Navigator 6 Night Trip Journal with Pictures

[Newbcruiser1]

We just got off a great 6 Night cruise on the Navigator of the Seas! We are at the airport awaiting our flight home and I'll start posting my review with pictures later this evening!

 

In the meantime, feel free to check out my previous photo journals:

 

Liberty of the Seas: http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=1360146

 

Allure of the Seas:

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=1429127

 

Stay tuned for more! :)

[alexkrn46]

Looking forward to your review, hope you enjoyed your cruise.

[bcwaves]

Can't wait to read all about it! Safe travels home!

[citrusflorida]

We were on this sailing also and will be doing the same. Had a great time!

[fish6]

We just got off a great 6 Night cruise on the Navigator of the Seas! We are at the airport awaiting our flight home and I'll start posting my review with pictures later this evening!

 

In the meantime, feel free to check out my previous photo journals:

 

Liberty of the Seas: http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=1360146

 

Allure of the Seas:

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=1429127

 

Stay tuned for more! :)

Awesome thanks!! May I ask who the CD was?

[Newbcruiser1]

So sorry for the delay in posting! Our flight was supposed to leave at 11:45am yesterday and kept getting delayed - we sat in the airport for 13 hours until they gave us a hotel room for the night and rescheduled the flight to today. I just got home this afternoon. Once I start getting the pictures uploaded, I'll start to post! :)

[Newbcruiser1]

A bit of Background Information:

Myself, mid-20’s and my Mom took this cruise as a girls getaway. It was my mom’s second Royal Caribbean cruise, and my 5th, having previously been on the Radiance, Explorer, Liberty, and Allure. As such, we are both Platinum C&A members. We enjoy RCI’s product and therefore have not strayed to other cruise lines, although we do want to try some other lines for our next cruise.

 

Arrival in Fort Lauderdale - January 28, 2012:

We woke up bright and early at 3:30am for our 7am flight on Sunwing from Toronto to Fort Lauderdale. The lines for check-in, security, and customs were pretty long so we had just enough time to grab some bagels and make our way to the gate.The flight was good, enhanced by free breakfast sandwiches, beverages, and chocolates, and we arrived around 10:30am.

After picking up our luggage, we then took the car rental shuttle from terminal 3 to the rental centre. Luckily it wasn’t busy, and within a few minutes, we had our rental car, a Chevy Cruze and we were on our way to our hotel, the Sheraton Suites Cypress Creek. We were hoping to stay around the beach or downtown area and not need to rent a car, however I messed up on Priceline and we ended up with the Sheraton.

 

The hotel was about a 20 minute drive north of the airport. It resembled an Embassy Suites with the large atrium with bar and eating area, a very small gift shop, and an outdoor pool.

The Atrium:

The room was very large with a sitting area with a couch, ottoman, and flat-screen TV along with a dining table, small sink, and fridge in the front half, and a separate bedroom with a small French balcony. The bathroom was very tiny, almost resembling those on the cruise ships, but we managed okay. The room wasn’t as clean as I would have hoped in part due to the age of the hotel. The carpet had worn areas and stains and was lumpy, and the dressers and desk had some scum stains on them. I had read a few reviews complaining of bed bugs so I thoroughly inspected the bed and under the fitted sheets and luckily we did not find any. I wouldn’t book the hotel again, but under the circumstances and my Priceline error, we made the best of it.

 

After checking in we headed off to Sawgrass Mills and did a bit of shopping, saw a movie, and had dinner at the Cheesecake Factory.

We were hoping to spend the day on the water taxi but the weather was questionable with a chance of rain. It started pouring just as we finished dinner at around 9pm so it was probably better that we were at the mall rather than out on the water. We then headed back to the hotel, getting a little lost along the way, and we went to bed around 11pm or so after a very long day.

[Newbcruiser1]

Day 1 - January 29, 2012 - Depart Fort Lauderdale

We woke up at 8:15 to give ourselves plenty of time to get dressed, return the car, and get to the port. We were a bit worried about getting lost getting to the Budget location on SE 17th Street, but we found it easily along with plenty of gas stations to fill up at along the way. The car return was extremely easy, although there was a bit of a line already forming outside of people waiting to pick up their post-cruise rental cars. Within about 15 minutes of arriving, we were on the shuttle to the port. It made a stop at the Alamo office at a nearby hotel to pick up some more passengers, and then over to Port Everglades.

 

We had read a lot of horror stories about terminal 29 and were frankly a bit concerned. It’s definitely an odd set-up full of pylons and luggage carts in a large parking lot, causing us to have to run through the rain while dodging cars on our way to the terminal. We also noticed that everyone’s checked luggage was sitting on the carts in the rain, however they appeared to be efficient enough in filling up the carts and getting them inside in a timely manner.

 

 

 

We got inside around 10:45am, and being “pre-check-in time”, we entered at the “warehouse” attached to the terminal. It only had a few check in counters, the lady with the flower hat, and a few rows of chairs. We had our sea-passes in hand before being told to wait in the waiting area until approximately 11am.

 

 

 

The "real" Terminal 29:

 

 

At 11 sharp, they led everyone into the main terminal where we had our pictures taken for our sea-passes and then boarded the ship at around 11:10am. Overall it was very painless, although terminal 29 is not RCI’s finest.

 

We headed up to the Windjammer upon boarding as we had not yet had breakfast or lunch, however it wasn’t opening until between 11:30 and 11:45, so we lugged our carry-on bag outside and sat near the pool for a bit.

