This cruise was 5 days and went to Mexico and Coco Cay. This site won't allow anything else besides what's above. Chose Mariner because my family had been on Independence twice before, and they are similar (sister) ships, so I was told by a Royal Caribbean rep. Boy was that a mistake. We can start with the room mixup. I was under the impression when I called and booked the cruise the balcony room would have a sofa couch. I have a 14 year old and didn't want him climbing over us while he was getting in and out of bed. At 1:30 pm I went to guest services and was told I would have to wait until EVERY guest checked in, before they would address my concerns, because we were "fully booked". Now you and I both know cruises aren't at full capacity yet. Lie number 1. My luggage was at the room, but missing 1 bag. So now I am unable to unpack because I have to wait 4 hours to know if I am changing rooms and am missing a bag. The porter for the rooms eventually found my 3rd bag about an hour later. At about 530 I went back to guest services to see if the issue had been resolved. It had been, and I quote, "for quite sometime". Well thank you for the notification!! Switch rooms, the room had a funky smell and the carpet was DISGUSTING! We all wore flip flops in the room. The floors were dirty and there were spots that had hardened crud. Rust EVERYWHERE. So gross. I finally unpacked my belongings only to realize that the clothes iron I had packed had been removed from my suitcase. I understand now that the iron is a prohibited item, so that is on me, but HOW DARE an employee at royal carribean go through my belongings without me present!!!!!!!!! I brought this up to guest services and they said basically oh well. Lie number 2. Spoke with rep today that said I should have been given a ticket to claim my iron when I got back to port. This wasn't the case. They stole my iron and violated my personal space!!! My privacy and belongings were taken that day. I guess it's a good thing I didn't have I don't know say $1000 dollars that also went missing. By the way this is all day 1!! The app is for crap. I did pre booking for the thrill water park at coco cay, prior to sailing it was $43 and change. The app didn't complete the booking and so I was expected to pay $134. Neither the agent on the ship for excursions (Odella I think, who was very unpleasant) nor the agent on the phone would honor the price on the app. Heck the agent on the phone wasn't even able to book the current price of $89 that was advertised that day on Royal Carribeans Website. I call BS. Lie number 3. By the way, hearing alot of NO and there is nothing to be done, weird for a customer driven industry. Drinks! Tiny, lame drinks. A vodka redbull is literally 1 shot of vodka and 1/4 of a redbull, I watched the drink being made. They didn't even have the courtesy to give me the rest of the redbull, but charged me $13! The basketball court was being refurbished so it was closed for the entirety of the cruise. Would have been nice to be notified. A great social area for teens to meet and make friends so you can imagine my 14 yr olds disappointment. Also what BS that that would be being done during the cruise. Perhaps Royal Carribean can try to keep super young children out of the jacuzzis. Nothing like the fear of a toddler without a diaper on in a jacuzzi. Also, the buffet...stop making me "beg" for more than 1 slice of cheese or an extra slice of roast beef. Stop being so damn frugal.. it's a buffet, the people wanna eat!

The itinerary for the last day advertised a wine tasting on deck 5 in the main dining room. Me and my spouse along with another couple went down at 3pm. NOTHING was setup, NO ONE was there. Guest services said it should be just a couple of minutes.. 20 minutes later we were told we need 10 people and that it was $35 dollars, even though that wasn't mentioned on the itinerary. Lie number 4. I left cash gratuities, so I went to guest services on the last day of the cruise to not have it charged to my credit card. I left $500 which is WAY above the amount being charged and yet today I found the gratuities were charged. Not only were they charged but they were charged to the wrong card. That was a fight today but should be resolved. We will see. I left gratuities because for all the crap with guest services, the food was phenomenal, Michael and Putku (dinner servers were AMAZING). With Michael on night 4, literally felt like we were his only table, I have no idea how he does it. And the last night we were trying to make an activity so we had about an hour to eat, and man o man did Putku make that happen!!!

Quick, friendly AND we made our scheduled activity! The only other exceptional part of the cruise was the activities dept. Eduardo, Jeff and Monica literally saved the 2 days of cruising at sea. Without the shining smiles, amazing personalities and ability to handle unruly passengers the 2 days of cruising would have been very different. Overall a huge disappointment largely due to the indifferent staff at guest services. I tried to avoid going there as much as possible. They just didn't seem to give a flying eff. It was a mistake to book Mariner. If Independence and Mariner are sister ships, then Mariner is the homeless drug addict compared to the middle class suburb that is independence. I am sure I will cruise again with Royal Carribean, but I will NEVER cruise on the Mariner, I would suggest the same. Skip it and book another ship. Last thought, COVID restrictions???? Please, I know at least 1 family had tested positive due to overhearing officers speaking about it on a deck below where I was. There was zero notification about this. Take this for what you like. But trust me, this is a ship to skip.