EmilyJay

6 hours ago, John&LaLa said:

 

Love the pillow. Where can I get one for Bell?

Jack's a cutie.

 

How gorgeous is Bella!! 🥰 Jack’s pillow is from Yappy.com 

35 minutes ago, FionaMG said:

Safe journey Emily. The photo loaded fine. What a cutie. 😍

Thank you. 

Great, the photos look massive on my phone but once posted it looked ok. 

On 2/27/2019 at 2:32 AM, acthorson said:

Following! Our Symphony cruise is in 3.5 weeks and reading live reports helps the time go by faster.  Plus, Aruba is my FAVE place of all time (tied with Vegas) so I can’t wait t hear about it!

 You’re my kind of person, Vegas is also my favourite place! Interested to see if Aruba will tie with it. 

Day 1: Travel Day 

Currently en route to Heathrow. Unfortunately my westie Jack won’t be joining us on this holiday (much to his disgust), however with his pillow he could be a great chair hog by the pool 😂 

I will be using my phone from now on, so hoping the photo loaded ok? 

A few things I forgot to add in the beginning. 

- The Key was able to purchase in the cruise planner as soon as it was announced there was a thing called The Key. We decided against it. 

- Bidding for an upgrade on rooms was offered to seleceted people a week or so before sailing. Not us, guessing because we had an inside and because the cruise is technically full? 

I'm on March 1st sailing, had I of known she was going into dry dock I never would have booked within the first month of her completion. I had no idea about dry dock when I booked and ended up on the 2nd sailing after, which is now the 1st as the Feb 24th was cancelled.

I think you'll be absolutely fine on your sailing. 

13 hours ago, Jasonmom said:

So excited to read your review as (the good lord willing) I will be on the 4/12/19 trip visiting same islands you are visiting.  I'm interested in many of the same things others are like the Ocean Club as my 12 year old will be sailing with me and my mother.  🍸 Here's to a safe and wonderful trip.

 

Not too much longer until your trip!! I've had alot of requests for all things children related, so I will definitely try hard to find out all the info. I was hoping to be able to pick up the Children's Cruise Compass if I can and post them on here. 

13 hours ago, kknorr0320 said:

We will be on the 3/15 sailing. If you happen to find out any of the following we'd love to know a few things. My youngest would like to know if there are height minimums for the water slides. My older son wants to know if the dining package will work at Johnny Rockets as he is hoping to use it for lunch. My friends going with us want to know if the R bar still has espresso and cucumber martinis.

I can't wait to read your review.

I've had alot of requests especially for the water slide height restrictions so I will definitely find this out as I plan on riding them! 

I've heard mixed things for JR being included in the dining package, I will see if I can find out. Apparently this can vary ship to ship, however, I have a feeling it won't be included as JR is coming up as Johnny Rockets Express on the app and is described as a "Grab and go on your way to your next adventure." 

To the person who asked about the main dining room times- On the Royal App it says Early: 5.30pm and Late: 8.00pm.

11 minutes ago, Ronaldo807 said:

Have a safe trip! I'm sure you will post these as they come along, but I would like to know/see the following if you have the time:

 

• Pictures of the splash pad/kids pool area (not the waterslides)
• What the limit is for the drink package on this ship? It used to be $12 for non-Oasis class ships, but some reports are saying $13 fleet wide now.
• Bamboo Room drink menu. I saw one for a different ship and they had quite a few cocktails above the beverage package limit so it will be interesting to see if they are included or not.
• Hooked Happy Hour menu

I will find these out for you. I was reading about the possible new limit on the drinks package today so I will definitely let you know this on day 1. 

Just now, Johnamac123 said:

Took this same cruise solo last December and loved it. I stayed in a Promenade View on Deck 6. Great location. I'd like to hear about your excursion plans while in your ABC ports. Have a great trip!!!

 

Glad you had a good trip, did you have any problems with noise in a Promenade room? I've always been curious about these rooms. 

We've never been to the ABC islands, so very excited. Any tips is greatly appreciated! 

Aruba- We have a morning island tour planned. Back to the ship for lunch and then we'll head to a beach for the afternoon, maybe Eagle Beach. 

Curacao- We plan on just having a wander around. 

Bonaire- Water taxi to Klein Bonaire for a snorkel. 

Hey everyone!

