REVIEW: Mariner 9-night Western Caribbean cruise, 8/29 - 9/7

[lovingmom]

Okay Ladies, Don't get too excited! They only stripped down at the last minute and danced for about 45 seconds in their underwear before heading off stage! What I'd really like to know is how the 4 lucky ladies got chairs around the dance floor and therefore were front row for the "lap dances"!!! :eek: :D :D

 

To answer someone's question earlier, although I didn't see the water park up close, it didn't look like much there. I think it is more a place for younger kids to have some fun. From the tender viewpoint, it didn't look to be a very big space, but I could be wrong. I know there is something like a rubber "iceberg" that you climb on. Don't know what else is there.

 

Gosh, Helen, why didn't you tell me about the chocolate bomb??? I would of loved to have tried one of those!! :p Maybe next time! Aaah, you are making me cry, I miss the Mariner so much!

 

I can't believe the devastation the hurricane caused at GC. It is almost unbelievable, thinking that we were there just the week before, and, from what I have read, all of those stores are damaged and the road we were on was washed away. I also read somewhere that the Atlantis building you wrote about was completely destroyed and is no longer there. I don't know if that is true or not. I haven't had a chance to get my pictures developed yet, but I am glad to hear that your water camera produced great photos, because I have two of the same kind to develop!

[bassetdaddy]

You know reindeer, I have been on 18 or 19 cruises. I certainly know the ropes and don't need detailed advice from a review....then how come I read them? Because when a review is written as lovingly and as detailed as yours, it takes me back to sea for the time that I am reading. Your details become my vacation....until I can sail again!

 

Thanks so much for this!

[Bargeo]

Ditto bassetdaddy...........well said!!!! Waiting for the next installment.

[Jacquelyn11]

I've finally gotten around to reading your review, njreindeer! It's been a nice reprive from all the news of hurricane storm damage. Our turn on the Mariner is not till next may, and I hope all the ports we visit will be back to the beautiful, pristene condition as when you visited. God be with all those folks during the clean up!

 

Looking forward to the next installment!

 

Jacquelyn :D

[njreindeer]

Hi everyone,

 

Just want to thank you all for the nice things you're all saying about my review! I'm sorry it's so painstakingly slow in coming, but you can probably see the times of day I'm writing the installments - mostly way after midnight - and the later the day gets the slower my mind clicks these days. :p

 

Dolores thanks sooooo much for filling in the details for me about the water park and the Mariner Men show! I think you and your kids definitely did some different things than we did so please, feel free to add and amend as you see fit! I haven't had a chance to go over to our old board yet but was hoping to hear how everyone was doing. It was so great to meet you onboard... Hope your kids had the time of their lives, I know we did.

 

LLM - we spent almost exactly two hours at dinner in Chops (and well worth every minute!). Were were in Portofino's almost three hours but a lot of that was just swapping stories after dinner with our new friends. No matter how booked the specialty restaurants are, we noticed that they didn't try to nudge us out of our seats after dinner, which we thought was great. So dinner will really be at your own pace.

 

triplemom3 - Thanks for asking but no, not an author by trade... unless writing memos, procedural manuals and 30-second radio promos counts. :)

 

Thanks again for all of your kind words. I'm having a blast recounting all of the wonder that was our cruise. I notice that I just get carried away when I'm remembering all the happenings and have asked Dru so many times if this thing sounds way too narcissistic, just because it's all "I did" and "I think," but he keeps reminding me that a review is as subjective as you get and this is what people want to hear. I know that, before our cruise, I devoured every sentence of ever Mariner review I could find, so..... I just hope I'm helping you all get a good picture of life onboard. It's a very happy place to be! :D

 

We're going to a wedding today so I hope to get the next installment or two posted by tomorrow. Can't wait to share it with you!

 

Happy cruising! :)

[njreindeer]

Friday 9/3 - Cruise Day 6: Cozumel

When dawn broke, we not only found ourselves in beautiful Cozumel but docked about 20’ away from li’l sister ship Rhapsody of the Seas. Being neophyte cruisers I guess we shouldn’t have assumed that all ships are decorated the same, and we realized our folly when we peered over to Rhapsody’s pool deck. While the ship looked charming (cute compared to our amazon girl), her pool deck was bland – where we had splashy bright colors and fanciful artwork, she had concrete, period. I’m sure she’s a beauty inside, but up on the pool deck there was no comparison, the Mariner was engaging and stunning while Rhapsody was just colorless and bland (think loaded Nachos at Chi-Chi’s vs steamed white rice from your favorite Chinese takeout place).

