review of Mariner vs. Magic

[ashtravel]

I have sailed on the Magic 4 times in the past 3 years and recently had the opportunity to sail on the Mariner Nov. 21-28. I do want to say up front that I am a home-based cruise travel agent. I sell a lot of Disney and the Mariner and wanted to experience the Mariner for myself so I can speak firsthand about both ships. I've also just wanted to experience a voyager -class ship so this review is strickly from a personal point-of-view. I took my husband and 9 year old twin boys.
I am a true Disney Cruise lover and felt that the Mariner had a lot to live up too. And I must say that it did ! My boys said they would pick the Mariner over the Magic in a heartbeat. That is mainly because there was more to do for that age group. The Mariner offered an inline skating track, which they used to actully learned how to skate on. They also had a mini-golf court, a huge gameroom(very expensive) and a nice basketball court. The kids program was ok but they didn't really like the Disney kids program either. There were a lot of kids in the 9-11 age group mainly because it was Thanksgiving week.
Things Disney does better:
Cabin set-up is better. The bunkbeds aren't over your heads so you can have a queen size bed to yourself. With the Mariner , it is difficult to put the beds together under the pullman beds for a quad cabin.
The Magic offered casual food options by the pool . The Mariner has Windjammers(Topsiders) but you couldn't wear a bathing suit there.
The Magic offers first-run movies and kids channels . The Mariner offered in cabin movies and older movies in a small theater.
The Magic is in port longer than the Mariner.
I like the ship horn better on the Magic.
Departing is a breeze.
The private island is better.

Things the Mariner does better:
SOOO much to do. You can never be bored on this ship.
The parking lot is covered which is great for your car.
Embarkation was about the same but the agent at the desk was rude.
The ship is amazing. Much more impressive than the Magic.
The ride was much smoother than any Disney cruise I have taken and we had 50mph winds for 2 nights!
The entertainment was better. There was an amazing ice show on the ice rink. Honestly, I am tired of seeing the same Disney shows every cruise.
There were more food options.
The prices tend to be lower than Disney
The Mariner has a casino and we won $120 at the slots!
The service was outstanding in the diningroom. My husband can't eat dairy products and our server went out of her way to have a special meal created for him every night. They even special ordered soy milk for him.

Overall, I would recommend Disney to families with younger kids . I think once they hit about 9 years old, the Mariner is a way cooler ship. Both ships are hard to beat and an excellent value for the money.

I know a lot of folks on this board are diehard Disney cruise fans, and rightfully so. But I just wanted to share my wonderful experience on the Mariner to let you know that there are other cruiselines that offer an excellent cruise vacation for your family.







Things the Mariner does better.

 

[kajohn]

Thank you so much for your honest opinion! I am very glad to hear your review since we have an explorer cruise booked for my family in February.

One quick questions, was the kids clubs really crowded, or ever closed due to capacity? We are travelling during President's week, so there will be lots of kids on board, just like I'm sure Thanksgiving week was. My kids did enjoy the kids clubs on the Magic so they are looking forward to the clubs on the Explorer.

Thanks again for the review, I'm glad you had such a great time!

 

[SeaSpray]

Thanks for your review. We'll be on the Voyager in June (9-night caribbean out of NJ), and we're booked on the Magic again for 2006 with DSs who are both teens. It's a hard choice, that's for sure! Hopefully we'll continue to cruise on both lines for a long time to come

P.S. When we cruise with our DSs on a Royal Caribbean ship, we'll put them in their own cabin. No way would we want them sleeping right overhead. To me, that is a huge drawback in the cabin designs on all of the RCI ships. We even have a second cabin booked for DSs for our Magic 2006 cruise, and as you know the DCL cabins are layed out MUCH better.

