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Mariner Review - may 15th

msjaxson

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msjaxson

msjaxson

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Day 1....

 

The 11 eleven of us arriving on Sunday arrived on two separate flights at 10:30 am... we were met by our pre-arranged private transportation form Mears...we then went to the Ramada Main Gate to pick up the other 12 members of our party who had arrived on Friday nite...Mears was great we had our own motorcoach for 23 people lots of room and running on our schedule .. they were equally good waiting for us in a soearate lot when we debarked.

we got to the ship at about 1:30 -- I understand that this was a good thing due to some serious delays in boarding earlier on...took about 20 minutes to get thru the process then we went right to the cabins and dropped off our stuff and all went our separate ways.

Since my room ( and a couple of others in my group) were right above the promenade cafe we decided to sop in there for a bite to eat... this board had clued me in that the windjammer could be a bit busy.. The promenade cafe became our favorite spot for little sandwiches,pizza,pastry and cookies - pizza at 2:00 in the AM after leaving the disco was great !!! ...after lunch we went up tp to the pool bar for our first round of fruity drinks ... soon it was time for the dreaded but necessary muster drill... very warm and tough to get any air with all those folks on deck-- but it wasn't too bad...more drinks at sailaway ( saw some of our CC friends) and then back to the rooms to unpack( our bags were there :) ) we had late seating and unfortunately we decided to concentrate on unpacking so we missed the welcome aboard show...

somewhere during this time while checking with the other members of my group i realiazed we had come across a couple of glitches..1st on couple got an upgrade on their balcony room from the 6th deck to the 7th -- not bad but their kids ages 23 and 13 were still on 6--and then there was the dinner seating ..i won't get into details but it was all wrong --kids several tables away from their parents-- people not in our group seated with us while my parents were across the dining room etc.... i tried to get it fixed before dinner but they could not accomodate me -- actually i was told what i was describing couldnt be happening :confused: or that my TA had messed up --but i had the confirmation fax from RCI assuring my TA we would have a table for 12 and one for 11 --- oh well they fixed it for the next nite-- but when you book as far in advance as we did you expect more ( especially since i hadn't had a problem with previous cruise lines) .

We were in the Sound of Music Dining Room , Domenic was our waiter and Alejandro was our assistant...both were superior and we had a lot of fun with them.Let me say as a note to nite one dinner the Vidalia Onion Tart was excellent!!!

After dinner we went back to the room to view the Bon Voyage Parade-- from my promenade room 6275 i had a birds eye view of the promenade bridge and the parade ( if you were on this cruise my room had the #17 Matt kenseth flag in the windows while my parents had the NE Pats )--after the parade we got together for a drink( you may see a pattern here) we then crashed so we would be ready for our excursion in the Bahamas.

 

Day 2 .. The Bahamas

Since i was the first one up -- i went dwon that one flight of stairs to fetch six cups of coffee for my family in the promenade cafe.. have i mentioned how convenient that place was :o

We then went to breakfast in the main dining room -- this was the only day we did this -- it was good -- but a few of us really liked the fresh fruit options in the windjammer so we ate there the rest of the week.

For our excursion 12 of us went to Blackbeard's Caye-- it had gotten mixed reviews -- but we are from New England so i figured how bad can a beach in the Bahamas be ...it was an excellent excursion I would recomend --- plenty of chairs -- the beach was clean the water was great .. the water was crystal clear blue...we were there about three hours then after a quick detour to the hard rock and the Harley Davidson store for souvenirs we were back on the boat... we hung out on deck for a while and then got ready for the Formal nite and Captains cocktail hour. Dinner was great this nite as well ( actually every nite !!)

The show that nite was one of the best I have seen at sea Paul Boland the singing impressionist was excellent and a must see.....

Day Three... At Sea...

 

We went to breafast in the Windjammer and them went down to get in line for Ice show tix-- it didn't take long at all and was definitely the best show at see and one not to be missed -- we got tix for weds nite...

then we were haning on deck for a while ( the weather was not that great ) .. sheri and i went to our M&M at 1pm--- we had a lot of people registered but not many showed up-- the loyalty ambassador and some folls from the CD staff were there.... we did meet some really nice people though -- it was nice to put some faces to the name... its just hard to get any group of people to be able to get together especially when they are travelling iwth family and RCI has so many activities going on for sea days....

spent the rest of the day exploring the ship and tocuhing base with other members of our group -- we always seemed to end up in one of the solarium hot tubs.

went to see the show Front Row -- it was ok but not one of my favorites......after the show and before dinner i squeezed in the captains welcome back party with my parents-- because we went to the show first it was touch to get a seat or a drink( we finally did ) but Captain Thor was both informative and entertaining.

