Mariner review, 2/10/08 very long

[kittymom65]

Hey y'all. We are still on our way back home from the Mariner. We are staying the night in Savannah tonight, before driving the rest of the way home tomorrow.

We had a great time, I took my laptop with me and typed each night what we did so that I would not forget.

So, here it is, and it is very long!!!!

Please ask away with questions, I will check back as soon as I can since we are still traveling.

[kittymom65]

Saturday, February 9, 2008

We left home around 5:45 this morning, stopping for breakfast at Chick-Fil-A, and actually getting on I75 at 6:30. We made excellent driving time with no major traffic issues, and pulled into the County Inn & Suites Cape Canaveral at 4:00. We had an excellent dinner of grilled yellowfin tuna and cheese fries at Grills, went to Walgreens for a few things we forgot, and made it back to the hotel for a good night’s rest

[kittymom65]

Sunday, February 10, 2008 partly cloudy around 75 degrees

We slept in a little bit, and enjoyed the free breakfast at the hotel. They actually had gravy and biscuits and sausage, so my husband was very happy. The hotel was very nice for the money ($99 per night). We left the hotel around 10:30 to drive to the port, which is just 2 or 3 minutes from the hotel. Parking at the port is now $15 per day, or $105 per week. We dropped off our luggage, circled around to park, walked down the port, and got in line to go through security. We waited about 5 minutes here, went through security, and up to check in. There was not line at all to check in, so it only took a couple of minutes. We then got in line for boarding, waited about 5 minutes, and started to board the ship. They began boarding at 11:15.

Captain: Per Kristofferson

CD: Graham Seymour

We went up to deck 11, made our reservations for Chops (Wednesday) and Portofino (Thursday) and got a seat by the window in the Windjammer by 11:30. We were allowed into cabins at 1:00. Our cabin is 8318 (E2 center hump starboard). We were in 7618 (E3 center hump port) last year on our Eastern cruise, and I see no difference in size.

Muster drill at 4:00, and we set sail at 4:30.

The welcome aboard show was at 7:45 (for all seatings). It was better than I expected, with an aerial acrobat and a juggler/comedian.

First night second seating dinner was at 8:45. We are at table 515 (for 8) in Sound of Music dining room. Our tablemates are very nice, I think it will be a good week with them. A couple from the Charlotte, NC, are, newlyweds from Gainesville, FL, and a couple from Montreal.

For dinner, I had tomato soup, prime rib, and white chocolate fondue. DH had tomato soup, prime rib, and savarin. Prime rib was pretty good, the soup was excellent. DH said the savarin was awesome, my dessert was okay.

The Island parade was at 10:45 tonight down the promenade.

We returned to our cabin after dinner to see we had a voice mail from the Chops manager. We had made reservations for Wednesday night, and she was calling to tell us that a wedding party had reserved the whole restaurant for that night, and that they should not have taken our reservation. Our only options to change reservations were for Friday or Saturday. We didn’t really want either of those nights, we had specifically picked Wednesday according to our schedule, but decided to go on Friday. The manager did say we would receive 2 free cocktails at dinner for our inconvenience.

No towel animal tonight.

[kittymom65]

Monday, February 11, 2008 At Sea mostly cloudy, very windy, around 80 degrees

 

They began distributing ice show tickets at 9:00, so we picked up tickets for the show we wanted to see (Wednesday at 7:00), and had breakfast at the Windjammer. It was very good, and they had just about anything you could want to eat for breakfast.

We did a little bit of shopping on the promenade, and then off to our Meet and Mingle at 11:00 at Ellington’s. We had a pretty small turnout, but they did have refreshments, and gave away 2 tote bags and 2 aqua mouses (mice?), none of which we won.

We hung out around the pool awhile, and then went to have lunch at Johnny Rockets. It was really very good. I had a bacon cheeseburger, DH had a double cheeseburger, we shared French fries and onion rings. I had a peanut butter milkshake, had had chocolate, and he also had an oreo sundae with hot fudge.

We were sailing into a storm, and the winds got up pretty high, around 50 mph with gusts higher than that. There was also some rain, so most people left the pool area. We came back to our cabin, planning on sitting on the balcony to watch the storm, but the spray from the waves splashing on the balcony just made it impossible to do so and stay reasonably dry. So, we watched a movie on my laptop, and took a long nap.

