Navigator 12/04/11-12/10/11

[trinty1]

My mom and I sailed on the Navigator of the Seas December 4th through December 10th out of Port Everglades. This is our first RCCL cruise. We have cruised prior on Carnival Legend and Valor, as well as Ruby Princess.

THE POSITIVES:

1. I was ready for the worst reading the prior weeks reviews about embarking at Terminal 29. All worries were unfounded. We sailed through check-in and were onboard in about 30-40 minutes from the point of being dropped off by the hotel shuttle.

2. BB in the casino made the best Bloody Mary drinks I have had in my life! She was the nicest, sweetest lady and she was very helpful and remembered us everytime we came in (which wasn’t hard because it was everyday). LOL. In fact, I missed the Meet N Mingle due to these drinks.

3. The Welcome Aboard parade and Circus parade in the Royal Promenade were entertaining and exciting.

4. The Christmas decorations and Christmas music were a very nice holiday bonus.

5. The location of the library was a nice spot to sit and relax in the leather chairs.

6. While the coffee in the Windjammer was repulsive, the coffee in the Cafe Promenade was a wonderful find. Delicious and lets not forget the peanut butter and coconut ranger cookies.

I guess my opinion on this particular cruise was the lack of customer service from the employees. Not just one or two, but many.

NEGATIVES:

1. Prior to embarkation, I received an onboard credit as an early birthday gift. I was instructed per the email to call an 800# to RCCL. The agent I spoke with gave me the RCCL website, told me what to click and to “CALL BACK IN FOUR DAYS TO MAKE SURE IT GOES THROUGH.” Uh, OK. I did that and called back the following Monday and was told, “ No, its not here. I will research it and call you back tomorrow.” Two days later with no response, I called back and was told “It’s here.” I asked for an email confirming this and was sent one. No further problems.

2. I had to go down to Guest Relations everyday to have minibar charges removed from my account. On day 2 it was $ 2.00, day 3, $ 5.00, day 4 $ 8.00, day 5 $13. I closed my account out Friday evening and had a nice notice outside my room Saturday morning prior to departure that I owed $ 27.50 for a minibar charge from Friday. Every time I went to the desk I was told " it will be removed." All but one time, it was. There was no apology and I was queried whether I was really taking things out of the minibar or not. I have NO PROBLEM paying for anything I consumer or use. I drank (plenty ), went to the spa, shopped on board, went to Johnny Rockets, I spent $. All charges were removed but it was a hassle and the blaise attitude didn't help.

3. I found the food to be lukewarm at best in WindJammer. Like BobMal said, a plate of cheese at the other end of the buffet that you put on a lukewarm hamburger? It was just little things. The food variety was almost the same everyday.

I got a cold in Ocho and wanted warm chicken noodle soup. I ordered it from room service and it arrived within 20 minutes but was cold. Not warm, not tepid. COLD!

4. We wanted to be moved in dining to My Time and was told by the Maitre'D prior to departure, sorry, we are full. I asked to be moved to table for 2 on 6pm seating, sorry. I asked to be moved to a table for 2 for late seating, sorry.

5. When down at Guest Relations Saturday morning, the board displayed our disembarkating time from Studio B at 8:45 but our paperwork said 9:45. When I asked the Guest Relations agent, she saie we were cleared early and we would disembark at 8:45. We went down to Studio B where they werre calling group 8 (we were 24). We were off the ship at 10:30.

6. Every one of my photos had to be reprinted because they were gone. They were there earlier in the week and we had someone from the photo area help us look for them but could not find them.

It was just a bunch of little things. The vacation wasn't a disaster. I felt the ship showed its age and had some little issues in my stateroom (dents in back of stateroom door, stained and ripped bathrobe). Again, nothing major and could be overlooked. I just felt the customer service as a whole was lacking. Just my $ .02.

Will we book with RCCL again? Honestly, I do not know.

[cruisingagentone]

About the mini bar problem you should have gone to the room steward and asked what was going on because they are the ones adding those to your bill and its very frustrating to have to keep going down to GS

[bobmal99]

Now I see what you are

talking about..

 

Bummer..

