Live on Mariner of the Seas, it’s been Years in the Making — October 3rd to 8th, 2022.

[Sunshine3601]

On 10/7/2022 at 7:59 AM, A&L_Ont said:

Breakfast is on. Take your guess. 
 

 

A cinnamon Raisin bagel😇😁 

sorry I couldn't resist.   

I am loving your review and photos.   Thank you for taking us along.

[jmh2006]

Thanks for the always "fun" live review Andrew!  Glad you and Lisa got a get away and hope you had a smooth and safe trip home.  What an athlete your Owen is turning out to be.  Reminds me of my son too while he was growing up!🙂

[Ocean Boy]

3 hours ago, ckrobyn said:

Then how will you know where you are?  😉

Some people don't think things through before they threaten to leave me behind.😏

[MissMap]

Thank you for sharing your cruise with us!  I especially enjoyed the sunset/sunrise photos and the beachside pictures of Labadee, which I had never seen in person.

 

Glad you and Lisa were able to have this getaway and I’m sure Grandma Sharon loved spending the time with Owen who is growing up into a fine young man.

 

Thanks again!
MissMap

[A&L_Ont]

11 hours ago, Ocean Boy said:

Some people don't think things through before they threaten to leave me behind.😏

Miss T.S. left you and she seems to be doing fine.😂😂😂

 

That being said, you might be allowed onboard. 😉

[kernow]

Thanks for another great review, I enjoyed following along.

[marchand28]

As always had a great time following you and Lisa on your cruise. It was good to see Owen and Lucy. Owen looks so grown up. I follow Rick on Instagram but it was really cool to see his picture. Thank you again for taking us along.

[Russ Lomas]

On 10/6/2022 at 12:05 AM, A&L_Ont said:

Let’s call it a truce.  I’d say that’s enough baseball talk until the games finish Friday night. 

Unfortunately, not only is the Friday game over, but the season.  Our Jays were too up and down this season and never really fully found their groove.  Very disappointing to be eliminated that quickly.  Hopefully you did not make it home in time to watch it all unravel yesterday.  Until next year....

 

On 10/6/2022 at 9:22 AM, A&L_Ont said:

It has been so long since we saw Owen.  I would never have recognized him if I walked by him now.  Kids are growing up fast.  Our youngest twins are now in high school as well.

 

Glad you got some riding in on the cruise.  Unfortunately, we cancelled our Mariner trip for this Christmas break (a few of the other families set to go with us cancelled, so we decided to do so as well).  See you in March, and thanks for taking us along on this journey with you once again.

[2chiefs]

On 10/7/2022 at 6:45 PM, A&L_Ont said:

They tasted amazing. 
 

We are currently at Playmakers after we packed our stuff. Wings and a tower of rings have been ordered. 

Did you try the pork wings? I've heard they are amazing.

[2chiefs]

Thanks for the live review!!

 

[smokeybandit]

1 hour ago, 2chiefs said:

Did you try the pork wings? I've heard they are amazing.

I tried them on my last cruise and they were better than I was expecting.

[A&L_Ont]

2 hours ago, 2chiefs said:

Did you try the pork wings? I've heard they are amazing.

We missed it somehow.  They do sound amazing though. 

[A&L_Ont]

On 10/8/2022 at 11:17 AM, Ocean Boy said:

Is this the lighthouse that seems to be in the middle of nowhere? If it is the one I'm thinking about, it marks the Old Bahama Channel that runs between the Florida east coast and the Bahama Island chain.

@Ocean Boy I think I know the one your mentioning. This one here.  I’d love to explore them all. 

 

 

Here’s a video the this lighthouse. 

 

The one I saw is different. I took a photo of the location on the TV map.

 

and thanks to Google Earth it is at the arrow. 

 

 

Thanks to Google I found this picture. 

 

 

and this one on YouTube.

