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Mariner of the Seas Review

4.5 / 5.0
1,332 reviews

Ship is great watch out for shore excursions!

Review for the Mexican Riviera Cruise on Mariner of the Seas
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dronfield
First Time Cruiser • Age 70s

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Sail Date: Jul 2009

We took the July 5 sailing out of Los Angeles.  We are Diamond Plus RCCL members.  Everything positive that members have written about we concur with.  The ship is immaculate, with two exceptions staff incredibly friendly and helpful and almost everything far exceeded our expectations (food quality has gone down quite a bit). Big kudos to RCCL for having the wisdom to put a first class ship to sail out of Los Angeles instead of the old rust buckets the other cruise lines have dumped here.  If you have the opportunity to sail this ship, do not hesitateit's a great deal.  The only caution we can  issue would be regarding three of the excursions.Cabo San Lucas:  We took the beach resort tour to La Finisterra Beach Hotel.  The hotel is located maybe a two minute drive up a steep hill from the dock, you are taken by bus.  The hotel faces the Pacific Ocean side of Cabo so the ocean is extremely rough with a pronounced rip current. The beach is a distance from the resort, you are not ocean side. The brochure is quite accurate that swimming is not recommended.  So that leaves the use of the three large swimming pools.  This is a great resort for the winter time but really hot in the summerthere is minimal shade and desert landscaping.  This is really a lay by the pool and relax facility, not much other activities other than water volleyball.  There is a swim up bar and restaurant which offers an excellent included Mexican buffet lunch.  Two drinks are included.  After a couple of hours a number of our group got bored and packed up and walked the short distance back to the dock (it's all downhill). Be aware that Cabo San Lucas is undergoing its never-ending road improvement project so getting into town is a real trek. Also, last year we went to the Nikki Beach Resort on an RCCL tour.  Avoid this at all costs. It is a huge rip-off.  For all the beach resort excursions in Mexico be sure to inquire which resort they will be using. For some reason in the excursion descriptions they never state the name of the resort you will be going to.  Mazatlan: We booked the Stone Island Adventure through Port Promotions website.  They used Best of Mexico/VIajes Sabalo tour company. Inspite of being at the gangway as instructed half a hour early, the tour operator never showed up no was any representative at the tour center.  Port Promotions does not provide a local phone number so there was no way to contact them.  We finally took a local Stone Island tour for $30 each and he provided the exact same tour.In our opinion, there is no way RCCL should be offering this tour, it is so below their standards.  Stone Island is not a quaint, traditional sailor's village.  It is an improvised community of junked cars everywhere, mounds of bagged trash in front yards, cratered dirt roads, abandoned houses, etc.  The Stone Island Resort is probably the worst possible excuse for a beach resort imaginable.  Their are two restrooms (not working with no hot water the day we visited) a restaurant, a large covered area with plastic chairs and tables (not enough for everyone) and an incredibly dirty and rocky beach with a pretty good undertow.  There is no pool and you are encouraged not to leave the "resort" area.  Going to the water you are mobbed by vendors.  They have some beat up kayaks without seat backs, some ATVs, a horseback tour and a carriage tour pulled by an ancient emaciated horse.The bar area is part of the restaurant area and was served by a young bartender wearing a surgical face mask.  Apparently he had a cold as he would take the mask off to sneeze or blow his nose on a filthy hankerchef and then return the mask to his face (I never saw him wash his hands).  I think our biggest concern was the kitchen.  After watching the bartender I walked several feet over to watch the woman inside the cooking area of the kitchen.  She was preparing refried beans in a pot, took the ladle out, dropped it on the floor and replaced it back into the pot. I was also fascinated watching large cockroaches climbing up the white tiles on the area under the cooking stoves.Needless to say, we made arrangements to return immediately to the ship.  Apparently a common occurrance because no one asked why or seemed surprised that we were leaving within 20 minutes of arriving.I discussed the above with the RCCL excursion desk representative who seemed appropriately uninterested until I got to the cockroach issues.  He then mentioned that RCCL had a female shore excursion inspector at Stone Island that day.  He said she was from Miami because the Stone Island people know all the other ones from the west coast.Puerto Vallarta: Las Caletas Beach tour is one of the best we've ever taken and we always go then in Puerto Vallarta.  We booked through RCCL.  There were only two issues there and they are very serious issues.  The restaurant area is infested with ground dwelling yellowjacket hornets.  These are rather placid members of the hornet family but it they feel like it can really sting.  The Los Angeles Zoo had problems years ago with them and resolved it with careful management of open food containers and spraying.Two days before our arrival Puerto Vallarta had a big summer storm which caused ocean currents to break loose microscopic pieces of the local fire coral.  You can't see them but they stinga lot.  The Las Caletas people knew for two days that they had fire coral in the water but did not inform RCCL so that people could make a decision of whether or not to go in the ocean.  The first we were aware of this was when people started running out of the ocean saying they were being stung. The tour guide did not mention this until everone was geared up to go snorkeling and was standing on the beach..  His solution was to offer wet suits.  Of course, your face, hands and feet got stung. He referred to the fire coral as "little stingy things".  Even the captive seal got stun in the eye.While yellowjackets and fire coral are an act of nature and out of the control of RCCL, their existence was known by the Las Caletas people and RCCL should have been informed.  This is a remote area, accessible only by boat.  If anyone with a sensitivity to insect stings or venon was stung they would be in trouble.  There are only minimal first aid on the island.I discussed this with the shore excusion desk and got their standard answer "write a letter to RCCL".  I refused to accept that response and insisted that the representative understand the possible medical issues yellowjackets and fire coral represent.  He finally said he would review this with the shore excursion director.  I was not impressed with his casual attitude.Enjoy the ship, but watch out for these shore excursions.

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