Navigator of the Seas - 9 Day Southern Caribbean- Another Sayvan Semi Live Report

Also subscribing.....We are on the April 14 sailing

As I mentioned earlier we drove from Stratford into Detroit where we stayed the night before at a nice little hotel, Americas Best Value Inn. For an overnight before a flight, its a great deal and cost around $85 that also includes 8 days of parking. We would need 14 days in total for parking and so for an extra $6 a day we were set. They offer a shuttle to and from the airport as well. Our flight was early (6:30 am) and we would find ourselves in Florida around 11 am. We were slightly delayed coming out of Detroit thanks to Mother Nature or maybe Jack Frost... I think they were working together.

As I am sure some questions may be asked around what camera equipment I use, so I thought now would be the time to set that record straight I use a Nikon D750 for most of the shots and I usually bring a 50 mm Nikkor lens along with an 18-300 Nikon lens, that I find pretty much captures it all. I also use a GoPro Hero 4 Silver for photos and video and I did take a few shots with my iPhone 6. I also took some video with the Nikon camera as well. I will have some videos to show later.

As I mentioned earlier we drove from Stratford into Detroit where we stayed the night before at a nice little hotel Americas Best Value. For an overnight before a flight its a great deal and cost around $85 that also includes 8 days of parking. We would need 14 days in total for parking and so for an extra $6 a day we were set. They offer a shuttle to and from the airport. Our flight was earlier (6:30 am) and we would find ourselves in Florida around 11 am. We were slightly delayed coming out of Detroit thanks to Mother Nature or maybe Jack Frost... I think they were working together.

As I am sure some questions will be asked around what camera equipment I am using, so I will set that record straight now. I use a Nikon D750 for most of the shots and I usually bring a 50 mm Nikkor lens along with an 18-300 Nikon lens, that I find pretty much captures it all. I also use a GoPro Hero 4 Silver for photos and video and I did take a few shots with my iPhone 6. I also took some video with the Nikon camera as well. I will have some videos to show later.

As I mentioned earlier we drove from Stratford into Detroit where we stayed the night before at a nice little hotel Americas Best Value. For an overnight before a flight its a great deal and cost around $85 that also includes 8 days of parking. We would need 14 days in total for parking and so for an extra $6 a day we were set. They offer a shuttle to and from the airport. Our flight was earlier (6:30 am) and we would find ourselves in Florida around 11 am. We were slightly delayed coming out of Detroit thanks to Mother Nature or maybe Jack Frost... I think they were working together.

As I am sure some questions will be asked around what camera equipment I am using, so I will set that record straight now. I use a Nikon D750 for most of the shots and I usually bring a 50 mm Nikkor lens along with an 18-300 Nikon lens, that I find pretty much captures it all. I also use a GoPro Hero 4 Silver for photos and video and I did take a few shots with my iPhone 6. I also took some video with the Nikon camera as well. I will have some videos to show later. :cool:

Can't wait! On this route in a week and a half!

Me too......10 days....lol sounds shorter....lol

Will also be doing this itinerary next January. Looking forward to pictures!

Thanks for doing this review.

seems to be some weird stuff going on with the boards at the moment... making it hard to post... hmmm:confused:

It seems the boards are a bit whacky today and not quite working so well and as a result I am delayed in getting this review going... hope it clears up soon! :(

Looking forward to this review. We're on the Navigator April 14th.

Btw we live about 25mins from you in Milverton.

Jenni

Looking forward to this review. We're on the same itinerary April 14th.

BTW we live about 25mins from you in Milverton.

Jenni

Looking forward to more.... now that the boards are fixed :)

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We are on the march 17th cruise. can't wait!!

Let me give you a bit more background. We hail from Stratford, located in southwestern Ontario, Canada. Yep, we get lots of lake effect snow that streams off of the shores of Lake Huron. No doubt, you're starting to realize why we have this real need to escape the snows and cold of winter and head as south as we can. Thus, the reason for Southern Caribbean cruise. In fact, truth be known, I loathe the winter and am happiest when I have my flip flops on and an ice cold beer or frozen drink in my hand!

So how did we happen upon Navigator and her journey south? Well.... obviously winter is one reason but actually we were just searching (as we are always looking) and came across a great deal that we couldn't refuse. Royal Caribbean had some kind of a sale on and we happened upon it. The next phase was trying to find some flights to see if in fact a deal was what we actually had....

As I mentioned, we are in Stratford, Ontario which actually gives us some great options when looking at flights. We are approximately two hours (give or take) from Toronto, Buffalo or Detroit. So with that we headed off to Detroit and Spirit Airlines where we found a return flight for $159.00 total.... yep for the two of us! We had sealed the deal.

 

We left on January 31 and stayed in Miami for a few days then we headed off to meet up with Navigator. The Cruise was a nine day jaunt out of Miami, leaving on February 3 with stops in Labadee, Curacao, Aruba and Bonaire. Cruise ended on June 12th and we stayed in Ft. Lauderdale after for a few days after.

