Just back from the Mariner Western any questions

[tommyjeepster]

I had a great time. We left from Port of Miami and returned to Port Canaveral. Missed Grand Cayman because of Ivan.

[creempuff0530]

Hello, I am going on the Mariner 9-26. Oh boy do I have questions(LOL)! Did you do any excursions? How was Jamaica after the Hurricane? Did you have an xtra sea day when you skipped GC? Did anyone say how long GC would be missed for and will they be substituting another port in place of it? DId you have rough seas at all? Ok that's all for now....

[frayedend]

I am leaving next Sunday and I'm glad we will be going from Port Canaveral. Did you have an extra day at sea or another port?

[KYWOMANCRUISIN]

Did RCCL give you any comps for missing Grand Cayman? Just curious since we will most likely miss Grand Cayman on October 1. Thanks for the information.

[Towanda]

Hi Tommy!

 

Creempuff: DH and I did not do any excursions- pretty much shopped, ate, and drank. Jamaica after the hurricane meant different things to different people; most excursions were running as planned, but the island itself is still very much rebuilding. Most residents do not yet have their electricity, and it's expected to be weeks before it's back up. DH and I had planned to go to Sandal Ocho Rios with some friends, and when we got the there the gatekeeper said everyone was checking out and they were closing (no electricity). Margaritaville and Island Village was up and running. We did have an extra sea day instead of GC. The captain said it would be "weeks" before any ships would even be able to consider going there. Apparently, it's under about 3 ft of water right now. We had rough seas the first 24 hours (when Ivan was still around), and the ship was moving quite a bit on the way home because we were traveling at max speed to try to make it back to Port Canaveral for high tide.

 

Frayedend- see above.

 

Kywomancruisin- No comps for GC. No comps for anything. We had to wait 1 hour and 45 minutes at the Orlando airport to catch a bus to Miami, a 4 hour bus ride to Miami in a bus with no functioning bathroom, NO A/C, and no stops, and we departed late (around 7pm). We booked our flights through RC, and we'll never do that again. They were rude, rude, rude. When we finally arrived at the ship (4:45pm for a 5pm departure) most of the terminal was closed, no one was prepared to greet us or check us in, and they had long since stopped taking boarding photos. Not such a great introduction to cruising for DH and me (first time cruisers). Luckily, people like Tommyjeepster were there to make it fun.

[tommyjeepster]

Yeah what towanda said. We did drive to the port the night before and stayed at the Radisson no problems there. A shuttle bus picked us up also at the port. No a/c or bathroom for us. But after the first day on the ship the few hours of discomfort was forgotten.

[creempuff0530]

It's too bad that Rc didn't give you something, esp for the inconvenience of having to go to Miami. I know that the weather and such is beyond their control but it's not too hard to give the guests a little something to keep them happy, esp since it's not a last minute change. I mean, PC has been closed to them for a couple ofweeks now, it didnt just happen yesterday. I cant tell you how relieved I am that PC is reopened to the Mariner again. At least you didnt have to relive the whole bus ride thing again on your way home. I am glad that the experience did not put a damper on your whole vacation:).

How was the CD? Did you find a lot of stuff to do during your "sea days"?

[Towanda]

Here's the part that really aggravates me: we purchased our airfare through Royal Caribbean and they would not change out flights to Miami; instead, since we had a 12pm flight home today, if we had returned to Miami they wanted us to disembark EARLY (6am!) so we could bus 4 hours back to Orlando- and we still probably would have missed our flight. So you would think, having told us that before we even got on the ship, they would have offered to give us some sort of shipboard credit. Nope. Instead, they gave the people who drove to Miami on their own (and avoided the horrendous buses) a $100 credit. Ain't that a kick in the teeth.

 

CD was good. Funny. Plenty to do on sea days. If anything, there was too much to do- I found it hard to stay in one place.

 

Oh- and I would keep an eye on the RC website to see how the Mariner does getting out tonight. According to various crew members we spoke with they are going to have a delayed to departure tonight to wait for high tide again (not that they told anybody departing today that).

[jrm9999]

The tide situation is intersting. There was a low tide at 5:30AM and at 6:30 PM. I doubt it made any difference because I checked the port cam around 6:00 and Mariner was already gone.

[airlinerob]

Cream Puff,

 

I was on the 9/12 sailing with you all.... I drove to Miami on my own, and they didn't give me a $100 room credit. (Although I had been promised one MANY times). In fact, I had 3 cabins full of people and they didn't give any of us room credits.

 

I just wrote a long 4 page letter to RCCL about my experience on board. (Lots more - including someone stealing my digital camera on board Monday morning).

