OCD Planner's NAVIGATOR Post Dry Dock Pictorial Review

Good Morning All!

Welcome to the beginning of my forthcoming pictorial review of Navigator of the Seas, Post Dry Dock!

This cruise will be quite the opposite of my previous OCD Planning experiences, if any of you have followed along with me before. Most of our previous cruises have been 7-12 night cruises with 1-2 sea days and tons of port days with lots of private excursions and planning going into the cruise.

This cruise is the first outing of NOS after a substantial dry dock in Freeport, Bahamas. Many of you may have been following along with the Navigator Dry Dock thread by Aim1 & Dry Dock Dave and I hope to continue on with the updated pictures for your enjoyment. Aim1 & DDD have done a fabulous job at giving us all insight into what has been going on with this ship & I for one can't wait to board her tomorrow!

We booked this cruise to celebrate my 50th birthday which I had just a few weeks ago. We were able to get the cruise for free using our RCI Visa points. I upgraded to a balcony from the award level oceanview for only $29pp, then got to apply a $75 C&A Savings Coupon and received two $25 OBCs for bringing bringing friends who've never sailed with RCI.

One friend booked an inside cabin and it was later announced that her balcony was one of the new Virtual Balconies which she scored for no additional cost!

The itinerary for our trip is a short 4 night trip with the only port stop in Cozumel. So there was virtually no planning at all for this cruise. We've visited Coz several times and with 5 ships scheduled to be in port on Friday with 17,500 passengers we may do something we've never done.... stay on the ship & enjoy it!

As of this morning the ship is at 50% capacity so we should have plenty of loungers available and lots of elbow room to enjoy ourselves on this sailing.

Today is my final day at work (not getting much done) and then we will head out at 5am in the morning for a quick 5 hour drive down to Galveston and board the ship.

This will also be our first cruise as Diamond members so we'll finally get a chance to check out the Diamond lounge and it's amenities.

My plan is to post the first group of pictures tomorrow before we set sail and follow up with the next posting on Friday when we are in port at Coz. If we can get a decent connection onboard using our free internet minutes I'll try to post a few along the way. However, the majority of the pics probably will not be posted until we return home.

I am hoping to do a pictorial review from the top to the bottom of the ship showing all public areas. I will also try to get pics of the menus and scan the Cruise Compasses when we return.

Since there was not a lot of ports to plan for, I planned some onboard activities for our roll call including a Cabin Crawl with combined Poker Run for the first sea day and a Slot Pull for the second sea day. I have hopes for a photo scavenger hunt but not sure if it will work out with all the updates to the ship.

The cabins we will have in the cabin crawl are as follows: interior connecting cabins, interior promenade cabin, interior virtual balcony, forward oceanview, hump balcony, aft balcony, junior suite and the Royal Family suite. I plan to post pictures of all of those cabins as well as a video of the Virtual Balcony. I will try to get pics of the new panoramic cabins on deck 12 if any are open & not occupied when I get onboard. I will also try to get a GS or OS if the same is true for them upon boarding.

For those who may have not been following along, here is a visual of the changes being made (credit to footzz from the Navigator Dry Dock Thread). Original configurations on the left hand side graphics, updates on the right hand side outlined in orange:

Finally, this is picture that I found on the internet somewhere showing the aft balcony cabin locations:

So, feel free to follow along. Ask questions, comment, etc. If there's something you want me to look for or find out post it here & I'll try my best to get the answers for you.

Well... back to work for 5 1/2 more hours then Vacation Begins!

I can't wait to see what the finished ship looks like (especially what the front looks like with the new cabins on Deck 12).

Can't wait to see everything! Happy Birthday Cruise! Have a great time!

Thanks for doing this!! Looking forward to it!

I'm so excited! Can't wait for tomorrow :)

Thanks for doing this!

Looking forward to some pictures and commentary. Thanks for doing this! I have 8 more work days to get through so I'm jealous of your countdown! Enjoy your cruise and Happy Birthday! :D

Mary :)

Yay! Can't wait!

Thanks for the birthday wishes everyone! Now I just WISH I was already headed down today...

By this time tomorrow we should be onboard enjoying NOS and checking out all the new & updated amenities!

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Excellent! We'll be on NOS in just a coupla weeks, so we are eagerly awaiting your pictorial. I see on Galveston's webcams that she is docked and waiting for you!!

