rimmit

Yes. I couldn’t find any so we went into it blind just basing off what we heard at conventions and the Star Trek Facebook groups. Hopefully, this will help people make a decision in the future.

The food is the exact same as a typical cruise, They did have some Star Trek themed cupcakes but that’s about it. I will talk more about the food when I get to that portion of the review, but unfortunately, per ECP it is very difficult to change to themed foods and menus. They state the bar staff is very nimble and can adapt easily to new themed drinks but food is a whole nother logistical ball game. It was absolutely incredible and worth the premium cost, we had an absolute blast. Best cruise we’ve been on and we’ve done a lot.

Our kids love AO. More so than being with tbh. Lol. Our daughter always asks to go and would rather do that then be with us doing Trivia or something else, so you may find yourself using it more than you think.

It is possible to fill up. How often is totally dependent on how many kids are on the boat, and how often they us AO. Some cruises have 5 kids. Some have 1k. Just depends.

For those that have never been on a charter cruise this is my review of the Star Trek: The Cruise Charter by ECP (Entertainment Cruise Productions) from Feb 24 - Mar 3 on the Navigator of the Seas out of LA. This was my first charter cruise, but have been on 40+ cruises, am D+ on RCI, and been cruising since 1990, so I have a decent amount of comparison. On a charter cruise, C&A status does not matter and there are no benefits. That being said I have only been on one cruise since March of 2020 so limited comparisons for the post pandemic cruising experience. I normally do not write cruise reviews, but I could not find a review of the Star Trek: The Cruise prior to going so thought I’d make one for anyone considering it. This will be a pretty long and comprehensive review so it will be broken down into parts as I find time to write it. This is our first cruise I have gone on since my wife was run over a car last June in Zimbabwe. It’s been a long recovery road and we booked this cruise as it was a bucket list thing and because the entertainment is the highlight so we wouldn't have to worry about her mobility as we were uncertain where she’d be in her recovery. Thankfully she is able to walk, albeit painfully, around the ship in short bursts, and only required a wheelchair going through the airports. So making progress! TL;DR - WE LOVED IT AND WOULD GO AGAIN!!! Cost and Booking Process By the time we decided to go on the cruise it was sold out. These cruises traditionally sell out 9-10 months in advance. At that point you need to join a Facebook group for the cruise and find someone that can't go and have them transfer the reservation to you. There is a $500 reservation transfer fee, which is typically paid by the seller of the cabin. The cancellation policy is brutal and the only way you can get any money back is by selling your cabin. There is no point of return when you book a Star Trek Cruise. The only way out is to find someone to take the cabin. So we transferred an inside cabin to our name and the transferee paid the $500 dollar fee. The total was $4960 dollars all in cost for an inside cabin for 2 people on a 7 day cruise to Mexican Baja with stops in Mazatlan, Cabo, and Puerta Vallerta. So definitely NOT A DEAL for those deal hunters. However, if you are going on a chartered theme cruise, you are obviously not deal hunting and going for the experience and energy. We had previously done these ports on the Vision in 2008 before RCI pulled out of LA so we truly were doing this strictly for the Star Trek experience. If you are a previous ECP cruiser you can get a discount which equates to around $500 dollars for an inside cabin but we were not. The $4960 includes a $350/person fee that covers port taxes, fees, and gratuities. So ALL gratuities are paid to ECP. No gratuities are paid to RCI at all. There is no daily charge to the cabin. It is totally done via ECP. The fee covers everything a typical cruise would cover including most ECP Entertainment. It does not cover actor signatures, photos with the actors, and some of the actor led activities that involve resources such as wine tastings, tequila tastings, charity breakfasts, stocking decorating, cupcake decorating, etc. These are extra and only about 75-100 people will be able to do those. Those are all booked ahead of time and sell out in minutes once going live, so you cannot book those once boarding. Really the only thing you can book after boarding are photos and signatures. Embarkation Well this was a total disaster. Not RCI’s fault as it was just bizarre weather in LA for the couple days prior and the day of embarkation. On embarkation day it was 40’s, there were flood warnings for LA, hail, and POURING the rain with 20-25 MPH winds. We landed at Long Beach airport rather than LAX as it was closer to the terminal. For those that don't know, LGB is primarily an outdoor airport, as in you walk outside between buildings, there is no jetway, baggage claim is outside, etc. So minimal cover from the elements when getting off the plane and going to baggage claim. OMG, we got poured on in the rain getting our luggage, and walking to the cab stand as it’s all outside with no cover. They are clearly not equipped to handle poor weather at all. We walked to the taxi stand and went straight from Long Beach to the cruise terminal. At the port it was still pouring the rain, and they used a small tent to corral people until embarkation is opened up. This is a very small tent. We had the first embarkation time available at 1100 and arrived right on time, but there was no space left in the tent. Needless to say, us and several hundred people were in a line outside the tent getting poured on in 40 degree