Around 5:00, we had room service bring a cheese tray (this is absolutely my favorite thing from room service), and we went to spend some time in the solarium hot tub. Almost all people were gone to get ready for formal night, so we got to enjoy it all to ourselves. Since we have late seating, we came back to get ready around 7:15 or so.

Dinner was again very enjoyable, we have great tablemates. Dinner was the standard first formal night dinner menu. I had shrimp cocktail, ceaser salad, filet of beef, and strawberry cheesecake. DH had lobster bisque, filet of beef, strawberry cheesecake. We both agreed the cheesecake did not have enough cream cheese in it to technically qualify as cheesecake, but the rest of dinner was excellent. BTW, our waiter is Ivor from India, assistant waiter Roy from India, head waiter Greg, and bartender Basil, who we have now had on our last 3 cruises—he’s great!

The show tonight is “Front Row” which is a bit of a Broadway review. It was pretty good, and the singers they have right now are very good. Showtime for second seating is 10:45. As DH wanted to get out of his tux immediately after dinner, we went to change into more comfortable clothes, and went into the show late. Again, I really did enjoy it, even though I didn’t expect to.

After the show, we stopped by Ben & Jerry’s for a little midnight snack, and discovered that the Wig & Gavel pub is the place to be late at night. A great lounge singer is there, and he encourages audience participation. It was a great time, and we finally headed off to bed around 1:00.

Towel animal tonight is a dog.

[kittymom65]

Tuesday, February 12, 2008 Labadee mostly sunny, 98 degrees

We awoke just as the captain was making the announcement that we could begin tendering to the island, around 8:00. After a quick breakfast in the Windjammer, we boarded a tender to Labadee.

This was our first time on the island, and we weren’t exactly sure where we wanted to go. We ended up under a nice bunch of trees near Dragon’s Breath. The waves here were too rough for swimming but I was perfectly happy where I was, in a beach lounger, in the shade, with a drink (Labadoozie) in my hand, with the sounds of Mr. Buffett and Mr. Marley in my ears, via Ipod. BTW, I can confirm that a Labadoozie and a Cocoloco are the same thing, and they are extremely yummy. We stayed in our shady spot for several hours. We had brought our own snorkel equipment, and had planned on snorkeling a bit here, but after we saw how many other people were on snorkel beach, and in the water, we decided to just call it a day here, and headed back to the ship.

The dining room was open for lunch, so we had a very nice lunch there, and went back to our cabin for an afternoon nap—lying on a beach chair drinking rum is hard work!

We eventually made it up to the pool and hot tub for awhile (after we sailed away from Labadee about 3:45 or so).

We came back to the cabin and sat on the balcony, enjoying our cheese plate from room service, as we sailed by the island of Tortuga.

There was a comedian in an early show for late seating at 7:00. He did a full hour routine, and was very funny. It was Italian night in the dining room.

I had: caprese salad, garlic soup, tiger shrimp, and warm chocolate cake with vanilla ice cream. DH had garlic soup, ceaser salad, salmon, and the same dessert. All was excellent! We stayed in the dining room enjoying our tablemates for a while, and decided to call it a night around 11:00.

Tonight’s towel animal is a stingray. We also received our C&A gift, which are baseball caps.

[kittymom65]

Wednesday, February 13, 2008 Ocho Rios, Jamaica partly cloudy, 82 degrees

Again, I woke up to the captain announcing that we had arrived in port. We had no plans for the day, so we took our time getting ready for the day, and went to the Windjammer for breakfast around 9:30 or so.

We walked off the ship, into town, to Island Village. We were probably asked if we wanted a taxi, or if I wanted my hair braided, or if we wanted some Jamaican “herbs” a hundred times or more on the short 5 minute walk there.

The shopping center is very nice, it even has a movie theater, and places for local crafts people to sell their items. There were also street performers, playing the steel drums, or playing the bongos (for tips, of course). We shopped around in the village and bought souvenirs for people at home, the made our way to Margaritaville. We enjoyed a few drinks, and later, had lunch (a jerk chicken quesadilla for me, fajitas for DH). We also enjoyed the water slide and pool there for awhile, before deciding to head back to the ship around 1:30.

