twangster

Wandering the ship I came across The Bamboo Room. I'll add more pictures later but wanted to see if I could find @CruiseLifeRick's photo on the net. Found it! @mpoole3 tried to bribe me with an offer to remove it but rest assured, I left it in place. I spent some time exploring the ship and planning how I might take some pictures on another day. I noted in the Diamond Lounge they had removed the bar from within the lounge. Two waiters were serving drinks from a pantry service bar down the hall. It felt pretty awkward standing around waiting to place an order for 20 minutes so I left and used by diamond happy hour 'coupons' at the pool bar. The Viking Crown Lounge had a private party - the wedding party that boarded today I presume. I'm not sure where the time went but it was getting late. I checked the MarineTraffic.com app for our position. At nearly 1am we were approaching Freeport getting ready to make the turn into the shipping channel towards Nassau. With that, day one was complete. Time for bed.

I noticed in the app that the ice skating show was tonight. Normally held later in a cruise I guess with the short 3/4 night cruises they've placed it on night one. I'm not a huge figure skating fan. However I'm always amazed how they can perform as much as they do on a small sheet of ice on a ship, moving in the ocean. Amazing. Spinning around hanging on a rope in mid-air with skates on. Wow! It's a fun show where in some parts they skate right up to the railings and lean over almost into your lap. Having scored a front row seat is was pretty cool. I always try to make it to the ice skating shows on the ships that have them and "Ice Under the Big Top" on Mariner did not disappoint. On this 4 night cruise it was also available later in the cruise on another day (day 4, sea day, 3pm)

Day 1 - Dinner Changing for dinner I noticed a nice sunset over Miami If you look closely you can see the Miami skyline within the clouds. My Time Dining Room I don't normally order the regular steaks in the MDR but the table beside raved about the NY Strip so I figured why not? I can always ask for something else... It was pretty good for a cruise ship dining room steak. Key Lime Pie for dessert. Yum.

Cabin tour! Aft balcony cabin 9392. The view looking towards port: The view looking towards starboard: The view down: Cabin tour scope: https://www.periscope.tv/thetwangster/1eaKbVQRqbdKX

Day 1 IT'S CRUISE DAY!!! I checked Lyft the night before and it looked like about 20-25 minutes to the port in some traffic. I usually check both Uber and Lyft because sometime one can be cheaper than the other. For the Port of Miami you can use their website to determine the exact terminal your ship will be using: https://seaport2.miamidade.gov/dailydock/Default.aspx Currently Mariner appears to use Terminal G. I left the hotel 9:35 by Lyft and arrived at the terminal at 9:58am. With just a few guests ahead of me there were few lines. I was checked in and waiting by 10:15am. The waiting area for top tier (Platinum through Diamond Plus). Consecutive cruises were escorted off at 10:30am (heard on radio used by terminal personnel). Wedding party escorted upstairs at 10:33am. In the waiting area were several travel agents. Apparently Royal had extended a $200 deal to 100 travel agents for a balcony. 11:05am boarding started. Upon boarding I saw they had carry on storage. 1pm cabins became available. 1:45pm my luggage was down the hall so I walked down and grabbed it. With luggage unpacked I grabbed my camera and began exploring the ship. Great views of Miami from this spot in port. 4pm Muster Drill. Noted new graphics on the ship displays for muster. Make sure you find the muster crew member taking attendance and give them your cabin number. After that sail away! Because we were pointed West we had to make the turn in the turning basin before heading out to sea. Mariner is part of the Voyager class of ships which feature the Peak-a-boo bridge where you can look down into the bridge. I believe the man in the blue shirt is the local port pilot. Sail away time lapse: Sail away scope: https://www.periscope.tv/thetwangster/1eaJbVQPEYoJX Peak-a-boo bridge scope: https://www.periscope.tv/thetwangster/1YqGogQWzjMGv

I tried to have my travel agent escalate it. The resolutions department told her "The normal offer is 15% FCC so the ship offer of 25% far exceeded the normal offer and no additional offers will be extended." I've owned campers, trailers and motorhomes. Dealing with black and gray water tanks goes with the territory. This was nastier than anything I've had to deal with over years of dumping tanks while camping in the hot Florida sun. That's why I have a Florida SunPass transponder, from the days of land cruising.