weather with 20-25 mpg winds in LA. It was actually warmer in our hometown in KY ironically. Not exactly the way to start our vacation, but we didn’t care. This was our first real vacation without kids in years, and our first cruise since the accident, so as far as we were concerned we might as well have been in heaven. Everyone despite the rain was in relatively good spirits as everyone was just so excited to go on the cruise. The energy was palpable just waiting in line to board. After about 30 minutes of freezing and getting soaked we finally made it into the terminal. As with any RCI embarkation these days it is incredibly efficient with a bunch of people on iPads, just checking people in. For a charter cruise, your C&A status does not matter. You get zero benefits. No priority embarkation, no drink vouchers, absolutely nothing. All you get are the cruise points for the cruise. But it really doesn’t matter as there is zero line once inside the terminal and once you get past security it's not even 5 minutes to board. My wife was impressively able to walk all the way through the cruise terminal and to Windjammer with no assistance. There were wheelchairs available, but she was determined to do it and she made it! Not exactly LA weather. Inside, warm and changed. Much better! Demographic Given the peak of Star Trek popularity was in the 90’s, not surprisingly the average age of people on the ship ranged between 45-60. I was definitely one of the younger ones on board, and I am 41. There were maybe 10 teenagers at most that were not part of the guest talent on board by my best estimates. The crowd definitely came to party for sure. Much more so than any cruise I’ve ever been on out of the US. Most people are either empty nesters, or Adults without kids or Single with no kids, but we did meet some couples that had kids being watched at home by a grandparent, but that was rare. Not surprisingly, a large contingent of people I met were in science related fields, but there was quite the variety of people on board. More so than a normal cruise in the off season. Not quite as diverse as a Spring Break cruise where you get all sorts of families from everywhere on board. People came from all over the world for this cruise, with the farthest I heard being New Zealand. Most of the people on board have cruised before, but I’d say the majority have only done Star Trek Cruises. Eighty percent of the boat is composed of previous Star Trek Cruisers so it has a VERY high repeat rate. If they were not exclusive Star Trek Cruisers, as in someone who has ONLY cruised on Star Trek: The Cruise, the average number of cruises seemed to border between 4-7 for experienced non exclusive cruisers. I did not meet any pinnacles on this boat, but since there is no C&A status or really any status of any kind on this boat except for a very small VIP program (only 200 can buy that package option), everyone is equal. Makes for a very utilitarian environment. The VIP program is new for this cruise, and many were worried it would impact the experience. I can say it did not impact my experience although I had never been on a Star Trek Cruise before. Everyone I talked to who had been on the previous 5 said the VIP program did not impact their experience either. Theming The theming starts when ECP sends you a really nice thick booklet prior to boarding called “Mission Orders” that lists all the actors and actresses and basic info about the cruise about a month before the cruise. This definitely starts to get the excitement amped up. Once you board you get another large thick Star Trek themed pamphlet printed on nice thick paper stock giving a general schedule of the next 7 days with all the major headlining events and times along with a general daily schedule that is subject to change, the itinerary for the boat, bios of the actors, etc. It’s basically like playbill for when you go to play except the size of a magazine. ECP did an excellent job doing their best to theme the boat where they could. From placing Star Trek Signage on elevators and windows, having the interactive screens displaying Star Trek signage and graphics, playing Star Trek Music, overlaying windows and store fronts with Star Trek references, they did a very good job. Also placed Large Star Trek signs etc around for photo ops. They had a prop museum of the new show Star Trek: Picard take up the teen area. All the lounges and restaurants were rethemed and renamed. There are too many too list on the retheming but the only ones with original names were Cosmopolitan Club, Windjammer and Royal Theater and the MDR. Pretty much everything else was renamed with a signage overlay. Elevators were themed to turbo lifts. There were Star Trek themed drink menus in all bars. This included all of Playmakers which was themed to a Star Trek Baseball team that existed in the show, the main screen by the pool, and ALL Screens everywhere, including the elevator screens. The daily cruise compass was also themed to Star Trek. These were delivered daily to the cabin without asking your cabin steward. The stateroom TV had 12 channels devoted entirely to Star Trek shows and movies which was really nice. When you walked the hallways, you heard Star Trek Music. They had Star Trek Boardgames and books in the Library. Nearly every shop, bar and restaurant were renamed for the cruise with new signage. The company had door and window decorating contests so about 20-25% of doors that you passed had some type of Star Trek Decoration on it which was nice. Some with VERY elaborate overlays with puzzles, giveaways, etc. Overall it definitely felt very Trekkie. If there was a screen they'd stick Star Trek on it. On Embarkation day they also had a Star Trek Themed cake. Still to come, next time on Star Trek: The Cruise... Entertainment Ports Cabin Ship Service

