Cheapo Dad's Trip Report on the Navigator of the Seas (Maybe with few pictures added)...

[perfect match]

On 9/22/2023 at 2:21 AM, harryfat1 said:

On 9/22/2023 at 1:44 AM, perfect match said:

Yeah, the younger generation wouldn't have any connections to the '70s or '80s singers without RCI as they are single-handedly keeping the era in focus with all the dance parties on all their ships on a weekly basis.

 

They still have the '70s dance party on the Oasis class ships, right? That's what got my boys hooked on the era back on the Allure cruise.

70’s dance party was  running when we were on Harmony last fall. 

[Sea Dog]

7 hours ago, perfect match said:

Greg, I don’t know if you’re aware that you will be sailing from Ft Lauderdale International boat show. 
https://www.flibs.com/en/home.html?gclid=Cj0KCQjw9rSoBhCiARIsAFOiplmee_upCoGboPcbMR0LgkbYk4g30HAOUg2hPg24soPzZJVVllMLr5caAjs7EALw_wcB

 

You will find that the city will be far more crowded than normal and many things you might expect to be doing will not be available as they will be taken over by the boat show crowd. I’m not sure exactly when they take over the water taxis. Check the water taxi website for information or contact them directly and ask. https://watertaxi.com/
 

All of the regular mega yachts are moved out of their regular berths for the show and miles of temporary docks are installed to accommodate the huge number of mega yachts coming in for the boat show. 

We will be in the Ft Lauderdale area the first week in October and expect to be sailing on both the Water Taxi and Jungle Queen https://www.junglequeen.com/tropical-isle-dinner-and-show-with-sightseeing-cruise/?fh-u=21b1f5ff-de91-43a6-b2dd-c9b447805358

so we will see what is going on at that point.

 

I did check out Mai Kai and wish they’d hurry up and reopen already!

 

Check out Broward Center For The Preforming Arts and see what they have going on when you’re there. https://www.browardcenter.org/

Thank you for your information. We should be ok as our cruise on Adventure leaves October 21st. We are coming in two days early on the 19th so hopefully we will miss the crowds. There is a part of me that would like to see the boat show. I will check out your other links to check them out too. Yes I am disappointed that the Mai Kai will not be finished yet. Luckily we will cruise out of FLL again in April so hopefully it will be done by then.

[perfect match]

@Sea DogThese pictures were taken on October 21, 2019. The boat show that year ran from October 30 - November 3. As you can see by October 21 they already had all of the local boats at BahaiMar Marina moved out, most of the temporary docks set up, and they were setting up the tents for the exhibitors and bringing in some of the ”jewelry”, aka fancy cars to adorn the yachts that would be on display. 
 

I don’t mean to say that you won’t be able to have a good time while you’re in Ft Lauderdale. They’ve been doing this boat show for a long time now and they seem to be very well organized. If there’s anything special you want to do, someplace you have your heart set on eating, anything like that, I’d be sure to make my reservations sooner rather than later. I expect that I will see some of the earliest preparations for the boat show the first week of October when we are there. 
 

As long as the Water Taxis are still running, and I think they will be, you may be able to get a good luck at some of the early arrival yachts there for the show. They definitely do not wait until the last minute to bring them in. 
 

We live in Florida, and our local public TV station does a broadcasts a tour of the boat show every year. It fascinates me to see all of the big, beautiful yachts on exhibit during the show. There are some smaller boats too. I like to pick out the one I would want if money were no object. IRL there’s no way I can afford any of my picks. Classic case of champagne taste on a beer budget. 
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited September 24, 2023 by perfect match

[JamesEM]

A Water Taxi ride is a must during boat show week and a visit to Louie Bossi's on Las Olas Blvd for some great eats.   

[h20skibum]

On 9/19/2023 at 1:39 AM, harryfat1 said:

Is anyone here with any tender boat pictures to share?

Tender boat pictures you say.  OK!

 

Let's start with the oldest ones I took, which just reinforces the perception that I am old.  This one is from tendering at St. Thomas.  That is right, we had to tender here for our first cruise in 1980, which also was our honeymoon cruise.

 

 

Yes, I just got a piece of the tender, but it was heading to the ship in the background.

 

Yep, there is still one tied up along the SS Norway as we are approaching.  The carried the two tenders on the ship, and they were lowered from the davits at the bow.

