joke around the ship is that he will not be the Next CD, He will be running the company by the time he is 30. Keep your dream alive Chris and lets keep going forward to let RCCL know that we are positive with their product. Keep posting and can not wait to see more pictures. Talk to you over the next 9 months and looking forward to being with you and your family on the Oasis, INAGURAL........Let's hope they will do something special for the Launch.

 

Talk to you later

 

Mike

[mikeblum]

Chris outstanding job in writing about your week and the ship and the plus's and minus's...sounds like things are just not the way they USED TO BE in this industry and with most things in life now...people are looking for more service and it's just not there...the dollar does not allow for it and if people think that things are going to stay the WAY THEY used TO BE...stop kiding your self...everything in life is changing and most if not all perks are being taken away or at least cut back...Chris thanks again...we get our shot at the MARINER OF THE SEA'S ON 3-15-2009... WHERE'S BENNIE...good job!!!!!!!!!!

[Daycare Provider]

Good Day Chris......Spiritually I think I was there with you...your review was AWESOME...we set sail Easter Sunday. i do have a couple of questions for you.

1.did they let passengers bring water bottles on board?

2.where was your meet and mingle? were there any appetizers?

Angela from California

[RCCL_NVcruiser]

Hi Chris,

 

Thanks for posting such a GREAT review! I have been reading some reviews from other cruiselines/ships that sail the same route, and they have said that the first and last days (between LA and Cabo, and the return) are extra rocky and alot of people were seasick.

 

We really want to go on Mariner, but are concerned about the "rocking and rolling". Did you notice it being extra rocky?

 

Thanks!!!

[klfhngr]

Chris,

 

Regarding the Mexican Night Party, was it a buffet late at night on the night you leave Puerto Vallarta? That is one of the funnest nights, I've heard that they possible done away with this, can you confirm?

[Desert Cruizers]

I remember the Capts talk during our 11 Night E Caribbean Cruise on the Brilliance, and after she was built, they litterally backed her down a narrow channel, 26 miles, as there was no place to turn her around once she left the ship building docks.They should have built her facing the other way. :D

RCCL NV Cruiser, in that stretch after Cabo, it can become quite windy and cold, coming back. We had a nice cruise going down, but that return can be cold. We didn't notice any heavy rocking, more of a gently rock and we were on the Sea Princess, a much smaller ship. Sometimes you get the feeling your walking at an angle, which can be amusing really.

[AdamKnows]

Hi Chris,

 

Thanks for posting such a GREAT review! I have been reading some reviews from other cruiselines/ships that sail the same route, and they have said that the first and last days (between LA and Cabo, and the return) are extra rocky and alot of people were seasick.

 

We really want to go on Mariner, but are concerned about the "rocking and rolling". Did you notice it being extra rocky?

 

Thanks!!!

 

I was on the Mariner and went through hurricane wilma. The mariner is a very large ship and was confortable during the storm. I don't think you will have motion sickness issues on a Voyager or larger class ship.

[AdamKnows]

I remember the Capts talk during our 11 Night E Caribbean Cruise on the Brilliance, and after she was built, they litterally backed her down a narrow channel, 26 miles, as there was no place to turn her around once she left the ship building docks.They should have built her facing the other way. :D

RCCL NV Cruiser, in that stretch after Cabo, it can become quite windy and cold, coming back. We had a nice cruise going down, but that return can be cold. We didn't notice any heavy rocking, more of a gently rock and we were on the Sea Princess, a much smaller ship. Sometimes you get the feeling your walking at an angle, which can be amusing really.

 

I was on the Legend of the seas one time when we had a cross wind off of Cabo. We were listed at least 4 degrees most of the night..... they had to hang motion sickness bags from the walls in most public areas. It was rather interesting!