Live Navigator of the Seas review (kinda, sorta) May 20

[Artemis908]

I am going to try my best to do a live review of our mediterranean cruise on the Navigator of the Seas May 20-27. I am on an iPad and hoping that I can do some offline posts and upload them later, we shall see how it goes!

 

Ok, so a little background. This is my 6th cruise, 3rd with Royal. I am traveling with my husband, this will be his third cruise. We are celebrating our first wedding anniversary. I had been planning this cruise for about a year, it has always been my dream to travel to Athens and I was told the best way to do it is on a cruise!

 

PRE-CRUISE

 

My husband had never been to Europe before and I have been fortunate to have my mother take me to Europe pretty often and then I got so addicted I traveled some on my own, so I wanted to show him London, which is my favorite city. It worked out great because there is only one airline that goes non stop from Philadelphia to Rome, US Air-- and I hate them. I figured we could stop in London for a few days before heading to Rome. I mean from my experience the last thing you want to do after being on a plane for 7 hours Is go on another one.

 

So we left for London on Wednesday and took a red eye on British Airways. We got World Travellers Plus seats, which are premium economy seats. It was pretty nice because you get more leg room which is good for my 6'3" husband. The other perks include a hot towel, a variety of games, a newspaper and apparently upgraded food which I didn't think was much of an upgrade.

 

It was a long flight and we tried to get some sleep but the seats were pretty uncomfortable. I think I got maybe 30 minutes sleep. We landed in London early at about 9:30 and had about a 20 minute wait at customs. We got our luggage and then were off to the Heathrow Express. We headed to Paddingon and our hotel was very close to the station-- Hotel Indigo. I love this hotel, I would say is my favorite now in London. They were able to get us in to a room early with only a 10 minute wait. The room is very nicely designed, comes with free wifi and soda in the mini refrigerator and Paddington station is very convenient with three different subway lines.

 

I have been to London quite a few times so after a nap and dinner and more sleep, we started our sight seeing on Friday. We saw the London Eye and Aquarium but got cut off half way through due to a fire alarm. So we took a bus tour that ended in Piccadilly Circus. That's where we grabbed dinner, walked around and did som shopping. Saturday we went to Portobello Road market, I have wanted to go there after seeing Bedknobs and Broomsticks! Then we went to the London Zoo which is really far from subway stations so our feet were so tired after going to the zoo that we got a taxi to the hotel.

 

Tomorrow we leave for Rome and since our flight is at 7am we have to be up for a shuttle that leaves at 4am! So we are going to bed early tonight to make our early flight. I will check in again hopefully soon with more to my review. :)

[Streaks]

I will definitely be following this! We are booked on Navigator for October and it cannot come quick enough. Excited to hear how you get on, we will be in cabin 8298, feel free to swing by it and let me know if it's in a good location. We have seen deck plans but word of mouth is better. :D

Take lots of pics too! Can't wait to read all about it!

[ariele_]

Im looking forward to hearing about your experience. We sail on Navigator in Oktober. Have a wonderful cruise!

[Streaks]

Im looking forward to hearing about your experience. We sail on Navigator in Oktober. Have a wonderful cruise!

 

What date are you sailing ariele?

[ariele_]

to Streaks: 07 Oct. 2012

[CruiserByHeart]

I will definitely be following your posts, we're booked on the Navigator of the Seas from Rome in July, and we're really looking forward to be onboard.

 

Hope you will have time to share details about everything from check-in and muster drill to the midnight buffet :-)

 

-Svend

[Streaks]

Do they still do midnight buffets? Thought they had cancelled these?

[blindbandit]

We are cruising July 1st....so very anxious to hear about your trip.

[CruiserByHeart]

Have a great cruise, enjoy you tome and post if you find the time ;-)

[tdk]

Thank you... I will be following as we leave Friday for Rome to get on the navigator next Sunday ... Can't wait since we have never been to that side of the world.

[tonyapp]

I will also be following your posts, I am on next weeks cruise, May 27th, looking forward to it

[mpoole3]

I will be following for sure!

