Question: Navigator of the Seas (Mediterranean)

[jsinger21]

Hi everyone,

 

Has anyone been back from the Navigator of the Seas in the Mediterranean in the last week or so since it started doing the eastern and western parts? What did you like? What didn't you like? How was the food? How was the excursions? Any recommendations?

[Gator0178]

If nobody responds, we are leaving for the Med 2 weeks from tomorrow and will be on the June 20 sailing for the Western Med.

[jsinger21]

Hi Gator0178,

 

Please let me know what you think when you come back.

 

Thanks!

[Shootrays]

Will be doing eastern + Egypt in Sept. - will be looking for your impressions upon return...happy cruising!

[ppfqp]

We are on the July 4 Western Med sailing and also looking for input. Hope someone responds!

[CruisinChaos]

I was on the 12 day May 6th cruise which stopped in Naples, Athens, Turkey, Rhodes, Egypt and Messina. If you have any specific questions feel free to ask and I will try and answer them.

 

Ship - The Navigator of the seas is in very good shape. The only real wear showing is on the mini-golf course. I had a port side "hump" balcony cabin - unfortunately this was on the wrong side for most of the ports to watch the late arrivals run for the ship. For those of you that have never been on a Voyager class ship, you can go to the very front of the ship where they have an observation deck. There is also a bridge viewing area on deck 11 (I think it is deck 11 anyways).

 

Bars - The most popular bar was the Schooner bar. The Piano player is very entertaining and had the place packed every night - but the band that was playing in the Ixtapa Lounge was terrible, and they often emptied the place when they were on the stage. There was also a guitar player in the Two poets pub who was very good. There was another band up in the Viking Crown Lounge, but I never did go listen to them play. The dungeon (disco) DJ wasn't great, but did take any and all requests, so if you like disco's bring a list of songs for him to play. If you have a quiet afternoon, have the bartenders at the Schooner bar show you some bar tricks. They were mind games, using stir sticks and such. They are best done before getting inebriated - tell them Mr. Cameron who drank all the Canadian Club Rye Whiskey they had at the bar sent you!

 

Shows - The ice show was very good, but our sailing was their last performance, so it will now be a new batch of performers. The comedian they had was fair, and I did catch a Beatles tribute show that was entertaining. The other shows I did not catch - (too busy drinking all the rye at the Schooner bar).

 

Activities - I tried all the activities - the inline skating was seldom used by anyone, so our group (nine of us) had a few games of roller derby. This is definitely not allowed, but since it was our own group, they let some of the violations go. The rock climbing wall was more popular, but there was seldom a wait to try it out. Mini-golf was popular during the day, but you can play at anytime, the clubs and balls are right beside the basketball court. The one night it was more of Mini-hurricane golf - on day 10 we had extremely strong winds - the deck wind speed was 96 kph, which made the game extremely interesting. I only went Ice skating once - you may have a short wait for some of the more popular ice skate sizes. They did have some other activities going on during the sea days.

 

Pools - the pools were not crowded and you could usually find spaces in the hot tubs. Deck chairs could be found at all times.

 

Food - the food was good. I ate in the main dining room about half the time. I skipped all the formal nights - this is the first cruise I decided to leave the suit at home to save luggage space (crummy airline luggage weight rules). The windjammer buffet food was also good, but the windjammer can get busy - especially in the morning around 10 am for breakfast. I didn't try any of the optional dining. I should say that I don't cruise for the food, but it was better all around compared to the Crown Princess I was on in January.

 

Tours - I took all the tours through Royal Caribbean and if you have any specific questions I will try and answer them. I was very impressed with Turkey and Messina (Mt. Etna), my least favorite stop was Athens.

 

Passengers - on our cruise there were hardly any kids. There was a good mix of ages. Most passengers were Americans (around 1000), with both us Canadians and the Brits around 700 each.

 

Crew - the entire crew went above and beyond, with the exception of my cabin attendant who did what was expected. Again this crew was a large step above what I experienced on the Crown Princess.

