Mariner makes a great addition to west coast cruising!

[SelectSys]

Just got off the Mariner for a spring break cruise with the family. The ship, recently out of dry dock, looks great. Ken Rush is the cruise director until he moves on to the Oasis. They just started a new late night comedy series in Ellington's lounge which was pretty good.

 

What a great upgrade in service as compared to the Vision! It really is amazing how the ship can make such a difference. Our previous cruise on Vision was our least favorite cruise by far.

 

Thanks RCCL for bringing Mariner to the west coast! Hopefully we'll start seeing Radiance class ships in Asia before too long.

[tropiclvrs]

Glad to hear the positive comments. Will you be posting a full review? We're sailing on her 5/31 and would love to get your feedback.

[CrusinAgain]

Super! We can't wait to go on her in June. When did the ship change time and is Puerto Vallarta on ship time or one hour ahead of the ship?

[kerrydee]

i'd love to see some menus, compasses and kids compasses. or anything you may have.:)

[ASeaPrincess1]

YES!! MENUS, anyone, please. I do have the general menu plan, but I want to know exactly which nights feature which entrees. There is one menu that doesn't exactly thrill me, so I thought I would book Chops that night. Trouble is, I don't know exactly which night it is. I have different versions of the same thing.

[azdmelani]

Any menus would be amazing! Thanks for the review, going on her in October, my first RCCL cruise :)

[SelectSys]

Glad to hear the positive comments. Will you be posting a full review? We're sailing on her 5/31 and would love to get your feedback.

 

I wasn't planning on making a full review. I don't think I have anything all that new to report on the ship. As many have indicated the food in the main dining room has deteriorated. Even our dinner at Portofino's seemed a bit off. The ice show is great right now with a good cast. The rest of the entertainment is a fine. The Harry Potter trivia had my daughter and me stumped. Sports crew is good and the adult dodge ball tournament was a lot of fun.

 

My favorite shore excursions were the America's cup regatta in Cabo and the canopy tour in PV. To me this is more interesting than haggling with the street merchants.

 

Super! We can't wait to go on her in June. When did the ship change time and is Puerto Vallarta on ship time or one hour ahead of the ship?

 

Last night of the cruise (day 7) - this is great as you get an extra hour to sleep before you get off.

 

i'd love to see some menus, compasses and kids compasses. or anything you may have.:)

 

Sorry, I left all the compasses on board in my state room. Nothing too different than the norm. Formal nights are day 2 and 6. CC Meet and Mingle was on day 2 as well and was hosted by Ken Rush. C&A party and platinum diamond party were on the day 2 and day 6 as well.

[SelectSys]

YES!! MENUS, anyone, please... There is one menu that doesn't exactly thrill me, so I thought I would book Chops that night...

 

My recommendation would be on one of the port days. We went to Portofino's on Tuesday (day 3).

[ASeaPrincess1]

My recommendation would be on one of the port days. We went to Portofino's on Tuesday (day 3).

Thanks. Do you happen to recall which night was Italian night? The one where the waiters dance around and sing in "Italian"..;)

I can't remember if it was Wednesday or Thursday....

[negc]

YES!! MENUS, anyone, please. I do have the general menu plan, but I want to know exactly which nights feature which entrees. There is one menu that doesn't exactly thrill me, so I thought I would book Chops that night. Trouble is, I don't know exactly which night it is. I have different versions of the same thing.

If you go to Chops when you board, I believe that they can show you the main dining room menus for every night of your cruise. You can check them out and then decide which night you want to go to Chops. :)

[Chelsea17]

Glad you are enjoying the Mariner! Any chance you can send her back to her first home in Florida? I miss her terribly......

 

Deborah

[RCCL_NVcruiser]

Thanks. Do you happen to recall which night was Italian night? The one where the waiters dance around and sing in "Italian"..;)

I can't remember if it was Wednesday or Thursday....

 

Would love to know which night this is as well... we aren't much for non-singers singing Italian arias. :eek: We would definitely book a specialty restaurant for this night..... (Sorry if that sounds awful)

[kerrydee]

when boarding the ship at the end of the three ports, aside from your sea pass card, did you need to show your drivers license too?:):confused:

[tropiclvrs]

One more quick question from me....Did you try MTD on Mariner? If so, any comments to share?

[LDR]

We had to show our driver's licenses in Mazatlan and PV as well as the seapass.

[Markmom18]

Hi,

We returned from our week's vacation on the Mariner yesterday. We (myself, my mom and my 17 year old son) just had a fantastic time. I did save the daily compass, however, I am clueless as to how to post them. I can say I didn't find anything too different from our prior cruise to Alaska this last summer.

This trip upgraded us to Diamond! We're booked for our summer vacation. We'll be going out of Florida on the Liberty of the Seas in August.

Any questions? Just let me know.

:-) Bobbi

[SelectSys]

Thanks. Do you happen to recall which night was Italian night? The one where the waiters dance around and sing in "Italian"..;)

I can't remember if it was Wednesday or Thursday....

 

It was on Tuesday - the night we went to Portofino's

[SelectSys]

when boarding the ship at the end of the three ports, aside from your sea pass card, did you need to show your drivers license too?:):confused:

 

I never showed anything other than my sea pass although I carried my drivers license as well.

