kathygruvs

My husband and I are diamond, we only took our childern on three of our cruises. On their own they might be gold.  My son is 25 and recently married.   He booked a cruise as a honeymoon directly with RCCL. During the booking process, the RCCL agent said congratulations on reaching diamond and welcome back to cruising.  The booking agent set up the soon to be new wife with a C&A number with 0 points, but couldn't make her diamond because they system won't let a 0 be diamond.  

When they got on the ship, a few days after the wedding. They went to the Loyalty desk and requested matching status for her.  The Loyalty desk agent asked for a copy of something proving they were married.  Luckly, they had taken a picture of the marriage license and had it on their phones.  Now they are both diamonds.  Seems like a strange loyalty program.

4 hours ago, Stealthdog said:

"I'd also like to give a shout out to the Roll Call members for this Odyssey sailing.  This Roll Call is huge - nearing 600 posts and more than 20 pages in the thread.  I expect this to be a very lively sailing!

Hey, I am on that roll call.  See you on the ship in a couple days!

Thanks for the update. This is disappointing news.  My last cruise was in Dec 2019 and the waiter gave us three menus everyday.  The regular menu, an Indian menu and the vegan menu.  Do they not have the Indian menu?

Thanks for the info.  I admit to being a little jealous.  It took me 13 cruises to reach diamond. 

My son is diamond. He is getting married in a few months and they are planning a cruise for their honeymoon.  She has never gone a cruise.  Does this mean that on her very first cruise she will be diamond?

Thank you so much for this review. I appreciate you taking time from your vacation to share with us. Reading the cruise reviews and reports was may favorite thing to do in the evening. 

Looking forward to following along. My next cruise is a New Years Eve 3 day.

It is nice to see a news segment about cruising that overall has a positive tone. Really hope cruises start. My trip in December was cancelled, because the ship is moving to California. 

Not sure if I want to rebook another cruise or not until I know the US will actually allow sailings.

Other entertainment

I can't remember which thing happened on which day, so I am putting these into one post.

We saw all shows in the main theater and the ice skating show.  I am pretty easy to please so have no complaints.   

A few of my friends really really like the Quest and the Battle of the Sexes events. They always manage to be a team captain.  We did not win the Quest, BOO. Nope, no pictures.

We wanted to do the laser tag and ice skating, but never managed to find the time.

Final thoughts,

Traveling with a group is not easy.  There were many challenges, but it was a great trip.  Birthday Cruise 5 is already booked for Dec 2021, Navigator of the Seas again. 

Day 3 CocoCay,

Not sure what time we docked because when I got up for breakfast at 7am we were already tied up to the pier.  They started letting people off around 8.   We grabbed chairs near the water and spend most of the day sitting at the beach.  Sorry, I didn't take very many pictures. 

Eventually we got tired of beach and went to the pool.  The ladies really liked the pool and the swim up bar.  We did not go to the water park, so can't tell you anything about the slides.  The pictures of the pool make it look more crowded than it was.  

All the improvements to the island are great.  Can't wait to go back.  My only complaint is the ocean water isn't very warm, in the winter, which isn't RCCL fault.

Why is it that days sitting and doing mostly nothing are the most exhausting. By 2 pm I am done and need to go back to the ship for a nap.  

The second day Nassau, Dec 14th, my actual birthday.  At first we were going to walk to John Watlings but changed our mind on the short distance from the ship to the end of the pier, by the time we got to the taxi area it was decided walking was not the best plan for keeping the group together.  We got into a taxi van that had flip down seats in every possible place and we all fit in one van. 

The rum factory was very fun, the rum really helps.  After the rum we walked to the Chocolate factory and what is supposed to be an artist gallery.  I have only been to Nassau in December and don't know what it is like in the summer, but this artist gallery doesn't have much in it, most of the stalls are empty.  After wondering around a while another taxi was called to take us back to the ship.

Dinner was a dress your best not a formal night.  Most people seemed to be dressed nice, but nothing overly fancy.   We managed to get one picture of all of us on the stairs.

The new pool area is very nice.  We didn't spend that much time here except the first day.  I am always amazed by how busy cruising can be, there just isn't enough time to relax by the pool. 

The new roof top bar in the pool area was nice, there seemed to be plenty of places to sit and enjoy good company. If you notice in the pictures, we very rarely had everyone together.  It wasn't easy to get all 17 ladies to agree on any one activity except dinner, so we didn't bother trying.

