RCCL Fan

Day 2 It's our first sea day and chance to explore Navigator. I woke up super early and hightailed it up to the pool deck. I had reserved a cabana for our sea day but it was still quite cold and windy, totally not a pool day. Of course even more disappointing was seeing my name on the prime spot cabana right by the pool. Oh well --- maybe next time I told the pool attendant. Headed into windjammer for a bit. Loved the renovations in this area. The hand washing stations were great, except people were being people.... dropping piles of towels into the sink and on the floor. Oddly enough the washy washy person wasn't cleaning them up. So I did. Just annoyed me that people were such jerks. Breakfast was standard as on most RCI ships. The crispy bacon was overly crispy and not to my liking but everything else was great. Popped back in for lunch with the mini-me. Did find quite a few people working the line in windjammer who struggled with English, and had to get help when I asked for something specific. But hey they had chocolate cake and pineapple, my daughter was happy. I strolled the ship a bit and my absolute favorite atrium art in on Navigator, I love this sculpture so much and she looked just as great as when I first saw her years earlier. This was a low key day for us, we really spent a lot of time just catching up with friends and talking and exploring the ship a bit. I was super excited for the bamboo room but found it to be tiny, crowded, and understaffed. 40 minutes in there and couldn't get a drink ordered. That was a disappointment for me so we left for the pig and whistle or whatever the pub is called on navigator. Had some good drinks there. We noticed on our sea passes that the other family we were traveling with was assigned a different dining table than us. Odd. Our reservations were definitely linked, as I could book excursions and make reservations for them online. If you logged into either account both family names and cabins numbers showed up. So I went to has that out with the restaurant. They insisted our reservations were not linked, and they had no tables together. I pulled out my app and showed them how we were linked and after a lot of sighs and shrugging of shoulders he promised us a table together. I headed back to the room where i found a letter with some bad news. The escape room we had booked was cancelled due to power issues. That was an odd reason. But ok... I then remembered I had passed a bride headed up the stairs from the Viking Crown.... to what used to be the chapel and is now the escape room. I wondered if they really had power issues or just needed to transform the space back to a chapel for the wedding. I would have actually understood that excuse better than power issues but I digress. So I don't know if this is navigator specific or not but I kept banging my legs on the bed in our cabin. It appeared the metal frame the mattress sat on was a different shape or size than the mattress. I kept rounding the bed and banging my leg into the metal. Had a nasty scratch at one point. I was tending to it when our cabin steward popped in to clean for the day. Oh my goodness how I loved her. Lindsey had been on the ship for 6 months and was on her last sailing before heading home to her three sons in the DR, I believe. She was beaming from ear to ear at the excitement to see her boys and it was infectious to talk to her about them. It made me smile. Now you would think she would have a case of "I'm outta here syndrome" but oh no, she was on it above and beyond, true crown and anchor service. From wrapping the deck chairs in beach towels since they were cold and wet, to organizing every bit of mess the girls made, she was on it and I loved sitting and talking to her.

I get a massage every cruise, often two. I have a canned response, always works. I can't tell you what it is though. I don't want everyone to start using it, and they come up with an answer!!! hahaha

It was quite the odd check in for sure, it went quickly for us, it was just unorganized. I'm so sorry we didn't get a chance to connect.

