Navigating the Atlantic on the World Navigator

[amunhbuu]

Short Version:

Despite some kerfuffles, we had a great time.  Food was great for what it was.  We had a different menu in Porto every night.  Liquor selection was fine.  Wine selection was meh, I mostly stuck with the Champagne which was acceptable for its price range.  Staff was amazing and bent over backwards to help out.  Seems like there is a disconnect between what the Miami Atlas HQ promises and what is communicated to the ship.  We are looking forward to our Antarctica cruise.

[amunhbuu]

Long Version:

 

Embarking:

Flights out were fine.  We had one kerfuffle when the board told us our flight to Lisbon was delayed due to airport closure.  No one knew what that meant.  Someone in a uniform finally said it was generally trying to time incoming international flights.  I was thinking, these are planned in advance, not sure why they are doing same day timing.  Eventually, we left at our original time and showed up five minutes early.  /shrug

 

Took us about an hour and twenty minutes to get through customs.  Felt like I was in line for a ride at disney world.  So much for social distancing.  Got to the customs agent and started to hand over the covid testing and he just said the airline already checked it, he didn't care.

 

Got our luggage and found a sign for Atlas.  Person standing behind said sign was not for Atlas.  Finally, someone spoke up and took us to a group.  We walked out to our bus.  We waited for a few more people to show up.  I think that there were eleven of us total.  We took a pleasant ride through Lisbon to the Cruise Port.

 

Here is where a major kerfuffle happened.  We got dropped off and gave our bags to the porters.  We were filling out our covid testing paperwork and noticed everything said Oceania on it.  At first, we thought maybe Atlas being a small cruise outsourced the testing to Oceania, but the more we thought about it, that didn't make sense.  So we went back to the porters.  After we explained everything, he went running after our luggage as it was being loaded on the wrong ship!  We managed to get our luggage back and walked down the port to the World Navigator which was about a third of a mile away. 

 

Then there were more kerfuffles at the smaller port and a lot of uncertainty.  They finally let us into the terminal to sit down.  After a while, someone from the ship came down with some water.  Then we all sat there for a while.  Then the nurse came down and asked for our covid forms.  She was then surprised that none of us had received the form that she was talking about.  So we all had to fill out our forms by hand there.  After that we were processed by travel party to get a covid antigen test to be able to board.  That took about five minutes to pass through once you were selected.  Once we tested negative, we were able to board.  We were directed to the Atlas lounge where there was some welcome wine.  They began to check us in via a mobile device. 

 

Since we were a bit early, we were restricted to the Atlas lounge.  Then they prepared a buffet lunch for us.  We saw the owner of Mystic sitting at the captain's table with a bunch of people in suits. It looked like a board meeting was going on, so we all ate outside in the open space.

 

We went back to the Atlas lounge.  Then we got access to our cabin and were able to drop our stuff off.  After that we went exploring for a new home for the next sixteen days.  The ship is pretty small (around 10k GT).  This did not take long.

 

That evening everyone met up in the Dome for sail away.  We had drinks and could walk out on the deck in front of the Dome.  Sailing out of Lisbon was nice.  And that was the start of the cruise!

[amunhbuu]

Ship:

The World Navigator was about three months old when we sailed her.  She is a lovely ship and reminds me of a small modern cruise ship vs. similar sized ships I have been on which have felt like large yachts.

 

Deck 3 is where we got on the tenders.  There are also porthole cabins that are not currently in use.  The lockers for Antarctica are down here as well.

 

Deck 4 is where the facilities are.  Checkin Desk, Gym, Future Cruises, Excursions, Medical, Shop, and Spa.

 

The gym had two treadmills, a recumbent bike, and a normal bike for cardio.  There was a bench and dumbbells from 1KG to 10KG.  There was a magnetic pulley device you could adjust tension on.  There were also a variety of mats and exercise balls.

 

Deck 5 has two interesting features apart from the cabins.  Aft holds “The Living Room”.  It is a large expansive deck with couches you can go back and relax on.  Forward holds “Water’s Edge”.  This is an observation deck with a heated bench to go out and see where the ship is going.  There are two bulkhead doors you need to go through to get to it.

 

Deck 6 is where the bridge is.  It is a very modern bridge.  Very clean.