[kennyken14]

I am not writing this discredit anything the OP said only to offer an alternative viewpoint. We had a wonderful time onboard the ship. This being only our 2nd cruise I suppose it is entirely possibly that I just haven't developed as "critical" an eye towards making judgments as others. Embarktion was a breeze we were 9th and 10th in line at the pier so obviously we weren't taking any chances in getting caught up in massive lines. Our stateroom attendant Patricia Thompson on deck 6 was not only detail oriented in servicing our stateroom but also had very good people skills and routinely seemed genuinely interested in asking about our day. In fact every person we came in contact with from stateroom attendants to maintenance staff always smiled and said hello, even though they had nothing to gain from it. As far as the ships condition, being 10 years old and in constant saltwater I felt it was beautiful, and not only that they were constantly caring for it and revarnishing to spruce things up. They have obvious pride in taking care of their huge investments. Food seems a constant point of contention. My two cents is this. 3,100 people 3 meals a day plus round the clock snacks. Given this reality I think the food was great in the environment. We had some hiccups, our trash wasn't emptied when we first arrived in our stateroom, one of our bags was delivered to guest relations when a porter misplaced it on a cart and the pier in Grand Cayman was mass chaos and could have used another RCL rep or two to help sort things out. If you search out the bad it will always find you (and again I'm not disparaging the remarks of anyone else) but with taking care of the individual needs,expectations, and sometimes demands of 3,100 people daily I think RCL does an outstanding job

[NorbertsNiece]

I always get the items removed from the mini bar the day I board. Means I can use the space for other things. Also means I don't get these bizarre charges for items never used.

[trinty1]

I made lemonade out of lemons. What I was told on one of my many trips to Guest Relations was that it is not the room steward but the mini fridge has a sensor in it and if it is so much as bumped accidentally, the item that moves a smidge bit will be automatically charged to your account. No one takes a manual account of the actual minibar. Whether this is true or not, I do not know. Unfortunately, opinions are like >>>>, everyone has one and while my vacation was not terrible, it could have been better. It may have been an off week, I don't know.

[PH8]

I made lemonade out of lemons. What I was told on one of my many trips to Guest Relations was that it is not the room steward but the mini fridge has a sensor in it and if it is so much as bumped accidentally, the item that moves a smidge bit will be automatically charged to your account. No one takes a manual account of the actual minibar. Whether this is true or not, I do not know. Unfortunately, opinions are like >>>>, everyone has one and while my vacation was not terrible, it could have been better. It may have been an off week, I don't know.

Not sure about other ships,but on the MN, some guy(a bar guy of some sort) comes in everyday to see what is in the mini bar.....it is NOT the cabin attendant that keeps track..

[mo&fran]

I made lemonade out of lemons. What I was told on one of my many trips to Guest Relations was that it is not the room steward but the mini fridge has a sensor in it and if it is so much as bumped accidentally, the item that moves a smidge bit will be automatically charged to your account. No one takes a manual account of the actual minibar. Whether this is true or not, I do not know. Unfortunately, opinions are like >>>>, everyone has one and while my vacation was not terrible, it could have been better. It may have been an off week, I don't know.

 

I think someone is pulling your leg here. The beverage department has a person who takes inventory of the mini fridge every day. If you have taken something , you get charged and it is replaced. Also, you can have them place something else in it if you want. DW likes Diet Sprite, and they provided it for her.

[trinty1]

I think they wanted me to leave their area and they were tired of seeing my face. I wasn't loud, I didn't shout. I just kindly explained that it was an everyday occurance that was a tad frustrating. Just something that sticks in my mind. I work in Customer Service and sometimes an apologize goes along way. Besides the negative, we did go to a few warm locations and I have plenty of pics in which I hope to post soon.

[LBumb]

thanks for review

[Phillies14]

My mom and I sailed on the Navigator of the Seas December 4th through December 10th out of Port Everglades. This is our first RCCL cruise. We have cruised prior on Carnival Legend and Valor, as well as Ruby Princess.

 

THE POSITIVES:

1. I was ready for the worst reading the prior weeks reviews about embarking at Terminal 29. All worries were unfounded. We sailed through check-in and were onboard in about 30-40 minutes from the point of being dropped off by the hotel shuttle.

