LIVE FROM THE MARINER 11/12 (precruise)

[jensue1]

Thanks Pootersmom - I have so enjoyed reading your reviews! It is so good of you to take time out of your vacation to do this. My friend and I will be sailing on the Mariner on the New Years cruise and we have loved reading your reviews! :)

 

Jenny

[HunnyBunnyTink]

Thanks for the reviews! only one more month until my cruise.

[Pootersmom]

Well, we are home. Just read our roll call and saw where one of our members on the roll call won the bingo 7-day cash price (AND a free cruise), and another became champion karaeoke singer.

 

Overall the trip was excellent. Here is the review for the last day.

 

Day Seven, Final Day, Sea Day

 

So day six was the 2nd formal night. First, a recap of last nights midnight buffet. It was beautiful. A LOT of ice sculptures and watermelon carvings, great for picture taking. I will be sure to post those when we return home.

 

Today is one of those days where you are a little sad because you know the voyage is coming to an end, and yet you want to enjoy as much of your remaining time on board ship as you can. It has been very rainy all day long today and the ship is rocking a bit.

 

We had breakfast in the Windjammer. I visited Ricardo for a few minutes in the concierge lounge. We went and picked out the pictures from the gallery we wanted to purchase.

 

We had a lunch date with out dinner table mates at Johnny Rockets at 12:30.Royal Caribbean TV is broadcasting information about departure on it’s channel today, so any questions you may have at the end of your voyage will most likely be covered.

 

It started to rain pretty hard and the ships has a steady rock to it, but I have not felt any ill effects from it. A lot of the originally scheduled activities have been moved indoors. We went back and began packing and filled our tip envelopes. More really old movies for DH. I took a short nap and soon it will be time to get ready for dinner.

 

We ran into a couple of our cruise critic members that helped me answer a few questions I have been asked. The 6’4” tall man said the beds were plenty long enough for him. The 6’7” man (who admitted he came on vacation to catch up on some sleep) says that his feet hung off the end of the bed. The total passenger capacity is 3700 and we were at 2900 passengers this week (give or take a few) There are a total of 1,557 staterooms (939 ocean view, and 765 of those with balconies), 618 interior, 138 of those with Promenade view. There are 26 wheelchair accessible staterooms.

 

This week we consumed 20,000 lbs, of beef, 12,000 lbs of chicken, 5,000 lbs of pork, 1,400 lbs of lobster, 4,000 lbs 0f seafood, 2,500 lbs of salmon, 28,000 fresh egs. 15,000 lbs of four, 4,300 lbs of sugar, 1,500 lbs of coffee, 35,000 lbs of fresh fruit (there’s MY contribution), 65,000 lbs of fresh vegetables, 8,000 gal of ice cream, 5,800 lbs of cheese. 10,700 bottles of beer (wait, we’re not done yet) 11,500 CANS of beer, 2,900 bottles of wine, 200 bottles of whiskey.

 

They have their own Sea-Water Desalination system on board and the water was VERY, very good. The iced tea was excellent, which was a surprise. For the southerners on board, it IS unsweetened, but once you sweeten it, it has a very good, sweet, flavor to it. Lemonade was good too. After a week of the coffee, I have come to the conclusion that it is not very good, unless you make it very sweet and very light. It is just too strong.

 

After day two I had hot showers whenever I wanted them, and even two long hot baths. The tub is a smidgen shorter than I like, but much deeper.

The mini fridge will cool better if you keep the cabinet door open that the mini fridge sits in.

 

They no longer do galley tours due to Home Land Security rules. They only do the bridge tours for members that reach the Diamond Plus status (so many cruises under your belt that you are on a first name basis with all staff members). Once you reach Diamond Plus status, you receive an invitation for a tour of the bridge.

 

Well, it is time to go get ready for our last dinner on board the ship.

 

We went to the Concierge Lounge (by the way, forgot to mention. Today is Ricardo’s birthday. By the time I get to post this, it will probably be too late to wish him a happy birthday on time). We met two of our table mates in there. Tonight the lounge was quite busy….the busiest I have seen it since we have been on this voyage. Our tablemates said that they came to the lounge every night for a cocktail before dinner. We usually went there late in the evening or once or twice for the continental breakfast, so we had never run into them there.

 

Dinner was good. We exchanged addresses with our tablemates and gave our gratuities to our dining room attendants and the head waiter, Elena. We have been very fortunate; an exceptional wait staff, excellent food and the best dinner time companions one could hope to have. Tonight, most of our table had the New York Strip, which was very good, and a couple of us had the Mahi Mahi Tempura which was also good. DH had the key lime pie for dessert and I had the banana nut parfait, both very good.

 

We came back to the room and filled out our Guest Satisfaction Surveys. There was very little I had to complain about. We did mention that the refrigerators could stand to get a little colder, that they ought to consider offering Pepsi products (fat chance) and that they might want to consider sacrificing the number of ports of calls, for longer stays at each one. I mentioned that they might want to sacrifice the number of ports for longer stays in each port. A lot of people have expressed that it is too hurried and we agree. I also mentioned that in the Windjammer buffet, where they list the names of the items behind the glass, that they ought to find a way to make them more visible for people that are in wheelchairs or not as tall as it can make identifying some items rather challenging.

