Jump to content
Cruise Critic Community

Mariner OTS - Spice of SE Asia 6 Feb 2015

anandaindonesia
 Share

Recommended Posts

direptor

direptor

Posted
Posted

Haven't did any sailings with Linda as AM before. All my past 3-4 cruises on Mariner has always been Kitty as AM.

 

Linda sounds familiar though. She and Kitty may both have been CD staff way back when Voyager first came to Asia since i remember very clearly Kitty was a CD staff then.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
anandaindonesia

anandaindonesia

Posted
  • Author
Posted

Day 4 - PHUKET

 

There are a few changes today.

 

1. The ship time is put back one hour to adjust to the Thailand local time. We let the children sleep in one hour longer. They are on vacation, too.

 

2. The night before, Rogelio informed us that today the MDR will be open seating. Meaning the children may not get the service of their "uncle" Rogelio. Therefore we decided to have diner on Windjammer instead. It's also good to have variety.

 

3. Last but not least, the change today is that we cannot just step out of the gangway to the land. We need to take a boat to transfer between the ship and the land.

 

Allowing for the tender process, I have arranged our shore excursion to start late. There is some delays in the tender during morning. The queue is long, and by 9am they only reach tender ticket number 6. However, after that things run more smoothly, and by 9.30am they announce that it is now open tender.

 

I also learned from the slow room service, and today ask for earlier delivery 6.30 - 7am. Not much, just hot milk for the children. We later have breakfast in the Windjammer. Not so busy, many have gone ashore.

 

By 10am we take our tender. My travel agent cannot find the ship in Patong beach so I check with the guest services. They inform that Mariner is using the pier at Kalim beach. It is next to Patong. The pier is very basic.

 

First we go to JunkCeylon shopping centre for some shopping and lunch. Then off to do Elephant rides. All the children like it, except one girl who is afraid and doesn't want to ride.

 

Last we go up mountain to pray at the Big Buddha. It is still under construction. The view from the top is impressive.

 

We don't want to miss the ship, so by sunset we already taking the tender back to the ship.

 

As MDR ton8ght is open seating, we go to Windjammer for diner. Nice change. More relaxed. One thing I must note and be grateful. In the Mariner, they have vegetarian broth to make the noodle soup. This is great! Thank you, Mariner! In all our previous cruise, we can't have hot noodle soup as they are using chicken broth or beef broth. We can only get stir-fry vegetarian noodle.

 

Tonight production show is Gallery of Dreams. We don't see it. Too tired after the excursion, and besides, one more change is happening tonight :

The clock goes forward one hour.

 

Lucky tomorrow Day 5 is a sea day!

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Paulette3028

Paulette3028

Posted
Posted
Day 4 - PHUKET

 

As MDR ton8ght is open seating, we go to Windjammer for diner. Nice change. More relaxed. One thing I must note and be grateful. In the Mariner, they have vegetarian broth to make the noodle soup. This is great! Thank you, Mariner! In all our previous cruise, we can't have hot noodle soup as they are using chicken broth or beef broth. We can only get stir-fry vegetarian noodle.

 

 

I have never heard of the MDR changing to 'open seating' -- was a reason given? If anyone has done this cruise before, was this done in the past?

Link to comment
Share on other sites
anandaindonesia

anandaindonesia

Posted
  • Author
Posted (edited)
I have never heard of the MDR changing to 'open seating' -- was a reason given? If anyone has done this cruise before, was this done in the past?

Good question.

Without me asking, Rogelio explains the reasons. They realised that being Phuket (last tender 7pm), many passengers eat seafood as early dinner on shore. By making the MDR "open seating", they only have to open part by part of the MDR as necessary. That way they expect to save on the resources : food, manpower etc.

Edited by anandaindonesia
Link to comment
Share on other sites
direptor

direptor

Posted
Posted

I had a 1-2 experiences with open seating in the main dining room. I think it generally happens when the departure time was later than the dinner time or for overnight ports whereby not everyone will want to rush back for their assigned dinner time so they created that flexibility for everyone.

 

Never had open seating on my cruises to phuket but had it when i was taking the cruise from S'pore to Shanghai.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
anandaindonesia

anandaindonesia

Posted
  • Author
Posted

Day 5 - SEA DAY

 

We lost 60 minutes today as the clock is set forward one hour.

 

Still, we can't let the children sleep in for too long. We are booked for our Character Breakfast this morning (only one time in this cruise). By the time we arrive, the MDR is almost full and we are seated quite a distance from the stage.

 

The kids try to go near Shrek to get some photos. The staff tell them to wait as Shrek will come to each and every table. Not true. Shrek left without visiting our table. Lucky my son-in-law manages to stop Shrek from leaving so the kids can get their photo anyway.

 

There are so many crowds so the staff seem overwhelmed. Not good. Especially as now we adults have to pay $10pp, including my 6yo grand-son. In Allure they handle this event better, and it was free.

 

After breakfast the kids go to Adventure Ocean. I try to spend my OBC but the logo shop on this ship is so small. Very few items on sale, abd unattractive. I end up drawing back cash from my unused OBC.

