Just back from 9 day Mariner Hounds Group Cruise!

[SUSANITA]

I really loved the Mariner. The ship itself was stunning, it stood out to me time and again how spotlessly clean it was, sparkling. Embarkation in PC was the fastest ever, we were in line for literally three minutes before getting our cards and boarding the ship. The crew were fabulous, probably one of the best crew I've sailed with. I found all of the staff and crew to be consistently excellent. Purser was helpful time and again, even with all of the problems with the delays, it seemed to run smoothly. I felt the food quality was on even par with Carnival, although I like Carnivals selections and variety more. One thing that stood out was that the food was usually served nice and hot, which I like. Jerk Chicken was fabulous. There was no clanging of dirty dishes in the middle of the dining room like you see on Carnival. The waiters sang for us a couple of nights, but it wasn't as cheesy as CCL, classier is the word I would choose. The public areas were nice, what little I saw of them. The pool deck had plenty of space and there was always a deck chair to be had. I loved that the pool and hottub were open 24 hours, this was a HUGE plus for RCI. Their Windjammer food was OK, on par with CCL, but CCL has the better burgers and pizza, hands down. Sometimes the food in the Windjammer was excellent, sometimes it was just OK, but the variety was good. One thing that stood out to me in the Windjammer was that in some areas they literally "cranked" the pop music, there were a couple of times that we almost changed seats because it was so annoying. If it annoyed us, imagine how the "older" crowd felt about it. I really enjoyed our meal at Chops, thought it was excellent, but many in our party of about 32 didn't agree. We ordered room service several times, and it was always delivered on time and fresh. We ate at Johnny Rockets twice, and had a great meal both times, although we were a bit shocked when we go a bill for $8 for ONE milkshake!!! Yes, I know about the service fee, this did not include the $5 fee!!(whatever, we were on vacation!) I can't speak for the entertainment, because I didn't go to a single show, and never even saw the CD once!! We were too busy in club 1552 (Pam's cabin!) at that time of night. Everyone I spoke to said the shows were excellent, even the "welcome aboard show" had many in our group raving about it, and that's usually pretty "canned" and corny! I will say that the Captain of the Mariner was just the best Capt. that I've sailed with, I honestly looked forward to his noon address, he was kind and personable and kept us all calm and confident with all of the changes that took place.

 

There didn't seem to be a whole lot going on at nighttime, that looked interesting, anyway. In fact, the royal promenade seemed pretty "dead" later at night. Be sure to get the croissant sandwiches at the Cafe Promenade, and I also liked the empanadas, but I think I was the only one of us that liked them. The rock band was excellent, Dragons Lair was a fun place to hang out til the wee hours. One thing that stood out to me there was the age range of the people in there, ranged from 18 to 65 and everyone seemed to be having fun. The casino was OK, I only went twice. Don won $100 the first night playing blackjack, but didn't win again, he didn't like the ambiance in the casino, there weren't that many tables open, and there were no $5 tables, which would have kept him playing longer. I lost $40 on the slots and got bored quickly, didn't have the desire to go back. Mamatoots won $400 on the slots, and TBRay came in 2nd in the slot tournament, but other than that I didn't hear of too many people that won. We had a great time playing mini golf, too. There was never a line, and you could play whenever you wanted! We watched Monday night football in the Sports bar, that was fun, but they didn't have regular TV channels at any other time. They did show reruns of old sitcoms, and some pretty decent movies, CNN, ESPN, etc... And they occasionally had a 2:00 movie matinee in the showroom.

 

Once onboard, RCI treated our group wonderfully! The meet and mingle was great, the howl and prowl was fun, and our farewell party was excellent. RCI backed up the promises made to the group, never a problem in that area.

 

Most fellow cruisers were awesome, always happy and smiling even with all the changes in plans. I saw drunk teens in elevators, a 7-8 year old girl that ran around alone everynight (I once saw this child skipping around the track at 10:30 pm, completely unsupervised), we saw ladies that were around 60 years walking down the hall in their lingerie, a passenger that outright yelled at the windjammer crew and DEMANDED that they go make him some ranch dressing, etc... OMG! The people that dined in the table next to us came to dinner late every single night!! I don't mean a little late, I mean sometimes an HOUR late!!! It really ticked us off that they would do this to the poor wait staff, and I'm sure they heard our comments a few times, but the staff always greeted them with a smile. There were not only jeans in the dining room, but shorts throughout the week as well. I wore dresses every night though, and felt comfortable (excpet for the "extra" night where it was casual and I wore jeans along with many others).

 

RCI had much stronger drinks compared to CCL's watered down ones, that was a huge plus. Also, we loved that we could purchase bottles on board and pay the fee to take them back to Pams cabin! We bought several bottles during the week. If you see a liquor that you like, don't wait to purchase it, toward the end of the week they were running out of the most popular ones. There is no price "break" on the first night of the cruise, Pam still paid 9.50 PER BOTTLE on the first night, but it still worked out well.

 

Continued...

[SUSANITA]

Getting on and off the ship at the ports was a breeze, never encountered a line except in St. Thomas. Immigration in St. Thomas was a total disaster, and I do mean disaster. I've never seen anything more disorganized on a cruise ship, and all it did was tick off about 3000 people. Basically, it's "get in line", but there is no rhyme or reason and people were cutting the line left and right, and all anyone wanted to do was get off the ship. It was a mess until Pam saved the day and all of the Hounds got to go to the front of the line! Whoohoo! RCI can surely come up with a better system than the "jump in line" method.

