Navigator of Seas – 11-night December 23 Christmas & New Year’s Cruise.

[judgeender]

My wife and I recently returned from the 11-night Christmas and New Year’s cruise on the Navigator of the Seas. Overall we had a great time. This was our first cruise on Royal Caribbean, though we have done a number of cruises on other lines, including 3 on Celebrity.

 

Embarkation: The check-in process was very quick. After checking in we had to wait a few minutes before boarding, but were on board well before lunchtime.

 

Room & Ship: We were in a balcony room. The room was fine and was a typical size for a balcony. Unlike on other ships, we did not have coffee table. We did miss the coffee table at times, but at the same time, without one there was a little more space available. There were 2 days when there was a problem with the toilet system in our section of the ship not working (we were told it wasn’t just our room and no one had to come to our room to fix it), but they seemed to fix the problem both times relatively quickly. The ship in general was very nice.

 

Dining:

 

Windjammer:

I had breakfast in the Windjammer twice. They had the typical selections. The way they handled omelets on this ship was very nice – after ordering, you would get a number and could come back to pick up your omelet. This was nice so that you didn’t have to just stand around waiting.

 

We had lunch in the Windjammer only on the first day and a couple times had a snack here. The food was okay, but the selection of options, particularly international options, was not as extensive as I am used to on buffets. In my experience Celebrity has more options and the food quality is little better. Although I didn’t eat lunch or dinner here otherwise, I did often walk through to see what the options were and a lot of the lunch options seemed the same every day. Dinner seemed to have a little more variety, but still not as much as I am used to on other ships.

 

Unlike other cruises we have been on, the Windjammer is completely closed in the late afternoon. After a full day of excursions, we typically are looking for a snack after getting back on board since we would eat dinner later (8:30 or so). Unfortunately, the Windjammer is closed at that time. Although Café Promenade is open, it simply lacks the choices we are looking for at that time. Café Promenade is limited to a couple of sandwiches, pizza and cookies. It would be nice if RCCL could keep a section of the Windjammer open with a broader (and slightly healthier) selection of options available at that time. Some of the things that we have often enjoyed on other ships in the Buffet at this time include fresh fruit, sushi, cheese and crackers, chips and dip and other more snack based items than Café Promenade has.

 

MDR:

We ate most of our meals in the Main Dining Room. We had My Time Dining and typically would go to the early show and then dinner afterwards. We only had a lengthy wait on the first formal night (Christmas Eve). A couple days into the cruise, we made a “reservation” for the rest of the cruise to be in a particular section, however despite the “reservation” we were only able to get in the desired section a couple of times. There were only 2 formal nights on the 11-night cruise – Christmas Eve and New Year’s Eve (though this one was mistakenly listed as “Casual” in the Daily Compass).

 

Breakfast: I had breakfast in the MDR every day except 2 days. Generally breakfast in the main dining room was fine with one exception. The service on the first port day was exceptionally slow. Although it was a port day, with an expected ship clearance time of 10:30 we figured going to the MDR well before 9 am, breakfast in the MDR would be fine. Service that day was very slow. I think it was well over an hour, closer to 1.5 hours before we were done. It was also the only day that I was told that cranberry juice was not available in the MDR (I walked up to the Windjammer to get it). Every other morning, getting cranberry juice was not a problem. Other days, the breakfast service was fine.

 

Lunch: We had lunch in the MDR on each of the sea days. The salad bar was nice and something I had not seen on other ships, but would like to see added on other lines. The selections for lunch were also fine.

 

Dinner: Dinner service was generally fine except for the first formal night. Service that night was very slow as we waited almost 20 minutes after being seated before our waiter or assistant waiter appeared. It took a long time to get drinks and each course took a long time. This meal is what prompted us to start requesting to be seated in the section we were in the first night. Service other nights was fine. New Year’s Eve had a special menu (printed on a standard size page of paper and rolled up) and the typical “Everyday Items” were not available according to our waiter.