Part 2 Our very good friends from our time living in Tennessee had agreed to meet up with us for this trip. They were already onboard, and so we went off to find them. If you're a regular reader of my reviews. They're the friends who are Carnival regulars who have been begging us to try Carnival for years, and us begging them to try Royal. They finally caved and joined us on Adventure out of Nassau on one of the first cruises of the Royal Comeback. That sailing only had 800 people on board and they LOVED it, but were eager to see Royal under more traditional circumstances. It was COLD. Cold, wet, foggy, rainy, not what I associate with a cruise. This was also my first "winter cruise" and I was understanding why all my Caribbean cruises happened. This kinda blew, the sound would peek out but then the clouds and fog return. I was trying to enjoy the Lime & Coconut but man it was a little chilly. Lets talk about Navigator. I have to admit. I kept hearing about all the money spent to AMP her and shine her up and well, I just wasn't seeing it. I'm sure they spent the money adding new ventures, rooms and waterslides, putting in El Loco Fresh and what not. But I really think that money had to be spent simply adding new venues, and not so much tidying up the ship. She looked and felt no better than Adventure, which we had sailed the year before, and had not been amped. We had a aft corner balcony 1388 and I mean these rooms are always great for the extra space. Junior suite size for the price of a regular balcony. My daughter loves this room for the "fireman's pole" in the middle of the room which she loves to climb every time we choose one of these rooms. But that room was showing it's 20 plus year age. From the medicine cabinet that looked like it was rotting away from the walls, to the very hard to open balcony door, and worn furniture this felt like a 20 year old ship. She just really needed some TLC and love on her existing structure, rather than adding a bamboo room. Anyway 5pm rolled around and finally we got a peek of sunshine as we inched away from the Port of Los Angeles, and made our way out to Sea. It was cold, so much so my wife and youngest who are usually the sail away champs gave up and went inside. My oldest and I aren't usually that into sail away, but after years of sailing from FLL, MIA, and HOU we were excited to see the different way out. We passed a great little seafood restaurant and thought next time we should get on late and treat our family to dinner there, so we could wave goodbye to them as we sail out. Yes, I said next time, we were doubling down on the cruise from the jump. 🙂 We headed up to Viking Crown to have a good birds eye view on the way out. We definitely noticed the ship rocking more than usual. I guess it was the weather but the horizon was like a see saw and in my dozens of cruises I only remember one other ship rocking that much while we were still in the shipping channel headed out to sea. Anyway... we decided to head back to the room and get ready for dinner.... our bags were there and we started to unpack and that's when we found it. My little one opened her bookbag, her favorite American girl doll was a casualty of the baggage handling process to get on the ship. It’s head smashed in pieces. It hasn’t been her day. We also found out her teacher died suddenly and unexpectedly. She was super fond of her teacher. She was angry at the world, and we all gave lots of hugs and love to try to help. I have to admit shattered head of the doll was kinda amusing to me; I mean it was a blinking eye and a nose! Had to ask our cabin steward to dispose of the body for us. Her sister broke out the make up and offered to give her a complete makeover and then we got a smile! We went off to Chops that night, for dinner to take advantage of our diamond plus BOGO offer. Food was great, service solid, it was a very nice experience. I got caught up in paperwork hell while there. I had pre-purchased our reservations at Chops to get the dining time I wanted for our party of seven. No dining package or crazy Black Friday sale, just pre-purchased. But apparently you can't use your BOGO coupon if you pre-purchase. You have to book and pay onboard. So I had to refund my reservations and rebook them again. There were receipts and credits and I have no idea what the head waiter did, I just smiled and nodded and signed them all lol. I really hate how you kinda have to book things like spa reservations and dinner reservations ahead of time if you want to eat or get a massage in peak hours, but then you can't use any of your coupons because you booked at home. Royal really needs to fix this. Anyway, we left Chops, did the welcome aboard show, a comedy act, Etta May, kinda an updated version of Vicki Lawrence in Mama's Family. We got some good laughs in, and met the cruise director, Thiago, who had good energy, I had a good feeling about him. We wrapped the night up with a cocktail and headed to bed. After all Tomorrow is New Year's Eve!!

This review will be structured a little differently from my previous ones, and won't be day to day.... you'll understand as we move forward through it. After years of sailing RCI to every corner of the Caribbean, we decided to explore other areas this year. When I saw a great price on a New Year's Eve cruise on Navigator I snatched it up. What a great post Christmas trip. I call this the Love Boat route, all the destinations I remember hearing about on Aaron Spelling's weekly show when I was a kid. Sure I've flown to Cabo before, stay at an all inclusive and never left the resort, but sailing the coast and seeing this side of Mexico would be new, fun, and exciting. My wife's brother and his family live in LA, so we planned to fly out to LAX the day after Christmas and spend the week, before boarding Navigator on Friday. This was right after the big winter storm, the southwest airlines meltdown, and travel was on the struggle bus. We were on another airline and our flight was delayed more than 4 hours. Our evening flight turned into a middle of the night flight Our bags didn't make the flight, and we didn't get out of LAX until 3:39am which was like sunrise Dallas time and my kids were troopers they hung tough, I was so impressed. We spent the next few days enjoying family time and touring all things LA from the beach to Hollywood to Universal, it was a wonderful trip that quite honestly would have been a great vacation in and of itself, despite the fact it was unusually cold and rainy in Southern California. We woke up cruise day to FOG, lots of FOG, but it didn't matter it was cruise day. My brother in law loaded us all up to head to the cruise terminal, we made a brief stop in Long Beach as my Travel Agent of 25 years or so was there, sailing out of Long Beach on Carnival. We cruise a lot so we talk to her on the phone often, but we live on opposite sides of the country so when we get the rare chance to say hi, we cash it in. Hugs and then off to the port. Checkin was a little rough, there's not a lot of signage, and we were dropped off further away from the door so we had a decent walk in the rain, with a bit of choas on where to drop the bags, but we finally found a porter and get everything handed over before heading into a big tent to get on the ship. We were in and out of the tent in no time ---super fast boarding and walking onboard ship. I hadn't been on Navigator in a very long time.... since her inaugural! So I was excited to see an old friend and see what her improvements looked like.