We spent some time in the solarium pool and hot tubs, and on the way back to the cabin for our daily nap, I saw a sign advertising a special at the spa for today only. For $129, I got a 20 minute back and neck massage, 10 minute foot and ankle massage, 10 minute scalp massage, a facial, a glass of champagne, chocolate candy, and a free body brush with a long handle. It was wonderful and worth every single cent. Tracey from New Zealand was my masseuse. I highly recommend her, and she was tipped well.

I came back to the cabin, and DH and I watched sail away from Jamaica from our balcony with our cheese plate from room service.

There was an ice show tonight at 7:00 (also tonight at 9:00, and tomorrow at 5:00 and 7:00). It is the same show we saw on the Mariner last year, Ice Under the Big Top, but it was phenomenal. The skaters were very impressive, and there were only 2 falls. I’d go see it again tomorrow if we could get in.

Dinner was the famous “Get Out There” menu. I have never personally experienced this one in the dining room, we have always went somewhere else for dinner on this night, and I must say that I really enjoyed it. It was actually better than dinner the first night, and the dessert was the best I have had this week so far. I had jalepeno potato soup, ceaser salad, penne pasta with shrimp, scallops, and mussels, and the chocolate trio dessert, which consisted of chocolate cake, chocolate cheesecake, and white chocolate mousse. DH had everything the same except his main entrée, he just ordered the old stand by sirloin steak, which he said was very good.

Win a cruise bingo was at 10:15, which we almost missed because we again lingered at the dinner table enjoying the company. We, of course, did not win. The newlywed game was at 10:45, there was a parade on the promenade at 11:15, and a pool party and buffet on the pool deck at 11:30.

We held out as long as we could, but we have an early excursion scheduled for Grand Cayman tomorrow, so we headed to bed around 1:00.

Tonight’s towel animal is a swan.

[kittymom65]

Thursday, February 14, 2008 Grand Cayman partly cloudy, 85 degrees

Our 6:45 wake up call came way too early this morning. We stumbled up to the Windjammer for breakfast, then back to the cabin to gather our things for our excursion.

We booked the 4X4 Jeep Wrangler Excursion. Apparently, no one else on cruise critic has done it, because I tried several times to find out about the experience, and no one had anything to say. We met at the Savoy theater at 7:45, along with several other early excursions, so we could be on the first tender over to the island. The tenders were really rocking this morning, but we made it to the island safe and sound, but a little shaken up. We boarded a bus that took us to the Beach Club Colony hotel, where we met our tour guide and got to our Jeeps. They wanted 4 people per Jeep, so we partnered with some people from our ship, Jim and Leigh from Orlando. They were lots of fun, and let my husband do all the driving, which was just fine with him.

The jeeps are all automatic, even though the excursion book said they were manuals. We started out behind our guide. BTW, they drive on the wrong side of the road here, so that took a little getting used to. Our first stop was a little park called Morgan’s Harbor, where we got out to take some pictures, and our guide, Wayne, told us about the island. You can see Rum Point from here, and stingray city (from a long distance) also. Right on cue, one single stingray swam up to the dock there, the turned around and swam back towards his buddies.

We then got back in our jeeps, and drove through the mangrove forest, which is a dirt road, full of potholes and mudholes. We had some fun driving through the mud in 4 wheel drive, and it was a really a pretty drive. We saw several iguanas and birds.

We then stopped at Tortuga Rum Cake Factory, where we got to sample several of the cakes and lots of the flavored rums. If you buy anything there, they will send it back to the ship for you.

After leaving there, we drove by the turtle farm, and then we went to Hell. We stopped in Hell for a few minutes for a bathroom break and some souvenir shopping. So, now we can tell everyone that we have been to Hell and back.

We then drove back through Georgetown, and ended up at the Beach Club Colony, where we were given a free rum drink and beach chairs, and some time to swim, snorkel, and enjoy the beach. A bus came to the beach club to pick us up, and drove us directly back to the tender docks. We would have had plenty of time to shop there in town if we had wanted, as we returned around 1:30.

We chose to head back to the ship and have lunch at the Windjammer. We walked around the ship a bit, and then back to the cabin for a nice long nap and shower—to get sand out of places that sand should not be!

