We travelled as a family of 3 - Mom, Dad and our 7yr old daughter. We chose Mariner as the itinerary worked for us and we’ve cruised Royal previously. We were also looking forward to the newer amenities offered since the ship’s recent revamp. Embarkation: Dead easy. We booked a Jr Suite so we were swept up to the Suite lounge once we arrived at around 1:30pm. Once our docs were checked we were onboard in less than 15 minutes. Fantastic. Cabin: Our 10th floor Jr suite - Rm 1694 - was at the very back of the ship (stern for ship folks..) with an awesome view from our balcony. This was our third time in a Jr suite but our first rear balcony and we loved it! As others have described, the room was very spacious; certainly spacious enough for the 3 of us. The pull out sofa which was made up nightly was perfect for our daughter but I imagine it would not work for a child over 10, maybe 12 years old. The bathtub was great and necessary for our daughter who still likes to take baths. It was also good for our showers. The balcony was huge... a respite from the busyness of the ship. My favorite place. Dining: We ate at Windjammer buffet, the main dining room (5th floor), Chops Grille and the Promenade. Windjammer was fine. Lots of variety and we were only challenged with finding seats on the 3rd morning. Otherwise the buffet seating was more than adequate. The food was decent enough - not great, not bad. We enjoyed it. We only ate dinner in the MDR once and it was just okay. The service was excellent but the food was average. My husband liked his steak but my short rib wasn’t very good. My daughter isn't a foodie so no real opinion from her. Read Less

I wanted something short but not too short since this was our first cruise with my 10 & 12 yr old kids. 4 nights and 5 days cruise was great! Stayed at Holiday Inn night before embarkation. Walking distance to shops and restaurants. Uber over to the port and it was easy. Embarkation: I set for 11:30 am check-in. We were there around 11 and on the ship by 11:30 am. I did online check in before I arrived and made embarkation very quick. Hardly any wait. Deluxe drink package (including alcohols): online purchase offers a few different deals from time to time. I got mine about two weeks before embarkation and got 20% off each person. I think one of the reviews mentioned to buy it before getting on the ship but not really. I think they were offering 30% off on the ship. Deluxe drink package is perfect for someone who drinks. Also, includes bottled water and pops. By the way, no IPA beer. LIttle bumped! You can get your drink as soon as you get on the boat. Just show your printed seasail pass until you get your seapass at 1 pm. Nassau: We didn't do any excursion. Hung out at the ship most of the time and went out for a short time to hang out in the city for a bit. Not a lot of people on the ship so it was nice. Grabbed our lunch and sat by the pool table. Coco Cay: Ship docks. I did not know that. Perfect Day at Coco Cay was not open but still a lot to do. My drinks were included since I had the deluxe drink package. We did snorkeling. You pick up your gear and just jump in the water whenever. You can get in the water as many time as you would like. Buffet lunch was served and pretty good for what it was. Entertainments, activities, and service: Service was awesome. Everyone was so nice and friendly. Entertainments were just OK. Activities were nice. Plenty to do but sky pad was close the whole time. Disembarkation: We carried our own bag. We did not want to get stuck in the crowd and wait to get out so we decided to grab a quick breakfast from the promenade cafe and went. It was around 7:30 am. Disembarkation was quick too. I think we could have taken our time a bit. Got the Uber and waited for about 15 minutes and we were on our way to the airport. By the way, if you go end of the terminal there is an area where you get picked up by Uber or Lyft. Cabin: We had inside stateroom. It was small but we were barely in there. Kids slept on the bunk bed and they loved it! A few notes: I saw one of the reviews mentioning to bring outlet since there are not too many. True. But don't. They don't let you use them. You can just ask your room attendance for one. Read Less

The ship itself was very clean and nice after the rehab last year. Always something going on. The at sea days are never my favorite...decks always packed and almost all chairs reserved by 8am. The staff does not enforce the “no reserving seats” rule. Other passengers just moved the towels off the reserved seats and took them which was pretty awesome when the people that held them showed up a few hours later. The food in Windjammer was surprisingly very good. Lots of selections. The main dining room was pretty average. There weren’t long lines for the waterslides or other activities. The sky pad was closed since someone was injured on it a few cruises prior. We aren’t drinkers but did get the soda package. Definitely cheaper to purchase prior to cruise. It would be nice if they had more soda machines throughout the boat. Can get soda at the bars but lines are usually long and better for Royal to sell alcohol at the bars anyways. Also purchased the Internet package prior to cruise. Not worth it in my opinion. Did not work well at all in most areas on the boat. Coco Cay is incredible even though it’s not entirely complete. The beach and water is purely amazing. The oasis pool was awesome too. Nassau is nothing spectacular. This time around we paid for a day pass to an all inclusive resort which let us have access to private beach and pool. Overall nice boat and good cruise! Read Less

