Navigator Of The Seas Review 11/20 --- Long and Detailed!

[reallyitsmema]

Always set your watch while in your departure port. This will be the ship's time throughout your cruise. Through my 5 cruises this has never changed.

Very bad advice. Follow the instructions that are given on your specific sailing. Many times ships will instruct passengers to change their watches before going to bed since they will be changing to a ports time.

[dappledumpling]

As far as the time changes went on 2 rccl ships to cozumel within a month.

one changed time and one stayed on EST. I was told it depends on the captain.

(The granduer out of tampa changed but the navigator didn't)

 

Now back to evil jeremy.. Love the review

[HMK]

Keep the reviews coming E.J., they are great!

Any news on the compasses? :)

[maxxedout2]

Great review so looking forward to more to come. Thank you

 

Yup, that's the way to do it.

 

:D:D:D

[lleydens]

Thank you for your review! We will be on the Navigator next month with a bunch of teens and your review was very helpful. Plus you are an excellent writer!

 

I have a question that's important to us because we are hiring a private driver in Cozumel. Di the ship change time zones in Cozumel? Was the ship's time the same as local time in Cozumel?

 

Thank you for your help!

 

 

When we went to Cozumel on the Navigator last December we did change times. It was in the cruise compass and announcements were made the day before.

[Keri's Cruisin']

Very bad advice. Follow the instructions that are given on your specific sailing. Many times ships will instruct passengers to change their watches before going to bed since they will be changing to a ports time.

Just an FYI we were on this same sailing and we were instructed to always stay on ship time and not island time and YES, Cozumel time was 1 hour behind the ships time. If you did not stay on ship time in Cozumel you would have been an hour late getting back to the ship.

[reallyitsmema]

Just an FYI we were on this same sailing and we were instructed to always stay on ship time and not island time and YES' date=' Cozumel time was 1 hour behind the ships time. If you did not stay on ship time in Cozumel you would have been an hour late getting back to the ship.[/quote']

You followed the instuctions that were given to you on your sailing which was to stay on ship time. That is not always the case with all cruises. To tell someone to stay on the stay on the time zone of your departure city at all times is wrong. That poster would have missed the ship if they were on our October cruise since we changed our clocks and we were one hour ahead of our departure city.

[Evil Jeremy]

Keep the reviews coming E.J., they are great!

Any news on the compasses? :)

 

I just need to get access to a scanner, not sure we have one hooked up in our house. Anyways, the next part (crew and food, maybe more) should be up tonight! Hope you all are enjoying so far.

[Kaye745]

Great Review! I'm taking my 15 year old daughter on this cruise for her Birthday in February (just us girls!) so it's great to hear a teenager's experience.

 

Also, as far as time change, I was just in Cozumel 2 weeks ago on Celebrity Century, and we did change times, but the RCI ship that docked the same day did not change times. There was a poor lady that was on an excursion with my husband and I from the RCI ship and kept saying she had to be back by 5:30 because the ship left at 6:00. Unfortunately she did not realize her ship was on Eastern Time. She barely got on board. When we arrived back at the dock (the two ships were docked side by side), security RAN with her to the ship as they were pulling up the gangplank.

 

Can't wait to be on the Navigator.

 

Kaye

[MomtoCCC]

We are doing 5 night on Navigator this Saturday. You are doing a great job with the review - looking forward to the rest of it.

[HMK]

I just need to get access to a scanner, not sure we have one hooked up in our house. Anyways, the next part (crew and food, maybe more) should be up tonight! Hope you all are enjoying so far.

 

Absolutely enjoying every minute of your review! Take your time with the scanner access....get back to your reviews, you are keeping us in suspense! :D

[momofmab]

I was on the same cruise. The roped off area was for Suite passengers only. Being a lowely C&A member put you in the mad dash for chairs as everyone else. Only suites had gold cards. I'm Diamond and had a blue card.

 

Thanks for clarifying :)

 

Great review, Evil J !!

[Evil Jeremy]

Sorry for the wait guys, I've been busy. Here is the food review. I still have to do crew service, ports of call, and disembarkation. If I missed anything, let me know!

 

Food:

Overview: Before I get to talking about the individual eateries on the ship and what they serve, I want to discuss the food overall. It was a very mixed bag, depending on what you ate, where, and when. When originally planning the review, I knew I was going to compare this food to that on my Carnival cruise from last summer, but I didn’t think I would need to compare it to the food from my cruise on the Majesty. Even both they are both RCI ships, there are noticeable differences between the food quality.