Dinner tonight was at Portofino. Our meal at Portofino last cruise was one of the best meals I have ever eaten. Therefore, we had expectations that were very high. Of course, it was difficult for them to live up. The meal was excellent, for sure, but not as good as I remembered. I had the tiger shrimp risotto, pear and gorgonzola salad, filet mignon, and the dessert sampler, which consisted of panna cotta, white chocolate crème brulee, tiramisu, and flourless chocolate cake. DH had barley soup, ceaser salad, filet mignon, and dessert sampler. My steak was just okay, even though my husband said that his was excellent. The manager presented me (and all of the other ladies there that night) one long stemmed red rose for Valentine’s Day.

I was a bit frustrated at our server. When we came in, she immediately started in about the wine list. We are not wine drinkers, and my husband told her so before she wasted her time. She then offered a bottle of champagne, as it is Valentine’s Day. We told her no, we were not interested in it either. She goes away for a few minutes, and comes back with the bottle of champagne, presents it to my husband like a bottle of wine, and then goes to open it. My husband told her, again, that we did not want a bottle. This, for some reason, pissed her off. She took our food order, and then we never saw her again. Her assistant did absolutely everything else from that point on, and we never saw her again. It did not affect our meal, as the assistant was very good, it was just strange.

After dinner, we went to the Pure Energy show at 10:45. This is a medley of 80s music, and it was very enjoyable. There is one singer, her name is Angela, that is just excellent.

We went up to Café Promenade for some hot green tea, and then went to the late night adult comedy show by the cruise director, Graham Seymour. He is a hoot, and quite possibly not right in the head. We enjoyed him very much. Off to bed around 2:00.

Tonight’s towel animal is a rabbit. We also received our “fuel surcharge logo item”, which is a tote bag, a pretty nice one, IMO.

[kittymom65]

Friday, February 15, 2008 Cozumel mostly sunny 85 degrees

We attempted to sleep in a bit. Here is a tip for all cruisers: If you are walking down a hallway that has nothing on it but cabins, especially early in the morning or late at night, please do not scream at your children, or laugh and talk loudly. Some people are trying to sleep, and just because your whole family got up at 6:00 am, does not mean everyone else did, or wants to. Thank you. I am now off the soapbox.

We went up to breakfast at the Windjammer around 9:45., and we were eating breakfast as we pulled in to the International Pier. HAL’s Westerdam came in right behind us, and since they were docking at the same pier, no one could exit the Mariner until that ship docked. We waited for the crowd to disburse a little bit, and walked onto the pier around 10:30.

We made our way to the taxi stand, and requested a ride to Nachi Cocum Beach Club, which I had reserved online several months ago. The cab ride was $14. We were the first ones to arrive there today. Jose took us to our palapa, brought us a drink, and we settled in. The package we bought included food, and unlimited drinks.

After a while, Leonardo came by and asked if we would like to go snorkeling. He has a small boat, and offered to take us to 2 different spots for $30 each. DH and I had our own snorkel equipment, and decided to go with him. The equipment that he uses also looked to be in very good condition. He took us, and one other man who was at the club today, out to a reef. I did not catch the name of the reef, but he said it was the second largest in the world. The first swarmed us as soon as we jumped in. Lots of grouper, more different tropical fish than I could count, red snappers, several barracudas, and a small nurse shark. After about 45 minutes, he took us to deeper water, where we saw several different kinds of fish, one ray, and a sea turtle. It was the best snorkeling trip I have ever been on, worth every penny we paid him. He also had water, coke, and corona on his boat for us.

By the time we got back to the beach club, it was 2:00 ship time, and we were starved. We shared nachos, chicken wings, fajitas, quesadillas, and finished with coconut ice cream. The food was pretty good, I think, the 3 margaritas I had blur the memory a bit. We spent some time in the hot tub, swam in the fresh water pool, laid on the beach, swam in the blue ocean water a while more. Around 5:00, we decided we should go back to the ship, and Jose called a cab for us, which arrived in 5 minutes, and took us back to the International Pier. We did a little shopping here, and headed for the ship, took a power nap, and woke up just in time for the sunset and sail away at 7:00.

