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Navigator's 2018 World Cruise "Read all about it!"


cwn
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Wanted to give you a quick note to thank you for the Blog. I am a Navigator loyalist and will be on her for 24 days in 2019, so I am enjoying your blog. Also hope to take a WC when I retire. I posting because of your Blue Bell comment. My dad is from Gay Hill and his folks moved into Brenham when they retired. I was eating Blue Bell when you could only get it within 100 miles of Brenham. I am always fascinated that no matter where you travel, you can often find a connection with people in a short series of questions. Keep up the entertaining blog and enjoy the rest of your trip.

Gig Em, TWG class of 78

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Thanks, but it's definitely not my first post. Cruise Critic has messed up my account several times and I have had to re-sign up at least three different times. Just now, it didn't remember me and I had to, once again, reset my password.

 

Regarding the dummies in the pirate areas, I saw at least one "dummy" being wheeled through Stars Lounge a couple of days ago, presumably for deployment for pirate lookout duty. The water cannons are also in place on both sides of deck 6. I am not certain if the "sonic cannon" has been deployed, as it was on the Voyager in 2015 during our Grand Voyage.

Didn't they used to do skeet shooting off the stern of the ships in the old days? Maybe bring that back in pirate areas - brings back shooting sports and acts as a real live deterrent. Kind of a win-win, don't ya think? ;p

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Wanted to give you a quick note to thank you for the Blog. I am a Navigator loyalist and will be on her for 24 days in 2019, so I am enjoying your blog. Also hope to take a WC when I retire. I posting because of your Blue Bell comment. My dad is from Gay Hill and his folks moved into Brenham when they retired. I was eating Blue Bell when you could only get it within 100 miles of Brenham. I am always fascinated that no matter where you travel, you can often find a connection with people in a short series of questions. Keep up the entertaining blog and enjoy the rest of your trip.

Gig Em, TWG class of 78

 

 

Thanks for the kind words.

 

We are having a good time. I like the Navigator also. It is like one great big family and the ship is the perfect size and very comfortable. By now all the crew that interact with the passengers know us by name and all our likes and dislikes. The staff is just wonderful.

 

It is amazing the connections one finds when traveling. We had that experience in Seychelles when our taxi driver found out we were from Texas. He called his brother-in-law and gave the phone to Dick. The guy was from Houston and the US representative in the Seychelles!

Edited by cwn
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Thanks for the kind words.

 

We are having a food time. I like the Navigator also. It is like one great big family and the ship is the perfect size and very comfortable. By now all the crew that interact with the passengers know us by name and all our likes and dislikes. The staff is just wonderful.

 

Carolyn ,may I ask what your accommodation is on this cruise

 

And thanks again for very helpful and entertaining Blog

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Carolyn ,may I ask what your accommodation is on this cruise

 

And thanks again for very helpful and entertaining Blog

 

Glad you are enjoying the blog. I am trying to give good info on the tours we are doing for anyone who might visit the same port on a WC or a shorter cruise.

 

We are in 615 which I think is an "E". It is comfortable and well located. I like being close to the water. Makes sitting on the balcony very relaxing in calm seas and the window view very exciting in rough seas!

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Just a little up date....we are four days behind on the blog...guess we are having too much fun! We have had two ports, Mauritius and La Reunion and too very busy seas days...lots of activities with Easter coming up. Also the internet has been really sloooow and dropping us often.

 

We have three sea days with at least two time changes before Richards Bay so maybe we can get caught up!

 

South Africa with four ports is next. This is one of our favorite counties! So far the weather has been good, the fairly calm and nary a pirate. No more pirate worries either, the fake soldiers are gone.

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Glad you are enjoying the blog. I am trying to give good info on the tours we are doing for anyone who might visit the same port on a WC or a shorter cruise.

 

We are in 615 which I think is an "E". It is comfortable and well located. I like being close to the water. Makes sitting on the balcony very relaxing in calm seas and the window view very exciting in rough seas!

