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

[harryfat1]

7 hours ago, bobmacliberty said:

 

I'd give our Hawaii/Alaska cruise a 7.13 out of ten.  We had a few issues but overall had a good time.  We especially loved staying on Kauai after.  And I'm glad we stopped in Lahaina one last time.  I'm still heartbroken about the fires. 

 

I decided to leave my photo gear at home and just use my phone (Lightroom app, shooting in RAW so I can at least edit).  There were a couple of times that I wished I had my 70-200 lens, or my nifty 50 1.8, but lugging that stuff all around would not have been fun.  I can't remember the last time I used my "real" camera.  Are you and your wife still using cameras or are you now phone people?

Yeah, very sad about the Maui fire.  Maybe we will visit there in a few years after they start the rebuild.  We were in St. Maarten back in 2017 right after their hurricane and we saw the damages firsthand.

 

My wife was going to bring her SLR to Alaska last year but she decided at the end to just use her cell phone.  I brought the hybrid camera with me as a compromise.

 

If you have plans to go back to Alaska later on, look into going with Princess or HAL or NCL as they go to Glacier Bay National Park RCI/Celebrity do not. If you go to the Alaska boards to ask what are the must-see glaciers, they will say Glacier Bay and Hubbard Glacier.  For our cruise, Princess stopped at both.

 

The tradeoff is that the Princess entertainment is non-existent.  We were bored to tears nightly with nothing to do but we saw great scenery.

 

Here are some sample Alaska pics from our cruise for anyone interested in going in the near future:

 

My hybrid camera with mega zoom:

 

 

National Park Rangers board the ship and take over the intercom for the entire stay

 

 

Setting up displays and shop on the ship

 

 

Few sample Glacier Bay shots.  More from my Alaska trip review (link below) if any is interested

 

 

 

 

Hubbard Bay:

 

 

 

 

 

 

Yeah, I'm surprised the captain was able to sail near this much ice considering the NCL ship was damaged at the exact same Hubbard Bay location just the month before

 

[BIBPhotography]

Hey Harry!  Good to see you are still around.  When I got inot cruising, your reports are what made me want to do it more!  Everytime I hear..."I like big butts. . . "  I think of you!  Glad to see youa re styill kicking!

[harryfat1]

9 hours ago, vegas7df said:

Yippie @harryfat1 is back, I really enjoyed your past reviews and looking forward to this one .  Add me to the list of printing set sail pass, airline boarding pass and any other type of pass.  You never know when you won't be able to access these on your phone. 

 

Thanks.  I hope to provide the service to the exact level of your annual membership here at CC.

 

I will be like our MDR waiter every night in asking us after every meal - on a scale of 1 to 10, how did I do tonight?  Did I provide a level 10 service? 

 

The push to get good ratings is getting to be ridiculous... 

[harryfat1]

9 hours ago, ZoeyVictoria said:

I used the app for three cruises, shortly after it was made available and strongly encouraged. I hated it. I have a purse, a carryon, sunglasses, and (for those early cruises) vaccination cards and test results to handle. The most likely item to be dropped or lost was my phone. I find it much easier to use a printout. And, yes, I am anal about other things.  I prefer to call it detail-oriented 😂

Another thing I dislike about the App is that it provided the wrong info at various times pre-cruise.

 

Here is the screen shot of the day 4 menu a few days prior to boarding - note it listed only alcoholic drinks.  No food menu.  

 

Maybe for some in not having food at MDR is a better alternative:

 

 

Then couple of days later for day 4, the wine menu got replaced with a "USA theme" menu.  This is fine except I had done my homework prior to the cruise on the 2023 menu option and no one had uploaded onto the Internet on RCI theme night called "USA".  Huh?

 

 

Of course, by the time we boarded the ship, the menu changed again and day 4 got replaced by Italian night, which I have seen online on YouTube. 

 

So if you get some funky menu listing on the app a few days prior to the cruise, don't worry about it as it will self-correct by the time you board (hopefully)...

 

 

[harryfat1]

9 hours ago, FionaMG said:

I print everything out too. It can actually save time on the day. How many of us have stood impatiently behind a family while a frazzled parent frantically swipes through their entire phone trying to find the whole family's setsail passes? Whereas I have them all in hand, spread out fan-like to facilitate scanning. 😁

That said, I also have a copy of everything on every device that we bring with us. Just in case... 😂

 

 

Yeah, you are not anal at all...