 

The pool is on Deck 7.  It is a raised platform with two hot tubs.  They are saltwater pools.  They did struggle to keep the hot tubs hot.  There is also a forward observation deck.

 

There is a jogging track on Deck 8 that you can access from Deck 7 aft.  15 laps are a mile.  There are four exercise devices at each corner.  The helipad is up here as are the two cranes to lower the zodiacs and jet skis.

 

The theme of the ship is a modern & chic.  Think mid century modern and mad men.  The walls are covered in a faux dark wood pattern.  After a while, the pattern got to me, but I tend to pick up on repeating patterns pretty quickly.  The furniture was mostly comfortable with a variety of types and bright colors.  It will be interesting to see how the scheme ages.

 

We had a standard balcony cabin on Deck 5.  It was a very nice cabin.  I thought the bedding was very comfortable.  The highlight of the cabin was the shower.  There was an overhead rain shower, a handheld shower, and three jet showers from the wall.  I really miss that shower!

 

We got a chance to tour some of the other rooms and they all look nice.  No super large suites that you would find on a larger ship.  We also were able to check out the horizon cabin that we will be in for Antarctica, with the dropping window.

[amunhbuu]

Staff:

Staff was just amazing.  We received great service from everyone.  Of course, they all knew your name by the second day.  They also remembered your preferences and had drinks ready when you sat down.

 

Entertainment was split between three performers.  There was a pianist and singer, the cruise director, and a guest singer.  Sometimes all three would perform at the same time.  We did have a cruise staff entertainment evening where the cruise performed some contemporary and some items from their native land.

 

There were two speakers.  One was focused on history.  The other was focused on sports.  They were both informative and entertaining.  They were also more than happy to continue the conversations after their presentations.

[amunhbuu]

Food:

My experience with the food was that it was very good overall.  I only had one meal that I didn’t like.  My spouse ordered the same thing and loved hers, so it was more of a personal preference.

 

My opinion is that there are 1 and two half dining venues.  Porto is the man dining menu on Deck 4.  Paula’s Pantry is a coffee spot with some light items on Deck 4.  7 Aft is surprising on Deck 7, aft.  😉 7 Aft and Porto had full bar service.

 

Breakfast was in Porto.  It was the same buffet every morning.  The buffet had amazing fresh fruit, dried fruit, meats & cheeses, sausages, scrambled eggs, potatoes, bacon, cereal, nuts, milk, a variety of fresh juices, pastries, and donuts.  You could also order made to order eggs and omelets.  Then I discovered you could order french toast as well. Mimosas were also ready to be prepared, just ask! Again, it was the same thing every morning, but there was a huge variety of food.  Quite honestly, I ended up settling down into the same thing every morning after working out. If you are looking for the traditional cruise full breakfast, you might be disappointed.

 

7 Aft essentially served the same thing as Porto did during lunch.  It was just in a buffet form instead of sit down.  You could also order burgers and hotdogs here.  Generally all of us pool people ate lunch here every day.  They also had a flatbread pizza thing that I thought was not up to the quality as their other offerings.  A lot of people liked their Impossible Burger option.  For dinner, 7 Aft turned into a reservation only steakhouse.  I enjoyed the one time we ate up there.  I ordered too much food with two side items.  It is one of the few meals I had where I felt I over indulged.  

 

Porto is where dinner was held for most people. For a 16 day cruise, I don’t think we repeated a single dinner menu.  We basically had a theme night in Porto each night.  Periodically, they provided the Alma menu.  I always ordered off of the left side of the menu (theme) and not off the Alma or the “standard” menu on the right hand side.  Presentation was very good with high quality dinnerware and glasses.  Portion sizes were appropriate.

 

I really have no complaints about the food.  I certainly did not lose any weight.  😉 I did speak with the head chef about his vision which was more about providing variety throughout the cruise vs. having a smaller set of menus with more items. I think this may have frustrated some cruisers who were used to more variety within the menus themselves.  If you are the type who likes to experiment with their food, it was a very enjoyable experience.  If you want the same cruise food over and over, I think you will be disappointed.  Oh, and the focaccia was amazing and light!

 

We did have two theme nights at 7 Aft which was the entire pool deck, one was a BBQ  theme near the beginning of the cruise and an island theme near the end of the cruise.  The regular dining options were closed for those nights.

