Eastern route, Mariner of the Seas any good advice?

[Bunti]

I am sailing with the 'Tinis, on the October sailing of the Mariner of the Seas. I know very little about the Ports of Call on that sailing, here is the itinerary:
Sunday - Port Canaveral, FL
Monday - Nassau, Bahamas
Tuesday - At Sea
Wednesday - Charlotte Amalie, St. Thomas
Thursday - Phillipsburg, St. Martin
Friday - At Sea
Saturday - At Sea
Sunday - Port Canaveral, FL

Any great tips on restaurants, excursions, not to miss sights? any input gratefully recieved. I will also post on the various port sites.

[wingnutphl]

I did the America's Cup regatta on St. Martin and loved it!! I highly recommend it. Lot's of work but fun. Plenty of time for shopping before or after.

Dawn

[wallie]

Bunti,

We have been to all 3 a number of times so I'll brainstorm with the girls and get back with some of the top couple of choices.

EW

[WeirdEyes]

We loved Orient Beach in St. Martin and Magen's Bay in St. Thomas.

[seagarsmoker]

Sunday - Port Canaveral, FL
Have breakfast at Grills Seafood
Monday - Nassau, Bahamas
No help as we've been there so many times, we just stay on the ship.
Tuesday - At Sea
Wednesday - Charlotte Amalie, St. Thomas
Many, many options here - shopping, St Johns (trunks bay) to snorkel or beach. Great shopping right at port called Havensite - has a nice grocery store in case your craving for something not on the ship.
Thursday - Phillipsburg, St. Martin
Probably our favorite island! We head straight out to Orient Beach and grab chairs at Kon Tiki. Right before lunch we take a taxi over to Marigot. Stunning small city that words could hardly describe. Have lunch, stroll around Marina Port la Royale. We then grab another taxi back down to Philipsburg and shop for great priced liquor.
Friday - At Sea
Saturday - At Sea
Sunday - Port Canaveral, FL

[joyceyw]

Emmy - In St.Thomas we did the Screaming Jet Eagle boat. It was a blast. It goes really fast and you get completely soaked, from head to toe. We had to go back to the ship change clothes and have our clothes dried for us they were so wet. It's only 1 hour long so you have plenty of time to do other things.

[echo]

On the ship don't miss the ice show.
In Nassua we always take some type of snorkel trip, I think the snorkeling in the Bahamas is really good.

St. Martin, If you like to shop there's a water taxi $5pp all day, that'll take you to the 2 shopping areas. We like Orient beach, at the peir the taxi stands are to the right. You cna get a taxi there to Orient beach, tell the taxi driver you'd like a pick up and tell them what time and they'll come back to get you. There are many bars on the beach that offer 2 loungers, umbrellas and a drink for $10-12 . Some are higher so ask at a few different bars. The beach is beautiful there.

[nosnobunny]

Since we don't have much time in Nassau, I was thinking of going over to Atlantis. I've heard so much about it but didn't make it there last time.

Beth

[echo]

This review is from the Hounds Sept 04 Cruise. But it might help you out....


Some of this review will only make sense to the Hounds group, but anyone who has any questions, I'll be happy to answer them from our experience. I only have Carnival cruises to compare this one to, so I have made comparisons. I will not respond to flames. The review is for the Mariner of The Seas 7day cruise, that turned into 9 days because of Jeanne. We left from PC but returned to Maimi and were bussed to various locations.

We drove down to PC on Saturday, had ressies at the Rad. Met up with some fellow Hounds and Mutts later that nite. Our room's a/c was broken and they had to move us 2 doors down, they gave us 4 drink coupons for the inconvenience. I really like the Rad , and will stay there again. The next morning, We parked our car in the Convention parking area and called a taxi to take us to the port. There were 8 of us all together, we rode over with "the Smiths" Karen and Mike. Taxi was $2.00 each, couldn't beat it. Check in was a breeze, absolutely no line whatsoever. Arrived about 11:30.
Went straight away to the Windjammer and grabbed lunch, this was the only time there was a real problem getting a table. I thought the Windjammer food was really good. Like others have said, don't stop at the first buffet line, keep going on back in the dining room, there's more areas. I enjoyed the music. The only real peeve I had was there's was no self serve drink stations (and no free drinks except water any other time of the day) Being a Carnival cruiser I was used to having these. Kept seeing HOUNDS everywhere, it was great to see everyone again. Kathy and I had a good laugh at the dressing sniffer. Margie knows who I'm talking about. Went to our rooms after 1:00, room was nice and spacious. Loved the glass shower. The bed slept so good and the sheets were really soft. Closet was roomy. Liked the safe much better than Carnivals. We had a balcony room. Speaking of balconies, we had the best balcony buddies, Teresa and Richard, we all had a hoot playing tricks on each other. Jeepers, Creepers, Balcony PEEPERS!!. (Loved the note on our car guys!! Scared the sh*t out of us at first.)
The Howl and Prowl was fun, the whole first day on ship was a blur, there was so much going on. And that was 12 whole days ago!

Nassau had improved much since I had been there last. The tour that the hounds took was relaxing, though I agree with Sue that our boat operator was alittle gruff. Some other hounds told me that the operator on the other boat didn't talk much and didn't give them any instruction on how to snorkel. Most of those Hounds were new to snorkeling. Our boat stopped at a wreck and the snorkeling was really the best I'd ever had. Water was clear and calm and lots of fish.