Being so close to Rhapsody, we felt like we could jump from our balcony to the occupied one across the dock from us, it was that close. We were so used to our to-the-horizon ocean views that suddenly having all nature blocked by deck after deck of orderly rooms and dining spots seemed almost claustrophobic, and we secretly wondered who we could call – Guest Relations? The Bridge? – to have our obstruction moved. ;)

Just behind our new neighbor was beautiful Cozumel, which the Captain had admitted was his favorite port of call. In port today were not only RCI ships but Carnival’s Inspiration and Conquest as well… I don’t know if everyone was scheduled to be there that day or if this was a Frances-inspired detour, but it was exciting seeing all of the ships parked so near each other, like you’d see big SUV’s in rows at the grocery store.

This was a big day for us… hot but some clouds and even a stray shower to keep things cool (good), we were still SO full from last night’s masterful dinner at Chops that we couldn’t even think about breakfast (amazing but good), we were going to explore the area’s oh-so-clear waters in a sub (very good), and yes, my Verizon cell phone had a signal! But then the bad – I had no idea just how to call the US. Being the anal-retentive cruise planner that I was for the last three months, I had thought of every detail including calling Verizon and asking about cell phones in the Caribbean. While Cozumel was the only port on the western itinerary where we could actually use my cell, I was assured by three different customer service reps (yes, I called three times just to make sure they all agreed on the details… and yes, I know – scarily beyond anal…) that my phone was all set for international calls, AND that from Mexico we need only direct-dial 1 and the US party’s area code and phone number to be connected. Now shouldn’t I have known that that was waayyy too easy? We spent the better part of the morning before our 11am sub tour trying to call first home and then US Airways only to get what sounded like a very friendly woman giving me an error message in Spanish. My high school French just didn’t cut it and the words Dru remembered in Spanish didn’t sound like anything this nice recording lady would say to us, so we decided to forget about it for now and enjoy the day in Cozumel.

We had booked the Atlantis sub excursion through RCI (when you go on Atlantis’ website, they won’t let you book directly if they know you’re coming from a cruise ship, you have to go through your cruiseline… I guess so they get their cut), and at $94 per person we were expecting a lot. I’m happy to say that, for us, it was worth the price. Upon leaving the ship (being docked at Cozumel so leaving the ship meant walking right off and onto Mexico) it was easy to find our tourgroup – we looked for a friendly man holding a sign for Atlantis. After getting a warm welcome to the group and stickers to identify us as Atlantis Submarine-bound, we waited for about fifteen minutes for the rest to join us. When everyone was assembled, he directed us to the boat Ana which would bring us out to the sub, which couldn’t be docked at a pier but in the middle of the water. It was a quick twenty minute ride out to the stark white sub, with Rene our guide who had one of the warmest smiles we had seen while in the Caribbean. He truly seemed to enjoy being with the tourists day in and out and introducing them to this new adventure. You can’t see the whole sub in the water, just the “topside” deck and entry hatch, and it was amazing to think we were going to enter this pretty tin can and go down, not skim over, the water. Being careful on the ladder down and then squishing into seats on either side of the sub, we were ready to launch. The sub was kind of cozy, like the airplane seats in Economy when you’re sandwiched between two well-fed sumo wrestlers. Once you start gazing out of your personal porthole though, the slight discomfort becomes just a memory.

The “cruise director” for the dive continually pointed out interesting sights on the port and starboard sides of the vessel, including eels, barracuda, sharks, intricate coral formations, colorful fish, and the eerie reef drop-off that goes down thousands of feet from that point. He had asked if anyone wanted to make the trip down the reef wall to the bottom, and when some instinctively answered “Yeah,” he happily announced that we could but that it would be a one-way trip… Watching the bright red depth gauges in the sub, we watched as we dove to 20 feet… 40 feet… 85 feet… all the way down to 101 feet below the surface of the water. You don’t feel a thing in the sub, in fact you could’ve told us that we were in front of an ever-changing movie screen and we wouldn’t have known the difference. And the sights, while being very bluish in color (he noted that at that depth you lose the color red), were all intriguing and flowing and beautiful. Watching the abundant daily life down there, things that are routine that we had never witnessed in the air-breathing world, was astounding.

After about forty minutes we surfaced, filed out and up in an orderly fashion, happily stretched our legs, and climbed back into the Ana. On the ride back to the dock, the skies looked menacing but we welcomed the clouds. Rene and his helper distributed certificates to everyone declaring them “submariners,” having gone to a place where that less than one-percent of the world’s population has been, and gave everyone a cup of juice followed by a shot of something strong (tequila?) to toast our new adventurer status. Back at the dock we generously tipped our guides and left the boat.

