2Martinisluvcruzin

6 hours ago, jam19872016 said:

Good morning. Its too early 😴 

 

I like this relaxed debarkation but its not good for M. We will probably be the last off the ship today lol.

 

I'm going to go drag her out of bed and try to grab some breakfast.

Thanks for another amazing word snd photo journey. Can't wait for our first RC cruise on Mariner in two weeks

20 hours ago, Ozark_Kid said:

I have much more to post and hope to get more posted tonight. I hope no one will have a problem if I continue this thread a couple days after the cruise to finish what I have not had time to share. 

Let me just say now that I have truely enjoyed sharing this journey with you.  Thanks to our "Dani's group"  and others for the encouragement.  I had no idea what I was getting into and how many would enjoy it. So fun. THANKS! 

Great job. Just following along. Bucket list is certainly the ABC Islands.  Thank you your time in letting us follow along

7 minutes ago, Ocean Boy said:

Trans Atlantic crossing or travel agent. In the case that you are referring to... Travel Agent.

Thanks. 

11 hours ago, jagsfan said:

I never ever get into anything from a rowboat to the QM2 without Bonine. 
I take it for mountain riding, theme parks, and anything else that might come up. 
I don’t leave home without it. 

Hi. Sorry to barge in, but trying to learn all these abbreviations.  What does TA stand for besides turn around? Just curious. Thanks

4 hours ago, SilkySal said:

I just went to Walgreen's site to check on availability for testing and all stores in my area are only scheduling 2 days out. They used to schedule 2 weeks out, so maybe it has changed. That may pose a problem for my cruise in November, as I was planning to use Walgreens and/or CVS. Hmmmmm.

 

Just found this site which will find a testing clinic closest to you:

https://www.solvhealth.com/covid19#get-tested

Interesting ...

Sorry to barge in here, but saw you were from Eustis. We're in Tavares. If you by any chance have Lakeview Medical, they are doing testing in their offices

2 hours ago, SonuvaBeach said:

Day 4...the first day in Aruba..sunrises, Arashi Beach, lovely sunsets

 

Hi. I am so impressed. After reading Travelbirds, Jim_Iain, and Jam's writings of their travel logs, I thought I was ready to travel, but, your amazing camera work telling the story is over the top. Thank you so much for the time and effort to give us an truly wonderful view of your cruise. Can't wait to finish the videos 

Jerry

2 o'clock October 27th and still no luggage tags. Still not anxious, but seems a little biased some got theirs  on exactly 30 days and others didn't.  This shouldn't be hard for a computer coder to get right. Sighs. I like those docs in hand. Makes the cruise real

7 minutes ago, flamingos said:

I'm on the October 15.  I've had the e-docs for weeks, and just now was able to access the luggage tags.  I never was able to for my last Mariner cruise.

LOL, that's not exactly what I wanted to hear. I was marking it up the the 30th day being a weekend until I saw this thread

1 hour ago, flamingos said:

I was never able to open the link for 'luggage tags'. I got mine from the bottom of my edocs.

My wife and I are also on the 25th of Oct Mariner cruise, and it's 7:40pm here and no e-docs 😒. Not too anxious or anything

21 minutes ago, Rogueperson said:

Well, I’m onboard now.  We got here exactly at noon but there was a line.  The line wasn’t bad.  It was mostly because of multiple checks for negative test results and vaccination status.  I think we had to show our negative status and vaccination a total of four times.  

 

So door to door time

 

 

not great but with covid protocols, its fine

 

 

Congratulations for the negative test and boarding. Looking forward to following along.  Have a great trip

1 hour ago, Rogueperson said:

3pm all is well.  As of right now, my flight is still on-time.   This is kind of good news.  Yesterday's flight was delayed so i thought tonight's would as well.  It looks cloudy out with possible rain here so, who knows.  The only good thing is that if it is delayed, I will actually be able to eat dinner with my wife before flying out.  The food option at BWI is a little dearth pre-security.  That's the one thing I don't like about BWI.  All the vendors are mostly post-security.

 

Also, I get to try out my new "toy"  Global Entry/TSA Precheck.  I picked it up when I got my passport renewed in July.  It literally took me two days to get approved.  24 hours after filling out the application and paying, they ask me to set up an appointment.  However, there were no appointments anywhere near me at all.  The closest one with an appointment within a month...BUFFALO, NY!!! (From Maryland where I am).  But then i read somewhere that you can refresh and cancellations may appear.  I did that a couple times throughout the day and then boom, availability TOMORROW.  So i grabbed it, and went downtown DC and did the interview in 5 minutes.  We'll see how that works.

 

I almost forgot I said I would tag @FionaMG here.

 

I have about 3 more hours here in the office.  As you can probably guess, I'm not being very productive while i post on here.  I'm actually eating lunch, which is a little late.

 

Waiting anxiously for your reports. I've been following 'everything Mariner as I said in Jam's blog this will be wife's and my first Rc cruise and Mariner seemed like the trip to start with. We're doing the 25-29 4 night cruise.