 

Next up, how about tendering from a Royal ship?  This is a tender to get us from Independence of the Seas to Belize.

 

 

And a couple tied up along side the ship

 

 

What about tendering at Grand Cayman?

 

 

We were tendering from Voyager, but Celebrity Solstice was also there for their tender runs.

 

 

It must be a thing for Princess to use their life boats for tendering.  Here they are tendering in Gatun Lake from the Coral Princess.

 

 

And on the mini golf courses, the Coral had one that looked a little nicer than the one you posted, but definitely not up to par with Royal.

 

What about tendering with Celebrity.  Here we are going to CocoCay from Celebrity Summit, in the days before it was developed and the pier put in.

 

 

More tendering, you say?  Back to Princess using their lifeboats. 

 

 

Here we are tendering from the Grand Princess to Lahaina, Maui.

 

 

And, mini golf on the Grand.

 

 

And lastly, although I know we didn't swim ashore, I only had photos of the ship from the shore.  Independence of the Seas at Villefranche-sur-Mer, France.

 

 

 

 

 

Edited September 24, 2023 by h20skibum

[perfect match]

Love those tender boat pictures, @h20skibum! I thought I had a lot more, but I don’t. Then again, I do tend to avoid cruises where I’ll have to tender. 
 

@JamesEM, we haven’t tried Louie Bossi’s yet. There are so many good restaurants in FtLauderdale that it’s hard to get to all of them. I’ll have to put them on my list for our upcoming trip.

 

Have you been able to ride a Water Taxi during the boat show? We’ve always left town just before the show started. I was told in the past that the Water Taxis were out of regular service during the show because they were chartered out to the boat show and were used to transport show attendees to and from the various show venues. I have never been in town during the show, but several taxi boat have told me in the past that is what happens.

[harryfat1]

On 9/22/2023 at 5:47 AM, Sea Dog said:

We will be in FLL in October for our Adventure cruise. I can report back as I will be doing a live review. We plan on doing the water taxi and are staying at the Riverside Hotel on Las Olas where there is good shopping and restaurants. I was really hoping that the famous Tiki bar and restaurant the Mai Kai will be back open after their hurricane damage renovations but they won’t be yet. They may be open by your visit. The Mai Kai has an amazing Polynesian dance and music show. The place is huge and the decor is amazing. It would be a place I think you would like.

Awesome. Looking forward to your trip report.

 

Hats off to those of you and others who can do the live report. I can’t do a live report - at best I upload a few pictures but I can’t get a coherent post on the go.  Like the concept of being too dumb to walk and chew gum at the same time.

 

I see a pattern between you and the Tiki Bar/Bamboo Room.

 

We did the water taxi ride back in 2016 when we stayed at the GalleryOne as they were one of the stops on the water taxi route.  Pretty relaxing ride normally but not sure about the special event days.

 

We have never been to Hollywood Beach.  Looking to check out that area and maybe rent bikes to ride up and down the beach front.

 

[harryfat1]

On 9/24/2023 at 9:42 AM, h20skibum said:

Tender boat pictures you say.  OK!

 

Let's start with the oldest ones I took, which just reinforces the perception that I am old.  This one is from tendering at St. Thomas.  That is right, we had to tender here for our first cruise in 1980, which also was our honeymoon cruise.

 

 

Yes, I just got a piece of the tender, but it was heading to the ship in the background.

 

Yep, there is still one tied up along the SS Norway as we are approaching.  The carried the two tenders on the ship, and they were lowered from the davits at the bow.

 

Next up, how about tendering from a Royal ship?  This is a tender to get us from Independence of the Seas to Belize.

 

 

And a couple tied up along side the ship

 

 

What about tendering at Grand Cayman?

 

 

We were tendering from Voyager, but Celebrity Solstice was also there for their tender runs.

 

 

It must be a thing for Princess to use their life boats for tendering.  Here they are tendering in Gatun Lake from the Coral Princess.

 

 

And on the mini golf courses, the Coral had one that looked a little nicer than the one you posted, but definitely not up to par with Royal.

 

What about tendering with Celebrity.  Here we are going to CocoCay from Celebrity Summit, in the days before it was developed and the pier put in.

 

 

More tendering, you say?  Back to Princess using their lifeboats. 

 

 

Here we are tendering from the Grand Princess to Lahaina, Maui.