--- more to come ---

[njreindeer]

This was the day that Dru was also supposed to do the Royal Dolphin Swim – something he had really been looking forward to – but he had cancelled it, saying that he didn’t want to be rushed between the two excursions in Cozumel. He later confessed (after a few too many frozen tropical concoctions) that he had cancelled his dolphin trip in part because he wanted to make sure we had time to do something that I could actually do, since the sub didn’t involve wading, swimming or getting wet in any way. I felt soooo bad but at the same time soooo lucky for having this wonderful, thoughtful man as my husband! :D

Right at the dock there were many indoor and outdoor shops, some selling little $1 trinkets like maracas and Barbie-sized Mexican sombreros, and some selling expensive jewelry and leather goods. Make no mistake about it, in Cozumel you CAN haggle. Example – in one of the indoor marketplaces, we stopped in a jewelry store that had hundreds and hundreds of unique gemstone pieces like earrings, bracelets and rings mostly styled in Mexican silver. Ladies (and men looking to buy for your ladies), you could easily find gemstones in any color of the rainbow you were looking for (especially tanzanite, a clear, pale lavender-colored stone which is popular in the marketplaces AND in the ship’s jewelry store). I spied a pair of earrings with a lapis heart hung from a few thick silver links and asked the price: $35. When I said “no thank you,” without hesitating the seller changed the price to $25. When I still smiled and shook my head no, he immediately asked for a counter-offer – “How much do you want to spend?” That’s the refrain heard over and over in nearly every shop we perused. I replied “I’ll take them for $15,” and he said ok. That was it, no hurt feelings, no fights, no hassles. I don’t think I mentioned ealier that Dru had done the same thing in Labadee with our wooden globe… the artisan asked for $85 and Dru got it for $40 (if he had had smaller bills on him he might have picked it up for even less). The moral of this shopping story is… don’t be afraid (like I thought I’d be) to haggle. I think that they think American tourists expect it and even enjoy it, so don’t be put off by sticker shock because the sticker price is just a jumping-off point for the negotiations.

Shopping bags in tow, we started walking around the corner to another section of the duty-free dock shopping area, when a small man in what looked like a white police uniform gently grabbed me by the arm and started reeling a mile a minute in Spanish. I thought Sister Stanislaus did a great job teaching me that high school French but geez, what good was it doing me now?! O mon Dieu! :eek: We had absolutely no idea what the problem was and no matter how many times we smiled and explained that, the man understood no English and just kept repeating himself in his native tongue. When he finally pointed to a nearby sign in English we kind of got the idea – you can’t take your duty-free purchases out of this dock shopping area, you have to leave the bags in this one store and retrieve them later. When we finally understood each other we all smiled and he didn’t even mind when I snapped a quick picture of him and his sign. Dru and I were pretty much shopped out by then, and since the skies started to look extra-menacing, we abandoned our trek around the corner and walked back toward the ship.

Another picture we snapped on the walk back was of three young military men with three long military rifles slung over their shoulders, with the starboard side of the Inspiration as a backdrop. We have no idea what they were doing there, just that they looked serious. Happy that they didn’t see me take advantage of the photo-op, we quickly slinked by and back toward the Mariner. One more photo of Dru pretending to hold taut the huge sky-blue ropes that tethered our ship to shore, and we were back on English-speaking ground.

Another not-to-be-missed photo opportunity: if Mariner is across the pier from Rhapsody or any other ship, stand directly in the middle between them and get the picture. It looks like you’re in the middle of Manhattan between two massive skyscrapers towering on either side. What a humbling place to be!

Back in our cabin we found something I had ordered from RCI before we had left home – a little chocolate birthday cake for my hubby, complete with plates, forks and knives. While it wasn’t exactly his birthday yet it was the beginning of his birthday weekend, and I wanted the whole weekend to be special, so…. a cake. It came a little earlier in the day than I had wanted, but it was still a nice surprise.

The next couple of hours we felt like performing parrots on display in a cage… we had neighbors just across the pier on Rhapsody who were out on their own balcony, peering in to our room, watching as we tried in vain to make a cell phone call. Our best advice to you is, whoever your cell phone carrier, check, double-check, triple- and even quadruple-check on how to use your phone from out of the country. Frustrating wasn’t even the word… we couldn’t get a line out from our cabin since all of the ship-to-shore trunks were in use, we had signed up for phone time from the complimentary bank of phones the ship had made available but our timeslot wasn’t until Saturday, and if we couldn’t get through on our cell phone by the time we sailed at 7pm we were out of luck for the day. We had looked into renting worldwide satellite phones before the cruise but at $65 for the week plus $2.95 per minute thought it was an unnecessary expense… at that moment it seemed completely necessary and we kicked ourselves for not spending what seemed like so little to gain so much!

I went down to Deck 2 where the ship had also set up complimentary Internet access and was able to get on after a short wait in line; Dru stayed back in the cabin and kept trying the blasted cell. I went right to Verizon’s website and found some info on calling from Mexico or getting help if I couldn’t. Armed with information and a false sense of bravado, we tried lots of combinations – dialing 011, dialing 001, *611… somehow we got through to a helpline with an English-speaking option. We were going to be transferred to an English-speaking representative, we were saved! It was about 6:15pm and we still had 45 minutes to get through to US Airways and change our return flights because of Frances’ interference. Turns out when you’re in Mexico, the promise of an English-speaking rep doesn’t mean that the rep will be “fluent,” and we struggled but made it through the language barrier with our helpful CSR Juan. The apparent cause of our cell-phone foibles: international calling wasn’t turned on for our phone so we couldn’t use it. That’s the first I’d heard of that but didn’t care as long as we could now make the call. The call still never went through, and it was almost 7pm so once again we abandoned our quest for the call for the day.

