Navigator Aug 24 , Review virgin be gentle

[Funbobby68]

Ok here goes , have never done a post cruise review , so with no further warning

 

Being from the west coast of Canada ,this was the furthest we have ever traveled for a cruise so we drove to Seattle and flew in to Houston , first impression .......good god it's hot here . We had reserved a rental car and proceeded straight to Galveston ....oh my it's hotter closer to the coast , got to our hotel , Howard Johnson was what I expected for the price nothing good or really bad here to comment on here

As far as any advise for the city of Galveston , arriving on a Saturday evening wanting seafood for dinner we headed downtown ,this is a bit of a party town on weekends , loved walking around , but had over an hour wait for restaurant seating at all the restaurants we checked . So my tip is make a reservation if you can or be prepared to wait , FYI. We did get are seafood at fisherman's wharf , it was fresh and very good

 

Ok on to the ship left the hotel at 9:45 and headed to lighthouse parking , can't believe how cheap cruise parking is , Vancouver or Seattle we pay over 150.00 for a week so 45.00 seams like a bargain to us . Shuttled to the pier by 10:15 , was totally panicked by the horror stories about Galveston pier so wanted to get there early , honestly hardest part was standing around in the heat , so ceiling fans would be a great addition to the staging area outside , everything else was a smooth and was onboard by 11:30 ,drink in hand

 

First impression of the ship WHOA , just fantastic , much larger than the radiance class were use to , so much to see , don't believe we managed to see the entire ship , but she's a beauty

 

Got our room about 1:00 nothing special there ,just an inside on deck 9 , was quite , no plumbing or heating problems , room attendant did a fine job , but we keep a clean room and not one to request anything special

 

The only two things I noticed drink service at bar tables was very poor , aside from the schooner bar staff going table to table for orders ,if you wanted a drink you had to go to the bar and get it , bar service was fine , normally find at least one bartender that brings the WOW but this time that was not the case , again nothing bad just nothing above minimum effort . The other thing that got to me was to much country music , this is more my personal taste and I'm sure because of the vast majority of travellers be texans there just catering to the masses , again nothing bad about it , just personal taste

 

As for food ....... Ate at WJ a few times breakfast and lunch and really nothing much ever changes ,although the burger patties seamed better than I remember , only peeve about WJ these people need to learn how to use a toaster , love English muffins , but one morning they were toasted next the only thing toasting them was the heat light

Lunches at the MDR were good love the salads , and kids loved the burgers , and the wrap I had on day 6 very nice , I do remember that on radiance they normally chop the salad at the end of the line , maybe because of all the surplus ulu knifes :)

Dinners were nice service was good , and the dining room was very very well organized , better than I've seen in a long time , food came out hot and fast

We did after reading about all the hype go to Sabors WOW , was worth every penny , the guacamole is better than any I have had before , all the food was great , go hungry there is a lot of food and it's hard to stop eating , and then they bring deserts , I almost needed to be rolled out of there :)

Also kids ( well 13-18) wanted to try Johnny rockets , was not very busy maybe 8 other people in there , but fantastic service , love the onion rings , keep in mind this is a chain that is not in our part of the world , good thing too I would be there too offen

 

Will continue with my takes on ports and shows ect shortly

time

 

 

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[PompeySailor]

Will be following your review.

Thanks

Agreed Navigator is in great shape.

Happy Days!

[DaNana]

:D:D So glad to get a positive review! Sounds like you all had a nice time. Did you have any comments about the flow rider, wall, or miniature golf? Did you do any ship tours? If yes, which ones and how did they turn out? Thank you for the review!

[Texasopa]

Thanks for the review, looking forward to the rest of it. We will be on the Navigator in a few weeks.

[dplusd]

Glad you enjoyed the Navigator. We agree that the ship looks great following the dry dock. And we thought Sabors was so good we went back a second night!

[PhoenixCruiser]

Well done!!

 

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[Whittyone]

Great read so far, can't wait to read more!

[Fat Paul]

Enjoying your review. We were on the Navigator in early June. Agree about the bar service. We are from New Mexico so we didn't try Sabors but we heard that it's good.

[dacsmom]

I am enjoying your review, thanks.

[kirian]

I've never been on the Navigator, so it's nice to read reviews about her. Thanks for taking the time to write up and share your experiences!

 

Melissa

[bethco]

You pretty much nailed it with your assessment of Texas in August. Last week, I was wishing for a cruise to the Caribbean to cool off.