[harryfat1]

8 hours ago, CanadaRob said:

Thanks @harryfat1 3 pages in and have already had enough random photos and details to make me realized i'm only a 7.4 on the anal scale.  

Missed you and your style.  Will have to read the Princess Alaska report just to get my fix!!

That decimal place after the 7 puts a smile on BobMac's face...

 

This is why I say I come here at CC and start reading other people's habits and realize I'm not as anal as I thought.

 

Yeah, go ahead and read the Alaska report.  I just posted a few picture highlights from that cruise.  Princess delivered what they promised - a voyage of glaciers taking us to 2 major glacier sites and we got tons of glacier photos. But in the evenings, we were bored to tears with nothing to do.

 

We got entertained more on our 4-night cruise on the Navigator than 7 nights on the Princess.

 

RCI has the 70s and 80s dance nights.  Princess has 70s and 80s dance nights also - except they meant the people dancing are in their 70s and 80s...

 

 

[taglovestocruise]

Boarding  on Monday... 

Rain done by 8am

Afternoon temps in mid 70s

Catalina low 80s

Ensenada low 80s 

Navigator still in awesome condition

Playmakers burger and onion rings fantastic. 

[harryfat1]

8 hours ago, bobmacliberty said:

I've gone totally paperless (and cashless where possible) for whatever I can.  I've got important things backed up to the cloud and for things like boarding passes or cruise documents, my wife has a copy on her phone.  I'm much more likely to lose a piece of paper than I am my phone, which is always in my front left pants pocket.  

I wonder if your profession prior to retirement made you more confident in technology working when needed. 

 

The hard copy folks are partly distrusting the technology will fail at the most crucial moment like boarding the ship.

 

I also find reading things on paper is easier to absorb into the brain.  At work, I prefer to print things out and use a highlighter to mark key points like when I was in college.  Reading things on the computer screen just doesn't do it for me in terms of ideas "sticking to the brain" compared to highlighting the hard copies.

 

Anyone else feels the same?

[harryfat1]

8 hours ago, Scottdalfonso said:

I DID print them last time, BUT this time I realized a screen shot is just as safe and easier- if I have connection issues, I still have access to my pics on the phone! 

Good idea on the screenshot.  Will do that in the future.

 

But unlikely I will forgo the hard copy printout. So that just means this is a backup of a backup in case the other 2 methods don't work.  

 

Does this now mean I'm back on the 9.2 anal scales since I have 2 backups?

[harryfat1]

8 hours ago, Yorkvillain said:

 

This could have been one heck of a thread title. 

 

Still can happen.  Nothing says you nor I or anyone else couldn't start one.

 

CC used to have "polling questions" threads.  One could just list 1 to 10 on the polling scale and people can self-rate on how anal they are and provide reasons why they rate themselves a 7.4 on the scale. 

 

"Hi, I'm Harry.  I'm a 9.2 on the anal scale because..."

 

Probably less controversial than the regular monthly "Why can't people dress better for MDR meals" debates that never go anywhere...

 

Speaking of polling questions, I started this polling question for my Princess Alaska report last year where I asked people if they are "over-packers" or "under-packers" of underwear for their cruise.

 

For example, on a typical 7-night cruise plus 1-night cruise stay, in theory you will need 8 sets of underwear - assuming you switch out for a fresh set daily.  But do people really pack 8 pairs of underwear?  How many people pack only 7 (which is a minus 1) or pack only 6 (minus 2) and so on with the thinking they can just flip the underwear inside out as who really cares what TSA thinks how your underwear smells?

 

Or if you are anal, do you over-pack thinking you may need extra "just in case" the waiter spills food onto your pants and you need an extra set of underwear (which would be a plus 1).

 

The answers were fascinating as only the women replied talking about how their spouses packed but seldom revealing how they packed themselves whether they are a plus 1 or minus 3...

 

Since the was a short cruise, I won't ask the question now but it will become more meaningful in my December cruise where we will be out for at least 9 or 10 nights...So this is a teaser thought for the next trip report...

[harryfat1]

7 hours ago, Another_Critic said:

1) Print my SetSail Pass

2) Save to cloud

3) Save to Apple Wallet

4) Available in app

5) Carry a backup phone with access to 2 to 4.

 

😄

 

 

I assume you probably only rank yourself a "5" on the anal scale?