 

 

And, mini golf on the Grand.

 

 

And lastly, although I know we didn't swim ashore, I only had photos of the ship from the shore.  Independence of the Seas at Villefranche-sur-Mer, France.

 

 

 

 

 

Cool pictures of the various tenders.  Thanks for digging into the archives for these.  I especially like the classic cruise line picture of the Norway. Definitely under the category of “they don’t build these anymore”

 

Princess Cruise lines used to attempt to appeal to the families by having a smaller mini golf area like what you showed on the Coral and the Grand but on their newer class ships (the Royal Class), they totally abandoned the golf concept.  Not interested in attracting families in this class of ships.

 

The ship looked to be docked very far at Maui.  Must be a long tender ride.

 

I would need to dig deep into my own archives as I want to say I was in one of these lifeboats previously as a tender as I remembered thinking to myself that I’m glad I won’t have to be spending anytime in the lifeboats as they were not very comfortable.

 

[Sea Dog]

1 minute ago, harryfat1 said:

Awesome. Looking forward to your trip report.

 

Hats off to those of you and others who can do the live report. I can’t do a live report - at best I upload a few pictures but I can’t get a coherent post on the go.  Like the concept of being too dumb to walk and chew gum at the same time.

 

I see a pattern between you and the Tiki Bar/Bamboo Room.

 

We did the water taxi ride back in 2016 when we stayed at the GalleryOne as they were one of the stops on the water taxi route.  Pretty relaxing ride normally but not sure about the special event days.

 

We have never been to Hollywood Beach.  Looking to check out that area and maybe rent bikes to ride up and down the beach front.

 

Live reports make me nervous in that they are only as good as the internet speeds on board. I wanted to do a “as if” but since I am having knee replacement surgery less than a week later after I get back  I am going going to do it live. I can’t wait to cruise on Navigator next October to review the Bamboo Room. Unfortunately I don’t think they will be able to do the authentic tiki recipes that I’m used to to but I am ok with that.

[harryfat1]

August 10, (Thursday) Day 4 - Ensenada

 

 

As always here is the compass scan for the day

 

 

 

 

 

[harryfat1]

Since this is Day 4 of the short cruise, today is the last day so we will queue up the video as we say Goodbye to the crew later today

 

 

 

But we are not done-done yet.  We have a full day of cruise left, including the Mexican port of Ensenada.

 

Officially the ship docks at 8 AM so I tried to get up to the top deck to see the ship coming in port.  The family being late risers didn’t want to get up early so I was on my own.

 

Nobody in the hallway.  Have you ever wondered if you were a snail, how long would the ship’s corridor would look like?

 

[harryfat1]

Not much happening at 7:35 on the RP

 

 

The floor sign at the elevator reminds you that it’s Thursday to the rest of the world but as far as you are concerned, it’s Day 4 of the cruise

 

 

Rare empty elevator where I can take an unobstructed view of the listings on each deck

 

 

The Solarium pool is not open yet at 7:37

 

 

[Coralc]

1 hour ago, harryfat1 said:

We did the water taxi ride back in 2016 when we stayed at the GalleryOne as they were one of the stops on the water taxi route.  Pretty relaxing ride normally but not sure about the special event days.

 

But you took a photo of that HUGE Iguana that I borrowed for my photo album. I have never seen an Iguana that large! He is invasive, but gorgeous. ☺️

 

[harryfat1]

59 minutes ago, Coralc said:

But you took a photo of that HUGE Iguana that I borrowed for my photo album. I have never seen an Iguana that large! He is invasive, but gorgeous. ☺️

 

Haha, you borrowed this picture from someone else.  I didn't take this picture.  I wish I had...

[harryfat1]

Ensenada Harbor. 

 

 

A bit of quick geography here for those not familiar with Ensenada.  The city is located about 80 miles south of the US/Mexico border.

 

Besides the twice-a-week short cruise sailings from southern CA (3 and 4-night sailings), the port stop is used for many repo cruises as they need to add in a foreign port when they sail to/from Hawaii or up and down the California coast.  The cruise lines either use Vancouver/Victoria up north or Ensenada down south during winter when sailing to Canada is not a viable option.

 

Wiki says Ensenada is the second busiest Mexico port and that surprises me at first, but if I think about it, it makes sense as the trade with Asia needs to find the closest port in the northwest of Mexico.  They need to import stuff from Asia as well as export their goods and this is the closest big port.