They did have vegan chocolate chip cookies on the buffet one night. I am not vegan but tried one. Not for my taste, personally. It was there though.

1. There is no baby splash pad on the radiance. 2.You can take processed food off the boat typically. Fresh Fruits, veggies, etc are a no. 3. Nursery back when we used it which was from 2011-2018 was $6/hr during the day. $8/hr at night. Not sure if they raised it since 2018. Ultimately, they typically give you X amount of hours that you are allowed to book on day #1. After a day or two they open up the bookings completely, and you can book as much as you want. We spent thousands in the nursery with our kids. The nursery was awesome and I highly recommend it. We used it a lot especially around nap time. 4. They no longer have in room babysitting. That went away several years ago.

I found when the MDR actually got our order right decent. I am not a foodie though. My issue is they NEVER got our order right in 5 nights we went to the MDR in one try. Not once did we get out of the MDR without a mistake to our or our table mates order and the service in the MDR was the worst in my 33 years of cruising. The waiters were bizarrely argumentative when we argued we got the wrong item, or argued if something was vegan or not etc. It was just a bizarre experience. One table mate said his entree was still frozen as well and sent it back. Never seen that in 30+ years. It wasn’t spectacular food but I didn’t notice it was notably different than before in the MDR. I do miss the option for the sirloin everyday though. I noticed significant cutbacks in Cafe Promenade and the WJ though. To the point I struggled to find things I wanted to eat in the WJ and Cafe Promenade. I think RCI knows that they can fill the shop no matter what and are just gonna keep cutting back. They have taken the Disney approach to business. Keep raising the prices and cut back until the bottom line shows that the guests are unhappy.

1.). He could be in AO unlimited as long as there is space. On spring break and holidays the number of kids can max out and then you have to wait for someone to leave. Otherwise no limits. Prepandemic they offered adventure time dining where a couple nights a cruise they would take them to WJ and eat from 5-7 bridging that gap. I am uncertain if that has returned. 2.). That is highly variable. There are always family friendly activities like sports competitions and things, but specific “family friendly” activities you can do in AO is variable and if done tends to be done during the lunch hours on a sea day. 3.) This kinda depends on the ship, the the main shows in the theater are always kids friendly. If you are on a vision or radiance class the activities can be limited but my kids always enjoyed watching the bellyflop competitions and things on the pool deck. Obviously if you are on the oasis or quantum class the options open up a bunch. 4.). This is vague. Can you be more specific.l? I could word vomit a bunch about the kids club but easier if you have a specific question.

This!

Or if anyone has a current AO daily planner from Mariner that has the kids club ages as well.

Lol. I am ungodly stubborn. At some point a vacation will happen without an interruption/cancellation. Maybe not the next one, maybe the one after that, but some day, but soon.

She is. Thanks. She’s making great progress in PT. She walked inside the house from the car two days ago with minor assistance, and PT is wanting her to start actually walking into physical therapy next week, much to her horror. I know she can do it though. In regards to her most recent illness, After 6 days of being sick she turned the corner and is doing much better now but still fatigued. I have filed my claim and am awaiting an adjuster to contact me. Of my whopping 5 Travel Insurance claims outstanding, I still have my biggest one for about 62k that has NOT EVEN BEEN REVIEWED yet and I submitted this at the beginning of July, one has actually paid out finally for a minuscule amount, I just resubmitted more documents for 2 other claims, and this most recent one I am waiting for it to also be reviewed.