Dinner tonight was at Chops, where we found a pleasant surprise. Our server was Monika, from Hungary, who was our dining room waiter last cruise. We just loved her so much, and were happy to see her again. She did not remember our names, but she did remember our faces, and also that we cruise near our wedding anniversary (which is the 17th). So, our service was beyond excellent, and the food was as well. I had the shrimp cocktail, house salad, filet mignon w/ cabernet sauce, baked potato, and mud pie, which was like a chocolate cheesecake, and was the best dessert I have had this week. DH had the shrimp cocktail, lobster bisque, t-bone with baked potato, and mud pie. Monika also had the kitchen make us a plate, that had “happy anniversary” written in chocolate on it, with a piece of flourless chocolate cake in the middle, and a candle, and the servers sang to us. It was very sweet.

We went to the cabin to change, and go get good seats for the Quest, which was at 11:00. It was lots of fun, as always, and Graham was very funny. Our team came in second.

Then it was off to Café Promenade for some hot green tea, then to bed around 1:30.

Tonight’s towel animal is a monkey.

[kittymom65]

Saturday, February 16, 2008 At Sea, mix of clouds and sun, around 80 degrees

We did succeed in sleeping in this morning. We headed up to the Windjammer for breakfast around 10:30. It came a quick rain shower around this time, and the buffet was packed with people getting away from the rain.

We headed down to the photo gallery to pick out our pictures, then up to the promenade for some things for the people at home. They had t-shirts 2 for $20, and a shirt and hat for $30. We walked around the ship a bit, and spent some time on the balcony, then watched a movie on the laptop.

We had a late lunch, and explored the ship a bit more, before ending up at the solarium for the afternoon. We did not make it to the farewell show, which I had wanted to see, but did not allow ourselves enough time to get ready for it, as we were busy packing. I did see the show on the television later tonight, and it was a good show, and Graham sang “Chasing Cars” which is one of my absolute favorite songs. He did a wonderful job, and I was very sorry that I missed the live show.

Dinner was good, I had the shrimp cocktail, ceaser salad, NY Strip, and brownie with vanilla ice cream. DH had the onion soup, ceaser salad, NY Strip, and brownie with vanilla ice cream. As we were finishing dessert, the head waiter brought out some key lime pie that said “happy anniversary”, and our 3 waiters sang to us.

We took pictures and exchanged contact info with our wonderful tablemates. None of us really wanted to leave our table, we actually closed down the dining room around 11:00. We said goodbye to Ivor and Roy, and headed up to finish packing.

We decided, instead of fighting the crowd in the morning in the dining room or Windjammer, to go down to the promenade and get some ham and cheese croissants. We put them in our little refridgerator in our room for us to eat for breakfast in the morning. We received lavender 3 tags, and according to the schedule, we should be the 3rd group called to disembark.

Off to bed now (around 12:30) for a 6:15 wake up call.

Tonight’s towel animal is a frog, which is one I have not seen before J

[kittymom65]

Sunday, February 17, 2008 Get off of our ship day

I actually woke up before the wake up call, and sat out on our balcony to watch the ship dock in Port Canaveral. We enjoyed our ham and cheese croissants for breakfast on the balcony, and left our cabin around 7:00 to have a seat in the internet café to wait for our color to be called. We were called about 7:30 or so. We caught an elevator down to the 4th deck, walked off the ship, thru customs, grabbed a porter and our luggage, who walked all the way to our car in the garage to help us, and were on the highway towards Orlando by 8:00.

We did some shopping at a few of the outlet malls in Orlando, then spent a few hours and some money at the new IKEA store there. We drove back towards Daytona Beach around 2:00. We got off the freeway and drove by International Speedway, which was a mob of people, as today is Daytona 500 day. We drove out to A1A to our favorite Florida seafood restaurant for a wonderful late lunch.

We then started north, and are spending the night at a Springhill Suites in Savannah. This hotel is very nice, and the bed is wonderful.

Tomorrow, we will take our time driving the last 5 hours home, with a few shopping stops along the way.

[kittymom65]

Some final thoughts:

*Our last Mariner cruise, we had the wonderful Captain Johnny and the famous Becky Thompson as CD. We arrived on this cruise knowing that we would have neither this time. Captain Per was very nice, much younger than I expected, but I did find myself missing “Good morning, good morning, good morning” and the Chinese proverbs every day. As far as Graham is concerned, I was pleasantly surprised to find that I liked him very much. He will be moving to the Independence when it is ready to sail.

*Chops fee is now $25, Portofino is still $20. For this cruise, we had the better experience at Chops.

*Labadee has gorgeous scenery. However, I think I prefer CocoCay.