 

Today they sell Walk-a-Wish T-shirts and have some officers signing it, but they don't do the actual walk. Too bad. I don't know why they don't. It is a good activity for a sea day.

 

We are assigned the ice show today. Guess we are lucky. Others get their ice show on Day 3, which is Langkawi. I don't know if you can change your assigned time if you don't like. The show is prima!

 

After the ice show we want to try Johnny Rockets. What a disappointment! To start, the staff seems not very happy to see us coming. Maybe they are tired after many guests having lunch there? Service is sloooow. We wait half an hour before they can serve the fries. Order get mixed up. We ask for two ramen, they bring four ramen. My order of Veggie burger is nice, though. Also the famous milk shake (Gold status - buy one get one). No dancing waiters. I go to JR to see their dances, so I am not very happy. We don't care for dessert. We have been sitting for too long!

 

Some nap time and some pool time. Then time for the last dinner. We bade farewel to our friendly staff. They get extra tip for extraordinary good job. Then comes the waiters parade, the waiving of napkins, and the song (yes, Chinese song).

 

As usual baggage must be out tonight, so no chance to enjoy the farewell show for us. We need to pack. Charlie first give us tag number 20. Perhaps he thinks we want to stay longer on the ship. We ask him to get us earlier departure, we want to be out by 9am. Charlie manages to get us tags number 4 (for guests with excursion ending at airport). I don't know how he got it, but it's very good for us. Of course Charlie also gets his special enveloppe of extra tip.

 

Tomorrow : Day 6 - Disembarkation (and my comments about this cruise)

Link to comment
Share on other sites
anandaindonesia

anandaindonesia

Posted
  • Author
Posted

Day 6 - DISEMBARKATION

 

I miss Norwegian! NCL is so kind they provide room service even on disembarkation morning.

 

Not RCI, though. So I go back and forth to the Windjammer to bring breakfast for the children. That's why I choose cabins near the aft elevator!

 

After that, I need some me-time for myself and do something I haven't done this cruise : sit down breakfast in the MDR. Yes I just have breakfast here yesterday but it was the crowded Character Breakfast. This morning is so different. Everybody is so quiet here.

 

My table consist of 3 Japanese couples, 1 Caucasian couple, and myself. After a smile and good mornings, everybody is down to their own business. Good morning indeed! I enjoy my cheese croissant, and have a second. And my last cup of Earl Grey on this cruise.

 

One last look at the balcony, then down we go. Immigration is prompt. One baggage is missing but that is because it lost its tag so we can find it easily in the lost tag section. Our rental van is waiting and this cruise comes to an end.

 

Very short cruise!

I cannot find time to enjoy what I used to enjoy on my previous cruises. Perhaps it is because we are having little kids with us this cruise. But I must say that even the CD has difficulties jamming programmes into this port intensive cruise.

 

One sea day is just not enough. After my TransAtlantic I think I start to love sea days as much as I love visiting new ports.

 

This cruise is fine as intro to new cruisers. I am happy everybody in my big family enjoy it. Traversing the Malacca Strait is smooth. We only feel some motion the nights when going in and out to/from Phuket. Two of our grandchildren start feeling uneasy. We promptly put sea-bands on them. They are well the next morning.

 

Passengers are internationally mixed. We found no problem with food, I think MDR serves the same RCI fleet-wide menu. Windjammer does have some Asian offerings.

 

If you want to enjoy your cruise, you will. If you don't want, you won't.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
anandaindonesia

anandaindonesia

Posted
  • Author
Posted

I have scanned the daily activities page of the Cruise Compass. If you'd like to see it, I'll email to you. Just let me know your e-address.

 

Thank you for reading my review (and thank you for your patience). Sorry for the delays. And sorry for the mistakes. This is my first attempt at lengthy writing, and English is not my language.

 

Now I am looking forward for my next cruise, which will be of a different kind : a river cruise! (But it's gonna be a long, long wait!).

 

Bye for now. Any questions?

Link to comment
Share on other sites
hisokaomi

hisokaomi

Posted
Posted

Wow, thank you :-) I'm boarding the ship this sat and the programs timing seems different this year from last year.

 

We had dreamworks parade at 5.30pm last year on day 1.

 

 

Sent from my iPod touch using Forums

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Please sign in to comment

You will be able to leave a comment after signing in



Sign In Now
 Share
Go to topic listing
  • Forum Jump
    • Categories
      • Welcome to Cruise Critic
      • Hurricane Zone 2024
      • Cruise Insurance Q&A w/ Steve Dasseos of Tripinsurancestore.com June 2024
      • New Cruisers
      • Cruise Lines “A – O”
      • Cruise Lines “P – Z”
      • River Cruising
      • ROLL CALLS
      • Cruise Critic News & Features
      • Digital Photography & Cruise Technology
      • Special Interest Cruising
      • Cruise Discussion Topics
      • UK Cruising
      • Australia & New Zealand Cruisers
      • Canadian Cruisers
      • North American Homeports
      • Ports of Call
      • Cruise Conversations
×
×
  • Create New...