 

Day Four---St thomas....

Got up extra early so we could have breakfast in the windjammer before getting in line for immigration... we got in line about ten of 8 --- the line was extremely long but moved very quickly ( later it looked a bit worse ) we had an excursion scheduled so we wanted to be sure to be off the ship on time--

we scheduled the turtle cove discovery on the doubloon --- i cannot say enought about the crew of Billy Bonz ,twister and the others they were the best..we had a dwonpour which could have dampened things but the snorkeling and the music etc on the way back were great.. as a side note my poor mother who doesnt snorkel came with us for the nice boat ride and her and a few other folks in the same situation almost drown -- but the crew let them go below to stay dry .....

when we docked we spent some time in their store and then went back to the ship for lunch ... then did a little shoppin in havensight mall ( had to get some cigarettes for my boss :D )

That nite we saw the ice show before dinner and then the love and marriage game ( which was hysterical ) after dinner.. a post show martini in ellingtons ( which became our favorite nite spot ) then off to catch some ZZZS so we could get up and out for our st maarten excursion.

 

 

Day 5-- St Maarten...

This was my favorite day of the whole trip. We scheduled the Golden Eagle Sailaway -- the boat and crew were fabulous .. they served snacks and drinks all the wya out to the island and drinks and sandwiches on the way back. The catamaran was anchored near a wonderful beach were we were free to sunbathe, snorkel or swim. The crew boat a cooler on the beach and a floating bar out to the swimmers.The weather was truly fabulous --and the water and beach were perfect. On thhe way bac they served champagne and the dance music was playing.... we got bac to port in about four hours and jumped into a cab to go to Bikini Beach --- it was a nice beach -- we rented a few chairs and hung out for a couple of hours.... on the way bac a bunch of us did some shopping ( quite succesfully ) for some shiny items,stopped for a quick frozen drin at Fat Tuesdays and then we were back on the boat..stayed on deck until our last sailaway :( --then back to the cabins to get ready for Beatlemania which is a must see show-- i am not a huge beatle fan and i really enjoyed it....

 

Days 6 & 7---we just spent two very nice days at sea.. sepdning time with each other and enjoying the weather.. some folks played mini golf, shuffleboard and climbed the rock wall. The weather was great and the two days at sea were wonderful to wrap up our trip.

 

Debarkation went fairly smoothly --- out of 23 people and over 50 pieces of luggage we were missing one piece of luggage and boarded our private coach without it( we waited almost an hour) - The unfortunate part of this was it belonged to a family member who had lost almost everything they owned in a fire three weeks before and this bag literally contained just about every piece of clothing they owned... but RCI called while on route to the airport and avised her they had the missing bag and arranged for us to get it at the airport.. alls well that ends well...

Our flight was at 2pm ---- had plenty of time for lunch etc at the airport and we were home by 5pm .....

If you have any questions let me now --- i know i left out a ton of details-- the food was excellent -- i used quite a few of my crown & anchor coupons... and using bright yellow "duck tape " on the handles of my luggage was the best thing i have ever done.....

now when and were will the next one be ????

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  • 3 months later...
ORANGEinINDY

ORANGEinINDY

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Day 1....

 

The 11 eleven of us arriving on Sunday ...........

 

.....now when and were will the next one be ????

 

Excellent Review! I feel like I was there..... (Oh,... right I was)

 

You must have missed the part in debarking where they dragged me from the ship, kicking and screaming!

 

What a great time we had on this! I was hooked on cruising right after I got that first "Corona with a lime" in my hand.

 

Now its "save our $$" for another cruise! I'm trying to talk the DW into "surprising" me for my 50th B-Day in March.... it's so hard to be subtle.

 

You were correct about the lines for St Thomas immigration getting longer later in the morning. They went up and down the entire length of the promenade TWICE!

 

Glad you had fun, we sure did

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