DukeASUGirl

Ain't no way I'd spend $200/person for tickets to a waterpark when there is literally an entire island and beaches for free. Even if there wasn't a beach, ain't no way I'd ever spend $200/person for waterpark tickets. I won't even spend that much for a season pass.

We have been off the ship for a week and a half now, and still no bill for the medical center. Very odd.

On Nav, it's a combined library/card room, and it was surprisingly full on sea days, but then again it was chilly for 2 out of 3 sea days so while the pool deck was always full, so were the indoor spaces.

No clue! I signed paperwork acknowledging that there would be charges (although it never said what), and the nurse said that the invoice would be sent to our cabin (and we assumed added to our onboard account), but nothing ever arrived before we disembarked. We've received the "final statement" via email and it didn't include it, either. We figure it's probably still coming, but have no idea. We do need that paperwork so we can submit to insurance.

My dad brought his own, but after the first night, the waiter just started opening it for us and we never got the corkage fee.

We did My Time Dining this past week, with a standing 6:45 pm reservation - got our same waiter/assistant and table every night. It worked for us - Early was just too early for us (5 pm on Deck 3, or 5:30 on Decks 4 and 5) and Late would be too late (8 pm). Since we had the standing reservations, we never waited to be seated. Actually, I stand corrected - the only time we waited was when we took a chance and arrived at 6 pm (to see if it would be possible to get in early), and we waited for like 2 minutes for them to find a table for 6 that the Early Dining folks had no-showed.

But maybe this is a moot point, because the kids have requested "can we please do somewhere else besides Mexico?" (Both cruises they've been on have been Mexico, as well as a couple of beach vacations.)

My Alaska cruises have been on Princess and NCL so I can't speak to RCL, but there is absolutely no comparison. You really can't compare. They are two completely different itineraries. I will say that I've done Eastern Caribbean once, Western Caribbean once, and Alaska twice. And want to go back and take the kids. So...there you go. Obviously I think it's worth it, and prefer it to Caribbean, despite the cost.

Being from Arizona, we found it quite chilly sailing out of LA, thus my parents never venturing to the pools. I did the waterslides and Flowrider a few times, but mostly stayed in the hot tub if I was up on deck. Never laid out because, well, I'm from Arizona. LOL

That would be pretty fantastic if they offered it as a Transpacific on either end.

We just disembarked on Friday and thought she looked great.

This is exactly where my parents were placed with their Balcony GTY on Navigator! 6th floor, midship. And they actually loved it. Quiet, easy to get to MDR, and they aren't pool people. Since it isn't an Oasis-class, there is no such thing as a non-Oceanview Balcony on Nav, so that was never a concern. And it turns out that none of the balconies have obstructed views, either. So it worked out well for them.

It's possible. It's also possible they'll send the rest of them to the waiting area marked for their own timeslots.

If it was just me and DH (or even maybe with the kids), we would have done self-assist, but that really wasn't an option with my parents. The disembarkation was so chaotic, both on and off the ship for us.

Okay, that is really good to hear! My husband hated San Pedro so much he doesn't want to sail Royal out of CA anymore and would rather do Carnival out of Long Beach, but if there are improvements in the works that could change things. I liked Carnival - don't get me wrong. I just liked Royal better, and he agreed on all points but San Pedro. Haha

They would even greet us by name when they spotted us in Windjammer for breakfast. One night, it was busy when I was placing my allergy pre-order for the next day, so they had us circle it on a photocopy of the menu, and then we left it on the table. The next morning, Meckinson saw us in the Windjammer and told me that the moussaka wouldn't be his choice (he finds it a bit dry), so he took the liberty of placing a special order for the salmon and the steak for later that night, and would bring all of them just in case. He was so attentive!

Hijack away! I'm glad to read it. Wish we'd planned something like you did for Mazatlan. That sounds really nice!

I never had trouble finding a lounger at any time of day on Navigator last week. It might not have been in the exact spot I wanted, but I always got something, and usually could even find an empty clam shell as well. The Solarium was usually packed, but the upper pool deck generally always had empty loungers and was still far enough away from the main pool to be relaxing, in my opinion. I don't want to be right in front of the pool.

Same thing on Navigator last week, as well as in the library/card room. People would plop down for hours, so nobody else could get a chance.