This was only our second cruise and it did not disappoint. Our last cruise was on Oasis of the Seas. Mariner was just a smaller version of that ship in my opinion. Embarkation was a breeze at the Miami port. 10 minutes from curb drop off to being on the ship. We were also on the Bahama Drama cruise where it was announced that there was a man overboard. Once it was announced that there was a successful rescue, the news was shut down pretty quick. We couldn't find another thing about it then or now. We, coincidentally, were also at Bingo for the cancellation announcement for Coco Cay. We were so happy to wake up and hear that the weather took a turn for the better and we were able to visit Coco Cay. We had a great day. Can't wait for the remainder of the island to be complete. We had dinner nightly at MDR and the food was good every night. Not great, but good. No complaints. Cons: I really hate the drink package rules. We purchased the Deluxe drink package for my husband but because I don't drink, I had to purchase a refreshment package. I never used it, as I bought my ice tea at Starbucks which is not included. It was a waste of money for me to have any drink package but I had no choice. The cabin was close to the elevators and I was worried about the noise but it was actually great. No noise, more room in the cabin and close to the elevators. Our room attendant was awesome, as were just about every employee on the ship. Everything looks sparkling clean and new and I'd sail this ship again in a heartbeat. Read Less

This one did have a little drama, as we were just starting to doze off on night one and the ride got a little bumpy and noisy. Around 12:10, the Capt. came on the paging system to announce that the ship had stopped to rescue an individual who had gone overboard. The rescue was successful and we’d be underway post haste. The next couple of days the rumors were all over the place. Day two on Nassau was rainy in the morning, but turned out to be a nice day until it started raining and blowing around 7:00. We were just starting bingo around 9pm, when the Captain came on again to tell us that the weather would make us miss Coco Cay. The plan was to stay in Nassau through the evening the next day. Totally let all the energy out of the room! Guess what; here’s Cappy again, at 8:00 am on day three, to let us know that Coco Cay was back on and we’d be heading out at full speed. We got there at about 11:30 and had a very nice time. The new pier is open and made arrival and departure a piece of cake. How’s the food on the ship? Average. It’s a few days after the cruise while I’m writing this, and I wish that there’d been more fresh veggies and salads. I’m mad at myself for buying the dining package, as the food was just slightly better (good steaks at Chops, though). We felt like we had to use all the meals, and there’s really only two places to have dinner. With the small menus, it was repetitive and we missed out on the MDR. I’m going to talk about the CocaCola Freestyle machines on the Mariner. I found all four and none were right, the mix being off on every one of them. One just stopped working after day one. I’d end up going to the bars for Diet Coke and they were serving out of 2 liters, instead of the gun, for some reason. The entertainment on Mariner is a mixed bag. The lounge acts were all good, but the show band and the big shows in the theater were dreadful. My girlfriend and I both thought that the concepts behind the shows were dumb and the pop songs were wedged in there with some dopey high concept. The band seemed poorly rehearsed and one show had the backing tracks for the wrong song; total Ashley Simpson moment. The ice shows are incredible, though. Service was adequate everywhere. We never had the same servers in the specialty restaurants and only saw our cabin attendant in passing. Honestly, the one guy at Starbucks was super helpful. We did not do the FlowRider, but watched the action there while we were pulling into Coco Cay. The guys running it were great with the kids that they were interacting with. Getting on and off Mariner at Miami is super easy. Never once was there a line. Read Less

I picked this cruise for a family vacation that includes 2 teenage boys (13 &17). It has been 19 years since the last time I cruised and A Lot has changed. Embarking and disembarking were Extremely easy, quick, and efficient. You can tell Royal Carribbean has put a lot of money into their Port Terminal. My 13 year old enjoyed the cruise the most. He loved trampoline and flow rider the most. 17 year old liked the rock climbing wall and challenging his Dad to mini golf. Had 2 rooms that had a promenade view. That made rooms seem bigger but due to late night activities it could be a bit noisy late at night. It was really easy to join the action or to run down for a quick snack. The promenade made it easier for me to orientate myself on the ship and finding room easier. Nassau....eh....not my favorite stop. Coco Cay was our Favorite stop. RC was handing out umbrellas for free that day and we hung out on the beach and went snorkeling. Food was a lot more variety than I was expecting from previous reviews. We could have spent our whole trip at coco cay. The new pier made it really easy to get on and off the boat. The main dining room experience was enjoyed by all of us. Our two waiters Paritosh and Moch went out of their way to personalize our service. Always took extra time to give us cruise tips or to chat about our day. Read Less