 

One claim to fame for Ensenada is that they think they invented the drink Margarita.  You can read Wiki on this as different places also want to lay claim to inventing Margarita.

 

Another claim to fame is the locals believe they invented the fish taco. The famous Anthony Bourdain came here once and filmed an episode at Ensenada eating fish tacos.

 

One last big claim to fame is the Blow Hole outside of town.  The Blow hole is the water geyser where water shoots up through the cave openings.  You can read up on the science part of it but the one in Ensenada is supposed to be the second largest in the world and that’s where we are going to see today.

[aubreyc1988]

How was the pub entertainer? 

[harryfat1]

14 minutes ago, aubreyc1988 said:

How was the pub entertainer? 

Sorry, couldn't tell you as we never spent time inside the pub.  We are not drinkers and especially since my younger son is still underage, we didn't spend time at any of the drinking establishments.

[harryfat1]

Quiet pool deck area.  No chair hogs early in the morning and on a port day

 

 

 

 

[Coralc]

41 minutes ago, harryfat1 said:

Haha, you borrowed this picture from someone else.  I didn't take this picture.  I wish I had...

Check your photos from 2016! You did too. And you also offered to send me a better copy of it. I certainly remember who I "borrow" photos from. ☺️Apparently it is from near the water taxi dock. I have a very good memory. 

Edited September 26, 2023 by Coralc

[harryfat1]

As discussed previously, Ensenada Harbor blocks off access to the Mooring Line so we deal with whatever we are given.  At least you get to see the dudes working hard to secure the lines

 

 

 

Dudes working and chasing away Patti’s sea lions.  The water splash was a couple that jumped in.  There are a couple more left by the red arrow but they are soon chased away as well

 

 

 

[harryfat1]

We have an excursion in mind but if you are in town and don’t want to do much away from the ship, I have seen YouTube videos where people from the cruise walked to where the huge flag pole is as they have shops and an open square area for people to hang out

 

From the flag pole, you can walk a bit more to get to downtown or you can take the shuttle here for $4/pp/roundtrip.  Technically it’s $3 there and $1 back as I read somewhere that if you walk to the town area and get hot and tired and don’t want to walk back, you can catch the shuttle back for $1.

 

They have you as a “captive prisoner” when getting off the port if you are new to the area, you have no clue where’s what so you pay the $4/pp.  But once you realize you can walk the distance, they will only charge you $1 back if you don’t have the return ticket.

 

 

I have always liked the "miniature effect".  Same picture but with software adjustment for tilt-shift look

 

 

 

 

 

 

[harryfat1]

A couple more pictures and then it's time to go down and gather the fam for breakfast

 

This is the shuttle to get into town I mentioned in previous post

 

 

Last Line picture

 

[harryfat1]

47 minutes ago, Coralc said:

Check your photos from 2016! You did too. And you also offered to send me a better copy of it. I certainly remember who I "borrow" photos from. ☺️Apparently it is from near the water taxi dock. I have a very good memory. 

REALLY?  I took this picture?  I must be getting old as I don't recall.

 

I have taken probably over 100,000 travel pictures throughout the years and I would rank that as a top 1% "wow' factor amongst all the pictures and I don't even remember taking it....

[harryfat1]

OK, it’s 8 AM, time to head back to the cabin round up the family, and head for breakfast

 

 

And guess what, this being day 4, they opened up the “secret vault” and had the smoked salmon out with you having to do the secret handshake before getting some.

 

All you can eat smoked salmon

 

 

My breakfast - got the salmon with a plain waffle

 

 

Here’s something I missed not having from the Princess cruise – customized Belgian waffles.  On the Majestic Princess, they have a dedicated Waffles dude who makes Belgian waffles with various toppings similar to an omelet station.  I like mine with strawberries. Much better than the RCI plain variety.

 

Here's the Princess version with the dude makes the waffle fresh in front of you and adds the topping from the list

 

 

 

Final Product:

 

 

 

Anyway, back to RCI as they ran short on fruits so there was a line as the worker replenished them with the trays underneath

 

 

 

[harryfat1]

Done with breakfast.  Back to the cabin to get the backpack ready for our one and only port excursion for this cruise.

 

Artwork at RP as we made our way to the gangway