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Live from Navigator - 12/9/2016 - Ship Goes A.B.C...Drink Count Goes 1.2.3...

CruiseLifeRick
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CruiseLifeRick

CruiseLifeRick

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We just finished up a fantastic dinner at Giovanni's Table. We shared all eight appetizers and three of the pasta courses (gnocchi, risotto and penne). For the main course, Luciano and I had the Ossobuco, Christina and Desiree had the lamb chops and Monet had the veal tenderloin. I skipped on dessert, but the rest of the table enjoyed the table side assortment.

 

Just to note, we made an 8:30 pm reservation and had the venue to ourselves. Definitely an early bird crowd.

 

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johnt83

johnt83

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Oh man what a fun read so far! Glad that the 1st day is going well - thanks for posting the daily planner as well, always fun to read it and see what sort of activities up...

 

so how was the 5th, 6th, 7th.. L.I.I.T? did captain tax have to carry you back to the room? :D Keep enjoying!

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CruiseLifeRick

CruiseLifeRick

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Oh man what a fun read so far! Glad that the 1st day is going well - thanks for posting the daily planner as well, always fun to read it and see what sort of activities up...

 

 

 

so how was the 5th, 6th, 7th.. L.I.I.T? did captain tax have to carry you back to the room? :D Keep enjoying!

 

 

I finished up the afternoon with six Long Islands and have since moved on to Hendricks and tonic.

 

Captain T is in a state of shock due to the train wreck he is witnessing.

 

a0699679b5555d711dee20017397cefc.jpg

 

 

 

 

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johnt83

johnt83

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Lol and that Silver Fox is still gettin' down!

 

I'm finished up the afternoon with six Long Islands and have since moved on to Hendricks and tonic.

 

Captain T is in a state of shock due to the train wreck he is witnessing.

 

a0699679b5555d711dee20017397cefc.jpg

 

 

 

 

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CruiseLifeRick

CruiseLifeRick

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Decided to leave the Studio 54 reunion and see where else the Wildlings could be hiding.

 

Boleros?

 

d5796a0a5a65093bd63249e8ef049d0b.jpg

 

Pub?

 

3f7f5666b71988db84d59d75c54ef934.jpg

 

Vintages?

 

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Schooner?

 

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Star Lounge?

 

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Is this a HAL sailing? Is the party in the medical center?

 

 

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johnt83

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Wow did everyone go into a food coma after dinner?! So empty for the first night of a cruise! Should be hoppin at each of those venues! #grabsanotherLIIT

 

Decided to leave the Studio 54 reunion and see where else the Wildlings could be hiding.

 

Boleros?

 

d5796a0a5a65093bd63249e8ef049d0b.jpg

 

Pub?

 

3f7f5666b71988db84d59d75c54ef934.jpg

 

Vintages?

 

8e8966edb5de8ca3636401443c6eb5b4.jpg

 

Schooner?

 

36ab3340f56dee55a75811a861e5b765.jpg

 

Star Lounge?

 

6ab0dc7a62c0b43a54a4530b8b96b0b5.jpg

 

Is this a HAL sailing? Is the party in the medical center?

 

 

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goodml

goodml

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Lol I have to admit I was in my cabin in bed by 10:00 last night:D.

 

Did the BOGO 2 night dinner pkg and went up there first thing after hitting Boleros for our on boarding drink. (Triple coconut mojito btw. Yum.) I'm not sure what they originally assigned us but I asked for Chops and then Giovanni's for 6 of us and it was fine. Dinner at Chops was wonderful! Have to be honest. We've been twice before and were just meh, but this time the filets were perfect. Everything was really. Our server was Melbin (with a b) from Philippines and he was a hoot. Very sweet, humble young man but he let it slip that he's a rapper back home. We talked him into finishing dinner with one of his own creations. We got some looks from the badge wearing crowd as well for defiling the sanctity of the restaurant by whooping it up a bit after his performance. Plus we didn't have our bags yet so we were underdressed in these black tshirts that I had made at customink dot com that have our itinerary on the back and some other stuff on the front. If I had an entrepreneurial mind I would have made a bunch extra because judging by the number of peopke who wanted them or asked about them I could have sold some easily.

 

Our four travel mates are annoyed because the entire Viking Crown (Cosmos?) is being used for diamond lounge overflow from 5-8:30 for the whole trip, Allen, the concierge (is that what you call him?) of the diamond lounge told us there are over 700 diamond and above on board and it will be used all week. We got up there at 6 and a huge amount of people were just leaving. Prior trips we've gone into the lounge for a bit and then met them in the Viking crown after for a predinner drink.

 

We are in 8632 which is a D2 behind the hump. We have three cabins in a row and had no issues getting the balcony dividers opened although we'll likely have the one between 32 and 34 closed again as it blocks their slider when open and we're clearly too dopey to figure out how to make it work without being a pain. I have to say though I'm happy Rick's bed in the jr suite is good. Ours is like concrete. Can't believe it. I've always loved the beds and the bedding and I'd been reading about people saying the beds were hard and I thought, naw just preference. I sleep on a very firm but wonderfully padded mattress at home. This bed is B.A.D! I see what they're doing though. I'm now booking a massage because I've been up since about 2:30 and pretty much aching everywhere. Even the bedding isn't as nice as it used to be. Bummer.

