Thanksgiving LIVE from the Navigator of the Seas

[Kcjarvis]

 

 

Apps

 

Ribs

 

 

Winner: Grouper

 

 

Great beach day

 

[Kcjarvis]

Quick taxi back to the ship

 

 

 

 

Oasis pulled out before us

 

 

So long suckers

 

 

Good bye Cozumel

 

[Kcjarvis]

The Concierge Lounge was packed

 

 

We ordered off the MDR menu for room service - Crab cake

 

 

Beef Duo

 

 

Chicken Cordon Bleu

 

[scgirlatheart]

Will be on the Navigator in May, enjoying your review!

 

 

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[kwazi07]

Who and how was the CD?

 

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[Kcjarvis]

Who and how was the CD?

 

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Cuddy - I thought he was average.

 

 

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[Virtopia]

Thanks for the review! I love Voyager class and if all goes as planned, will be on Navigator in April 2018.

[cruising grandma]

I'm interested in your previous comment about the DL and CL. Also, who is the Loyalty Ambassador onboard? Food porn photos are great! The Thanksgiving menu was really nice, and I see you ordered my favorite pie!

Edited November 29, 2016 by cruising grandma

[Kcjarvis]

Woke up sailing home

 

 

Sunny at sunrise, but expecting a mostly cloudy day

 

 

 

Headed to Chops for breakfast, sorry no food porn

 

 

It was surreal sailing by Cuba on the day Fidel Castro died

 

 

Gift from out TA

 

[Kcjarvis]

Bridge tour

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited November 29, 2016 by Kcjarvis
typo

[Kcjarvis]

Spent the rest of the day exploring the ship and relaxing

 

 

 

Christmas tree lighting at 7pm

 

 

 

 

[jonj]

Ship looks like it was in good shape, thoughts? Would appreciate Any information you can give about the concierge lounge

 

 

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[Kcjarvis]

Dinner at Sabor

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Kcjarvis]

A very tame poorly attended, but entertaining Quest, run by the activities manager.

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Kcjarvis]

Woke up early and saw it was going to be a busy day at the Port of Miami

 

 

 

 

We had a 9:30 am flight out of MIA so we did self departure which was scheduled to start at 7:00 am. We went down to deck 4 at 6:45 am to get a good place in line. We quickly discovered, there was no line, there was no gangway, there was no terminal. We then went down to deck 1. Security told us the ship had not been cleared yet, but to wait right there. 15 mins later, we were the 1st 2 people off the ship...

 

 

Good bye Navigator

 

 

MIA airport wasn't as crowded as we had anticipated and our flight was on time back to NY. On approach to runway 31R at JFK @ 12:15pm

 

 

Stand by for the summary and rating.

[Kcjarvis]

You can view these periscope replays at http://www.periscope.tv/kcjarvis

 

[easyboy]

Very nice photos.

[Thetrail]

I saw a bumper sticker once that said the follow - Good Cowgirls Keep their Calves Together

 

I should have prefaced that this was in cattle country in western Canada. I wonder if a father stuck it to his daughters truck.:D

Funny!...K.O.:)

[Thetrail]

Cuddy - I thought he was average.

 

 

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Thanks Ken for letting us sail along with you. Will be on Navigator in April and she is looking quite well!......K.O.:)

[jonj]

Thank you for your review. I would love to hear about your thoughts on the ship in general, was it in good shape, etc. Any details you can share about the concierge lounge that is not already out there or for us newbies?

[racingroom]

Dinner at Sabor

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

How much extra did you paid at sabor?

 

 

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[johnt83]

Loved reading your experience on Navigator and following you on PERISCOPE! Keep up the great work Ken and looking forward to your Freedom OTS cruise on 12/10!

Edited December 1, 2016 by johnt83

[buzzard05]

Stand by for the summary and rating.

 

What happened to the summary and review? I was on this same cruise and was curious what your impression was (I am actually in one of your photos of The Quest :)).

[j3000]

What happened to the summary and review? I was on this same cruise and was curious what your impression was (I am actually in one of your photos of The Quest :)).

 

buzzard...we're boarding on Sunday ... What were YOUR overall impressions of the boat? food? etc? Thanks :)

[buzzard05]

This was our first "real" cruise as a family (my wife and I took a short two-nighter earlier this year as a test run for her motion sickness)...so I really don't have anything of this scale to compare it against.

 

Overall, we had a good time on Navigator. I would rate it as "good", not "great"...but maybe I had unreal expectations going in (based on what I had read about cruising and various message boards).