That would be great. It would be nice to hear from some regular blog users what it's like.

Day 0 - Miami Arrival Vested in the Hilton brand of hotels for business travel I often find myself in one when vacationing. On this occasion the Hilton Miami Airport Blue Lagoon is close to the airport and features a free hotel airport shuttle. It's a nice property with a nice outdoor pool and patio area set in a lagoon across the highway from the airport. Far enough away that airport noise wasn't an issue but close enough for the shuttle ride to be short. Standard king bed room. The view towards downtown. The windows were a little dirty or I might have captured some nice nighttime Miami skyline photos. Set on a peninsula into this small lagoon there are no other restaurants or bars nearby within walking distance. Fortunately they had a lobby bar, restaurant and room service at typical hotel prices. Food was good.

Mariner has a PADI 5 Star Dive Center on board. I observed the instructor in a pool early one morning with two guests doing what appeared to be the first of two mandatory check dives in the PADI OWD certification process. That same dive instructor would later lead our dive on Cococay, but that's getting ahead of myself. I suspect Mariner is absent from the website list of ships because Mariner was until recently home ported in Asia. My guess is they haven't updated the website. Suggest you call them for clarification.

According to the port daily schedule, as soon as Oct 5. https://seaport2.miamidade.gov/dailydock/Default.aspx I noted when Symphony arrives she will be berthed at an unlisted terminal letter, but location 55-E and she will continue to use location 55-E on all subsequent sailings. On November 4th, Allure will use location 55-E and for all subsequent sailings. Looking at all of October 2018 in the PDF below, on October 5th Mariner is supposed to begin using position 55-E. No ships use it in September. Having said that, if construction slips or they can't get it ready by Oct. 5th, a different terminal will be used. On certain days through the end of year, PoM is full and Mariner must use the new terminal because there are no other terminals available. Press is never allowed in customs area and the arrival is very early. Besides, all ships have to be processed by customs, hardly a bad press moment. I suspect Canaveral was added for other reasons, including having a non-European port of call on the itinerary for other tax related purposes. Possibly as vain as to pick up some RCI executives. Media can't join in Canaveral, that violates the PVSA and Jones Act. Only cruise line employees that are working on the ship related to the maritime operation of the vessel escape the PVSA and Jones Act (ship photographers have been ruled to be subject to the Jones Act just like passengers because they don't work towards the operations of the ship like bridge officers or other marine department employees do). For a handful of executives they might just pay the penalty for violating the Jones and PVSA and bring them on in Canaveral for the night. The media cruise following Symphony's arrival will likely be the big press event to officially open the Crown of Miami but that is several days after we arrive - Nov. 13 is the media cruise. If our arrival in Miami was supposed to be some big event, they would not schedule it for 5am in the dark. Manifest_Print Oct 18 PoM.pdf

Spoiler alert. More than one ship is scheduled to use the new terminal well before Symphony. in fact if things go as planned, Mariner will use it first not long from now.

Technically your child was diamond if you entered them in the C&A system as your relationship dependent. Same with other family with children. As a diamond they are allowed in the diamond lounge. Hopefully you added your child into your C&A relationship prior to them being 19. Otherwise all bets are off when trying to get it applied retroactively.