Spring Break cruise with our 10 year old daughter. Thumbs up! Great ship especially with the refurb completed recently. Impressed with the handling of large number of guest. Never any long wait times for any of the venues or activities on board. Strongly suggest my time dinning. LOVE this option versus the early or late options previously. Initially announced while still in port in Nassau, that weather was going to cancel our stop the next day in Coco Cay.....☹️ The next morning it was announced that Coco Cay was back on as the weather had cleared and although behind schedule by about 5 hours, the Captain announced full speed ahead and had us there in about four hours!! Only the second official docking at the new pier....No more tenders! Although we only had about 5 hours on the island, what a GREAT Day. Great snorkeling and perfect afternoon weather. Kudos to the Captain and Crew for not giving up and doing everything within their power to make it happen. Despite the rainy Sea Day afternoon on day four, it was a great trip. Cabin: Ocean View. Just fine with 2 adults and 10 year old using pullman. Who spends time in their cabin other to shower and sleep? Read Less

This is the review that we left in our Royal Caribbean survey Matthew Gauthier the piano player was outstanding. He was the best piano player we've ever experienced on any Cruise. We thought the hidden piano player was also very funny and good. Bobby and Jamee in the main dining room made a great team and we really enjoyed having them serve us. We did however, feel rushed during our 9 p.m. dinner seating. We did not particularly care for each evenings dinner service entertainment by the waiters. We actually felt bad for them. Alex from the Cruise director activities team was horrible. There were several games that he was leading that we walked out of. He seemed to make up the rules as he went along. We found all the other entertainment staff to be quite good. We thought The Quest was very well run. we totally loved the silent disco and wished that it would run on multiple nights. We'd like to suggest, in addition to karaoke, you consider a lip sync activity option for those who like to sing but don't have the voice for it. It may also bring out the showman in some guests which may be entertaining for other guests. We did not like the perfect couple game as it was difficult to see what was going on and lack to the of the enjoyment of the love and marriage game. Please bring back love in marriage. We walked out of the comedian's "family friendly" performance. We found him offensive, borderline racist and not very funny. It should be noted that we spoke to other people on the cruise who expressed the same opinion. The overall suite experience was highly disappointing. While the ship offers many amenities for the standard cruiser, the same can't be said for suite guests. The suite program on Mariner is inconsistent with that on the other Royal ships. For example, there is no internet included in a suite program on Mariner. The amenities for suite deck are substandard to what we've come to expect from the other ships. The lack of coastal kitchen detracted from our overall dining experience. The suite level accommodations for guests on cococay were downright embarrassing. The beach was small, unclean, and the chairs were worn. Transportation to the suite Beach was mostly absent and also not clearly communicated nor adequate signage available. The view from the cabanas was subpar. The beverage service in the lunch area was broken. Fortunately we had brought our own water to drink. We were never approached by any servers on the beach to see if we wanted something to drink. As it relates to the pool deck we have the following comments. There needs to be at least one more towel station potentially up in the sportsplex for the water rides. We did think that there needs to be some additional protection from the smoking area going into the solarium. There was quite a bit of smoking odor pouring into the solarium without this protection.The adults only policy in the solarium was not enforced and defeats the purpose of having an adults-only solarium. We did however find the deck seating and quantity of PODS available for use to be quite satisfactory. We also especially liked the seating outside of the suite lounge. We found it difficult to find places to get a beverage during the day and the unsweetened iced tea was nowhere to be found on the ship except windjammer. We purchased dinner at chops the first night. Our server was very friendly and we enjoyed her company. The food was just okay. We really would have been better off eating in the main dining room and getting the chops fillet there for half the cost. We went to Chops dinner at 6 on the first night and they were already out of the bronzini. At the time there were only about six people in the restaurant and the table next to us got the last two. That was very disappointing. We tried breakfast at chops one morning as suite guests. The service was very very slow, the order was messed up and we ended up going to windjammer to finish our breakfast. Lastly we would like to say how much we thoroughly enjoyed the escape room. Christopher was our guide and really made the experience enjoyable. Congratulations for providing a top-tier activity that the whole family could enjoy. That was definitely worth the extra money. You exceeded our expectations. Read Less

