Hi everyone. Sorry for the delay in posting this review. It took some time for me to get organized after returning home from my month-long trip in SE Asia. I was aboard the Mariner OTS in Asia for the weeks of Oct. 22, 2015 and Oct. 29, 2015. This review documents my experience on these two back-to-back cruises. Other passengers may have had different experiences on these two cruises and may not share the opinions in this review.
Who am I?
Here is a bit of background on myself. I am from Canada and was traveling with my mom. Collectively, we have previously cruised with RCI, Celebrity, and Carnival. While we are not long-time cruisers, we are not complete newbies either. Both of us had thoroughly enjoyed every cruise we had ever been on. Having traveled through and also lived in SE Asia, we are fairly familiar with Asian cultures. I had read a few negative reviews about the Mariner OTS in Asia before leaving. However, due to my previous positive experiences with RCI and with cruising in Asia, I kept an opened mind going into my trip and was very excited about these two cruises.
The Ship
The Mariner OTS was a nice ship. RCI had made some modifications to the ship to cater to the Chinese market. These modifications included signage in simplified Chinese and some higher end stores on the Promenade. The casino appeared to be stinkier than usual in terms of tobacco smoke but I was able to avoid it at most times by taking other routes through the ship. Overall, the ship was well-maintained.
Embarkation
Embarkation for both cruises occurred at the Marina Bay Cruise Centre in Singapore. For the first cruise, we arrived at the terminal at 12pm. One other ship, the Voyager OTS, was also at the terminal at the same time. There was a large number of passengers within the terminal. We lined up to get through security, then lined up to check-in with RCI, then we were sent upstairs to wait. Once upstairs, the fun began as there were literally thousands of confused passengers everywhere. No one seemed to know exactly where they were supposed to go or what they were waiting for. We finally figured out that staff at the terminal would be calling out various colours and numbers given to us in order to let us know when we could go through immigration. This was sorted out after asking multiple staff and was given different and conflicting instructions. Oh, and some of the colours were “called out” by having a staff walk around waving a card, instead of announcing through the PA system. Good luck with not missing your colour or number. We finally got through immigration and onto the ship at around 3:30pm. I have never had an embarkation take that long or be that disorganized.
Since we were on the Mariner OTS for back-to-back cruises, a couple of days before the end of the first cruise, we attended a consecutive cruiser meeting. In order to not have a repeat of the embarkation fiasco, we decided to not leave the ship to go into Singapore on the day of the switch over. We were told that RCI staff would escort us from the ship, through security and immigration, and directly back onto the ship. We were told by staff that this process would be simple and that we would be back on the ship in a timely manner. Well, passport re-distribution took quite a bit of time. Then, we were walked through immigration, security (twice!), then back through immigration again before being allowed to re-board. The whole process took approximately two hours, which I guess could be considered “timely” compared to the 3.5-hour wait previously.
I am unsure what caused the slow and disorganized embarkations. When I cruised with RCI in Alaska, embarkation was quick and smooth. I had also embarked at the Marina Bay Cruise Centre in Singapore before while cruising with Celebrity and did not have issues then.
The Staff
There were some wonderful crew members working throughout the two weeks we were aboard the Mariner OTS. Our stateroom attendant in the first week was fantastic and extremely hard-working. Our MDR waiters in the second week did a wonderful job during dinner each night – head waiter was especially friendly and always had a huge smile on his face. Some of the other stateroom attendants and dining room staff we encountered were also friendly and did their jobs nicely. Unfortunately, this is where the positives end.
In my previous cruises, I had not met a single crew member who I would consider to be subpar. All of the crew members I had encountered prior to these 2 cruises were hard-working, friendly and professional. Maybe I was lucky, and my luck ran out? For these 2 cruises, I had witnessed various crew members being lazy or rude. In the MDR during lunch, I tried to get the attention of a staff by raising my hand, making eye contact and smiling but she responded by yelling “ma’am, just a minute”, rolling her eyes and then not coming over. Another time during breakfast, the staff brought me the wrong drink so I let him know before he walked away. He gave me a dirty look and then came back to slam the correct drink on the table 5 minutes later. Many servers at the Windjammer looked unhappy. There were a couple of times I was almost run over by staff pushing carts/trolleys through the MDR or stateroom hallway – no excuse me, no sorry, no thank you (as I jumped out of the way) and no smile. The one that takes the cake would be our stateroom attendant for the second week. During our consecutive cruiser meeting, we were told our room for the 2nd week would be ready by 11:30am on switch over day. We went to our new room at 1pm to find the door opened, drawers out, beds unmade, and the stateroom attendant nowhere to be found. After some searching, we found him in another room down the hall. He finally got our room ready by 2:30pm, after me having to make multiple visits down to Guest Services. For the rest of the week, I barely saw the guy working while other stateroom attendants along the hall were hard at work for long hours each day. There were multiple times when we left the room for hours at a time during the day, only to come back to a still unmade room. He did not remove our used cups and dishes, did not refill soap in the shower until told, put wet used towels back on the rack from the floor, etc.
After 2 weeks, we found a common trend and there is not a politically correct way to express this – the crew members who were subpar were all Mandarin speakers. I am aware that not every Mandarin-speaking staff were bad (e.g. we had a good Mandarin-speaking assistant waiter in the MDR throughout the 2nd week). A lot of these crew members were not fluent in English and had trouble communicating with non-Mandarin speaking passengers. It is a problem when even staff at Guest Services are not fluent in English.