The rest of the night was spent swapping stories at dinner with our tablemates, in the casino where we found our friend Mike (Miranda was already asleep for the night) and where Dru couldn’t lose at roulette, and then Ellington’s for a Bailey’s-on-ice nightcap.

It was a long but memorable day in Mexico, but my most vivid memory came from Dru’s hauntingly prophetic words when we finally stepped back onto the Mariner after leaving Cozumel: “Who knows when we’ll step off of this ship again…”

--- more to come ---

[triplemom3]

I am SO enjoying this review!

[jammin]

great review so Far!

[Harlow2]

I decided to print your review and take with me on our cruise in Nov. There is so much terrific info, I decided to use it as our "guide" Thanks so much!

[JMB777]

LOL, NJreindeer. You are quite a writer. How do you do it?! :)

 

And about the sink water ... I agree, it never came out cold! NEVER!!! :eek:

[TomCat32174]

I decided to print your review and take with me on our cruise in Nov. There is so much terrific info, I decided to use it as our "guide" Thanks so much!

 

 

When are you cruising Mariner? I will be on her on 11/7.

[MarinerChica7]

Hey lovingmom,

 

I have kept up with your review but i havent really had time to write you back. I dont want to sound anoying or anything but did your daughter ever find out if Jeromy still worked on the Mariner while you were there? It would help alot if i could find out! Thanks!

[cruzluvrs]

NJReinder - what a fabulous review. I am enjoying every minute of it. My husband and I will be on the 11/14 sailing of the Mariner and cannot wait. We will definitely be trying out Chops. We have done Portofino's in the past but have never been to Chops. We are also from NJ (Mt. Laurel) and can definitely relate to your Wildwood references and your Philly and South Jersey Italian restaurants.

 

Looking forward to the rest of your review.

[njreindeer]

Saturday 9/4 through Tuesday 9/7 – Cruise Days 7-10: At Sea then Debarkation

Someone in this thread said that they couldn’t wait to hear what we did with the extra two days at sea. Well that’s an easy one, since the days of our extended goodbye kind of morphed together into one waiting-to-debark blob. We got up, ate, walked around, took pictures, ate, drank, walked around, bought souvenirs, ate, threw in an activity here and there, ate, drank… oh yeah, and ate. :) Make no mistake about it, cruising is about eating. And if you’re so inclined, it’s about drinking large quantities of sneakily sweet but knock-your-socks-off strong tropical concoctions too (don’t let those colorful little Chihuahua-sized umbrella’s fool you!). Dru and I were definitely inclined, especially these last few days, but being one who has trouble walking on a flat non-rocking surface, and since there was a large body of water just over a railing from me, we both thought it best for me not to imbibe to the point of inadvertently tripping into the sea.

 

Saturday was the day when the Captain let out the ___________ (fill in the blank: good / bad) news that we probably wouldn’t leave our Mariner until Tuesday, and even then it would probably be in Miami. The status changed a few times starting that day – we might be able to sneak in late Monday night; we’ll dock on Tuesday and it will be in Port Canaveral; definitely Tuesday and definitely Miami. The last option finally won – we were headed for Miami. God bless the Captain – when everything’s running smoothly and the cruise meets calm waters and blue skies without a hurricane on its tail, it must be fun and dare I say boring to be Captain of a fabulous cruise ship in the Caribbean. But throw a major hurricane into the mix and I wouldn’t take his job for all of the mini-croissant sandwiches in the Promenade Café (although they were soooo good). In his valiant effort to keep 3600+ marooned-at-sea passengers informed, he made frequent PA announcements and updated his Cchannel 42 video message, complete with satellite photos and projections of Frances, twice daily. Why some people didn’t understand that he had our, his and the ship’s safety in mind as he made his decisions is beyond us. We heard a little bit of everything – kids who were thrilled that they’d miss the first day or two of school, parents who were traveling for the first time without the kids who couldn’t bear being away from them for one extra minute, business people who just had to get back to the office (we actually heard that one couple left the ship in Cozumel and flew home from there because they both had to be back at work… how sad!), perennial cruisers who were thrilled with the extra playtime at sea, and those who had had enough playtime and were starting to miss honking horns and traffic jams of home. I think we fell into that last category… especially since Dru’s birthday was coming up on Monday and, while we could think of worst places to spend it, wanted to be home with his cake and his presents and the restaurant we had picked out for dinner.