 

 

Pizza: I included this as its own category for a few reasons: For starters, pizza is one of the most important food products on a ship. Secondly, I need to compare it to both Carnival’s pizza and the Majesty’s pizza. Finally, because Pizza is served on multiple parts of the Navigator. Many say that Carnival has the best pizza at sea, but I disagree. I believe the best pizza belongs to RCI. Or more specifically, the Sorrentos pizza found on the Freedom and Oasis class ships, as well as the Majesty. Sorrento’s is a land based pizza restaurant, like Johnny Rockets, so it’s food is of a higher quality than the normal cruise line food. The difference is, Sorrento’s is free on the ships that it is on, and is much better than Carnival’s pizza, and that of the Navigator’s. As for the Navigator’s pizza itself, it’s quality differed depending on where you received it. The pizza in the Windjammer was disgusting on the first and only time I tried it (lunch on embarkation day). It had very little sauce, and the cheese didn’t taste like cheese. On the other hand, the pizza served in the Promenade Café (which is baked there, so it is entirely separate from the Windjammer pizza makers), was a big improvement. It was about as good as the pizza on my Carnival cruise last summer. They have plain and pepperoni available almost all the time, with a flavor of the day as well. Even better than the pizza though were the miniature calzones at the Café. When I was on Carnival, they were made by request, but on the Navigator, they had a big plate of them, almost always full, and they were very good. I believe I ate more calzones than any other individual food item on the ship.

 

 

Café Promenade: Normally you would expect the Windjammer or the Dining Rooms to be first, rather than this little Café, since they are more important, but I am writing about this first because the Café Promenade is the place I visited the most during the cruise. Open 24 hours a day, the Café always has treats for you. In the morning, they had breakfast pastries such as doughnuts, bread rolls, muffins, and danishes. After around 11:00 AM, they served pizzas and calzones, and continued to do so until around 2:00 AM the next morning. Also after 11:00 AM is when they served their signature cookies and cakes. Additionally, Seattle’s Best Coffee, both regular and decaf, was available free all 24 hours. I made sure to visit the Café every morning for breakfast items. They served miniature challah rolls every morning, and I couldn’t stop eating them, I loved them so much. The danishes were also tasty, if a little stale. I already talked about the pizza products, so I will move on to the cookies and cakes, which is what the Café is known for. The cookies they had were not always fresh (as in hard and crunchy rather than soft), but they were tasty. From what I observed, Chocolate Chip and Triple Chocolate Chunk were some of the favorites. Other flavors included Mudslide and Toffee, with what I think had Heath bar pieces in it. Overall, the Café Promenade was my favorite eatery on the ship, and I don’t know how I will be able to live without it. Not just on other ships, but on land. I need my daily cookies and calzones.

 

 

Main Dining Room: Even though I already mentioned it, the Main Dining Room looks fantastic. I just wish that the food was of the same quality. Not that the food was bad, but it just wasn’t very special. I ate in the dining room on three of the nights, and had a good meal, but nothing that I miss. On the first night, I had an Alfredo linguini with mushrooms. The Alfredo sauce was not very flavorful. I could tell it was there because of its creamy texture, but it didn’t add much to the flavor. Same with the mushrooms. The pasta itself was good, but it’s not really anything you can mess up. On night two, I had a shrimp cocktail appetizer, which was pretty good, and the Filet of Beef, ordered medium rare. Filling and better than the linguini (in terms of amount of flavor), but it still did not have a very big impact. I skipped the room for nights three and four, and returned on night five, the last of the cruise. On that night, I had a Ceaser Salad for an appetizer, which was dry and flavorless. I had two entrées that night, a New York Strip Steak, which was better than I expected, and Turkey, which was mixed: The white meat was dry and dull, but the dark meat was juicy and tender. I ate breakfast in here on disembarkation day, and it was very good. The food was timely, and well prepared. I had buttermilk pancakes, and tried my sister’s French Toast, both of which were better than I was expecting. Overall, the food here was good, but nothing special, and met my expectations, except for the Ceaser Salad, which was a joke. Despite the quality of the food however, it was always plated excellently.

 

 

Windjammer: The Lido Buffet was comparable to the dining room. It is a much better choice for lunch and for a breakfast on the go but with a drop in the quality of the food. I only had breakfast once in the Windjammer, on the second day (first morning) on the ship. I had a French toast, and it seemed like a solid triangle of egg yolk. After that, I ate in the Café Promenade for breakfast. If you do choose to go to the Windjammer for breakfast, expect long lines, especially at the omelet station. Thankfully, they have premade omelets available for those who hate waiting and are willing to sacrifice custom omelets. I generally came in here for lunch, in which they always served various meats and pastas. I tried a burger one day, and found it very lacking, which is to be expected. Why offer a good burger for free when you have Johnny Rockets? The hotdogs were good though, it’s hard to mess those up. I would say the Windjammer was best during lunch. For dinner, they served the same general choices that they had in the dining room, but they were not as fresh.