Here is the verbiage from Royal's website: (bolding mine) A Crown & Anchor Society member can be added into a relationship with other family members in the same household and receive equivalent tier status; however Cruise Points will remain according to actual cruises taken and calculated using the Program level accrual system described above. Pinnacle Club member tier status will not be awarded to dependents if earned by their parent and/or guardian. Pinnacle Club member tier status can only be earned by an individual, spouse or significant other by one of them accumulating 700 Cruise Points or more in the CAS program. For all tiers except Pinnacle Club, a relationship is defined as a spouse or significant other and children less than 18 years old. For Pinnacle Club a relationship is considered a spouse and/or significant other. Children will be taken out of a relationship with a parent or guardian upon their 18th birthday date. If it is found that a dependent or child is not immediately removed from a relationship upon their 18th birthday and accumulates a higher tier status outside of this time period, the dependents record will be adjust back to the appropriate tier status. Para 21 http://www.royalcaribbean.com/cas/legal/ Some say spouse, some say significant other. Others say girlfriend. I'm not aware that Royal attempts or has any means to do anything but take what you say at face value. If you call them and say "my girlfriend" that could lead to some outcome. If you call them and say "my wife" that could possibly lead to some different outcome. One outcome might lead no where, another outcome could lead somewhere else, including something such as equivalent tier status. It's your decision what phrase you use and I am not a lawyer to advise you in these or any such matters. It's like Yogi Berra once said... "When you come to a fork in the road, take it."

Your spouse can have your status. They extend your diamond status to your spouse, but you need to contact them and request it. Make sure both addresses on each account match, give them a call or email them. A few days later they will be diamond with all the diamond benefits including a free photo, happy hour drinks, free day of internet, etc. Unless you do the status match request, they get none of your benefits and can NOT go into the diamond lounge with you. It's simple and easy to do and then they are diamond, even if they cruise without you. If you ever make diamond plus, your spouse will be automatically moved to diamond plus. They do NOT match for Pinnacle. C&A Society ‭(800) 526-9723‬ or [email protected]

I chose to write this blog after the cruise is over. This allows me to focus on the cruise during the cruise, live in the moment and go through a thousand photos looking for the best ones after the cruise is over in the comfort of my favorite chair and large computer monitors. Itinerary is Miami - Nassau - Cococay - Sea Day - Miami Here are some other live blogs worthy of a read from other blog users who have recently sailed the newly AMPED Mariner of the Seas. @Lovetocruise2002 - https://www.royalcaribbeanblog.com/boards/index.php?/topic/8955-“moments-on-mariner”-–-mariner-of-the-seas–-august-13-17-2018/ @CruiseHabit Ric - https://www.royalcaribbeanblog.com/boards/index.php?/topic/9322-mariner-of-the-seas-liveishblog-917-922/ Given their excellent work I won't repeat everything they have blogged about so if you haven't already, give their blogs a quick read. For this Miami based cruise I flew into Miami the day before and stayed at the Hilton Blue Lagoon near Miami airport. Post cruise my plan will be a rental car to drive up to Port Canaveral where I'll jump on Enchantment of the Seas. Since I have to fly to Florida, a 4 night cruise typically isn't worth it given the cost of airfare so adding a back-to-back or in this case a side-to-side extends the cruise length making the additional cost of airfare worth it. Both cruises have the same ports so I'll be doing a double dip to both Nassau and Cococay. For this cruise my only excursion booked through Royal is a certified scuba dive in Cococay. On sale from a normal price of $68 I paid just $57. It's a one tank shore dive to a maximum depth of 37 feet so it's also a great way to keep my scuba certification and my diving brain current without committing a huge block of time to the excursion. While I have visited Cococay before, I've never dove here before. I'm looking forward to exploring the portion of Cococay below the waves. For Nassau, I booked a 737 airline simulator experience in Nassau as a private excursion not offered through the cruise line.

