Cruisecrazy:

I was only on Mariner for 14 days recently; maybe at same time as you. I will defend the Reception Staff as being as good if not better than at any time on any ship or at any hotel. We got to know all of them well as we were without our luggage. They were professional and exremely helpful. Probably the most surprising service they did for me is to fix my glasses when the lens fell out returning from Bangkok. As I was having no luck trying to fix them myself, I of course called reception. Receptionist said to bring them right down and that she could do it. I brought them down, she tried; when she couldn't get them fixed she got the carpenter to fix them and then had them delivered to our cabin.

As for travel desk, Roger has been doing that same job with Radisson for a while. In the past, if we had a bad experience on a Radisson arranged excursion (only happened twice), Radisson has refunded our money. On this recent trip, I still found that Radisson doesn't hike up the prices; that all of their prices are fair. And, how can anyone complain about how they handled taking the entire contingent of pax ashore in Bangkok; what an undertaking done so well.

Just my three cents,