 

A lot of our time the last few days was spent taking pictures, everywhere of everything, trying (in vain) to capture the captivating beauty and raw energy of our ship. We have over 500 photos now, a real pictorial history of our adventure! Of course this could’ve been done more easily if I hadn’t lost the extra digital media card we had brought along for our camera. Those things are so small, it probably slipped out of the camera case when I was hurrying to get that perfect shot (after a few too many chocolate bombs, I’m sure!). Once we filled the first card and both decided that $50 for a new 125mb card was a bit too pricy (I had bought a 256mb card on the web for that price – just keep your eye on nextag.com or a similar site for up-to-the-minute price comparisons), we decided to transfer all of our pics to a CD down at the Photo Gallery and start over with an empty card. What a great idea! We’d recommend this for anyone with a digital camera, since it was cheaper than a new card and only took a few minutes. The total cost including the CD was $15. Can’t beat it. AND we already had a backup (on CD ) of the first batch of photos. The rep at the photo desk will get you started but you can do it yourself at the self-service computer (don’t forget to double-check that they all transferred before deleting them from your card!). One suggestion though, if you think you might do this, bring an empty plastic CD case with you since the photo desk doesn’t supply one - you don’t want anything to happen to your precious memories. FYI, at the photo desk (and at tables occasionally in the Promenade) you can also pick up a “Cruise in Review” DVD (cost $29.95), it’ll be available on the last couple of days of your cruise.

According the Captain, by Saturday night we would probably be close enough to the Florida Keys to get a cell phone signal. By dinnertime we started feeling like we were back home, watching people meander around with cell phones stuck to their ears. We weren’t able to get a signal yet, but there were a lot of people up on Deck 12 already chatting away and making new flight arrangements. Before attempting a call, though, we had to check out our course on channel 32 to know which side of the ship to be on – most calls would only go through if you were on the side of the ship nearest to the shore. Much later that night though our turn had come – our call went through and we were finally able to get a new flight out of Miami! It felt like Christmas morning. We had visions of spending a few extra days and nights in Miami, stranded, all flights north being oversold. While Dru thought about hotels in the Miami area and things to do during an impromptu vacation in South Beach, my thoughts went to far more practical things…. like what would I wear that was still clean? Problem solved, we sent a bunch of things to the ship’s cleaners. 24-hour turnaround and we were good to go for another week. We even put the clothespins and packets of Woolite I had brought to good use and washed out some underwear… I felt like I should’ve earned a merit badge for thinking to pack them. :)

 

While most of our cruise saw piercing sun and calm tropical waters, that started changing on Sunday. We were tooling around the Florida coast most of the day, the Captain honoring his promise to try and keep us in cell-phone range, and the calm cobalt sea turned rougher with whitecaps and strong headwinds. The climate seemed to change by the hour that day, depending on where we were, from stormy-looking and windy to sunny and calm. At times, walking forward on Deck 12 became a real character-builder, and we didn’t even attempt to go down to the helipad at the bow on Deck 5 (FYI, to get to this area, go to Deck 4 and walk toward the bow, then go up the flight of stairs and you’ll be on Deck 5 at the helipad area). While we were shuffling around the Gulf and Florida on Sunday we saw Disney Wonder there too, our portmate from the pervious Sunday that now seemed soooo long ago. We weren’t the only ones trying to outrun and outsmart Frances it seemed.

 

Dru and I even took some time on Sunday to play bingo… it was the “snowball” bingo where the final winner gets the big week-long jackpot that was now over $5000. We had played bingo one other day too, but would’ve probably been just as happy to wait for the snowball jackpot day. I guess bingo just wasn’t our thing, and I have a photo of Dru holding the bingo card with a look of catatonia to prove it. The snowball bingo was in the Savoy theatre instead of the usual Lotus Lounge since they expected so many people for the final game, and just before bingo was the Captain’s question and answer session in there. We caught the tail end of it and luckily got to pose for a photo with him as he was walking out. We knew that he was busy keeping up with the latest Frances news, but he was gracious enough to stop for a photo with us and the dozen or so others who wanted their own souvenir. Being curious and perennially hydrophobic, I asked the Captain how much of a wind our Mariner could withstand, and he replied a 100 knot headwind or 50 knot tailwind. Definitely made me drink a little easier that day (gotta love anything that could do that!), since according to channel 32, our relative headwind was around 51mph, well within our tolerable range.