Funny you mention Pinnacles. The CL was full of them. I may have been the only D+. They were all regulars that the concierge knew well. In once case a woman stays on the ship for weeks and her husband joins her for the weekends then goes to work during the week off ship. I was the stranger in there. That may have been a factor in her approach. I don't think anyone in Miami is plotting to get rid of top tier but the cold truth is the ships are sailing full. In the current economy they have lots of younger people and new cruisers booking up ships and making rookie mistakes paying in excess here and there - the ideal customer. A savvy elite who only books shore excursions or dining packages with a discount compared to a new cruiser who books everything on board? An elite who uses a balcony discount compared to a millennial who pays $300 more for the same cabin? An elite you have to supply with free drinks during happy hour compared to a newbie who buys every drink at the bar. Elites produce less revenue, plain and simple. But there is a catch. Only if the economy turns or the line of new cruisers dwindles will loyal customers become important again. Until then we are a liability more than an asset - compared to the average guest on board. Zero elites on board would be an ideal cruise manifest from a profit perspective. Don't get me wrong, this isn't being said in angst or being bitter, I'm a business person, I get it. This is business. Changes are coming in the loyalty program. On Mariner they took the bar out of the diamond lounge. Two waiters take drink orders, leave, walk down the hall to a service bar in a pantry, fill their tray and return. It takes 20-25 minutes to get a drink during peak while standing around because all chairs are occupied. The removal of the bar wasn't a mistake. It was done on purpose. I bet the Mariner DL consumes 1/3 of the stock compared to some other similar ships. Once those numbers appear on paper month after month, DL bars across the fleet will soon be changing. MSC Black isn't all that. I did the status match. You get a few things from it, but MSC's approach is simply lower prices for everyone and a few minor perks thrown to elites. The products are different so you can't just compare them on paper. NCL has made indications it may bolster its loyalty program. It's vision is a little longer term compared to Royal. Royal is basking in the sun right now, where NCL is preparing for the coming storm. It's just a matter time. Maybe not this year, maybe not next year, but its coming. Frank Del Rio, NCL CEO had this to say: “No one knows when a recession will come; you ought to start thinking about it. We’re starting to think about how to increase loyalty; make sure you stay close to your customers. Maximize repeaters. Emphasize value and not price. Prepare to reorganize your resources to fill the funnel. You can’t cut costs enough in a recession; you need to increase efficiencies and invest in new products and markets.” https://www.travelmarketreport.com/articles/Norwegian-CEO-Frank-del-Rio-Says-Its-Never-Too-Early-to-Prepare-for-a-Downturn Royal is okay not handling their non-pinnacles with white gloves. That's working for now because bookings are up. Once it turns though, folks like me will be shopping the field for bargains without loyalty to keep them on Royal. That is what Royal doesn't understand but NCL does.

Jewel - Panama Radiance - Hawaii Spectrum B2B, Voyager and Quantum - Asia Vision, Rhapsody, Anthem, Mariner, Freedom - Bahamas/Bermuda/Caribbean Good question on blogging. Not a fan of CC. Maybe I'll launch NCLBlog ? Stay tuned for my Mariner recap blog - coming soon. You picked a winner in Mariner. The drive between Miami and Port Canaveral was just under 4 hours with stops. Orlando probably similar depending on stops. Some car rental companies have shuttles in Miami that go to the port. I have status with Hertz so that's why I used them. The Florida Turnpike between Orlando and Miami is a toll road but accepts cash at toll booths. Exactly. My cabins are already going for more than I booked for so they are thrilled I am cancelling. On Panama alone it's a $1,000 more now. Radiance balcony $700 more. Someone at Royal HQ is reading this and thinking "cancel more!"

Unsure what your Crown and Anchor level is, but keep in mind that Surf is offered on board the ship with C&A discounts that vary based on C&A level. Typical discounts are: Gold 10% Platinum/Emerald 15% Diamond 1 free day Diamond Plus 2 free days A benefit of buying Surf on board is that you can wait a day or two and save even more since the 'full voyage' plans are reduced each day to reflect fewer days remaining. Many of us have cell phone coverage on boarding day so by waiting until day 2 the price drops AND the discount for C&A level still applies.

