All Things Mariner Of The Seas

[jstpshe]

New to posting - Im not sure if I'm doing this right. We booked a cruise on Mariner and I am confused about the dress code. I don't want to pack a suit for my husband if I don't have too because of the airline restrictions on luggage. I just read where there aren't many guys in suits even on formal night. Can you help? Also, I'm wondering about the shows - if they are every night and if the ice show is every night.

 

Thanks a bunch

 

He can get by with a nice pair of dress slacks and just a shirt. My husband has done it on our some of our cruises and you can just wear a dress, skirt or pantsuit if you prefer.

[Cisco333]

I think it would be easy to just wear a sports coat on the plane if you don't want to pack a suit....while still not formal that would be better than just a shirt and tie. Also there are other places to eat on the ship if you don't care to dress formal. I don't think they will turn you away if you are dressed casual . I think the cruises I have been on at least 80 to 90 percent have suits or tuxs on. You will definitely be in the minority if dressed casual. Maybe they will change the dress code soon.

[vplsh]

We were on Mariner last week and there were many men wearing suits and tuxedos on formal night, but quite a few in either sportcoats or slacks and shirt. We were surprised by the informal dress of people on the other nights, however. On the first night at the table next to us, the men were wearing shorts and t-shirts and one even had on a baseball cap. No one said a word.

 

My feeling is, if you have a dress code you should enforce it. Otherwise, what's the point?

[ssb]

If a suitable dry dock facility is found, perhaps for a long time. If no suitable dry dock facility is found, the Mariner may leave the west coast around 2014 (when the larger locks in the Panama Canal are open for business).

 

No!

Mariner will dry dock in Europe October 2011 according to schedule.

Leave on TA from Rome for Galveston Oct 2011 after dry dock.

[Prairiegrove]

Thanks for the help. I agree - if they have rules they should be enforced. That is why the question came up for me. I was reading that not very many people were abiding by the "formal wear" guides on the cruise sites. I hate to pack!

[Mary09]

Does having someone dressed casually shatter the illusion of 'Cinderella at the ball' for those dressed formally or something? I was born without the 'dress up' gene and am genuinely curious.

[Cisco333]

I don't know but I would guess it is not the dressing up part that really bothers people rather the not following the rules...some people like to follow rules some like to break them .

[chloemonkey]

:D This was such a great idea that ChristieNJ had for the Explorer that I decided to start a Mariner thread. So lets here from all you cruisers. Past cruisers, cruisers to be, present cruisers, lets here your stories, ideas, questions, comments, and share those pictures people!!! I hope everyone enjoyes!!!!:D

 

Hope this is the correct place to post our opinion on our recent cruise to the Mexican Riviera on MOS - if not I am sure that you will let me know!

 

Suites - We had daughters and my parents in four owner's suites and we were in the Royal. The Owner's Suites are nice - but the furniture is looking shabby.....Royal Suite is always great but again, the furniture really needs to be redone....only one remote for two televisions - were told that one was "out" for repairs....problem was that you could only operate the tvs with the remote control so we were always running back and forth from the bedroom to the living room in order to find the remote. A couple of doors in the master bath would not close properly....the refrigerator would not cool anything....the temperature (thermostat?) would not work....little things really but frustrating when you spend that much money.

 

We LOVED Allan, the Concierge! And that lounge was the highlight of our trip! Although honestly.....they served the same frozen shrimp and quiche appetizers EVERY DAY! Seems like they could change it up a bit. But Allan and his "crew" were the best! We looked forward to going in there just to see those guys...

 

Suite guests were supposed to get appetizers/treats delivered to their rooms.....two or three of the suites got them twice - we NEVER received any. Again, not a big thing but disappointing as in you would think they would not leave the Royal Suite out.....The cabin steward (Carl) was ok but not the best by a long shot.

 

Ports - What can we say? It is the same thing as usual but we love just getting off of the ship and going to a nice hotel on the beach.....BUT thanks to all of you for recommending Krystal Hotel for massages! We thought the beach just "ok" but the staff and massages were abolutely wonderful! 75 minutes for $40......We will do that again for sure next trip!