 

Other notes - I don't gamble so I am not sure how well the casino paid out. I also don't go to the art auctions. The photo crew was very quiet, a big difference from my Caribbean cruises where they always seem to be taking your picture. For this cruise I took a mix of US dollars and Euros to use at the ports. To be honest, unless you are an American, just bring mostly Euros, in both Egypt and Turkey I found if they had the choice they would take the Euro first. The only exception would be for tipping - US one dollar bills are the most handy. I would grab a bunch of them from the Guest relations desk early - they ran out of them before we reached Egypt - also Guest relations does not deal with Euro coins, so you have to get them at one of the Euro stops before reaching Turkey and Egypt. All prices on the ship are in US dollars. The bank machine in the Casino was in US dollars, but the one near the guest relations desk was in Euros, so using your bank card you can get either type of currency.

 

Overall it was a fantastic cruise.

[Gator0178]

I was on the 12 day May 6th cruise which stopped in Naples, Athens, Turkey, Rhodes, Egypt and Messina. If you have any specific questions feel free to ask and I will try and answer them.

 

Ship - The Navigator of the seas is in very good shape. The only real wear showing is on the mini-golf course. I had a port side "hump" balcony cabin - unfortunately this was on the wrong side for most of the ports to watch the late arrivals run for the ship. For those of you that have never been on a Voyager class ship, you can go to the very front of the ship where they have an observation deck. There is also a bridge viewing area on deck 11 (I think it is deck 11 anyways).

 

Bars - The most popular bar was the Schooner bar. The Piano player is very entertaining and had the place packed every night - but the band that was playing in the Ixtapa Lounge was terrible, and they often emptied the place when they were on the stage. There was also a guitar player in the Two poets pub who was very good. There was another band up in the Viking Crown Lounge, but I never did go listen to them play. The dungeon (disco) DJ wasn't great, but did take any and all requests, so if you like disco's bring a list of songs for him to play. If you have a quiet afternoon, have the bartenders at the Schooner bar show you some bar tricks. They were mind games, using stir sticks and such. They are best done before getting inebriated - tell them Mr. Cameron who drank all the Canadian Club Rye Whiskey they had at the bar sent you!

 

Shows - The ice show was very good, but our sailing was their last performance, so it will now be a new batch of performers. The comedian they had was fair, and I did catch a Beatles tribute show that was entertaining. The other shows I did not catch - (too busy drinking all the rye at the Schooner bar).

 

Activities - I tried all the activities - the inline skating was seldom used by anyone, so our group (nine of us) had a few games of roller derby. This is definitely not allowed, but since it was our own group, they let some of the violations go. The rock climbing wall was more popular, but there was seldom a wait to try it out. Mini-golf was popular during the day, but you can play at anytime, the clubs and balls are right beside the basketball court. The one night it was more of Mini-hurricane golf - on day 10 we had extremely strong winds - the deck wind speed was 96 kph, which made the game extremely interesting. I only went Ice skating once - you may have a short wait for some of the more popular ice skate sizes. They did have some other activities going on during the sea days.

 

Pools - the pools were not crowded and you could usually find spaces in the hot tubs. Deck chairs could be found at all times.

 

Food - the food was good. I ate in the main dining room about half the time. I skipped all the formal nights - this is the first cruise I decided to leave the suit at home to save luggage space (crummy airline luggage weight rules). The windjammer buffet food was also good, but the windjammer can get busy - especially in the morning around 10 am for breakfast. I didn't try any of the optional dining. I should say that I don't cruise for the food, but it was better all around compared to the Crown Princess I was on in January.

 

Tours - I took all the tours through Royal Caribbean and if you have any specific questions I will try and answer them. I was very impressed with Turkey and Messina (Mt. Etna), my least favorite stop was Athens.

 

Passengers - on our cruise there were hardly any kids. There was a good mix of ages. Most passengers were Americans (around 1000), with both us Canadians and the Brits around 700 each.

