Lavani

Was the watermark on the computer screen photo? That's to prevent people from taking a picture with their cell phone directly from the screen and bypass the purchase. Don't ask me how I know :rolleyes:

Yes it was on the computer screen, and I get why they use it, and a lot of other photographers use something similar. But I've never seen it where it was so big and repeated to where it actually made it difficult to see the faces and decide if it was a good photo or not (the mark is so big it can cover up entire smiles or eyes so you can't even tell if everyone's eyes are open).

We just got off Navigator on Sunday. Overall, had a pretty good experience, I will try to post my review but it will take some time to collect all of my thoughts.

However, I wanted to warn about the experience we had with the photo shop on this cruise. I don't recall seeing a lot of posts about this, but if I have missed them please forgive me. I haven't been on a cruise since 2013, but I guess RC has a new process where instead of the photos on the walls everything is digital and you swipe your sea pass card to view all the photos taken of you and purchase if you choose. If this worked it might be good, as it cuts down on searching for photos - but it doesn't really work. Also it really irritated me because on the top of all of the photos is a Royal Caribbean Photo watermark thing and I couldn't even really see smiles or facial expressions because it is huge and repeated every inch or so. But that is not really what I am complaining about here.

Our experience with the photo shop was AWFUL. We took some photos on day 3 that we could not find the next day when we swiped our seapass card. We also could not locate them on the large TV screens where you can look for missing photos. Each and every day we asked photo staff about the photos and we were told some new upgrades were done and that the photos would be loaded the next day. On the last night of the cruise they still were not there. By this time, the photo shop was chaos. Lots of people were missing photos. At one point the entire system went down and no one could access any photos for about an hour. Finally (on our 3rd visit of that day) one crew member located the photos and said they would be loaded onto our account within an hour and then we could order them. They were not. Finally 3 hours later (it is now 10pm) I have to go down and start almost crying for someone to help me. I needed to finish packing and get my young children to bed since we had to wake before 6am to prepare to disembark. Another employee finally went and hand uploaded the photos to our account and I was able to FINALLY order our photos, although I was told we had to come pick them up in the morning at 7am (we would have ordered much earlier and picked them up early if the stupid photos were not lost in the first place). My husband went to pick them up at 6:45am in the morning (we were supposed to self-disembark at 7:30am to catch an early flight) and he had to wait in line until 7:30 only to be told there was a problem and the disc had not been burned and he had to fill out a missing order form. As of now we STILL have not received our photos for which we paid $125. This delay also caused us to be at the back of the line for our disembarking group and we did not get off the ship until almost 9am. It was a terrible, stressful experience and no one seemed to care. In fact, on that last night I asked to speak with the manager of the photo shop and I was told there was no supervisor present and that the manager/supervisor was in his cabin. I find it appalling that they were having so many tech problems and the supervisor still did not find it important enough to be present. I would really like to have my photos and the whole experience just put a bad taste in my mouth at the end of my cruise. So a word of advice - take your own photos. And if you do choose to take photos with an RC photographer be prepared to deal with the chaos.

Yay! We leave on Navigator on Sunday and I cannot wait! I am counting down the hours... and getting nothing done at work this week. It's great to hear a positive review.

Thank you so much! Your advice is very helpful as I start to pack for our trip and get all our final plans made.

One more question. Did anyone actually tell you the rule at the Hilton is no swim diapers in the pool? Did anyone seem to care?

When we were there with our 18 month old I was totally unaware of any rule and nobody said anything to me and we had her in the water. This time around I did see it posted on restortforaday website. Although I was hoping I can still have her at least splash her feet in that very shallow end like you did (hell so many ADULTS admit to peeing in the pools that it doesn't seem like it should be an issue. I understand for the poop - but that's why I would only have her splashing her feet, not totally submerged).

Thank you so much, I am loving your review and it is so helpful. We are on Navigator in 2 1/2 weeks with our 9 month old and 3 1/2 year old, so all of the info on the kids is great!

Last time we did Hilton Rose Hall in Jamaica and took our own car seat (had an 18 month old at the time) and taxi - but on the way there the taxi driver was crazy and seemed very sketchy and unsafe, and on the way back we couldn't find a taxi with seatbelts. This time we booked resortforaday for the same reasons you did, the big tour bus. Disappointed to hear about the vehicle switch. Not sure what other choice we have except stay on the ship.