 

Oh back to boarding. Usually we get to the ship around 10:30 but this time it was about 11 and I was shocked how many people were already there. We got to the front of the check in line right around 11:30 when they shut it all down and started boarding.the people already checked in. It was shut down for maybe 15 mins and then they started checking people in again. I think we were on board around noon. Windjammer was packed by that time and tough to find a table. I think there must be a lot of locals (or CC readers) on board who know to come early. Was a pretty painless boarding process compared to recent reports though.

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CruiseLifeRick

CruiseLifeRick

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You've been on enough cruises to know that the Viking Crown is pretty much .....it. After midnight. Especially on a 9 day cruise. :D:):D Try the casino.

 

 

I agree and usually I am quite content with the visual adventure provided by the VCL. However, absent the Silver Fox and undoubtedly her fanny pack full of mini liquor bottles, the Cosmopolitan Lounge was far from the "it" crowd last night.

 

I did pass through the casino in hopes of finding a few rolling oxygen machines or some form of life, but most of the tables were also empty as well the casino bar.

 

 

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CruiseLifeRick

CruiseLifeRick

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I have to say though I'm happy Rick's bed in the jr suite is good. Ours is like concrete. Can't believe it. I've always loved the beds and the bedding and I'd been reading about people saying the beds were hard and I thought, naw just preference. I sleep on a very firm but wonderfully padded mattress at home. This bed is B.A.D! I see what they're doing though. I'm now booking a massage because I've been up since about 2:30 and pretty much aching everywhere. Even the bedding isn't as nice as it used to be. Bummer.

 

 

I slept like a baby, but I suspect these multiple pillow-top layers could remedy any concrete slab.

 

f2f55c2b6c94d70867b296deebb2a268.jpg

 

 

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goodml

goodml

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I slept like a baby, but I suspect these multiple pillow-top layers could remedy any concrete slab.

 

f2f55c2b6c94d70867b296deebb2a268.jpg

 

 

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My mattress is definitely the poor relation:D. It's a raggedy looking all white thing. I will see if our lovely cabin attendant can help us out somehow.

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CruiseLifeRick

CruiseLifeRick

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Well folks day one, while not a complete bust, definitely didn't birth any memories that will provide for inappropriate family story time at Christmas dinner.

 

However, I did want to give some initial thoughts.

 

Boarding was very disorganized, and as one of the previous posters mentioned, it seemed to be due to the large amount of passengers that showed up very early to the terminal, but you can blame social media including these boards for putting the fear of God in people by harping on that dreaded tent word.

 

Likewise, baggage was very delayed and this was the first cruise in my history that I didn't receive my luggage before muster. I believe it arrived around 5pm.

 

We have My Time Dining and made all of our MDR reservations online. However, we did make some changes aboard, once we confirmed that formal nights are held on nights two and eight. The switches to our MDR reservations were painless and the crew member working the reservation desk at the Sapphire restaurant was a complete joy to talk with.

 

The specialty restaurant reservation process was another story. We had purchased the 5 night dining package prior to boarding and consistent with every other sailing I have done this on, I expected to receive a notification in my stateroom of the specialty restaurant that Royal placed us in on night one. No dice. In fact, upon heading up to the desk at Chops it was discovered that Royal didn't even have a night one reservation in the system for us. It was also quite annoying that you actually have to visit each specialty restaurant to make a reservation, when they all appear to use the same system and were able to see the other reservations we had made as we completed our rounds to Chops, Giovanni's, Sabor and Izumi.

 

The Navigator is in great shape and having just sailed the newly refurbished Empress, I will say the furnishings, carpeting, drapes, etc... all appear to be in similar like new condition. Very impressed.

 

Similarly, my cabin is in great shape and lacked any instances of old shoes left in the closet or hair in the bathroom. No need to have Crystal Cruises on speed dial here.

 

The VOOM is absolutely awful and even posting to CC is a nightmare let alone trying to access any type of "streaming" internet services. This should be a top priority for Royal as some of us that are not fortunate enough to be retired yet will need to accomplish some work on this trip.

 

The crew members that I have met thus far (mostly being bartenders if we are being honest with each other) have been fantastic and have already learned my name and my drinks of choice.

 

I am going to reserve any commentary on food quality and selection as that is very subjective and should be considered on a person-by-person basis. Also because the only food I consumed on the ship yesterday came from my dinner at Giovanni's, which was excellent, but not indicative of the offerings at the MDR or the Windjammer.

 

Night life...see previous posts. I am hoping for a Renaissance tonight, but I guess that is a poor word choice as it implies that night life existed at some previous point. 0-1

 

And with that let's begin...

 

 

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A&L_Ont "Live from...." Rare

A&L_Ont

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Rick since you have RC's "limited Voom bob and sink package" with poor connectivity, I've single post linked them as you might find them interesting. I'm not sure if you would have enough connection time to discover them with your Voom package.;)

 

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showpost.php?p=51730846&postcount=16

 

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showpost.php?p=51731138&postcount=19

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CruiseLifeRick

CruiseLifeRick

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Rick since you have RC's "limited Voom bob and sink package" with poor connectivity, I've single post linked them as you might find them interesting. I'm not sure if you would have enough connection time to discover them with your Voom package.;)

 

 

 

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showpost.php?p=51730846&postcount=16

 

 

 

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showpost.php?p=51731138&postcount=19

 

 

Love it. Honored to be mentioned with the likes of you guys. Thanks for sharing, Andrew!

 

 

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