The Food
I love to eat. Food is probably the number one reason why I love (or loved) cruising so much. I do not consider myself to be a picky eater and had never had a problem with food on cruises. I could always find multiple things I enjoy in the buffet and the dining room.
Windjammer
On the first day of our back-to-back, we asked for milk which was given to us by the glass. We drank the milk and both thought it tasted strange – it was very thick and cream-like. The following morning during breakfast, we went to get pre-packaged milk at the Windjammer and to our horror, found cartons of Mengniu Dairy milk which had been linked to melamine contamination in the past. No thanks! No more milk for us! Food safety is not one of China’s strengths. We had made the personal choice long ago to not consume food products from China unless there are absolutely no other choices. The yogurt found was also made in China, so no yogurt for us either. Interestingly, about mid-way through the first week, I was walking by one side of the buffet one day and saw some products that caught my eyes. I called one of the staff over and asked if I could have some of the milk and yogurt I saw in a refrigerator that was located behind a counter and inaccessible to passengers. I had found RCI’s stash of Singaporean milk and German yogurt. Some of the passengers noticed and also asked for these dairy products. The fruits provided at the buffet were also interesting. Bananas that were badly bruised and blackened (to the point they look like plantains at the supermarket) were available daily. Oranges were dried up and sour on the inside. We did not try the kiwis as they were rather strange looking from ones we are used to. Watermelon was my go-to fruit for 2 weeks.
MDR
Before departing for my trip, I had looked at the current MDR menu for RCI. I expected a few changes/add-ons to this “normal” MDR menu based on reviews for Asian itineraries. Well, we found out the changes were actually significant. Instead of making an Asian dish or 2 available each night, they had completely removed some of the traditional dishes. Gone were items such as chilled soups, lobster, pork chop, turkey, beef wellingtons, chicken cordon bleus, apple pies, baked Alaska, etc. etc. They were replaced by so-called Asian dishes. Unfortunately, many of the Asian dishes were poor renditions of the actual thing. For example, have you ever had miso soup that was black? How about Singapore noodles that were made with thick Shanghai noodles and was not Singaporean at all? Items such as pizza and chicken leg were listed as main courses in the MDR dinner menu. Some of the dishes such as seafood spaghetti and country fried rice were also being recycled for two nights each week. Portion size for some of the more expensive food items was reduced. Based on the dishes provided, it was evident RCI was trying to skimp so they can make more profit.
Specialty Dining
Since we were tired of the MDR menu, we decided to check out Giovanni’s one night for dinner. Based on what I read on this forum, I was under the impression that once we pay the cover charge, we were allowed to order whatever we wanted from the menu. I was also under the impression that portion size at Giovanni’s was substantial due to it being family-style for all items except for the main courses. Between my mom and I, we initially ordered 2 appetizers (scallops and seared beef tenderloin), 1 pasta (crab ravioli), and 2 main courses (jumbo shrimp and beef tenderloin). We are not the type to waste food, even if it is an all-you-can-eat setting. I told the waitress we were unsure of the portion size and may wish to order more later, she said that was fine. When the food came out, there were 2 scallops, 5 really thinly sliced pieces of beef and 2 raviolis in total for the appetizers and pasta. Maybe I was mistaken when I read Giovanni’s reviews online but I thought there would be more food. I asked the staff if we could have one more scallop each but the staff looked at us funny and said they may be out of scallops. I looked around the restaurant, it was 6pm and there was one other table and they were out of scallops??? The staff brought out one more scallop for each of us after checking with the kitchen. After seeing the actual portion size, we informed the waitress we wished to order more food. She then told us we were only allowed to order more pasta dishes but there would be extra charges if we wanted another main course. Is this normal? The desserts at the end of the meal were lovely. Unfortunately, my mom was not full after eating at Giovanni’s and we had to get more food at the MDR.
The Evening Shows
The main evening shows at the theatre were 45 minutes to an hour long. Some of the shows were actually more like 30 minutes in length if you subtract the talking by the activities manager. Shows on previous cruises were longer, if I am not mistaken. The ice show was incredibly entertaining, however the rest were mediocre at best.
The Passengers
Being familiar with both western and Asian cultures, I thought I would not experience much culture shock. Wrong. Nothing could prepare me for people eating with their feet up on their chairs in the Windjammer; or the teeth-picking, loud belching (in my face), cursing, pyjama-wearing on formal night in the MDR; or the constant yelling anywhere from the Promenade to Giovanni’s. Let’s not forget the pushing, line-jumping, not letting people out of elevators before entering, etc.
Conclusion
If RCI did not mess with the food, I likely would have had an easier time ignoring some of the other issues. We have decided we will not be cruising to Asia again, unless we can be certain that cruise lines are not altering their products to suit a certain target market. Whether it is right or wrong, when I book a RCI cruise, I expect some level of consistency and standard for their product. These 2 cruises were disappointing and I wonder what I will get if I book with them again. I will be cancelling at least one of my booked RCI cruises.
Thanks for reading. If you are interested in cruising in Asia, do a lot of research and be prepared. Some may enjoy Asian cruises but it is not for everyone.