 

[ashtravel]

I agree that the cabin layout is much better on the Disney ships. However, I slept very well on the Mariner so I can't complain too much.
The question about the kids program , there were 2 or 3 counselors for that age group. I don't believe they ever were at capacity . I think there were about 170 kids in the 9-11 age group. My kids thought the counselors were not as nice as the ones on the Magic. They played some very physical games (relay races etc.) on the sports deck and one of my sons actually fell and hit his head. But kids that age tend to like that type of thing rather than just sitting at a computer. My kids were on the younger side of the scale so they were a little intimated by some of the older boys.
But to answer your questions, nothing was really ever over crowded even with 3500 onboard. Because there is so much to do, the crowds are well dispersed. I've read that on other reviews but didn't believe it until I actually saw it for myself. Another thing about the kids program. The kids in the 9-11 can check themselves out of the program or you can request a parent checkout. I did that because I wanted to know where my kids were. I didn't notice a problem with wild kids running the halls. Everyone was pretty well behaved but there were a lot of older kids on board. The teen program looked cool and I asked kids and teens in the elevator how they liked the ship and not one said they hated it.
Another tip for folks who have only cruised Disney and are planning a cruise on a different line. Deparkation is a nightmare. Disney spoils you in this department. You can just walk off the ship with Disney but with the others , you are assigned a color. They call your color in the order of who needs to get off the ship the quickest due to early flights. I was honest and said we drove and we were in the last group and didn't get off the ship until 11am!! We had a 13 hour drive ahead of us and were very disgusted with this. Next time I am going to tell them I have an 11:00am flight!

 

[cruisnfamily]

...recently had the opportunity to sail on the Mariner Nov. 21-28.

We were on this sailing too! I must say I disagree with alot of what you said...I guess we all have our own opinions. We have sailed DCL 3 times and this was our first time with RCCL. Our kids are DD12 and DS8. We traveled with another family with their DS12 and DS7.

We had a wonderful time! We enjoyed ourselves as did the other family we were traveling with. It is a beautiful ship! We thought Disney was way, way better! No comparison!
Things the Mariner does better:
SOOO much to do. You can never be bored on this ship. We found many, many times that there were no activities that appealed to us....particularly at night. There was nothing really to do on the Mariner.
The parking lot is covered which is great for your car.Ok, I'll give you that one.
Embarkation was about the same but the agent at the desk was rude. Embarkation itself was OK but the wait in your car(over 30 minutes for us) to pull in and drop your luggage off was ridiculous! There has to be a better way.
The ship is amazing. Much more impressive than the Magic. It is a beautiful ship with much to offer. Our family feels that DCL has more of a "classic" look though. If you're just comparing the physical ships, I guess it's a toss up.
The ride was much smoother than any Disney cruise I have taken and we had 50mph winds for 2 nights!I agree!
The entertainment was better. There was an amazing ice show on the ice rink. Honestly, I am tired of seeing the same Disney shows every cruise.All 8 of us thought the entertainment was absolutely horrible. Honestly! The only shows we enjoyed were the Ice Show(very impressive) and the Van Dells(guest entertainers, not ships crew). This was my husband's biggest complaint on the Mariner, the poor quality of the evening shows. We were really, really disappointed with this. I do agree however that DCL needs to change some of the shows for variety but the quality on DCL can't be beat.
There were more food options. Say what? I agree that the windjammer buffet was quite good but room service food was terrible(yucky, yucky cheese plates!) and the promenade shop only had ham and cheese croisants and cookies. I missed the food by the pool and 24 hr drink stations.
The prices tend to be lower than DisneyI agree!
The Mariner has a casino and we won $120 at the slots! We spent maybe 2 hrs in the casino all week. It was fun, but not what I need while out at sea. If I want to gamble, I'll go to Bilouxi, it just wasn't what I wanted to do while on the cruise.
The service was outstanding in the diningroom. My husband can't eat dairy products and our server went out of her way to have a special meal created for him every night. They even special ordered soy milk for him. Long story short....I disagree...I guess it depended on your waiter.


Anyway, I'm not trying to pick apart your report. Not at all. I'm glad you had a great time, so did we! I just wanted to show other folks that 2 people who were on the exact same sailing of the exact same ship could have completely different opinions.

I'll tell you the biggest thing that bothered us all week on the Mariner was the lack of a "can do" attitute. Nobody wanted to go out of their way to get you an answer or make something happen. Without going into a long winded story let's just say that I got the feeling most crew members onboard really didn't care, and it was "just a job" to them. We missed all the smiling faces on the Magic. We felt these folks just weren't as pleasant. There were, of course, notable exceptions but for the most part nobody cared to much about anything. We also repeatedly got incorrect info about different things. We felt like Disney definitely "kissed our butts" more than RCCL.

