Sleep didn’t come easy the first night of our cruise for some reason. The beds are a bit hard and the mattresses a bit old. But who’s going to let a little lost sleep slow you down on a cruise? Not me.

First to breakfast

We decided to go to the Windjammer Buffet for breakfast. It was crowded, but we managed to find a seat in the back by a window. I love window seats on cruises because I love watching the ocean. Breakfast was the basics. I love that Royal Caribbean ships have over easy eggs already cooked and waiting for you, instead of having to wait in line at the omelet station to get them cooked. So, I had my two eggs over easy along with wheat toast. I added some sausage, bacon, and hash brown potatoes. It was all good, except I didn’t like the taste of the sausage.

The crew in the Windjammer are awesome. They went and got us some OJ and coffee, and they kept the place constantly clean. One thing that I have to mention in the Windjammer is the “Washy” guy. He stands at the entrance and reminds you that you need to “washy, or you don’t eaty”. lol He is funny. I need to get a picture of him.

I like the layout of the Windjammer. It’s decorated in relaxing colors with comfy chairs. And there are a lot of food stations and drink stations. Basic drinks are water, unsweetened tea, hot tea and coffee, and punch. For breakfast you can get OJ or apple juice also.

And we found a cruising duck after we ate. If you don’t know what that is, people put tags on rubber ducks and hide them on the ship. I hid some myself with my website on the tag. We found two ducks during the day.

Checking out the ship

After we ate we decided to check out some of the upper ship decks. Mariner is very similar to freedom class ships with the promenade, Johnny Rockets, FlowRider and Rock climbing wall. There is a ton to do, and a lot to see. We watched a gentleman surf FlowRider for quite awhile. He was so good. I’d last about half a minute on a board. After that I worked on my first blog for the cruise. I bring a laptop with me and use the ship’s internet to publish it. Internet has been spotty, but seems to work better on my laptop than my phone. Below are some pictures of what we saw on the ship as we explored.

Lunch in the Windjammer

Time to “washy washy” as we went to lunch in the Windjammer Buffet. I’ve been “trying” to eat healthier, so I got some chicken, some potatoes, and some three bean salad. I had some fruit and some no sugar added Boston Cream Pie for dessert. Why is it that I can eat healthy at home, but it all goes out the window on a cruise? There’s just so much good food, and the food on Mariner has been excellent so far. One secret, the Windjammer has the good ice cream at different times. The first night we went at around 7 pm and they had yummy brownies and were scooping four different flavors of ice cream. And there was ice cream for lunch today. And you can find soft serve on the pool deck between the hours of 11:30 am and 6 pm, I believe. They only have cones, but if you go in and get a glass from the drink station, and a spoon from the buffet, they’ll put it in a cup for you.

After lunch we did some more exploring, and then I saw that the Cafe Promenade had BBQ Chicken Pizza. I just had to try it. So much for eating healthy on the cruise. And, it was very good. I think that the pizza on Mariner is better than the pizza on Freedom of the Seas.

Elegant Night

This was elegant night, so we wanted to get a shower before getting ready. It’s your typical cruise ship shower, but for the life of me, I could not get the water hot enough. I was freezing by the time I got out. So far we haven’t figured out how to make it hotter. I forgot my shampoo so I used the shampoo/body wash provided in the shower, and it seemed to be okay.

One thing about the bathroom, it’s one of the smallest ship bathrooms that I’ve been in. Every time I use the toilet my elbow bumps into the shower door. Now, I like that there are shower doors instead of curtains, but I don’t like hitting it all the time.

We have the 5:30 dining time, so we headed out to the dining room at about 5:10. We’re in the dining room on the fourth floor. Everyone there has been wonderful. Our servers are Randy and Cezar, and they couldn’t be more attentive.

They don’t do lobster tail anymore, at least on a five day cruise. I ended up with Fried Calamari, which was very good, Roast beef tenderloin, which was delicious, and an Apple tart with no sugar added ice cream for dessert. See, I was good! We had one added solo tablemate, along with the five other people at our table. We have had some very good conversations, it’s a good group.

After dinner the Maitre d’ came over to say hi, and then the Head Waiter, Wajdi, came over to see how things were, and give us his card. We can contact him with any concerns, but so far we’re good.

Entertainment for the night

We decided to go to the Gallery of Dreams show at the main theater, and I’m glad that we did. I got some video clips that I’ll try to post after I get home. The entire cast was wonderful. It was such a breath of fresh air after watching the show “88 Keys” on Carnival so many times. Definitely worth seeing.

After that we went to the room to discover my first towel animal made by Gus and watch a bit of TV and relax when we heard a loud noise on the Promenade. I looked out the window and they had a 70’s party going on in the Promenade area. I ran out of the room in my bare feet to see what I could see, and I watched the whole party from the viewing area down the hall from me. If I’d had shoes on I may have went down to the Promenade and done some dancing. It was a great show and lots of fun. Our Cruise Director, Marc, was out there dancing. Haven’t seen him much yet.

The Captain had announced that we may see some rough seas from the Hurricane, and indeed, the ship started rocking pretty good. If I wasn’t used to this, I’d probably have been nervous, but instead, I let it rock me to sleep. And I slept like a baby.