[harryfat1]

7 hours ago, gdwest said:

I also take hard copies of everything..from set sail, excursion info, coke package, Coco Cay Club,

Royal Caribbean card points redeemed, passports, TSA pre-boarding numbers....

hmmm..also in the accounting world 🙂

Yeah.  Us accounting people need the warm fuzzy feel of hard copies.

 

Oh, speaking of printing other stuff out besides the Sail Pass, we are RCI shareholders and we have OBC from owning shares.  

 

Yeap, you guessed it.  I printed 3 copies out - one for each cabin in case the OBC didn't get applied to our account after boarding the ship.  Without hard copies, there's no way I can argue with guest services that HQ at RCI gave me the onboard credits but it's not showing up on the ship's accounts.  

 

[harryfat1]

7 hours ago, Rusty_lock said:

Not sure of the reason only that sail away is supposed to be the same time but my 10:30 checkin has been moved to 12:30

 

 

Seems like the line to board the ship will be crazy long between 12:30 and 3 if they are trying to squeeze in 3,500 people through such a tight window.

 

I agree the seating inside the cruise terminal is very limited.  You saw from my pictures that it looks like less than 300 people capacity inside the cruise terminal.  So it will be challenging to get everyone in within 2.5 hours.

 

Like the notice said, there could be flooding or power outages around the area so still try to get there earlier as you never know what the road condition/traffic could post a major storm.

 

The worst thing that could happen is you park the car early and just chill out sitting inside the car until 12:30. Oh, wait, you are from Washington.  So maybe you are going via shuttle instead of your own car?

 

San Pedro is set up where the luggage drop off is prior to the tent city so if you are driving, you drop off the passengers at the luggage area and give the luggage to the porter and then you park the car in the middle of the oval (like inside the track of Indy 500 speedway).  But if going by Suttle, you would need to estimate on when you need to get there from the hotel.

 

Best of luck on boarding the ship tomorrow and hope for clear skies in the afternoon post-storm blowing through. Come back and let us know after the cruise how it went.  I will likely still be on "day 1" of the trip report by the time you get home...

 

 

[h20skibum]

3 hours ago, harryfat1 said:

Welcome.  So how was your trip to Universal Studios Florida with your grandson?  I'm surprised they didn't have the nightly castle shows.  We were at the Universal Hollywood last Christmas and they had it several times nightly.  I wonder if it is a holiday-only thing?

 

Oh, actually I have no tent city jokes in mind.  My comedy writing staff of one is on strike along with all the Hollywood writers so I'm not getting any jokes from him for a while.  If you have them, bring them on when I get to the day 1 boarding process...

 

 

 

Our universal trip was great, but kids these days just have trouble keeping up with us old folks. In true, non-Cheapo fashion, we spent five days there and had fast passes and one of the most expensive hotels Universal had to offer.  After looking at those lines, I would not do it any other way. 
 

Don’t know what is up with their light show.  It still says temporarily unavailable.  Maybe it is because it is still somewhat light at park closing this time of year. 

[harryfat1]

6 hours ago, NJoynCruisin said:

We always print our sea passes (and passports).  We still use the app but it is hard to juggle everything .

Yeah, I have the hard copies in a folder in my backpack.  I never took it out as it's a backup only with the hope it won't be needed.  I whipped out the phone/App long before the scanning person so I know I have the App is up and running. If the App wasn't working within 10 feet of the scanning person, I would then open my backpack and opt for plan B.

 

We have a family of 6 in 3 cabins so I connected everyone's reservation to my App so as long as it works, it was fast to just flip through 6 pages on the screen. 

 

RCI is used to large groups traveling together so their App was easy to add family members together.  Whereas Princess is assuming by default it's only the couples traveling together and it was a lot more work to link my kids and in-laws' sailing accounts together on their App.

 

Actually, as I type this, I just remembered I had my wife and my son link everyone's account together in case my phone died so they are my backup of backup of backup.  So then I have 2 extra phones as a backup in case my phone died on top of the hard copy in my backpack.  

 

Yeah, it feels good to be back at the 9.2 anal scale - where I belong...

[harryfat1]

6 hours ago, Biker19 said:

Only Navigator and a couple of O class ships.

Ah, our resident expert, Biker19, providing the needed info.

 

Yeah, it was cool to see the drone pre-show.  Lasted around 2 minutes. They had one drone as part of one skating routine as well.