[sxphil]

Our Friends Dave and Karyn are on board they won the cruise on Pirate FM lucky so and so's

[DublinLass]

Just off Navigator on Sunday 13th. No midnight buffet for us. We were in cabins 8287/89 and loved them. Had a wonderful time, staff were soooo friendly

[Artemis908]

Day 1: Embarkation

 

We left our hotel in London at about 4:00am, it was pretty brutal but at least I was excited to go to Rome! We took a shuttle this time, so picked some other people up and made our way to Heathrow. We upgraded to first class so we could go to the lounge, it was about $100 does more but I felt it was worth it. I liked having somewhere to go and have a nice breakfast while we wait to board.*

 

At 7am we boarded and then two hours later we were in Rome. They checked our passports pretty quickly, we didn't have to give any type of landing card like we did in London. We then met our driver after baggage claim. We took Rome Cabs and it worked well, he dropped us off right in front of baggage drop off. I think it took about an hour, so we got there around 12:00. Once you walk in there is a crowd of people because they immediately ask you to fill out the health card th says you aren't sick. People are just standing in the middle, not moving to the side and clogging things up. Luckily I had a pen and quickly filled out our cards and pushed my way through people. I worked/went to school in NYC for several years so my husband will tell you (to his embarrassment) I have no problem with pushing through people. ;)*

 

I had literally printed out everything online for cruise documents but apparently that wasn't enough because they needed some form about my credit card. So another form I had to fill before checking in. Finally though we got checked in. We have a suite so we got to be in the priority line but there was really no line on the other side anyway.*

 

We signed in and got onboard, they weren't letting anyone into their room until 1 so we grabbed some lunch. This is our first time in the suite but we made sure to know everything that came with it so I knew about bringing *lunch in portofino. We were the only ones there, it was completely empty. We had lunch, then went to our room shortly after.

 

We are in suite 1300, it is massive. I had originally booked the grand suite but was able to get an upgrade for only $100 so jumped on it. It has a long balcony with two loungers and a table with two chairs. It also has a jacuzzi which I love and a table inside as well.*

 

I took a nap before dinner, I have been on Explorer twice so I was in no rush to explore, I know the two ships are very similar. While I napped we received our invitation to the Meet & Mingle. It would seem the location changed from when I last checked online but we got a raffle ticket for each of us.*

 

At about 5:40 we went to the Concierge Lounge for cocktail hour and got some cocktails and chocolate covered strawberries.*

 

At *6 we were off to dinner and met with our table mates. Some of us on the roll call decided to sit together so we wouldn't have to worry about sitting with people who didn't speak English. Two of our table mates were missing so we didn't get to meet them but they are on their honeymoon so we forgive them ;).*

 

Then we went back to our room and stayed in the rest of the night.*

 

TIP OF THE DAY: Bring a pen with you, it has come useful on several occasions at the airport and on the ship

 

DAY 2: SICILY

 

The ship arrived at about 10 to Sicily so we had a room service breakfast, I hung the door breakfast menu out but put in items from the breakfast suite menu and figured the worst they could do is say no. They called us about 5 minutes before arriving at 8:15 to say they were on their way and we got exactly what we wanted.

 

At 10:30 we met in one of the lounges for our tour - A Taste of Sicily, we had never done that before but I guess there must be no place for them to set up outside like the Caribbean. We were given numbered stickers to put onto our shirts, we were 19 so they called up all of the 19s and escorted us off the ship to a bus. On the bus we had a guide from Italy who spoke perfect English along with a tour escort, she was from the US. We first stopped in a small town I think called Taoramia (sp?) we had an hour that which was enough time to grab something to eat and buy souvenirs, I get a Christmas ornament in every country I go to. Next we went to a lava flow, all it was is black rock which I thought was okay, black rock for as far as the eye could see.*

 

Next we went to a winery, we had a wine tasting (you drank the wine) and they showed us how it was made. Then we bought one bottle of wine for 6 EU and a small bottle of olive oil for 4.50 EU. The next stop was the jewelry factory, they first gave us some small desserts and h'orderves with some wine and lemoncello or non alcoholic drinks. Then they showed us how the jewelry was made and then we shopped. I got nothing, most of the jewelry was expensive. You got a 10 % discount and no taxes if you spent over 100 EU.*

 

Next we were back to the port, I fell asleep and before I knew it, it was after 6:30. The ship was suppose to be on its way at 6:30. The guide tells us that the ship had been calling her every few minutes, we were suppose to be back at 6:15, I can't believe they only give a 15 minute buffer, I mean what if you hit traffic? They kept the ship waiting for s though and at 6:45 we were rushed onto the ship.*

 

Since our dining time is 6, we obviously had to skip the MDR and ordered room service off the suite menu, it was nice to have the privacy of our room but food from the MDR. So we stayed in for the night and tried out the room jacuzzi. The cold water was yellow which was a little odd but I figured as long as we didn't drink it we would be fine.

