Mariner Review (& Comparison to Golden Princess)

[riekl]

Ok this is as much a comparison as a review, my wife and I sailed on Golden in Nov of 2002, and Mariner Nov of 2004 (just got back so its fresh !) There is no particular order to the comments below it will just be a point by point comparison as I think of them:

 

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Food

• RCI food was "good" overall, the kind of food you would expect to find in most 2.5 star restraunts.
  
• The best part of the food was the filet at Chops, that was the single best piece of meat I have ever had in my life and it was cooked to perfection, and delivered at a perfect temprature.
  
• Fruit was ALWAYS unripened, a direct contrast with the Golden where the fruit was almost always juicy and ready to eat, the fruit on RCI had to be choked down not a single day with ripe melon on the whole cruise :(
  
• Main dining room service was horrid, food was cold every night by the time it got to us, getting drink refills was a slow and tedious process, the servers were polite as always.
  
• The pizza .. oh my .. rubber is not pizza, little caesars makes a better pizza ! Golden wins Pizza by a huge margin.
  

Entertainment

• RCI wins "quality" of entertainment by a smidge, the comics especially were outstanding.
  
• Princess wins "quanity" by a huge leap, I can not believe how often on a ship as big as the Mariner my wife and I stared at each other with the what now look as there was nothing to do ! The Mariner is such a large ship I can not believe they only had one show room, Princess had 2 major shows every evening in addition to all the little things going on, on Mariner you had one show and that was it. Very very disapointed in the quanity of entertainment, and we were not alone here, we heard the same thing over and over from other couples that despite the size of the ship and the 'number" of entertainment venues 90% of the time they sat idle unused wasted space.
  
• Movie screenings, now no one goes on a cruise to watch movies, but when its raining at port, or your back early and looking for something to do they are a nice way to pass the time. RCI = a tiny 60 person room with a tiny screen showing OLD movies via VHS, UGH !! Princess = Movies played in a huge 700+ room on a screen 3x the size and all the movies shown were pre-rental releases. Princess wins by such a huge margin here.
  
• Pools !! This ship has 2 "main" (read small) pools and 1 (much smaller) adult only pool (which was broken 5 of the 7 days). Golden has 2x the pools and they are fresh water to boot ! I can't believe how little pool area there was on this monster ship :(. I also can't believe how often the tubs were closed for "maintence" at any given time 20-30% of the tubs were closed, I dont remember EVER seeing a single tub closed on Princess, it was so nice on Princess to come out after dinner for a nice quiet swim and soak.
  
• RCTV .. how many of you knew this quirky system ran on Windows ? We didnt until we got our first "fatal error" overall we had 5 fatal error crashes trying to utilize RCTV .. what a joke. Princess may not have an automated system which I give RCI credit for trying but they have a lot of bugs to work out !
  
• This is another minor point, but on Haiti (RCI's private port) they sell the snorkeling package just like Princess does .. but guess what ? There are no fish to see at RCI's port .. there were a hundread people hovering over one reef were we were able to see 2 small grey fish that was the life of the party. On princess they give you fish food and as a result you had hundreads of colorful friendly fish swiming around you .. major disapointment !
  

Overall we enjoyed the cruise, I find it hard not to enjoy any cruise, but RCI was 30% more expensive for the same room category and deliverd vastly lower quality of Food, service and lack of entertainment options.

[gkrebs]

Interesting thoughts. Thank you

[ruttie]

thanks for the comparisons.. which itenerary did you do with golden? what type of room did you have on each? Balconies? I am thinking of doing princess so would like to know your thoughts on the room comparisons iteneraries/sea days etc... did you do Pc dining or regular on princess???

[bnldavis]

We have cruised the Grand Princess and the Mariner and some of the things riekl mentions as good on Princess were our disappointments on Princess. For example the item about quantity of entertainment. Too often we felt Princess had so much going on we were in conflict about what to see. Other times the schedules were so tight you could not get from one venue to the next without leaving the earlier show early or arriving late at the later show. I felt that was very hectic and hurried - the last thing I want from a cruise. Fortunately we have not experienced the pool or RCTV problems mentioned (we've been on the Mariner twice), so maybe it was just a bad week. We also have not encountered cold food at dinner (except the cold soups, which were excellent!). I'm surprised at the 2.5 star comment, but then again I mostly eat at home. I do agree about the filet at Chops. I think I could have eaten there every night!