 

2. BB in the casino made the best Bloody Mary drinks I have had in my life! She was the nicest, sweetest lady and she was very helpful and remembered us everytime we came in (which wasn’t hard because it was everyday). LOL. In fact, I missed the Meet N Mingle due to these drinks.

 

3. The Welcome Aboard parade and Circus parade in the Royal Promenade were entertaining and exciting.

 

4. The Christmas decorations and Christmas music were a very nice holiday bonus.

 

5. The location of the library was a nice spot to sit and relax in the leather chairs.

 

6. While the coffee in the Windjammer was repulsive, the coffee in the Cafe Promenade was a wonderful find. Delicious and lets not forget the peanut butter and coconut ranger cookies.

 

I guess my opinion on this particular cruise was the lack of customer service from the employees. Not just one or two, but many.

 

NEGATIVES:

1. Prior to embarkation, I received an onboard credit as an early birthday gift. I was instructed per the email to call an 800# to RCCL. The agent I spoke with gave me the RCCL website, told me what to click and to “CALL BACK IN FOUR DAYS TO MAKE SURE IT GOES THROUGH.” Uh, OK. I did that and called back the following Monday and was told, “ No, its not here. I will research it and call you back tomorrow.” Two days later with no response, I called back and was told “It’s here.” I asked for an email confirming this and was sent one. No further problems.

 

2. I had to go down to Guest Relations everyday to have minibar charges removed from my account. On day 2 it was $ 2.00, day 3, $ 5.00, day 4 $ 8.00, day 5 $13. I closed my account out Friday evening and had a nice notice outside my room Saturday morning prior to departure that I owed $ 27.50 for a minibar charge from Friday. Every time I went to the desk I was told " it will be removed." All but one time, it was. There was no apology and I was queried whether I was really taking things out of the minibar or not. I have NO PROBLEM paying for anything I consumer or use. I drank (plenty ), went to the spa, shopped on board, went to Johnny Rockets, I spent $. All charges were removed but it was a hassle and the blaise attitude didn't help.

 

3. I found the food to be lukewarm at best in WindJammer. Like BobMal said, a plate of cheese at the other end of the buffet that you put on a lukewarm hamburger? It was just little things. The food variety was almost the same everyday.

I got a cold in Ocho and wanted warm chicken noodle soup. I ordered it from room service and it arrived within 20 minutes but was cold. Not warm, not tepid. COLD!

 

4. We wanted to be moved in dining to My Time and was told by the Maitre'D prior to departure, sorry, we are full. I asked to be moved to table for 2 on 6pm seating, sorry. I asked to be moved to a table for 2 for late seating, sorry.

 

5. When down at Guest Relations Saturday morning, the board displayed our disembarkating time from Studio B at 8:45 but our paperwork said 9:45. When I asked the Guest Relations agent, she saie we were cleared early and we would disembark at 8:45. We went down to Studio B where they werre calling group 8 (we were 24). We were off the ship at 10:30.

 

6. Every one of my photos had to be reprinted because they were gone. They were there earlier in the week and we had someone from the photo area help us look for them but could not find them.

 

It was just a bunch of little things. The vacation wasn't a disaster. I felt the ship showed its age and had some little issues in my stateroom (dents in back of stateroom door, stained and ripped bathrobe). Again, nothing major and could be overlooked. I just felt the customer service as a whole was lacking. Just my $ .02.

 

Will we book with RCCL again? Honestly, I do not know.

Strange, your telling me everything you consumed in the windjammer was"lukewarm at best"? Everything???? Am D+ with RC and have never ever been charged every consecutive day for items in the mini fridge?????

Just sounds a bit strange????:rolleyes: Also the coffee in the WJ, hmmm have been drinking that "repulsive" coffee for many years now, maybe its just me??

[trinty1]

@Phillies14, there was not one thing that I consummed that was called "HOT" except at Johnny Rockets. The pizza in CP was warmer than food in the WindJammer. This is my personal review of RCCL, well at least this particular cruise. We come to Cruise Critic for reviews (whether they are good or bad) and I am not sure why you feel my review is in question. I am a travel agent and this is not the first time I have cruised. It is the first time with RCCL. Again, I said I made lemonade out of lemons, howver, this was my opinion of this cruise. I did not post it to get flammed. I have the printouts from my cruise acct to show how many minibar charges I had reversed. I have no idea why my review is in question.