 

Thanks again we have put deposit for WC 2020 which has very similar itinerary to your cruise... so following your Blog with very extreme interest !!....Your info on tours are very helpful

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Just checking in. I was way behind on the blog, but finally got caught up tonight. Guess we are just having too much fun! it is a wonderful cruise and a great ship for this type of cruise.

 

Easter was a very special day. Jamie did a beautiful Easter service with the help of the special Easter Choir, a very talented group of men and women with lovely voices! Plus several other special events.

 

We had another Galley Lunch Buffet today. That is always so nice. The staff did a fabulous job!

 

It is had to believe we are 2/3s of the way around the world! Tomorrow is the second of three special World Cruise Events in Richard's Bay. Can't wait.

 

Thanks to all of you who are reading the blog.

 

Carolyn

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Didn't they used to do skeet shooting off the stern of the ships in the old days? Maybe bring that back in pirate areas - brings back shooting sports and acts as a real live deterrent. Kind of a win-win, don't ya think? ;p

George would be all in for that!

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2018 World Cruisers,

 

When it came time to pick your shore excursions, did you pick all 131 days worth??? or just a few weeks at a time?

 

Our time is coming to pick ours for 2019 and it all seems so overwhelming!

 

Thank you in advance.

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2018 World Cruisers,

 

When it came time to pick your shore excursions, did you pick all 131 days worth??? or just a few weeks at a time?

 

Our time is coming to pick ours for 2019 and it all seems so overwhelming!

 

Thank you in advance.

 

The excursions opened the week we put our deposit down. So I was a few days late starting the sign up process and some were already full. I did go through and sign up for all that we wanted for the full cruise and got us on the wait list for the ones that were full. There were maybe a dozen ports that didn't have excursions listed for a while. The wait listed tours did clear before we sailed. Don't get to hung up on the tour times as all most all of those times changed some when we got our tickets.

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Thanks so much, I'm also reading your daily post---have a great time and I'm enjoying the trip with your writings.

 

Thanks for reading. Today was change over day in Cape Town. We have 170 newbies. The ship is not full only 360 or so guest for the fifth leg.

 

It was a beautiful day in Cape Town today, clear skies, bright sun shine with a delightful 66 degrees and 46% humidity. We messed around down town and did the HOHO bus today. Then did a sundowners ship's tour to Signal Hill this evening. Beautiful sunset, the city looks specular at night from that vantage point.

 

I should have that report up tomorrow.

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2018 World Cruisers,

 

When it came time to pick your shore excursions, did you pick all 131 days worth??? or just a few weeks at a time?

 

Our time is coming to pick ours for 2019 and it all seems so overwhelming!

 

Thank you in advance.

 

 

We aren't on the full round the world, but are on the first leg.

Are the excursions showing now as all I can see is a sample of excursions offered previously.

 

Thanks.

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Well we left Africa night before last after 7 great ports (9 days in port) and are heading across the South Atlantic. This is our 2nd day. The ocean is sapphire blue with blue skies and fluffy white clouds. The only problem is the seas are mounting. The captain told us as we sailed from Walvis Bay the other night that there was stormy weather heading our way and it might be a problem for us.

 

Well, just now the captain announced that they were expecting 18 foot swells and 40m/h winds on April 17 in Tristan de Cunha. It is a tender port so no way can we risk it. In fact, there is a gale heading up from the South and we are beginning to feel the effects. The ship is really moving around. So he is redoing our course to try to get North of the worst of the weather.

 

We are now in the 2nd day of 10 days at sea before we get to Montevideo. Hope everyone likes sea days...we do!

 

The tours in Africa were some of the best we have done any time,especially the two in Walvis Bay.

Read our blog if you are interested in the tours we did.

www.2018worldcruise.blogspot.com

 

This is a wonderful cruise on a great ship. She does not deserve the reputation she has on Cruise Critic.

 

The staff is beyond wonderful. We had a lot of change over in both Singapore and Cape Town with some of our favorites leaving. We wondered if that would make a difference....no, the new staff took over seamlessly and it is still a well oiled machine with a great since of family! But this is what is so great about a small ship that is lost in 600+ passenger ships.

