My Cruise on Royal Caribbean’s Mariner of The Seas

Alan & Lil on The Tender with the Mariner in the background

This is my second time on The Mariner of The Seas and my 87th cruise over all. With all these cruises under my belt, I feel that I have a good Idea of what makes a great cruise vacation.

My wife and I departed on July 12, 2009 from the Port of Los Angeles on Royal Caribbean’s  Mariner of The Seas. We were very excited to be on the Mariner again and were looking forward to a great vacation at sea. We sailed away from the dock at 5:45 PM and headed south from LA to Mexico in the crystal blue Pacific Ocean.

We Unpacked and settled into our stateroom.  We headed to the dinning room at 555PM, as we had first seating dinning. Royal Caribbean has instituted a “As You Like it Dinning” as an option for people that don’t like  early or late set dinning times. This option gives you the choice to come to the main dinning room at anytime between 6PM and 8:30PM and you are seated as if you were at a restaurant. I personally like the fixed seating at the same table, waiters and people at my table all week. We were seated at a table for 6 with two other couples. One couple was from the Chicago area and was also in the cabin next to us we discovered. The other couple was from Big Bear California. Really very nice people and we had a great conversation at dinner. But that’s what dinner on a cruise ship is really all about. Meeting new people, great food and great conversation. The food was excellent, which was nice to see that Royal Caribbean had not cutback on the quality of the food during these trying economic times.

After dinner it was off to the Savoy Theater for the welcome aboard show. We met our Cruise

The Parade on the Mariner of The Seas

Director Abe who gave us a rundown of what to expect during the upcoming week. Then we were entertained by a juggler and a comic, who were both very good. The evening ended with a great “Welcome Parade” on the Royal Promenade. So for the first day, things looked pretty good.

Since we had travelled with Royal Caribbean on more than 24 cruises, we are considered Diamond Plus members in their Loyalty program, which is the top tier of the program. Along with being in the top tier brings some perks, such as a special on board coupon book. Now it’s been 18 months since our last Royal Caribbean cruise and we were expecting the same perks in the coupon book we received in February of 2008. Well they have decided to change the coupon book and take away a lot of the “Perks” that they gave to their best customers. This did not make much sense to me. Why would you take away perks to your best customers. Things such as a free 8” X 10” photo is now gone and replaced by a 20% off coupon on a special type of 8” x 10” photo. Gone also is a free 30 minutes of internet usage, replaced by a $10 off coupon for internet usage. At a ridiculous $0.55 per minute (OUCH!) you will use that $10 credit up real quick, as the internet connection on this ship is so slow, you could finish the novel War and Peace before you could send your email.

Gone is the “Ship Shape” program. This program got people involved in the fitness activities aboard the ship. You would earn Ship Shape dollars for participating in the activities and you would then be able to redeem them for “Ship Shape” gifts at the end of the cruise. A really great program that I really was sorry to see it eliminated as I was on the ship that they started the ship shape program back in the 1980’s. I guess the one thing that Royal Caribbean eliminated that I was really sad to see go was the Mint and Saying on the Pillow at night. Did I eat the mint every night, no, but It was like a warm fuzzy that I had come to expect on Royal Caribbean ever since we sailed on our first cruise on the Song of Norway in 1978.

To be continued……..

San Antonio, A Great City to Visit!

The Rio San Antonio River Cruise

just returned from a fantastic trip to San Antonio and the Alamo Bowl. I loved the City of San Antonio and its famous Riverwalk. The first thing you need to know if you are planning a trip to San Antonio is the San Antonio Airport is under construction and it is a bear to get around. The roadway in and out of the airport is all torn up and there are temporary entrances for all the terminals and the walk from the drop off point to the ticket counters is very long.

The City of San Antonio’s downtown district is always jumping. This is due to the Riverwalk that winds it’s way through the entire downtown area. You have to take the boat tour. The boats are run by the Rio San Antonio Cruise Company. The cost of the 30 minute river tour is $7.75 (cash only) and you can board at two different areas along the Riverwalk. Since we were there right before New Years, the Riverwalk was all lit up with thousands of Holiday Lights on all the trees lining the river. The lights come on at dusk. If you can take the river cruise right around 530PM, it is a beautiful ride.

The Alamo Dome was a great place to see a football game. We went to see our team, Northwestern University take on Missouri in the Alamo Bowl. It was a great game and we enjoyed cheering on our Wildcats. And even thou we didn’t will, we did cover the point spread, so in my book we won.
San Antonio gets two thumbs up from me!

Orient Lines may not be returning after all.

 

The New Marco Polo II

Orient Lines has release a statement that its inaugural season, set to start in April of 09 is being delayed. The line is refunding all bookings on the Marco Polo II, the former Maxim Gorkiy. The line has furloughed ten full time employees and most of the sales force was let go.

Wayne Heller, the lines founder said, “We are exploring possible options to relaunch our cruise program at a more favorable time. This sound like the end of the line for Orient again. Too bad, I really thought it was going to make a go of it. I will keep you abreast of any future developments.

Stay Tune!

Royal Caribbean New Ad Campaign A Real “Dud”

 

At Sea on Royal Caribbean

You have probably seen the new Royal Caribbean commercial called the “Nation of Why Not?”  This is the new ad campaign for Royal Caribbean. I cannot tell you that who ever came up with this campaign should be FIRED! What a DUD! It is so bad that I have to change the channel every time it comes up on my TV. It looks like a really bad Magic Kingdom commercial. If this what Royal Caribbean thinks will get people to sail on their ships, well they have another thing coming. 

The past campaign was “Get Out There!” Now that was a great campaign as it showed that you could do anything on a cruise vacation. A real upbeat campaign. It made you say “That looks like FUN!” 

But now the powers that be have come up with this terrible campaign that is driving people away from the brand. My advise to Royal Caribbean, dump this campaign and regroup and come up with something GOOD! After 37 years in the travel industry, I think I know what I am talking about.

Travel Agents, Worth their weight in GOLD!

 

Alan On Tour In The Pacific Northwest.

Have you tried to make any travel plans lately? If you have, you probably have searched and searched the web till your head was spinning. What you need to do is find a good professional consultant. A good travel consultant can find you deals that are not available on the web and can save you hundreds of dollars on cruises and tours. They can also give you great advice for your trip, such as little known places to visit at your destination. 

There has been lots of talk as of late that Travel Agents are a dying breed. Not so, they are not only alive and kicking, but more and more travelers are turing to them for help in booking their vacation travel. So a tip to the savvy traveler or the novice traveler, use a travel agent and save lots of time and money!