Trip Report: Mariner of the Seas (with some Cocoa Beach, the Space Center and a finish at WDW)

Thank you for your summary and reports, including adding the WDW part. Really enjoyed reading your thoughts. For the first time, in 2 years, we will be sailing with Royal, though on a 7 night. For the price of the balcony we have, so far, DCL is almost double the price. Hence, though we also have only tried DCL (and Royal over 25 years ago), my adult kids only know our 3 DCL cruises. So this coming year, we are trying Carnival, which is more than doubly cheaper than DCL. And depending on what prices DCL offers to military, we may try to get another DCL cruise in between those other cruises, as we also are so comfy, guess from only knowing, with their ships. And yay! For having 2 more DCL cruises booked.
 
Thank you for your summary and reports, including adding the WDW part. Really enjoyed reading your thoughts. For the first time, in 2 years, we will be sailing with Royal, though on a 7 night. For the price of the balcony we have, so far, DCL is almost double the price. Hence, though we also have only tried DCL (and Royal over 25 years ago), my adult kids only know our 3 DCL cruises. So this coming year, we are trying Carnival, which is more than doubly cheaper than DCL. And depending on what prices DCL offers to military, we may try to get another DCL cruise in between those other cruises, as we also are so comfy, guess from only knowing, with their ships. And yay! For having 2 more DCL cruises booked.
Which Carnival ship are you sailing?
 


Loved reading your trip report. We are booked on RCL for next June but its a 4 night cruise. We did a disney cruise 5 or 6 years ago, but we are going with in-laws and bro in law isn’t a disney fan and the cost of 3 rooms was ridiculous on DCL.

rental car question: you picked up at MCO and dropped off at budget, was that expensive for a one way rental? Was the transfer to the cruise free???
 
Loved reading your trip report. We are booked on RCL for next June but its a 4 night cruise. We did a disney cruise 5 or 6 years ago, but we are going with in-laws and bro in law isn’t a disney fan and the cost of 3 rooms was ridiculous on DCL.

rental car question: you picked up at MCO and dropped off at budget, was that expensive for a one way rental? Was the transfer to the cruise free???

It wasn't bad. We had the car for the first half for a couple of days (Wed-Fri) and it was $140. For the second half we only had it for the day and it was $80. I think I had a compact. Not the cheapest (is the cheapest economy?) but maybe a step up from that. I priced it out for a week and then with parking at PC, but it was cheaper to do it this way. The shuttle between Budget and the port is free. Just make sure you choose the right location. It should say "Cruise Terminal" in the location. Someone was there that had just chosen Cape Canaveral and that's a different location so they were in the wrong building!
 
The shuttle between Budget and the port is free. Just make sure you choose the right location. It should say "Cruise Terminal" in the location. Someone was there that had just chosen Cape Canaveral and that's a different location so they were in the wrong building!
Thanks for that tip! I had no idea there were multiple locations
 


Enjoyed your trip report. Sounds like a really nice vacation.

A few observations:
- On our last Royal cruise, we didn't get "The Key" and our observation was that it probably isn't worth it. At the embarkation point, there was a 'The Key' checkin, that was empty when we arrived, but so were the other checkin desks. 'The Key' folks did get to go on the ship first, but it was only about a 15 minute difference, if that. As you observed, "The Key" seating at shows wasn't really any better than for the general audience. On our ship (Adventure OTS), The Key seating was all in the balcony. If you preferred downstairs, you're with everyone else. And, it looked like about 15 minutes before the show started, they took down "The Key" signage for the reserved area and let anyone sit there. There may be situations where "The Key" may benefit some folks, but I'm certainly not going to bother...
- You are partially correct that RCCL does not have a chat feature on their app. Partially because they are rolling it out on a ship by ship basis. For ships that have it, you do not need to purchase the internet (Voom) package in order to use it. I'm not sure which ships have this feature, but I've seen it listed somewhere I think on the RCCL website.
- Also agree that 3 night cruises aren't a great idea. Our one bad RCCL cruise was a 3 night boozer out of Miami. Never again. Would not do a 3 nighter on any cruise line, except for maybe Disney.
- Overall, I think we prefer Disney cruises, as well, But, Disney is close to (and sometimes over) double the price. Royal has stepped up their game recently and we're anxious to try out the new CocoCay sometime soon.
 

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