 

 

[Trenise]

Can't wait to read the rest

[Newbcruiser1]

The Windjammer opened at 11:45 and we were soon eating lunch, which for myself, consisted of honey-stung chicken, fries, mashed potatoes, a mini turkey wrap, and iced tea. For dessert I had a sugar-free peanut butter cookie which was a little big bland, and some apple streusel.

 

We still had some time to kill until 1pm when the rooms would be ready, so again, we planted ourselves by the pool for a bit, this time in the solarium and did a bit of boat and people-watching.

 

 

At 1pm, we headed to our room, a deck 7 Promenade room right in the middle of the forward and aft elevators. We had requested the beds to be apart but they were together when we entered. Here is a before and after once we had our room steward separate them:

 

 

 

 

I have stayed in this category of room before on the Explorer, but when we opened the door, I have to admit it seemed smaller than I expected. This quickly passed however once we got inside and got settled in. While unpacking our carry-on bag, we heard a knock on the door, and one of our suitcases was waiting for us. We then got another knock delivering our 8-pack of mini diet-caffeine free diet coke bottles that we had chanced checking in a plastic bag with a luggage tag. The man asked us if we were waiting for anything else, so we described our remaining suitcase and minutes later, he arrived with it. It was so nice to have everything this early on and get unpacked. The room had plenty of storage space in all of the nooks and crannies which we put to good use.

[jebuell]

Ah, this is great! You're around my age and I look forward to hear your opinions of this cruise. We'll be taking it in just 3 weeks!

[bcwaves]

Love it so far!! Can't wait for the rest. Great pictures!

[Sinppu]

I've read your previous reviews and looking very much forward to the rest of this one as well :)

[fish6]

Thank you so much for doing this.....we are on the Navigator in a few weeks for our first ever B2B. :D

[Ruby71]

Enjoying the review so far, looking forward to the rest. We leave on the Navigator next sunday!

[sml3]

I was wondering if the promenade deck 5 had chairs and/or loungers all the way around it. And can you walk all the way around the ship on this deck? Enchantment and Grandeur both had this. It was my favorite deck. Thanks.

[alexkrn46]

Keep it coming, I am enjoying this.

[will773]

Loving this review! Can't wait for the rest!

[Newbcruiser1]

Yes, the Promenade deck (deck 4) did have chairs out - not loungers, just regular chairs. It was rarely busy and is a great place to sit and watch the ocean go by!

 

The cruise director on this sailing was Dan Whitney, AKA Dan Dan the Party Man. He was very good - I preferred him to some other CD's in the past.

[Newbcruiser1]

We then went back out on deck, sat at the pool for a bit, sat on deck 12, and played a round of mini-golf (I won!). Unfortunately it was pretty chilly outside so we were unable to go swimming as we had hoped, but it was still warmer than in Canada so we couldn’t really complain.

Loved these guys around the Sports Deck:

 

 

Lots of ships in today:

 

 

At 4:10, they started sending everyone down to the Muster Drill. We were able to watch some of the other ships leaving from our muster station.

 

[Newbcruiser1]

 

 

We then we went up to the helipad hoping to stay there for sail away, but once again, it started raining so up we went to deck 11 for some drinks ( a frozen mojito for me!) and to watch us leave under the shelter of deck 12. Luckily by the time we started to pull out at 5:30 sharp, the rain stopped so we went up to deck 12 to make fools of ourselves while waving at the Port Everglades Webcam which we had been watching all the time since booking the cruise months ago.

Sailaway dancing by the pool:

[Newbcruiser1]

It got pretty chilly and windy, so as soon as we left the inlet, I headed back to the room to shower and get ready for the evening. My mom brought a plate of sushi from the Windjammer for a snack, but I found the rice to be extremely vinegary so it wasn’t my favourite.

We went down to the casino on our way to the show to use our free spin to win coupons from our Platinum coupon book. I won a keychain, however my Mom didn’t win anything.

Loved the floor entering the casino:

We then went to the Welcome Aboard show. The theatre was quite empty until the show started at 7:45 and the first-seating guests poured in. Dan Dan the Party Man was the cruise director. The highlight of the show for me was the comedian who we found hilarious.

 

[Newbcruiser1]

After the show and a quick walk through the promenade, we went up to deck 11 to Portofino. We had made reservations online knowing that we weren’t crazy about the first night’s dinner menu in the main dining room. We have been to Chops before, but not Portofino. It was very good. My mom had the salad with prosciutto, I had the risotto with shrimp, and we shared a little platter of fried zucchini, veal stuffed olives, and more for our appetizers.

I then had the seafood skewer, while my mom had the filet mignon. The seafood was good, although the lobster was tiny and extremely salty. The steak was delicious.

[Newbcruiser1]

For dessert, I had the dessert sampler and my Mom had the tiramisu. Everything was great.

 

 

 

 

They made a mistake and tried to bill us again for the dinner despite us having pre-paid online, but they took care of that once we told them.

 

The sail away parade took place at 11pm in the Royal Promenade. It was a little bit cheesy, not as good as the Dreamworks parades on ships with those, but still cute. I then headed up to our room to write my journal and read the next day’s cruise compass, and went to bed around 1am.

 

 

 

[Newbcruiser1]

 

 

 

 

A couple side notes about the room:

- Our bathrobes showed up with turndown service that night

- You now have to request ice from your stateroom attendant. We received ice twice/day after asking initially on the first day. It came in handy for drinking once it melted down, and for our diet coke bottles.

- The fridge in the room was not cold at all. It kept things only slightly cooler than room temperature.

- Our crown and anchor coupon books were in the room when we boarded, as was a paper with the dates of the 2 C&A events we'd be invited to.