Mariner Review 4/14-4/21

[SLCfirsttimer]

My wife and I sailed on the Mariner on 4/14 out of Galveston. It was my first cruise, her second.

 

Overall the entire cruise was great, I was really impressed with RCCL, the ship, and the overall experience. Here is a breakdown of the different parts of the cruise.

 

Embarkation - It took quite a while to complete this process, we arrived at the terminal in Galveston at around 12:30-12:45 and did not get onto the ship until close to 2:30 or so. While it took a long time, the employees were friendly, they had a lot of enthusiasm, and did their best to move the line through. Outside the terminal it was a bit disorganized, but nothing terrible. The nice thing about it taking a bit longer was our cabin was ready as soon as we got on the ship, so we did not need to tote our bags around while we waited.

 

Cabin - we had a promenade view cabin (6305) and I thought it was a nice cabin. Not terribly big, but I was not expecting a lot of space and it fit our needs perfectly. We were right above the guest services desk and across from Bolero's, so the noise was not very noticeable, and even on the nights when something was going on it was not loud enough to keep us awake.

 

Dining - The food was good in the windjammer, about what I expected from a buffet style setting. Nothing stood out as exceptional to me, and the only thing I found that I disliked were the scrambled eggs, they were a bit runny for my tastes. But all in all, it was good.

 

In the MDR we had great service from our waiter and assistant waiter. Both were prompt, kept our water filled, gave us good recommendations on what to order, and were extremely friendly. The food itself was quite good, not 5 star dining, but far from terrible. Everything I had was delicious and my wife liked all of her food as well.

 

For those wondering about formal night, I did rent a tux and saw a fair number of people in tuxes as well, but also saw a lot of people in suits, shirts and ties, and sport coats. A few people in jeans and t-shirts, but most people seemed to dress up a bit more on those two nights.

 

Entertainment - We attended several of the different shows on the ship and all of them were good. I thought the ice show was pretty cool, impressed that they can pull off a show on such a small rink. The musical and dance shows in the Savoy were good, but the volume was louder than what I thought it needed to be, so if anything could be improved there it would be to dial that back a bit.

 

Steve, Cuddy, and the rest of the cruise director staff were great, very engaging and funny.

 

The love and marriage show was entertaining, nothing terribly shocking happened, but the couple who had been married 60 years had some classic responses that made people laugh.

 

The quest was also fun, but based off some other things I have read it seemed to be toned down a bit. Nothing too racy happened, but it was funny to see people scrambling to take their shirts off or for the ladies to throw their bras for the game. Our group took 3rd place.

 

Ports - I liked Cozumel and Jamaica quite a bit, Grand Cayman was alright, but not anything terribly impressive. It could have been our choice of excursion, but it was not as fun as the other two. That being said, I would visit all three again to try some different experiences.

 

Disembarkation (is that the right word?) - I was anticipating the worst with this as I had read many horror stories about it taking forever. My fears were never realized. We opted for express disembarkation and our zone was called at 7:45. By 8:05 we had cleared customs and were sitting outside the terminal. There were several customs officers (sorry, did not get a count of how many) and they took a glance at our customs form, looked at our passports, and sent us on our way.

 

Overall I was very impressed with RCCL and the way everything went. The ship was clean and in good shape, the staff were all extremely friendly, and it was a great experience for me. We will be sailing again with them in the future.

[ARCruisinNana]

Thanks for your review. I'm glad you enjoyed your cruise. I will miss the Mariner, but the Navigator is also a great ship and crew.

[FLACRUISER99]

Thanks for taking the time to write a review.

[Cindy]

Wow! That was fast...glad you had fun! I didn't ask -- were you able to purchase your wine on Saturday once you got to Houston?

[SLCfirsttimer]

Wow! That was fast...glad you had fun! I didn't ask -- were you able to purchase your wine on Saturday once you got to Houston?

 

Yes, we decided to rent a car for the day we were there in Houston, found one for about $28, so we were able to go grab a couple of bottles and drive around a bit. Thanks for your help!