 

Stay tuned... pictures are almost ready...

That is a really long cruise!:D

We have had some great cruises on Navigator. Looking forward to your pictures.

Looking forward to this review. We're on the same itinerary April 14th.

 

BTW we live about 25mins from you in Milverton.

 

Jenni

What a small world ... practically neighbours...

Ok... so it seems that things are back to normal on the boards so I will try to ramp this up a bit... As I was saying before the boards went whacky, we flew from Detroit to Ft. Lauderdale three days before the cruise commenced. Our flight was uneventful (obviously because I am now writing this review;)), although we did have a delay of about an hour before take off. Our plane couldn't get any traction when pulling out of the gate because of some ice and snow and we had to wait for the plow's to arrive and clear a pathway for the plane... we eventually made our way out and by 11:00 am the snow was a distant memory and the palm trees of Ft. Lauderdale were perfectly in view as they were swaying in the warm tropical Florida breeze.

We had decided to rent a car from Thrifty at the airport and we would drop the car off at the Miami Airport. We choose Thrifty because they also provided a free shuttle to the port on Embarkation day. The car rental also gave us some more freedom to come and go as we pleased. I also snagged an SUV for $12.99 a day. I like to find the deals...

I do have to say that finding good deals for a hotel in Miami was a task. In fact very difficult. On top of that, coming from Canada, the exchange rate wasn't the greatest. However, it is what it is and we settled on the Cambria Suites, Blue Lagoon. I will get to the hotel details soon.

After our uneventful flight from Detroit, it took about 45 minutes total to get our luggage, find the rental car shuttle (car rental centre was in a different terminal) and get our car. We then decided to check out Hollywood Beach for a bit before heading over to our hotel....

After getting in the car, we made our way to Hollywood Beach. We actually had a destination in mind. We are (me in particular) big Jimmy Buffett fans. If you have never experienced a Jimmy concert, I highly recommend it (shameless Jimmy plug). Its an all day affair and by the end, its totally understandable how Jimmy "blew out his flip flop and stepped on a pop top".

Where was I going with this.... oh yeah... so I have this thing about visiting as many Margaritaville's as possible. I have been fortunate (yeah that's right I don't have high standards on the bucket list) to visit a Margaritaville in many many places all over the world. So the Margaritaville Resort at Hollywood Beach had to happen. It was worth the trek to the beach and boardwalk area.

It was well worth it. Its a beautiful fun resort. We also decided to have lunch at the Landshark Bar and Grill located right next door. I love my Landshark!

After spending a few hours at the beach and resort we decided it was time to head on over to the hotel. We wanted to take our time so we decided to drive along Ocean Boulevard south toward Miami. The drive was nice but very busy and we eventually decided to hit the interstate and make our way to the hotel a little faster. So we did!

We arrived at the hotel and were able to get right into our room. We had a nice suite that offered a TV in a sitting area and one in the bedroom area. The hotel also has a nice outdoor pool, fitness room and a nice patio overlooking the Lagoon. We hit the pool almost immediately and really did nothing for the next few days (outside of a few shopping trips to the mall). We spent most of our time at the pool.

The hotel had a small restaurant where you could get drinks and food. We ate breakfast at the hotel but went out for dinners... and yes beer at the pool! Oh the hotel was maybe 10-15 minutes from Miami Airport. The area seemed safe to us and we felt secure all the time including when out and about with the car. The only thing is I think you do need a car if your going to go anywhere for food etc. The hotel did offer a shuttle service to a shopping area.

Here are some shots from our room and pool area. I forgot to take a shot of the hotel from the parking lot... guess I will need to go back!

This was the sitting area:

Bedroom area:

The pool area was also very nice....

The Lagoon view from the patio:

As the sun began to set:

Well that's it for now... next up will be embarkation time!

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Following along.

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also following with great interest:

did the Allure (2/12-19), and while onboard, booked 4 cabins for 11 family members

on the Dec 8th sailing.. always best to book 'NextCruise' for ridiculously low deposits!:)

anxious to see all you have to say about this cruise! :D

also following with great interest:did the Allure (2/12-19), and while onboard, booked 4 cabins for 11 family members

on the Dec 8th sailing.. always best to book 'NextCruise' for ridiculously low deposits!:)

anxious to see all you have to say about this cruise! :D

I agree... we booked one on our last Celebrity cruise for Australia and New Zealand... that's not until 2018 though.

I will have lots more to say on the cruise and my Royal Caribbean experience.

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Following along.

 

 

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Thanks for coming along...

Doing this cruise in 51(ish) days. Looking forward to the rest of your review and LOTS of pictures. Thanks for doing it.

Dan.

We leave on Navigator this weekend - enjoying your take!

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