just off the Navigator- Any Questions?

Hi,

My family and i just got off the Navigator this morning. Overall, it was a great cruise on a nice ship. As a little background, my wife and I have been on about 20 cruises on a variety of lines including Royal, Carnival, Celebrity, Disney, HAL, and some others. We booked the Navigator 6 weeks ago when there were some incredibly low ($374pp) fares. Thus we had an inside cabin on deck 9 which was fine and certainly better than being down on deck 2. It was too cheap to pass up.

The ship- Over all she was in good shape. All the public areas were nice and it appears the carpeting and soft furnishings were redone in places. This was my firs time on a Voyager class ship and I found the Royal Promenade to be an amazing space. I can't imagine it on the larger ships. I also like that you can go up on the bow. There are great views there and the captain of the Navigator kept it open most of the time. Overall, i give the ship an A-

The food (dining room)- We ate in the main dining room every night. Overall, i found the food there to be very good, especially if you took the waiter's recommendation (not the chef's recommendation in the menu). Standouts were crab cakes (lot's of crab meat), seafood salad, lobster, and turkey. Too be honest, comparing Royal to the Celebrity Reflection last December, I didn't think Celebrity was any better. Grade A

The food (buffet)- Definitely a mixed bag. Some things were very good like steak and potatoes, pan fried fish with tomato sauce, etc. Other things were not so good. Breakfast was pretty much the same every day. Grade C

Other Food- We ate at Sabor, Royal's extra fee Mexican restaurant on the Navigator. It was very impressive with excellent food. Quacamole made tableside was incredible as were the ships and salsa. If you book for lunch, the menu is the same but it is $10pp cheaper. There was 24 hour food in a bar on the Promenade that had pizza (not great) and sandwiches (shrimp rolls were fantastic). Grade A+ for Sabor.

Service- Overall, good. There was a misstep with our dining room request. We asked fro a late seating table for 4. We got My Time Dining. So they gave us a table for 4 the first night and assigned another table for the next day. What a disaster. The next day, we were placed at a table for 10 with a couple that said nothing and a mother and daughter. The daughter was completely drunk and loud and obnoxius. After the longest dinner on record, i caught the head waiter on the way out and requested another change. The next (3rd) night, we finally got our requested table for 4 permanently. The waiter and assistant were fantastic. Our room steward was great too. Grade A.

Cabin- it was an inside on deck nine. It was fine, although the bathroom could stand some refurb. There were cigarette burns on the counter and the paint on the door frame was chipped and rusty. The hose for the shower head was leaking quite a bit too, but i guess not bad enough for me to complain. Grade B-

Entertainment- The orchestra was quite good and performed in both the Royal Promenade and the shows. I saw one of the production shows and while the singers and dancers were really tallented, I didn't care for the material. It wasn't "bad", just not my taste. There was also a mini show in the Promenade one night that was very popular. The Ice Dancin show was fantastic. Even my teenage son liked it. They also had comedians and a juggler. I thought they were good. Grade B+

Overall- a great cruise. The crew seemed happy and always greeted you. The weakest thing in my opinion was the photography. They were 100% digital with monitors that had card readers. You swiped your Seapass card and your pics would come up in theory. For the first half of the cruise, a lot of our pics would never show. When we'd ask, we were repeatedly told "check tomorrow because we are having server problems". There is the ability to look at all the pics of everyone, so we finally did that and found our pics. That seemed to be the answer for every question: "come back tomorrow". The quality wasn't great either. We usually buy one formal and maybe another pic or two. For the formal, they cut off our legs in every shot.

Let me know know if you have any questions.

Dave

I'll be on Navigator, Nov. 30. Thank you for the review. It sounds like you had a good cruise. Did you do any excursions? Through the ship or local companies?

Sorry, no excursions this time.

I'm glad you had a good cruise. We'll be on the Navigator for the 3rd time in December. I have a couple of questions..... I've read in several posts that the AC was not working very well or had possibly been turned up to save money. People were complaining about the warm temps all over the ship. Did you experience anything like that? Was your cabin cool enough? I'm a very warm-natured person who LOVES my AC! :D

Also, I read there is a Beach Boys type show on the ship now. Did you go see it or do you know if it's still on the Navigator? When we were there in May, "Bowzer" was the headliner. We enjoyed his show, but we've seen it twice now and are ready for something new. Thanks. :)

Regarding the A/C, i thought it was fine. However, we had the cabin set on the minimum temp (coldest) and my wife was still hot at times at night. On the last night, i got hot once but it was fine later. Overall in the room, I was fine but she does like it a little colder than me. Elsewhere, it seemed fine but there were a few times in port when people were in and out a lot that it seemed a little warm. It should be noted that it was very HOT on our port days with temps in the 90s outside. Overall, it was ok but i was never overly cold either, except maybe in Studio B.

