Bit of a blog – Navigator of the Seas – E Caribbean – 8 nights – 26th November 2011

[mommabean]

Also, a person who got off the 6 day cruise before this one has stated, on another thread, that it was the worst cruise he's ever taken. Lots of bad. Some good. He hasn't elaborated yet though. Some of us are eager to hear what the problems were.

 

Gina

[NorbertsNiece]

We are boarding the NOS in March 2012 with our 2 children when there are 7 other ships in port that day. What time do you suggest getting there in order to try and avoid the line up outside? Do you think embarktion will get any better??

 

Thanks,

Donna

 

This was a one off.... very badly handled by RCCL. Do they not know they are to be inspected? They had returned a week ago from Europe.... were they inspected then? There was no contingency plan. NO support at all from the staff who were as clueless as ourselves. They did their best which had no impact whatsoever.

[critterchick]

This was a one off.... very badly handled by RCCL. Do they not know they are to be inspected? They had returned a week ago from Europe.... were they inspected then? There was no contingency plan. NO support at all from the staff who were as clueless as ourselves. They did their best which had no impact whatsoever.

 

They just went through this with Liberty on November 5. Too bad they didn't seem to learn anything from it.

 

Thanks for keeping us updated. Now we have to decide whether to arrive at the pier at 10:30 or 2:30 to minimize the wait in line.:eek:

[Ocean Boy]

Also, a person who got off the 6 day cruise before this one has stated, on another thread, that it was the worst cruise he's ever taken. Lots of bad. Some good. He hasn't elaborated yet though. Some of us are eager to hear what the problems were.

 

Gina

 

I can't find it. Can you provide a link?

[fish6]

I can't find it. Can you provide a link?

It is in this thread

 

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=1521869

[ssimon]

Just wish when they make negative comments about their cruise they would explain it.

[Ocean Boy]

It is in this thread

 

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=1521869

 

Thank you.

[jebuell]

This was a one off.... very badly handled by RCCL. Do they not know they are to be inspected? They had returned a week ago from Europe.... were they inspected then? There was no contingency plan. NO support at all from the staff who were as clueless as ourselves. They did their best which had no impact whatsoever.

 

No, they don't always know when they will be inspected. It's kind of like a health inspector at a restaurant. You have a basic timeline, but don't know exactly when it will happen. Otherwise everyone could prepare for it and they couldn't inspect the actual condition of the ship and the employees working onboard.

[jebuell]

So... if you get to the port and see lines like that, why not just leave and putz around Fort Lauderdale for a bit? It seems like if you don't want to wait in line there's a simple way to not have to wait in line! Either show up early and just wait in line but inside, or leave until the lines go down.

[mommabean]

So... if you get to the port and see lines like that, why not just leave and putz around Fort Lauderdale for a bit? It seems like if you don't want to wait in line there's a simple way to not have to wait in line! Either show up early and just wait in line but inside, or leave until the lines go down.

 

Some people have drop off service with a cab or shuttle. They are stuck. There's no walking out of port EVERGLADES (correction - opps).

 

Gina

[Cruising89143]

So... if you get to the port and see lines like that, why not just leave and putz around Fort Lauderdale for a bit? It seems like if you don't want to wait in line there's a simple way to not have to wait in line! Either show up early and just wait in line but inside, or leave until the lines go down.

 

No, some of us expect the cruise line to be better prepared for something like this. I have cruised out of FLL many times and only the new Oasis terminal can handle the larger ships. This was not the first time that this type situation has happened at this port.

[LuckiStac13*Majesty*]

No, some of us expect the cruise line to be better prepared for something like this. I have cruised out of FLL many times and only the new Oasis terminal can handle the larger ships. This was not the first time that this type situation has happened at this port.

 

Exactly. It's unacceptable, really.

[mommabean]

So... if you get to the port and see lines like that, why not just leave and putz around Fort Lauderdale for a bit? It seems like if you don't want to wait in line there's a simple way to not have to wait in line! Either show up early and just wait in line but inside, or leave until the lines go down.

 

Not to mention, for those of us who drive to port ourselves, there can be a long wait just to get through the security lines to drive into port everglades (sorry I said canaveral before I think). Driving out would mean going through that again, too.

