Just off Mariner of the Seas..is this normal?

[Susie51]

On Navigator last week our food was delicious in the MDR. Our table mates agreed. On the second formal night we had perfectly cooked lobster. Our waiter brought us two extras.

 

Sorry your experience wasn't as good as ours.

[lalenalei]

I'm going to start a thread with my review. I feel bad, because I'm doing our tax prep now and am really feeling the crunch with Monday as my deadline. So I've only written Day 1 so far haha. But I want to write it all before I forget, and I'm also kinda leaving everyone hanging. I figure I'll just post them one day at a time.

[OzKiwiJJ]

On the second formal night we had perfectly cooked lobster. Our waiter brought us two extras.

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Lucky you! On our recent Rhapsody cruise there was no lobster on the second formal night. However it was available every night at an additional cost of $35. :eek: We were not tempted.

 

The MDR food was mainly mediocre but there were some outstanding dishes at dinner. Breakfast was a different story. Unless you liked things Benedict the only edible option was the fried eggs - the omelets were tasteless and the French toast was inedible.

[jerseylily]

There we no port lectures on our cruise and the photocopied port information was badly copied and pasted and missing end to sentences and the copy quality was so bad you couldn't read the maps. We had to rely on the VERY kind Japanese port welcome staff who who provided bands , drums, dancers in Kobe and Beppu on arrival and departure along with useful information.

[Royalty X]

We were on Mariner for the Christmas cruise. We'd been warned about the changes to the ship before we went, so we knew to expect a different experience. We only ever ate in the MDR for breakfast, so weren't too worried about that, although the service we received was lacking. Although, there was plenty of yellow mustard when we were onboard. ;)

 

The most disappointing for me was the changes that had been made to the ship. I get that there needs to be multi-lingual signs around the ship. That's fine, but things like removing the general store, no more Vintages, putting a duty free alcohol store in the English pub, were very disappointing. I just hope if they ever move the ship from Asia, they give her a proper revitalisation and restore her to her former glory (because she's a gorgeous ship).

 

I think rather than move (and alter) all of these RCI ships, they should perhaps create a new brand dedicated to the market (like Star Cruises).

Edited April 4, 2015 by Royalty X

[jerseylily]

Hear hear..a different brand would leave no one I doubt as to what they were buying into.. I have been on star cruises and you get to know the product but they did have an English pub! We were generally the only ones in it though! I have to say I probably enjoyed them more than this cruise...

[gi_pam]

I was on the same cruise as Ashland and Snobe (March 7-15).

 

My only real "complaint" was just that there was nothing for my kids (12 and 14) to do, but only because there were only 16 teens on board (according to a crew member we asked). Even the number 16 surprised me...I don't think I saw more than 6, including my own. I don't know where they were!

 

The Teen Compass we got the first day had a lot of activities on it. My kids went to the first meet and greet on Day 1, and only 3 kids showed up - my two and another 13-year-old. So my kids didn't go back to the teen lounge because they assumed there wouldn't be anyone there. But that's a factor of the cruise being only about 2/3 sold and there being very few kids on board.

 

The food in the DR was decent, not the best cruise food we've ever had, but fine. Chops was good (my first time eating in Chops). We also ate at Johnny Rockets and didn't find it different from when we ate there on Freedom.

 

The dining room staff we had was excellent. We had MTD, but tried to get in the same section every night, because we liked the waiter we had the first night. We were in a suite, so we had breakfast in the "Gold Card" area most mornings. The staff in there were extremely attentive.

 

Our cabin steward was good. He missed a few things here and there, and was a bit inconsistent with when he did the room. But no real problems. He gave us a lot of good advice for our 6 days in China after the cruise.

 

The shows were good. There was a real variety of performers.