 

Tip of the day: I have always thought thank you in Italian was "grazie" with an e, but they pronounced it as ghrat-tsyay, with an ay at the end. I said it wrong when we first got to Sicily and noticed right away when they said it the right way back to me!*

[Pinky60]

Hi

I am from Wicklow and going on my first cruise on the 10th June - NOS from Rome, visiting Messina, Athens, Kusadasi and Crete. I hope you had a great time (and better weather than in Ireland!) Do let us know how you got on and give any tips too. I would be very interested to know how you travelled from the airport to the port. Our flight lands at 11.15am (presume you were the same) and we have to get to the port. After the cruise we will stay in Rome but hope to get there as early as possible to do some sightseeing. C

[Pinky60]

Really enjoying reading all the details on your cruise as will be doing the same one from the 10th June next and it is my first time!! Hope you have time to keep posting. :)

[DublinLass]

Cruisevirgin Have sent you my details, just email any questions. We arrived the day before and stayed in the Miramare in Civitavecchia. We got the hotel to org a car to pick us up at 35euro a head for 4 of us. We were in a promenade cabin which was fab. A week is nt enough to see the whole ship and site see. Beware of 2 men at Turkey, they will offer a rickshaw type thing but transfer u to a wheel chair at port gate, wot a laugh lol

[Artemis908]

Hi all

 

Wifi is pretty limited but I intend on answering all your questions soon! Until then here is another day in review. We used Rome Cabs btw it was $130 for two of us in a private car to the port. Also there was a dessert buffet the day we were in Athens from 111pm-12am by the pool. Very loud music we had to go since we couldn't sleep with th music so loud.

 

DAY 3: AT SEA

 

We ended up getting up later then intended so we got room service again for breakfast and eventually headed to our meet and mingle at 11:30 in the Dungeon. We took our invitation and raffle tickets and headed over, there was already a pretty large group of people. Now, I am not trying to call any particular group out, I mean I am of a "do what you want as long as it doesn't hurt anyone" frame of mind, but I would say 90% of the group there were from the Chicago Hawaiian shirt group and most of them were not cruise critic members or active at all on the forum or roll call. I feel like the large group of people who were kind of together in a clique made it harder to talk to others and distinguish who was in roll call and the people I talked to. Again, I was not upset or offended it was just an observation. They did a raffle of three gifts and they also gave pens and notepads you can put around your neck. The cruise director even came down and made a speech, he told us how they do read the cruise critic forums :)

 

For lunch we went to Johnny Rockets, used our milkshake coupon. Then we checked out the arcade, played some games, and did some shopping,

 

We ended up hanging in our room before getting dressed up for formal night, grabbing a drink in the concierge lounge and getting dinner at portofino. I tried to get us in at 8 for the sunset but the ship wasn't facing the right direction, I got the risotto for an appetizer and the seafood skewer, we shared a pasta in the middle but I didn't care for it, the taste of mushrooms was too strong for me.

 

This was when we attempted to find wifi. First we lost our coupon books but guest relations replaced them for us. Then we had to go to the Internet cafe to sign up for a username and password, then we went to the Viking Lounge for wifi. It just refused to work up there but we already got drinks. My husband was being adventurous and got a martini and ended up hating it and the waiter was so nice, he replaced the drink for free with a margarita. It was so dark though I couldn't see his name tag! We then went down to Cafe Promenade and got wifi there, checked our email and made my last CC post! When we were done we were off to bed.

 

Tip of the day: you can exchange foreign currency at guest relations but they only take cash, there is an ATM right next to the desk.

[kcbmarek]

We are off on this cruise September 9th ... cannot wait. Keep the reviews coming ...

[Sinppu]

I've got less than two weeks until my Nav Med cruise!! This is great :)

 

P.S You do pronounce it grazie on mainland Italy! The Sicilians have quite a distinguished dialect ;)

[Mary521]

Can't wait to hear the rest, we leave in 27 days!

[emerald444]

Can't wait to hear the rest, we leave in 27 days!

 

We also just off on may 12 we loved everything say hi to Ricardo in the concierge lounge from the lady who lost her pink iPhone Laura

[Artemis908]

Ok, now that I am back home I can take the time to continue my review. It was too difficult to type on an iPad not to mention, expensive! It was like .69 cents a minute!!

 

Ok, anyway Day 4 right? :)

 

DAY 4: TURKEY

 

We took a tour with the cruise line for this one. We were with a pretty large group. We had an excellent guide, she had a lot of personality! We started off with a museum, stopping by a few places to take pictures. Speaking of pictures, I will try to upload some soon for you all.

 

We saw the Temple of Artemis, we also went to the market. My overall opinion of Turkey is that it was really pretty in most areas, however, you really need to be aware of being scammed and able to bargain. When we went to one of the markets, nothing had a set price. You had to negotiate with the shop person and just not take the first price they offer. So I bought a few things - pashmina (Got him down from 20 to 15) and earrings he claimed were real mother of pearl (down from 30 to 20).

