Jemma and I had never been on a cruise, so we wanted to try it out. We booked a short 3 days and 3 nights cruise to Port Klang aboard Royal Caribbean’s Mariner of the Seas and went last March 16. The cruise exceeded our expectations.
We were assigned a room at deck 7 and told that we had to check in at around 12. There were so many people (around 3,600, we later found out) so we got into the ship only at around 2pm.
We were told that we could have lunch at the Windjammer Cafe at deck 11. Since only one cafe was open and there were so many people, the entrance was jammed (pun intended). When we finally got in, we were awed at the huge variety of food at the buffet.
Our Stateroom
After eating, we searched for our stateroom. We went the wrong way and had to drag our luggage (we had opted not to check them in) through corridors of rooms until we found ours. We would only discover the next day that there was a much shorter way to get there. 😅
But we loved our room! It was the cheapest one available and had no view whatsoever, but we loved it anyway. It has two single beds, a vanity table, a living room, a roomy closet, and a tiny bathroom with toilet.
Our steward Mario introduced himself to us and said he would clean our room twice a day. Every afternoon, he left a cruise compass – a booklet that contained the activities for the next day.
On the second day, he left an elephant made of towels on my bed. We decided to name it Eli. 😁
The Food
We could have free meals from different cafes.
Windjammer Cafe is where the buffets are. We usually went there for breakfast and lunch. There was such a huge variety of meals, from Asian to Indian to Western. They even had burgers and pizza for kids. My faves here were the stir fried beef, mexican chili, and warm bread pudding. I also made sure to load up on veggies, fruits, and yogurt.
Cafe Promenade is a snack cafe that’s open for 24 hours. This was located just two decks below our room, so we could nip here for a quick breakfast or snack or have some delicious decaffeinated coffee at night or grab a glass of water.
We chatted with a Filipino waiter while here. There are surprisingly a lot of Filipino crew aboard this ship, and we found out a bit about their life on a cruise ship. They also gave us tips, like to wait for the third day to buy stuff on sale.
Dog House is a hotdog shack at the pool deck where you could get yummy juicy hotdogs, and Arctic Zone is nearby, where you could get frozen yogurt.
Rhapsody in Blue was our assigned fine dining cafe for dinners at 5:30 pm. We had an assigned table and waiters every night. They both gave great service.
There was also one Filipino waiter who chatted with us when he overhead us speaking in Tagalog. He suggested that we order three desserts to share. Our favourite of all the desserts was the warm bread pudding with ice cream.
The appetizers and main meals were really good, too – escargot and prime rib steaks, for example.
This cafe was my fave because it looked very beautiful, like a fancy ballroom. On the last night, all the waiters came out to sing and dance for the guests.
The Pool Deck
The pool was at deck 11, and it had a couple of swimming pools, a few whirlpools, and a gym and spa with steam room and sauna.
A lot of people love swimming and tanning out here, but we hate the sun, so we went on the deck at night, to watch the movie Coco while leaning back on lounge chairs, under the stars, with the cool wind blowing. It was a great experience, and a great movie, too. This was the only movie we watched because we had already either seen the rest (all the comic book films) or they didn’t really appeal to us.
We tried out the whirlpool on the second day, when a lot of people had gone off the ship to explore Kuala Lumpur. We decided to stay in and savour the ship instead, because we’ve both already been to KL before. The water was so warm and frothy, and the jets of water felt like a massage on the back.
We also enjoyed lounging around on the deck chairs while reading books or watching Friends episodes. Since wifi wasn’t free, we decided not to pay for it and spent the weekend on an internet detox – it was actually very relaxing to not have to constantly be in touch with the world!
We also tried the steam room and sauna inside the gym, and though we didn’t try the gym itself, we did join a latin dance class on another floor, and that was fun, thanks to the funny Mexican teacher Esteban.
Entertainment
There were plenty of parades and parties at the Royal Promenade to keep kids and adults entertained. Dreamworks characters always went out to dance for the kids, and there were several themed late night parties which would have been fun to join if we had been five years younger. So we just watched the people dancing while we sipped our decaf coffee from the seventh floor.
On the last day, the captain of the ship even got on the stage to introduce himself and the senior management of the ship. Everyone came out to hear him and take advantage of the free champagne and fruit punch.
The Royal Promenade also had a lot of shops, so we did a bit of shopping on the last day, when a lot of items were on sale, and on duty free. The fun thing about buying anything on the ship is that you don’t even need to give cash or credit card, you just have to present your cruise card, which is already linked to your credit card (if you chose it), or you can pay for everything in cash in one go at the end of the trip.
There were also shows every night. Our favourite was Ice Under the Big Top, an ice skating performance in Studio B. Since it was a small studio, they split the people into four, per their assigned dining rooms. We did not understand the instructions and should have gone to the 8:45 pm slot. Luckily, we were still allowed into the 10:45 pm show after everyone else had gone in and they had seats left. You can catch a portion of their performance in the youtube video that I will link at the end of this post.
Two nights later, we recognized the ice captain outside the studio and asked to have a picture with him. He is really good, he actually did a full somersault while on ice skates!
On the second and third nights, the big shows were held at The Savoy, which was big enough to hold everyone. We made sure to go 30 minutes before the shows started so we could get good seats.
On the second night they held Production Show Time, which was a mix of piano, orchestra, singing, and dancing. It was quite an extravaganza, and we were blown away with the talent of the performers and the production quality of that amazing stage, which had amazing lights and sliding floor openings. It’s a performance that you would pay top dollar for.
On the third night they had a Headliner Showtime starring Pengfei Su from China. He’s a world class acrobat and equally amazing magician, who is quite funny, too.
Each show ended with a speech from the Jamaican cruise director Ricky, who is hilarious.
Filming of the day 2 and 3 shows were not allowed, so I have nothing to show you. If you wanna watch them, I guess you just have to catch a cruise! ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
There’s a casino and Bingo sessions for people who like to gamble, too. We only went for the Bingo, and didn’t win. Oh well.
There’s also a pretty library for people who want to read. They have a few books in there, but no popular books, unfortunately. I ended up picking up a book about Prince Harry, which proved to be an interesting read.
We also spent a bit of time just walking around and taking photos everywhere.
The Royal Caribbean’s Mariner of the Seas is definitely one fancy ship, and I am definitely glad that we decided to choose them even though they’re pricier than other ships, because I think we got our money’s worth, for sure!
I’ll end this post with a video of our cruise highlights.
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