Mariner of The Seas sailing from Barcelona (doing a U turn)



  The RCCL Ship, The Mariner of the Seas was to be our new home for the next fifteen day, this ship is a sister ship to the Voyager of the seas (the ship that we had sailed on in November 2012) The Mariner has the exact same layout which made it quick and easy for us to get around, the only major difference was the decor in the bars and art works around the ship, we even sighted a few staff that were on the voyager and had transferred to the Mariner. The first four days of this cruise from Barcelona to Dubai was at sea, heading to Egypt and The Suez cannel

Our dinner time dinning table had gone from 12 people on the Sinfonia to just three. Other guests at the table were not sighted during the whole cruise. Myself, Teresa and Phillip would dine together each night and with just three of us at the table service was very quick and personal. The staff really looked after us.

Phillip was from the West Coast of the USA and was travelling by himself, on three back to back cruises for forty one days. We became good friends over the fifteen days, he become very fond of Teresa like most of the old men do, we never asked his age but he looked to be in his late 70's.
Out of the 2880 odd passangers on the ship about 1200 were doing the same three cruises that started from Galveston, Texas and ended in Singapore. The ship had a good mix of people both young and old on board with 1600 odd from the USA, 300 from Canada, 330 from Australia and the remainder from all over the Place.
The Mariner of The seas, food had a note able different with a lot more variety and also was hotter when served. On the Sinfonia, food that should have been hot was cold (like chips etc.) this seemed to be the main complaint at the dinning tables.

Aboard the Mariner the first four days passed quickly and the ship had some very good shows at night, This is one area where the RCCL excel. They had 3D movies for the first time on the ship and we were all looking at seeing more until they announced that the 3D set up had broken and that they could show any more 3D as parts were not available. Teresa also would have liked a few more craft type activities over the entire cruise, but one could not really complain.
The best show was the Ice show, unlike the voyager cruise they issued tickets about 8 days prior and if there were any seats left, people could still get in on a first come basis. Teresa went to see two of the four shows they were fantastic.
People who were doing back to back cruises complained about the same shows being replayed, but, all the cruise lines do this not just RCCL. some of these shows are a big production and one would not expect them to change every week or so.

Our first port of call was Alexandra in Egypt.



Sailing out Pass several other cruise ships