My DW and I were on the "abbreviated" Mexican Riveria cruise that left LA on April 26th on the Mariner of the Seas.  This was our first cruise.  As well documented by others, we visited Cabo and then, due to the Swine Flu "epidemic", were rerouted to a port call in SF, and then back to LA to complete our tour.Yes, it would have been nice to have visited the other Mexican ports per the planned ittinerary, but we still a had a very nice time. So nice, we're already talking about our next cruise. What we liked: While this was our first cruise, we are both experienced travelers and have been all over the world.  We thought the Mariner was a BEAUTIFUL ship and even though it's no longer new, it's still beautifully maintained and well layed out. We had a D1 balcony near the stern on the 10th floor. The stateroom had lots of storage and was very nicely layed out. Loved the ability to lie in bed with the sliding door open to the ocean. The stateroom had very good soundproofing and we heard very little from the outside.  We really enjoyed the balcony access/view. We thought the RCL people were generally OUTSTANDING.  As a corporate manager who hires/fires, I was extremely impressed with the quality of the RCL people (and their training) that we frequently dealt with and were also impressed by how they went out of their way to provide a relaxing time, and to try to make a positive experience in spite of a challenging circumstance. We really enjoyed the dining experienced (ate mostly in the MDR), both from the relative quality of the food, but also from the service AND maybe most importantly, having conversations with our fellow travelers who were really just great people. We thought that in general the food quality was very good (probably not as high as good food places in Southern California where there is a very high food standard, or in major US cities) but we always enjoyed our meals.  We did try to avoid "gaining five pounds" which may be a traditional cruise standard, and tried to pace ourselves and came to most meals hungry (this probably helped our experience). We also did Chops one night and had a very nice meal (the mud pie was one of the top two deserts I have EVER had) and thought it to be a good value..  Also ate at Windjammer a couple of times, and it is what you'd expect..buffet food with buffet chaos.  Not a bad experience, nor bad food, just a busy place.We also enjoyed the excercise facilities and did most of the entertainment events. Enjoyed the Nelson's, iceskating, trivia shows, marriage game, etc.  Thought the juggler/commedian was OUTSTANDING. The singer in the Irish/English bar was also really good and very fun.  Very good entertainment, but I would also agree with a comment I read on another post which said: "if you do broadway quality shows, and expect that quality, you will be disappointed"... Still, a very enjoyable set of entertainment. I was extremely impressed with the cruise director Ken. I think he did an admirable job trying to handle the change associated with not visiting the Mexican ports.  As you might imagine people were not happy with the change, but I thought Ken (and really all of the RCL people) did wonderful job of trying to make it "ok".  For us, the cruise "experience" was still great, and even though I would have preferred the 80' temps of Mexico, SF is still a beautiful city and even though I've been there before AND the weather was crappy, we still had a nice time.I thought RCL, for us, did a good job of "rolling with the situation" and trying to protect it's passengers health. In hindsight, it's easy to fault them for the situation, but really I cannot fault them at all for what they did. In their shoes, I would have done the same thing.  Other good things: There were many, but we enjoyed getting off of the ship via the express process (haul your own bags).  We were walking off of the ship before 8:00am.  Tux rental was easy.  Wonderful people.  Whale breaching outside of cabo was cool.. the group of a hundred dolphins we went through as we went south to cabo was wonderful.  Not being at work was nice too.. Lol. Small annoyances:  Getting on the ship wasn't the best time. Not really bad, it probably only took us 15-20 minutes from when we got off the shuttle bus to getting through the final check in on the ship, but it did make you feel a little bit like cattle..   other than that, just little stuff.