Does anyone know the current kids club age groupings on the the Mariner? Previously, AO was divided into 3-5,6-8,9-11. Some ships have moved that age range on the oldest group to 9-12. Has that occurred on the Mariner? Thanks.

Unfortunately, I called travel insurance and said since we didn’t take a flight, the trip starts at the cruise. Also calling my CC company, they also state this is considered a trip cancellation and not interruption as we never got on the boat. The CC said I can still file the trip cancellation claim if RCI doesn’t get me an FCC.

On top of that the insurance company would now REALLY look for any reason to deny a claim knowing the holder would be less likely to fight it out.

I was not aware of this. So The cruise line insurance provider if they deny the claim RCI will give the policy holder an FCC? Where does it state that? I always get multiple third party quotes and pick the best bang for buck coverage for each individual trip but if that’s the case I will look at RCI policy some.

Disney currently allows cancellation for covid/covid sxs with full refund. https://disneycruise.disney.go.com/faq/flexible-refund-policy/covid-19-health-concerns-qualify-for-refund/ We debated between Disney Fantasy oct 6-10 and Indy oct 7-10. Fantasy was $2400 for 4 nights inside cabin. Indy $2000 for inside cabin for 3 nights. Terrible price for an RCI cruise but we are so desperate for a vacation we didnt care. Disney was actually the better per night deal and had a better cancellation policy. We had FCCs we wanted to use and are D+ and didn’t want to drive to Miami from Orlando. Mainly because that meant on disembarkation we’d have a 16.5 hour drive home Vs 13 hours. In the end it doesn’t matter as well either get our FCCs back or cash via insurance. Disney still has their covid refund policies though.

*edit* Sorry thought you were stating that we should have gone on the cruise given the odds were low something bad would happen. I’m sure they have bean counters that know that exact answer. Lol.

I’m already over it at this point. After having 4 vacations this year interrupted, it’s become the new norm sadly. This one stung particularly bad due to some personal reasons that brought us to FL to begin with. Time to plan the next vacation that will almost assuredly get interrupted as well. Each vacation has gotten shorter in time from beginning to interruption. We got 10 days into the Galapagos, 3 days in Peru, 1.5 days in Zimbabwe and 0.5 days this time. We’re not leaving the house before the next one gets interrupted. Lol.

We have taken hits on cruises before that were on us, in the days before we we’re buying travel insurance and only got back our port fees and taxes, so this is not the first time. That was completely our fault and I accepted that wholeheartedly. I never said they should take that approach. Simply stated it can be highly profitable as some on here have implied RCI would go bankrupt if they were more flexible with their policy exceptions goodwill gestures. Goodwill gestures are in every industry from my mechanic that works on my car, to retail, medicine, law, etc. Again, I state this was just salt on some very tender wounds (figuratively and literally). Dating back to December, we caught covid in Galapagos and got stuck in Ecuador, I had to leave the Inca trail mid trail in April to deal with an emergency on the home front, my wife was run over by a car in Zimbabwe, and our impromptu Disney trip lasted 1/2 day (a whole day shorter than the Zimbabwe trip) before we had to eject from that. I am 0/4 on recent trips. Dealing with travel insurance is not fun. The Galapagos claim went through shockingly fast, but I’m still waiting on the rest and I call weekly, but they state “they have no estimated time to review the claims.” At this point if I dont get an FCC that is a deviation from the policy, as she did end up with Covid and per policy we are due a FCC so I am unsure what you mean by that. I am sure the FCC will be totally messed up though as all of my other ones have been.