 

There were two cooking demonstrations.  It was the first time they had done anything like that, so it was not as slick as some demonstrations where they have been done 100s of times.  We got the recipes for both of the options they made.  But quite frankly, if you wanted a recipe for anything they made, they were more than happy to provide it to you.

 

We often ate dinner with someone who had some dietary restrictions.  She was blown away by the accommodations and the quality of the substitutions.

[amunhbuu]

Drinks:

There are two main lounges.  The Atlas Lounge is forward on Deck 4.  The theatre sits just forward of it.  The Dome is forward on Deck 7.  You can walk out to the pool deck from here and forward for views.  They both have full service bars.  We generally had pre dinner drinks with canapes in Atlas.  Afternoon tea and nightly entertainment was in The Dome.

 

Liquor selection was fine.  There was a limited variety of what was there.  But what they had was around the $30 / bottle retail where I live.  If you have to have your special liquor, you will need to bring it.  The cocktail menus were mostly the same between the bars.  They had some interesting cocktails and we were able to try some new things.

 

But here is where the staff and bartenders shined.  If they had the ingredients, they were more than happy to make you whatever you wanted.  There was a selection of upcharge liquors as well.  I did get one dram of scotch one night because I was in the mood for something different.

 

We had one afternoon where the four bartenders were able to provide a drink that they had created.  So they went through the presentations and were able to taste each of their creations.  They were all of different varieties, so it was a fun experience.  One bartender went through his Tom Cruise Cocktail routine, which was entertaining.

 

I felt the wine selection was somewhat disappointing.  But wine may be more subjective than food. Most people seemed to find one bottle of something they liked.  I mostly drank the champagne as it was a decent sparkling wine.  We have cruised Celebrity quite a bit and feel that the wine selection on the premium package is superior.

[amunhbuu]

Ports:

We were often the first cruisers back to our ports.  So while they were excited to see us, I got the feeling that places were not necessarily ready for us.

 

Lisbon:

We didn’t get to see much of Lisbon.  We had a nice 20 minute drive from the airport to the seaport.  I did walk over to the train station which looked very nice.  We looked at going to the war museum, but it was closed on Monday.

 

Madeira:

We opted to do a pay excursion that included the cable car and toboggan ride.  We rode a bus to the cable car.  Then it was about a 15 minute ride up to the top.  After that we walked around and saw a small museum and a church.  Then we rode the “sledges” down the road.  This was not nearly as thrilling as I thought it would be.  That dumped us into a tourist trap where they tried to sell us our photos coming down.  After that, the bus picked us up and took us back to downtown and finally we walked over to a Madeira wine shop where we sampled the local wines.  We opted to walk back to the ship, which was a 15-20 minute walk.

 

Canary Islands:

We ended up taking an included excursion here. It was basically a bus and walking tour of the Canary Islands.  We went to a market and then walked through an older part of town.  We drove up and over to the other side of the island.  We ended up in a Bodega.  There we were able to sample some tapas and their wines. There was some great sauce and sea boiled potatoes. Then we rode back to the ship.

 

Atlantic Ocean:

We had eight straight days of crossing.  The weather for it was just about perfect.  We had a couple of days of glassy seas.  We quickly got into a routine.  Woke up and worked out.  Went to breakfast.  Then maybe do a 10 am stretching or meditation session.  At 11, one of the speakers gave a 40 minute presentation.  Then it was up to the pool and start thinking about lunch.  A couple of days, there was something around 2 PM.  Afternoon tea was from 4-5.  Trivia was at 4:30.  Canapes and predinner drinks started at 6:30 with dinner starting around 7.  Then there was nightly entertainment at 9.  Rinse and repeat!

 

St. Barts:

St. Barts was a substitute port.  We were provided a taxi to Shell Beach.  If you wanted to walk, it was about a 10 minute walk.  There were not many people there.  I think most people had sticker shock at the prices.  We just placed our towels up on a slight hill.  The water was wonderful, but there was quite a bit of seaweed.  At one point, I was the only person in the water.