 

Hopefully this was just a rare inspection problem. There should be a better way to handle it though. At the very least, free cold drinks and plenty of port a potties.

 

Maybe some free welcome aboard drinks would make people feel better and get into the cruising spirit. :p

 

Gina

[jebuell]

Well, like I said before this happened to us at the Long Beach Port in April. There wasn't even anyplace to wait inside, there. It was all outdoors, waiting for three hours. They didn't offer drinks (didn't expect it, though) and I don't believe they even had bathrooms available there. You had to walk to the Queen Mary to find a restroom. I didn't think anything of it or thought negatively at Carnival for not being able to control the coast guard. It seems a little silly that everyone is blaming RCCL for something that is out of their control.

[Cruising89143]

Well, like I said before this happened to us at the Long Beach Port in April. There wasn't even anyplace to wait inside, there. It was all outdoors, waiting for three hours. They didn't offer drinks (didn't expect it, though) and I don't believe they even had bathrooms available there. You had to walk to the Queen Mary to find a restroom. I didn't think anything of it or thought negatively at Carnival for not being able to control the coast guard. It seems a little silly that everyone is blaming RCCL for something that is out of their control.

 

Most of the ships coming back to the US from Europe are inspected the morning that they arrive. If the NV was not inspected that morning then they knew it was coming soon. We cruised on the NV back in 2007 with almost the same results. A bad embarkation and a VERY BAD debarkation. The fact that they did not provide some type of refreshments for those stranded out in the hot sun was in the control of RCI.

[Ocean Boy]

I'm getting more nervous by the minute about considering a sailing on this ship.

[Cruising89143]

I'm getting more nervous by the minute about considering a sailing on this ship.

 

That is a hard decision. Those eight night cruises on the NV are nice. We did this on the Jewel out of FLL and it was great.

 

Not sure why the port won't upgrade all of their cruise terminals? I know that Carnival worked out a deal with the port to upgrade some of their terminals but in order to do so Carnival had to agree to process a certain number of passengers a year through Pt. Everglades for a certain amount of years. Bascially the same thing that RCI did with the Oasis terminal.

 

Right now I would think twice before taking a cruise out of any terminal other than 18. That one kind of spoils you for life.:)

[05mak05]

You have such a nice writing style. I'll be following your posts. Your pictures of embarkation bring back memories of Galveston and the fog delays.

[28 Frediebeach]

I don't know who to blame here I realize was probably not handled that great but I do recall Linda saying there were @ 55,000 people put through that port yesterday:eek:that is almost the population of city I live in.I agree more should have been done by RCL for comfort of passengers.Just have to wait & see how things go this winter.

[jebuell]

Most of the ships coming back to the US from Europe are inspected the morning that they arrive. If the NV was not inspected that morning then they knew it was coming soon. We cruised on the NV back in 2007 with almost the same results. A bad embarkation and a VERY BAD debarkation. The fact that they did not provide some type of refreshments for those stranded out in the hot sun was in the control of RCI.

 

I don't think all of the agencies that perform inspections on cruise ships could do so on the same day. I'm no cruise ship expert but I do believe each cruise ship undergoes 50+ inspections a year from at least three different agencies. Customs and Border Protection probably did theirs when the ship arrived after the TA. But that still leaves the CDC and the Coast Guard and who knows who else. I'd expect them to do them quickly after the ship returns, but not all at once.

[Coralc]

I'm getting more nervous by the minute about considering a sailing on this ship.

 

"Welcome to our world" :D We are sailing on Voyager in 2 weeks out of NOLA....and the embarkation and disembarkation reports so far have been terrible! :);)

[tarheel3559]

Most of the ships coming back to the US from Europe are inspected the morning that they arrive. If the NV was not inspected that morning then they knew it was coming soon. We cruised on the NV back in 2007 with almost the same results. A bad embarkation and a VERY BAD debarkation. The fact that they did not provide some type of refreshments for those stranded out in the hot sun was in the control of RCI.

 

I'm the one mentioned earlier that just got off the 6 day on the Navigator. I haven't elaborated yet as I'm still not home and using an iPhone to post. However since there is a vast interest here, I'll do what I can to explain.