--- more to come ---

[njreindeer]

[color=navy][font=Arial][font=Arial]For bingo that day, we bought a “sixpack” of bingo cards for $35, which entitled us to play five or six games, including the snowball game, with six different cards. What a racket! Now I know why they so heavily promote bingo around the ship. Very cool bingo cards too – no ink markers, no chips, just fold-down tabs to make this a truly un-messy and portable game. Well we didn’t win the snowball jackpot, but we’re still glad we tried bingo at sea. It was worth the 45 minutes to try for the grand prize. [/font][/font][/color]

[color=navy][font=Arial][font=Arial]After our final dinner in the dining room Sunday night (since we were returning to Chops on Monday to celebrate Dru’s birthday), we ascended to Deck 14 and our favorite bar Ellington’s for our favorite view and to ring-in birthday day with a drink in hand. We thought we’d be home by now, but Mother Nature and Captain Olsen had something different in mind for us that week![/font][/font][/color]

[color=navy][font=Arial][font=Arial]Fingers, eyes and everything else we had crossed, Monday was to be our last day on the high seas. And high they were! [/font][/font][/color][color=navy][font=Arial][font=Arial]While the ship’s stabilizers do an amazing job of keeping the ship steady, a few times on Monday we felt the rolling waves underneath us. I think the Captain had said that the ocean swells were up to 10 feet high! Looking down from our Deck 7 balcony, they didn’t look so bad, but from the Schooner Bar’s windows we could see every inch of those ten feet! This was Dru’s birthday and another bonus day at sea for us, so we took advantage of the extra vacation time and hit the Sports Court or the very first time. Why did we wait so long to check it out? That’s easy – there were so many other things to do on this ship that we actually forgot all about it until the night before! We both wished we had spent more time out there, it was a fun place to be… rock climbing wall (we didn’t attempt it but saw plenty of others who successfully rang the bell), picture-pretty nine-hole miniature golf course, basketball courts, rollerblading track. The wind was fierce up on Deck 13, but Dru still made his first try at rollerblading, and he was a natural. At the sports desk you can get safety equipment (elbow- and knee-pads, helmets, etc.) and everything else you need for no charge, a very nice service. The track was open for a few hours at a time, and I had vowed to come back in the afternoon session and give it a go. Shouldn’t I have known better? Why would a woman with no athletic ability, no sense of balance and a bum knee even fathom trying to rollerblade for the first time on a moving surface in gale-force winds? While Dru rollerbladed for about 40 minutes, I rollerbladed for about 40 milliseconds and almost took his knee out in the lightning-quick process. Thank God he’s got a good sense of humor! The track isn’t very long but looked like a lot of fun and was definitely worth the time investment on a calmer day. Same goes for miniature golf – a very pretty, deceptively charming course, although the winds and motion of the ship provided for some good laughs when the balls seemed to have minds of their own. [/font][/font][/color]
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[color=navy][font=Arial][font=Arial][/font][/font][/color][color=navy][font=Arial][font=Arial]Dinner at Chops Monday night was as memorable as the first night, and a nice touch was that being return customers meant that you could go pretty much any time you wanted to (and according to Dru, if you’re not a repeat Chops patron by the end of the cruise, “You don’t know what you’re missing!”). The manager there was extremely accommodating, although they didn’t take a full complement of reservations for Monday night since they were concerned about running out of food because of the extra days at sea! By the time we sat down at 7:30pm, the beefsteak tomato salad was unavailable, but as long as they had filet mignon and that amazing onion and cheese soup we were good to go. This was truly the perfect place to celebrate Dru’s birthday and start winding down our cruise. After dinner we stopped just outside at the Plaza bar for a goodbye drink and lots of pictures with our friends Mike and Miranda, and Adrian and the other bartenders, then popped by the dining room to give Natasha, Juan and the maitre d’ their tip envelopes, which had been dropped in our cabin earlier that day. Along with the envelopes we were given stubs for the tips put on our SeaPass account, and we showed our appreciation with additional monies where necessary. Since earlier on Monday day we couldn’t access our SeaPass total on the in-cabin TV so we weren’t sure if they included tips for both extra days of the cruise, so we made sure we added some extra-extra just in case they didn’t. [/font][/font][/color]
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[color=navy][font=Arial][font=Arial][/font][/font][/color][color=navy][font=Arial][font=Arial]After putting our locked luggage out in the hallway by midnight, we made one last trip to Ellington’s for a nightcap. The view from Ellington’s was always our favorite but Monday night it left us speechless, even in the black of midnight: In the distance, beyond all of the other brightly-lit ships wandering the same waters, we saw the most beautiful sight we’d seen in days: land – land, what a concept! – and not just any land, but Florida, USA, home. We hadn’t seen land since leaving Cozumel on Friday, so the lights of the Miami coastline were at once startling and refreshing and oh-so-welcoming. We’d been through rough waters and stop-you-in-your-tracks headwinds and a few cloudbursts and a meandering path through the Gulf of Mexico, but now we were almost home. Dru and I toasted America, we felt like Columbus discovering this new land of abundant beauty and bounty, a place to call home. Emotional doesn’t begin to describe it, it’s not like landing after a long flight because no flight I know lasts for more than 72 hours! For awhile, we had truly felt marooned at sea on this floating paradise while every crew member from the Captain on down did their best to help us enjoy our bonus vacation time, but all of a sudden, we were giddy to be almost home again. [/font][/font][/color]
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[color=navy][font=Arial][font=Arial][/font][/font][/color][color=navy][font=Arial][font=Arial]In bed and ready to sleep around 1am, we could hardly keep our eyes open when for no reason Dru pulled back the drape for a quick look outside. What he saw made him spring up and nudge me out of my almost-dreaming stupor too – we were there, in the canal of the port of Miami. We were just pulling into the canal, silently and slowly enough to create no wake. Suddenly wide awake we took to our balcony, camera in hand, almost disbelieving what was right in front of us… in the black of night it was a beautiful sight, the buildings and cars and roads of an American city. We passed right by RCI’s headquarters, and watched as Mariner ever-so-painstakingly inched her way into a full 180[/font][/font][/color][color=navy][font=Times New Roman]˚[/font][/color][color=navy][font=Arial][font=Arial] turn to dock. Secure in the knowledge that we were home and the open sea was a thing of the past for us, we went to sleep.[/font][/font][/color]