Puerto Vallarta: We thought this stop was great! Split up this day - husband and I took the teenager on a horseback riding excursion while my parents took the 11-yr-old to a Fiesta because minimum age for horses was 12 and max age 70. I only have personal experience with the horseback excursion, so I won't talk about the Fiesta excursion, although they said it was fun and the food was good. Our tour guide was Gerry, who took us to Hacienda Dona Engracia, where we were geared up and met our horses. We rode through a country road to the rolling hills of the Sierra Madres and the jungle by the banks of the Rio Mascota. We crossed the river twice before arriving at La Dolce Vista, where we took a break to swim bareback on our horses one at a time. That was SO much fun, and the river was such a refreshing break. The water was nice and cool, but not freezing like we were thinking it would be. After swimming with the horses and then by ourselves, we saddled back up again and rode back to the hacienda, where we were treated to a lunch of homemade tortillas, tacos (choice of chicken, pork, or steak), and quesadillas, and an open bar with unlimited beer, margaritas, and soda. After lunch it was time for the tequila tasting tour. I joined in, while my husband lagged back at the lunch table having another beer and more tacos, and my daughter shopped. The peach tequila was phenomenal and I'm kicking myself for not buying any. But my parents bought 2 bottles of mango tequila on their tour, so I'm sure I'll get to try that sometime. After we returned to port around 1, my daughter begged to go shopping at the mall across the street, but was disappointed not to find any stores she liked. It really catered to middle-aged or older women. So we walked to the nearest beach for a little while (probably should have hailed a cab to go further away from cruise terminal, but it was already 2 by then and we needed to be back by about 5 so we didn't want to go too far), then went back to the ship to do waterslides and FlowRider while waiting for parents and son to return. All in all, a great day!

Itinerary always for us, with the exception of this past fall when we were supposed to sail on Harmony (but had to cancel due to hurricane). Only reason we chose this ship was because our daughter's skating coach was in the show, but when we couldn't go, Royal gave us FCC. Coach's contract was ending, and we wouldn't be able to make it there before she left, so we decided to just do a different itinerary/ship instead. We ended up picking Navigator because it was easy for us to get to (could drive instead of fly), and we'd never seen any of those Mexican Riviera ports, whereas half of our group had done those exact Eastern Caribbean ports before on Harmony. The entire point of sailing Harmony was to see the coach skate, but if she wasn't going to be there anymore, we did something else. Navigator is technically a "smaller ship" (capacity 4000), and it doesn't have the aqua show or ziplining, but we really enjoyed it. iSkate show on Nav is the best of the entire fleet, and we also enjoyed their other activities and entertainment as well.

That sounds horrendous.

YES! That's exactly it! We unloaded our two cars at the curb, with a HUGE pile of luggage (5 checked bags for each of our two cabins, so a total of 10 checked bags) plus we were standing there with our carry-ons, and my dad and husband swung around to park the cars and we still couldn't find a porter by the time they'd finished parking and came back. They would walk right past us and help people who had just arrived. I would call out to ask for assistance, and the porters would rush by "Sorry, I'm full" and would never return. I finally said something like "ARE YOU KIDDING ME? That car just got here, and we've been standing around for 20 minutes already!" so a porter helping a couple who'd just arrived told us to wait right there and he'd be back. And he kept his promise. But I was beginning to think we were invisible or something. It was crazy!

The 3-day on Navigator goes to Ensenada, and the 4-day goes to Ensenada and Catalina Island. Wish they'd do one of those instead of Mazatlan. Either would be better, in my opinion.

Mazatlan: It was 96 degrees and very humid. Quite a change from the 50s and 60s we had in LA on embarkation day, and from the dry 100s we currently have in Phoenix. This was our least favorite port, and if we ever do this cruise again, I'll either research better or just stay on the ship. We went to the old historic center, which proved to be not much more than the cathedral (which admittedly was gorgeous) and a nice big plaza. We shopped in El Mercado for a bit, but everyone was hot and underwhelmed and just wanted to go back to the ship. Discussions with other passengers showed that this seemed to be #3 on everyone's list. All the ship's shore excursions that were of interest to us had been sold out for months, so I figured we would just explore on our own because all the blogs I'd read said it was such a charming old Spanish city, but we found it to be crowded, dirty, and hot. So we did waterslides for the rest of the afternoon.