(continued from above. For some reason it uploaded before I was done and wouldn’t let me edit) Ultimately, it’s RCI’s policy to enforce and I accept that, just sad that RCI flipped back to their normal old strict policies so fast when we are still at the waning end of a pandemic. People are assuming a business would go broke because of the handful of people that would try and abuse a more lenient policy. The opposite would argue that they could charge more and thrive due to improved customer service and just consider the abuse the cost of doing business which is what most businesses do. The amount Walmart’s and Lowe’s return policy gets abused is absolute madness. Walmart doesn’t care as they know if they get you in the building you are spending money. Lowe’s has some of the most expensive prices in the home improvement industry. Disney charges an absurd amount for anything these days, as the Disney guest service is top notch and I have never left upset with them. I have no doubt some of their policies get abused and they know that. Policies are in place everywhere, but they are bent on many occasion as well, on a case by case basis. You put a policy in place in a hospital so you have something to stand on when you don’t want to comply with a patient or families request. We bend them in extraordinary circumstances, but enforce them 98 percent of the time.

I agree they need to play hardball. Just impressed how fast they went to hardball after a pandemic, thinking there may have been a period where they’d slowly start being less strict and having some goodwill gestures. The number of times we have had things go wrong at Disney and they always make goodwill gestures is more than I can count. They always bend policies just to make you feel better when things go bad. For example, when we had to leave the park early due to her being sick we had to miss a reservation. That came with a $10/person penalty. We talked to a cast member fully expecting to pay it, but they said no charge and not to worry about it. I know it’s a big difference between that and a 2k cruise, but that’s just not the only time and the sheer number of times I have been OVERCOMENSATED by Disney for inconveniences is unreal. Ultimately, it’s RCI’s policy to enforce and I accept that. And all’s well that ends well. Have two options to get my money back so at least one will go through hopefully.

The title really didn’t indicate blame I felt, but if it did, again I apologize for the misleading title. Thanks for the well wishes. She’ll get there. She’s a fighter and very determined to walk again.

I ALWAYS harp on people who travel without any travel insurance, especially at least the minimum medical travel. There have been many times I just get medical and not comprehensive if the trip isn’t too expensive, and a cancellation wouldn’t be brutal. After telling people what happened, it’s shocking to me how many people I know don’t even know what travel insurance is. I have friends even after this that do some more exotic travel that don’t buy insurance, and I tell them they are playing with fire if anything ever goes wrong. We’ve traveled pretty extensively and felt at this point we’ve encountered the vast majority of travel snafus over the years. Boy was this a wake up call. Felt like I was living out a hallmark or lifetime movie. Thank you for the empathy. Yes those 24 hours I was trying to get her out of Zimbabwe were without the most stressful of my life. You have a false sense of security traveling with travel insurance, a large credit line and available cash in a bank account thinking you can pay for almost anything if need be, especially in cash based medical systems where care is much more affordable. Unfortunately in a cash based healthcare system that credit line doesn’t mean a hill of beans if they will only take a wire transfer and it’s a holiday weekend in the US and all the banks are closed… I wish you all the best on the world cruise. We hope to do one day when we are retired…. With a medjet package in tow. On a random note, to give you an idea of the sad state of Zimbabwe’s insurance situation is, the driver who ran her over did amazingly have car insurance, albeit the bare minimum for him to have his car on the road. We obviously maxed out the claim for 217,000 RTG, which is the current currency Zim uses other than the USD as their currency was too unstable which converts to a monstrous $600 USD. They are unable to send me a check or wire transfer for reasons I don’t understand. The banking system in Zim is so messed up, my only option is to get this transferred to the driver who ran her over and have them send me the money. For reasons, again I dont understand there is a real problem getting rtgs exhanged to USD. At this point I told the driver (who I have contact with regularly) when they deposit it to just withdraw the money however they can and send it to me via mail, as he stated again for reasons I don’t understand, but they cannot issue a cashier check. Now I know most of you reading this are thinking the driver will just walk away with the money. However, I basically hold his life in my hand. We did not prosecute him nor are we suing him at this time (as there is no point. I’d be trying to squeeze water from a rock as Zimbabwe is just sooo poor), so if he doesn’t do it, we have the right to throw him in jail or sue him and we’d win. The cops want us to press charges, but we just don’t see the point. Why ruin a man’s life for nothing. They were so concerned about running my wife over, they drove from victoria falls to Cape Town thinking she was there (we were trying to get there but she never got there and stayed in Joburg instead) and then drive to Joburg and then back to vic falls just so they could visit her. That is a monstrous 60 hours of driving just to see my wife after she was evacuated, so I do have some basic faith in them to get us the $600 dollars.