 

I have the Compasses (I'm going to finish up my review and post it with the Compasses) and I counted at least 8 different movies. What was weird is that it was the same couple in the same venue. If 2 movies were in the Screening Room, they would be played a few times in rotation for a few days, then switched with 2 more. Same on the pool deck. The movies didn't move between the locations. The weather did turn kind of cool and rainy for the last couple of days, so movies on the pool deck weren't great.

 

I also enjoyed the port talks. Ivan was wonderful.

 

Differing perspectives, I suppose. We weren't bored, I guess because we were using the sea days to unwind and relax. We weren't really looking for something to do. We wished some of the port days were longer and the excursions were better. This cruise was about the ports and seeing Asia, so we weren't really expecting a typical "cruise". Stuff we did do (the Quest, Love and Marriage show, most of the evening shows) was rather poorly attended. So maybe rather than put a bunch of stuff on that only a handful of people show up for, the activities staff had learned that the typical activities that work on NA sailings don't work in Asia? If a handful of NA passengers miss an activity, doesn't mean that it would be a success if they did put it on.

 

I didn't find the other passengers rude, really. I was expecting the smoke smell, I think we (North Americans) notice it more because we just don't smell smoke in restaurants and public places anymore here. It was there, but not just enough to notice, not enough to bother me. The queuing (or lack of), I've seen worse behaviour on other cruises and in other touristy areas. People are people, if you read a few threads here, you'll find a lot of rude behaviour on all cruises/ships/itineraries. I tend to not let things like that bother me.

 

But, we were chatting with our steward about the changes when the ship is in Shanghai, compared to Singapore. One thing he did comment on, was that a lot of the cruises out of Shanghai are chartered, or have large groups taking up most of the ship. Even on NA sailings, from reading other CC threads, if there is a large group on board, the activities seem to be reduced because they know the group is going to do their thing and not attend the activities.

 

Like I said, we didn't take this cruise to go on a "cruise". We did it to see Asia. That probably colours our opinion a bit.

 

We've been home for 2 weeks, and my daughter has asked me 3 times when our next cruise is!

[preschool teacher]

We had large shrimp and lobster tails..with the baked Alaska very nice and yummy....the whole meal was great...this was on the VOS

[vacruzer52]

I have been on the Mariner twice and was unhappy with both the service and quality of food in the MDR both times. I don't know what was going on the first cruise, but we had different servers every single night. A couple nights I never did get the food I ordered.

 

We have been on many different RCI ships and Mariner is the only one we have ever been disappointed with the MDR.

[TonRin]

What a difference a year makes.. We were on Mariner in Feb 2014 out of Singapore. Whilst it was packed with Asians, we knew what to expect. We were in Asia after all. Food was great everywhere we ate. Never had an issue at all. The Escargot in Garlic Butter were the best.

This was Linda's first cruise as Activities Coordinator, so not sure if she was on the cruise you guys are all talking about, and Gordon was the CD. They were great. Always things to do and places to be. It seemed everywhere you turned Gordon was there! In 10 days I would say I saw Gordon at least 100 times around the ship. He even sat and had a drink with our group on one of the nights at the Pool Bar for a chat. He organised our Meet and Mingle and stayed with us for about 2 hrs that day. Great bloke! He had a good voice too.. Sang a song at the Going Home Party.

I guess my issue is I don't have anything to compare too though as this was our first cruise experience. But we had a ball, made some great friends and saw some awesome places. My wife is Filipino so I know how the Asian ways are. I learnt to just push back and smile in the Windjammer. They learnt to accept it.. I am a 6ft, 290lb man though, so there options were limited I guess.

 

I hope we have the same experience on Quantum in March 2016. Just need to have patience with the Asians. They are beautiful people and if you grew up in a house with 30 relatives all vying for that once piece of bread on the table, you would push in too. Hard to break that habit...

 

My opinions!

Cheers

[cruiserinsg]

Just off from the Mariner a few days ago and truly had a great time. At the M&M we met some who did B2B from Tianjin to Singapore and the feedbacks received were positive. :)