My view on the Navigator May 4th cruise (It's only a test..)

[Addictedtocruising]

Let me start by saying this was a wonderful cruise despite the tests handed to us along the way :)

 

We flew in from Philadelphia on US Airways, I was fortunate enough to be able to get first class and everything went smoothly!

Houston we have landed!

We rented a car at Dollar, everything was in order when we got there and off we went in our new Chrysler 200!

Pre-cruise we stayed at the Galveston Beach Hotel from Friday to Sunday with their cruise & park package,

although only when we arrived did we find out the pool and Captain Jack's bar was closed for renovations!

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But, it was rectified when we got permission to use The Hotel Galvez facilities!

Off to dinner, I wanted some Texas blue crabs and boy did I get them :) Bennos is very good and reasonably priced

Whole fried catfish

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TEST #1 On Saturday morning we get the call from home that our backyard pond has emptied out and the fish are dying! We make some calls and get it filled up and the 3 fish buried UGH!

 

Okay let's proceed to "our vacation" We rented a surrey at the Salt Water shop right next to the hotel for $20.00 an hour and went in search of the famous tree sculptures carved from the damaged trees caused by hurricane Ike in 2008.

I had printed the page with the locations and descriptions and we saw all 21!

http://www.galveston.com/3pelicans/brochure/brochure.pdf

Here are just a few.

We headed over to the Harbor after that

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Then hit the Strand on the way back

 

TEST #2 I go to sign up for the hotel shuttle to the port for Sunday and guess what they aren't doing that because they don't have a driver WHAT! Okay they will call me a cab and pay for it :)

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Saturday evening we went to Fish Tales, I had joined the Landry's select club for $25.00 and received a $25.00 credit plus they will add on another $25 for your birthday so dinner was very reasonable and delicious. Also being a member of the club you get priority seating and the place was packed with an hour wait so we only waited a half hour, try the shrimp kisses!

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Sunday morning - cruise day yeah! Turns out the hotel got a driver and the shuttle was on so we opted to head for port at 10am, There were only 10 people ahead of us in the priority check in line SWEET!

 

1:30 cabins are ready we had JS 9306 it was huge!

[raytownlady]

Looks like you had a fantastic time, Those crabs look amazing! I'm putting that restaurant on my go to list.

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We unpack since our luggage was there already and guess what....

TEST #3 The safe won't lock so we wait for someone to fix it and they send up 2 security guards who tell us oh we are the "lock breakers" somebody else has to fix it. No problem just an hour out of "our vacation"

 

Sail away: there was a helicopter swooping the ship and following us for miles, we are informed that they are filming a commercial and the captain does a 360'. How cool is that!

We grab some snacks and head for the cabin,

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Oh boy here we go another little test :)

 

TEST #4 Now we have no working lights...another hour goes by and they are fixed! We are getting good at this :)

 

Dinner table we requested for 2 turned out to be a table for 6, it turned out well and 2 of the ladies only came when they felt like it so we ordered without waiting for them every night.

 

Day at sea: We attended the meet & mingle and met some great people then hooked up with Sherrie & Craig (OKIETX) to share a cab to the meeting place for our Cozumel Barhop. We met with them every evening at the Diamond lounge after that, what a great couple!

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First port is Costa Maya, we decided to do an all inclusive at Almaplena Eco resort. The walk outside the port to meet the cab was a LONG walk and we rode for 30 minutes with all the windows down OH BOY!

While the place was lovely I do prefer Maya Chan more which has great music and the people there are more personable. We did have have great food and drinks were plentiful though!

 

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Here comes the BIG TESTS #5, 6, & 7!!!

Woke up at 6:30am to use the bathroom and the toilet is not flushing, oh well went back to bed to hear water overflowing out of the toilet OMG. Well this happened the next 2 mornings also. Went to guest relations after the third day since I was getting a little tired of using public restrooms in the morning and was told "oh well" we don't know what people are putting in the toilets! (An e-mail has been sent to Adam Goldstein)

 

Second port is Roatan we had never been before and it was Awesome! We booked a private tour just the two of us with Bodden tours and asked to have Big Al as our guide. We had already told him we wanted to stop at a grocery store for some beers (he bought an ice chest and ice) and we got coffee beans to take home, he walked us through the store and converted the prices for us.

We headed on our land part of the tour and Victor's monkey business, How cute!

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We wanted to go the Harley Davidson store and I only found the one at the Carnival pier online so he took us there and we saw how Carnival does things, let me say their pier is a shoppers paradise!

Then I saw the Harley store on our pier also when we got back. DOH!

Then he took us to a great cantina out of the way for lobsters, all this for $17.00! YUM!

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Off to the beach..he took us to the Parrot Tree Plantation Resort, it was practically empty! Oh and only a table set up to sell their wares, NO vendors!

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3rd port: Cozumel, we are doing the Cozumel Bar Hop with Sherrie & Craig (OKIETX) plus 13 others from the Carnival ships. We shared a cab and met the bus at Senor Frogs downtown.

WOW what a great tour! We went to the Eastern side of the island, beautiful just beautiful!

 

First stop Punta Morena

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Banana Mama

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Playa Bonita home of the Atomic Margarita!

Great people Sherrie & Craig :D

Yep all gone!

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Last stop: Rastas had some yummy coconut shrimp! (Can't find the picture)

Iguana Drinks were delicious too!

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Okay as you noticed no more tests WHEW! :eek:

 

Despite some hiccups this has to be by far one of our best cruises :D

 

Room service was hit or miss, one day enough coffee for one then the next no sugar to go with little bit of coffee Haha we gave up after that!

 

Our cabin attendant Robert was outstanding, we got 3 towels animals throughout the 6 days.

For some reason we were only charged $12.00 a day for gratuities when it was supposed to be $14.25 for a suite. OH wait maybe I got a discount for the overflowing toilet! Hahaha

 

We did receive our milestone block exactly when we reached 140 points on day 5.

 

 

Until next time

 

[rclibertygirl5]

Thanks for the entertaining review!!!:)

[gambler]

Great review and pictures! thanks

[scotlady]

That was fun!

 

A little mini-vacation in the middle of the day :D

 

So, can I ask - how was the sand at Parrot Tree? We were considering this resort, but we want to make sure we are at a beach that has soft enough sand that we can walk into the water without shoes.

[Ladysilver]

Thanks for the great review and beautiful photos! I can't wait to see it myself in two weeks! :D

[Addictedtocruising]

That was fun!

 

A little mini-vacation in the middle of the day :D

 

So, can I ask - how was the sand at Parrot Tree? We were considering this resort, but we want to make sure we are at a beach that has soft enough sand that we can walk into the water without shoes.

 

My Husband walked the whole beach to the other side barefoot and got in and out of the water, I will double check with him on what he thought though :)

And they have beds right on the beach!

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I'd also like to add we stayed at the Galveston Beach Hotel one night after the cruise and the owner also owns the Spot.

We had appetizers with Frickles! I have never had them and they were good :)

After dinner Dennis, the owner invited us for Isalnd Famous Mojitos on him :D

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And one last thing, this is very important! ;)

 

If any of your little kiddies at home ask for an iguana stuffie from the islands it's not going to happen :eek: With all the live iguanas I have seen in Honduras and Mexico not a one store sells them!

That is all my 10 year old Granddaughter asked for and I had to come home and order one from Amazon LOL