This trip was last week, right after tropical storm fay. I was very scared travelling in hurricane season. I had been watching the weather and there were no active hurricanes at the day we left which was Saturday, the 23. We flew into Orlando and took the Cocoa Beach Shuttle service which was only $110 each way for 8 people together!! Look them up on-line. They were great. We stayed at the Day's Inn Cocoa Beach which was nice. It was only 3 miles from the port. The shuttle took us from Orlando to the port, picked us up the next morning at 1200 (check out time) and took us to the ship. They picked us up this morning, Sunday, at 0800 and had us at the airport at 0844. Our flight did not leave till 1:35 pm. So disembarkation was a breeze. Trust you here alot of stories about disembarkation, but it was a breeze!!!! Look, a breeze. We could have booked the 1035 flight. But reading other reviews, we were like no, we just do not wanna push it. So just self-debark. You will be off the ship first. My parents were off the ship by 0700. The ship docket about 615 or so. It was a breeze. So just self-bebark.

OKAAY, the trip. Well as you know it is hurricane season. There were no hurricanes when we left as I checked the weather on Saturday. However on Sunday night, Gustav was forming over the Caribbean Sea which was exactly where we were heading. Our ports were Labadee Haiti, Ocho Rios Jamaica, Grand Cayman Islands, and Cozumel Mexico. WOOW. BUTTT, we did not go to any of them. The eye of the hurricane had formed right in the area we were going, so we had to turn to go out of the way of the storm, and went on to St. Thomas, And St. Maarten, U.S. Virgin Islands. Which was only 2 ports considering our itinerary was for 4 ports, but safety is always FIRST in my life. Those two ports were beautiful...PICTURE perfect. Beautiful blue water. Just fantastic. They will never take you into a storm. The technology is waaayyyy advanced, he also told us about another storm, Hanna, in which CNN did not speak about until Thursday. He told us on Monday. But that storm was behind us, so we were travelling in between the two. Gustav was goin towards the Gulf, and Hanna was coming towards the Caribbean, but our Captain Johnny, was on top of it. We were hundreds of miles ahead of Hanna, and hundreds of miles from Gustavo. We were somewhere in the Bermuda triangle, so know you know that that's safe as well. It was a great cruise. Beautiful weather, great flight on Southwest, NONSTOP!! GREAT ONLINE RATES!! So no worries, go cruising!!!! Royal Caribbean is Fantastic. The Mariner of the Seas is huge, 3600 passengers and 1200 crew members on board. The crew is absolutely fantastic!!! The Captain Johnny was GREAT and HUMBLE. Everyone was so attentive and nice it was like a dream! Look, go cruising with Royal Caribbean on the Mariner of the Seas!!!! Please email if this helps!! Go the the Ice Show, you have to get tickets, but it is wonderful, the Spectrum group performing hits from the 80's was wonderful, and I'm in my 20"s!! It was wonderful!