 

The CEO, Jason M was on board between Cape Town and Walvis Bay and held a town meeting. It was interesting....he spent most of the question and answer session responding "I am sorry that should not have happened, and I will look into it." The questions were about internet, poorly vetted tours, especially the WC Event in Richards Bay and the lack of storage in the newly redone cabins and along with some more individual issues.

 

We had our 5 M&M April 9th. It was the best attended so far. The 11 RC member who signed up were all there (two more were off ship on a safari) plus the Captain and Staff Captain. It started at 11 and the last people left about 12:30. Lots of good conservation. These were not all WC people.

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Thank you again for your blog and CC posts. I am enjoying them so much with the added plus of your pictures. I hope Navigator can avoid the worst of the weather. On Mariner now where we booked our first Navigator cruise due greatly to reading your information and talking with several people on board who enjoyed their Navigator experiences.

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We are half way across the South Atlantic today. Should be in Tristan da Cunha, but are way north of the island trying to stay out of the roughest seas due to a storm with dale force winds and rain working its way north.

 

The Captain called it. We are rocking and rolling in seas with 15 foot swells, 3 foot waves, 35 knots of wind and rain of and on. Some of the elevators were shut down this morning and there is not too much activity around the ship.

 

Well, I guess you could call the ship climbing the front side of the wave and then sliding down the back side with the occasional bang, activity! It is interesting to watch from deck 5 and 6! The normal straight line at the horizon looks like a wiggling saw blade!

 

The Captain says by sometime tomorrow. things should improve.

 

Gilly, the bears are safely belted in!

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  • 2 weeks later...

I have really enjoyed your blog . I will be on the navigator in early June and would appreciate an update on the AC problems you have encountered . This will be our first cruise on the navigator after over 100 nights on the mariner and voyager.

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There are no AC problems on the Navigator, it just appears to be one person who is constantly hot. We find it a little on the cool side, but bearable, although my husband considers it too cold for wearing short-sleeve shirts. The one place that is terribly cold is Galileo’s. We went there the other night and left before ordering a drink; it was like walking into a freezer. We talked to several other people who thought the same and, like us, will not go there again.

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I have really enjoyed your blog . I will be on the navigator in early June and would appreciate an update on the AC problems you have encountered . This will be our first cruise on the navigator after over 100 nights on the mariner and voyager.

 

Thanks for reading the blog. glad you are enjoying it. Just a little lass than a month to go!

 

I am glad to report that they finally have the AC fairly consistent through out the ship after tinkering with the whole system. No two areas had been the same temperature earlier. Some too cool and some much too warm.

 

We like our room a consistent 70 degrees F. I know that is a little cool for some but for us and my asthma it is doable and not an unreasonable request especially since each room can adjust their temperature warmer. Even at the lowest setting in our room we could not get lower than about 74-5 F earlier. There were some mechanical issues when we first boarded in Jan. They did replaced some parts on deck 6 forward and it improved some.

 

During that time the dinning room was fine but a number of us thought the Galileo Lounge, Prime and Sette Mari were too warm especially in the warmer countries and with all the outside doors in those general areas.

 

We didn't go up to Galileo very much early on. You can add a wrap or jacket if is too cool for you, but there is nothing you can do except endure or not go if it is too warm for you.

 

The ship has had very warm spots up until the last week. They turned the whole system warmer out of Walvis Bay and have spent the last two weeks adjusting the AC. The dinning rooms and the bars have finally been at the same comfortable temp for the last week plus.

 

They finally got the deck 6 hallway and our cabin adjusted a couple of days ago. We can now keep the cabin at 70 degrees F even with lights and TV on at night and the drapery open during the day. I don't feel it is unreasonable to be able to have the TV on or the drapery open and still be comfortable in your room for what Regent charges for that room. I would guess that the rest of the ship is now about the same temperature (~70 degrees).

 

This seems to be OK for most and there are a lot of sun dresses, short sleeve shirts in the dinning room and bars. There are also a lot of wraps and sports coats/sweaters too. I think they have hit a happy medium finally.

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