Fourth Time’s the Charm, Mariner 5/8-5/12 RS Semi Live Review

[Kteacher]

   A long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away (April 2020 to be exact) we were supposed to sail on Mariner of the Seas. Well, that was canceled, rebooked as Brilliance out of Tampa in our favorite corner aft GS for April school vacation 2021. This was lifted and shifted to a B2B on the Brilliance out of Tampa for April 2022. Then in last August we received the dreaded email from Royal informing us that our sailings on Brilliance had been impacted by the ship moving out of Tampa. We ended up with a RS on Mariner for the 5/8-5/12 sailing and added in some land vacation time on either end. 
   Today is travel day for us, flying into MCO and staying at the Homewood Suites in Cape Canaveral. We’ve never stayed there before, but reviews looked decent. I’ll be including reviews of the hotel and any restaurants we end up at pre-cruise. 
    Post cruise we’re moving over to the Riviera Resort in WDW (rented DVC points) for one chill/Disney Springs day and 2 days of the Epcot Flower and Garden Festival. The only pre-booked restaurant we have is Flying Fish one night, and the rest will be eating and drinking our way around Epcot. 
    The suite concierge on Mariner contacted me about a week out, and has taken care of our specialty dining reservations. We haven’t eaten in the MDR in a long time, so I won’t be reviewing the new menus. So far we have Jamie’s Italian, Chops, Izumi hibachi, and will probably do Chef’s Table one night. I also pre-booked the Taste of Royal lunch which is offered on the last sea day.

   So because it’s May the 4th these are coming with us. These are not the droids you’re looking for…

[Kathscof]

sounds like a great trip with a cruise AND Disney!

[simon.hed]

Mariner is a great ship, enjoy!

[orville99]

3 hours ago, Kteacher said:

So far we have Jamie’s Italian, Chops, Izumi hibachi, and will probably do Chef’s Table one night.

Don't forget Playmakers as a dining option. If they are still doing the dinner stir fry in WJ, it is well worth a look.

[Kteacher]

3 hours ago, orville99 said:

Don't forget Playmakers as a dining option. If they are still doing the dinner stir fry in WJ, it is well worth a look.

Thank you! I think we are going to try there for lunch on the first day 👍

[Kteacher]

   So we haven’t flown into MCO since 2019. Terminal C is beautiful, but it is huge. Lots of escalators needed to get from here to there. We had pre-booked Cocoa Beach Shuttle to get us from MCO to Homewood Suites in Cape Canaveral, and I was very happy with their service- great communication, clean van, friendly driver. I would definitely use them again.

   Homewood Suites is exactly what you expect with a Homewood Suites. I was surprised there wasn’t a safe in the room. Front desk staff are very helpful. 
    Dinner was a quick walk to Zarrella’s, and it was excellent. I started with the meatball ricotta (delicious, but it’s sauce, not gravy), then had a margharita pizza with prosciutto. My husband had a rib eye special which he said was excellent as well. No photo of the meatball due to devouring it so quickly :

   

[RedSails1968]

If you marry an Italian, you quickly find out there is red gravy and there is brown gravy!

[Kathscof]

Just now, RedSails1968 said:

If you marry an Italian, you quickly find out there is red gravy and there is brown gravy!

hahaha and in Italy there is no...."gravy" hahahaha

 

biscuits and gravy though? that's white 🙂 

[George C]

Sounds like we have the same favorite grand suite 1600 on brilliance, we did a 12 day European cruise a few years ago. 

[Kteacher]

1 hour ago, RedSails1968 said:

If you marry an Italian, you quickly find out there is red gravy and there is brown gravy!

I’m the fiery Italian in the family, no gravy in our household unless it goes on turkey on Thanksgiving 😂

[George C]

1 hour ago, Kteacher said:

I’m the fiery Italian in the family, no gravy in our household unless it goes on turkey on Thanksgiving 😂

I am Italian and nobody in my family calls pasta sauce “gravy “

[RedSails1968]

1 hour ago, George C said:

I am Italian and nobody in my family calls pasta sauce “gravy “

Well, I guess that is old-fashioned now, my mother-in-law always called it red gravy or brown gravy. In-law’s parents came to Brooklyn from Calabria. 

[George C]

11 minutes ago, RedSails1968 said:

Well, I guess that is old-fashioned now, my mother-in-law always called it red gravy or brown gravy. In-law’s parents came to Brooklyn from Calabria. 

My grandma was born in Sicily in 1870 came to Brooklyn in the 1890’s and passed in 1966. Will be back in New York City in a couple of weeks to get some real Italian food.