 

One thing we absolutely, positively disliked on Princess was the "personal choice" dining. The dining experience there was no different than going to a local restaurant. We like the more "formal" structure of assigned dining.

 

The things we definitely feel Princess has over RCI is Princess Cay (awesome), the photographers and ability to order custom sets of prints, and as riekl mentioned, the movies. I agree I don't cruise to catch a movie, but it's sure nice to have that option.

 

All this proves is that one person's tastes are different from another's. We prefer RCL, but given a good deal we would not hesitate to sail Princess again.

[Carvone]

I have to agree with the OP about the food on the Mariner, we ate in the dining room the first night and never went back. The service was slow and the food was ice cold and rubber by the time we were served. We actually left the dining room after our meal and went to the Windjammer to eat something decent. The rest of the week was Portofinos and chops (two nights) and the Windjammer. Portofinos and Chops are outstanding but expensive if done right. Windjammer served the same food as the Dining room but at least it was hot and didn't take two hours.

We got into the pool once (way too salty) and the hot tub once, and I love to swim in the ocean.

The Mariner is a beautiful ship and the service was outstanding for the most part, this ship just needs better management of Food and Entertainment.

We're going to try another line next year, maybe Princess or Carnival. I hear they have decent food.

[riekl]

ruttie --

 

Yep we had a balcony on each .. the cabins were very comparable, I definately liked the curved shower door on the Mariner better then the curtain on the Golden but thats a very small thing.

 

bnldavis --

 

I guess different strokes for different folks .. most people I know like to have entertainment "options" on RCI you have one show, if it doesn't interest you you have nothing to do. Just because Princess would have 2-3 different shows running close together wasn't intented for you to try to make all of them :) It was to give you options on what you wanted to see and experience, you get no such options on Princess. Also Princess still has formal dining also so if you didnt like Personal Choice why didnt you go to the formal dining rooms ??

 

I also liked how Golden had 3 elevator banks I never felt crowded or rushed yet was always waiting for an elevator on Mariner.

 

The pools on golden were just so much better you could always find a pool that wasn't overcrowded even on sea day .. and the fresh water pools were such a blessing.

 

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Another few notes of comparison ..

 

Decor --

 

Mariner had a very family oriented beach resort type of decor, Golden Princess was much more elegant and formal of decor. Both were very well decked out just depends on what you are looking for.

 

Cruise Director --

 

Kurt was horrible .. he was hardly involved in the ships activities at least from what we are used to from Princess where you see the CD several times each and every day everywhere. The CD on Princess does a daily show on the TV talking about that days port and activities, VERY handy and very comical. RCI had _1_ self produced show a recording of the shopping presentation which they replaced 500 times a day every day even after we were past all of the ports, VERY disapointed with RCTV, Princess does a much better job.

[SAD]

I have to agree with the points made about Princess cruising vs. RCCL. I was not on the Golden but on the Coral last Spring and on the Mariner this past Spring. The fresh water pools, PIZZA, and the movies are a couple of the points where Princess really excells. Embarkation goes much quicker with Princess and the elevators are also much better. On the Mariner my DH would wait for the elevator and I would take the stairs and on many occassions I would arrive before him even when going up seven decks or eight decks.(Let me tell you, walking up all those stairs is not easy but much quicker than the elevators) And I almost forgot about the daily programs recorded by the CD. They were very enjoyable.

Well, I could go on and on but I am not saying that RCCL is a bad cruise line. I am cruising with them again this next Spring on the Sovereign with a friend who has never cruised.

I also think that people tend to prefer the line that they first cruised on and I was on two Princess cruises before I ever went with RCCL.

[mellak]

I just got off the Mariner as well and had a slightly different experience. This was my second sailing on the Mariner and 4th on RCCL. Our embarkation and debarkation process were seamless. It took us less than 30 minutes for each.

 

Our service in the dining room was excellent. I guess it just depends on who you get. The food was good, not great, but I don't expect gourmet on RCCL, they are more middle of the road. Chops was awesome!!!! I enjoyed most of the shows and always had something to do. Shows, piano bar, casino, bingo, etc.

 

Kirk was just average as a CD. The other CD's I have had with RCCL have been much better. This past cruise had way more seniors on it than I have experienced on RCCL cruises. I am not the hard core partier but we have found alot more excitement on previous cruises (even 2003 Thanksgiving on the Mariner). It just the luck of the draw of who books on your week.

 

Overall we had a great cruise and plan on cruising with RCCL again.