Anyway have a good flight Rogue

2 hours ago, jam19872016 said:

Time to pack and this time its not to unpack again tomorrow 😞

 

Thanks for the great travel log and your patience with my questions. And nice to meet you. I'm Jerry btw. Now I absolutely can't wait for our first RC cruise and on Mariner

30 minutes ago, jam19872016 said:

I love celebrity and for a good casino rate I enjoy my trips on celebrity. For the extra money, as someone who also tries to stretch out his cruise budget, I'd say stick with royal.

Ok, thanks for the advice

Do you cruise Celebrity too? If so, is it worth the extra money for same itinerary?

5 minutes ago, jam19872016 said:

I book casino rates so I can't really help with that. I've heard of some great last minute deals lately to fill up ships, but who knows if that is the case still next year. Plus room selection will be more limited the closer in you get.

 

I think it comes down to how flexible you can be. If you don't need a set room, a set ship, or set date, last minute is the way to go. If you need to pick your room, want to sail something specific, and need to lock in the vacation date go ahead and book now.

 

Indeed! I have told them I will be back next weekend so they can be sure to restock the pantry! 🙂

 

1 minute ago, jam19872016 said:

Nobody bats an eye when I don't get off in Nassau. When I don't get off in coco cay the crew look at me like I have a second head. 

 

I'm going to get off eventually, but I'm trying to find a balance between capacity and weather.

 

Today would be a great day capacity wise as we are the only ship here. But I would prefer to wait until winter when it will only be warm instead of melt your face off hot. But what will capacity be like.

 

Its a delicate balance but I think i'm going to put it off a bit longer.

We've got a 3 hour tour around Nassau because it will probably be the only time we're there. Otherwise we'd stay on ship. This is also our first balcony We've had. Me, 7 cruises,  wife on 10th. Both on SS so careful with money to get in as many cruises as we can. Started to late in life

5 minutes ago, jam19872016 said:

I still highly recommend Jamie's. The food there is very good and the pasta is made fresh in house and it shows. Very good quality.

 

Beyond that I'm at a bit of a loss. I think playmakers and Johnny rockets are not worth the upcharge and I eat there because its included in my dining plan.

 

I can't get excited about the buffet either, on any line nothing against the Windjammer. The hot dogs look good but you will still need to supplement with something from the buffet.

 

That's honesty why I did the dining plan, the included options look very unappealing to me. Carnival gets knocked on for their food and yea its not always great, but the variety of options blows any cruise line out of the water especially at lunch.

 

TLDR; Jamie's all the way.

Ok, thanks for your time. Food isn't #1 right now. It's the covid 48 test causing concern

2 minutes ago, jam19872016 said:

Haha no kidding. I am not sure I would do this again for 7 days. I am so full. Plus I did 9 days on a cruise before this. I think my body is going to go into shock when I get home and eat normal portions again.

one of the reasons to cruise though.  Eat!!!

I have an related question I hope someone can answer. 

We want to book a cruise for 2022 but can't decide to book really early, like now, or book on the ship, or book real close to sail date. Any opinions?

1 minute ago, jam19872016 said:

I've eaten a lot of great dishes at Jamie's. Honestly the short ribs was not one of them. I've had better quality at the dining room. The best part was the sauce the mashed potatoes were covered in. Once I finished that I didn't finish the rest. Too dry and a little tough. 

Oh, well dampens the old taste buds. Where else would you recommend if we choose not to do Jamies

Just now, jam19872016 said:

They are similar. The lunch menu omits some of the more expensive meat items like lamb chops, short ribs, things like that. Appetizers and pasta etc all seem to be the same. If something else is omitted it is close enough that I don't notice a difference.

Well damn. I was drooling for those short ribs

Just now, 2Martinisluvcruzin said:

Hi Jam. We're taking the 25th-29th cruise on Mariner. First RC cruise.  We're thinking Jamie's for lunch on embarkation day? Do you know if the lunch and dinner menu are the same?

ooops. Oct 25th-29th

4 minutes ago, jam19872016 said:

I'm only slightly too full from my trip to playmakers this morning.

 

Jalapeño poppers. 

 

 

Crispy chicken sandwich.

 

 

It's got a nice crunch to it but it is just a little dry. Needs some mayonnaise. Stop serving all the mayonnaise with calamari in Jamie's we need it down here!

 

For dessert a campfire cookie no marshmallows.

 

 

Much much better with no marshmallows on it.

Hi Jam. We're taking the 25th-29th cruise on Mariner. First RC cruise.  We're thinking Jamie's for lunch on embarkation day? Do you know if the lunch and dinner menu are the same?

On 5/10/2010 at 3:59 PM, dramaqueen4lyfe said:

The options for dining times in the Main Dining Room (MDR) are as follows:

 

Early Dining: 6:30pm on most itineraries. *

Late Dining: 8:30pm on most itineraries. *

My Time Dining: You may choose your dining time and make reservations at the desk set up for this purpose usually outside the dining room and frequently on Deck #5. You must pre-pay your gratuities in order to take advantage of this option.

 

* On some itineraries especially the Far Eastern and South American cruises, the dining times are later to accomodate the culture of the area.

My question is being a new RC cruiser, how does one figure out the prepaid gratuity? Probably a dumb question but having a hard time wrapping my head around the concept