Just returned from Navigator of the Seas: 3/11-3/16

[Joaniers]

Just returned from a fantastic 5 night cruise onboard the Navigator of the Seas. We have sailed on this ship several times, both in the Caribbean as well as the Mediterranean. As many others have mentioned on this board, I too was concerned about the age of the ship, but I must say that the Navigator is still beautiful and appeared to be in great shape. We had two balcony cabins; a D2 for my husband and I, and an E3 for my college-aged son, his girlfriend and my 16 year old daughter.

 

We left Ft. Lauderdale and had 2 full sea days as well as a day each in Cozumel and Grand Cayman. In Cozumel, we took a taxi to the Forum Shops and walked back through the town. There really is not much to buy and most of the shops sell the same merchandise. We had a fantastic lunch in Pancho’s Backyard and enjoyed the margaritas while sitting outside and listening to the musicians. On the way back to the ship, we stopped into Senor Frogs to buy a drink in the “yardo” cup to bring home as a souvenir. Being Spring Break, it was crazy there and had we known there was a smaller Senor Frogs at the port shops, we would have stopped there instead.

 

In Grand Cayman, we booked an excursion through Stingray Sailing to take us to Stingray City followed by snorkeling. I cannot say enough about how fantastic this trip was, sailing in a catamaran with less than 20 passengers and a crew of 4. The price of $50 per person included being picked up at the port and being brought back as well. You cannot go wrong booking this trip – “Captain” Chip is amazing and we had a terrific time.

 

I’ll give you a few of my observations, and will be happy to answer any questions as best as I can. The food is okay but plentiful. Nothing really stood out in my opinion, but the service in the Dining Room is good (although bar and wine service was a bit slow), and the presentation is beautiful as well. We ate lunch in the Dining Room on the last day and they have a great salad bar where you can create your own salad and then it is tossed/chopped by the waiters. The Promenade always had a great selection of sandwiches, pizza and decadent desserts. We also went to Johnny Rockets after returning from our excursion and loved the onion rings, fries and burgers (as well as the cookies and crème milkshakes). We ate at Chops one night – it was delicious but not as good as I had remembered and the charge is now $30 per person which I feel is a bit steep.

 

The cabins were spotless and our attendant was fantastic as well. We requested extra towels as well as ice, and both were provided every day. After the first day, the interactive feature on the television stopped working and we never quite got an answer as to if and when it would be fixed. The problem with this was that we were not able to check our accounts on the t.v. and had to request a printout from guest relations instead. This was an inconvenience because we kept checking to see if our “bring a friend” onboard credit had been issued, as well as a credit from Portofino’s for a reservation we made prior to sailing which we cancelled onboard when we switched to Chops. It took several phone calls and trips to both Guest Relations and Portofino’s to finally get this straightened out on the last day. It appears that if you don’t stay on top of these things, neither does Royal Caribbean.

 

We spent most of the time at the Solarium pool but it was nearly impossible to find chairs on both sea days due to the abundance of “chair hogs” saving seats with their towels. There are “deck patrol” staff members walking around but they didn’t do anything about it. You just have to persevere and keep an eye out for people leaving. We also enjoyed the use of the Fitness Center and never had a problem finding available equipment.

The shows were fine – nothing spectacular but entertaining nonetheless. We also enjoyed the Love and Marriage show and watched a bit of Karaoke two nights. The Cruise Director was good, but we found the Activities Director, Simona, to be quite annoying.

 

Debarkation was easy as we were able to wait in the Dining Room as Diamond members and were off the ship by 8:30. One word of caution – we had a porter take our luggage through customs with us and to the shuttle headed to the parking garage. When we arrived at the garage, we found that we were missing one of our bags and instead had someone else’s bag. Thankfully, their cellphone number was on the tag and we were able to call them and they had not left the ship. My husband brought their bag back to the port but was not allowed to go back in so we had the people whose bag we had, claim our bag and take it as their own and then made the switch outside. Thank goodness it all worked out but we learned a lesson to check the bags carefully.

 

Overall, this was a great trip and we would have liked it to last another day or two. Feel free to ask any questions and I’ll do my best to answer.

[will773]

Glad you had a great trip! Love the Navigator :)

[vivavegas]

Thanks for taking the time to write your review. Sounds like you had a great cruise. I'm thinking about booking the Navigator sometime soon.

[Macfans]

I too was on this cruise. We had a good time. Did you hear about the stingray tour that was told to meet at the ice rink. They were forgotten. 2 hours later they were told that they missed their tour and sorry no refunds. We had lunch with someone the following day that happened to be an attorney from Chicago who booked this tour. Unfortunately I never was able to speak with her again. This was their first cruise, what weak first impression.