 

[LisaGoeke]

Thanks for the review. It's always nice to hear another one's point of view. We'll be sailing the Mariner in October and I'm real excited.

One question I have about debarkation....do they let the Crown & Anchor members off first? I am a C&A member and we're also driving, and I'd also be upset if we had to wait until 11 a.m. Getting off the Magic was a breeze and we were on the road by 8:30 a.m.

 

[disneygatorfan]

I haven't been on Mariner, but been on one of her sister ships, and I prefer DCL as well.

I agree that RCCL had some more venues so to speak, such as the inline skating and rockclimbing, but I don't do either, so never took advantage of them. Also, don't really play mini golf. But I could see how that might appeal to someone who liked those activities or who had teenage kids who weren't into the club/organized activities. I think for active people who like doing things on their own, then they might enjoy RCCL. DCL has more organized cruise activities though. I really enjoy the Art of Entertaining, and the Behind the Scenes stuff.

I wasn't too impressed with the entertainment on RCCL, other than the ice show, which really was pretty cool. I admit, I am a Disney junky, so I will prefer Belle and Ariel over anything anyday.. but on an entertainment quality standpoint---DCL is Broadway quality entertainment, when most of shows on RCCL, while entertaining--were more Vegas quality.

I wasn't impressed with room layout either. Think DCL has some of the best laid out, and nicest staterooms in the industry. The ship was very impressive, but I still like the slightly smaller Magic and Wonder.

I also agree I like the fast food, pool side food and the compimentary beverage station.. the free sodas is a big plus, especially for families. I enjoy the themed dining as well, and the smaller main dining rooms on DCL.

That is the best thing about cruising though, is there are so many lines that offer so many different things for all types of people. They all have pros and cons...I enjoyed my RCCL cruise a lot, but I prefer DCL.

I wouldn't ever hesitate to tell someone to give RCCL a try if they were curious. But I will always reccommend DCL first, especially for those with young children, or Disney fans.

 

[ashtravel]

You have a good point about the attitudes of the employees. We never had any issues that had to be resolved so most of the folks we delt with were very helpful. However, we have made lifelong friends with some of the workers on the Magic. We even took care of them while the Magic was in drydock in Norfolk, Va, my hometown. Actually , I just received an email from our cabin steward from our first cruise back in 1991. So I agree that that extra wasn't there. But the point I guess I was trying to make was that it is good to experience different lines and to have an open mind about new experiences. With my job, I need to try all the different lines, but personally ,I was ready to move on and I really was pleasantly surprised. Since the Mariner is docked in Port Canaveral and the prices seem to only go up with Disney, I thought I'd share my honest ,personal opinion of my experience on the Mariner. And truly, I'd take a week on a non-Disney cruise ship over a week at home doing LOADS of laundry and eating PBJ sandwiches anytime!Thanks for letting me share!

 

[emilymad]

I was on the Mariner in June and I have yet to cruise with DCL. Hopefully in 2006 I just wanted to comment on the disembarkation. We were driving to Disney the day we got off the cruise so we knew we want to get off the ship as quickly as possible. We filled out our form saying we had a rental car pick up at 8am. It was a rental car but it was parked in the parking garage. We were given the first color to get off the ship at 7:30am. It worked out wonderfully. We were in MGM by 10am. I never thought that would happen. If you do get a color that you don't like just go to the Purser's desk and request a different color. It is great to hear everyone's opinions on these two ships.

 

[ashtravel]

Thank you for that tip. I will do that next time. I don't ever want to waste 3 hours waiting to disembark again. This was a lesson learned.

 

[TheWog]

Thanks for the review. We are considering the Mariner for January 2006.

 

[ivanova]

Thank you for that tip. I will do that next time. I don't ever want to waste 3 hours waiting to disembark again. This was a lesson learned.

I admit this makes me chuckle when you think of all the people dying to stay on the Magic/Wonder until the last possible second.