 

We arrived at the Port around 10:30am and were met with much disorganization. We get our luggage unloaded and myself and one other in my party go get in line to enter the terminal while the other two take the car to the midport garage ( a very good distance away from 29, which to me makes this terminal very inconvenient). We arrive at the door and are told they aren't starting check-in until later. Fine. No problem. We line up and enter the (what I call a warehouse) terminal pictured earlier in the thread. Check-in didn't take too long but it took a while to get our Seapasses. I came to find out that they were not organized properly and that over 100 people who had already checked in did not have Seapasses. Yikes! Terminal employee told us that this warehouse setup was a makeshift done just hours before our arrival. Keep in mind, the temperature was horrible in this place and the port-a-potties were stinking up the place, at least last week. They finally begin boarding at 11:30 and we walk through the real terminal 29! Boy was I mad to see they had that one completely set up, normal looking terminal for RCI. Also it's worth noting, boarding was a free for all. As soon as they opened the doors to make our way to the gangway, everyone flooded the doors to head that direction. Oh well, I let it go, we enter on deck 4 finally and they tell us the Windjammer is open and to head up for lunch. We do and we are greeted by an empty Windjammer although very nice employees there. They tell us lunch isn't ready yet but feel free to grab a drink and sit down. We sit and attempt to find drinks only to no avail. Roughly 5 minutes later, the Windjammer manager comes around and tells everyone they have to leave the room as they are supposed to be closed. He later outside the Windjammer tells me it's due to a Health Inspection from the US Coast Guard.

 

We move on expecting no more problems. Sail away comes and we are running 15 minutes behind but no ruffled feathers about that. Dinner in the MDR comes and it starts with no major problems. Then the wrong entrées come out and we kindly inform our waitress who then says "no they came out how you ordered it. This is what you ordered I have notes!" keep in mind she says this with an angry tone. She then proceeds to go grab her notepad from the waiter station! She comes back and shoves it in my face showing me the "notes" of what I ordered, yet what dish I ordered and what she wrote are two different things. I was frustrated with this along with her slow speed at serving us and the tables around us in her section. I spoke with the head waiter and he and the maitradee replaced our waitress with a new one and zero other problems for days 2-6. Good to go on that front.

 

Day 2 goes with no problems. Next was Grand Cayman, always a good port. We board the Navigator after a fun filled day and go to the C&A event before dinner. It was held in Studio B, horrible venue for this but oh theres more to this story. I approached the bar/free drinks as usual for these events expecting to be greeted, yet the bar server's first words to me were "First rule I had you your drink!" Wow! Rudeness at a C&A event. Not good. I spoke the the head bartender who I'd met earlier in the week as he was passing through my favorite bar onboard, Boleros. He told me he'd take care of it and I went about my day. Can't let it ruin your day and I just chalked it up to a couple bad apples.

 

Yet, the bad things kept happening. After the two run ins with bad employees I stopped by guest relations to let them know my opinion on the experiences. I was then on a first name basis with the guest relations manager. Ana was very apologetic and understanding. She later in the week helped me out with other problems, most RC related, one not. Anyways, days come and go without problems til day 5 in the casino. I cashed in at a roulette table, well I throw my money on the table anyway. The spinner is busy ignoring me rearranging the chips. Keep in mind the table is completely empty other than myself. I tell him I'm ready for him to spin and he got mad at me and said, "you have to bet first before I can spin, no bets, no spin". Anyone who's played roulette before knows that's not the case so I cash out, go to another roulette table and start playing. The manager came to talk to me, offered an apology and free drinks for the original spinner's rude demeanor.

 

Earlier in the week I had received the invite for the D and D+ Behind the Scenes Entertainment tour. I sent in my RSVP card, receive the official invite and waiver and off I go at the noted time. It's worth noting that the time listed was 9:30pm. Odd, but I go anyway. Myself and 6 other guests waiting outside the Metropolis theater stand there for a good 45 minutes before giving up. We spoke to a couple officers who had arrived in the theater and they stated we should take the matter up with Dan, the CD and he'd be along very shortly. So we wait and he never shows, yet some of his staff were around and we asked them to give him a ring so we could speak with him. Their words, after calling, were that Dan was "too busy to meet with us and had other obligations". This didn't surprise me as Dan was the worst CD I've had in all my cruises.

