As a family this was our 7th cruise, but only our second on RCCL. Our first cruise ever was on a Vision class ship, so we were eager to see how the newer and larger Voyager class ship would compare. We live in the Atlanta, and the ability to drive to Port Canaveral (about 8 hours) makes it a convenient port for us, so we were excited to find the Mariner of the Seas sailing from there. Demographically we are early 40's with a 12 year old son. We booked the trip on-line about two months out, as a last minute decision for a Spring Break trip. At that time cabin selection was pretty limited, so we knew that the ship would be very full.
Embarkation: The arrival and departure process at Port Canaveral is very convenient. We arrived at the pier around 12:45pm, and were on ship by 1:30pm. The longest wait was to unload our bags from the car. We had pre-registered online with RCCL so all went smoothly, except for the need to fill out the Bahamian government entry forms. As everyone must fill out the form it was a little chaotic. It would seem that this sort of defeats the pre-registration process but I understand RCCL has no option on this part of process. Bring a pen to speed things up as they were in very short supply. I definitely recommend pre-registering on-line, as the line for those who had not was quite long.
After normal entry photos, we crossed the gangway and were casually greeted by a couple staff members but not really given any direction. As we had cruised before and already had looked at the ships layout on-line this was no big deal, but several first timers nearby looked a little lost.