 

The Guest Relations folks were NOT friendly at all!

 

Rob

[nrunnion]

Who was the captain on your Mariner trip? I am going in October and wondered if it would be the same?

Thanks

[creempuff0530]

Besides the horrid bus ride to miami and RC's lack of compassion, did you have any other negative experiences?

Also, what things would you suggest are "not to be missed" while I'm on board or in port? My only plans for port are beach,drink,shop.

[jrm9999]

Who was the captain on your Mariner trip? I am going in October and wondered if it would be the same?

Thanks

 

Right now it is Capt Olsen. You can e-mail customer service and ask if him or Capt Johnny will be on your sailing.

[Slam308]

Another question:

Did they actually play jazz in the jazz lounge? We were on the Explorer in March (which doesn't have a Boleros) and they only played jazz one night. The rest of the time it was Latin music. Also, what were the names of the jazz bands? Our friends just started their new contract on the Mariner.

[Jacquelyn11]

I watched her go out on the Port Canaveral and two palms web cams. She is the last ship of 3 to leave, the Carnival ship and Disney Wonder leave before her. She departed about 5:15pm EST. ONLY 35 weeks till my turn :( BUT each week I see her leave I'm one week closer! :)

 

Jacquelyn :D

[Christina1003]

I watched her go out on the Port Canaveral and two palms web cams. She is the last ship of 3 to leave, the Carnival ship and Disney Wonder leave before her. She departed about 5:15pm EST. ONLY 35 weeks till my turn :( BUT each week I see her leave I'm one week closer! :)

 

Jacquelyn :D

Hey! I'm three weeks before you - May 8th. :D Where can you catch the web cams to see the ships leaving?

[rcicruiser]

It seems with the changes that you had to do you may have went on with a bad feeling so it just went down from there. The weather and damage to island is out of the cruiselines control. All the cruiselines did the best they could and some even went out of there way. airline schedule may have made it difficult for them to change your flights into Mia. As as getting a credit, you had a cruise you where not at work you should have just forgot the problems and had fun.

[rcicruiser]

Rob

 

Was your camera stolen from your cabin or somewhere else?

[Towanda]

Rob- Sorry to hear about your camera. Another person in our group had their camcorder stolen while our luggage was being shuttled to Miami. Because of the busing situation no one could really even take their carry-ons with them, which is where most of us packed our valuables. Many people in our group complained about how rude and unhelpful guest relations was with many different types of issues. Someone in our group wanted to let them know that their bus driver was dumping the bathroom "waste" onto the highway (he announced it to the bus) and was met with a "it's not our problem" response. She didn't want anything, she just wanted them to know so it didn't happen again- they didn't care.

 

Creempuff- No other major negative experiences while on board. Things not to miss: the ice show and "lobster night" on Friday (NOT 2nd formal night). Had a great time in the dining room all week.

 

Nrunnion- Capt. Olsen. Very funny. Looooong announcements.

 

Slam308- The only night there was Jazz at Ellington's was Saturday night for the "intimate jazz show". When I get around to digging out my Compasses I'll try to post the name of the ensemble. It was packed up there!

 

Rcicruiser- No complaints about the weather or island damage. I'm amazed we got to the places we did. RCI handled that well. I was PO'd that RCI would not change our flights primarily because they told us repeatedly that they would, then decided Saturday night they wouldn't. If they had said from the get-go that the flights were staying the same, it would have been easier to handle. I also think it's unreasonable to ask guests to depart the ship early b/c RCI couldn't manage proper air arrangements. We had a good time overall, it just took a good 24 hours to decompress from the super stressful debarkation day. Oh, and another classic: Both Mariner and Explorer were docked in Miami that day. Some of the last people to arrive by the buses had their luggage put on the Explorer instead of the Mariner- they never got their luggage and were never given any credit or allowance for replacement clothing. They had to go to formal night in the same shorts they wore onto the ship. Bottom line: RCI staff onboard (other than GR) were fabulous; RCI staff on land didn't know what they were doing.

[Towanda]

Rob- And good luck with the letter! I'm assuming you have the letter they left in our staterooms where it says in writing you're supposed to get a $100 credit??

[Jacquelyn11]

I view the port cam off the Port Canaveral Site. Sometimes the site is down or slow.

 

http://www.portcanaveral.org/multimedia/webcam.htm

 

 

About 20 minutes later you can see it "go by" on the two palms web cam.

 

 

http://www.twopalms.com/

 

 

Great way to spend an hour on Sunday afternoon, till you get to do it yourself!

