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Fairway15

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    Live from Navigator of the Seas B2b to the Western Caribbean and ABCs!

    in Royal Caribbean International

    Posted

    Good evening everyone. As the title indicates, I will be departing with my wife on Navigator of the Seas on Sunday for b2b sailings on the first two since coming back stateside. I’m going to try and use Periscope (@codyh21) if VOOM allows, but also plan on running a live blog here with photos and reviews of both the ship and our port stops. Please feel free to ask questions throughout and I will do my best to answer or find out. FYI, we are not staying in a suite and are currently Gold C&A so won’t be visiting/reviewing any of the DL/CL venues or perks. I do have the Deluxe Beverage/1 Device VOOM combo for both legs as well. A little background and summary is below.

     

    My first cruise with Royal was back in 2007 on Navigator of the Seas. My wife and I were searching for new ports and a longer cruise back in January and I came upon the 9 night ABC cruise. When I saw that and the Navigator we knew it was perfect. We initially booked a Promenade room and was happy with it. However, I saw a balcony guarantee pop up for the same price we had already paid. A quick call to my TA and we were all set. Got assigned a D2 balcony on Deck 10 aft, perfect! Fast forward to a couple months ago and I noticed pricing dropping heavily on the 5 night sailing. I convinced my wife, and was able to get the time off of work, so we jumped on an inside guarantee. I really wanted to do a balcony, but we got this sailing for under $1100 with tax and gratuities all factored in. Ended up in a deck 6 room slightly aft of the aft elevators. We’ve stayed in this spot on Freedom and had no issues.

     

    Was looking at transport, parking, hotels, the works. My wife has a commitment tomorrow night so we’re relegated to heading down Sunday morning. Thankfully we live 3 hours straight north of Miami on I-95 so this is an easy drive. With parking at the port being $20 per day we were looking at $300. I did a little research and I managed to snag a pair of one way rentals from Melbourne Airport to Miami Airport and vice versa with Alamo. They offer a shuttle to/from the cruise port so that works out well. Gas is a wash since we would’ve been driving anyways, and with a little research I ended up paying $113 total for both rentals w/tax. Even if we didn’t feel like the shuttle and wanted to Uber from the airport it would still be less than half the cost of parking.

     

    Leg 1 (5 Night Western):

     

    Day 1- Depart Miami 5pm

    Day 2- At Sea

    Day 3- Costa Maya 8am-5pm. We were just here at Maya Chan in December but love the port and were able to snag return visit to Maya Chan last minute so we’ll definitely enjoy that.

    Day 4- Cozumel 7am-5pm. My wife has booked a dolphin encounter excursion as it’s always been on her bucket list. I will be taking a taxi to the Money Bar to snorkel and enjoy breakfast as soon as we dock. Spend a couple hours there, then taxi to downtown to have lunch at our favorite place Casa Denis. A little exploring and then I usually enjoy making the long 3 mile walk back to the ship.

    Day 5- At Sea. Did Thanksgiving away a few years ago while on deployment, but this will be my first onboard a ship.

    Day 6- Turnaround Day Miami. For those interested, I will try and document the b2b experience.

     

    Leg 2 (9 Night Southern to the ABCs):

     

    Day 1- Depart Miami 5pm

    Day 2- At Sea

    Day 3- Labadee: Nothing planned, just a relaxing beach day for us.

    Day 4- At Sea

    Day 5- Willemstad, Curacao 9am-8pm. My wife really wants to visit the aquarium so we will take a taxi there. My plan is to drop her off and walk next door to Lion’s Dive to grab a beach chair/umbrella and a cold drink and just relax for a few hours. Afterwards, we’ll head back and explore downtown Willemstad.

    Day 6- Kralendijk, Bonaire 7am-5pm. We are booked on the morning Woodwind snorkeling tour, absolutely looking forward to this. Afternoon will bring more exploring of downtown.

    Day 7- Oranjestad, Aruba 7am-6pm. Plan is to take the local bus to Eagle Beach and grab chairs in the area around either La Cabana or Amsterdam Manor which have been mentioned as good spots. Found a local dutch pancake house we’re going to try for lunch and then, yes, you guessed it more exploring around town.

    Day 8/9- At Sea

     

    Apologies for the long winded post, but I’m a planner/detail person at heart. Again, hope you follow along and ask any questions you may have and I’ll do my best to respond!

     

    Are you on the ship now? How is all? CD? Atmosphere? etc....;-)

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