[Kteacher]

Another nice walk to a local place for dinner, this time Preacher Bar. Cool vibe, good food, love that they use old album covers for menus

[Kteacher]

  We’re trying to balance chill and active days on this trip, and today was our more active day. I’m a newly retired (just since December!) public school educator, and when I found out the induction ceremony for the Astronaut Hall of Fame was happening today at the Kennedy Space Center the elementary educator science geek in me was like, omg I need to go. We were able to get pretty good seats for the ceremony, so we were able to see Roy Bridges and Mark Kelly inducted. I would have loved to see more Artemis stuff, but I guess we’ll just need to make another trip down. If you’re not a science geek like me apologies for my fan girl mode here.

   We decided on an early dinner at Grills, so dined on some excellent grilled cobia and watched a few ships sail out. 
   Tomorrow is a chill day, shifting some of the contents of our luggage around, and sitting poolside. I signed us up already for the shuttle to the pier Monday morning. There is a big sign in the hotel lobby with a QR code to scan. You need to book prior to midnight the day before your cruise. After you scan the QR code you can choose your pick up time, with the earliest time being 10:30. Cost is 10.00 pp. 

   

[Kteacher]

[Kteacher]

   It’s cruise day! The weather is gorgeous today ☀️. Yesterday was such a chill day that we just ended up by the pool and a return visit to Grill’s for some more seafood and a view of the ships sailing out.

   I’m looking forward to seeing what the RS experience is on an older ship/shorter itinerary. We usually book GS on Royal, but this trip is to officially kick off my retirement so wanted to do something a little more special. 
    We didn’t purchase any internet packages, but have some free internet for D+ status. I plan on taking lots of photos of the RS as well as specialty dining experiences. The plan for today is get settled into the cabin, Playmaker’s for some lunch, a little pool time, and Jamie’s Italian for dinner. Our meals are timed for 7 so if we do go to the shows they will be the late performance.

   The Wonder was the first to sail out, and was behind where we were sitting, so didn’t get a good photo. We’ll be on MSC Meraviglia this June to try out the YC and watched the MSC Seaside sail out-

[Kteacher]

Well, yesterday was a day (in a good way!) We shuttled to the ship a little before 10:30, quick trip up the ramp and through security.  The suite concierge had flagged our account so she would know when we arrived. We were at pier 5, and there is a smaller room to the right for suite and pinnacle check in. Once checked in the lovely suite concierge,Jennifer, took us right to the front of the line, onto the ship, had someone from our muster station come and check us off and then whisked us up to our stateroom.

  All I can say is -wow! The RS is something to see. Hope my photos do it justice. We unpacked our carryons, played with some of the lights and then went down to Playmakers for our first cocktails and some jerk chicken wings and onion rings.

   The staff at Playmakers are great! We also met some first time cruisers and after a nice time at Playmakers invited them to our RS for champagne and sail away. 
   Dinner was Jamie’s and it was outstanding. So outstanding that I forgot to take any pictures of the food 😑, but did get a photo of what looked like a double sunset from where we were sitting, and well, May the 4th be with you always. We ended the evening with the ice show, which was great. So far the cruise and stateroom had exceeded expectations 👍.

[Kteacher]

Btw, the cocktail is a Black and Gold (I think that’s what it was called), bourbon, peach, and a little bit of sour mix. Very yummy-

[Kteacher]

 One of my favorite activities on a cruise is to book another cruise. I’ve been watching availability of the cornet aft GS on a few sailings in 2025 and was able to get #1600 on the Radiance out of Tampa that even has some new to us ports 👍. They are offering 300.00 obc, and there is a raffle for an additional 100.00 obc if you book the first 2 days of the cruise.

   We’re planning on Jamie’s for lunch today, then Izumi hibachi for dinner tonight. Beautiful seas and skies, so just relaxing on the balcony for now .

[George C]

Great pictures, I think you will enjoy MSc yacht club , we are looking forward to doing that again. 

[SG65CB]

Waiting for video of your piano recital...

[Kteacher]

   Lunch at Jamie’s was wonderful, and I can’t say enough about how great the staff are in this ship. We ate “kind of” light. I’m Italian, so “I’m just going to put out a few snacks means a groaning board of food. I do love a nice spritz in the afternoon, and instead of Aperol I highly recommend a limoncello spritz. Very refreshing. 
   We noticed there was a “Women of Wine” tasting this afternoon, so were of course intrigued. That is our next stop today.

[George C]

Glad you liked Jamie’s we will do it on harmony for the first time in November, as a fellow Italian I am picky about my Italian food. Got the UDP. 

[Kteacher]

1 hour ago, George C said:

Glad you liked Jamie’s we will do it on harmony for the first time in November, as a fellow Italian I am picky about my Italian food. Got the UDP. 

I liked it better than Celebrity Tuscan Grille 👍