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[font=Arial][color=#000080][b]--- more to come ---[/b] [/color][/font]

[njreindeer]

[color=navy][font=Arial][font=Arial]We knew that we had to vacate our room by 8am but were surprised when the staff started calling colors much earlier than that, around 6:30 or so. Our color was Gray 1 and we didn’t know it then but we had some time to wait before debarking, so just before 8 we grabbed our carry-ons and made our way to the Promenade (like a thousand or so others) for a quick breakfast. Breakfast was also available in the Windjammer and I think in the dining room, but we wanted to be near the gangway when the time came to leave. Debarkation wasn’t too painful but understandably disheartening as we waited and had time to think about the memories we had just made on Mariner. We sat in the Savoy until our color was called, watching the series “Building the World’s Largest Cruise Ship,” all about the making of the Voyager and her sister ships. Don’t do what we did… we looked at the series all week in the Logo gift shop and decided not to buy it for $30, only to watch it in the Savoy and decide we needed just this one more souvenir. On the screen an occasional message said that it was available for purchase outside of the Savoy but we never saw where, and now if we want it we‘ll have to shell out $60 for the DVD series. After waiting about one and a half hours, our color was called and we waited in another line for about 30 minutes to walk the gangway to the mainland. I know that the Port of Miami is much bigger and busier than Port Canaveral, but at least to us, the building wasn’t nearly as nice as Port Canaveral’s was, especially where the luggage carousels were (felt like we were in the basement of a forgotten-about warehouse). Customs was quick and easy, just remember to have the Customs Card left in your stateroom the day before all filled out and ready to go, along with your passport or ID (our birth certificates and driver’s licenses didn’t slow us down one bit). After quickly finding all of our luggage on the carousel, we were off to a waiting bus arranged by RCI to take us to Miami’s airport. [/font][/font][/color]
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[color=navy][font=Arial][font=Arial][/font][/font][/color][color=navy][font=Arial][font=Arial]In the airport we had over seven hours until our flight (although we were grateful to be flying out that night!), so we checked our carry-ons at the storage desk between terminals D and E (around $6 per piece) and on Dru’s suggestion took a cab to the South Beach section of Miami Beach – a little mini getaway at the end of our vacation! We spent the day lunching and walking around Ocean Drive, and hailed a cab in plenty of time to get back to the airport (even with the stopped-dead traffic) and make our flight. Later that night, at around 11:45, we touched ground in Philly, our adventure had ended and we were nearly home. A much-needed late-night breakfast at South Philly’s Melrose Diner (after all we had missed a few of our every-two-hour feedings!) and then the twenty-five-minute drive over the bridge and we were home. We were home. [/font][/font][/color]


[i][color=navy][font=Arial][font=Arial]A few end notes…[/font][/font][/color][/i]

[color=navy][font=Arial][font=Arial]At a party this weekend some people asked us if we loved cruising, were we addicted, had we booked our next one yet… and we couldn’t believe it ourselves but our answers were NO. The ship? Fabulous beyond imagination. The crew? Über-gracious and giving of everything they had to give. The value for our dollar? Probably better than any other vacation we’ve taken. Seven+ days in the Caribbean? Who wouldn’t be happy with that. But we decided that while we had a wonderful and unforgettable vacation, cruising just isn’t for us. We spent so little time at each port that we don’t really feel like we’ve been to these places, we like to get to know a destination over days, not hours. And realizing that you’re this tiny dot in the middle of the sea, out of touch with no cell phone signal and sometimes no ship-to-shore lines available made us feel a little too remote for our own comfort. And while most of our fellow cruisers were friendly and fun to be with, cruising can be a little too social an event for us – sometimes we just wanted to be alone without a few thousand of our nearest and dearest just an elbow’s-throw away. And the week seemed a little too regimented too, regarding dinner times and assigned seats and carefully-arranged showtimes. We think we might try an Alaskan cruise someday – SOMEday – but no time too soon. We can certainly understand how so many people are cruise addicts, and we know that we picked the very best ship for our very first cruise, but we just think that we like land-based vacations better. If the Mariner didn’t convince us to make cruising our preferred vacation from now on, nothing will![/font][/font][/color]

