We (early 50's couple from Vancouver BC), just returned from a wonderful week on the Mariner. We have demanding careers (plus teenagers) so we really felt we needed a break.

Here are some notes from our trip:

Saturday Dec 12 (pre cruise) An uneventful early morning flight to LA. Arrived about 1030 am and picked up a rental car at Avis. The license plates said "Colorado", the GPS spoke French and the radio tunes were in Spanish. Adjusted a few settings and we were on our way. Rare monsoon rains decided to hit the area during our one day visit. Good Vancouverites that we are, we brought rainjackets but neglected to bring umbrellas, so it got a bit damp (and umbrellas were sold out everywhere). We decided to visit Santa Monica, which was a good choice. I'd never been and thought it was very nice. We viewed the beach (the official end of Route 66), visited the farmer's market and had a good Thai lunch at a place near the beach called Thai Plates. I had never thought of the mimosa as a Thai drink, but given that they were on special for $2 I decided to have one with my lunch. From there we went to an outdoor (aka wet) shopping mall (Century City). Very festive. We made our way down to San Pedro (pronounced San Peedro as we were told by the locals) late afternoon. Checked in to the Crowne Plaza Hotel ($68 on Priceline) and were pleased with the room. San Pedro is a working class town (with its fair share of street people) but they do seem to be working on improvements. Based on internet reviews, we decided to eat at the Green Onion, a very kitschy family run Mexican restaurant just steps from the hotel. Cheap and tasty. Following dinner, we took a short car ride to Starbucks (for a coffee and free internet), prior to returning to the hotel to turn in for the night. Sunday Dec 13 (embarkation) I left my husband at the room and headed off to Von's supermarket in the car. Picked up yogurt, juice, muffins and Starbucks to take back to the room. After breakfast we checked out and drove to Long Beach (about 10 minutes away) where we returned the car. This gave us a perfect tour of the LA port area, which mezmerized my husband (all those containers coming and going, like looking under the hood of the economy - it seems to be improving). Long Beach looks nice (high rises, convention centre etc.) but beyond the main strip it deteriorates quickly. We noticed lots of homeless people in the park. We turned in the car at Avis and took a taxi to the ship ($30). Check in (around 1130 am) was very speedy, although we had to wait a bit on the gangway to get on to the ship (as they had to take photos for our ID). We skipped the other types of photos (the ones they sell you on board) and were soon on the ship. Read more