Navigator - Mini-Review - Random Comments (10/14)

[masonpips]

I really enjoy seeing some random review comments from others so I hope this helps someone out there.

 

Background: We sailed October 14 - 21 on Navigator out of Miami. Booked a JS aft originally. Talked myself (and dh) into upgrading us to a GS to take advantage of the Concierge Lounge and experience more space. Found out about 2.5 weeks in advance we were upgraded to OS 1300 (Starboard). Flew into Miami on Oct 13 so we decided 13 was our lucky number!

 

The absolutely most excellent:

The room. OMG. The space, the storage, the huge bathroom, the balcony, the TV, the DVD player, etc. By far the very best room we’ve ever seen and/or stayed in.

 

Herman – Concierge. He was absolutely wonderful. I received an e-mail in advance, booked 2 hair appointments, 1 spa appointment, and reservations for Chops and Portofino’s in advance. We introduced ourselves the first night and he immediately remembered what we had booked and was extremely personable from that point onward. He helped us find some balloons for our son’s birthday and was super wonderful to talk with and we learned a lot about his home country of Chile. SUPER person/attitude

 

Concierge Lounge: LOVED the Seabreeze cocktails I had every evening (Herman served us several nights when he didn’t have someone at the desk), loved the cappuccino – had some every day and liked the snacks for the evenings. Nothing spectacular but the ability to have a drink/snack prior to late dinner was awesome. We left the kids in the room, brought our walkie-talkie and really enjoyed the experience.

 

Hairdryer in room. My hair dryer conked out on the first full day of the cruise. I was upset but tried the one in the drawer and oh my!, it was fabulous. I am happy to debunk the sucky hair dryer myth I’ve read about in the past

 

Promenade Café (convenience) – my kids ate here almost every single day and were thrilled with the pizza and cookies. They never had to wait too long and it was a perfect late night “after the kid’s club” snack point

 

The pool/chairs situation at the main pools. We never had a problem finding at least 2 seats together and it never felt crowded beyond belief. We had a port-intensive cruise (1 sea day, 4 ports, 1 sea day) so that may have helped but it was nice to always find a spot. We also easily found 2 spots right at the pool at the Solarium twice when we visited mid-afternoon.

 

Hair dresser – Annalise put my hair up for both formal nights and was 1) right on time, 2) very nice and 3) did a great job. Well worth the $ 50 (before tip)

 

Bartenders at Bolero’s – WOW! They remembered you, they made excellent drinks and they had a great attitude/customer service manner. Loved them!

 

The photographers in general – we had a TON of pictures taken and bought over $300 in pictures. The “lifestyles” photographer was absolutely wonderful and we bought 2 different sets of casual photos (must confess: my pre-planning coordinating outfits in advance did help)

 

The tendering and/or returning to or leaving the ship when docked. NEVER had a line and never had to wait too long while tendering. I don’t know how they did it, but it was incredibly smooth. We were on the 1st or 2nd tender at Cayman with no wait whatsoever and got off at 8:30 at Labadee with no wait. Excellent job

 

Food *most* nights. Lobster night was fabulous. Prime Rib and Filet on the first 2 nights in the dining room were superb. Portofino’s was beyond excellent. The *BEST* calamari I’ve ever had anywhere. We ended up canceling Chops only because we loved our dinner tablemates (see next item).

 

Tablemates. LOVED them. We were worried as we walked up with 2 children and they were all 60-ish. We had the BEST time and they were so gracious. They were from Britain and we all had a fabulous time together. Errr, maybe I should say “a lovely time”? LOL

 

Stateroom Attendant: Joseph was fabulous. We hardly ever saw him but the room was always perfect and when we did see him he was so pleasant and always asked if everything was ok. I like A LOT of ice and the bucket was always filled

 

Loyalty Ambassador Carlos: We made an appt at 10:30 Thursday morning, arrived 5 minutes early, he was ready and we were booked on the Liberty for next year within 20 minutes. Of course it helped that we had 3 ships + 2 different dates ready to check and knew exactly what we wanted. Excellent service and attitude from him the entire time.