Pete

Excellent! We'll be on NOS in just a coupla weeks, so we are eagerly awaiting your pictorial. I see on Galveston's webcams that she is docked and waiting for you!!

 

Pete

She is in the Port of Galveston & I would love to be there today! However, it is raining there so maybe I'm not missing much. It's supposed to be 54 tomorrow but no rain so hoping for a good sail away!

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thank you so much for doing this! We board in 12 more days so I can't wait for your review and OCD pictures :D

Could you let us know about the shows and times for shows on the "new" NOS? This will be our first on RCCL!!

This is so nice of you to do for all the Navigator lovers out there! Thanks. When you're in the newly renamed MDR, will you take a look to see if they've taken down all the ballet related artwork? Like the pictures and sculptures. The MDR's original names were Nutcracker, Coppelia, and Swan Lake to tie into the artwork. Just curious, that's all.

thank you so much for doing this! We board in 12 more days so I can't wait for your review and OCD pictures :D

I'm looking forward to doing the review! Trust me there will be lots of pictures... my OCDness will show :)

Could you let us know about the shows and times for shows on the "new" NOS? This will be our first on RCCL!!

I plan to scan the Cruise Compasses (the daily paper they put in your cabin) which list everything happening on the ship that day. It will feature the show of the day and show the performance times.

Thanks to both of you for following along :)

Thanks for posting... It is so nice of you to follow up on the Amy & Dave thread!!

Just one question... How do you know your cruise is at 50%? I'm just curious if this information is readily available :)

I hope you enjoy your cruise and will be waiting to see your pictures and posts!

LOL! Only someone from Tx would refer to a 5 hour drive as quick;):D

I'm so glad you are doing this; it's a great service to Cruise Critic kind! It's great your pals have the VB so you don't get embarrassingly caught in someone's cabin on embarkation day :eek: (which I think was you original plan :p)

Have a wonderful cruise and we are waiting on pins and needles for photos!

Thanks for posting... It is so nice of you to follow up on the Amy & Dave thread!!

 

Just one question... How do you know your cruise is at 50%? I'm just curious if this information is readily available :)

 

I hope you enjoy your cruise and will be waiting to see your pictures and posts!

There is a price watch website (which I can't name but you can google for) when you click "finder" then on the left side drill down to your cruise line, ship then cruise type (by number of days) it will show the dates & %.

Thanks for following along & asking questions.

Just turned on the Emarld Cam to see them raising the flag! :D

This is so nice of you to do for all the Navigator lovers out there! Thanks. When you're in the newly renamed MDR, will you take a look to see if they've taken down all the ballet related artwork? Like the pictures and sculptures. The MDR's original names were Nutcracker, Coppelia, and Swan Lake to tie into the artwork. Just curious, that's all.

I'll try my best to remember to look for this. I will take many pics in the MDR so hopefully you will be able to see the art.

LOL! Only someone from Tx would refer to a 5 hour drive as quick;):D

 

I'm so glad you are doing this; it's a great service to Cruise Critic kind! It's great your pals have the VB so you don't get embarrassingly caught in someone's cabin on embarkation day :eek: (which I think was you original plan :p)

 

Have a wonderful cruise and we are waiting on pins and needles for photos!

We'll I say quick because we can drive it quicker than driving an hour to the north to the airport, get there 1.5-2 hours before the flight, fly down, rent a car or get a shuttle to get to Galveston. Of course you can drive 8 hours or more and never get out of Texas...

Actually my friend has had the VB all along. I'm planning to sneak a shot if the new panoramic 12th deck rooms if they are open ;p

Thanks for following along. Hoping to post pics starting tomorrow.

I have an early treat... one of my friends just got to Galveston & got some pics for me. It's their first RCI cruise and I'm super excited for them. Can't wait to experience their newbie cruiser faces tomorrow when they see the inside!

I just cannot wait to get there!

glad i saw this before we leave home to get on the ship tomorrow, got it subscribed so i can be sure to find it when i get home.

looking forward to seeing all the new stuff !!

That's one Texas-sized flag for sure! I like it. :D

Love, love, love the flag!!! I'll be following along....I sail on May 25th!!

Barb

And a Texas size welcome to the new and improved Navigator!

We leave for the Nlaws house in an hour, go out to eat and then to sleep early, up at 5 for the drive....safe travels all! See you in the terminal.:D