We live in Florida and were looking for a quick weekend getaway. We're pretty loyal Royal Caribbean cruisers (Platinum) and we had been on the Liberty (same layout as Mariner) so we knew we liked the ship style. We got this cruise at a decent price and didn't have huge expectations for a three night cruise, but were pleasantly surprised by the quality of the food in the dining room and the friendly crew and excellent service all over the ship.

Embarkation was so easy. We left out of Terminal A and we drove there from home. Plenty of parking and it would have been very convenient to drop off luggage (we didn't). Arrived at about 11:45 and basically walked right into the terminal and on to the ship. We had done online check-in so all we had to do was show the Set Sail passes on the phone and get pictures taken. There were no lines and no waiting.

Once on the ship we went to Excursions to pick out our Coco Cay bungalow (has reserved online previously). No lines there either. Then we went in search of food. The Windjammer (beautifully renovated by the way) was busy but not packed and we found a table right away. Food was decent and there was lots of variety. Standard Windjammer, but the quality seemed higher than on the Liberty a few years ago. Read more