Embarkation at the new terminal A in Miami went fine. Not a fan of the Port of Miami..much prefer Port Canaveral. As Emerald and Diamond members we should have been placed in the expedited check in line but were shuffled into the regular line. Loved our cabin steward and waiter. Assistant waiter was ok..not great. Would recommend you get your towels at the pool before you go to Coco Cay as there was a long wait on deck 1 to get towels. Would recommend that Royal Caribbean have the towels available right after you get off the ship at Coco Cay as it would be more efficient. Windjammer Cafe is too chaotic for me so we ate breakfast in the dining room. Food in dining room was very good. Loved the French onion soup! Beds in cabin were super comfortable. They need to have the activities open longer hours. Ice skating was only open front 10-11:30pm the last night if the cruise. Laser tag was completely booked due to limited offering of the activity. We were the first passengers to walk off the ship at Coco Cay instead of tendering in which was awesome. The pool is now open on Coco Cay also...very chilly but excellent pool bar. We bought a day pass for Atlantis Aquaventure from www.bahamasdaypass.com. Was cheaper than using cruise line. Just pay $4 per person for taxi over to Atlantis. Read Less

We booked this cruise for the dates. It fit in our budget, and was similar to a cruise we took 2 years ago. The biggest disappointment was the change of ports a few weeks out. The cancellation of Coco Cay was a let-down to my children, who were looking forward to the Cabana we had booked, and to snorkeling around the shipwreck/plane wrecks. The embarkation at the Crown of Miami was outstanding. We showed up around 11 and were on the ship in less than 10 minutes. Multiple lines were open and the new system of delivering cards to the rooms simplifies the process. Using my phone as a sea pass at the bar for the first hour or two was not a problem. We got a spot by the pool, and the kids enjoyed the hot tubs and pools until the rooms were ready. The rooms (we had adjoining interior rooms) were good. We have shared a room in the past, and the deal we got actually made it cheaper to have 2 rooms this time. It was nice having 2 bathrooms and a separate room for the kids, who like to get up a little earlier than we do. We didn't often see the cabin steward(ess), but she did a great job of keeping the room clean and had several towel animals, saving the hanging monkey for the last night. She was also quick in responding to any requests we made. Dining was very good. Our waitress (Yula) was very accommodating and got to know my sons' tastes very quickly, having a plate of kiwi ready on the table by the last night. The food in the main dining room was quite good. I often ordered 2 appetizers, not being able to choose. My 10-year old ordered off of the adult menu, and enjoyed dinner every night. My 8-year old ordered the appetizer off of the adult menu, and the rest off of the kids' menu. His dinner never changed, and the waitress asked if he wanted the same thing by the third night. We always ate breakfast at the Windjammer, which was well-stocked and what you would expect. Among my onboard complaints was dealing with drinks. The ship started running out of mint on the second day of the trip. Certain bars stopped making mojitos. By the end of the third day, there were none being served onboard at all. For a short cruise, I was surprised. We also tried to order a specialty drink on the menu at one of the bars (it may have been a habanero daiquiri) on the first day, and they didn't have the ingredients. The bars often ran out of the stuff for various other daiquiris. Finally, the pop machines were down more than they were up across the entire ship. Most of the machines in the Windjammer were down, one of the 2 machines on deck 5 was down. Our port time in Nassau was very good. The weather co-operated and the water wasn't rough. We didn't do a ship-board excursion, but got a day pass at a local hotel. The whole family really liked it. We are not a big fan of the Grand Bahama port, as it is very industrial. We booked a family beach excursion, and it was tied to several other excursions (including an all-inclusive). There were enough of us that it took several buses to get us all to the beach. The main problem was getting everyone into lines to get on the bus. It seemed very disorganized. Getting back was also fairly disorganized, but this was not the fault of the cruise line. The main problem at the beach club was trying to find a chair. As we were the second ship in port that day, the Carnival passengers were already there when we arrived, and we were the second or third bus, so we got one chair for the 4 of us. After a few hours, the Carnival passengers left (it was a half-day excursion), so we all got chairs for the last hour, and the beach was much less crowded. I will also mention that the loyalty desk was very difficult to find. I finally looked for them on the last day, during the posted hours, but there was nobody at the desk. I was hoping to get my kids an account, as they cruised before, but didn't have the same status as us, but we never got that taken care of onboard. Lastly, I must mention that there was a college party onboard. We heard that there were a thousand college students on the ship. My boys didn't seem to notice too much that anything was different, but the bathing suits were a little smaller than perhaps one might want on a family cruise. There was an upside to the number of college kids on board. On our only sea day, getting a deck chair was easy, even at around 10 in the morning, as most of the college kids were still sleeping. In all honesty, the lines at the pool bars were longer than normal, but other than that, the college parties didn't bother us, though someone bashed into our kids' door at 3am one morning on the way past. Read Less