About the Boat

We are back from our second major trip of the summer - a Caribbean cruise. We made it out of Orlando just ahead of tropical storm, Fay. This was a trip to get together with Frank's parents, his sisters and their families. It was our first warm location cruise.

Frank and I had done one other cruise in Alaska many years ago (pre-Anna) but it was very different than this one. The only reason I chose a cruise was because I thought it would be the fastest way to cover the most "ground" in Alaska.

I don't remember that ship being as big as this one or as overwhelming. It certainly didn't have as many things as this one. This one went to Haiti, Jamaica, Grand Cayman and Cozumel, Mexico. It was a fun, interesting and overwhelming trip. It was great to see everyone.

I didn't take as many pictures as I did in Europe but will post many over the next week. These first ones are of the massive ship. It is the Royal Caribbean Mariner of the Seas. When we drove into the port, it was the biggest cruise ship in the harbor. I was hoping that it wasn't ours, but it was. Frank's dad said it could have 3700 people (not including the staff which was probably another 1200 or so). It was 14 decks (stories). Our floating city away from home.

Here you can see two elevators on the sides at the top.

This is one swimming pool area on board. There was another smaller one in a different section that was for adults only. We never used that one. The pools were filled with salt water.

This is a view of the shopping area and some restaurants.

And, of course, there was shuffleboard.

There were many more people milling around than what you see in these pictures. I took most of them as soon as we boarded and not many people were around yet.