 

 

 

[A&L_Ont]

At Coco Cay I did the final time lapse of the cruise. The wind was strong enough to blow my camera over at the end, it happens quickly but you get the idea. 
 

Turn on the music and enjoy the song, to which this review was titled after.  
 

If you happen to have NHL 2021, you might recognize this song by the Arkells.  
 

 

[A&L_Ont]

Detroit from above on the left and Ontario Canada on the right of the river. Six days later it’s almost the same view as they day we departed.
 

 

The flight home was uneventful, other than a long delay waiting for our luggage to come off the carousel. Everyone was waiting. 
 

With the colder nights the leaves have started to change and fall. The low last night was 46F last night here. 

 

 

 

Edited October 10, 2022 by A&L_Ont

[A&L_Ont]

Owen and Sharon were excited to see us. Laundry and groceries were completed by 11:30 this morning and then it was some time for some yard work. It wasn’t until I was cleaning the pool that Lucy made an appearance.

 

Do you see her?

 

 

You think she got up for a rub?  Nope, I had to go to her.  
 

You are here to serve, is the look I got. Either that, or leave me alone in the sun. 😂

 

 

 

[A&L_Ont]

On 10/8/2022 at 2:12 PM, Yorkvillain said:

Found my new wallpaper. 

That’s exactly what Lisa said. 😂

[A&L_Ont]

Now that we have been off the ship for a day, Lisa and I put together our final thoughts on our cruise. 

 

Embarkation and disembarkation went smoothly for us. We arrived at our mandated embarkation time which was 10:30 am.  After passing through security and check-in we only had to wait until 11am when the ship was cleared and the new cruiser were allowed to board. 

 

For disembarking, we were fortunate enough to have a suite walk off.  We met the concierge at the Schooner Bar at 7:40am, and he walked us to the gangway along with some of his other suite guests.  From “binging” off the ship, to gathering our luggage, and clearing the facal recognition customs it took us approximately 15 minutes. 

 

All cabins were ready at 12:30pm.  The sailing prior to ours was shortened because of Hurricane Ian and there were less guests on board. The cabin stewards had less cabins to prepare so the turn around was much quicker.

 

Our cabin was an OS on deck 10.  It was nice and centrally located.  We were one deck below the pool and restaurants which took minutes to walk too.  We only used the elevator to go to the lower decks.  

 

Some notes about the cabin.  Our steward Lynn was a ninja.  We rarely saw her and our cabin was always spotless.  There was more than enough storage throughout the entire cabin.  Once we figured out the light switches, it was all good. 

 

A few negative things we noted about the cabin are the following.  The bed was hard, but that is a common theme on the ships.  Mariner was built in the early 2000s and we think that some of our noted issues come with the fact that the ship is almost 20 years old.  The safe was smaller than on the newer ships.  There were only 3 outlets that we found in the cabin.  Thankfully we brought our power block which allowed more items to be plugged in.   In today’s electronic world, 3 outlets just is not enough.  Being below the pool deck, we did occasionally hear people running on the deck above but that was a rare event.  Our cabin was also located near the elevator bank but we never heard any noise from the hall.

Edited October 10, 2022 by A&L_Ont

[A&L_Ont]

I’m not sure why they thought putting a phone beside the toilet was a good idea?  If it rang while you were sitting on it, it could scare the crap out of you.  Well, I guess you are on the toilet…

 

Edit, that isn’t a cup holder over the bidet?  Certainly, it can’t be? 🤷‍♂️

 

 

Edited October 10, 2022 by A&L_Ont

[A&L_Ont]

In mentioning the age of the ship, almost 20 years old, she looked to be in great condition.  She is in great condition for age. While on board, we saw them painting and as mentioned in our review, they varnished our balcony rail as well.

 

As for the pool deck, we enjoyed the suite terrace seating.  We did notice that there were the typical chair hogs. Bar service was decent and there were many drink runners during sea days.   We really wish that there was a kids splash pool area because of children having accidents in the pool.  More responsible parents could help prevent this as well.  That being said, newer ships do have a kids pool for those in swim diapers.