[color=navy][font=Arial][font=Arial]Happy cruising everyone! :) [/font][/font][/color]
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[color=navy][font=Wingdings][font=Wingdings][/font][/font][/color][i][color=navy][font=Arial][font=Arial]…and a few random thoughts…[/font][/font][/color][/i]
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[color=navy][font=Symbol][i][b]·[/b] [/i][/font][/color][color=navy][font=Arial][font=Arial]Things we loved: Channel 32 with the constant weather and course map; Promenade Café sandwiches and pizza and cookies (FYI, you can get ice water in the back by the swinging doors to the kitchen – you don’t have to buy a drink at the nearby bar); the smiling crew; the Captain’s frequent updates; people-watching in the Promenade; relaxing at Ellington’s; the adorable circular shower; being able to store every one of our suitcases under the bed; price of liquor in the Promenade liquor store; and of course, Chops.[/font][/font][/color]

[color=navy][font=Symbol]· [/font][/color][color=navy][font=Arial][font=Arial]RCI should have at least one non-smoking bar on each ship. There were No Smoking tables at Ellington’s, but the place is a bar/nightclub and of course the cigarette smoke circulated throughout.[/font][/font][/color]

[color=navy][font=Symbol]· [/font][/color][color=navy][font=Arial][font=Arial]RCI should have at least one more Caribbean pool party on deck at midnight, like the one on Caribbean night during our cruise. So many people turned out for this and everyone was drinking and dancing and having a great time. We would’ve loved another night like this.[/font][/font][/color]

[color=navy][font=Symbol]· [/font][/color][color=navy][font=Arial][font=Arial]While we really liked our tablemates in the dining room, we would’ve liked freestyle dining even more, without the same regimental dinner time/dinner table/dinner tablemates every night.[/font][/font][/color]

[color=navy][font=Symbol]· [/font][/color][color=navy][font=Arial][font=Arial]If RCI is smart, they’ll open a few Chops restaurants on land in the bigger cities (NYC, Philly). It was better than any upscale steakhouse we’ve ever been to, and I know we’d go again… and again… :D [/font][/font][/color]

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[pudy68]

njreindeer,

Thank you so much for your diligent, thought-provoking review! We appreciate being able to preview our cruise through your related experiences. You did a great job relaying the details, as well as keeping us entertained!

I bet in a couple of years, you'll desire for another cruise, even though right now you feel like you prefer land-based vacations. The cruise bug will always be looking to sting ya! :D

[Harlow2]

[quote name='TomCat32174']When are you cruising Mariner? I will be on her on 11/7.[/QUOTE]
Hi TomCat - DH and I are on the 11/7 sailing with you. Hopefully, these hurricanes will get out of our way by then :)

[njreindeer]

Hi everyone!

Now that I've finally finished our review, I'll be happy to answer any questions if I can. Sorry again for being so longwinded and for taking so long to write this, but once I started writing I had to put my heart & soul into the details. We really had a fabulous time on this fabulous ship. Never knew a ship could be this stunning!

Happy cruising!!! Hope you all have clear skies & calm waters from now on... :)

[LLM]

Thank you for taking the time to finish your very detailed review. It was wonderful!

Lisa

[TomCat32174]

[quote name='Harlow2']Hi TomCat - DH and I are on the 11/7 sailing with you. Hopefully, these hurricanes will get out of our way by then :)[/QUOTE]

Come join our thread.

[url]http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=44554&page=30&pp=25[/url]

[nugsmom]

Hi, great review! Just a quick question. Did you get any kind of comp or credit for being out 2 days extra?

[njreindeer]

Hi nugsmom,

It's funny, a lot of people ask us this and the weird thing is, we never even thought about it! I think RCI might have thought the same thing we did, that our compensation was being allowed to stay two extra days at this luxury floating resort... I guess in the end [i]we're [/i]the ones who wound up paying [i]them [/i]to stay on longer since we spent about $300 more on our SeaPass account in those last couple of days (like for souvenirs that we might not have bought otherwise, drinks, another dinner at Chops, etc).

It's a shame for the people who were all set for [i]their[/i] week-long cruise the week after us who wound up getting only five days, and I can understand RCI compensating them for their lost precious vacation time.

[nugsmom]

Thanks for your reply. I seem to remember someone saying the 9 day cruise did get some kind of reimbursement. We were on this last 9 day cruise and didn't, so I was curious. I totally agree, that the extra days were great. But we did spend a lot of extra money, and I will have to take leave without pay for the extra days. Not including the bus ride, and spending a night at a roach motel in South Carolina! I know they do not owe us anything, as we did get all our ports, and even Labidee thrown in! But they made big bucks from that port, too! My son thought we were on Carnival all week and kept checking those boards. It seems they did get some kind of compensation. Some on board credit would have been nice. But I am not going to complain about it, as the cruise was great and the captain was awesome!