St. Thomas, well we did get there late due to a medical emergency, but the Captain extended our time there. We went on the Godfrey Tour and it was worth its money. Our bus had a great time, laughing and cutting up, since our speaker didn't work. The driver sounded like the adults from "Peanuts". It was strange driving on the wrong side of the road and Ronny had a few heart attacks. We all about had a heart attack when we pulled out in front on a large cement truck and it was right on our tail. We were all hollering "Go, Go, Go!!!" Stop signs must only be a suggestion in St Thomas. St Thomas is mountainous and we could smell the brakes from the hound's bus in front of us. We saw a goat on the side of the road, and we all howled at it, it looked at us like we were absolutely insane. We ended up at Sapphire beach, which was an OK beach. We snorkeled for about an hour. There are some rocks and coral on the right side of the beach. You have to be careful, the waves are strong and the coral is shallow in some parts. Fins are a must. Go into the water in the middle of the beach and then work your way to the right side, otherwise the coral will tear you up. Amanda lost one of her rings while we were snorkeling but Ronny somehow found it, she was quite relieved. There are restrooms there. St. Thomas was my least favorite of the 4 ports we stopped at. If a car breaks down there, it just stays where it's at.

St. Martin was beautiful. We got off the ship and rode the water taxi over to Front street ($5.00 pp, for all day), bought some liquor ( guavaberry, yum) and had it delivered to the ship. Walked around alittle bit, the sidewalks were still under construction. We walked the beach front back to the water taxi area. There were some beautiful shells at that beach. You can swim there and rent chairs, Everything's Cool is not there anymore, but there are several other places along the beach like it. Went back to the ship and had an early lunch, then took a taxi over to Orient beach. Had a really good taxi driver, she told us alot about the island. The taxi drivers there have to apply for a licensee with the government, it took her 5 years. They own their own vehicles, so she took real good care of hers. There were 4 of us and trip over was $6 pp. She asked us if we wanted her to pick us back up and we made a time of 4:00. Found the Hounds, you could HEAR them. Chairs with umbrellas were $5pp, some got them for $6 pp w/ 1 drink. One place called TexMex had chair, umbrella and drink for $5pp. Had Gauvaberry Coldas, they were really yummy. The beach was one of the prettiest I'd ever seen. The backdrop of the mountains and Pinel Island was gorgeous. We picked up 4 more hounds for the taxi ride back, our driver was waiting for us and charged us $5pp for the trip back. Our driver pointed out a house of prostitution on the way back to the ship, it was named "The Seamen's Club".

The unexpected stop at Labadee was great! This was one of our favorite stops. We walked on down to Hideaway beach and had the guy put us some loungers under a really shady tree, we were in between the beach, restrooms and lunch. It was so relaxing!!!! We snorkeled there also. There wasn't too many fish, but we did see starfish, sea urchins and a group of squid. There was 2 guys snorkeling there who were poking everything with sticks, I freaked out and said something to them, but they didn't listen. I hope they read this post, you two are Morons!!!! We had a great lunch of ribs, chicken, hotdogs and burgers. Went to the vendors area and bought a few trinkets. We didn't go inside the fleamarket, everyone said they were really pushy and grabby in there, so we just shopped outside. Bargian with the vendors to atleast half the price. We stayed on the island till 4:00, had a really fun day. Had another medical emergency, so we were alittle late leaving the area that evening.

The days begin to run together. The production shows were good, but I have seen better. The Kundsen Brothers were FANTASIC!, I'm glad I didn't miss them, there were a professional act. The dou Claudio, or something like that, were good also. The ice skating show was not to be missed either, it was amazing how they got so many skaters on that small of ice. The 2 "adult" theme shows we went to were a riot. The lairs club was quite funny. And the Quest was hilarious, it was made all the funnier since we knew a few hounds that participated. My Hubby, Ronny, being one of them. Richard was a hoot all dressed up in a bra and lipstick and Tony was getting down dirty dancing w/ some strange guy. We were team 13 and we should have WON! It is adult themed and they do warn you of that, so if you are easily offended don't go.

The food was good, but I did like Carnivals dining room food better, but RCL deserts were much better than Carnivals. Our waiters were Sunny and Carlos. They did a great job, Sunny showed our table tricks everynite and he had the most infectious laugh and smile. Carlos really loosened up by the end of our cruise and we saw him smile alot. We had some good tablemates and some memorable ones, 2 of the guys play Santa Claus at the Holidays. Our table had good time and I'm sure other tables could hear us laughing most nites. "BUNNY"

The Captain was the best, he really kept us informed and boy did he like to talk. He was funny also. The TV had his announcements everyday and drawn charts of where we were in relation to the hurricane. I don't think we could have had a better Captain for the hurricane situation. I think RCL did the best they could with the situation, I wish they would have gave us an earlier time off the ship since we had so far to drive, but that was my only moment where I felt let down. They kept us safe and the weather was perfect!

I finally started to get my sea legs on the last 2 nites of our 9 day cruise and we danced both nites away , I should say us girls danced the nites away. Except we did get Richard out there. The band at Ellington's was good. But the dance floor is not really big enough.

I met some really great hounds, Rosie, Glenn, Michelle, Teresa, Richard, the Utah pound, hope I didn't forget anyone. Of course it was great seeing the ole gang. Still trying to get everyone to move south, so we can see each other more.