 

The food was good where-ever we ate.  Playmakers could use more staff in general, but staffing is an issue everywhere in “today’s” world.  Frozen yogurt was manned by a crew member, and always had a line but it moved quickly.   The pizza line was long most times as it was connected to cafe promenade but it moved well.  We ate at the Dog House on sea day lunches and it was quick.  We ate one night at the WJ. We probably picked the wrong night as it was Tex/Mex night.  We found something to eat that was good, but our options were less because we didn’t go with Tex or Mex. We ate breakfast twice there as well on sea days. We ate at suite breakfast at Chops three times and it was delicious. 

[A&L_Ont]

For port days, we thoroughly enjoyed our beach days at Labadee and Coco Cay.  The lunch buffet at Barefoot has lessened in items.  We noted ribs, minute steaks, and shrimp skewers were missing but the quality was the same as before.  They did have a watermelon and feta salad which was new to us and very tasty. Our cabana host Horby was the best we had experienced in all the times we had been there.

 

Here’s Horby.

 

 

Coco Cay and the Beach Club was over the top.  Our host Sherie left us wanting for nothing more.  She too was a ninja. The drink and food was never ending.  She has 2 months left on her contract at Coco Cay.  
 

Pervious to this she was stationed at Labadee, as a staff member who lived on site. She was one of 15 there full time. She was there in March of 2020 when things came to a halt.  She had 2 months left in her contact, but she didn’t leave Labadee until October of 2020.  She described to us many of their dilemmas, the biggest being food shortages, to rationing food, to food deliveries being hijacked, to purchasing food from locals.  Then there was fuel shortages, to no fuel.  Even her departure off the island of Haiti, with 2 other South Africans, was an adventure that didn’t go as planned.  
 

During her numerous stops we talked about the operations of both islands and we fully appreciated her experience.  We always say Labadee is the Disney version of Haiti, but things changed quickly for those there in the spring of 2020. Everyone experienced the beginning of the pandemic differently, but we got to hear a first hand experience of what it was like in Labadee. 
 

Sherie from South Africa. 
 

 

 

We would also note with only one ship in port, it was quiet there.  Chairs were available everywhere across the island.

[A&L_Ont]

As for ship entertainment, we only saw a few things. We went to the ice show, Love and Marriage show, we listened to the bands at the pool. We laughed along with everyone at the Worlds Sexiest Man and helped to score the Bellyflop Competition. Oh and we made a donation to the casino. I wish it was more generous to us, but she was tight with/too us. 

[A&L_Ont]

Finally some things we noticed had changed since we last cruised in the fall of 2019.  We enjoyed the new muster format. For our sailing, everyone had it completed and no one was called by name over the PA to complete it.  There was no photographer at embarkation and only one at each port of call. They did not make the rounds at specialty dinning (it wasn’t our favourite anyway) but they were out every evening in the common areas and we saw them up by the pool deck on sea days. 

[A&L_Ont]

RC is known for the vastness of their art on board. These two pieces of moving art work were in the hall by our cabin. 
 

The first one still works with the original handle.  The second one does not, even with a secondary handle on it. I wonder, was it worn out by teenage boys and dirty old men?

 

 

 

 

 

[A&L_Ont]

So that is the end of our review.  If you have any questions, ask away and I might be able to answer them.
 

Mariner was the perfect ship for what we were looking for this cruise.  We had a limited amount of days, and time.  She fit the bill perfectly, and with her last refit it gave us the amenities that we learned to love from the Oasis Class of ship.  Two sea days, and two private port stops gave us what we needed being time to chill and relax. I’d sail on her again, and it could be a 7 day or more sailing. 
 

Thank-you for following along for another one of our adventures.  Even though it has been years in the making, it seemed like it was just yesterday at moments while onboard.