 

The so-so:

Food on Venetian and Caribbean nights. We should have kept our Chops reservation. We made a note to skip those two nights next cruise

 

The bad:

The only bad thing we experienced was the service for photos. We liked the online availability to swipe your Seapass card and see your photos + make adjustments. HOWEVER, this did NOT work and we spent over 2 hours in total jacking with this on our cruise. And the manager tried to say it was “the lady’s fault” because after the first try, they offered to “help us”. We ended up having to put in THREE identical orders (and she finally admitted it wasn’t MY fault) before they got it right and wasted a huge amount of time. My issue is if they’re going to offer the service, it should work right. By the last day, all three machines had signs saying “Out of Order” or something. Her attitude sucked and although we did get the two cropped prints for free (after asking multiple times) we were not impressed regarding the handling of the situation.

 

 

Overall it was our BEST cruise in 5 and we thoroughly relaxed, enjoyed ourselves, etc. I know I'm forgetting a gazillion things but these items really stand out for me. Let me know if you have any questions!

[TennisLover]

Thanks for all this info! We will be on Navigator in February -- our first RCCL cruise -- and we can't wait.

 

I just had to laugh about the "coordinating outfits" for the photos! My family is ready to kill me -- on every cruise -- when I insist on photos, especially on formal night. It's part of the deal -- do what you want during the day on the ship; but, you must meet me dressed in your finest on formal night for pictures. If I tried to coordinate outfits, too, I think it would be "mom overboard!"

[Home.Brew]

Thanks for posting the review. We'll be on NOS in December in an Owner's Suite as well. Never stayed in one of those rooms, so I'm glad to hear you liked the room.

 

Nice to read a positive review rather than reading some posts that only focus on the negative.

[EggDropErin]

Thanks for the review! :)

[Deborito]

Thanks for the review. We will be on the Navigator 7688 in February and your review makes us want to go even sooner.:p

[pach]

We are also booked in a JS for our January cruise. Have toyed with the idea of upgrading. How did you go about doing the upgrade? Did you just switch your room over? The price difference looks like about $1000. Am thinking about asking at the pier as I think it's cheaper, but no guarantees.

[ciderapple]

Thanks for the review, sounds great!

 

We are booked in a D1 balcony and a connecting Interior cabin, only a few weeks to go now, can't wait!

[Kady]

Thanks for the great review. I am going on the Navigator in June on the Italian Med Cruise. It will also be my honeymoon. The excitement is building already 254 days to go.

 

We have a hump cabin on deck 8. We hope these cabins are good as we have read lots of reveiws saying that these cabins are great.

[masonpips]

We are also booked in a JS for our January cruise. Have toyed with the idea of upgrading. How did you go about doing the upgrade? Did you just switch your room over? The price difference looks like about $1000. Am thinking about asking at the pier as I think it's cheaper, but no guarantees.

 

We just cancelled our cruise via the online agency and booked w/RCCL direct - it was $1,000 difference at the time of the change (which ended up being worth $ 2,000 since we got the free upgrade). We internally justified it by knowing the GS cost us less than our DCL New Year's cruise for a MUCH smaller port-hole only window. We really wanted to try the GS for space but ended up with even more in the OS. Have a great cruise!

[LABCHICK]

I have heard pros and cons about the CD. What did you think of him on your cruise? We will be on the NOS on Dec 2. We had Graham last year and really enjoyed him.

 

Thank You

Judi :)

[masonpips]

I have heard pros and cons about the CD. What did you think of him on your cruise? We will be on the NOS on Dec 2. We had Graham last year and really enjoyed him.

 

Thank You

Judi :)

 

Shane came to the Meet and Mingle and the first thing my dh and I said was "wow, he's SO young". We had had Ken Rush last year on Mariner and I expected Shane to be older. He was very personable at the M&M and we ran into him while getting on the tender to Cayman. He asked about which DCL ship we had cruised on (I had a DCL lanyard on) and dh lingered to talk with him, he was working on the Magic when we cruised on it a few years ago.

 

He did a great job at Love & Marriage and at Quest and his morning show was a RIOT - I only saw it two mornings on TV and it's very dorky, but in a fun way. We saw him one afternoon at the pool teaching line dancing.

 

I don't think he has an over-powering/over-the-top personality but is very nice, funny and seems like a nice young man (he comes from the Midwest or Great Plains, Nebraska or somewhere I think). We really liked him.