Just off the Navigator 11/30-12/5

[dhay]

I will post a full review tomorrow. Overall we were incredibly happy and would absolutley go again. I figured I would post this first and see if there were any questions in advance, but I will post my expereinces tomorrow :)

[alexkrn46]

Looking forward to your report. we will be on the NOS next week.

[dolfandude]

Yes, looking forward to your review. We sail NOS on Dec 14th.

After experiencing the Carnival piano bar this past summer, I'm looking forward to the piano player in the Schooner bar. Did you do that?

Or the guitar player in the English pub? Thanks!

Steve

[dhay]

Hi everyone. This is only my 3rd cruise (all with RCL) so we are by no means super experienced, but I know what I like and don't like :) This is just my POV and I hope anyone who sails on NOS has a great time.

 

The boarding process was fairly quick and easy. We were on the ship by 12, and immediately went to the WJ. I have done this with Majesty and Mariner before and never expereinced the line that we did for the WJ. My husband and I were starving so we decided to take a chance and see if anything was open on deck 5 (even to buy ice cream) and we were lucky. Cafe Promenade was open so hubby got a few small sandwiches and I got some key lime pie. This was all free at Cafe promendade for those who do not know. You do have to buy the Ben and jerry's ice cream and specialty coffee's though. I was told after 1 I could buy my soda package (I am a diet coke addict and get horrible migraines without a constant supply of caffeine) At 1 I bought the package but they did not have the soda thermos yet. Later I went to get one and the next day one was delivered to my room so I ended up with 2.

 

We did not go to the pool this day. We live in Florida and my hubby was not on the Mariner with me so he only expereinced the much smaller Majesty so we explored. He was nto impressed with cruising before but he is now, but he would like to be on this class ship, or larger. We are considering doing a Freedom cruise next year already for the same time frame.

 

The staff was so helpful and friendly. We still needed to book an excursion since I kept catching proce drops (4!- I booked at 279$ and ended up at 159$) but we had to keep giving our cabin back and when we decided on the Belize excursion of cavetubing I caught another proce drop 5 days before the cruise. By time everythign was edited we had to wait til we were onboard to book. We we told the excusrion line would open at 2. We got there at 1:45 and we were first and figured we would just wait in a line until they opened, but they decided to start helping us early so that was nice.

 

The Big Christmas tree was up and that was neat. I can't even tell you how many pics we have in front of it. Each night when we got dressed up we always ended up there for some reason.

[dhay]

Our one big disappointment was the MDR and WJ food. I truly found it to be sub par. Even being on Mariner in Oct 2008, this was a huge step down. And our first night with our 6pm seating we were done at 8:10 and did not even get dessert it was so slow. We had a ressie booked at Portofino for the second night, and after that we decided to book Chops, and another Portofino (we couldn't get into Chops again). We were that disppointed in the food. My husband and I are huge foodies and I understand this is just MDR food, but it used to be better. Even a year ago it was more flavorful with the same menu selections on the Mariner. Our servers were very nice, but very slow. Everythign I ate at WJ was gross. That was the only word for it. Everything excpet the fruit was super greasy, or mushy. I remember being on Mariner and still having crisp waffles but not so any day on NOS. So most mornings we ate at the MDR, whoch was still only a slight step above, but I didn't have to worry about the "WJ road rage"

 

Portofino and Chops- I liked Chops marginally better. I had the halibut on top of risotto at Portofino the first time and the filet the second time. Both were yummy. I had the filet at Chops and it was yummy too. I do think it was worth the cost. However, and this is my qualifier and it is purely JMO: It is not the best steak or best meal ever like I have heard many people claim on the board. But it was very very enjoyable and we would absolutley like to go back. I do think my expectations were a little too high here because I have heard many times that the filets are the best people have ever had, even being compared to places like Ruth Chris or other fine steakhouses and I do not think that is the case. It is delicious, and worth the money. The service was impeccable. We will definitley go back. But I want to manage expectations here for other people like me who are huge foodies.

 

There was a new cruise director on the ship and I know nothing of these people. His name is Simeon. He was very funy and I think he did a fine job. There were many fun activities. My husband pariticpated in dodgeball, and we did a couple competetions. Wacthing the Love and MArriage shows was very entertaining and I think the CD had an exceelent personality. We did not go to any shows. We hung out in Vintages a lot. We really liked that place. We like our wine and the wine tender was awesome. We learned a lot about crew life and it was very interesting. We did see some guitars in the Schooner bar and the Pub but there were so many people smoking that we didn't really stay to enjoy it. There were some crowds so it seemed like people were having a great time.

 

We ate at Johnny Rockets and it was like any JR. It was great after having many beers by the pool to soak up the alcohol. We went to the gym 4 days and we were pretty impressed. It had anough machines for us to do arms/legs/back/chest as well as abs and get in an hour workout. I was going to do a spin class and we registered but the last minute dodgeball tourney was longer than expected.

 

Our stateroom attendant was phenomenal. He was on the ball and simply awesome. One thing we were surprised about was the head waiter. I don't remember ever seeing them on other cruises til the last day and the few days we did eat in MDR he interacted with us each time.

 

The excusrions we did was the Dolphin swim and ride in Cozumel and jungle trek and cavetubing in Belize. We book through the cruiseline because I have OCD and I am paranoid doing it privately will make us miss the ship. Both excursions were well worth every penny. Our guides for each were amazing, and I love dolphins so being able to interact with the in a facility that was impressive was so much fun. I was concerned the facility would be small and dirty and really be taking advantage of the dolphins but it was an impressive place and they really were very concerned for the safety of the dolphins. Cavetubing was just unlike anything I have ever seen or done. Highly reccomnd it as well.