 

I enjoyed Godfreys tour in St. Thomas, he runs an informative and efficient tour, and I would highly recommend him. Sapphire beach was a bit of a disappointment, there really isn't much of a beach at all, one bar, one place to get an overpriced hamburger, etc..., I much preferred Magens Bay. I really enjoyed our beach time at Orient Beach, this port and this beach will forever be my favorite! The private tour we did in Nassau was fun, mainly because we were all together, not so much because of the tour operator himself, none of us really liked him, and they didn't exactly run the tour as expected ( I forgot the name of it, maybe Barefoot sailing tours? sorry! It was a sail and snorkel tour, which was basically a very slow sail out to the rainbow reef at the end of the channel. We ended up having to motor out, there was no wind). Labadee was OK I guess, mostly what I remember was how flippin HOT it was there, and the words "labadoozie, yummy for the tummy" keep floating through my mind now and again... The beach area wasn't all that great, weedy and way overcrowded, and the waverunners and parasailing were so overpriced they were barely used by anyone. But, it was a "free" port, so we tried to make the best of it even in the intense heat. RCI should make the prices of the waverunners and parasailing more reasonable, and they possibly might actually have some takers, as it was, they weren't making any money by ripping people off. They wanted about $95 to rent a waverunner for 1/2 hour. It was hard to enjoy the day, knowing that the people in Florida were getting slammed by yet another hurricane, several in our group are from the Melbourne and Tampa area.

 

The extra two nights were a bonus, when plans change three times in three days it can be a bit stressful, but who cares, we paid for 7 days and got 9 days! Whoohoo! The fact that RCI gave us all free internet service and basically opened up their phone lines for us was wonderful, and greatly appreciated by all. It did take a long time to get a phone line out, persistence paid off. I have to say that the Airlines were really great to ALL of us, and allowed some of us to change our flights 3 or 4 times without penalty! (First we were supposed to come back Sunday, then it was Monday, then it was Tuesday, then it was Tuesday in Miami!) RCI also offered to let anyone that wanted to stay on board a rate of only $50 per day!! We didn't do it, but several people in the group did. Way to go RCI. I do have to say, before the internet became free, it was infuriatingly, horribly, insanely, slow. It was so slow that people were pulling their hair out, and at 50 cents per minute, it was disgraceful. It kept throwing people off in the middle of emails, etc..., or you'd type an entire email hit send and get booted off. A quick complaint to the Purser generally got a refund, though, but it was still frustrating when your only means of communication home is a horrible internet system. Funny how when the internet became "free", it also became alot faster! This was the first ship I've been on where they didn't have an internet guy there to help with problems. Maybe because it was such a total mess no one wanted the job?

 

A few other notes, the parades on the Royal Promenade were very fun and impressive, try to make it to both if you can. We didn't go to the ice show or Quest, but many in our group did and absolutely raved about both. I love that the balcony doors slide open rather than open like a door, it gave us much more room on the balcony. This may seem weird, but the public bathrooms were absolutely beautiful, and always spotless. Be sure to walk outside on deck 4 at night, and also take some time to play shuffle board on deck 4, that was really fun. It you go to deck 12, forward, past the atrium and the spa area, there is a cool place where you can look down onto the bridge area and watch them steering the ship! The hot tubs are HOT, unlike the barely luke warm tubs on CCL, and for the first time we enjoyed a midnight hot tub. There are two greeters in the Windjammer, these really cute girls that greet you with a smile, wave, and song every morning, strange but we loved it! It was a nice touch. There was a $6 gratuity added to my bottle of wine at dinner. This was the first time I was ever charged a gratuity on a bottle of wine, it was suprising, and after the first bottle I didn't order another. I thought that serving wine was part of the waiters job, where I had already paid a gratuity, apparantly not. Elevators were generally slow, but if you got tired of waiting at the main elevators you could generally round the corner to others that weren't as busy. The artwork on the ship was impressive, take some time to walk around and appreciate it.

 

This was my 2nd RCI cruise, and I would sail RCI again in a heartbeat. I just wish they had more 'going on' at night (group kareoke, better piano bar, etc..., there was usually a choice of seeing one good band, or going to the disco, period.) They had "family Kareoke" at 11:30 pm, there weren't too many families there, lol. Overall it was a fabulous cruise, with two extra days tacked on, you can't beat that.

 

Well, I'm tired, and can't think of much more. I'd be happy to try to answer questions. For Don and I this cruise was all about being with old friends, and making new friends. For any of you that have not tried a group cruise, you definately should! As always, it made our entire cruising experience 100 times more fun!

[CamColt]

Great review! Im glad you enjoyoed your trip.

You mentioned about the pools and hot tubs being open 24 hours. Are they salt water pools?

Also, about the sports bar...are kids allowed in there?

[SUSANITA]

Yes, the pools are salt water, not sure about the hot tub as I didn't dunk my head, lol.

 

I didn't see any kids in the sports bar, but I'm pretty sure they would allow kids in there with their parents. I don't know if they would allow teens to be in there unsupervised, but probably.

[CamColt]

Thanks for the reply! We are considering the Mariner for next year and my DS is a huge sports nut. He watches every game possible so if he could catch some of anything he would be happy.

[SUSANITA]

We also were able to watch football in our cabin, they do get ESPN in the cabins!