 

 

[3yorkies]

45 minutes ago, harryfat1 said:

Yeah.  Us accounting people need the warm fuzzy feel of hard copies.

 

Oh, speaking of printing other stuff out besides the Sail Pass, we are RCI shareholders and we have OBC from owning shares.  

 

Yeap, you guessed it.  I printed 3 copies out - one for each cabin in case the OBC didn't get applied to our account after boarding the ship.  Without hard copies, there's no way I can argue with guest services that HQ at RCI gave me the onboard credits but it's not showing up on the ship's accounts.  

 

I always print out my cruise receipt because it shows my freeplay from the casino.  Once they said I did not have any and because I could show them the copy with my $500 on it I received the FP.   That was a valuable little sheet of paper.  

[harryfat1]

6 hours ago, 3yorkies said:

I always take hard copies of everything with me.   To me it is easier to put phone away and have my passport and seapass info in one hand and my other for my small luggage which I always carry on.   So glad they are enforcing the times for arrival/boarding!!!   It is so much easier when people are spread out.   I always get the earliest time, but I stay on the computer the night you can check in and do it right at midnight.   Why should those who don't bother be allowed to just arrive and make our time slot more crowded?  The new procedure works well as long as people adhere to their scheduled time. 

So RCI is enforcing the arrival time policy on all ports now?  Wasn't sure if it was just San Pedro or if it has become a company-wide policy post-Covid to enforce the time slots.

 

Is that what it takes to get the 10:30 time slot?  I couldn't get it on day 1 from my App as I was at work and the App kept spinning and giving me error messages by the time it finally worked, 11 AM was the first available time slot.  For us, there wasn't a difference between the 2 slots as they were accepting both time slots for early boarding.

 

Good to know that the earliest time slot opens at midnight (is it east coast time?) ahead of my December cruise.

[harryfat1]

5 hours ago, joand452 said:

Good to see you back, @harryfat1!  I’ve always enjoyed your trip reports. I think you had posted photos from a ship’s Windjammer of mislabeled jello. Whenever we’re on a cruise, and in the WJ, I think of you when I see the jello!  
 

I think I’m pretty OCD, but only at a 7.9-8.75. I do print off all paperwork and bring it with me!  Keep the app version of our setsail passes in my iPhone wallet, too. 
 

Looking forward to following along!

Nice to be back.  Feeling almost like Norm from Cheers - where everyone knows my name.  

 

Interesting how people remember me from the old days...

 

This board is so much more active - a reflection of the higher-energy cruiser on various sailings. On Princess boards, many times it was crickets during my trip report on Alaska as if I was writing a diary. By definition, if you write a vacation journal and nobody but you read it, it becomes a diary, right?

 

 

[harryfat1]

3 hours ago, BIBPhotography said:

Hey Harry!  Good to see you are still around.  When I got inot cruising, your reports are what made me want to do it more!  Everytime I hear..."I like big butts. . . "  I think of you!  Glad to see youa re styill kicking!

Hey,

 

How goes?  Have you changed your portfolio picture?  I don't recall seeing this picture from 2017.

 

Yeah, I remember you from the "baby got back" song.  I think for you exclusively on that trip report, I chose the "Country" version of the song because you were in Nashville...

 

I hope to incorporate another "baby got back video" in this trip report as that's my signature song but I couldn't get any good back photos as the ship tendered on one port and they blocked off the entrance to the front/back of the Navigator so no real good pictures.  Need to think of something by the time I get to day 4 on what to do...

[harryfat1]

2 hours ago, taglovestocruise said:

Boarding  on Monday... 

Rain done by 8am

Afternoon temps in mid 70s

Catalina low 80s

Ensenada low 80s 

Navigator still in awesome condition

Playmakers burger and onion rings fantastic. 

Sounds great - perfect conditions.  Have a wonderful cruise.  

[harryfat1]

1 hour ago, h20skibum said:

Our universal trip was great, but kids these days just have trouble keeping up with us old folks. In true, non-Cheapo fashion, we spent five days there and had fast passes and one of the most expensive hotels Universal had to offer.  After looking at those lines, I would not do it any other way. 
 

Don’t know what is up with their light show.  It still says temporarily unavailable.  Maybe it is because it is still somewhat light at park closing this time of year. 

Yeah, could be since it doesn't get dark until after 8 during the summer months.