Our luggage arrived very soon after the cabins opened at 1.  My cabin mate wanted an balcony cabin. I usually sail in an inside.  I love the dark cabins.  My sister and her best friend had the cabin next door. We asked the room steward to open the balcony divider which turned out to be a mistake.  Later that night the seas were very rough which causing the divider to bang around most of the night.  The steward re-locked it the next day.  This was my first time in a balcony with the opportunity to open the divider.  I don't know if all the dividers bang around during wind storms or not, but they do on the Navigator.   

We arrived at the port around 10:40. The new check in process was very quick.  We were sitting in the Windjammer having our lunch by 11. 

Speaking of food in general.  One of the friends has extreme food allergies.  The ship was notified of her limitations before the trip. They had a chef and waiter assigned to her for the entire trip.  It didn't matter where we were eating her chef/waiter was there, even on coco cay.  They did their best with the limited food choices she has to make her meals special.  

After lunch, surfing!  This was my 15^th RCCL cruise and have never tried the surfing.  This trip was going to be different.  Surfing was the number one item on my list of must does.  I did better than expected.  There was absolutely no line for surfing, only three of us rotating in and out of line.     

We tried the new water slides. They were a lot of fun.  The lines were not very long on the first day.  Later in the day the lines got very long.  If this important to you, enjoy them the first day just after lunch.

The majority of us arrive on Thursday and shared a Sprinter Van to the cruise port.  Sorry, I don’t remember the limo company.  The driver did an excellent job getting all of our luggage to fit in the back.  Hopefully the pictures are loading.  I am the person in the front row without sunglasses.

Hello Cruise critic,

Longtime lurker on cruise critic, first time posting a cruise review.  Reading cruisecritic reviews is one of my favorite activities, full confession I read them almost everyday.  These last few weeks without reviews to read has been a little depressing.  Which has made me think well, maybe I’ll write a review to help fill the void. So here it goes.

This might be a bumpy ride given that I have never post pictures or anything to this site.

This past December a group of friends joined me for a semi-annual celebration of my birthday for a 3 day mostly fun filled adventure on the Navigator of the Seas. There were 17 ladies traveling.  Yes, I convinced 17 ladies to abandon their families during the holiday season to do nothing by fun for 3 days. I can’t help it my birthday is in December.

But let’s back up a little, this was not my first birthday cruise.

It all started when I turned 41 and was complaining to my husband about not doing anything special to celebrate my 40^th birthday. He wisely suggested a cruise and just say it is for my 40^th.  He even offered to go with me if a willing friend would not volunteer.  Lucky for him (or unlucky) several friends jumped at the chance to come celebrate turning 40, even though it was actually my 42 birthday.  We had a wonderful time on the Majesty in Dec 2013.  Along comes December 2014, me and my friends are sitting in cold dreary Ohio wondering “why are we not on a cruise?”  After a flurry of texting it was decided the birthday cruise should happen again and a brave cast of characters boarded the Majesty for a second birthday cruise in 2015 starting the tradition of a birthday cruise every other year in December.  

The 2019 cruise was the fourth birthday cruise, this time on a newly refurbished Navigator.

A friend of mine went on this cruise last year. He said it was a lot of fun, but they ran out of beer, they had to restock at one of the stops. There was plenty of mixed drinks.

Kathryn

We took two boxes of wine on the Freedom in October for our cabin. Each was a 750 ml box. We had no trouble at all at the check point. We each carried one box. They are heavy! I was never so happy when the cabin was ready and we could drop the weight.

Kathryn

 

Our first trivia win of the trip, lunch at Michael’s Pub and a cranky old complaining couple at the Grande.

Congrats on winning a cranky old couple. They should really get better prizes for trivia.

Kathygruvs

A movie was being filmed on the Oasis on Saturday the 29th. They had various parts of the ship closed off or with limited access.

They were near the sands bar in the beach pool area after lunch. The cameras were set up facing the Solarium and they kept people from walking into the camera shot. There were also "extras" strolling around the sports pool when ever the action started. It was interesting to watch.

When they finished with the pool shots, they moved to the stand up flow rider. They let people stand around and watch. Don't know where they went after that as it was time for muster.

I think they all left before sail away.