 

As if all the other problems weren't enough, the last night just threw the icing on the cake. Myself and my girlfriend were drinking at Boleros and she had to use the restroom, cool, no big deal. Yet when she returns she tells me these little teenagers were camped out outside the women's bathroom and attempted to trip her both going in and coming out. The first attempt going into the bathroom she chalked up to a mistaken movement while she was walking through and it didn't bother her. Try number two solidified to her that this was no accident. We ask the bartender to call security as its past the little ones' curfew. Security never shows as we stayed down there for about 15 more minutes. We decide to call it a night and head up to deck 9. Well wouldn't ya know it, we get off the elevator and the little punks are sprawled out in the floor of the elevator bank on deck 9 aft starboard. So we make our way to the room and give security a call. They say they'll handle it and I started getting ready for bed then she tells me she wants a snack from Cafe Promenade. So we head back to the elevators and the little ones are still there. This time, they tried to trip me and I'd had enough. So we went down to guest relations only to find a line with only one person working the desk. So we take the stairs down to 4 and go see our friendly neighborhood bartender Marly and ask that she call security for us again as we had found the punks again. These two show up dressed as if they are Men in Black officers and approach me asking if I was the one who called and I told them I was. The older man (of the two) got an attitude with me and told me I had no right to call security multiple times to handle a problem and that it was their job to decide where to send their officers. He told me that when I called him the second time he was handling the problem then and I interupted him. Then he storms off without any more words to me and turns and says to the bartenders "next time don't you dare let a guest use the phone to call security. It's your job to call first and if we want to speak to a guest we will. Follow procedure next time" and walks off towards the casino. I ask him to come back and speak to me and he ignores me. This whole fiasco goes on until he returns and I get his name and his partners name. I then ask who they report to onboard and they tell me "it's a matter of guest security. I can't give out that information". Wow! Rudeness continues. I returned to guest services, got the head of security's name and will be calling Miami tomorrow.

 

Alas, I'm sorry for being quite winded and high jacking your thread. That's not to say I didn't have good experiences on board as well. Yet, they were confined to the MDR and Boleros. It's worth noting that my stateroom attendant was very nice also. She wasn't as personable as I would have liked but she was always nice and respectful.

 

There you have it folks. A string of weeklong problems on board the "beautiful navigator of the seas". Started with embarkation and just went downhill. Luckily this wasn't my first rodeo with RCI or it'd be my last. This wasn't the norm and I only hope RCI will weed out the bad apples on this ship, and in my opinion, start with getting a new CD.

[Ocean Boy]

That is a hard decision. Those eight night cruises on the NV are nice. We did this on the Jewel out of FLL and it was great.

 

Not sure why the port won't upgrade all of their cruise terminals? I know that Carnival worked out a deal with the port to upgrade some of their terminals but in order to do so Carnival had to agree to process a certain number of passengers a year through Pt. Everglades for a certain amount of years. Bascially the same thing that RCI did with the Oasis terminal.

 

Right now I would think twice before taking a cruise out of any terminal other than 18. That one kind of spoils you for life.:)

 

Terminal 18 does spoil you. But I am really attracted to this 8 night itinerary especially since it includes a new island for us as we have never been to St. Kitts. And I really liked our 8 nighter on Independence. The extra day seems to make a huge difference. I don't really want to do Oasis again this year as the shows will be the same. So it is either Allure with its bland itinerary, Adventure which I love but will have nothing new to offer from an itinerary perspective, or Navigator.

 

Kind of tough having these sorts of problems in life, huh?

[Ocean Boy]

There you have it folks. A string of weeklong problems on board the "beautiful navigator of the seas". Started with embarkation and just went downhill. Luckily this wasn't my first rodeo with RCI or it'd be my last. This wasn't the norm and I only hope RCI will weed out the bad apples on this ship, and in my opinion, start with getting a new CD.

 

Thank you for posting and I am glad that you will make your feeling known to RCI. Please keep us informed as to any response that you get.

[Ocean Boy]

"Welcome to our world" :D We are sailing on Voyager in 2 weeks out of NOLA....and the embarkation and disembarkation reports so far have been terrible! :);)

 

It is always nice to have someone who shares your pain!:D:D:D