My View: The ABC Islands on Navigator of the Seas (A picture heavy trip report)

[APDMOM]

APDMOM, we enjoyed meeting you and your family on this cruise and look forward to enjoying it once again.

 

Greg and Rahn

 

Well, you may just be in some of our pictures ;) Hope Rahn's first day back at work was not too wild today!

[APDMOM]

My View: Day 2 - At Sea

 

(Most of these "my view" pictures are taken from "my" lounger)

 

[APDMOM]

As promised, I will post some pictures of our cabin today. At the end of the review, I will also post tips on what to pack, or how we maximize space.

 

As usual, my day started early with a tour of the quiet ship. Come, walk with me as we see the pool deck:

 

 

 

 

[APDMOM]

The solarium: Limited to ages 16 and over:

 

 

 

 

 

These seats were highly sought after. They provide a lovely view of the ocean, while sheltered from the weather elements:

[APDMOM]

My first official stop was the Diamond Lounge to make a free cappuccino. They also serve continental breakfast items around 7 a.m. (closing around 10 or 10:30 a.m.):

 

 

 

 

 

[APDMOM]

As mentioned before, this was our second cruise as diamond, but a vastly different experience from Oasis. Both the lounge and Cosmopolitan Club were used at night for the ‘happy hour’. It got very crowded and loud. There must have been many more diamond and diamond plus members than on Oasis.

 

As opposed to Oasis in June, the Navigator happy hour seemed to offer unlimited drinks while you were in the lounge. They also made special drinks like a Long Island Iced tea, Captain Collins and a Chocolate Martini, which we could not redeem elsewhere with our coupons on the seapass. We only went to the diamond lounge for happy hour about 3 times. The other nights, we opted for the pub to enjoy our free drinks from the coupons on the seapass. We liked the Strongbow Cider, Merlot, Pinot Grigio and the Cosmo. We also redeemed a bottle or two of water per day to take with us on excursions.

 

Drinks from the Diamond Happy Hour:

 

 

Here is the list of diamond benefits we were offered:

 

 

We really enjoyed JJ, the concierge. She has a ton of energy and is very personable. She also helped us with copies for the cabin crawl. This is the welcome letter we found in our cabin:

[APDMOM]

We were able to save quite a bit on wifi with our diamond coupons. We used the one free day on the first sea day (DH and I both get either a free day or $19.99 off the price). I then kept an eye on wifi prices until it dropped below $60 on the day after Labadee. Below are a couple of screen shots of the price with coupon on different days. We ended up paying just over $57 for the last 6 days of the cruise. Surf worked great for WhatsApp and e-mail.

 

 

[APDMOM]

We had an active roll call and met some amazing people on this cruise. Our cruise critic meet and mingle was at 10 a.m. on the first sea day, after which we had our cabin crawl.

 

The meet and mingle was fun, with a game to find fellow CC members with certain characteristics (brown eyes, one child, birthday in January, etc.)

 

Here are a few of our new friends (iahawkfan21 and moopetguy) on our team:

 

There were bottles of wine and a variety of Royal Caribbean trinkets in the raffle. Here is Cuddy, the cruise director:

[APDMOM]

I stepped out of my introvert shell by organizing a cabin crawl for our roll call. We had about 40-50 people who participated, with 8 cabins to tour. It was a lot of fun and we met really amazing people during the cabin crawl. A BIG thanks to all our volunteers of cabins, in case you are reading this!

 

A couple of the unique/special cabins are posted below.

 

The inside with virtual balcony. In case you are not familiar with this, there is real time video feed on that LCD screen:

 

[APDMOM]

The Grand Suite: (Forgot to get a photo of the bar area)

 

 

 

 

 

[APDMOM]

Our favorite cabin…7688! There are only 2 of the kind per Voyager class (and Freedom class) ship. They are currently still category E1, which is typically the cheapest balcony cabin we can find that sleeps 3.

 

It is located here on the ship:

 

We once measured the balcony with my DH’s shoes as guide, and it is around 196 square feet! I love being in the lounger on sea days, hearing the sound of the wake rather than the noise from the big screen at the pool.

 

 

Another view from my lounger: I love that wake view for the same price as a standard balcony!

[APDMOM]

The inside is standard:

 

 

 

I forgot to take a picture with DS’s bed turned down. The only one I have is one of the second formal night. I will post that later, as DS is in it with his ‘outfit’ picked especially for that night.

 

I love the large space outside our stateroom too:

[APDMOM]

This was the first formal night (not lobster night, for those who are interested). Closing the day with our first formal pictures:

 

 

Good night for now. I hope to be back tomorrow with our Labadee aventure!

[carolslc]

Enjoying your review and the pics! DH and I will be on Navigator the week of March 2nd for this itinerary and can't hardly wait! We have corner aft balcony #1388 (starboard).:cool:

 

We have 1388 booked for Feb 2, same itinerary. We also have Woodwind reserved on Bonaire. I can't wait! I'm not very good at reviews, but will try to share something.

 

I'm loving this review - thank you!

[iahawkfan21]

Maybe someone else can help here. I am not sure, as we have never eaten in the ports... part of that 'cruise budget'. :D

 

 

 

I had a lot of “local” food while in the ports. Mind you, a lot of it was arepas and pastechis which aren’t necessarily Dutch but still very good and cheap. Did have some great Dutch pancakes at Diana’s Pancake house near Palm Beach in Aruba though.

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[iahawkfan21]

You did a fantastic job organizing the cabin crawl. It was a lot of fun and we did have an active roll call that continued onboard. Thanks for the last day invite to the balcony as well!

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[JamesEM]

I agree 100% about the Oasis Class ships, last month we sailed on the Harmony and just to many passengers and crew, and not enough space.

[Sobro]

Well, you may just be in some of our pictures ;) Hope Rahn's first day back at work was not too wild today!

 

She reported that finals for the MBA students are next week so all of their project research help was already taken care of. So she's having an easy re-entry to the real world and glad of it.

[Cruise a holic]

Thanks for the photos. We will have two cruises before our August AOS sailing , but the ship looks beautiful!

[ronpes]

What a great report. Thank you so much for doing this

[cocacola86]

Did you see any drupes the black salted licorice

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Forums

[George C]

I can answer any questions on Grand suite and perks, on this ship diamond lounge is much nicer than concierge lounge

[Cruise a holic]

I can answer any questions on Grand suite and perks, on this ship diamond lounge is much nicer than concierge lounge

 

I am also a Diamond member on Royal. What else can you tell me about the suite perks on the AOS. The perks on the Harmony of the Seas, were perhaps the best of any suite perks we have experienced.

[Clarea]

I am also a Diamond member on Royal. What else can you tell me about the suite perks on the AOS. The perks on the Harmony of the Seas, were perhaps the best of any suite perks we have experienced.

Adventure, Anthem, Allure?

[George C]

I am also a Diamond member on Royal. What else can you tell me about the suite perks on the AOS. The perks on the Harmony of the Seas, were perhaps the best of any suite perks we have experienced.

 

AOS should be same as this ship, breakfast each day in Chops ( on some ships its Giovanni's) , also lunch on sea days , this ship had really nice lunch that they charged 19 a person if bought, reserved seats by the pool and also the shows, which can be handy for ice show that can be standing room only, concierge or suite lounge, concierge on this ship was great, they also walk you off the ship on last day at about 8:30. Have not done newer ships like Harmony yet, looking forward to Oasis next year

(I was assuming adventure of the seas)