 

St. Martin:

This was also a substitute port. The first day of St. Martin we were tendered into Marigot. Unfortunately, it was Sunday.  In addition, we were really early in the season.  So nothing was open.  My wife and I walked up to Ft. St. Louis, which gave a pretty cool view of the bay and city.  Unfortunately, you can still see all of the destruction from hurricane Irma. Others did catch a taxi to another part of the island to be on a beach. We headed back to the ship and did our normal routine.

 

The second day of St. Martin was in Simpson Bay.  Except that we woke up off the coast of St. Kitts and Nevis.  Surprise!  The staff arranged for a private beach day.  So we were able to use the zodiacs and do a wet landing at a local beach club.  It was a nice experience.  The beach club staff said we were the first cruise visitors in a year and a half.  So we did buy some stuff just to inject a couple of dollars into the island.  I do wish we were able to break out the toys from the ship, sea doos & kayaks.

[amunhbuu]

Disembarking:

Unfortunately, the third day at St. Martin was disembarkation day.  We had to be out of our room by 9AM.  We ate our breakfast and went to the Atlas lounge where we were disembarking from.  They packed boxed treat for everyone.  At 10:30 we left the ship 😞 and boarded a bus.  We were treated to a island tour.  It was interesting to Marigot on a day where everything was open.  We did get stuck in traffic due to them mowing the grass next to the street.  That cut our time in Marigot short.  We were then dropped off at the airport at 1PM.  Most people were on the same flight back to Miami.  Flights back were pretty seamless.

[amunhbuu]

Kerfuffles:

The biggest kerfuffle was the change in ports.  I can’t imagine all of the logistics involved right now with Covid protocols constantly changing.  But the decision to not go to Barbados really seemed to be last second with a lack of communication and planning on the new islands.  This was a known issue for a couple of months.

 

As such, they didn’t have excursions really planned for the newer ports.  And there were supposed to be included excursions on every port.  I will give the onboard staff props for setting up the beach day at the last second.  It was much appreciated.

 

They asked about our flight information for disembarkation.  I said, Atlas booked it, don’t you have it all? He just laughed and shook his head.  So, I had to go grab the information and send it to him via email.

 

Internet access was goofy. We received 1GB for the 16 days for the TA.  Unfortunately, there was no way to monitor how much you had used.  You had to take your code to the front desk and have them check it for you.  I did that on the second day and the person behind the desk said I used 975MB.  That really confused me as I had kept my wifi turned off and was just doing some basic stuff when I connected. I just shook my head and kept using it.  I think there was either a miscommunication from her or she misunderstood what the system was telling her.  My belief was that I had used 25MB at the time.

 

Laundry was a pre-cruise kerfuffle.  They resolved that to our satisfaction.  We received two bags of included laundry throughout the cruise.  I wish I would have known that before hand and could have packed less, but I was happy to be able to wash some of the dirty clothes, particularly work out clothes.  We received our clothes about four hours after they picked it up, which was amazing.

[amunhbuu]

Final Thoughts:

There were only 60 passengers onboard with crew of 122.  So we had a 1:2 passenger, crew ratio which was amazing.  I did ask some people who had been aboard previously with larger passenger count if that had made a difference.  They did not feel like it had and that the level of service was high regardless of the passenger count.

 

We flew a Mystic Cruises flag while in port.  Most of the crew had been on one of the sister ships previously.  While everyone wore Atlas branded apparel, that leads me to believe that they are contracted to Mystic and Atlas is basically a marketing and sales company targeting North America.

 

I really hope that Atlas can hit a groove and align what they are selling with what they are capable of providing.  The onboard product was great overall.  There still seems to be miscommunications and that the staff onboard are having to deal with issues that the Miami office created.  Unless you love small ship cruising, I am not sure why you would do the Caribbean with them.  I think that they will really shine with the more expedition orientated cruises.

 

From a competition perspective, I would not put them in the luxury line up of Seabourn, Silver Seas, Crystal, etc.  More mainstream, I think they are competing against Azamara, Windstar, and possible the R ships from Oceania. I think they are competing directly with expedition companies like Quark & Ponat and now Seanic.  It seems that they provide a good value against those lines.  

 

So essentially we had a private super yacht for 16 days while crossing the Atlantic.  It was a great experience.  We are really looking forward to our Antarctica trip aboard the World Navigator in Feburary.

