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Summer Sailing for Seniors

Experienced cruisers know that during the summer months, when school is out, the big new cruise ships are packed with kids. Lots of kids. And senior cruisers not eager to spend a week on a ship with their own or anyone else's grandchildren have tended to avoid these cruises like the plague.

But most of the new smaller ships -- with the balconies and alternative restaurants that seniors now expect as part of a luxury cruise -- sail off to Alaska, Europe or the Mediterranean for the summer, leaving a senior cruiser wanting to escape for a week in the Caribbean with the choice of an older ship or one of the new megaliners.

The question we set out to answer was whether a week in the Caribbean on a megaship loaded with kids could still be a great summer getaway for a couple of seniors, or whether we would rue the day that we came up with this idea. For our test, we picked Mariner of the Seas -- the largest of the choices available.

Arriving at Port Canaveral, we knew immediately that we had the right ship, apprehensively watching as dozens of kids of all ages poured out of vans, cars and even buses. By the time the ship sailed, there were 1,000 kids under the age of 17 aboard. While the Mariner's stated capacity, two to a room, is 3,114, families with small children in their rooms brought the passenger total to 3,600 on our sailing.

To our great relief, the kids turned out to be nothing like the dominant presence that we feared. Royal Caribbean and the ship's designers have done a good job of separating adult and junior activity areas, and while you frequently encountered packs of kids jammed into the elevators or thundering down the stairs, the overall impact was considerably less than expected.

"At night, we try to keep the kids in their own area on the 12th floor," said Mariner Hotel Director Richard Nentwich. And while it doesn't work perfectly, for the most part it appeared to work reasonably well. (Elevators would, in our view, be the noteable exception. Too many kids riding up-and-down in the elevators often resulted in slow service that had a number of adults grumbling.)

Nentwich also offered a few strategy tips for seniors wanting to enjoy some of the outdoor amenities of the Mariner in a somewhat more quiet atmosphere than the turbocharged scene found around the pool on sea days.

"Port days are wonderful days for seniors to relax aboard ship and enjoy lying around the pool, because the ship is virtually empty," he said. If you have already seen St. Thomas or Cozumel 13 times, spending the day aboard ship is probably a great idea.

Another tip that we would second would be to take some of your evening meals in the ship's specialty restaurants, which offer more soothing dinner music than the main dining room (not to mention better food, more attentive service, and fewer adolescent diners).

""Definitely experience the specialty restaurants," Nentwich said. "And don't hesitate to ask the cruise director or one of his assistants for advice on the daily activities you might enjoy."

We would also note that despite the Mariner's high passenger load on our sailing, which was one of the highest of the summer, the ship overall did not feel overcrowded, a testimony to the skill of the ship's designers.

Here are some other pros-and-cons for senior cruisers to consider in evaluating whether they would enjoy a summer Caribbean getaway on a megaship like Mariner of the Seas.

Pros:

Staterooms: Much to our surprise, our stateroom -- largely indistinguishable in decor and amenities from the staterooms found on most newer ships -- turned out to be very quiet. Even sleeping late, we never heard the kids we often saw running up and down the corridor. And only on the next-to-last night of the cruise were we disturbed at 4 am by loud teen voices from an adjacent balcony.

Nentwich noted that in effort to quickly deal with situations like this, the Mariner maintains a night-time rapid-response force known as the "Great Vacation Enforcement Team" that attempts to quickly deal with complaints of roudiness or excessive noise.

Dining: A great first-day discovery was that you do not face the need to either rise early, or forego the opportunity of having an omelet for breakfast. The egg station on the Mariner stayed open until 11 each morning, and generally did a brisk business right up to that hour. Also a welcome discovery was Jade, a restaurant that is part of the Windjammer buffet area that serves a variety of Asian soups, salads and entrees for lunch as well as dinner.

Alternative Restaurants: The two specialty restaurants on the Mariner -- Chops and Portifino -- both provided excellent food and service for a supplement of $20 per head. While the dinners in the main dining room were pretty pedestrian, a person willing to add a fairly modest amount to the cost of the cruise could dine very well in these restaurants every night. And surprisingly, during our week, the restaurants never appeared to be fully booked.

Shows: While the big, heavily-amplified production numbers were a bit of a disappointment (Nentwich said seniors often complain that they are too loud), the ship on two nights featured very funny comedians. And the ice show, a unique feature of Royal Caribbean's Voyager class ships, was first-rate.

Casino: Unlike many cruise ships, the Mariner had a high-stakes blackjack table with a $50 minimum. While this may not be of interest to many cruisers, it should be of great interest to serious blackjack players, since cruise ship casinos generally seem to attract people who do not have a clue how the game is played. The $50 table on the Mariner always seemed to be fully occupied.

Internet: A big kudo here to Royal Caribbean for offering an unlimited internet connection from your stateroom for a flat charge of $100 for the week. It makes it possible for those who bring their laptop to use the internet without worrying about how many minutes they are online.

Cons:

Music: Even at dinnertime in the main dining room, the overly loud music was an unwelcome accompanyment to meals. Several cruisers in their 20s even said they had asked to have it lowered. It was even more throbbing and more annoying in the Windjammer buffet area. While the kids seemed to either enjoy it (or be oblivious to it), the music was an irritant for a number of adults.

Dining: Beyond finding the food in the main dining room pedestrian (I know. I know. It's hard to provide haute cuisine to 3,000 people), we thought the lunch time offerings in the Windjammer Cafe uninspired.

Overall:

Mariner of the Seas is a beautiful, well-thought-out ship -- as elegant and tastefully done, albeit on a larger scale, as some of the oft-praised medium sized ships like Celebrity's Millennium class vessels. We would be hard pressed to disagree with Nentwich's proud claim that "the activities and entertainment Mariner offers are above and beyond what you will find on most ships." But while Mariner's staff does an admirable job of attempting to keep the kids to their own areas, Nentwich conceded, when asked about complaints he gets from seniors, that "kids are an issue." If you can wait until school is in session, our guess is that you will find Mariner a very different place. But if you are eager to get away now, we would say: "Give Mariner of the Seas a try."

--MB&TB