I'm so happy to be able to write this review after weeks of uncertainty as to whether or not Navigator would be out of dry dock on time!! 🎉 After hearing the Feb 24th cruise was cancelled, I didn't hold much hope March 1st would be going ahead, but hooray all is looking good!!

I already have ALOT of questions from some lovely people here on CC, I will try my hardest to answer them all during the cruise. 

Itinerary 

We are doing a 9 night ABC cruise + Labadee. 

Day 1: Miami

Day 2: At Sea

Day 3: Labadee (8am-5pm)

Day 4: At Sea

Day 5: Aruba (8am-11.59pm)

Day 6: Curacao (8am-8pm)

Day 7: Bonaire (7am-4pm)

Day 8: At Sea

Day 9: At Sea

Day 10: Miami  

We are staying in an inside cabin on deck 7. We have stayed in an inside cabin before and it's fine for us as we're not in there all that much. But I do love a good balcony cabin, sadly it was just too expensive for this cruise 😞 Maybe next time... 

We have the Deluxe Drinks Package... This is a first for us and I'm very excited about this, I hope they have stocked up on the gin 😉. 

We fly out of Heathrow on Thursday and are staying pre-cruise near the port, time to get the ironing done and the packing sorted! Any questions, let me know.

Hey everyone!

I will start a new thread for the actual review in a few days. I've read through everyones comments and will try very hard to get all the information you would like over the 9 days. 

My plan is to get as many pictures as possible of the ship, especially the new bits and then review the other bits as and when I come across it. 🙂 

I'm sailing Navigator on the 1st March (fingers, toes and everything crossed) its now first sailing after dry dock as 24th Feb sailing was cancelled and planning on doing a live review if that helps add to your excitement. 

All our 3 cruises we've had a range of 12pm onwards, we have always turned up between 10am-10.30am and got on the ship within 30-45 minutes. 

I don’t want to get my hopes up (although I am feeling optimistic) but on the 1st March roll call there has been positive news from someone who works at RCI saying she will be ready and the ship is looking lovely. 

Fingers crossed!! 10 days to go. 

We don't have to be at the airport until 4pm for our international flight after our cruise and we're trying to figure out what will work best for us. 

We dock in Miami and Royal are offering a Hop on Hop off bus tour- it states the tour is 1hr 30 minutes long but then you can choose a 1pm, 3pm or 5pm shuttle to the airport. 

The 3pm shuttle would work for us, my question is has anyone done this tour and how does this work with luggage? It says luggage is stored but with the different shuttle times I'm not quite sure how this works or where the luggage is kept.

We did a tour almost the same a few years ago, except luggage was kept on the hop on hop off bus and the tour was longer with no shuttle options. 

Thanks for any help. 

5 minutes ago, CazV said:

 Pretty sure 10th March is also a charter.

I think you're right that March 10th is a charter.

I've just looked on the RCI website, there's lots of cruises now not showing up. Our plan B was a cruise on Adventure, that has now gone off the website and so has another one we were looking at on a different ship. 

The few cruises with space available have upped the price dramatically from now until the end of March. 

5 minutes ago, Wonder18 said:

How do you find out if your March 15 sailing  is canceled. Travelling from Nova Scotia Canada would like to know early

Unfortunately it's a waiting game. 

The Feb 24th cruisers found out they were cancelled yesterday, 11 days from sailing. I'm on the March 1st sailing and won't rest easy until March 1st and me being on Navigator! 

At the end of December the March 1st sailing was showing as sold out except a few balcony rooms, then when I checked about 2 weeks ago the sailing was gone. 

I also noticed Feb 24th + March 15th were showing sold out except a few rooms, then noticed these two cruises went off the website. I'm assuming and hoping they're gone because they are sold out. 

I checked a few UK travel agent websites the other day and all sailings were showing but as sold out. 

I'm due on the March 1st sailing and spoke to Royal yesterday who said the March 1st sailing is going ahead... I'm praying it does happen as we're coming from the UK. 

4 hours ago, vinob said:

The Simplest of things, I never thought of taking a travel mug, can I ask in the bars late at night for them to fill it if we are on a drinks package or would they insist in serving it by the cup, never had this problem as we've mostly sailed with P&O, Princess and Norwegian who have kettles in the cabins.

Nothing like a morning cuppa! 

