PNW Coast Mariner of the Seas Review

[AMommyof2]

Traveling: me, DH (43), DD (10), DS (5)

 

We flew into LAX on Saturday, June 6. We had a short wait for our bags and then it was outside to wait for the car service that we had pre-booked. Given we arrived on Saturday afternoon, and our driver was cruising about 85 MPH, it didn't take us any time to get to our hotel, Crowne Plaza San Pedro. We checked in and took our bags up to our room. The bellman recommended a great little pizza place about two blocks from the hotel. It was very yummy. After eating, we walked back to the hotel and decided to let the kids swim in the "heated" pool. I don't know if the pool was really heated, because it was pretty cold and the air temp was only about 68 degrees, so needless to say we didn't stay in the pool very long. We were all pretty exhausted from our cross country flight, so we called it any early night and went to bed about 9:00PM. Keep in mind our body clocks thought it was 11:00 PM, since that's what it was at home.

 

We got up early on Sunday and ate breakfast at the hotel buffet. The food wasn't great, but at least we weren't charged for DS, and the food served it's purpose. After we ate, we decided to walk along the water front and took pictures of the ship docked in port. We stopped in a store across the street from the ship and the lady behind the counter told us we were crazy for being out walking around in such a bad neighborhood. We were shocked. If that was a bad area, she should see some of the "hoods" in the Memphis area. After our walk, we made our way back to hotel to get everything packed up and headed out the shuttle to the ship. It left every half hour starting at 10:00 on a first come first serve basis. The trip over the ship took about 5 minutes on the van, once everyone was seated. We had 8 bags, so we certainly needed a porter, which of course were in abundance. We walked into the pier building and quickly went through security and up to the check-in counter. That's where our problems began.

 

For the first time EVER, I was asked for a certified letter from my ex-husband in regards to my DD cruising with us. Of course, since he signed the paperwork for her passport, we didn't bother getting a letter from him. So, the girl checking us in asked us for proof of medical insurance, which we had. She took it to her supervisor and then came back and asked for a second form of photo ID for myself and DH (she already had our passports). She took the insurance card and driver's licenses and made a photocopy of them. Finally, we got our Sea Pass cards and were allowed to board the ship.

 

We got onboard about 12:15, and the staterooms were not yet available. So, we got DD a soda card and walked over the the MDR to view our seating assignment. We had a table for the four of us in the far corner near the front of the dining room. It was perfect for us. By this time, the rooms were ready and we took DH's carryon bag to the room and headed to the Windjammer for lunch. After we ate, we changed into our swimsuits and headed out to the pool. The air temp was still pretty cool, but we thought we better swim while we had a chance. We swam for a couple of hours before heading back to the room to get ready for muster. After muster, we headed up to the Sky Bar, one level up from the pool deck, for sailaway. We had early seating for dinner, so after sailaway, we headed to the MDR for dinner. We couldn't change clothes because we had not yet received any of our bags. The bags had arrived by the time we finished dinner, and our WONDERFUL stateroom attendant, Sheldon, had put them inside our room for us.

 

Our first port was San Francisco. The sun was out, but it was chilly there. We donned our hoodies and jeans and headed off the ship. We had booked an independent tour to Alcatraz. Before time for our excursion, we walked over to Hard Rock Cafe for cocktails (I collect Hurricane glasses from Hard Rocks that we go to). Then we walked over the pier that the tour was leaving from to wait for our excursion time. The trip over the island was pretty short and it took us about an hour and a half to do the audio tour. It was very interesting and a little sad to hear to awful history of Alcatraz. After the tour, we ate dinner at a seafood restaurant near the cruise pier and then walked around on the strip to do a little shopping. There were lots of homeless people on the street, but none of them bothered us at all. One guy had a sign that read "Why lie, I need a beer". We appreciated his honesty and gave him a buck for a beer. After shopping, we headed back to the ship.

 

Our second port call was in Victoria, BC, Canada. The kids wanted to stay onboard in Adventure Ocean, so DH and I booked the ship's pub and ale tour. This was by far, the best ship sponsored tour we've ever taken. We went to 3 different pubs and sampled the beer and had snacks at 2 locations. The second and third stops were microbreweries and we got to sample their local brews. Some were yummy and others not so much. The tour lasted about 3.75 hours so after the tour, it was time to pick up the kids for dinner by time we got back on the ship. We ate, and the kids wanted to go straight back to Advenure Ocean. They had a great time there all week and hated to leave at the end of the cruise.

 

The third and final port was Seattle. We did an independent tour of the "underground city". DS didn't want to go, so he stayed onboard in Adventure Ocean. The walk over the tour location was probably about 1.5 miles or so, but it wasn't a hard walk at all. The tour itself wasn't all that great, but learning about the history of the city was very neat. Our tour guide was very knowledgeable and super funny. The tour itself took about an hour and a half and then we ate at a small Mexican place near the tour location. We did a little bit of shopping on the way back to the ship. Once back onboard, we got DS out of Adventure Ocean and played miniture golf, took some pictures of the Space Needle from the ship, and since the weather was nice and warm, we got in some pool time.