 

 

Johnny Rockets: I love hamburgers. A lot. I knew I would be going to Johnny Rockets at one point on my cruise, and I decided to go on day three, after coming back from Georgetown, Grand Cayman. It was never incredibly busy, and the food doesn’t take too long to get to you. I ordered the St. Lewis burger, with Swiss cheese and bacon, and ate it quickly. I ordered a second burger (I love hamburgers. A lot.), this time a standard original (plain with regular condiments) and ate it as well. And if that was not enough, I ordered the Royal Caribbean Oreo Sunday, which is 2 or 3 scoops of vanilla ice cream with Oreos and chocolate syrup, and ate it (although I knew I shouldn’t, as I was already feeling full from the burgers), and it was delicious, as were the burgers. They are always fresh and cooked to order. And seeing how it was $4.95 for all of the food together (the cover charge covers everything except for milkshakes, which cost $4.50, and Floats, which cost $3.95), it was a great value.

 

 

Soda Package: I don’t know how much this cost, but it was defiantly worth it. I had more soda in a day than I normally would have in 2-3 weeks, but hey, it’s a cruise. If you are a huge soda drinker, get this, because not only do you get access to all the soda you want, but you also get a special colorful plastic bottle that is yours to keep. I love soda, and did not have the package on my previous 2 cruises. There is so much temptation on the Navigator, so many places where you can buy soda, and it’s hard to resist. I believe a single soda can on the Navigator costs $2.25, and the card is about $6 or $7 a day (much less for kids), so if you plan on having at least 3 cans of soda a day, buy the card, or the bills will add up quickly.

[LBumb]

great review, thanks for posting

[HMK]

Great job E.J.!

[JandD Mom]

Evil One, I don't know where you go to school, but they obviously have helped you become a terrific writer. The review was great!

 

I have a question about the kids club for the slightly younger group. I have 2 13 year olds going on our holiday sailing. Do you know how the club was for that age group by any chance?

[royalcruz]

Thank you, Jeremy, for the best review ever! It kept me up until 1 AM reading tonight. Do you go to Broward County schools or private? Your teachers must be proud (you should get extra credit for your review). We are sailing soon on Navigator and now I am REALLY looking forward to it. If you are interested in travel journalism, you will do well.

[Evil Jeremy]

"I have 2 13 year olds going on our holiday sailing. Do you know how the club was for that age group by any chance? "

 

There are two teen clubs, The Living Room and Fuel, and both are shared between the 12-14 and 15-17 age groups. Both are nice facilities. The 12-14 group used The Living Room the most, which is great. It has a dance floor, couches, a big TV, and a foosball table, and it is literally 5 feet away from the arcade and Johnny Rockets.

 

"Do you go to Broward County schools or private?"

Private (but it's in Broward). In fact, some of the boarding foreign students at my school went on a vacation over the break: The Thanksgiving cruise on the Navigator! I will try to find out what they thought of it.

 

Thank you all for saying I am a good writer. Writing is easier when its on a topic you are passionate about lol.

 

Anyways, again, I am sorry I haven't been able to put up the rest of the review yet, but I'm full of school work. Hopefully I can finish the review over the weekend.

[Evil Jeremy]

Sorry for the big delay guys, but I have had a lot of schoolwork as of late. Anyways, I finally got around to the final part. If I left out anything important in this review, let me know. If you have any questions, feel free to ask. Finally, I still plan on getting the compasses uploaded soon.

 

 

Crew Service: For the most part, the service on the ship was very quick and efficient. I didn’t know what to expect from the crew, since the Navigator was very recently back from its Mediterranean season, and I have read reports of low crew morale and efficiency on the cruise following a major home port change. Nevertheless, the crew was always enthusiastic and happy.

 

 

Room Service (not food): I want to talk about the room’s cleaning and service staff first because they were the only group that we had a problem with. On the second day of the cruise, our room was not cleaned until around 8:00 PM. We were calling the front desk every few hours throughout the afternoon to have someone clean the room and make the beds (its hard to type this without sounding like an ignorant selfish brat, but this is what cruising is like lol). We saw the cabin crew cleaning the other rooms early in the day, but for some reason ours was skipped. Anyways, it was fixed up by the time we were done with dinner. Otherwise, the crew was great.

