Today was a very eventful day onboard Mariner of the Seas!
To start, we were meant to have a sea day on the original itinerary. Yesterday, we found out we would instead be docking in Freeport, Bahamas for the ship to undergo routine maintenance.
As such, Angie and I were excited to visit a new port in the Bahamas. We’ve only visited Nassau and CocoCay, so we welcomed the unexpected opportunity to visit somewhere new. I think this scenario, receiving a bonus port, is probably the best case scenario when you see there’s been an itinerary change last minute.
Royal Caribbean offered excursions for Grand Bahama Island, including beach tours, dolphin encounters and city guides. We opted to just do our own thing in port rather than book anything last minute, although we did consider booking a resort day pass.
Easy Going Morning
I always sleep amazing when I am cruising. Between the ship slowly swaying and our inside cabin being pitch black, it’s so easy to get a good night’s rest.
Angie and I enjoyed a nice morning onboard the ship starting with breakfast at the Windjammer. It was fairly busy, but we didn’t have to wait in any lines. I was worried it would be packed with long lines given we are sailing almost at 100% capacity. Perhaps most people had an earlier start than we did at 10:30am, but we didn’t have any issues finding a table.
I discovered on our last cruise that I could order my morning latte (a necessity) at the Windjammer bar with one of my Diamond + drink vouchers. There is a Starbucks onboard, but I would rather take advantage of my vouchers than pay out of pocket for a latte at Starbucks.
Breakfast was great - we’re pretty much always pleased with the Windjammer breakfast. Angie indulged in a cinnamon roll and meat lovers omelet while I had a strawberry yogurt parfait. We both are obsessed with the cranberry strudel bread, which seems to be a Royal Caribbean staple over the years. Sometimes it’s topped with almonds and other times it’s sprinkled with coarse sugar. Either way, the bread is best enjoyed with a large slab of butter.
After finishing breakfast, we went back to our cabin on deck 8 and got ready for the day. I appreciate that our cabin is pretty centrally located - it’s never too far from any of the activities or dining options. Of course, it’s a bit of a long trek from Deck 1 when you return to the gangway.
Our cabin was already cleaned by the stateroom attendant and we found a tray of room service breakfast that we hadn’t ordered. I may (or may not) have enjoyed the mimosa that was accidentally delivered to our cabin after telling our stateroom attendant that the room service must have been delivered incorrectly. She encouraged me to enjoy the drink, so I didn’t hesitate!
We usually take the stairs when we cruise. One of the main reasons we choose to do so is because the elevators are always busy, especially this time around. The few times we’ve taken them, we stop at every deck and have to wait for a more empty one. A little bit of exercise isn’t the worst thing for us either!
Freeport Shopping
Angie and I walked right off the ship into the Freeport port, which appeared to have a really nice shopping area. We could see a bunch of little souvenir shops surrounding an outdoor Senior Frogs.
The weather was a comfortable 75 degrees with light gusts of wind and low humidity. I can imagine in the summer months that it gets much hotter, but today it was perfect.
We enjoyed souvenir shopping in the port area and even sampled some rum cakes that were made locally. Any day that includes rum cake and free samples is a great day in my book!
Because we were originally meant to be at sea today, Angie and I had a few things onboard that we were planning to try. After shopping and walking around the nice port, we decided to head back to the ship so we could make our way through the to-do list.
“We must have hit an iceberg!”
Upon returning to our stateroom, we found a fruit plate that was addressed to Allie Hubers from the Crown and Anchor Society. Angie jokingly questioned why she didn’t receive a fruit plate even though she’s the same status as I am.
Shortly after, we hear a knock on the door and we are gifted another fruit plate which is also addressed to me. Angie scowled, although we were both laughing at the abundant recognition that Royal Caribbean was giving me.
As we were eating said fruit, we felt the ship unexpectedly jerk back and forth. I immediately figured that must have been the scheduled maintenance that Mariner apparently was needing.
Angie joked “That was weird! We must have hit an iceberg!”
Of course, icebergs were nowhere to be found in the Caribbean and we were docked at the port…. so what could that jolt have been?
Well, not too long after, the captain announces that another ship has unfortunately bounced into us while we were docked. He assures everyone onboard Mariner that we are not to worry and everything is fine, although the ship would need to be inspected to ensure it's safe to continue sailing.
Our bonus port day suddenly got even more interesting!
Angie and I nearly ran to the top deck to check out the action - this was the moment that cruise blogging turned into investigative journalism! We saw a few people watching below from the top deck as a tug boat helped keep the cargo ship away from us.
I asked the gentleman next to me if he had seen the incident happen - he asked me what I was talking about. I informed him that the captain said we were struck by another ship - he seemed surprised and had no clue! There was a ship officer on the top deck who I also spoke with; he wasn’t concerned and joked that he has lived at sea so long, he has seen it all.
Click here to read more about the incident.
Overall, it was pretty obvious no one onboard was very concerned. The belly flop competition on the top deck was absolutely packed with people cheering and drinking. The FlowRider was also quite busy; by the way, I heard yesterday that there was a long line to surf, but I noticed today they had the divider up so two people could surf at once.
I told Angie we should check out the jogging trail on deck 4 since that would probably offer a better view of the cargo ship. The crew had blocked off the back of the ship by this point and told us we couldn’t be there, so unfortunately we didn’t get to see much. Aftermath photos show that this is where the ship ‘bounced’ into ours, so it makes sense why we couldn’t continue walking to see more.