That's what i thought to, but have seen a couple of people (like that poster) saying they got it when in full suites. So wanted to double check.

I know you get free internet on royal suite class ships, but do you get it on the smaller/older ones too? Online it doesn't mention it, but I'm seeing people post that they got it.

Yeah it was like 4 years ago. but hearing your experience brought it all back.

Trust me --- everyone in my office heard me yelling on the phone. It was several years ago, we survived. ha!

Definitely happened to me. I called in and had crown and anchor make an account for my 5 year old daughter. Then asked them to add the account number to my upcoming sailing. I then emailed the crown and anchor number to my TA so she could add it on her files. Next day cruise was gone. Royal and my TA both agreed "someone" repriced my cruise the day before. My TA said she didn't touch it, that the C&A guy must have done it. Royal said my TA did it. Either way one of them "repriced" my cruise which had been totally paid in full for months. The new price, made a balance due and since we were past final payment day the computer deleted my reservation. Even better, someone else booked my cabin before I noticed it. Ship was full. It was spring break week. Royal promised me a room on another ship leaving from another city, but I was going to have to pay last minute airfare..... spring break week. 6K for the 4 of us. I lost it. Insisted they fix this. I don't know what they did to the person who bought my room after me, but magically i got it back the day before the cruise.

no idea just offering more info.

As I've said a few times now, it was a passing comment at the end of my question, and man oh man it's taken on a whole thread. Love when that happens. haha All I was trying to say was, "hey people in 3570, you picked a connecting cabin, and now other people who could have used those two connecting cabins can't" The exact same cabin, 3572, is directly one door down, why not pick that one and leave 3570 open for the ones who need it" and i added later, the point that it wasn't intentional, just human nature for some not to think that way, just a comment, joke, mild frustration. I'm not all shaken up about it. but i was precisely saying " if you don't need a connecting cabin, and the exact same cabin is one door down, i wish you'd just take the next cabin" my opinion... but not losing sleep over it or want to argue how it extends to elevators and all that. just why take 3570 when you could take 3572 and do someone else a solid. That's all.

Fred, I'm sorry I upset you so. I know you weren't responding to me directly, since I'm the original poster I wanted to address your remarks. I don't consider myself to be dishonest in any way shape or form. I'm actually quite the opposite, work in a profession that's steeped in truth, spend a significant portion of my personal and spiritual life encouraging people to just be good humans. The "hack" I was referring to wasn't related to changing cabins. The hack shared on cruise critic, lets you find out which cabin you're assigned to, before Royal sends you the email. That's all it does. Yes I was asking further, at which point in time it was safe to request a cabin change. That's something I've always understood Royal to allow. Most of us know if you call Royal Caribbean and speak to someone you'll get answer A and call back and you get answer B. That being said I spent the last 45 mins or so looking into your comments, and this is what I've learned and can share. 1) First I reached out to my TA. She exclusively handles cruises for her company, she's in her 70's and has a long and storied relationship selling with Royal since her 20's. She can reach their VP of sales by text, as they are longtime friends. She insists anyone booked in a GTY cabin to switch to a different cabin in the same category that is open simply by asking, it's not maneuvering the system in any way according to her. 2) Second, I am friends with a senior executive with the cruise line. He and I worked together in another industry before he moved to Royal several years ago. I'm copying this directly from his email. It's not directly my area but my understanding is the computer assigns you, automatically, some of the least desirable cabins, when you book a guarantee. It leaves the more desirable ones open for sale. We have a "run date" which varies ship to ship, when we determine, sales have peaked for that ship. Sometimes we move people around for operational reasons, but usually you're just notified of what the computer chose for you. We still sell guarantees after the run date sometimes and so you can get really nice rooms immediately assigned then. I'll double check but my understanding is if you want to switch to something else that's open, that's fine, we welcome it. It just has to be in the same category and past the run date 3) Lastly, I took your advice and called and asked. Just for fun. First agent said, I would be assigned a cabin automatically and if i'm not happy with it and there is another one available in the same category we can look at possibly changing it for you, I would have to look at your specific reservation. Second one said more simply, yes, you can change GTY bookings after they're assigned, that's not a problem. So, that's what I know, and is my understanding. I wasn't trying to be dishonest or cheat anyone, just wanted to know when I could change cabins to something I prefer, as allowed, based on what I've been told by people I trust. Hopefully that's helpful in seeing where my head was as I asked my question.

