Review Mariner of the Seas August 19 - 26

Who we are: Me/Jenn (25), Mom/Andrea (50s), Dad/Art (celebrating his 60th onboard), Lauren/Sister (22), Jean/Sister's Friend (23). This was my parent's and sister's first cruise, and Jean's second (first on RCCL). My husband had recently changed jobs and was unable to make this cruise, so I knew that it would be a very different experience for me as all of our cruises have been together. It was also going to be strange to be married for a year and leave him behind for the first time. Right before final payment, I changed our cabins around, and I was going to be shackin up with my parents for the week.

Pre-cruise: We flew Southwest from Islip to Orlando on Saturday August 18. This was utter chaos and I will never fly Southwest again. Long story short, the airport was totally disorganized, and the express line for check in had one person behind the counter. Flight was uneventful and we landed a few minutes early in Orlando. We got our bags, and went to Avis... well I always have some bad luck pre-cruise, so I knew that something was bound to happen. We were in line for the rental cars, and the computers at Avis were down. The reps were handwriting each rental agreement. Needless to say, we were on line at Avis for about 1.5 hours to get our cars! We rented two cars, since there were five of us, and We decided that we were starving and went to TGI Friday's right outside of the airport. We stuffed our faces, and then were off to Port Canaveral where we were spending the night. We arrived at the Marriott Residence Inn at about 2:00 and were able to check in right away. The Marriott is absolutely awesome!!! We paid $179 + tax for the night, for the 2 bedroom, 2 bathroom suite with full kitchen and living room. I will tell you that this was worth every penny. Everything was brand new, spotless, the bedding was comfortable and the room was huge! We had more than enough room for all of us and our many suitcases. We explored a little, napped a little, tanned and swam in the free form pool for a while. My dad's cousin and his wife live about an hour away, so they drove up, and met us for dinner. We went to the recommended A NY Pizza House, on the corner of 520 and Astronaut Blvd. We are all (including my dad's cousin) from NY and we were very impressed with both the food and service. The food was more than enough and the bill was less than $100 for seven people. Definitely recommend to anyone staying in Pt. Canaveral. Since it was a beautiful night, we grabbed a bottle of wine, and after the wine was gone, we decided to take a late night swim. The pool was open until 10, and the water temp was about 100 degrees. Perfect for my parents, a little too warm for the rest of us, but it was nice to spend some time together. My mom was really cute, because she said that it was the first time in a long time that all of us were together. I moved out of the house about 2 years ago, and my sister has been living away while she was going to college. It was some good quality, family time. Read more