Part of the streamlining process a few months ago was designed to make the app login the same as the website login. Can she log in on the website using a computer without issue? If so that same login should work in the app.

Also, once you are confident in your case of choice, try it at home in a sink or bathtub full of water. I have a life proof case on my phone but hadn't really used it near water since I have a GoPro. This weekend I thought I'd experiment to see how the picture quality worked on my phone in it's waterproof case. Turns out it's nearly impossible to control my phone when the surface is wet. The touch sensitive surface doesn't work. I couldn't even unlock it when wet, never mind try to get the photo app launched. It did a great job keeping my phone dry in my swimsuit pocket but my phone was pretty unusable.

The online menus are self proclaimed to be sample menus. They in no way were an attempt to be an exact snapshot of what you may see once on board.

In Summation I've questioned myself if coming off Mariner was a factor. I don't think it was. I loved Grandeur and Empress. As I drove up the coast towards Enchantment I was looking forward to it. If the bathroom sewage issue had not occurred the outcome would have been very different. However that saved me $20k and it broke me from the need of being Loyal2Royal. NCL has some inexpensive last minute Panama Canal cruises you never see on Royal. They claimed the sewage contained no human waste. Since the toilet system is vacuum based and it whisks away your deposit under vacuum to distant regions, that is very possible. Nasty gray water though, I still have the stench in my nostrils. That floor drain outside of the shower would gurgle as I showered and it was hard not to keep checking it every time it did. Beside that issue, the onboard food and beverage is consistent with other ships. Entertainment and activities are consistent with a Vision class experience. I was fine with both. One Schooner Bar musician in particular was very good and quite enjoyable. It's is very lively at night on the pool deck. I did miss the promenade and extra space and venues of Voyager class and above. With the AMPED program underway I think I'm going to gravitate to Voyager class and above in the future. Empress may remain an exception, I still like that ship. Being a 3 night weekend cruise there was definitely a younger vibe and party atmosphere on board. That came with a few more younger men who would drop the F bomb for no apparent reason but that's a generational thing. Who knew one word can be a noun, pronoun, adjective, verb and adverb at the same time and in the same one word sentence? Ugh. I just proved I'm getting old (like I didn't know that already). I'm booked one cruise shy of hitting 340 Crown and Anchor points in 2018 and that drops the single supplement to 150% on most cruises. Now I am reconsidering the desire for that target. I'm still three cruises short of platinum on Carnival. Maybe I should aim for that in case they change their loyalty program. Horizon looks pretty cool. A 3 or 4 night cruise is perfect for the drink package. Beyond that drink fatigue can become an issue. With the weekend sale I had bought it for a 9 night cruise but cancelled it yesterday. I also canceled the package for the Symphony transatlantic. If I return to Mariner I'll likely splurge for the drink package. The drink packages make a lot of sense on these short Bahamas cruises that include Cococay since Cococay is covered by the drink package. I did enjoy the aft balcony. Great views. No regrets there. The Junior Suite program on Royal is weak. Not enough to it on most ships to justify the up-charge. If you can catch a deal that's different. I had an interior booked on Vision and Rhapsody. I sailed in an interior on Grandeur. I wonder what would have happened if I had stuck to interior on Enchantment? Who knows, can't start playing that guessing game. At least I had no clingy shower curtain latching on to me. For those booking or thinking about booking Enchantment - keep in mind thousands of people board this ship twice weekly at the moment. A select few unlucky ones experience what I did. I won the lottery! The day I disembarked someone else excitedly walked into cabin 7166 at 1:30pm and they are not likely aware of nor will have likely have to deal with what I did. The cycle of cruising continues and life goes on. Research the ship as you should any ship you are thinking about booking. By and large those nearly 5,000 guests (2,500 twice weekly) have a great cruise and there is no reason why you can't either.

