Mariner of the Seas At Christmas

With two teenage boys, the Royal Caribbean's Mariner of the Seas was the ideal Christmas vacation for us. They enjoyed rock climbing, ice skating, and their teenagers-only clubs, Fuel and The Living Room. There was plenty to do and the food was first rate. It is more adult-oriented than the Disney Magic with its casino and drinking venues. However, the smell of smoking rarely penetrated the more public areas. I also appreciated its well-stocked library.





I thought their food was equal to if not better than Disney. However, there is no availability of food on the swim decks and they charge for colas. I enjoyed the buffet on Windjammers and the more Asian food in Jade. We had wonderful dinner partners at our dinner table in Rhadsody in Blue.

Entertainment was inconsistent as compared to Disney. The singing and dancing was polished and the ice skaters were terrific. However, the comedy stylings sometimes fell short. The exception was Yakov Smirnoff, who was touched me in his love for the ideals of America. Later, we with 24 other couples took a seminar directed by Smirnoff "The DNA of Happily Ever Laughter". It was his effort to salvage from the wreckage of his own divorce how to build an enduring relationship. DNA stands for discovering how we are sometimes performers or audience, notice each other's needs ("Happiness is when our needs are met"), and agree on a way forward. It was a rare combination of both of insight and and humor.






Another special moment was when we danced on stage with Rock and Roll Hall of Famers The Coasters ("Yakyty Yak" , "Charlie Brown").

We enjoyed the European spa and I had "frangipani scalp treatment", that I had won in a raffle.

A much apprecated moment of pure sentiment is when we joined the staff and officers in singing Christmas carols on the Grand Promenade with an enormous Christmas tree in the background. That next morning in a nearby lounge, we opened our presents.

We had a tiny cabin on the second deck. It took some creativity to squeeze our luggage into that room, but we were able to do so.

Crowd control was generally efficient. This was true in getting on and off the ship, and in the use of a conveyer of tenders at Cabo San Lucas. Things got hectic at Windjammers in midday and we were were sometimes displaced to a later seating for the ice shows.

We enjoyed visting Cabo San Lucas, Mazatlan, and Puerto Vallerta. Cabo is the most Americanized and touristy, and the people who live there are not embarrassed to hustle for our dollars. Mazatalan, a city of 400,000, is a combination of squalor and affluence. Our boys played at the El Cid resort. But my favorite Puerto Vallerta. We took a bus trip into the hills away from the beach to see a different side of Mexico and its people. The mountains and gorges were lush and verdant and the people who lived their were friendly. Strung over those gorges were fourteen ziplines. I and the boys enjoyed zipping hundreds of yards through the air from platform to platform.





On the 1,000 mile return trip, the ship headed into a stiff wind. However, I sensed little movement in the ship because of its size.

Upon leaving the ship, we found we left a pillow behind. Although we didn't have success in retrieving the pillow while we were at the terminal, we subsequently got a call from Royal Caribbean saying they had found the pillow and promising that they would mail it to us. When it comes to customer service, they did walk the walk.

All in all, I thought this was a wonderful vacation and I think the Mariner of the Seas is an excellent choice for other families.

Mariner of the Seas

The next few postings will be about our trip to the Mexican Riveria on Royal Caribbean's Mariner of the Seas

Here is a review from Cruise Critic and general information about this ship.

Here are some pictures that someone else took on this ship.



Mariner of the Seas

Flying Saucer Travel Tips

Take notes.

Wrapped Presents on Planes

Remember! – do not wrap gifts you're taking on the plane. Security officers may have to unwrap gifts if they need to take a closer look. Either ship wrapped gifts ahead of time or wait until your destination to wrap them.

The Transportation Security Administration presumes that all wrapped presents are gifts for them.

http://www.tsa.gov/travelers/airtravel/holiday_311.shtm

Do You Want Hay or Straw?

Airline travel today. Article from the travel section of the New York Times, by Michelle Higgins, November 25th, 2007.

http://travel.nytimes.com/2007/11/25/travel/25conflict.html

Thus airlines are increasingly cutting back services in coach or charging passengers for things that used to be free, like meals ($5 for a snack box on United) or drinks ($2 for a 16-fluid-ounce bottle of water on Spirit) or, in the case of Delta, US Airways, Northwest and Continental, starting to use narrow-body planes more frequently on trans-Atlantic flights, making those long-haul flights more cost-effective, albeit at the expense of passenger comfort.

It’s all simple economics. In January, United removed half-ounce pretzel snack mixes from the economy section of flights that are less than two hours long, about 29 percent of its flights, to save what it says is about $650,000 a year. (Cutting out pretzels has reportedly saved Northwest $2 million a year.) Meanwhile, American has estimated that it would save $30 million a year by eliminating free meal service in coach. Last September, in a move that extinguished any hope of hot meals returning to coach, the airline removed the rear galleys — including the oven — from its MD-80 aircraft and replaced them with four seats. That change, the airline told The Washington Post, will be worth an additional $34 million a year. Overall, the amount of money the nine largest passenger carriers in the United States spend on food per passenger has been slashed to about $3.40 from $5.92 in 1992, according to the Department of Transportation.

And wonder why it’s almost impossible to get a pillow anymore? Again, it comes down to money. American has said it saved $300,000 when it removed pillows from its MD-80s in November 2004. In February 2005 it began removing pillows from 737s, 757s and Airbus 300s on nearly all flights within the continental United States, Canada, the Caribbean and Mexico, with the airline explaining that the change saved it $600,000.

United says just 8 percent of its customers — the ones paying a premium for first and business class — generate 36 percent of passenger revenue. That’s why it is investing hundreds of millions of dollars to upgrade its first- and business-class cabins with lie-flat seating and other amenities across its entire international fleet of wide-body aircraft.

Industry analysts say that most airlines have rightly decided that it makes little economic sense to provide expensive perks to customers paying the lowest fares.

We Rent a Car for Christmas

We had a Charles Dickens of a time finding a good deal for a car in Orlando near Disney World during the week of Christmas. We checked out PriceLine, Expedia, Travelocity, and Hotwire. The best deal was with Alamo but through Costco for about $750. The same car through PriceLine Alamo went for about $1,250. The average cost for renting a mid-sized car was more than $1,000 for the twelve days.

An investment of time compare shopping online can save you money and large warehouse clubs such as Costco can provide killer deals.

Desert Ridge Marriot

We spent the morning at a time share presentation at the J.W. Marriot Desert Ridge Resort, leaving wiser but not poorer.