 

Also, I believe ALL tours in Turkey require you to go to a rug store. They make a sale pitch, none of them were cheaper than $800. I just told them that we had all carpets, so not interested. They mostly left us alone after that and moved on to other people. I think the biggest thing to know here is just say "no". When people bothered me, I just shook my head and said "no" and kept on walking. Don't stop, don't take anything they offer you.

 

When we were done we got some baklava which was right next to the port, it was good and $1 a piece. Once on the ship we played some mini golf, it was nice and quiet and the view was just beautiful.

 

This was the night they had a dessert buffet from 11pm-12am. Our suite was under the pool deck so we could hear the music, it was incredibly loud so we ended up going up there. It was okay, nothing spectacular. There was a dessert buffet on our last cruise on Princess and it was a lot better.

 

TIP OF THE DAY: They accept both Euro and the American dollar in Turkey. So you don't have to bring any foreign currency!

 

DAY 5: Athens

 

We took a tour on our own here with several people from cruise critic. We took it with Private Greece Tours. Nikos set us up with a guide and 12 person van. The guide was great. We went to Acropolis, Agora, and the Acropolis Museum. We were SO tired afterwards, there is SO much walking and SO many steps.

 

I loved Agora, I would recommend the Temple of Hephaestus as the number one place to see in Athens. It is beautiful and has an in tact roof. There were a lot stray dogs in Athens, which surprised me. But the tour guide said that they take care of them. They feed them, give them water, etc. They were very nice and all over the place, especially in the Acropolis. One of them just came up to us and rolled over so we could pet his stomach. :)

 

TIP OF THE DAY: Do the Acropolis in the morning as soon as you get in, we were able to skip the crowds significantly. The place was packed by the time we were leaving.

 

DAY 6: Crete

 

Crete was probably the most disappointing place we went too for me. We took a tour with the cruise line and we went to three different cities in Crete, all of various sizes. There honestly wasn't much to see, we struggled to figure out what to do. We had to be back to the ship pretty quickly, around 2:30. That night was formal night so we dressed up and had dinner. Throughout the week we had gone to the concierge lounge for drinks, so we had a few drinks and I went to a wine bar for sangria.

 

TIP OF THE DAY: Consider doing this one on your own instead of a tour. One of the cities we went to was a 20 minute bus ride from the port.

 

DAY 7: At sea

 

This was the last day of the cruise. There was a spa deal my husband and I took advantage of it, a massage that was usually $129 for $79. We then had a captains reception at 11:15 that was for I think suite guests. We had some drinks and then grabbed lunch in the buffet. We tried to go outside for some sun but it was SO windy we couldn't stay out very long. I finished up some shopping and before we knew it, it was time for dinner.

 

TIP OF THE DAY: They took our passports from us when getting on the ship so we had to retrieve them this day. Don't rush to get them back when they announce it. Give it about an hour and there won't be a line at all.

 

DAY 8: Disembarking/Post cruise: Rome

 

We decided to disembark with our own luggage. We waited until the very last minute we could leave which was about 9:15. By the time we left there was absolutely no line or anyone on the elevators so it took a matter of minutes to leave. Our driver from Rome Cabs was there waiting for us. He took us to our B&B in Rome - A View of Rome. It's right next to the Vatican, on the 6th floor of a very nice building. The owners are great, he said with us and told us where to go, where to have dinner, etc. The room was very nice and the view was exceptional.

 

We went to the Coliseum first and then went on a bus tour around Rome. This city is beautiful but really does a number on your feet. The rocks really hurt and I felt so sore afterwards. We got some pasta and then gelato.

 

Next day we had an early tour at the Vatican. We booked through Viator.com and got in before they allowed individuals. Normally the line is around the block several times so this way we only had a 20 minute wait. It was so beautiful, we saw the Vatican Museum and the Sistine Chapel. We ended at St. Peter's Cathedral which was my favorite place of all, so incredibly beautiful. It was pouring rain that day so we didn't do much more than then, just walked around and shopped.

 

FINAL THOUGHTS:

 

I will just repeat what has been said before. This is NOT like a Caribbean cruise, it's very port intensive and so you're waking up early and coming back very sore. We didn't have much time to experience the ship but since we had already been the Explorer, it was okay for us. We were glad that we got a suite too because we spent a lot of time there recuperating from all of the walking and jet lag.

 

I enjoyed the food, but did think the food in MDR was better on Princess. I actually liked the buffet a lot, I hated the buffet on Princess so that was the big difference for me. Service was great, I absolutely loved the ship. There was plenty to do and a lot of stuff that I missed because I was too tired.

[Shabot]

Give it about an hour and there won't be a line at all.

 

We gave it two hours (Johnny Rockets took priority). They'd moved passport pickup to guest relations and we just walked up.