 

One more quick question from me....Did you try MTD on Mariner? If so, any comments to share?

 

No we are traditionalists in terms of dining. They devote the dining room on the fifth floor to this option.

 

I did save the daily compass, however, I am clueless as to how to post them.

 

The first thing you need is a scanner to get them into a digital form. After that you can probably get someone on here to post them for you.

[ASeaPrincess1]

It was on Tuesday - the night we went to Portofino's

Ah, thanks. I will plan accordingly.;)

[Happy ks]

Would love to know which night this is as well... we aren't much for non-singers singing Italian arias. :eek: We would definitely book a specialty restaurant for this night..... (Sorry if that sounds awful)

 

 

No need to be sorry, we feel the same way. I always feel a bit sorry for wait staff who have to perform for the guests. Even having to sing "Happy Birthday" in land restaurants is kind of boring to me. If the wait staff in any restaurant finds out we're celebrating a birthday/anniversary/whatever....we ask them please not to sing and they thank us for that. If you want to sing to each other, fine, but don't force others into your celebration.

 

 

To the OP, it's nice to read good comments. We'll be celebrating Christmas this year on Mariner and look forward to it :)

[4ever]

Hi,

We returned from our week's vacation on the Mariner yesterday. We (myself, my mom and my 17 year old son) just had a fantastic time. I did save the daily compass, however, I am clueless as to how to post them. I can say I didn't find anything too different from our prior cruise to Alaska this last summer.

This trip upgraded us to Diamond! We're booked for our summer vacation. We'll be going out of Florida on the Liberty of the Seas in August.

Any questions? Just let me know.

:-) Bobbi

I would like to know about time changes. Did you ever set the clocks ahead or back and were you always on the same time as the ports you visited? I imagine Puerto Vallarta was one hour ahead of ship time, but would appreciate it if you could set me straight on this one.

Also can you tell me which nights were the production shows, Front Row and ??? I just blanked out on the name of the other:confused:, but we've seen them both multiple times and will plan to skip them this time around. Thanks Markmom18!

[ColoradoMom!!]

How do the ports compare to the Caribbean? We've done the Western and really loved the Mariner, but fear we may be disappointed with Mexico. What did you think?

 

How was Spring Break? Crazy college students? Also, did you get any price drops before you went? We're thinking of March 28th of 2010.

[CrusinAgain]

How do the ports compare to the Caribbean? We've done the Western and really loved the Mariner, but fear we may be disappointed with Mexico. What did you think?

 

How was Spring Break? Crazy college students? Also, did you get any price drops before you went? We're thinking of March 28th of 2010.

 

My daughter (college student) and I took the Diamond Princess during Spring Break in March 07 same time you are thinking of and the kids on there made the ship come alive. The activities throughout the day were a blast and they were very well behaved and we did not see any problems with rowdiness.

 

As far as the Mexican Riviera to the Caribbean, if you are into water sports, you will be disappointed in the Riviera as the water is certainly not warm at that time of the year and not the beautiful color with the clearness in the Caribbean waters. There is one port my daughter will try snorkeling this year in June and that is Cabo. You will have just missed whale season as that ends at the end of March. There are activities to do in Puerto Vallarta such as ziplining and swimming with dolphins as well as Cabo. Being fair-skinned, we cannot spend most of our time on the beach so we do other things to avoid a nasty sunburn. Horseback riding on Stone Beach in Mazatlan is what we did before and that was wonderful. It is a totally different trip than the Caribbean and going back to the States from Mexico you do not normally spend your time outside by the pool as it is normally cool and breezy.

 

For our cruise this upcoming June on the Mariner, we have not received or seen any price reductions.

[ColoradoMom!!]

It is a totally different trip than the Caribbean and going back to the States from Mexico you do not normally spend your time outside by the pool as it is normally cool and breezy.

 

For our cruise this upcoming June on the Mariner, we have not received or seen any price reductions.

 

Thanks for all the great info! I would have thought that March would be warm still. We are not fans of the heat, and our two previous cruises were in Dec. and Nov., and it was plenty warm. That's good to know! We thought about Thanksgiving too.

 

Glad to hear there is some snorkeling - we love that.

 

Have fun in June - look forward to your report!

[CruisinEars]

We just got off the Mariner as well. Had a really nice cruise. Service was great. We did traditional dining and we had a fantastic serving team. Food was so-so. My dh and I ordered the Filet Minon ($14.95 one) in the dining room and it was rather inedible. Thankfully they didn't charge us.

 

My kids really didn't care for the kids clubs. They were boring and didn't do most of the posted activities.

 

WE did not like the ports at all. If we were to do this itin again, we would not get off the ship. The ports in the Caribbean are far prettier and nicer so that is what we will choose in the future.

 

Some on this board have asked about the promenade cabin and the noise level. They are noisy on party and parade nights. We were awoken by the bass beat of the first parade at 11:15 at night. Not pleased with that, but otherwise the cabins are comfortable. Horrible hard beds though.

 

Overall we had a very good experience and can't wait to cruise with RCCL again.

 

OP~ Sorry if I hijacked your thread.:o