That travel mug idea is genius, Chilly bottles keep warm for 12 hours, they also make travel coffee cups. Cafe Promenade has help yourself hot water, milk and tea bags and it's open until late. The Windjammer also has these facilities but they close earlier than the Cafe. 

A travel mug you'd be fine to fill up, a water bottle style bottle you would have to do it in a mug and pour it into your bottle. We have always gone to Cafe Promenade before bed to get a cup of tea (for best results bring your own teabag, but the one Royal has are good.) 

Another tip- With Room Service you're not guaranteed to get English Breakfast Tea.... On our Oasis sailing when we used Room Service, even though we wrote down which tea we wanted we always got something different except once. 

Enjoy your cruise and ignore your friends! Maybe they're just jealous. 😉 

I've been on Harmony and the ship itself was amazing, so needless to say you will have the best time on Symphony alone. How many ports are you doing in the Bahamas? If Nassau is one of them, then yeah not the best port but it's more of what you make it. When we're in Nassau I make it a ship day and enjoy the ship while it's a little quieter. 

In my opinion, I would be excited. I think you'll have a wonderful time and best of all you're on vacation!! 

3 hours ago, GalwayGirl03 said:

We will be on that cruise too..are you traveling with kids? We are with our 9 year old girl, 7 year old son, and 2 year old son.  My older two love meeting friends in adventure ocean!!!!!!  

 

I would also love to know requirements for the new water slides..just b/c they are two new ones to the cruise line..i am hoping they are the 48 inch requirement b/c my 7 year old is 49 inches!!!!!

I will be checking the new slides out, so will find out the requirements for you. 

3 hours ago, hmolloy29 said:

*following* If you live post, will you please post the link to the new thread here? I'm considering an ABC cruise on Navigator for next year, and I'm eager to know more. 

I will probably just carry on the review from this thread. If not, I'll be sure to link the new one! 

28 minutes ago, The Fun Researcher said:

We'll be on the next 9 night.  If you get a chance, these are a couple of things I'm interested in:

 

What late night food options are there?

• When does Playmakers stop serving food?
• Does the Windjammer have a late night snack area?
• Are they offering anything late at the Lime and Coconut?

How do they handle the sign up for Laser Tag?  Is there a cost?

 

Are there Coke Freestyle machines?

 

Do the rooms look refurbed?
 

Does either Royal App work on the ship now?

 

THANK YOU in advance.

 

Dan

I will try and find these out for you. 🙂 

So far, word on the street is there are no Coke Freestyle machines much to my disappointment as I kinda like them. 

I will be sure to find out about late night snacks, while on holiday I do love a good late night snack, plus we have the deluxe drinks package for the first time ever so late night snacks are definitely my thing as alcohol makes me hungry. 

44 minutes ago, JoeFan said:

Sorry. He is 15 and is very poor eater, hot dogs, chicken fingers

 

didnt want to get judged. 

 

Where as my daughter will eat anything. I would love to take her to the chefs table. 

Of course you won't get judged! It always makes me feel sad when parents feel like they might get judged for whatever reason. 

Definitely either contact Royal before you go, or speak to the restaurant manager while on board they are pretty good and I imagine they would be accommodating to your families needs. 

I'm interested in this too.

Our last 2 cruises when leaving the ship the cruise compass has always said to take your passport. I'm happy to do so, however my Mum not so much. When leaving the ship (Oasis) she asked if she needed to bring it and the man who was letting people off the ship said "yes, or you won't be able to get back on." (He was serious too.) 

Anyway, once we got back on the ship we didn't even need to get our passports out just sea pass card! 

This happened at every port, our passports were never checked. Now we just make sure we have our drivers license and we take a picture on our phone of the photo passport page. 

We have asked a few staff about the passport thing, some say yes some say no. We're cruising in March and will see what happens then. 

On 1/24/2019 at 1:41 AM, kadeycat said:

Not a shore excursion. We went over to Columbus Cove and rented for $15 for about half hour. Stay within the ropes but it's a large area. Great service. 

Great thank you so much! 

Hi,

We're stopping at Labadee in March, and I'm trying to find out if you can rent paddle boards somewhere here? Royal Caribbean Shore Excursions only shows up a kayak tour and floating mats to rent but no mention of SUP. 

I have read before they can be hired, but that was going back a few years and I can't find anything with a recent date.

If anyone has been lately and happened to notice if they do or don't have them that would be great. 

Thank you 🙂