Navigator of the Seas - 10/30/04 - 100th Voyage - Part 1

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Pre-Cruise - We flew AirTran from Kansas City to Miami and arrived around 2:30 in the afternoon. When we arrived at the Holiday Inn downtown, our room wasn’t ready and there seemed to be some problem. The manager gave us room 311, which seemed to be better than what we had originally booked as it had a separate bedroom (king bed) and living room with a wet bar. This room was on the front corner of the hotel and overlooked Bayside Marketplace. We could also see people lining up for the Kerry campaign rally which was taking place later in the day. There was some noise at night from traffic and the band playing at Bayside, but we slept through most of it.

 

We had pre-arranged with our Meet and Mingle group to meet in the bar and everyone was to wear yellow ribbons since most of us had never met before. After getting everyone together, we walked to Bubba Gumps for dinner. There were 15 of us and one who joined us later after the rally. I had the Bucket of Boat Trash which was just okay and we also celebrated a birthday for one of our group. It was a fun place and I would recommend it for anyone staying in the area. Bayside itself was interesting and we walked around listening to the live music and checking out the stores before returning to the hotel for the night.

 

Embarkation Day - We all grabbed cabs and headed to the port around 11:30. Everything went smoothly until we were ready to board the ship. Then we noticed people from the previous cruise still in line for disembarkation so we were held up until approximately 1:15. Security and immigration were tight due to the upcoming election and the fact that both Senator Kerry and President Bush were in Miami over the weekend. I understand that Homeland Security had also implemented some new procedures as well. Finally we were allowed to board and were greeted with a glass of champagne to celebrate the 100th voyage of the Navigator. Nice touch!

 

Our first stop was to check out our cabin, 9690 a corner aft balcony. The room itself seemed to be of an average size with a door that opens out and a large round window. There was plenty of storage space for the two of us and I noticed the closet had fold down racks for extra clothing. A hair dryer is provided. The balcony was pie shaped and not as large as other aft balconies toward the middle. It easily held two chairs, a small table and one lounge chair. We could only see above and below our cabin when standing at the railing. There was definitely some movement, but we had no problems with it and slept like babies every night. Our steward team was a young man and a young lady named Chotilda. We dealt with her daily and she did a fantastic job! After this we checked to see if we had received a large table as requested (we had) and began to tour the ship looking for our first foo foo drink.

 

Because of the delay earlier in the day, muster drill and sail away were set back, muster from 4:30 to 5:00 and sail away from 5:00 to 6:00. We had early seating which was normally at 6:00, but didn’t make it to the dining room as we were on deck for sail away. We checked out the ship some more and made the Two Poets Pub our favorite watering hole. Opal from Jamaica was great there and got lots of tips throughout the cruise. Eventually we made it to the Windjammer for dinner. A Bon Voyage parade was held on the Promenade but we watched it on TV the next day. College football was being shown that evening in the Ixtapa Lounge as well as in the cabin. No reservations were required for either Chops or Portofino’s that night. Attire was casual, the dinner theme was Bon Voyage and the drink of the day was the Pina Colada. The drink of the week was the Centennial Special. This was also the night to set back our clocks one hour for daylight savings time.

 

Sunday - Sea Day - Happy Halloween! We had never tried the dining room for breakfast on any of our previous sailings so we decided to try it once for the experience. We enjoyed meeting new people and the food was good. We continued to explore the ship until time for our Meet and Mingle at 11:30 in the Cosmopolitan Lounge on deck 14. Of the nearly 70 people who signed up, I would say we had at least 40 who attended and Linda from our M&M had made name tags for everyone. Captain Bang was present and apologized for the previous day’s delay. He spoke about the ship and was open to questions. His one request of us was that we let everyone know that the Navigator had not run aground as was reported in a previous review. It merely kicked up some mud from the bottom in a shallow area. A raffle was held before he left and one couple won dinner at the Captain’s table on the second formal night. They also gave out collapsible coolers, photo albums and hats to some of the other winners. We then took time to meet our fellow cruisers at the M&M before heading off to other activities.

 

Ice show tickets were available for free at two different times this day with each dinner seating having recommended times for the shows. A note in the Cruise Compass said that reserving of deck chairs was not allowed and that chairs left vacant for more than 30 minutes might be reassigned to others. While I did notice some saving of chairs, there were always plenty to go around at the pool and other places on the open decks including the area next to Johnny Rockets. The horse auction was in the afternoon and we were part owners of Jumakem Run which eventually finished fourth. Today’s movie in the Screening Room was “Master and Commander”.

 

This was our first formal night as well as Halloween. Various parts of the ship, including the Promenade and dining room, were decorated and many people were in costume at dinner as well as in formal dress. The children’s parade was held at 8:30 followed by the adults at 10:45. There were some great costumes and awards were given out in various categories, with men winning in both the men‘s and women‘s categories. Parties were going on in the Dungeon and Studio B. We finally met our tablemates, two couples from Jacksonville, FL, and really enjoyed their company. The dinner theme was the Captains’ Gala. Drink of the day was Witches Brew or Mango Tango.

[gambler]

great review!!! can't wait for more....

[hstrybuf]

Gambler, I had to do it in three parts because of the space limitation, but it's all here! :D Thanks!

[gambler]

I got it!!! Thanks......