Afternoon Activities
The original plan was to get back onboard so we could try out the SkyPad. Since I’ve heard a few grumblings of long lines, I thought it would be good to get there early.
The breaking news of our ship being struck by a cargo ship had derailed our afternoon plans. After realizing we wouldn’t get to see much more of the collision action, we opted to try out the SkyPad. We had dressed appropriately with closed toed shoes and removed our jewelry.
Sadly, the winds were too strong to do the SkyPad so we weren’t able to bounce today. I suppose that makes sense, as the wind seemed to be causing other problems today too (i.e. a cargo ship bouncing into us).
All the commotion and investigating made me hungry, so we opted for a quick lunch at the Windjammer. Given how busy the pool was, it was nice that the Windjammer was pretty quiet again. There was a little crowd of people who were watching as two tug boats attempted to safely move the cargo ship.
As I savored my go-to hot dog and fries, we could see more clearly that the cargo ship’s bridge had sustained some damage.
A small group of us watched as the tug boats safely moved the cargo ship while a pilot boat hovered nearby. That seemed to be the end of the commotion, although we couldn’t really see Mariner’s damage from anywhere public on the ship.
By this time, it was almost 3:00 PM and Angie wanted to check out the free massages. We found a small line outside of the spa forming but it moved fast. Really, this was more of a ‘free sample of a massage’ rather than a ‘free massage’. Angie opted for a 2 minute hot stone massage while I had just a normal mini massage.
Of course, they asked if we wanted to book any spa treatments. A quick glance at the treatment sheet showed plenty of lovely options, but most of them costed more than our cruise fare alone so we politely declined.
A Happy Hour Campfire Cookie
Other writers from RoyalCaribbeanBlog have raved about the campfire cookie at Playmakers, so this was at the top of my list of things I needed to try.
The promenade was busy with Cafe Promenade having a line that wrapped around the corner all the way back to Ben and Jerry’s. That was longer than the day prior, and we overheard a few other cruisers grumbling about the wait.
As a first-timer to Playmakers, I wasn’t sure if we were supposed to order at the bar and find a seat or if we would be seated and order at the table. I still am not sure the answer to that, but we ordered the campfire cookie from the bartender. He told us the kitchen was pretty busy and it could take up to 45 minutes.
I was a bit surprised by the wait time, but we told the bartender we would grab a drink at The Bamboo Room and return after to indulge in our cookie. We had really liked The Bamboo Room yesterday and the tiki bar was nearly empty when we walked inside.
This time around, I tried the Royal Zombie, which came in an adorable tiki cup and had hints of black licorice flavor. Angie was feeling less adventurous and opted for the same piña colada again. We sipped on our delicious drinks and once again enjoyed the ambiance.
We walked across the promenade back to Playmakers to hopefully indulge in our campfire cookie. After another 10 minute wait, our cookie was finally delivered to our table.
I think heaven opened and angels sang from above as we took our first bite into the ooey, gooey, chocolatey cookie goodness. It was insanely delicious and certainly lived up to the hype. Our cookie was served (we think) with Ben and Jerry’s cookie dough ice cream, which was the perfect accompaniment to the warm cookie.
Main Dining Room
Since we ate at Chops Grille last night, we went to the main dining room for the first time tonight. We had scoped out earlier that our table had 6 seats… meaning we would be seated with random people.
I was a bit surprised by this, as I haven’t been seated with strangers in the main dining room for years!
We were fashionably late to dinner since we didn’t realize it was formal night and we needed to change. We eyed our assigned table from afar and found it was filled with 4 older folks - totally fine but we weren’t feeling like sitting with strangers at dinner or making small talk.
We asked the hostess if we could be seated elsewhere. He said the dining room was full and he could seat us with other passengers who are closer to our age if we wanted. Luckily, he was able to find us a private table where the passengers were dining at a specialty restaurant.
Angie and I enjoyed a nice dinner overlooking the main dining room. As we were getting seated, the captain announced that the ship would be leaving port as scheduled. He explained only minor cosmetic damage was done from the cargo ship and Mariner was seaworthy and safe to sail. Great news!
Dinner was great tonight. Angie and I both enjoyed the beef tenderloin as the main entree. Angie said the pumpkin soup was a very good starter. My French onion soup tasted different than normal, but I still enjoyed it. For dessert, we both chose the Grand Mariner soufflé. This is our dad’s all-time favorite dessert, so we had to indulge for him!
I will say, I miss the more personalized service you receive on longer voyages. It’s been a while since I’ve done a short cruise, but I do feel like this is less intimate than other voyages. Normally, we get to know the crew members and they also get to know us - which is something I miss on this shorter cruise.
After dinner, Angie went to the Royal Theatre for the headliner show, which featured Royal Caribbean singers and dancers with a live band. This isn’t my favorite kind of show, so I relaxed in the cabin instead.
The show was called Production Showtime: Gallery of Dreams. Angie reported that it was an upbeat show with worldly themes from Austria, Morocco and the ‘Wild West’. The show was enjoyed by people of all ages, kids and elderly alike.
Angie also reported back that the cruise director told the audience we might be late getting into CocoCay tomorrow because of the wind. For how much wind has been impacting our cruise, I really don’t feel like it’s *that* windy outside! We will see what adventures tomorrow brings.