[amunhbuu]

Couple of items I forgot:

 

A guest asked if we could do a drive by of the Cumbre Vieja volcano on La Palma.  The captain was able to oblige.  So we were able to get a once in a lifetime opportunity to cruise by a live volcano.  We did have an initial miscommunication on the day, so a bunch of us were wondering around Deck 7 forward in the dark at 6 in the morning.  But kudos to Atlas and the captain for making that happen!  That is the difference maker vs. a large cruise.

 

MyAtlas...  😄  The cabin preferences we put into MyAtlas were ignored.  But, they did contact us about celebrating my wife's birthday.  They baked a cake for her and came over to sing Happy Birthday.  Again, kudos to Atlas and the staff for helping us celebrate!

[sswansen]

Thank you so much for sharing such a detailed report on your experiences!  I truly appreciate it.  Sounds like Atlas is improving, and I'm glad to hear you enjoyed your trip.  My cruise isn't until Oct. of 2022 so I have quite a while to see how things progress.  Cheers!

[anonymousegirl]

Thanks for such a detailed report. My husband and I are booked on the December 18 Antarctica Discovery. I hope the wine selection improves. I wonder if it will be difficult for us to bring any alcohol with us from the US. 

[vicd1969]

Thank you for one of the most comprehensive reviews on CC that I’ve read in a while. Makes me look very forward to my Antarctic sailing as well.  A few additional questions if you don’t mind:

 

- How was the internet speed?

- When was the bridge accessible to guests?

- How did you feel about storage space in the cabin?
- What nationalities were your cabin attendants? Thinking of getting some Asian foods to bring and give as extra tips to crew if their service is as stellar as your experience.

 

Thank you again for all the info you’ve provided!

 

 

[amunhbuu]

2 hours ago, vicd1969 said:

Thank you for one of the most comprehensive reviews on CC that I’ve read in a while. Makes me look very forward to my Antarctic sailing as well.  A few additional questions if you don’t mind:

 

- How was the internet speed?

- When was the bridge accessible to guests?

- How did you feel about storage space in the cabin?
- What nationalities were your cabin attendants? Thinking of getting some Asian foods to bring and give as extra tips to crew if their service is as stellar as your experience.

 

Thank you again for all the info you’ve provided!

 

 

Internet speed was fine for what it was in the middle of the Atlantic.  I forgot how fast 5G was until we hit Miami.  As I noted, the real issue was not knowing how much data you use.  I work in IT and had a general sense of what activities have more data utilization than others.  I imagine people were frustrated with not knowing good practices to minimize data.  I know some people were managing some business work via phone, so they were able to at least have a call.

 

They arranged for bridge tours 2-3 times throughout the crossing. Normally, it would be an open bridge policy.  But they want to control it due to COVID.

 

We had fine storage in the cabin.  I over packed and had plenty of space.  Now, we did not bring anything dressy due to the country club casual nature of the line.  So no suits, gowns, etc.

 

I believe that most of the service crew was Indonesian.  The officers were a variety including Russian and Portuguese.  The head chef was Portuguese, I believe and the pastry chef was Indian.  I think the hotel manager was Italian.  The entertainers were American and the CD was Canadian and his wife (FC) was American.

Edited October 25, 2021 by amunhbuu

[Doclori]

On 10/25/2021 at 11:21 AM, vicd1969 said:

Thinking of getting some Asian foods to bring and give as extra tips to crew if their service is as stellar as your experience.

 

 

What a nice idea! What do you typically bring? 

[vicd1969]

35 minutes ago, Doclori said:

What a nice idea! What do you typically bring? 

There are quite a few Asian food stores in my area. Maybe some ramen, or condiments that easily fit in luggage. I'll know better once I actually go shopping close to my trip.

[larryfromtexas]

I enjoyed your review of your Atlantic crossing. I am an enrichment speaker (pop music history) and I have been booked to speak on the Navigator for the Feb. 14 Antarctica itinerary. I have been speaking on another cruise line this year and I am curious about Atlas and the onboard experience. 
 

And never in my life did I think I would go to Antarctica! Wow!

[amunhbuu]

Video from our cruise:

 

[Cnfrank]

I enjoyed your detailed review. Looking forward to our Antarctic cruise on Atlas, February 2, 2022!