Not really. I think we're on the same page. I personally have never booked a connecting room before. Like you, I choose my cabin based on preferences. Starboard side, close to aft elevators, available to my group size, and no connecting door or under something noisy. The point I was making was that on this particular sailing, when I looked at the cabin availability, of the connecting staterooms it was humorous. Look at the map I attached. Room 3570 BOOKED 3568 EMPTY 3572 EMPTY 3566 EMPTY In this situation there are two of the exact same rooms, directly next door, but they chose the one with the connecting cabin. There are others sets of connecting cabins on this one deck, I found this exact same scenario on the other side of the ship with 3070, and same one deck up. People are choosing the one with the connecting door, when there is an identical cabin right next to it. No difference in size or people requirements. Just chose the one with the connecting because.... ??? I don't think anyone is being intentional to screw people out of booking connecting cabins. I just found it funny on this one time I wanted a connecting cabin that this was the scenario, repeatedly, on this specific ship. Hope that's helpful in explaining my point.

I live 8 mins from DFW, so I avoid Love Field as well. I do the DFW- MIA route often. It's typically pretty reliable.

yeah i do feel those rooms should be blocked off for people actually booking two cabins and traveling together, not just because someone thinks it "looks like a good one" lol but again that's life.

It my birthday, my daughter's birthday, and our anniversary, all spring break week. We tend to cruise every year and every year I cuss about the airfare and hotel rates.

It's so funny that last part everyone is commenting on. I seriously was joking. I mean yes, I do think it's silly to book a connecting cabin when you don't need one, and there are other options right next to it. But I'm not naive enough to realize that someone people just don't care to free those up for others, or don't think about it, or don't know what they are doing. I realize that. Hence why I considered it funny. I just went back and counted and more than half of the connecting cabins on this ship have one room occupied, one not, and another empty cabin RIGHT NEXT DOOR. It makes me roll my eyes and laugh, but I get it, it's just human nature. Not calling anyone out, just venting, and calling myself making a funny.

gotcha, no I meant the folks who see two empty connecting cabins, and book one of them, often with an empty single right next to it. I just don't get it lol but that was just my funny comment at the end, wasn't really looking for explanations.

i tend to be a "for the greater good" type, so when I see a connecting cabin, even if i like the location I usually leave it alone, thinking "let a family who needs two cabins together have that" But I get it, and understand.

the grats, bev pkg,excursion, you'll get all your money back if you cancel early. don't know about casino points or upgrade to a casino room, but I'd call and talk to the casino people. We got married during spring break on a cruise, and for our anniversary my wife always wants to cruise again.... and I keep asking myself WHY did we get married during spring break?!?!?!

i would highly recommend Hobby if possible. AA, Delta, Frontier, Allegiant, and Southwest all fly there and the travel time is like less than half.

For me personally it would have to be an insanely cheaper of a flight. Just seems like too much work. Are you talking about $50 cheaper per person or $250 cheaper. Usually the spread isn't that huge. AA usually drops prices to MIA the closer you get to flight day.

OMG this happened on Odyssey. Teen gets in the pizza line which is super long, gets to the front and says, "I want 6 large pizzas" They tell him no. They don't do that. Especially when busy. He can only get by the slice. He argues and argues and finally says ok. I order 72 slices of pizza. They just stared at him, and gave him all 5 pizzas they had ready and prepared and we all had to wait while they made more.

I dread this too. The inattentiveness, the drunks, the panicking people. Also, in my recent aging years I've developed claustrophobia. Have you seen those life saving capsules, and the number of people they are slated to hold? crying, drunk, panicking people, crammed inside those things with no air... for hours upon hours. Nope I'll go down with this ship, I will put my hands up and surrender. 😉