Back from Mariner--Again

[flhokie]

We just returned from 3 days on Mariner. My mother, DD and I sailed the same ship & itinerary in August 2019. This time, my father joined us. He has severe mobility issues. A few observations from this sailing...

 

- The food in the dining room was better than August. It was good in August, but even better this time. The service was excellent both times.

 

- The new captain has decided not to allow balcony dividers to be opened (this was a big issue for us as there were no connecting staterooms available so we had counted on doing this based on our experience in August--where it was no issue). 

 

- Our stateroom attendant this time was not good. He showed up the first day around 5:45. We barely saw him and he didn't leave his card with how to contact him. He had an attitude when we did see him. This was a big contrast from our wonderful attendant in August. 

 

- The stateroom safe malfunctioned twice on a 3 day sailing. I had to wait in the room nearly an hour one time for them to come and fix it (they won't do anything to the safe if you're not in the room).  My parents (next door) had a new safe and had no issues. 

 

- There did not seem to be a plan regarding activities, etc. when we missed Coco Cay and had a sea day. Eventually, a few hours after announcing we would not be visiting Coco Cay, we started seeing updates to activities on the stateroom tv and app (never were given new paper planners). The forecast had been for high winds for days so it was not a shock that we didn't make it there (still disappointing, but safety first). Knowing that they've missed it a few times lately (and the weather forecast), you would think they would have had a plan they could immediately implement. 

 

- They've stopped doing reservations for Laser Tag. It is completely 1st come/1st served now. It took us about an hour.

 

- The odor in the casino was nauseating. Instead of using ionizers, etc. to deal with the smoking, they use some type of air freshener and lots of it. 

 

- The female sports staff were very friendly and helpful, but most of the men would not speak to the guests and just seemed like they didn't want to be there. 

 

- We did the Key and would probably do it again for a short cruise. We were able to take advantage of the special hours for the water slides (DD did them around 15 times in that hour), FlowRider and SkyPad (got to jump twice). The lunch and breakfast were great (best dessert of the cruise was at embarkation lunch). 

 

- We used ScootAround for a scooter rental for my father (pre-reserved). They were the vendor that had the scooters in the terminal (as opposed to having the scooter waiting in the cabin). They were very good and it was much easier than the other company would have been. Right inside the terminal, my father was put in a wheelchair and a super nice attendant got us through security and up to ScootAround. The lady there explained everything very well and we were on our way. At disembarkation, he was able to take the scooter through customs/immigration and dropped it off right inside the exit door. 

 

- Promenade cafe was understaffed and seemed to run out of food (except pizza) pretty frequently. One of the 2 freestyle soda machines there was broken the entire cruise.

 

- Overall, the ship did not seem as organized as it was in August. 

 

- Despite the few negatives on this sailing, the ship is being kept up well and is still a great option for a short getaway.