 

Universal Studios has crazy long lines because they don't have enough "small rides" like Disney parks to soak up the people standing in the big rides.

 

Well, no lines here so sit back and chill with the rest of us for awhile.

[harryfat1]

Whew. Did I replied to everyone? I apologize in advance if I skipped you this time or going forward. 

 

I tried to respond to every post directly as if you care enough to spend time to post a reply to me, I will respond back accordingly. 

 

Anyway, before I continue on with the trip report,  I was at Costco this morning and sure enough, while I'm August, they already have Christmas stuff out for sale.

 

Yeah, it's only 126 shopping days until Christmas so you better get going in buying that Christmas tree while in t- shirt and flip flops. Perfect holiday gear.  Ho-Ho-Ho...

 

 

[harryfat1]

August 5 (Saturday) Day Minus 1

 

For the newbie cruisers, to speak like a veteran cruiser, your cruise vacation is counted as the number of days for your sailing.  Nobody talks “Wednesday of the cruise”, instead people will say “Day 4 of the cruise”. Your app will refer to Day “X” of your cruise, not the normal day of the week.

 

Therefore, Day minus 1 is most likely your last day at home as you frantically pack and realize you can’t find whatever you needed from your closet/bathroom since your previous vacation years ago pre Covid and need an emergency run to the stores. 

 

For me, the last-minute item was dress shorts.  As I said previously, the last time I cruised was in 2017 and that was the last time I wore the dressy shorts.  Sad to say, I have gotten "more round in the midsection" and the older shorts were “OK” if I don’t breathe or eat – yeah, not realistic, right?

 

So off to Costco to find some heavily discounted shorts.  Went to the “death star” table where they were discounting all the leftover shorts they will no longer sell - hence they have the little asterisk on the upper right of the price tag and some people dubbed it "death star" meaning it's never coming back. 

 

I only wanted to pay $5 for the discounted one. Not the $15+ on the “regular tables” – did I mention I’m cheap?

 

See the price and the death star next to the price?

 

 

$15 to $19 for a pair of shorts?  Pass...

 

 

Found a couple of Hawaiian shirts for the next cruise but no luck on the shorts. Oh, well, if I never sit down on the cruise, I could be OK…

 

Besides the last-minute Costco run, I ordered these luggage tags from Amazon that are specifically made for RCI and Celebrity cruise tag sizes.  They are rated highly but note that other cruise lines like Carnival or HAL have different size tags.  It’s funny that the many 1-star bad reviews on Amazon are from irate cruisers that complained their non-RCI/Celebrity cruise tags won’t fit when the front page description clearly said these are specific RCI/Celebrity tag holders.

 

These are very sturdy and at $9 total in a group of 8, they are not that expensive.  They are by no means mandatory purchases. In the past, when I checked out of the hotel, I ask to borrow their stapler and staple 6 tags onto the luggage right before boarding.  In theory, you can get this done at the pier by asking as well as but I rather have things done ahead of time.  More of the 9.2 anal scale person speaking…

 

 

[harryfat1]

August 6 (Sunday) Day 0

 

Always exciting to wake up to get ready to leave the house.  Unlike the Caribbean cruises where we have to fly across the country, cruising out of LA means we can “load up the fam” and drive 400 miles from San Francisco Bay Area to LA and board the ship.  Much easier than flying 3,000 miles to the east coast and no time zone changes.

 

The first picture is the Altamont Pass wind farm. I always consider this to be the edge of the Bay Area as that signals I have left the region and am on my way to my vacation destination.  Conversely, the last picture of this trip report will be from the Windmill as we head back home. I like bookend start/end.

 

 

 

 

Anyway, these are interesting sites to see in the hills you drive by on the freeway.

 

When you think of California what are the images that come to mind?  Hollywood/Beaches/Silicon Valley? Anyone said “Farming”?  Yeah, Farming.

 

You can probably win a lot of bar bets if you ask people to name the state with the biggest farming production by dollar value.  How many people would guess it’s CA?

 

https://ruralstrongmedia.com/top-10-agricultural-producing-states-in-2022/#:~:text=1.%20California&text=It%20is%20recognized%20as%20the,in%20terms%20of%20farm%20income

 

Farm land along side the Interstate 5

 

 

Tomato trucks carrying tomatoes to the cannery.  Your table ketchup or tomato paste could be from one of these trucks...