 

[cruisnfamily]

Deparkation is a nightmare. Disney spoils you in this department. You can just walk off the ship with Disney but with the others , you are assigned a color. They call your color in the order of who needs to get off the ship the quickest due to early flights. I was honest and said we drove and we were in the last group and didn't get off the ship until 11am!!

Actually, we thought debarkation was a breeze. When we first boarded and filled out the ticket that asks when you want to leave, we said 9am. The tags we got were scheduled to be called between 8:30am and 9am. We had a nice leisurely breakfast(Mariner provides full buffet the last day, not just continental) and then our color was called and off we went. We like the system of the bags on the carousel instead of wandering a warehouse like Disney does to find your bags. We actually like the Mariner debarkation better!

 

[cruisnfamily]

IThe question about the kids program , there were 2 or 3 counselors for that age group. I don't believe they ever were at capacity . I think there were about 170 kids in the 9-11 age group. My kids thought the counselors were not as nice as the ones on the Magic. They played some very physical games (relay races etc.) on the sports deck and one of my sons actually fell and hit his head. But kids that age tend to like that type of thing rather than just sitting at a computer. My kids were on the younger side of the scale so they were a little intimated by some of the older boys.
......Another thing about the kids program. The kids in the 9-11 can check themselves out of the program or you can request a parent checkout.

My kids were in the 6-8 group and the 12-14 group. They absolutely loved the kids clubs on the Mariner. DD12 had never been in Disney's teen program so she had nothing to compare this to but she loved the living room and fuel. DS8 thought the kids club was more fun than on Disney. He particularly enjoyed Ga-ga ball which is a dodge ball type game they play every night. Be warned, the kids clubs(not the teen ones, just the younger ones) end at 10pm. You have to pay $5 per hour for the "late night party zone" which we did just about every night as DS wanted to be there for Gaga ball. If you don't pay to keep then in there at night then you cannot do any activities because ALL the activities on board were for 18 and up after 10pm.

So, the long and the short of it is that my kids LOVED the kids clubs on the Mariner.

 

[sweet angel]

We're sailing Mariner in 11/05 and can't wait. We did the Wonder this November and are booked on Magic 11/06, so I guess we'll get a good idea of the comparisons!

My question, we'll most likely have a late afternoon flight, so we can debark late, no big deal. But what is there to do, if anything? Do you just sit in a common room until you're called?

 

[erikthewise]

Thanks ashtravel for your comparison; it's very useful. I don't think I'd switch for the parking garage or the casino (if you won $120, I'm sure other people lost it!) but the other points are good ones. Hopeful someday we can give RCI a try!

 

[ashtravel]

You can play basketball or putt-putt golf or the kids can drop big bucks in the gameroom.

 

[cruisnfamily]

No way would we want them sleeping right overhead. To me, that is a huge drawback in the cabin designs on all of the RCI ships.

We had a balcony cabin(D1) which slept 4 and the kids were not overhead. The sofa pulled out into a double bed so they had to share it. Unfortunately it wasn't really a "bed"....it was like more couch pulled out and they didn't even have sheets to fit it. The kids basically slept on a big couch with a flat sheet over it all week. I was not very happy with this set up. DCL definitely does this better! I did like that our bed, not the kids, was closest to the balcony(on the Mariner) so we could come and go to the balcony while they were sleeping.

 

[princessmomma]

We were on the Mariner in April. If you carry off your own luggage you can be off by 7 a.m. That is what we did because we had a 10 hour drive ahead of us and school the next day.

 

[chrisn]

I agree that RCCL's Voyager Class ships are awesome! We did a 7 night Western Caribbean on the Voyager and had a blast. Kids clubs WAY better then Disney. Food WAY better then Disney. The ice show was amazing but I prefer Disney's theater shows. Ships, both beautiful in different ways. Voyager a grand floating city. Disney, a classic blast from the past. Two totally different trips and completely happy with both of them. Cabins, porthole on Disney, Verandah on Voyager. Loved the voyager cabin. Loved it! Atmosphere....it's ALL about DISNEY and we love that but we will DEFINITELY cruise again on RCCL's Eagle class ship for Southern Caribbean since Disney has no option for this. I truly feel that you can't go wrong with either!