 

We packed everything and placed our bags out in the hallway by about 11:00. We had put in a 6:30 wake up call. It had been my vision to get up and go down and have a light breakfast and coffee in the Windjammer and then go way by the gangplank area at about 8:00. Our color and number was not due to be called before then. But DH was anxious to wait at the gangplank, so we parked ourselves against the wall (all the seats were taken) and waited an hour and 15 minutes for them to call our color. We were off the ship in less than 3 minutes after that and into the customs within the next five. Then to the carousel to get out bags. DH is kind of pushy at times like that and insisted that I get out of the way so taht he could be the one to grab the bags and hand them off to the porter (this is an important detail).

 

I waited near the luggage loading area and he got the car and pulled it up and we were on our way in just a couple of minutes. I was driving and he plugged his phone up to charge. We got to right about Daytona (headed North) when his cell phone rang. That would have been about an hour and 15 minutes after we had left. A woman said that we had her garment bag, because she had ours. A quick pull off at the next exit confirmed that she was correct (like....how ELSE would she have gotten our number). We raced BACK to Port Canaveral and DH had to go in and make the switcheroo......The only comment I had to make then and that I have to make now is I am so happy it was not ME that had taken the bags off of the carousel or it would have been one hell of a long ride home!!!!

 

One last thing I conclusion I want to make about Portofino's and Chop's. Don't book them back-2-back. It's too much too close together. If you plan to do both, put one at the beginning of the cruise, and the other at the end of the cruise.

 

If you have any questions, I would be happy to answer them.

 

Now to some pictures.

 

This first one is the parade of chef's on the second formal night.

 

 

Some gala buffet pictures.

 

 

 

[Pootersmom]

duplicate post

[WeirdEyes]

GREAT review and pictures! Thanks so much for sharing. :D

[Pootersmom]

Ooops...made a mistake. That was not a picture of the parade of chefs on formal night. That was a picture of the parade of the wait staff on the last night.

 

THIS is a picture of the parade of chefs on the 2nd formal night.

 

 

more pictures of the gala buffet.

 

 

 

 

http://i140.photobucket.com/albums/r13/Teriatcbs/Day%20Seven%20Sea%20Day/IMG_0580.jpg

[cruzobsessed]

boy can i relate to your luggage story!!!:D your husband and my husband must belong to the "same club".

i'll be on the mariner for christmas. really loved your review and even more glad that there were no complaints. by the way.....did your husband have any complaints?

[Pootersmom]

boy can i relate to your luggage story!!!:D your husband and my husband must belong to the "same club".

i'll be on the mariner for christmas. really loved your review and even more glad that there were no complaints. by the way.....did your husband have any complaints?

 

 

You mean besides with his traveling companion???? He didn't like the hurried pace and the walking from event to event. This is an important detail that not too many of us can do anything about. YOU may have big plans of doing "this" or seeing "that" or going "here" and making it to "there"....but if your traveling companion has other ideas.............you ain't gonna do all the things you thought you were gonna do. DH SAYS his only complaints were the tours were not long enough at each port of call and the refrigerator not being cold enough. But I was there when he grumbled and mumbled and heaved heavy sighs, but then again, I think that had more to do with the incompatibility with his traveling companion than anything about the Royal Caribbean or the Mariner itself.

 

now more pictures

This next picture didn't post on the last post, so I am going to try it again because it was so spectacular.

 

 

 

This next picture is of a mother and daughter (Joanne and Stephanie) from our roll call. I feel so sorry for them. They HAD to go to Disney World for a week after they got off the ship.......now they won't get to suffer the post cruise blues with the rest of us.

 

 

And finally, the best table mates we could have asked for. I looked forward to seeing them each night and sharing notes about our day and hearing what they had been up to. Very, very nice people who will forever be a part of our Mariner Cruise Experience.

 

[maps]

Have to agree with your coffee assessment--it was awful! Especially since they did not have cream or half & half, just milk.

 

Well, guess what? We finished breakfast the last day when we overheard a lady at the next table complain about how strong the coffee is.

 

The waiter says "No problem, I can make you a special light roast".

 

NOW he tells us!!! Wish we had know that earlier in the cruise!

[maxs mom]

Hey There! Fellow Tar Heel here. Loved the garment bag story. Sounds like something that would happen to us!

 

We'd like to go to Chops.....probably on Caribbean Night. Do you happen to remember which night that is?

 

Thanks for your wonderful reports.

 

Welcome home!

[Pootersmom]

Wednesday night was Caribbean night and the following night was "feast of nations" or something like that. That is how I selected the two nights for Portofinos and Chops.....but in retrospect.......should have just done one or spaced them out. I like Chops just a tad bit better for the food, but the service was exceptional at Portofinos. They seemed much more relaxed with the service also....Chops seemed harried and it was slow and disorganized.

[cruzobsessed]

have you booked another cruise yet? :D

[Pootersmom]

No haven't book another one yet, but when we do it will either be the Western Caribbean on the Mariner or perhaps the Freedom.

[Pootersmom]

Okay, I promised pics of the BOB excursion once I had them developed and scanned. By the way, they are changing the name to BOSS (Breathing Observation submersible scooter). Here they are.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Pootersmom]

More of Bob

 

 

 

 

PIRATES! LOL

[Soxfan05]

Thank you so much for writing such a wonderful review and sharing pics. We are leaving next Sunday on the Mariner and spending Saturday night at the Radisson. Your pics and info have really given us a lift and we are looking forward to the trip.