 

Casino - We all are BIG gamblers....at least 9 out of the 11 of us. And we foung the casino to be quite "loose" compared to other cruises. May just have been the "luck of the draw" but whatever.....Video poker is my favorite and I hit 4 Aces with the kicker and a Royal Flush on dollar machines.....and my son hit another Royal - all three daughters hit 4 aces...one with the kicker.....sorry for those of you that don't understand this lingo! But the video poker players will understand! That was a TON of jackpots (a few over $4000) to pay out on one trip! Staff also was nice about paying out. Sometimes you get casino workers who behave as though it is THEIR money that they are handing out! Player's Club however is a joke......I had 5000 points before they even acknowledged that I "may" qualify for something. We laughed at the list of "perks" as I think you had to have 2000 points in order to qualify for a $5 drink at the bar...and THEN you had to go to the cashier, get a voucher, go to a specific bar to turn it in.....really ridiculous when you are spending thousands of dollars at the tables and in the machines. NCL was much better at perks and even Carnival - although we havent' sailed Carnival in a few years so they may have changed their policy. I love to gamble so the perks are not a priority but RCI's Player's Club is a joke. After ONE cruise on Carnival and ONE cruise on NCL I was offered FREE suites on my next cruise! And on this one I got $40 cash back for my level of play. But again, I will gamble no matter what and we did win quite a lot that kept us playing.....won't say how much we brought home!

 

FOOD - This is really the low part of my review. I can't imagine how much worse cruise food can get. And I keep telling myself that unless you had experience cruising 20 - 30 years ago and don't know the differene, that it may seem fine to others BUT my son in law has only been cruising with us for 7 years and he also laughed at how bad the food was. We ate at the specialty restaurants three times as it was better there - but seriously......the food was really pretty bad in both the dining room and the Windjammer. We ate at Johnny Rockets three times as it was the best option that we could find for lunch. I am not sure if this is the case on all cruise lines but we though NCL had better food last October......

 

Eggs Benedict were only served twice? during the trip. My husband could not ever find anyone to make over easy eggs......one time he went to the omelet station where they proceeded to fry him an egg - but they broke the yolk on purpose....maybe they just don't know what "over easy" is.....Lobster too was only offered as a small portion of a seafood entree one time...it was ok - but you would have thought that they were handing out gold.

 

Desserts were so bad that most of us just had ice cream each night....

 

SERVICE - Waiters were great! We brought along my 18 year old autistic son for the first time and EVERYONE made sure that he had something that he wanted to eat - even if it meant going to the regular kitchen to get macaroni and cheese when there was nothing on the specialty restaurants that he would eat....they always called him by name and it was truly wonderful to see how warmly he was treated. And I understand that the waiters have nothing to do with the quality of the food and so we were still happy to have them work so hard and be so friendly and accomodating. We had very little interaction with the CD, etc. but they all seemed ok.

 

We attended the cocktail party for suite guests and NO officer ever came over to our table. I thought that was rude and we all figured that we would have been better staying in the Concierge lounge with Allan! But there are alwasy some guests that "hog" the officers and that may be while they were not able to get to every table.

 

CAPTAIN JOHNNY - Seemed like a real kick! But again....I found that he talked a little too much! He really seems to LOVE the microphone!

 

ACTIVITIES - Same stuff - different day.....Couldn't some cruise line come up with anything new? The belly flop contest, hairy legs....art auction....And don't get me wrong, I think all of these are fine but for those of us that have "been there done that" it seems as though they could come up with something else...

 

SHOWS - Didn't go.....we are boring fold who just love to eat, enjoy the sun and beaches, gamble and eat! Sad to see that the "eating" portion is not very enjoyable anymore.

 

SHIP - nice layout! It was hard to realize how many people were onboard as no area was ever very crowded. So I think that they do a great job of handling the "flows" unless you happened to be near the shops when they were having sales! Oh! shops! The selection HAS to be pretty bad if my four daughters have trouble finding things to buy on my credit card!

 

We had a great time - which is all you can ask for. My only thought is that we will not do RCI anytime soon. I cannot understand how their prices are so much higher than competitors as they really do not bring anything to the table to justify it. I think that in time their numbers may drop and they will have to choose to either reduce their prices OR up the ante a bit to make the additional cost worthwhile.

