First time cruise review (Mariner of the Seas 19 - 23 April)

[PMPMarty]

Being a first-time cruiser I thought I would give my impression of the experience we had sailing on the Mariner of the Seas 19 – 23 April. 

Boarding the ship at Port Canaveral:  I was very impressed; this was a well-oiled machine.  Drive up, drop off your bags, hand the nice man some money, and go to park.  The only issue I had was with some guy named Wade (not sure if he worked for RC or for the port).  Wade thought himself a drill sergeant barking orders to people, “Stop talking, get in line”.  Rude!!  The process of checking in and getting on the boat was very simple and moved along quickly.  Once on the boat is where our inexperience kicked in.  What do we do, how do we get our room keys?  There is no one to tell you how it all works.  We eventually figured it out after asking a few people, but I felt this is something that could have been explained prior to boarding.

Once on board we explored the ship to see where everything  was located and how to get around.  It was during this time that we overheard other passengers discussing that our ports of call had changed.  Instead of being at sea on the first day, we were now going to Freeport.  We later found out that this was due to a maintenance issue, but again, this was not communicated very well to the passengers.

Day one at Freeport:  Why are we here!!  There is nothing in Freeport.  A fenced in area with a pretend straw market.  It was also during this time that we were hit by another ship while tied up to the dock.  The whole boat rocked!  Luckily it was high up on the rear of the ship.

Day two at Coco Cay:  We had a blast, what a wonderful place.  Very relaxing without a care in the world.  The blue waters were amazing.

Day three Nassau:  Loved it, lots to do and see.

Day four, coming home:  Getting off of the ship was as easy as getting on, very smooth process.

 

Overall impression:  Our spacious balcony room was very nice and had plenty of room.  Our porter did not disappoint either.  Big thank you to Orlando!!

We loved exploring the ship, especially at night when there was hardly anyone up on deck.  It was almost as if we had the place to ourselves. 

We ate in the main dining room twice.  The first night it seemed that they were having some “coordination” issues.  Overall the food was very good, but we were not impressed by the prime rib.  Cut was very thin and dry.  Not at all what I expected. 

If you’re a morning person (I am) you will enjoy being on deck as the sun comes up.  Magical!  Not to mention breakfast in the Windjammer. 

It was a wonderful experience, and the entire Mariner of the Seas crew were awesome.  Thank you all!

[smost]

We were on the Mariner from April 23-April 28. We had a similar situation in the Main Dining Room. We did My Time Dining with a reservation for 8:15pm every night. We would drive t 8pm and only had to wait in line one night. The wait was only for about 5-10 minutes. We were sat at the same table every night which is something I love.

There did seem to be a little bit on confusion for the first few nights. There was a man running around the dining room with a laptop marking tables that were open or tables that had people sitting on them. Many of the nights, instead of going around the tables in the middle of the dining room, they led us through them which was a tad bit uncomfortable because we got really close to other diners.

It did feel like the wait time between courses seemed a bit long. But we chalked that up to there being a lot of meals being prepared and as long as they kept the drinks coming, we didn’t mind waiting. The staff was amazing! And always made sure to say hello to us when they saw us.

 

Besides the dining, we did have a few discrepancies on our account where they charged us for drinks instead of marking our drink package. But guest services took care of it super quick.

[Chris Fish]

We did Mariner April 14th thru 19th. Unfortunately you could tell the ship was short staffed. As many have said before, we still got a great cruise vacation. Getting on the ship was very fast. This was the first cruise that we only did the main dinning room one night. We did the Windjammer the other nights and the last night we had cruise credits to burn so we decided to try Playmakers, which was a huge disappointment. Took forever just to get the worst chicken wings I ever had and my wife's burger wasn't good either. The ice show was the best out of all of our cruises. The shows in the theater we enjoyed very much as well. The performers in the Pubs and Schooner were very entertaining and really got the crowds going. Overall a great cruise, just a few things that I'm sure over time Royal will be able get back up to speed once this covid issue is finally over.

[MTNeedsAVacay]

18 hours ago, PMPMarty said:

Day one at Freeport:  Why are we here!!  There is nothing in Freeport.  A fenced in area with a pretend straw market.  It was also during this time that we were hit by another ship while tied up to the dock.  The whole boat rocked!  Luckily it was high up on the rear of the ship.

We were on this sailing too, and this experience was definitely a first for us! We supposedly went to Freeport for "scheduled maintenance" but it seemed like such a last minute change, there's no way it was "scheduled." Then we ended up with more damage than what we came with! Also agreed that the port area left much to be desired and was quite a let down.

As for the noted comments about the ship being short staffed, we also noticed it, and were a bit disappointed. Most notably, Johnny Rockets was closed for the entire sailing, but I never once saw a note about it or heard any announcements about its closure. The lack of some staff was also very evident at Playmakers and The Bamboo Room, with food orders taking around 45 minutes. 

Otherwise, despite the ship being pretty full, it never felt miserably crowded, and we still had a lovely time! Boarding and leaving the ship were a breeze.

Thanks for sharing your review!

[PMPMarty]

Totally agree and I think everyone is saying the same thing, There is an obvious lack of communication from RC to their passengers.

[Patchy]

If you go on Mariner and Pavlo is working at the Bamboo Room, you will have a great time!   My twin sister and I taught him a better way to make a chocolate cake shot, so ask for it!