 

Crew - the entire crew went above and beyond, with the exception of my cabin attendant who did what was expected. Again this crew was a large step above what I experienced on the Crown Princess.

 

Other notes - I don't gamble so I am not sure how well the casino paid out. I also don't go to the art auctions. The photo crew was very quiet, a big difference from my Caribbean cruises where they always seem to be taking your picture. For this cruise I took a mix of US dollars and Euros to use at the ports. To be honest, unless you are an American, just bring mostly Euros, in both Egypt and Turkey I found if they had the choice they would take the Euro first. The only exception would be for tipping - US one dollar bills are the most handy. I would grab a bunch of them from the Guest relations desk early - they ran out of them before we reached Egypt - also Guest relations does not deal with Euro coins, so you have to get them at one of the Euro stops before reaching Turkey and Egypt. All prices on the ship are in US dollars. The bank machine in the Casino was in US dollars, but the one near the guest relations desk was in Euros, so using your bank card you can get either type of currency.

 

Overall it was a fantastic cruise.

 

 

Thanks for the input. Sounds like the same great ship I was on in Jan.:D

[navigator0709]

I was on the 12 day May 6th cruise which stopped in Naples, Athens, Turkey, Rhodes, Egypt and Messina. If you have any specific questions feel free to ask and I will try and answer them.

 

Ship - The Navigator of the seas is in very good shape. The only real wear showing is on the mini-golf course. I had a port side "hump" balcony cabin - unfortunately this was on the wrong side for most of the ports to watch the late arrivals run for the ship. For those of you that have never been on a Voyager class ship, you can go to the very front of the ship where they have an observation deck. There is also a bridge viewing area on deck 11 (I think it is deck 11 anyways).

 

 

Thanks for the great review. We will be sailing her in July and also have a hump cabin (9622). Just curious what side of the ship you were (starboard or port)? We were hoping to get nice view of the ports at sailing from our balcony.

Thanks

[moingerson]

I noticed when you port back in Italy after the trip, What time do they let you off the ship even tho it docked at 4am or so?? Did you take the train to/from Rome?

[CruisinChaos]

Thanks for the great review. We will be sailing her in July and also have a hump cabin (9622). Just curious what side of the ship you were (starboard or port)? We were hoping to get nice view of the ports at sailing from our balcony.

Thanks

 

I was on the port side, cabin 7618. In Messina and Rhodes, I faced the dock. Alexandria is a long run into the port, so unless you like to watch the late passengers run for the ship like I do, there will be a good view of the port on either side of the ship.

[CruisinChaos]

I noticed when you port back in Italy after the trip, What time do they let you off the ship even tho it docked at 4am or so?? Did you take the train to/from Rome?

 

You can get off the ship very early, I am sure some of the walk-offs with their own luggage could leave by 6:30. Most of our group waited until near the end. We left at 9:30.

 

We spent three days in Rome pre-cruise and took the train from Rome (Termini Station) to Civitavecchia. Other than trying to read the departure board at the station, taking the train was very easy. Just chuck your luggage on the seat beside you and away you go. A great website explaining the train system is located here:

 

http://www.ftroute.com/ItalianTrains.htm

 

Once you are at the Civitavecchia train station, turn right and start walking towards the port. Unless you have difficulty walking, or you have a ton of luggage, you can walk to the port entrance. It would be around 5-6 city blocks. At the port entrance there are free shuttle buses to take you to the ship.

 

You cannot take the train directly from the port (Civitavecchia) to the Airport - you will have to go to Termini in Rome, then back to the airport.

 

After the cruise we used Rome Cabs to take us to the Seccy Hotel in Fiumicino (near the airport) where we stayed overnight before flying out the next day. I was very impressed with both of the hotels we stayed at. In Rome we stayed at the Apollo Hotel near the Colloseum, and the Seccy was a fantastic pre-flight hotel.