 

Thanks for taking the time to write a review.

[Hoopster95]

Ok here goes , have never done a post cruise review , so with no further warning

 

Being from the west coast of Canada....

 

I love reading reviews... Thank you for starting one! Great to hear you're having a good time. Btw what city are you from?

[Funbobby68]

Ok on with the ports , first off I would like to say that we're not big on doing excursions , normally we research the ports and then kinda do our own thing but ......

After looking in to the ports we did decide on a tour in Roatan , we picked Rony's private tour , and at 25.00 per person for the four of us , seamed like a bargain , it was excellent, was about 5 hours with stops all over the place , we seen the real roatan , and the tourist areas as well got in some shopping , went and visited the monkeys ...so cool having these guys climbing all over the place ,

 

 

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[LoneStarJeffe]

Enjoying the review. Being from the Houston area, I think you absolutely nailed it on the hot observation! :)

[Funbobby68]

Ok on with the ports , first off I would like to say that we're not big on doing excursions , normally we research the ports and then kinda do our own thing but ......

After looking in to the ports we did decide on a tour in Roatan , we picked Rony's private tour , and at 25.00 per person for the four of us , seamed like a bargain , it was excellent, was about 5 hours with stops all over the place , we seen the real roatan , and the tourist areas as well got in some shopping , went and visited the monkeys ...so cool having these guys climbing all over the place , plus got some rum cake and some yummy rum samples , our guide was Arnold , a true local who is very proud of his home town , and offered quite a history lesson . This is IMO a 5 star tour ,would do it again in a second

On to Belize , we had no plans for this port and pondered not even leaving the ship , but after breakfast we decided to go to shore . We were ready to leave the ship about 11:00 , by this time there was no wait to board the tenders and after about 10 minutes we were on our way , ride was smooth and about 30 minutes long , really all we did was stroll from shop to shop , got a few souvenirs , it started to rain pretty hard and did not take to long to get soaked , so back to the ship we go

As for Cozumel , same deal we just wanted to roam aimlessly , we did want to get a shirt from margritaville so after being told it was about 2 miles down the road we decided to walk , FYI 2 miles is a lie ... More like 4 so about half way we decided it was just to damn hot to walk , 8 bucks for the cab ride , not really sure why we just didn't do it from the start , live and learn I guess , anyway got my shirt had some lunch there and did a bunch of shopping , got some great flavoured tequila , 4 bottles , and a free cigar , which was a when in Rome thing for me , not being a smoker but always wanted a big cigar . Yuck , like smoking a$$ ,never again , we really enjoyed the port and shopped a lot , honestly would go back there in a minute , for a few days just to explore more and really take more of it in , was sorry to leave so soon

Will touch on the shows we took in on my next post and what we did to entertain ourselves on the ship

Thanks for reading

 

 

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[raytownlady]

We were on the same cruise and also had a great time. Thanks for posting your review.

[TEXASMUNK]

Your review is great, thanks, keep it up!

[catella02]

Enjoying your review. We did the Ronys Tour in Roatan in February. Totally agree it was the best.

[Funbobby68]

Ok here's my take on the venues and shows that we took in ....

First off I have to say the ice show was the most entertaining thing I have seen on a ship in many years , it was smart and very up tempo performance , we took in a few of the dance shows in the theatre , but honestly seamed like every other show we have seen in the past , I wish that they would put some more imagination in to these shows , the comedian / impersonator was funny for the most part , actually very funny when it came to the audience participation portion of the show

The love and marriage show to me has always been hit or miss really depends on the couples , but this one was a hoot the elderly couple were hilarious . The music venues around the ship were ok , still to much country music for my liking , but the piano player in the schooner was good , and made a good mix of tunes , didn't care for the band in borlos , but the ragee band was very good as well

Most of the trivia was ran well , sadly no big wins for us , we did keep busy , and visited most bars and shops , and corners of the ship , once I catch up with work I will post some pictures from around the ship but here's a teaser

 

 

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[Snow cat]

Can I ask what type of transportation you used from airport to Galveston?

 

Or did you mention it and I missed it?

[Funbobby68]

We flew into bush and had rented a car for the week , we used priceline , and bid on the car , was just shy of 300.00 for Saturday - Sunday the following week , was cheaper than transfers , plus our flight did not leave till 5 so had a bunch of time to explore , before and after the cruise , I figured it I had to take a cab or two while there plus shuttle cost I think this worked out cheaper

 

 

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