 

For suites, I would have to say that NCL has much more to offer. And we liked the food much better on NCL as well. We just do this yearly Mexican Riviera trip due to the ease of getting this large group to the port without the hassle of flying, etc. But we will have to re-address next year's plans as even if RCI were going to be doing Mexico again next summer, I would not choose them again.

 

So that's my take on things....and I know that some will disagree. But that is fine too! Again, we had fun and although it seems as though most of the staff onboard are "trying" they just miss the mark in too many areas for me to try them again anytime soon.

[CRUISING71]

Thanks for the review, we will be on the cruise soon...

 

Did you book the massage at Krystal in advance?

[Mary09]

Thanks for the review.

 

I've done the Krystal massage. Nice! We did book them in advance.

[chloemonkey]

Thanks for the review, we will be on the cruise soon...

 

Did you book the massage at Krystal in advance?

 

No - we hired a car and driver for the day as my dad can't walk TOO far..and we had him take us to the resort. We inquired at the desk and were then taken in a large golf cart thing to the spa. They said that they had quite a few cruise passengers that had NOT shown up and could therefore accomodate 6 of us within an hour and a half and the rest of our group around 30 minutes after that. But in the future, I think that I WILL reserve in advance as maybe we just lucked out?

 

Ask for Leonardo...he is the manager and was just great! They seem to do two people per room so we had to break up into pairs. I ended up with my 18 year old autistic son and this was his first experience with a massage. I explained (in my not so great spanish!) his disability and the women could not have been nicer. I was worried that he may jump up or not understand but he seemed to totally enjoy it and the ladies said that he behaved perfectly.

 

Just to show how accomodating they are.....they were SO nice to all of us but also to our son! And again, all 6 of us thought this to be the best massage that we ever experienced - and we have been to lots of great hotels and spas!

 

So ask for Leonardo and book it now! You are going to have a great time and we are SO glad that we finally took the time out to stop at Krystals for the massages!

 

Ok - I am getting depressed just thinking about where I was LAST week this time! But now it is YOUR turn! Have fun and I wish you the perfect weather that we had too! Heard that the Carnival ship had to miss Cabo (as per Captain Johnny) due to storm that we just sailed in front of I guess!

 

I will be thinking of you! And dreaming of our next cruise too..

[Cuizer2]

No!

Mariner will dry dock in Europe October 2011 according to schedule.

Leave on TA from Rome for Galveston Oct 2011 after dry dock.

 

You pulled up a six month old post. I am well aware that the schedule has changed since January of this year.

[TOTHETUNE]

We just returned from Mexican Riviera on Mariner. First time cruise for us. It was the best vacation we ever had. Gorgeous ship. We had 2 balconies on 6.

Regarding excursions, I would pass on the Mazatlan Los Moras horseback.

At Puerto vallarta we took the fun and sun catamaran cruise (through Royal), it was excellent.

At Cabo, my son did the dolphin swim and loved it. We took a water taxi to Pelican beach and rented snorkels there, lots of fish on a reef less than 100ft from the beach. On our return home there was a Carnival ship following us that couldn't get in to Cabo because of rough seas.

One last thing, DO NOT volunteer for the Quest. :D

[CRUISING71]

We just returned from Mexican Riviera on Mariner. First time cruise for us. It was the best vacation we ever had. Gorgeous ship. We had 2 balconies on 6.

Regarding excursions, I would pass on the Mazatlan Los Moras horseback.

At Puerto vallarta we took the fun and sun catamaran cruise (through Royal), it was excellent.

At Cabo, my son did the dolphin swim and loved it. We took a water taxi to Pelican beach and rented snorkels there, lots of fish on a reef less than 100ft from the beach. On our return home there was a Carnival ship following us that couldn't get in to Cabo because of rough seas.

One last thing, DO NOT volunteer for the Quest. :D

 

I guess someone volunteer and had too much fun and don't want to share? :p

[SherriffJoe]

I don't know but I would guess it is not the dressing up part that really bothers people rather the not following the rules...some people like to follow rules some like to break them .