 

Jacquelyn :D

[lovingmom]

Imagine, if you will, 3 weeks of ever-changing plans due to one hurricane after another. And, the guest relations people answering the same questions over and over and over and over and ...well, you get the idea. AND then, RUDE GUESTS when they "feel" that guest relations is not giving them what they want or think they deserve!

 

I was on Mariner for the first interruptions due to Frances. I can not imagine holding RCI responsible for the 2 extra days that we "had" to stay at sea due to this storm. Or even complaining about the 4 hr bus ride back to Port Canaveral. I did not purchase transportation from them. They could have just dumped me in Miami and left me at my own devices to get back to my car -- but, they didn't. They worked hard to get transportation for everyone regardless of their travel arrangements. However, all guests on board were not as grateful. In the elevator, late Monday evening, a "gentlemen", and I use the term loosely, just started complaining to me out of nowhere. His travel arrangements by RCI were "UNACCEPTABLE"! They are going to have to do better than this. BLAH, BLAH, BLAH (I won't go on anymore about what all he said). When he finished his tirade, I just smiled at him, and said, "Gee, I'm grateful for all the overtime and hard work the home office employees have been putting in these last couple of days trying to take care of all of the arrangements. I'm sure if you approach guest relations nicely, they will take care of it for you." If looks could kill, I wouldn't have survived that elevator ride. And, I don't think I would have wanted to be at the guest relations desk when he walked up! I'm sure he was just as RUDE with them as he was to me.

 

 

Then, while standing in line for my turn at guest relations, I witnessed one beligerant guest who just would not take the answer given to him in response to his "perceived problem". Over and over the lady at the desk tried to explain very quietly and nicely to him how to receive help with his problem (a problem with one of the outside vendors on board). She patiently kept stating the same response to him over and over -- he just wouldn't stop and listen. Everyone in line kept rolling their eyes and shaking their heads at him. Why do some people have to be so rude and ugly? He was still there badgering her by the time I got up to the desk and finished my business with them. I think she finally went and got someone else to take care of him.

 

I guess what I am trying to say is, the people at the guest relations desk are human beings also, and even though it is one of their jobs to placate disgruntled people, I imagine that it is extremely hard to stay polite day after day after day, rude person after rude person. I, however, never encountered any rudeness from any of the guest relations staff.

 

As for this statement, "Someone in our group wanted to let them know that their bus driver was dumping the bathroom "waste" onto the highway (he announced it to the bus)" : Towanda, the guest relations staff on board a cruise ship is there to handle cruise issues -- as they had absolutely nothing to do with the bus transportation, why would you expect them to handle that type of complaint? The busses hired were all outside companies... the person to complain to is the customer service dept. of the bus company -- in this type of situation, RCI was not at liberty to be choosy about the companies they used -- they simply utilized every available bus at their disposal.

 

And, "Some of the last people to arrive by the buses had their luggage put on the Explorer instead of the Mariner- they never got their luggage and were never given any credit or allowance for replacement clothing." - I do somewhat sympathize on this issue. If the error was due to the bus driver putting the luggage in the wrong place, then it would not be RCI's fault (this would be an area where trip insurance would come in) -- However, if it was done by RCI's porters at the docks, then I agree, RCI should have done something about it (even if you had trip insurance) and after all I have heard on this board about how staff has bent over backwards to help others in this situation, I find it hard to believe that they didn't do anything. I might have been in the same situation due to the porter at the Port Canaveral dock. I received e-docs, so had to affix luggage tags once I arrived at the Port. The porter asked my cabin # and filled out the tags himself (6 of them). I never checked the tags. We almost didn't get our luggage. My son was walking by the staff elevators and happened to see ours come off the elevator. He stated he would help carry it to our cabin. The attendant asked our room # and when he gave it, he was told, these bags don't go to that room. Our cabin was #1388. The porter had written #1338 on all of the tags! My son told him that was a mistake and described to him all of our bags -- they brought them all to the cabin and asked me if this was our luggage and then stated we were lucky my son had seen the bags. So, I could have been in the same situation, but I hope that if I had been, I would not have been rude to the staff or felt that they "owed" me something. Mistakes happen!

