Home from Navigator of the Seas - 3/21 - Ft. Lauderdale

[haywardwis]

3-21-11 Navigator of the Seas out of Ft. Lauderdale

Pre-Cruise

Stayed at the Hilton Ft. Lauderdale Airport. We got a great deal for this hotel on Priceline - $58. Nice room and pool.

Day 1 – Monday – Ft. Lauderdale

We used Park and Go and the service was outstanding. Book the internet special - $6.99 per night. By the time we parked the car the shuttle was behind us and ready to go to the port. Very smooth and easy! Highly recommend them. We got to the port about 10:20 or so. Gave our luggage to the porter and then waited in line. A little before 11 they started letting people go through check-in. We walked on to the ship at 11:10 and headed to the MDR to check out our dinner table. Visited the Sky bar for a little bit and then went to Windjammer for lunch. By the time we knew it, we went to our room a little after 1:00 – Cabin 8618. We got our luggage very quickly and organized our room. We attended the Welcome aboard show and then had dinner. Enjoyed the bars and casino throughout the first night.

Day 2 – Tuesday – At Sea

Nice day, but very windy! Enjoyed the pool all day long. We attended the ice show, which we had never done. The show was pretty good, glad we went.

Day 3 – Wednesday – Labadee, Haiti

We had a wonderful time in Labadee. We had never been to a private port but it was a great time. Sadly, there were two ships in port that day and the beaches were crowded! My wife got the chance to zip-line and she really enjoyed it. She took a great video off our camera. After the zip-line we walked down to Columbus beach. We got two chairs right next to the water - enjoyed a raft and the sun all day long. Nice barbeque right at the beach with ribs, chicken, and burgers.

Day 4 – Thursday – Falmouth, Jamaica

This will be a nice port, but right now it is NOT. It is a construction site with make shift shops. I am very disappointed in Royal Caribbean to take guests to this port unfinished. If you book an excursion your day could be great, but we did not want to be gone for 7-8 hours. I asked people if there was a beach nearby that we could go to. I was told that there was not a safe beach around here to go to. We took the free shuttle to the Rose Hall shops – no great deals or anything special. We spent the rest of the afternoon on the ship at the pool.

Day 5 – Friday – At Sea

Amazing weather! Very warm and sunny with no wind. Enjoyed the pool and sky bar all day long. A great way to finish off our vacation! Enjoyed the casino all evening.

Disembarking

Ft. Lauderdale port was a complete mess – very unorganized! We chose to do the self-disembark, which was a mistake. We were told that if you got luggage tags and had RC take your bags off the ship you would not be able to get to them early in the morning. This was not the case! Plus the porters were out of control with what they were doing – never seen anything like it! I watched porters help people with their luggage and personally walk them out of a side door to completely avoid the long line and customs. It was unreal! Also, some of the porters would help people with their luggage and them walk them to the middle of the customs line and cut in front of people.

Food/Drinks

We ate dinner in the MDR every night – good food no problems at all. I love enjoying Bud out of aluminum bottles around the pool. The ship did not have any. Hopefully this is not a fleet wide thing. I know it’s a small thing but I think it is silly that you buy a beer and they have to pour it in a warm plastic glass. It just isn’t the same! RC bring back aluminum bottles!

Entertainment

First time I have ever been disappointed in the shows! One of the shows was the “Man of a thousand voices” Not very entertaining – we left early. There was also a comedian that had been on Leno and done other things. Saw him do his adult show, but again was not impressed and left early. He just wasn’t funny!

The Quest and the Love and Marriage show were great!

Ship

It is in pretty good shape – No major concerns that didn’t allow us to enjoy ourselves.

Let me know if you have any questions.

[BuckeyeMan]

Any chance you recall the name of the comedian?

 

Thanks

[cadburysmom]

Thanks for posting and glad you had a great trip. :)

 

We'll be on Navigator in TWO days and I'm really looking forward to it.