Morning came and I went to the Windjammer at 6:30am when it opened for my last meal. We were arriving and docking when I saw this fishing boat playing chicken with another cruise ship arriving in Port Canaveral after us. He eventually flinched. Could have been the sheriff's boat intervening. Our stated arrival was 7:15am. The signs adjusted this to 7:20am. The night before it struck me oddly that few people had put their luggage out. That should have been a red flag. It meant the vast majority of people would self-assist disembark. That makes sense, it's a 3 night cruise. I had a larger suitcase since I just came off Mariner and I had brought some dive gear. Most folks had carry on size roller bags. I joined the self assist line on deck 5, starboard all the way aft. As we inched slowly forward I eventually came to the gangways connected to the ship on deck 4, one deck down. It was 8am and no one was leaving the ship yet. The line inched forward. All the way forward on deck 5, into the ship, through the theater, down to the stage, back up the theater to make a right turn and back outside on deck 5 where we inched back aft to re-enter the ship at the aft elevator lobby to carry our bags down one flight, across deck 4 and turning into the Centrum where finally at 8:15 I was scanned off the ship. Apparently this was Enchantment's last jab at me. I should have woken up earlier... Customs wasn't too bad and I was curbside by 8:30am. I booked my flight home through Melbourne International Airport (MLB) on the assumption the transfer would be easier and cheaper. That's what everyone say. As we inched along deck 5 outside I had time to plan my transfer. From the ship: Lyft to Melbourne: Uber to Melbourne: These both constantly went up and down $5 or $6 dollars based on inventory and available drivers. My other option had been to fly from Orlando (MCO) so I checked pricing for comparison purposes. I saved approximately $25 for ride-sharing by using MLB airport. But wait... a car rental is around $30 using my corporate rates. I opened the Hertz app and booked a car for $27 plus taxes for a total of $32 in theory. Still cheaper than ride sharing. At 8:48am I was on the Hertz shuttle for the mile drive to their lot. The check in agent was trying to find me a nicer car given my Hertz level but I told her I was just going to the airport and didn't need anything fancy. She gave me an Elantra with half a tank of gas and told me not to add any fuel. Cool, saved a few bucks. MLB is roughly 24 miles from Cape Canaveral. In hindsight the car rental would be the same price to MCO or MLB. MCO has a Skyclub, better food options and more frequent service to try for a standby. I should have flown from MCO. As it turns out MLB isn't bad. It's a quieter airport with free wifi and another domestic airport checked off my list. I had a couple of very productive meetings and enjoyed my complimentary upgrades to first class which would probably have been harder to obtain from MCO.

Dinner in the MDR. No photos. Service continued to be friendly and prompt. No issues with the food. I had a hard time finding a quieter spot on the ship to just sit and watch the water. The Centrum had bingo with an ear splitting 140 decibel speaker system calling numbers. A player on the Carnival Victory now sailing beside us a few miles away on our way back to Florida called bingo! It was that loud. The Viking Crown lounge had a private event. The Schooner Bar had trivia. Colony Club had karaoke. The Colony Club is one deck below my deck 7 aft suite and I could hear and feel the event from my cabin. I avoided the Concierge Club. My aft balcony was the only quiet refuge I could find and so it was, with a Kraken and diet in hand. Last night of the cruise.

The main snorkel area for Cococay is closer to the end of the island where the ship is closest. I had never snorkeled here and since I had brought my mask and snorkel fins (travel fins) I decided I need to learn more about this area. You enter from the beach where people are swilling. Buoys mark underwater features they have aded to attract marine life. Swimming platforms are available to rest on. Two life guard towers mark the extent of the snorkel and swim area. At first the water is cloudy from the swimmers and folks wading in shallow water, Further out it clears up quite a bit. I spotted more rays. With this complete I headed back to the ship. Cococay remains a favorite stop of mine. The construction from the pier and/or Perfect Day had no impact on my day here either from Mariner on Thursday or Enchantment on Sunday.