[Desert Cruizers]

dhay, thank you for your report on the NOS, we are looking at doing a TA on her. If you haven't already, you might also consider the Radiance Class of RCL, we sailed the Radiance of the Seas to Hawaii Oct 2008 and had a wonderful time. This class is between the Vison and Voyager and offers you a really open feeling with all the glass.

[dhay]

Disembarking was a bit of a cluster. We did express since we drove and we were supposed to go to deck 3 Studio B. As we are about to get off right at 6:30 people tell us don't get off they changed it to deck 4. SO we go to deck 4 and it was a cluster. We get in the line and people getting off the eleavtors are cutting in. I don't know if they realized as many people were going to do express. And there were people that could barely move their luggae so they should not have been doing express. So that was frustrating. We still were off at about 7:10 but it was not very organized. And I never saw staff directing anyone- we just heard from peole to go to deck 4.

 

We loved our trip, and we would do the NOS again, but I usually like to experience new ships. I owuld highly reccomend this ship and staff to anyone. Our only hiccup was really the food and the slow service in MDR, but I am on vacation and I will be darnedif I am going to let anythign ruin it. We ad a fantastic time. I just know to have different expectations with the meals. I don't know if it was this ship, or if it is cost cutting, but to me there was a very distinct difference in the quality and taste of the food in just a little over a year. But again- nothign that would keep me from Royal. Our whole expereince from start to finish- booking, no argument on any price drops, to the cruise, was great!

 

If you have any questions let me know :)

[dhay]

dhay, thank you for your report on the NOS, we are looking at doing a TA on her. If you haven't already, you might also consider the Radiance Class of RCL, we sailed the Radiance of the Seas to Hawaii Oct 2008 and had a wonderful time. This class is between the Vison and Voyager and offers you a really open feeling with all the glass.

 

Thank you!! I will have to look into that. That sounds like a neat ship!

[dolfandude]

but I am on vacation and I will be darnedif I am going to let anythign ruin it.

:)

Thanks for the good review and even better attitude! :)

Too many times someone would write something about bad food and it would seem to ruin their life! :rolleyes:

We sail on NOS in 8 days! We'll see if the food improves!

Steve

[PATDEN]

Do you have copies of the daily paper (perhaps called the Compass?) that they gave you everyday detailing all activities, etc.?

[LuVermont]

We too were on this cruise. As food reviews are very subjective, I feel it is important to reply that we found our dinner choices in the MDR to be excellent and our serice was top notch. We ate dinner one night in Chops for our anniversary and had the most amazing experience- food quality, service, ambiance. For us, the Windjammer was hit or miss; I stuck mostly to the salad bar for lunch which was fresh and adequate.

 

Overall the cruise was a very pleasant, relaxing experience. We have been on nine RCI cruises before and this was the most low-key cruise we have experiences. It was just what we were looking for.

[masterbaker]

We were also on the 11/30 Navigator.

 

Service was definitely an issue on Navigator, although I met two employees that went above and beyond my expectations. One was a bartender in the casino bar who ran to the Schooner to get the proper glass for my drink order and then gave it to me for no charge since he didn't have the right glass on hand when I ordered. I also saw him carry out luggage for another passenger the final morning. The other was the bartender in the CL who never missed a beat and kept our drinks filled at all times without us even ordering another. He was a real gem. Both will be getting praise letters from me to the main office and hopefully it will have good results for them. Poolside barservice in the Solarium was almost non existant.... good thing we came supplied to provide for ourselves. ;):p Service in the WJ was DIY.

 

This Navigator sailing was totally booked full at the last minute due to the Norwegian Dawn cancellation so there were a lot of people onboard that had never sailed RCI before. They actually oversold this cruise and offered some of the people booked a change of ship to the Oasis inaugural. We were sailing with several people from DH's work who were offered that option but they refused.

 

Food, was great for me. I've never raved so much about baked goods onboard any RCI ship in the past. The bakers did a fantastic job. I only ate one meal (breakfast) in the MDR and it was fine. DH and a friend tried the Diamond breakfast option in the MDR one morning and had the slowest service ever. We ate all our dinners in the WJ. I had a truly wonderful prime rib dinner there. Also an excellent filet of beef there too, and actually all the meats from the carving station there were very good. The variety of sides were plentiful enough for us to always find something we liked. The only time we used the WJ for lunch was on boarding day and I guess we got there before the rush because we had no problems. We got lunch (tasty little sandwiches) at the Cafe Promenade on all the other days.

 

Our cabin steward seemed like she really wasn't happy. I'm not sure why, she wasn't very chatty at all like they normally are. But she did a great job every day and deserved her gratuity plus a bit of a bonus for extra effort for all the extra ice she provided. She set us up with nice pillows, robes and our D+ ammenities too.

 

Onboard, the ship was all decorated for Christmas and it was very pretty. We only made it to one evening show and loved it. We spent one evening in the Schooner at the piano bar, another listening to music elsewhere, and we went to the gameshow "finish the lyric" which was hilarious! One of the contestants only got one answer right but was very funny with her tries. I wish I had played, I could have finished all the lyrics except one.

 

As usual, I had an evening of being overserved. HA! I don't remember much about that night at all.

 

There was a Diamond event every night up in the VCL with cheap wines served.... no munchies. The CL was very nice with full bar and plenty to munch on with great service and fun people. Mostly suite guests, so I guess there were not many D+ people onboard besides us.

 

Overall, I would consider it a good cruise. I think we got a great price and definitely got our moneys worth. It was even better because of having our good friends onboard with us.

[caribbeanboy]

I totally agree with you that the food in the WJ was indeed very good. On my Transatlantic last month I never went to the MDR. Really don't understand how some people say that the food is not good. Wondering what they eat at home!