I don't think there was a Beach Boy's show and definitely no Bowzer!

Would shorts be acceptable in Sabor for LUNCH?

Regarding the A/C, i thought it was fine. However, we had the cabin set on the minimum temp (coldest) and my wife was still hot at times at night. On the last night, i got hot once but it was fine later. Overall in the room, I was fine but she does like it a little colder than me. Elsewhere, it seemed fine but there were a few times in port when people were in and out a lot that it seemed a little warm. It should be noted that it was very HOT on our port days with temps in the 90s outside. Overall, it was ok but i was never overly cold either, except maybe in Studio B.

 

I don't think there was a Beach Boy's show and definitely no Bowzer!

Hopefully in december the somewhat cooler weather (it's still pretty hot in the Caribbean) will help keep the ship cooler also. :)

My daughter will be disappointed to hear there's no Beach Boys show but that's ok. I'm sure the shows will be good anyway. :)

I wore shorts to lunch at Sabor and no one seemed to mind. Shorts are acceptable in the dining room for lunch too.

Hopefully in december the somewhat cooler weather (it's still pretty hot in the Caribbean) will help keep the ship cooler also. :)

 

My daughter will be disappointed to hear there's no Beach Boys show but that's ok. I'm sure the shows will be good anyway. :)

Entertainment changes from week to week. Hope Beach Boys tribute will be there on your cruise😄

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Entertainment changes from week to week. Hope Beach Boys tribute will be there on your cruise

 

 

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I hope so too! :D

I wore shorts to lunch at Sabor and no one seemed to mind. Shorts are acceptable in the dining room for lunch too.

thanks...

Thanks for the review! We'll be on in 2 weeks and appreciate your insight. :)

Wife and I were on this cruise with you... also on deck 9. Probably bumped into you at the elevators. Had most of the same takes as you did. Did not notice any of the issues you did in our cabin. We had a JS for a change, and only negative we noted was some minor cracked flooring on the balcony.

Did not do Sabor, but noticed the lunch price drop, which I think is new. Did do an Izumi lunch(wife likes it) and Mystery Dinner theater on first night in Giovanni's. Food was very good - "Theater" was a bit hokey, but entertaining.

What did you think of the change in towel/lounger policy? Seemed to keep chair hogging to a minimum. (Staff put a rolled up towel on all loungers in popular areas like Solarium. No need to check out as many towels, and attendants picked up used towels from time to time. Could not show up with 8 towels and expect those seats to be waiting for you 2 hours later)

Many thanks for the review. We're boarding in 3 weeks. Can't wait.

We are going on the 23rd of November. Did you have tender issues in Grand Cayman? We don't have a RC excursion booked, but a private one. THANKS! Also, did you do the mini golf/rock wall or flowrider? We're the lines long?

Thanks for the report. We leave Sunday! Really looking forward to cruising RCL again after Princess and Norwegian. Did you find any really cool things on the ship that haven't been talked about here?

Let me know know if you have any questions.

 

Dave

A nice concise review Dave. We like the NOS.

Thanks!

I have a question. My husband & I would like to have lunch @ Sabor one day on our cruise that is scheduled 11/30/14. I noticed online on the RCCL cruise planner that the dining times begin @ 6:00pm for Sabor.

Will I have to call RCCL & request a lunch time in lieu of the 6:00pm time shown on the cruise planner or will we need to wait until we get onboard?

I'd like to reserve 3 meals (2 @ Sabor & 1 @ Chops) & receive the 30% OBC for doing so.:D

I'm so excited, 1st cruise &

1 month

10 days

2 hours left before we go.......

Thanks for any suggestions !

jean

Regarding Sabor reservations, we reserved on board the first day at sea, so I'm not sure how the on line process or if you need to call.

Nothing stands out for me as a new discovery that others haven't previously mentioned.

We didn't get off at Grand Cayman, but i heard some complaints that there were "issues" but I can't say what they were. If i recall, it seemed like it took more than 2 hours for the people with tickets to get off. But honestly, i wasn't paying that much attention since I didn't get off. My advice is to get down there early and get an early ticket.