[delta13]

I was on this exact same cruise and love love love RCI. I thought the ship was beautiful! Yes, I also had a stain on the carpet in my stateroom and a torn drape but that is to be expected. Navigator is not a brand new ship. The main areas of the ship are very well maintained.

 

I do agree that the food was not the best I had ever had and choices were similar daily but I did not go hungry and food was plentiful!

 

I had outstanding service in both the MDR and my room steward so no complaints there.

 

I will definately sail RCI again!

[Phillies14]

I am not writing this discredit anything the OP said only to offer an alternative viewpoint. We had a wonderful time onboard the ship. This being only our 2nd cruise I suppose it is entirely possibly that I just haven't developed as "critical" an eye towards making judgments as others. Embarktion was a breeze we were 9th and 10th in line at the pier so obviously we weren't taking any chances in getting caught up in massive lines. Our stateroom attendant Patricia Thompson on deck 6 was not only detail oriented in servicing our stateroom but also had very good people skills and routinely seemed genuinely interested in asking about our day. In fact every person we came in contact with from stateroom attendants to maintenance staff always smiled and said hello, even though they had nothing to gain from it. As far as the ships condition, being 10 years old and in constant saltwater I felt it was beautiful, and not only that they were constantly caring for it and revarnishing to spruce things up. They have obvious pride in taking care of their huge investments. Food seems a constant point of contention. My two cents is this. 3,100 people 3 meals a day plus round the clock snacks. Given this reality I think the food was great in the environment. We had some hiccups, our trash wasn't emptied when we first arrived in our stateroom, one of our bags was delivered to guest relations when a porter misplaced it on a cart and the pier in Grand Cayman was mass chaos and could have used another RCL rep or two to help sort things out. If you search out the bad it will always find you (and again I'm not disparaging the remarks of anyone else) but with taking care of the individual needs,expectations, and sometimes demands of 3,100 people daily I think RCL does an outstanding job

I like the way you think and your putlook...There are those that will always look for the bleak side of issues, there are those that will never be happy or satisfied no matter what you do. When you read some of these posts it's not so hard to pick out this type of individual. Enjoy your cruising...K.O.Near Philly:);)

[gelo7]

Thanks for posting your review.

[trinty1]

Honestly, I believe I said I made lemonade out of lemons. I took a cruise on Princess in March and had not one complaint about that cruise. Was my Navigator cruise "terrible"? No. But I just feel that if you look forward to a trip for so long and things aren't the best, I feel that I can voice my opinion about it. I am not "that type of person" and don't appreciate being labeled as that. Feel free to read many other posts that I have made over the years and you will see my posts are not that of "that type of person."Ridiculous.

[BillOh]

About the mini bar problem you should have gone to the room steward and asked what was going on because they are the ones adding those to your bill and its very frustrating to have to keep going down to GS

 

Majesty was the first time this happened to me and at least on that ship, the room stewart has no responsibility for the mini-bar, there was a second guy who came around and noted those charges and refilled them. I don't remember how we got the charge off, but it did happen.

 

Regarding the cheese in the Windjammer, this is my biggest pet-peeve with Royal Caribbean ;) (meant to show how much I like the line) They stack the cheese in tall blocks of individual pieces and give you tongs that have no grip whatsover. My tip of the day, take a clean fork, put it under the first piece, put your thumb on top of the piece (the piece you are taking) and remove the piece. If I used the tongs, I'd still be there.

[sarahs06790]

I made lemonade out of lemons. What I was told on one of my many trips to Guest Relations was that it is not the room steward but the mini fridge has a sensor in it and if it is so much as bumped accidentally, the item that moves a smidge bit will be automatically charged to your account. No one takes a manual account of the actual minibar. Whether this is true or not, I do not know. Unfortunately, opinions are like >>>>, everyone has one and while my vacation was not terrible, it could have been better. It may have been an off week, I don't know.

