NAVIGATOR Trip Report with PHOTOS--March 12, 2017

Hey guys!

Welcome to my (non-live, sadly) trip report for my five night Western Caribbean cruise on Navigator of the Seas!

We left March 12, and visited Nassau and Cozumel with two days at sea. While not as exotic as Navigator's nine night, it was a great cruise nonetheless.

So first, a little about me.

This report will be written from a different perspective than most--I'm 16 years old. I've been on two other cruises and truly love cruising. I cruised with my parents and my two younger siblings who are both in middle school. I can't wait to share my experiences with you guys!

My trip report will have a good amount of anametur photos--some good, some only okay. I'll try to be as detailed as possible, and if you have any questions please don't hesitate to ask. I'll be posting the Cruise Compii at the end of the report.

Ready? Here we go!

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Looking forward to this Andy.:)

DAY 1: EMBARKATION IN MIAMI

We live in St. Petersburg, about four hours away from Miami. We decided to not stay the night before the cruise and drive down the morning of.

We left around 7 and went to drop off our dogs at the dog sitter. We were on the road to Miami soon and I was super excited!

Great views off the Skyway.

Shamrock Shake stop!

The drive went reasonably well. We fell behind schedule a little, but we were parked at the port around 12:20.

Miami in sight!

Hey.

We had a great boarding experience in Port Canaveral when we sailed on Enchantment, so Miami was a big letdown. The porter area was insanely crowded and confusing. There was already a line before we got in the building for the passport check. Once through that, we got in the security line which also moved quickly.

Sadly, the fast moving line trend ended there. The Gold C&A "priority" line was one of the slowest lines I've waited in in my entire life. Once to the front of the line, the agent was fast and friendly.

All said and done, we walked away from the desk at 1:36, so our rooms were already ready.

Time to board!

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Once our Seapasses were scanned, we went to our cabins on deck seven.

My dad and brother shared a promenade stateroom while my sister, mom and I shared an E1 end hump balcony room (I'm very type A and my dad and brother are definitely NOT).

Overview ft. my sister's pigs she bought in Nassau.

Balcony, average size.

Full size sofa bed--somewhat rare in an E.

Folded out.

Small but functional bathroom.

Good view all the way aft, but no view forward.

Overall the cabin was great. It was a little smaller than our Enchantment cabin but the bed was comfortable enough and the sofa bed wasn't horrible. We loved the balcony and the super convenient location to the aft elevators.

After dropping our bags off, we headed up to the Windjammer for lunch. The place was crowded but manageable. Many people seemed to stop at the first buffet line they saw, outside the main buffet area. Go past them and there will be little to no line!

The food was average, but I really enjoyed the view of Miami, one of my favorite cities. There was lots of seating and we didn't have an issue finding a seat.

Let me touch on something different about this cruise real quick--the college students! There was a good amount of college kids onboard, more than regular kids in my view. They weren't really an issue and pretty much stayed at the bars. The WJ was always empty in the morning, and the only annoying thing they did was hogging the chairs at the Schooner Bar and hot tubs.

Even with the large amount of college students, you still had everyone from families to Pinnacles, complete with their pins! It was a really diverse group.

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Great start Andy! Looking forward to the rest.

Enjoying​ your review. We sail in 8 days. Same ship and itinerary.

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Subscribing. Great review so far.

Enjoying​ your review. We sail in 8 days. Same ship and itinerary.

 

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Great start Andy! Looking forward to the rest.

Looking forward to this Andy.:)

Thanks guys!

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After lunch in the Windjammer we began our top to bottom tour of the ship. It was really exciting seeing the ship for the first time, and it was by far the largest ship I had been on.

Love the views of MIA!

After walking around for a bit we decided to go down to our rooms to see if our bags were there, and mine was the first to get to our room! I unpacked real quick, and while we were unpacking our great stateroom attendant Richy came by and introduced himself. He was friendly and always in and out of our room quickly. He overall just did a great job.

Before muster my sister and I went down to Cafe Promenade to get coffee and a snack. This was one of my favorite venues onboard and I loved sitting on the "sidewalk" with a cup of coffee.

Speaking of coffee, they changed their coffee for the specialty beverages from Starbucks to Illy. For regular coffee they are now using Lavazza instead of "Royal Caribbean Roast", which was nice and strong (a little acidic). I like my hot coffee black so that was a nice surprise.

Also on the coffee note, I learned from watching a cruise vlog that super tasty iced coffee is available for free! It takes a little work, but here's how. First, ask for a cup of ice from the specialty coffee line. In a mug, add some sugar--I used four packets (they're small) and add a little coffee to melt. Add milk or cream to taste and add ice. Pour the coffee over the ice and BAM! Delicious iced coffee. I drank at least one or two of these daily in addition to my morning coffee :)

Muster was fast and easy. We had a cool view of a seaplane taking off and the NCL Getaway turning around in the turning basin (we were also in port with the Disney Magic, Carnival Splendor and the Fathom Adonia).