 

 

Dining Room: The staff here was fantastic. Unfortunately I do not remember the names of the waiter for my table and the other crew members who served us, but they were all great. They were more than happy to accommodate my eating (I have a big appetite, on or off a ship). The crew also had a great memory, as I ordered a Sprite on the first night, and they gave me one without me needing to ask on the other nights. They even brought one on the two nights I skipped. My only complaint would be that the food was a little slow on the second night. It took about half an hour for the main dishes to be served after the appetizer. I’m not sure if it was intentional though since it was formal night. However, its normally much quicker on cruises, and when you have second seating, getting the main dish after 9:00 PM just doesn’t feel right.

 

 

Bars and the Café: The service at the Promenade Café and the other bars on the ship were also very quick. For drinks, it was as simple as taking out my soda card and telling them what you want. It was a bit slow at the Café Promenade though because of the lines. When picking up a snack from the Café, it might take you longer for you to decide what you want than for the server to give it to you. There are multiple bars in both Studio B and the Metropolis Theater, each with multiple bartenders. I would recommend you go directly to them for a drink before a show, because the servers who walk the ground are hard to come by, especially if you are in anything but an aisle seat.

 

Ports:

Georgetown, Grand Cayman: When we were at Grand Cayman, my mom and sister dragged me on to what I like to call the “Ooh, lets buy this” excursion. For two hours, I moved from clothing store to perfume store, just waiting to get back onto the ship. If you’re a collector of Hard Rock Café pins, there is one very close to the port. I am sure there is a lot to do here; we just didn’t do much of it. For me, the highlight was trying a coconut rum cake. Delicious. I wish I bought some in the port. If for some reason you forget to do so, they sell them on the ship in the Logo store.

 

 

Cozumel, Mexico: We spent our time in Mexico down by the San Francisco beach. There are many fun things to do, including a very big water fun zone section including water trampolines, inflatable slides, and a giant rock wall type inflatable structure. It cost about 12 dollars, but was worth it. There I met people from the other ships in port, and had a very fun game of “push each other off the trampoline” with kids on the Carnival ships also in port. The water itself was very salty compared to the waters here in South Florida. The food we ordered from one the bars/restaurants was good, but pricy and low in serving size. Seeing how it’s a tourist destination, I would expect that. Also, the roads were very bumpy, it’s worth mentioning.

Disembarkation: Even though my mom wanted to get home as early as possible, my sister and I wanted to spend the most time on the ship we could, so we took the latest disembarkation time, 10:15 in the morning. Until then, I spent my time at the Café Promenade, saying good bye to each product. Individually. And tastefully. They called our luggage tag to leave at around 10:00 AM, after which the process was very simple. We filled out our customs cards before disembarking, so that was an easy process, and since we were among the last leaving the ship, it was not hard to find our luggage. Overall, disembarkation was a quick and painless process, which was still negated by the pain of having to leave the ship.

 

 

Conclusion: Wow, what a cruise. It might sound like I found this cruise average, but it was huge improvement over my previous cruises because there was simply so much more stuff to do. The Promenade became my home. I think the only way you can’t enjoy this cruise if you’ve been on the Oasis class. Every morning, on this cruise and my two other recent ones, I made my schedule for the day either the previous night or that morning with the compasses, but for the first time, I couldn’t decide what to do. Teen dodgeball tournament or Battle of the Sexes? Soccer or trivia? Ice skating or the Love and Marriage Game Show? There are so many things to do on this ship, you will never be bored. As my last cruise as a teen, I was surprised that I did not participate in the teen activates as much as I wanted to, but I am now actually happy for that. This was my first cruise where I was given enough freedom to do what I wanted, and I took all those liberties. This is a great ship, and I had a great cruise. Of all the cruises I have been on, this is my favorite, followed by the Majesty of the Seas, and the Carnival Imagination and the Carnival Fascination. Thank you for reading this incredibly long review, and you can look forward to another one whenever I sail again.

 

Just for reference, here are my previous (and less detailed) reviews:

Carnival Imagination: http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=1035091&highlight=

Majesty of the Seas: http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=682048&highlight=

[cfurby]

Great review. Thanks for taking the time to document such a detailed review. And keep writing! As a recovering college professor, I can say few frosh are able to write at this level.

[HMK]

Thanks EJ for the final installment of your review. I knew you would not let us down as we all patiently waited for it!

 

When you do scan the compasses, could you please email me a copy to JetDoc2262@aol.com

 

Thank you again :)

[Tazsamp]

EJ, thanks so much for this detailed, fact-filled review. It has been a long time since I was 17, and it's been great reading your perspective.

 

I will be on the Navigator right after New Year's, so I was very excited to read all about your experience. Now I REALLY can't wait to go!

 

Best of luck at school and any other endeavours you put your mind to, you sound like a very well-rounded, thoughtful young man!

[lrc04]

What a great review. I will be sailing on the Navigator on 18th and found your review very informative. The compasses would be a great treat, if you can scan them. Thanks