Compare NOS and AOS-anyone been on both?

[tootsiebelle]

Greetings. I've just returned from my first cruise-NOS-Western-and am already planning my next. The Navigator exceeded all of my expectations and the problem is all future cruises will be measured against it. Has anyone been on both ships? I had a balcony cabin,deck 7, and could see the ocean without even lifting my head from my pillow. I know the AOS has the oldstyle balcony- no glass below the railing. Will this make the room seem more closed-in? Does the AOS show any age or is she as sparkling as the NOS? Any comments would be appreciated.

[jrm9999]

I have been on both. The NOS does have the nicer balcony. You get better visibility and it looks nicer IMO. I don't think it makes the room look smaller though.

 

Other than that the ships are pretty close except for the following:

 

1. AOS does not have Jade or Chops. The windjammer is expanded to where Jade is on NOS

2. AOS has a sports bar where the Vintages wine bar is on NOS

3. The artwork and color schemes are different.

4. Adventure Ocean is different. AOS has a waterslide for kids. I am not sure what NOS has instead of the slide.

 

I think that is about it. There pretty much the same.

[jrm9999]

One more thing. AOS is in good condition and well maintained. The crew continually does maintance and they also recently replaced a bunch of the carpets.

[tootsiebelle]

Thanks for the info. Would you happen to know why the deck plans for the AOS are not shown on the RCCI website? The deck plans are listed as being from August 29,2004 on, but they don't show up. Could they be in the process of changing ?

[jrm9999]

I just tried rccl.com and it worked for me.

[shipknotshore]

tootsiebelle,

 

I'm once again happy to read a post on another happy NOS cruiser...We're going 4/30/05 for our 25th anniv. and booked mainly due to all of the good comments on the ship and itenarary. Thanks for your comments.

[Diane&4girls]

In addition to jrm9999's observations, I'd like to add a few more:

 

Overall, the NOS is much nicer. It's just a very pretty ship, but we noticed the AOS was not a well kept as the NOS. There were finger prints and dust in places where no fingers should have been. There was trashed in the centrum artwork, which had obviously been thrown from above.

 

The NOS has the best food we have ever had on a ship (that's why we've been on her 3 times) and the AOS had the worse, and I do mean, the worse. One of our family jokes centers around the salad my daughter ordered on formal night. It was a half head of ice berg lettuce, not cut, just the half head and a slice of tomato and a slice of onion.

 

The shows on the AOS were better than the NOS (in May '03), but the NOS has since made changes.

 

On the NOS, the teen sun deck replaces the kids' pool area.