Next up: sailaway!

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I'll be back with more tonight, I just got home and I need to get settled!

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Great start Andy

Nice start. Will be following along.

After muster we ran back to the room as we were departing at 5 and muster ended at 4:45. I quickly got dressed for dinner so I wouldn't miss a minute of the sailaway.

We had specifically picked a port side balcony room so we could wave to South Beach as we left. We've visited SoBe twice and watched the ships leave, so it was really nice to be on the other side :) I was worried that since early seating is now at 5:30, we wouldn't be able to see South Beach, but since we didn't have to turn around we juuuuust sailed past South Beach at 5:30. Sadly, it was a little cloudy, but I still loved the views of Miami anyways.

Nice houses!

Bye South Beach!

Nice review! I will be on the Navigator in January 2018 so I enjoy your pictures.

Dinner time!

We got to the dining room around 5:35. Since we had traditional dining we were on the first floor of the Sapphire, or deck 3.

Sorry for the blurry picture, but we were at the table for four (we had five chairs, though) to the left of the column.

Nice view from the table.

We were somewhat disappointed that we didn't get to sit with other people. When booking we had asked to share a table--we thought it was interesting on our first cruise. Luckily, we enjoyed sitting alone more than we did on our Enchantment cruise.

After we sat down our waiters introduced themselves. Dickson was our Indian waiter and was friendly and professional. Damion was from Jamaica and was our assistant waiter, who was very friendly and funny. We were pleased with the MDR service on Navigator, as our service on EOTS was lackluster. Overall the MDR experience was MUCH better on Navigator, which is important because as a family of five specialty dining can add up.

Seems you may have moved your photos after you posted them and they are not showing up. Just an FYI. Looking forward to more

The first night was the mojo menu. Dickson said that the staff selected the five best menus from the nine they have for the five night cruises. The food was good, but we had four of the same menus from our cruise on Enchantment.

For a starter I tried the smoked fish rillettes, which was the best smoked fish spread I've had. We live in Florida and have friends who catch amberjack and smoke it at home, but it still wasn't as good as this one.

On my EOTS cruise I made the mistake of not ordering the prime rib on the first night. Needless to say this one did not disappoint. I do wish it was seasoned a little better--my sister's NY strip off the classics menu had a better flavor (but not as tender and juicy as the prime rib).

For dessert I tried the chocolate and almond cake. It was a little dense (possibly due to the almonds), but it had a good flavor.

My sister also gave me some of her mango pudding which had nice presentation and an interesting flavor. Not something I'd order on my own, but I liked it nonetheless.

Seems you may have moved your photos after you posted them and they are not showing up. Just an FYI. Looking forward to more

Hmm, which pictures aren't showing? They're all showing on my computer and Tapatalk, but I'll check on another device.

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Pictures show up sometimes, sometimes they don't? I uploaded the fish dip picture differently, is it showing?

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The fish dip picture showed up.

I am enjoying your reporting style; great job!

Sorry for the photo issues. I've reposted the pics and text here, please tell me if there are any further issues!

After muster we ran back to the room as we were departing at 5 and muster ended at 4:45. I quickly got dressed for dinner so I wouldn't miss a minute of the sailaway.

We had specifically picked a port side balcony room so we could wave to South Beach as we left. We've visited SoBe twice and watched the ships leave, so it was really nice to be on the other side :) I was worried that since early seating is now at 5:30, we wouldn't be able to see South Beach, but since we didn't have to turn around we juuuuust sailed past South Beach at 5:30. Sadly, it was a little cloudy, but I still loved the views of Miami anyways.

Nice houses!

Bye South Beach!

Dinner time!

We got to the dining room around 5:35. Since we had traditional dining we were on the first floor of the Sapphire, or deck 3.

Sorry for the blurry picture, but we were at the table for four (we had five chairs, though) to the left of the column.

Nice view from the table.

We were somewhat disappointed that we didn't get to sit with other people. When booking we had asked to share a table--we thought it was interesting on our first cruise. Luckily, we enjoyed sitting alone more than we did on our Enchantment cruise.

After we sat down our waiters introduced themselves. Dickson was our Indian waiter and was friendly and professional. Damion was from Jamaica and was our assistant waiter, who was very friendly and funny. We were pleased with the MDR service on Navigator, as our service on EOTS was lackluster. Overall the MDR experience was MUCH better on Navigator, which is important because as a family of five specialty dining can add up.

Thanks for the review Andy. Great job so far. Most of the later pics are still not showing up for some reason.

I'll be on the Navigator in April for the 9 night itinerary. Really looking forward to it.

Dan.

Thanks for the review Andy. Great job so far. Most of the later pics are still not showing up for some reason.

 

I'll be on the Navigator in April for the 9 night itinerary. Really looking forward to it.

 

Dan.

Yay. Do any of the pictures on this page only (page 2) show up?

Yay. Do any of the pictures on this page only (page 2) show up?

Not for me.

Dan.