 

We were on last week. On Day 1 I asked for the items to be removed so we didn't need to worry about it. The room attendant had me put the items in the cabinet above the safe and advised he would tell the person who checks the fridge that the items were there.

[PattyG12]

We were on last week. On Day 1 I asked for the items to be removed so we didn't need to worry about it. The room attendant had me put the items in the cabinet above the safe and advised he would tell the person who checks the fridge that the items were there.

 

That's what our steward told us to do ... and leave the door ajar so the person checking the mini bar can see. Day 2 he left me a note that they had taken everything out of the cabinet! We've not had a problem.

 

I agree the food is subjective but I can always find something that I'll eat and I'm a very picky eater. OP perhaps Royal Caribbean isn't for you. I'm glad that you tried it though.

[critterchick]

I made lemonade out of lemons. What I was told on one of my many trips to Guest Relations was that it is not the room steward but the mini fridge has a sensor in it and if it is so much as bumped accidentally, the item that moves a smidge bit will be automatically charged to your account. No one takes a manual account of the actual minibar. Whether this is true or not, I do not know. Unfortunately, opinions are like >>>>, everyone has one and while my vacation was not terrible, it could have been better. It may have been an off week, I don't know.

 

I thought that the ships disabled those automatic sensors years ago. We were on Radiance in 2004 and our cabin steward told us that.

 

Strange, your telling me everything you consumed in the windjammer was"lukewarm at best"? Everything???? Am D+ with RC and have never ever been charged every consecutive day for items in the mini fridge?????

Just sounds a bit strange????:rolleyes: Also the coffee in the WJ, hmmm have been drinking that "repulsive" coffee for many years now, maybe its just me??

 

Doesn't sound strange to me. I'm Pinnacle Club and I've had plenty of lukewarm food in the WJ and the dining room. We've been charged on occasion for items we didn't consume, too. Not every day, but even once is kind of annoying. And often the coffee in the WJ is repulsive, but it's even worse from room service. It all depends on how often they clean the coffeemakers, which on some ships isn't often. DH drinks it, but he was in the Navy for 23 years, so drinking sludge is nostalgia for him. I'm just surprised the OP didn't come home, check her credit card statement and find out that she'd been charged for unreturned pool towels, too.

 

OP, sorry you're getting flamed for posting your experience. RCI can't deliver the WOW on every sailing to every passenger. I do have a couple of comments, though, from a cheerleader's perspective:

 

On full sailings (which most are), you can't expect to be able to change your dining arrangements. If as seating is full, it's full. Tables for 2 are coveted and fill up quickly, so if you didn't ask for one ahead of time, the odds of getting one are poor. We've struck out more than once because we didn't properly plan ahead. But you can go back a day or two later and inquire; sometimes they can manage to change you then.

 

Disembarkation is always a crapshoot. The ship could clear at 3:00 am, but if there are only two immigration officers on the pier, then you're going to be held up. There's no way to know in advance that it will happen.

 

As for the dented stateroom door, really?;) The stained & torn bathrobe should and could have been replaced by your stateroom attendant. In spite of what they tell you, there are always a few more somewhere on the ship.

 

Finally, lots of people complain that the WJ lacks variety, so you're not alone there. My thought is that it may be the same items every day, but there are dozens of those items to choose from. At home I only eat 2 or 3 things in one meal, so I'm always puzzled that people think that 50-60 things are lacking in variety.

 

So, those are my thoughts on your review. I hope your next cruising experience is better.:)

[trinty1]

Thank you for fairly critiqueing my review. I am hoping that this was just an "off" sailing. After the first two minibar charges, I should have just had the steward remove everything). I read ahead of time about the pool towel issue and charge and did not sign out one towel (LOL). Sea days were a bit chilly (exceot Ocho) so I never swam in the pools or hot tub. I actually caught a cold midway through the cruise so swimming was kind of meh for me. I never used the bath robes, however, noticing the rips and dents in the stateroom door, I just thought that it gave an overall poor image, like "we don't care." It was like checking into a hotel and finding a used bar of soap on the holder. It wasn't a deal breaker or ruination of my cruise, just something to make me say, "hmmm". I will again begin my search for the next cruise, perhaps RCCL, we will see.