*I am glad I got off the ship in Ocho Rios to see a little bit of Jamaica, but I really think that I do not have any desire to go back there.

*The Jeep tour in Grand Cayman was actually the first time, in 4 cruises, that we took an organized ship excursion. I was pleasantly surprised in how well organized it was, and enjoyed it very much.

*Our experience at Nachi Cocum in Cozumel was wonderful. The place is heaven on earth, I highly recommend to anyone who wants a quiet beach day.

*Our cabin steward never did introduce himself to us, but he did his job wonderfully every day.

*Some things that I always take cruising that I find to be very useful: a pop-up clothes hamper, power strip, over the door shoe hanger, post-its, a highlighter, Yankee candle car air fresheners

*Words simply cannot express how much I will miss the Mariner when she leaves for the west coast. My DH and I are both broken hearted to lose “our” beautiful ship. Captain Per would not comment on the replacement, only stating that he only knows rumors, and, therefore, did not care to share.

[Laurie12820]

Thank you for your review! We will be on the Mariner in May (Eastern) and cannot wait!

[KMBB]

kittymom65---thanks for posting your cruise details for us to read. I too will be on this cruise ship in May. I believe Laurie12820 will be on "my" cruise also.(May 11)

Thanks kmbb

[masonpips]

NICE review! Thanks so much! I can't wait to see her and sail on her again in October myself!

[Laurie12820]

kittymom65---thanks for posting your cruise details for us to read. I too will be on this cruise ship in May. I believe Laurie12820 will be on "my" cruise also.(May 11)

Thanks kmbb

 

Yes, we will be on the same cruise!

[vivig]

Thanks for the GREAT review and taking the time to share your experience with us all! We will be on the Mariner on March 9 and cannot wait!

 

Sounds like you had a relaxing and wonderful vacation! I can't wait!

 

Thanks again:)

[Sooner-b-Crusin]

Thanks for a great review...... We will be on her again in April. Hopefully Captain Johnny will be back.

 

I was surprised to read that you got baseball caps for your C&A gift. What do they look like??? Hopefully they aren't like the ones they give away for all the games and stuff. And what does your Fuel surcharge bag look like?

 

Have a safe trip home tomorrow.

 

Pat

[massfriends]

Great review....Oh, the memories. We have only been home for 3 weeks and I can't stand it. Reading your review has helped ease my pain....withdrawal is a hard thing.

 

Thanks again...:)

[kaseyoz]

loved reading your review especially all the food. I had better get started on that diet right now

[Merion_Mom]

Kittymom, what a fabulous review!

 

And Happy Anniversary!!!! :) :) :)

[Darspurs]

Thanks for the review, we are going for a 'chill out' cruise and a lazy time so you have given us some great ideas for the ports, all of which we have been to before and done the tours we have wanted to there. Also you have given us good ideas of what to plan for the various evenings.

 

A couple of questions:-

 

Do you know if Graham will still be the CD for our cruise on 3/9?

 

Do you know if the headline acts are around for a while or did you hear what is planned for the next few weeks?

 

Many thanks - Two weeks on Wednesday until we fly to Orlando.

[DEBS@40]

What a great review perfect time for posting as I booked yesterday for the 12th October sailing on this lovely lady.:)

 

Looks like I'm joining Masonpips for this trip.

[dmndlil]

Great Review!!! Our group will be sailing on her (for the second time) in just 6 days!!!

 

Thanks for sharing your wonderful trip....and Happy Anniversary!:D

[CruisePrincess51]

Thanks for the great review, we are sailing Mariner again in September and after reading your review, it makes me wish the time would get here quicker. We've never done the Western Caribbean, we will be doing the same itenarary as you. Is there anything that you would highly recommend not missing...we're just starting to sit down now to make plans of what to see and what not to see...any recommendations would be appreciated. Thanks again for the review, I really enjoyed reading it! :)

 

Kathy

[Inshape]

Now that just takes the cake a FUEL surcharge gift...... HMMM makes you all wonder what that is really going for....gifts.... I would forgo the gift and forgo the charge for sure. Since we do 2 cabins so the kids are not with us we are surcharged for the kids as if they are adults too, along with full price for the cabin. BUt we will get 4 totes.....

I also will miss MOS. Been on her twice and doing another cruise on her in Oct as a farewell. I love that ship......