 

And finally, "since we had a 12pm flight home today, if we had returned to Miami they wanted us to disembark EARLY (6am!) so we could bus 4 hours back to Orlando- and we still probably would have missed our flight. So you would think, having told us that before we even got on the ship, they would have offered to give us some sort of shipboard credit." and "unreasonable to ask guests to depart the ship early b/c RCI couldn't manage proper air arrangements." Our ship arrived back in Miami also. My luggage tag color was called to disembark at 8:00 am. You are complaining because you would have been called 2 hours before that in order for RCI to make sure that you arrived at the airport in plenty of time not to miss your flight?????? And, you think that you still would have missed your 12:00 noon flight? Let's see, disembark 6 am - 4 hr bus ride - oh, that puts you at the airport somewhere between 10 and 10:30 am for a 12:00 noon flight!!! How do you figure you would miss it? And what would you miss on the ship by getting off 2 hrs earlier than you probably would have in Port Canaveral? You didn't have the inconvenience of having to make alternate arrangements yourself and they already paid for your transportation from Miami to the airport -- how much shipboard credit did you want??? GEEZ!!!!

 

 

Okay, I'm feel better now -- I'm sorry to rag on this issue, but it is just a subject that gripes me!

[creempuff0530]

Lovingmom-you were one of the lucky ones-you got to take your vacation and even got two "bonus" days. I for one certainly understand how people can get frustrated. Many people paid a lot of money for their vacations and have been looking forward to it for a long time. I haven't dealt with guest relations yet, but if they are anything like the people you get when you call RC on the phone then I can sympathize. I called(as I'm sure many people have)to ask about port changes. They can't give you a straight answer-it's like they read it out of a book. I called twice and got two completely different answers(and I was not rude by the way). If they don't know the answer, they should just say so, and find someone that does know if possible. If nobody knows then just say so. I'm sure some people to get rude with them, but people DO get frustrated when they can't get a straight answer to their questions. And yes, I'm sure the customer service people to get yelled at unnecessarily a lot, but if they can't handle that then maybe they shouldn't work in Customer Service. I worked CS when I was in college and believe me I know this first hand. Maybe you are just a better person than most, because if MY luggage was put on another boat and RC did nothing to help me you had better believe I would be angry. Ultimately whether the bus driver put it in the wrong spot or not, maybe RC should come up with a better system to ensure that the luggage gets on the right boat(and yes I know that mistakes still can happen). Ok-I'm ready-flame away!!!!!!!!!!

[Apex Cruiser]

The luggage thing is interesting since we meet people who did get a credit for their luggage that was put on Explorer. I'm not sure if the difference was insurance coverage or what but usually if one has insurance they will get reimbursed by insurance for lost or delayed luggage.

 

Overall the cruise portion of the week was great and they did everything they could given the circumstances. Our Jamican excursion was cancelled and we were offered more expensive ones as compensation. Since we had done both already we just took the credit but they were more than fair. The cruise staff did all they could to help folks and I indeed understand that some things can not be handeled by ship staff. It was a rough week for both some passengers and the crew. In talks with some of the crew we found that many were coming to the end of their sea time and going on vacation soon. So some burn out may have been there with three stressful cruises in a row.

 

The bus situation was not good but they had to rely on outside contractors who obviously scraped together any bus they could to transport the passengers. We had flown into FLL and our return trip was more than a bit stressful as the bus driver sat for 1/2 hour after he was told to leave. We made the plane by 15 minutes but it was not fun. I think the thinking on RCL's part about the credit was that they would be able to hold the ship for busses and had stated a return to Miami. For those of us who had counted on a return to Miami there were no guarantees you would make your flights, as we almost found out and they had failed to tell passengers a return to Port Canaveral would be made if at all possible. They need corporate PR to learn to communicate more clearly. We would probably have driven if it had been made clear the week before that a return to PC would have been made if it was at all possible.

 

Of course on Monday we both went back to work came home and said wish we still were on that cruise so everything is relative. Hope that Mariner can at least sail normal routes for the rest of the hurricane season. Also hope the people in the Caymans can get back to normal in the coming weeks it is a great island but the damage sounded so bad that I doubt they will be a port of call for a few months.

[gattfamily]

As for this statement, "Someone in our group wanted to let them know that their bus driver was dumping the bathroom "waste" onto the highway (he announced it to the bus)" : Towanda, the guest relations staff on board a cruise ship is there to handle cruise issues -- as they had absolutely nothing to do with the bus transportation, why would you expect them to handle that type of complaint? The busses hired were all outside companies... the person to complain to is the customer service dept. of the bus company -- in this type of situation, RCI was not at liberty to be choosy about the companies they used -- they simply utilized every available bus at their disposal.

 

Wow, this brings back memories of the Dave Matthews band.

 

I wouldn't complain to the bus company CS ... they violated Florida state pollution and public nuisance laws. I hope those passengers complained to the state of Florida. How disgusting and degrading!

 

Waste dumping, although illegal, sounds like common practice with tour busses. Yuck! From now on, I think I'll 'steer clear of the rear'.