 

Food Quality: I know food quality comes up a lot on the forums, so will address it briefly. Food is very subjective, so these are just my opinions. Since I haven’t been on an RCCL cruise before, I cannot compare it to past offerings, but I can compare to other cruise lines, such as Celebrity. Options changed each night, but seemed to lack some of the international variety I have come to expect on other cruises. The food quality was okay but almost nothing really stands out as very memorable or very good. The best quality was New Year’s Eve dinner menu. The quality of both the MDR and Windjammer on Celebrity is in my opinion better than on RCCL (selection on Celebrity is also better). There wasn’t anything wrong with the food, but also nothing really special or very good about most of it. I think the biggest takeaway was there very few items were so good or so unique that they stood out as something I want to have again on the next trip. Additionally, I definitely missed having some more truly international options.

 

Christmas/New Year’s Eve/Hanukkah: The ship was decorated for the holidays and there were many holiday themed events. New Year’s Eve had the typical celebrations throughout the boat with noisemakers, hats, beads, etc. available for people to pick up at dinner time. One negative compared to other ships is that RCCL decided that certain bars, such as Vintages, would require reservation of a table at a significant price if you wanted to be there. We instead stayed at R Bar. Like on other ships, a free glass of sparkling wine was available at some spots on the boat, but apparently R Bar was not one of those locations (we didn’t care since we had the drink package, but simply noting it). Also, the bar closed at 1:30 even though there were still a fair number of people there.

 

Drinks/Bars: We had the Deluxe Beverage Package. Except as noted above, had no problems getting a drink. Also, I never had a problem getting an alcoholic drink and a bottle of water at the same time. However, I found fewer wines by the glass that I enjoyed than I have on our other cruises, including those on Celebrity.

 

Each of the bars has a different theme to it. They were all fine, but if you want a specific drink, you often had to go to a specific bar to get it.

 

Shows: We went to all of the evening shows (except the first night, welcome show). They were all fairly good and about what we have come to expect on a cruise ship. Each of the shows was about 45 minutes in length. We never saw the ventriloquist that was scheduled – his luggage did not make it to the boat and he was replaced by one of the cast from the Navigator who did a good job. Additionally, the first night Jennifer Singer was scheduled to perform, she did not perform. She was switched with the magician.

 

There were 2 ice shows. During the first half of the cruise, there was a Christmas Song ice show. During the second half, there was the “Ice Dancing” show (this replaced the show in the main theater one night) and also included an acrobat. Both shows were also good.

 

Excursions:

 

Bonaire: We booked a tour through Bonaire Vista Tours. The tour was in a van and covered most of the island in about 3.5 hours. It was very good.

 

Aruba: We booked the “Island Ultimate” tour through ABC Tours Aruba. This was a full day tour of the island. The tour took us all over the island and included some snorkeling and a trip to the bat caves. We along with 2 other families from the ship were on this tour and we enjoyed it a lot.

 

Antigua: We booked the “Mystic Sail and Snorkel Cruise” with Tropical Adventures. This was another very good excursion. We sailed along the coast of Antigua, then stopped for snorkeling. After snorkeling, we had lunch while sailing back.

 

St. Kitts: We booked the “Day Trip to Nevis with Lunch” through RCCL (the only tour we booked through RCCL). Although this was a full day tour, it was scheduled to leave an hour after our scheduled arrival in St. Kitts. We enjoyed this excursion. However, likely due to the late start time of the tour, the tour got back to St. Kitts after the “all-aboard” time. The ship did wait, but this tour was the reason the ship left port about ½ an hour late that day. Had the tour been scheduled to start, like most full-day tours, at the estimated ship clearance time, the tour would have arrived back in time to avoid this delay and even give people a little time in port to shop if they wanted.