Also - re: your blow-up pool debacle, would you suggest not using a blow up pool, or just try to be a little more conscious of which drains work and can be used before filling up? I think you handled it well and it's too bad that lady seemed so angry and unforgiving. We all make mistakes sometimes... what else did she want you to do?

Thank you so much for all of your great information!

They have real fridges they give for medical use. Send a request to [noparse]special_needs@rccl.com[/noparse].

Thank you!

Hope it's ok to ask a follow-up question hear about the fridges. I am concerned about them not keeping milk very cold. We will be travelling on the navigator next month and I'll have breast milk and probably some ready-mixed formula that will need to be kept cold. Do they have real fridges that I can request to keep those types of items cold? Or should I just put the ice bucket in the fridge? Any advice would be helpful. Thanks.

The high chairs I remember were gray plastic and they did come with a tray. The last time we cruised was 2 years ago, but that's what RC had then.

I don't know about requesting one for your room. The only reason that may be a problem is if they don't have a large supply. I do remember having to wait for an open one during breakfast one time (but only once). Sorry I don't have a photo.

Thanks for the advice. DH and I have been talking about it and thinking we may just take our single Chicco lite stroller (yes we have 3 strollers!) and the ergo baby carrier. Our 3 yr old will probably want to walk most of the time, and when she doesn't I can put the baby in the ergo and the 3 yr old can ride in the stroller.

We are going on a RC cruise in May to the Caribbean (Navigator of the Seas). We are trying to decide if our city mini double stroller will work for the cruise ship. It is a side-by-side double, but it is still quite narrow compared to most doubles. We also have a baby jogger city select which is like a tandem double, but it is much bigger and bulkier to travel with.

Anyone have experience with a double stroller and fitting through doors, etc., on the cruise ships? Thanks in advance.

thank you for the replies. I think we will just do resortforaday as well.

One more question - for those who did that, what was the transportation? Was it just a typical tour bus? Van? Thanks.

I'm hoping someone can help me - we are going to be on the Navigator in May and we want to go to Hilton Rose Hall when we are in Jamaica. We have been before and loved it!

We are trying to decide between the cruise sponsored excursion or doing it independently. Usually we do it independently but we will have our two small children with us, and may choose RCI for the safety/security aspect (I know I'm a little paranoid.)

My issue is the RCI excursion says it is 4 hours long, and I know Rose Hall is about 45 min away from port. Does that mean we will only be there for 2 1/2 hours? Or is travel time not included in the tour length? We will be in Jamaica from 8-5, so I would hate to miss out on good beach time if that 4 hours includes travel. Has anyone taken this excursion before with RCI? Any help appreciated. Thank you!!

Thanks for sharing your experiences it was very helpful. (We are taking the Jamaica itinerary, although doesn't seem as though that matters anymore.)

We have decided to book the 12:55pm flight... but as backup insurance we are also booking a later return flight using our Southwest points. You can cancel that 10 minutes before and receive a refund of all of the points, so we are going to do that just to be safe. :)

Ok, ok, I know some variety of this question is asked all of the time, but I would love it if anyone could humor me and let me know about their recent experiences.

We are sailing on the Navigator out of Galveston in May. I am wondering if we can book a 12:55pm flight out of Hobby on Sunday when we get back? I have read so many things about disembarking in Galveston, and it sounds like it can be a mess, but others say that it has been improving. It also seems like it varies depending on what cruise line you are taking.

Anyone done this lately and can tell me their experiences? We will have quite a bit of luggage, so I don't think we can self-disembark (2 adults, 2 kids). We all have passports. We will have a rental car parked across the street from the terminal, and we will have to return that at Hobby. Any opinions?

Thanks in advance.

We were on Rhapsody in July and there was a HUGE Avon group onboard (in hindsight...explains the high prices that week). Anyway, it did not affect our cruise one bit. We did our thing and they did theirs. Saw tons of them around the ship, but didn't make a difference to us. Try not to sweat it and just focus on you having a good time! Have fun!