Olympian and paralympian Jean Driscoll is godmother to RCCL's new Mariner of the Seas. She christened this new ship on Friday night.
I spent a couple of days on the ship last week, specifically checking access features, taking pictures and discussing disabled guests' needs with upper management. RCCL definitely continues to consider accessibility and improves with each ship.
The ship is stunning. I'll try to do a review on her. I love the artwork. IMO, it's kind of "Carnival theme meets RCCL taste." This particular ship has a lot of whimsical art that makes you grin. At the same time, the colors are soothing and they again put a giant chandelier in the diningrooms... to the tune of $500,000.
Mariner has all of the voyager-class bells and whistles, but with a wine bar added. Everyone agreed that the ice skating show on this one was the best they'd seen. A lot of comments about it having a bit of a Cirque de Soleil feel to it. I missed the first night's show, but heard it was "okay." However, the second night's show was excellent and got a standing ovation.
I enjoyed dinner with a different set of people both nights and everyone at our tables both evenings was extremely pleased with our meals. I heard that some meals were returned the first night at other tables. However, I felt the food had vastly improved since my last RCCL cruise nearly two years ago.
Service was good. There were a few minor kinks as it was a pre-inaugural and the staff were working on getting comfortable with their jobs, each other, etc. But frankly, I was pleasantly surprised by how well it was going already. The staff could not have been friendlier or tried harder which tells me that it will all come together quickly.
My main reason for going on the ship was to check access and I have to say that RCCL did a fine job. If you hear about an agent doing things like taking pictures of the public restroom doors, laying on the floor to get a picture of a slope, measuring the width of a corridor and heights of various items, or asking people handling the rock climbing as to what degree of disability they could work with to get 200 feet up in the air... that was yours truly. ;-) I've already talked with RCCL's access department about all of the good access, a couple of things I question and ideas for the future.