 

The ship itself is really nice. I was "wowed" at its sheer size. Everything was clean and well-maintained. There is a lot to see and do (pools, bars, restaraunts, etc.) In just four nights, we didn't have time to experience it all (not even close). The shows were enjoyable (the comedians weren't great, and if I had it to do over I probably would skip their shows). The ice show is pretty cool, especially given the small size of the rink they are on. We found the live bands/singers they had in the various bars to be pretty good too.

 

We thought the food was good, though we heard some more "experienced" cruisers complaining about its quality. The only specialty restaraunt we ate at was Sabor, and it was worth every penny. The food was outstanding (though it was a little disappointing that the "tableside" guacamole really wasn't prepared tableside as I wanted to watch them make it). We wanted to try Chops, but waited too long to make reservations and it filled up. The Windjammer (buffet) had decent food but was very crowded and hard to find seats (I think that is typical though of buffets on ships).

 

We had a balcony room and our teenage sons were in a Promenade view room right across the hall. Both were nice (the shower is VERY small...but that may be the norm). The balcony was fun, but I didn't have nearly enough time to just sit out there and enjoy it.

 

Where things went a little wrong for me was in the level of service. I really thought you would be taken care of on a cruise and that wasn't the case for the most part. Our cabin attendant was brand new (his first day was our first day on the cruise). We never saw him...in fact, I couldn't even pick him out of a lineup if asked. Compared to our little trial cruise earlier this year, where our cabin attendant was personable, knew our names and just generally made us feel welcomed and wanted on the ship...I didn't feel that on Navigator. With that said, our room was kept clean.

 

I had also made a request to have the bed separated in my son's room and that was never done (fortunately the bed is pretty big so they didn't complain). The remote in their room was also broken which I asked to be replaced. This was also never done. It isn't that we wanted to watch TV, but I did want to be able to navigate their TV system to view my account (which was very tough to do with a broken remote).

 

Our first night's experience in the main dining room was also not good. Our waitstaff was extremely slow and was really bad about making sure we had water (we weren't guzzling our water either...they just rarely came by to refill it). Fortunately, I did request another table on the second night and was put with Apurv (fifth floor Saphire dining room - My Time Dining). He and his partner, Alona, were OUTSTANDING. If you do My Time Dining, definitely request him (we were at Table 655 on the fifth floor, so that is the area he serves). His service really turned our impression of the main dining room (and the cruise for that matter) around.

 

Also, my son has some serious food allergies. I spoke with RCL before boarding and they said to talk with Guest Services and the waitstaff for our dining room. I did this the first day on the ship and it never got communicated to anybody. When we found this out, we tried again to get this noted on our account. After getting a bit of a run around (talk to this person...no, no go talk to this person...rinse/repeat) we finally found somebody who made a note of it on our account. From that point on, when we made a reservation using that room number it was noted. Once the head waiter and Apurv found out about his allergies they were very compassionate and made sure he was taken care of.

 

Also, getting drinks/sodas at the bars was a pain. Many of the bartenders were overwhelmed and the service was slow. Other times, the bartenders were not overwhelmed but just seemed apathetic to providing any level of service (especially the Pool Bar and Sky Bar). This ship doesn't have the Coke Freestyle machines, so if you want soda you have to get it from a bar or the Promenade Cafe. The best service for bars I found was in the Casino and at the Schooner Bar. There was an Asian lady at the Casino Bar (I wish I had her name) that was really good. The servers at the Promenade Cafe also worked their tails off. That place seemed to always have a line and they worked hard to serve people quickly.

 

Disembarking was painful. There were seven ships in port (including us) the morning we arrived and it was really slow. I don't know if the slow down was Royal Caribbean's fault or not (they kept saying it was the Port Authority that was slowing things up). It would have been nice for them to communicate what was going on a little better. Also, the announcements for when to line up for your specific luggage number were sporadic and not broadcast throughout the ship which contributed to some confusion for passengers.

 

There weren't any HUGE negatives, it was just a combination of several smaller negatives early on that left me with a bad impression for the first half of the cruise. I think if we would have had a few more nights, my early negative impressions of the cruise would have been overwhelmed by the positives I experienced towards the end (We were just "learning" how to "navigate" the Navigator (where to get drinks, etc.) and then our cruise was over). Also, some of our issues were specific to us (i.e. my son's allergies). Given all of that, I would kill for it to be this time last week and be back on that ship rather than sitting here at work :) .

 

Hope you guys have a great trip!

 

(Sorry this was so long, but I hope you find it helpful.)

Edited December 2, 2016 by buzzard05