 

Dress "suggestions" as the cruise line puts it are not rules but merely what they say they are, suggestions.

[Cisco333]

Well then maybe it is that some people don't follow suggestions that bothers people. Seems to be more suggestion followers on Celebity ships but then Celebrity enforces their suggestions...my husband was turned away on formal night at the after show..when he changed to shorts after dinner..must stay formal all night on that cruise line ....or they were enforcing their suggestions that day. Can any royal caribbean quests recall anyone being turned away from dinner for not following the suggested dress code or is it anything goes?

[Shippy]

Just off less than 2 months ago. Had a great table by the railing on the 3rd floor with early, traditional dining. Did you have assigned dining?

I like ice with my wine. After the first night there was automatically a glass of ice at my place plus camomile tea at the end of my meal. Most of us got seconds on the lobster !

We ate in the main dining room every morning & got perfectly cooked eggs over easy.

We also loved the fruit bar there in the morning & the salad bar on port days.

The cookies at the promanade cafe were fabulous.

 

As far as the casino, sounds like you are much bigger players than us. It is AFTER your first qualifing cruise that the players club really kicks in. You only need 2300 points on a 7 day cruise to qualify, with your 5000 you should really get some good offers. They will send you a Club Royale card in the mail. On your next cruise, show it the first time you go to the casino. They will put a sticker on it for free drinks in the casino for the rest of the cruise.

The casino host sent a bottle of wine to our table one night.

I also just recieved $350. casino credit for my next cruise.

 

We had a junior suite & from what you say....it would be better than a more expensive one !

Sorry you experience was not good. We have already booked our next RCCL cruise !

[ssjvejita1]

Hi! Quick question for all you Mariner lovers :) My wife and I are consider the TA cruise out of Miami in May of 2012. I was wondering if anyone could comment on if the Mariner would be a good ship for a TA cruise and what the weather will be like at sea in May. Will we be able to use the pool? Also, do we have to worry about the fact that the ship is dry docked directly before the cruise? At first I thought it was a good thing but the more I'm looking people don't seem to like the first cruise after dry dock. Thanks for the help everybody.

[wolfganghowell]

Taking a cruise after a dry dock really depends on how much work they are doing in the common areas and interiors. It's possible that if they are not finished, they may still be doing work and some areas could be unavailable. It's a calculated risk I guess. Mariner is a very nice ship. That's a pretty short dry dock though so there may not be a lot going on.

[Sequim88]

ssjvejita1,

We are on the cruise you are considering. I have researched the dry dock bit already and consensus is the benefits (possible new beds, TVs, furniture, maintenance issues fixed, etc...) outweigh possible lingering work. Our last TA was PRE-dry dock and they were doing work already ahead of that. We have a very active (for 10+ months out) Meet & Mingle group and answers to many questions people have posted. Having done a TA on Radiance class I am eager to try Mariner. Larger, more to do on sea days.

 

But if you are going to book this do so very soon because it is filling up fast. Suites have sold out (except maybe a few JS) as has all the E catagories (loooking at RCi reservation page). Price has also been climbing as it has been filling and is now $300 more than when we booked.

 

So if you book it come on over to the M&M thread. One member has set up a special web site just for this sailing and lots of links to resources for ports. Also hsa organized various activities like Pub and Room crawls, slot pull event and group lunches in MDR. We also have over 40 people signed up (already!) for a M&M event sponsored by RCI.

[awhcruiser]

Can't wait to see the Mariner in Galveston next year.....

[lgonquin]

Can't wait to see the Mariner in Galveston next year.....

 

Us too! Looking forward to March 2012. Already joined the Roll Call you started.

 

How about some input from recent Mariner cruisers. Tell us how the old girl is holding up. Are the Europeans treating her with respect;)?

[oldmedic]

thanks for the info!!

[B J]

We just did the Voyager TA in May and several days there were a lot of people by the pool. It was quite windy at times and we had a little rain but it was a great cruise. I personally did not ever need a jacket but I did notice some with light jackets or sweaters on.

 

B J

[Rutheth]

Just wondered if anyone had any opinions on the current cruise out of Rome? Hoping to book for end of July.

 

Thanks.