We did not do the rockwall or the flowrider. On the first day, the lines were long. On the last day, they weren't. Also, the open ice skating lasted much of the last day.

I didn't know Royal changed the towel/chair process! It was nice to find a rolled up towel in the chair, but to be honest, i thought there was still plenty of hogging going on! But i only had trouble finding a chair once on the cruise.

One thing different was on our Celebrity cruise out of Miami last December, there were very obvious security guards posted at the pool. I didn't notice that presence on this cruise. I did see them on the ship, but they didn't seem to stand out as much.

I have a question. My husband & I would like to have lunch @ Sabor one day on our cruise that is scheduled 11/30/14. I noticed online on the RCCL cruise planner that the dining times begin @ 6:00pm for Sabor.

 

Will I have to call RCCL & request a lunch time in lieu of the 6:00pm time shown on the cruise planner or will we need to wait until we get onboard?

 

I'd like to reserve 3 meals (2 @ Sabor & 1 @ Chops) & receive the 30% OBC for doing so.:D

 

I'm so excited, 1st cruise &

1 month

10 days

2 hours left before we go.......

 

Thanks for any suggestions !

 

jean

This will be our first Cruise too, 11/30 sailing on Navigator. I can barely stand it. 40 days![emoji1]

We were on the Navigator 9-28-14 sailing and despite the fact that I rarely post, I had to let everyone on CC know what an amazing time we had. The ship is beautiful and the service we had was amazing.

I am a Diamond member and enjoyed reading in the beautiful DL during the day while my sister sat in the sun. Great coffee, light breakfast, and cookie snacks. Really enjoyed the drink coupons loaded on my sea pass too. We were in a Grand Suite and it was splendid. Our cabin steward, Elias, was perfect and we enjoyed visiting with him every day on our way to breakfast. The Concierge Lounge was wonderful and Ricardo was one of the best things about our trip. He seemed to know what we needed before we asked; we made all our dinner reservations through him and he was so helpful in a hundred different ways. He was so enjoyable and helpful and we met so many other wonderful cruisers over cocktails every evening in the CL.

We live in Texas and have sailed RCCL out of Galveston on this and other itineraries about 12 times; driving to the port saves us so much in air fare that we can upgrade our accommodations which is what we enjoy. We've been to these destinations many times and continue to sail RCCL out of Galveston because of the great service we have always received on their ships. Obviously we are not "itinerary oriented" but we do enjoy a vacation with great service which is what we always receive with RCCL.

Went to Nachi Cocum in Cozumel and it was a perfect day....drinks flowed, the water was wonderful and the resort caps the number of people they let in so it was quiet and extremely enjoyable. Met some fellow Texans and had another great day; this was our second visit to this quaint beach resort and we just love it.

Went to Sabor and it was the highlight of our dining experiences. The Tequila Flight taster was fabulous, the chips wonderful, and the salsa just right. Being from Texas, we are pretty serious (really almost snotty) about our Mexican food but we really enjoyed it. I highly recommend it! The dessert taster was sublime.

Chops was wonderful......wish they had kept the tablecloths, but the food was wonderful even if the waitress seemed a little harried and unorganized. This might have been due to the crying baby whose parents and grandmother seemed to be immune to the sound of their baby's screaming. Despite the noise, we had another great evening.

Dining room was great also. Had My Time Dining and always went rather late which was perfect because no one was in a hurry and we had time to visit with the wait staff. Our food arrived promptly and as ordered.

Booked another cruise for next year while on board. We will be doing the final itinerary out of Galveston on the Navigator next October and look forward to being on this wonderful and beautiful ship one more time before she is leaves and the Freedom (I think) takes her place.

If I had to nit pick, it would be that the ship seemed warm to me and more than one staff member commented that it was always that warm. We did ask our stateroom attendant for a fan and it made a huge difference for us.

Reading the boards and especially some of the negative reviews on CC had me worried, but my fears were immediately put to rest once we were on board. I guess some folks have unrealistic expectations or just want to complain but I have to say that during nearly 20 years of cruising on HAL, Carnival (only once and won't do it again), and RCCL, this was the most wonderful trip we have had.

I don't check CC everyday but if you have questions, please don't hesitate to ask.

Is there a Latin band in any of the clubs? Thanks, SB

I don't recall if there is a Latin band in any of the clubs......sorry.

No Latin Band on our cruise.

It is Liberty, a Freedom Class ship, which takes Navi's place in Galveston.

We have a res. for a 9 night sailing Nov. 13, 2015.

Cruzin Lady