 

We had 3 "At Sea" days. On the first two, the weather was overcast and downright chilly. In fact, on the first sea day, it was so cold that we stayed in our stateroom and watched television. We watched the same shows over and over again on the sea days. In my opinion, RCCL did a poor job of coming up with activities for people in our age group for cold sea days. We weren't interested in playing bingo or bridge, and we could only putt putt so many times. We played (not very well) ping pong once went ice skating twice. On the final sea day (last full day of the cruise), it was surprisingly sunny and warm in the afternoon, so we took advantage of a little pool time. Then, it was off to the room to pack and get ready for the cruise to be over.

 

We don't care for production shows, so we didn't go to any of them. We did go to a couple of comedy shows and saw the juggler. They were all good. There was one guy that was supposed to be a former member of the rock group Foreigner. We stayed at his show for about 10 minutes and thought it was absolutely awful. We had the best bar service in the Schooner bar. The singer Matt Yee who played in there was entertaining, and I think everyone onboard knew who he was by the end of the cruise. As I mentioned above, the kids really enjoyed Adventure Ocean, so DH and I had plenty of time to just relax and enjoy each other while they played.

 

The food in the MDR was mostly mediocre at best. My best meals were the lamb t-bone and the lobster tail. Other than that, it was edible, but certainly nothing to write home about. Probably the best meal we had came from Johnny Rockets. The admission has been increased to $4.95 per person. We got the new Platinum books, which had 2 for 1 milk shakes. So, for the 4 of us, our bill for Johnny Rockets was $30. We did not eat at Chops or Portifino. The food in Windjammer was average buffet food, pretty bland, but all of the servers we had were very nice and accomodating.

 

Disembarkation was very easy. We headed down to the Lotus Lounge (where Platinum and Diamond guest were allowed to wait to be called off the ship) about 8:20 AM. Once we got there, the crew member told us we could go ahead and disembark. We got the baggage holding area and much to our surprise, all of our bags were together. We got a porter and headed to the customs line. We literally handed her our declaration form and walked out. She never looked at our passports. I'm wondering if this is because we had already been cleared through customs in Seattle. Anyway, we were outside within 15 minutes of leaving our stateroom and at the airport by 9:00. The same car service that took us to San Pedro was there waiting for us to take us to the airport. After a very long flight back home, we were in our beds by about 1:30 this morning.

 

As a side note, the helicopter for the US Coast Guard had to land on the ship to take someone off. Our prayers are with that passenger and his/her family. West wishes for a speedy recovery.

 

I hope I didn't leave anything out. Happy cruising to all.

[BabyDntGotBack]

Great review. Why did they give you such a hard time about taking your DD? Thank goodness they let her on though. I was on the sailing before you and took the pub tour also. It didnt seem very popular, but I loved it. We even got extra beer because some women who went with their husbands didnt like beer :confused:

[Craving A Cruise]

What a great detailed review! Thank you for sharing :) It sounds like your kids really enjoyed themselves!!........ By the way, did you go to the meet and mingle and meet others from the roll call?

[jtwisconsin]

Thanks for the review. I grew up in Northern California and travel back frequently. Always tell myself I am going to do the Alcatraz tour but never seem to have time.

 

I don't understand why they needed proof of insurance for your daughter, and if they already had your passports why the need for a second photo ID? Maybe someone else here can explain that for us. :confused:

[AMommyof2]

I don't know why they were stressing the different last name issue. We've never had this problem before. But, I did hear them asking other parents for documents for children that had different last names than they did. I'm wondering if they haven't recently had a problem with a parent. But, we will just make sure we get a letter from my former husband in the future to avoid further problems.

 

We did go to the meet and mingle, but we didn't meet folks from our group. We were only able to stay a about 30 minutes because it started just before time for Adventure Ocean to close for lunch. We met one couple at the location where we agreed to meet for sailaway. I don't know if any others showed up there or not.

[AMommyof2]

Forgot to mention: We were part of the group that had originally booked to go the the Mexican Riviera. We had been told by our TA that we would get a certain amount of OBC since we decided to keep the cruise, instead of canceling or rebooking. We ended up getting $100 less than what we were told, and I understand that some people on our cruise didn't get anything, even though they, too, were booked when the cruise was going to Mexico.

[caribbeanboy]

Best meal came from JR? come on...that's absolutely ridiculous.Maybe you are not used to the kind of food they serve in the MDR or WJ, but to say best meal came from JR ......

[cruisinmom1]

We had booked to go on the same cruise-planned it 2 years in advance on board-but, it seemed too complicated to get from LAX, stay overnite, and then get to the port (being we're from the East coast)-

I would of been upset with the change of initerary; I always wanted to see Puerto Vallardo and Cabo. However; with the Swine flu, I wouldn't of wanted to go there.

Anyway, so glad that California now has a nice updated ship from RCCL-it's about time.

Glad you had fun!