 

San Juan: We have cruised out of San Juan a couple times in the past and spent time there. In light of the early port time (7 am to 3 pm) and this being New Year’s Eve, we decided not to book any tours. Instead we got off, walked around Old San Juan and had a nice Brunch at Casa Cortes Chocobar.

 

Labadee: Having been here before and this being New Year’s Day, we did not book any excursions.

 

Internet: I had prepurchased the VOOM package (Surf and Stream) for 1 device. The quality of the service varied. Sometimes it was better than at others. It worked fairly well for checking and responding to emails and basic web surfing from my ipad and iphone though it would often take a little bit to load a webpage or email. Connecting to my work VPN on my laptop was very slow, sometimes taking 15 minutes or more to fully connect and update. There were no major problems switching devices, though it sometimes required disconnecting from the wi-fi network for a couple minutes before turning it back on to trigger the pop-up screen asking for the login code.

 

Wi-fi phone calls had a noticeable lag in communication.

 

On a side-note, if you don’t want to purchase “VOOM”, about 2 days before the end of the cruise, RCCL had a special offer for internet access: for only $40.00 you could get 24 hours of access for a device or 60 minutes for $14.95. Not sure why anyone would choose this over VOOM which was only $12.99 or $17.99.

 

Debarkation: No problems getting off the boat, finding our bags and going through customs. The port does have Global Entry, but the “lane” was not because it wasn’t needed at the time. Even though it wasn’t open we were directed to a line where we were the next ones in line. None of the lines looked like they had more than 2 or 3 waiting though.

 

After exiting, we were able to get on a bus to FLL for $10 less than the price onboard the ship, even though it was the exact same bus.

 

Miscellaneous Note:

For those interested, whenever Sabor is open, you can order guacamole, chips and salsa to go for $10. You can order either through the bar staff at the Schooner Bar or the hostess at Sabor.

[Clarea]

Thanks for the report.

 

I cannot remember which ship, but we experienced the Windjammer being closed in the afternoon also. I hope this is not spreading around the fleet.

[KALCJ1]

Thank you for taking the time to write a review!

 

You mentioned having a drink package...can you tell me if you were ever charged extra for any drinks? i am wondering specifically for cocktails. I prefer martinis, Grey goose is my preferred vodka.

 

Also you mentioned getting chips and salsa from Sabor. Were you able to get a margarita as well? I wasn't sure if they were available for dine in only. Also, are they different than what you can get anywhere else throughout the ship?

Edited January 11, 2017 by KALCJ1

[judgeender]

Thank you for taking the time to write a review!

 

You mentioned having a drink package...can you tell me if you were ever charged extra for any drinks? i am wondering specifically for cocktails. I prefer martinis, Grey goose is my preferred vodka.

 

Also you mentioned getting chips and salsa from Sabor. Were you able to get a margarita as well? I wasn't sure if they were available for dine in only. Also, are they different than what you can get anywhere else throughout the ship?

 

I was never charged extra for a drink. I did mostly stick with wine and regular margaritas though. There were martini options on the plan as I did try a couple of their "specialty" ones, though I don't know for sure if Grey Goose specifically is covered.

 

Unfortunately, I did not try to order a margarita from Sabor, just the chips and guacamole (with salsa), so I don't know if you can order those to go or not or if they are any different from those made at the other bars.

[Lindsay564]

Last April on Freedom, at least, Sabor had buy one get one free margaritas every day around dinner time, that you could buy from the host. We took advantage of that every day before we went to the early show :)

[easyboy]

Thank you for your detailed review.

[screamin400]

So we can get just chips and salsa at Sabor or do you have to have the whole dinner?

[judgeender]

New Year's Eve Menu for those interested. I will try to get the daily Cruise Compass for each day uploaded in the next week.

New Years Eve Menu.PDF

[judgeender]

So we can get just chips and salsa at Sabor or do you have to have the whole dinner?

 

Yes, for $10 you could get just chips and guacamole (with salsa) as a "to go" order from Sabor. No need to have the whole meal if you just want the chips and dip.