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Kids preferred the cruise to disney! |
| Reviewed By: Moir, Inverness on 30th Nov 2008 |
| Cruise Line: Royal Caribbean Cruises |
Times cruised before: 6-10 |
| Cruise Ship: Mariner of the Seas |
Sailed:
October,
2008 |
| Destination: Caribbean |
Age: 36-45 |
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I finally persuaded my husband to go on a cruise, I had previously been on several cruises but that was over 10 years ago. I researched as much as I could before hand so we could enjoy the experience. We spent 9 nights at Disney and then headed to Port Canaveral for our Eastern Cruise.
It was a lovely sunny day and the drive to Port Canaveral was fairly easy and the signs with directions to the ship were easily followed. We had hired a car and we thought the best thing to do was to get my husband to drop everyone off and then we would wait with the luggage whilst he took the car back. This was a bad move as the queue to drop passengers off was at least 25 cars long and there were only 3 bays to drop off passengers. After waiting 20 minutes we abandoned this and drove to the car hire place which is very nearby. A courtesy bus then drove us with all our luggage to the port. We met a lovely Canadian family on the bus.
The first sight of the ship is breathtaking, she is beautiful, we arrived at around 12pm to check-in, although check-in was 1pm. We did not take too long to get through all the security and finally board the ship. Our daughters could not believe how posh she looked inside! We spent sometime exploring, finding our way around and headed to the Windjammer for lunch. It was very busy and we found it difficult to get a table but eventually managed. The Windjammer was lovely, I loved the floor to ceiling windows at the aft. We all thoroughly enjoyed the food throughout our cruise. My husband is a vegetarian and he always found lots of choice.
We had asked for a large table at dinner in order to mix with other passengers, we were seated with another family with a child of a similar age to our children. Our table was on deck 3 and we were second seating. I had chosen second seating as I thought the children would be at the kids club and we could enjoy dinner without them. This worked well, we either took them to the Windjammer for their dinner about 6.30 or they went for a supervised dinner with the kids club at Johnny Rockets. They then attended kids club from 7pm to 10pm. This gave us time for a pre dinner drink and peace and quiet at dinner. The food in the dining room was excellent, again with plenty of choice for a vegetarian. The waiter and assistant waiter were very attentive. We pre purchased the Wine and Dine package which saved us some money on our wine. We had breakfast in the dining room the first morning but found it was much slower than going to the Windjammer as we were seated at a very large table and it took a while for everyone to be served.
The first night was a little rocky but it did not bother us, we had two outside cabins on deck 3 with a connecting door. They were mid ship which helps with motion. The cabins were an adequate size and perfect location for us. It was easy to get on and off the ship from them and to go to dinner and the Royal promenade. We were lucky to see one of the larger suites which has a separate sitting area and a large bar, large balcony and huge bathroom which a family was staying in. It was only slightly larger than our two cabins put together and they had only a curtain to divide them from the sitting area. They were very impressed with our cabins with the connecting door and said it would be what they would go for on a future cruise as there is more privacy and two shower/toilets. We were able to empty our fridge and put bottled water and coke in which was handy to take on shore.
Cococay
We had a lovely day at Cococay, it is not as nice as Labadee. The kids went to the kids club on the island which they enjoyed. Lunch was a bbq buffet and again was very good, they were even able to produce a vegetarian burger when requested. We had a rocky night and it was quite noisy with the sea hitting the bow. None of however suffered from seasickness.
Our 3rd day was at sea, it was very windy and my husband and I tried to sunbathe by the pool, his shoes blew away and the water in the pool was splashing about. At about 12pm the captain made an announcement that there was a hurricane which had recently formed in the Eastern Caribbean which was on its way to St Thomas and St Martin and that as from this evening there ports were to be closed. He stated the ship was now going on a Western itinerary and we would now call at Grand Cayman and Cozumel. He said the wind would die down and the waters should be calmer. Within an hour the wind had gone and the sea was calm. It was a beautiful sunny day, it was hard to believe that there was a hurricane out there. I had read there is a risk of ships changing ports in hurricane season this this did not upset us although some passengers who were on a back to back cruise were not happy at all as they ended up visiting some of the same ports but that is the risk you take at that time of year and that is why it is slightly cheaper. I would have been happy to have 7 calm days at sea then ride out a hurricane!
Grand Cayman is lovely and has a lovely beach (7 mile beach). We spent time there and then had a look at the shops. The weather in Cozumel was not so nice, it was cloudy and rained on and off. We spent time at the shops there but my husband did not like how they pestered you to go into their shops.
We did not go to many of the shows, the ones we did see were very good especially the ice show, the children's club was fantastic, we found it hard to get our kids out of it. We enjoyed the mini golf but did not manage to use the ice skating rink. The kids preferred the cruise to Disney and have talked about nothing else. My husband is now also hooked on cruising! I could go on and on the whole experience was magical and we will look forward to planning our next cruise.
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| Quality of Food |  |
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| | Shore Excursions | n/a |
| | Staff | |
| All staff were very attentive. | | Children's Facilities | |
| Excellent the children loved the kids club which gave us some time on our own. | | Onboard Activities | |
| | Cabins | |
| | Overall Rating | |
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