 

Kinda sucks about the porters though. Guess the faster they get people out the side door, the faster they can return for more passengers and more tips. So irritating when people skip the line.:cool:

[Cruzmama59]

We were on the Navigator on 3/17 and had a great time.

Food was excellent, shows nice, and service wonderful...Been on this ship before and loved it them too.

We had the Jr.Suite which was great for 4 people. 2kds and 2adults...Getting same kind of cabin in Dec. on the Liberty of the seas.

We waited to get off the ship even tho I am a diamond member with a walker hated to get off with the crowds....especially the ones who carry off 2 huge suitcases behind each of them.....what ever happened to the you can only carry off and on a certain size suitcase...I saw when we first got to the port they pulled over a few passengers that carried the huge suitcases and made them check them in instead to letting them go thru check in.

I know lots of them had to catch planes but they was still plenty of time as moving off the ship was going pretty fast....I guess one day they will go back to the original way of leaving the ship and only letting small suitcase go with them...this way no one will get banged into and get hurt....

Our porter was great, took us all the way over to the 2nd parking lot and put our bags in the car..gave him a nice tip too he deserved it.

Marilyn

[pittster]

Cruzmama,

 

My husband and I were on that same cruise (3/17). We had a great time. As stated, the ship is in great shape, service and crew were wonderful. No complaints here.

[BuckeyeMan]

Can you give any details on drink specials? Drink of the day prices? Beer specials, etc. If they did have drink of the day can you give any example of what the drinks were?

 

Thanks

[will773]

Just what I needed! I'm doing this exact cruise in 20 days and it was great to read your review! Glad to hear that you had a great trip!

[CruiseNut7]

WHAT ..... no Bud in aluminum cans! My DH will be sooo disappointed -- don't think I'll tell him in advance. Bummer.

 

Hate to hear about the problems with self-disembarkation. We've done it in the past and it always seems to be a problem -- you have people with lots of huge luggage trying to push their way to the front. It's just not worth the aggravation. Of course, on the other side, we have had missing luggage in the big warehouse (it was found after hours of searching, however).

 

Because we are doing the 4-dayer on NOS, I am going to try to pack in carry-ons.

 

Disembarkation day is just the worst day of the trip for all the obvious reasons!

[BillOh]

Let me know if you have any questions.

 

Do you remember what the other ship was that was with you at Labadee?

[CruisingBunny]

Was on the same cruise with you OP. Did you see the show with Paul DiMuzio? Can't remember if they listed him as a comedian or juggler or what but that was definitely the best show on the ship. Could've done without the others...

 

Completely agree about self disembarkation...they made us all go into Studio B and line up our luggage in a line and then everyone take a seat. Then they called for everyone to line up (by their luggage, in a line) and people just went and grabbed their luggage and started to go out the door. It was a mess. Once we disembarked it seemed like it was kind of a long walk out the door, into another building, into the customs office, then outside to get picked up. It was weird - we did a cruise in Oct from the same port and it was nothing like that....oh well.

 

Sadly, I also agree with OP about Falmouth. The town doesn't look safe at all. We went to the shops and back and that was about it. Going back in September and will most likely just stay on the ship! But glad your wife enjoyed the zipline in Labadee, we are thinking of doing that when we go back!

[iswimlikearock]

What time were you able to self disembark?

 

Thanks!

[dfgf]

Do you remember what the other ship was that was with you at Labadee?

 

I was on the same cruise. We were in port with Explorer. Two Voyager-class ships certainly filled Labadee, but not to the point where it felt too crowded. There were enough lounge chairs for everyone and plenty of open beach space.

[haywardwis]

What time were you able to self disembark?

 

Thanks!

 

We tried to leave the ship around 8:15am and it took us about an hour to go through the entire process. I was just a mess. We couldnt get an elevator so I carried all of our luggage down 8 floors. Then you had to walk all of your stuff down to the end of the peir and then through the customs lines. It was for sure a process!