NAVIGATOR May 4-10,2014 REVIEW w/lots of photos

[Ladysilver]

I'm loving your review and photos and look forward to a lot more! We'll be on her in two weeks!!! :D

Edited May 12, 2014 by Ladysilver

[Hoopster95]

This day was EXACTLY what the doctored ordered... a day of nothing! No commitments, no clients, nada!!! Just relaxing :) So, #1 thing to do today... sleep in! Check :p After that we hit the DL for a small breakfast and we did more "site-seeing" around the ship before our M&M at 11:15am

 

Our role-call was extremely fortunate to have a long time CC'er and fellow cruise addict, Delacruz, set up a M&M event for us all... because this was less than a 7-day cruise per RCL rules there was no formal M&M sponsored by RCL, but Delacruz was able to secure a meet and greet in the Cosmopolitan Club (Viking Crown) for 11:15am. I would say half of those who signed up showed up and we had maybe 40-50 people which was really nice. We then had a cabin crawl which I had never been on before... it was extremely rare as we had an Owner's Suite available to us all... W O W!!! What a way to travel! Just a gorgeous cabin. Also on the list were 2 interiors, a corner aft balcony, promenade, GS, and 2 of the new balcony rooms up on deck 12. A few of us also cornered the stateroom attendant we found up there and coerced him to open up one of the huge panoramic corner staterooms with the floor to ceiling windows... WOW! Huge cabin, beautiful and truly floor-to-ceiling full glass windows from one wall to the other, just great rooms up there.

 

Yep... it's Monday May 5

 

My morning daily ritual photo

 

We walked out to the helipad to enjoy the ocean wind and stare out at the ocean. Here's a closer shot of the front of the ship, again our porthole is bottom row (deck 6) third from the left. Behind the wall and directly underneath deck 6 is the crew outdoor area

 

And here's a closer look at the outdoor area underneath the cabin

[Hoopster95]

M&M at Cosmopolitan Club

 

Many thanks to Harpreet & his wife for their wonderful hospitality!!

 

[Hoopster95]

So after the cabin crawl, we didn't feel like having much food for lunch (we were saving ourselves for Giovanni's!!! YUM YUM YUM) ... so we had a criossant sandwich down at the Promenade, an awesome brownie and a couple of cookies (all the necessary food groups I think :rolleyes:), got changed and headed up to pool deck. The pool deck was very busy but there were enough spaces available especially up on deck 12 overlooking to the pool.

 

One thing about the deck areas of the Navigator is especially deck 13... what a totally disappointing waste of space. This is the area immediately above the new deck 12 cabins facing forward. No one used this area at all, and even on the last sea day and the loungers were tied up. As already mentioned I thought the Solarium to be the worst I had ever seen. The main pool deck was definitely the place to be imo. So during that day we witnessed the sexiest man contest, line dancing, all the typical stuff. Navigator has a great Caribbean band and good DJ.

 

Once done with getting baked in the sun, we returned to our room to get ready for Giovanni's... once again a phenominal dinner experience. Located on deck 11 at the entrance of the Windjammer, had a great ocean view table for two and we totally pigged out: eggplant parmegana, scallops, risotto ai funghi, veal, snapper, canolli's and homemade tiramisu... wow, we were so full!

Ozkur from Turkey was a great waiter, had a great time bantering with him, and the service from him and the maitre-D were both professional, fun and right on the spot. For the record, 3 times at Giovanni's on 3 diff ships thus far and all 3 better than my Portofino experiences from previous sailings, so I do hope if you haven't tried Giovanni's yet that you do sometime.

 

So we rolled out of Giovanni's down to the production show... not bad but not the very best I have ever seen. We then visited Boleros (we love Salsa & Merengue)... Navigator has a great latin band here as well. Once the latin band went on a break, we headed up to the Cosmopolitan Club for the night club & danced the night away.... while I miss the Dungeon from decks 3&4, the Viking Crown I feel is a great venue for a night club. The place was packed, and lots of fun... especially watching the crazy chick dancing like Elaine from Seinfeld!! What a hoot lol! (if any of you reading this were there on this cruise you're laughing right now cause you know what I mean lol :p) We had a great time and went to bed very late...

 

up next: Costa Maya!

 

Here's some random photos remaining from day 2

 

 

 

Sexiest Man Competition... pool deck was busy both sea days and all pool events well attended

[gambler]

If you did not go to the Diamond lounge, did they add the drink coupons for use between 5-8:30?

[camreesmom]

Did you have a soda or drink package? I want to find out if they have diet sprite or sprite zero on board the Navigator. We sail in 4 weeks :)

 

 

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[delacruz]

Yay, I found your review! We had a wonderful time and enjoyed meeting you guys, and thanks so much for the great company, especially at Giovanni's Table. Back to reality, making the beds, picking towels up off the floor, etc.😥

 

For whatever reason we didn't take tons of pictures, so we're enjoying yours.

 

I think I only noticed the accent with an 'eh' sound. Refreshing from all the 'y'alls' we heard all week 😄

 

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[sharse]

A few of us also cornered the stateroom attendant we found up there and coerced him to open up one of the huge panoramic corner staterooms with the floor to ceiling windows... WOW! Huge cabin, beautiful and truly floor-to-ceiling full glass windows from one wall to the other, just great rooms up there.

 

 

Thank you so much for this review! We have just booked the Navigator in 2016 (I have to wait so long I might not make it!) and we booked one of the corner panorama cabins on 12. 1864. So glad to hear it is wonderful as I expect it will be!

[Hoopster95]

If you did not go to the Diamond lounge, did they add the drink coupons for use between 5-8:30?

 

G'morn gambler... I never tried this so I don't know this answer. The DL was never too busy. They did have some extra appies set up just outside the DL door within the Cosmopolitan Club both sea days, I suspect they were expecting overflow. We're not huge drinkers so we never tried the overflow coupon... if someone else did by all means chime in. On the last sea day when most of DL was full we walked up to the bar self-serve style, asked the server to make us drinks, and we walked out into the Viking Crown out there to enjoy our drinks before heading down to dinner :)

[Hoopster95]

Did you have a soda or drink package? I want to find out if they have diet sprite or sprite zero on board the Navigator. We sail in 4 weeks :)

 

 

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G'morn camreesmom. I didn't have the package so I don't know this either. Again, if someone does know this answer by all means post on this thread of you wish :)

[Hoopster95]

Yay, I found your review! We had a wonderful time and enjoyed meeting you guys, and thanks so much for the great company, especially at Giovanni's Table. Back to reality, making the beds, picking towels up off the floor, etc.

 

For whatever reason we didn't take tons of pictures, so we're enjoying yours.

 

I think I only noticed the accent with an 'eh' sound. Refreshing from all the 'y'alls' we heard all week

 

Sent from my Nexus 7 using Forums mobile app

 

Hey Judy!! You and Paul are awesome people. That final night dinner you invited us to at Giovanni's was awesome (more on that when I get to final day 6 of the review :p). I do hope we cross paths again sometime... like I said, I have to get on the Grandeur someday ;)

[Hoopster95]

We woke up to awesome weather yet again this morning in preparation for our first port of call, Costa Maya. I had done my homework on all the ports and I knew this was going to be a very long day (arrive at 10am, all aboard at 7:30pm). But for now we had time to enjoy the morning until we arrive into port

 

 

The view this morning from my porthole window

 

Dearly morning breakfast and coffee at the DL, this deck is an extension only for the DL overlooking the sports court and immediately beside the climbing wall

[Hoopster95]

Once done with breakfast, we decided to walk the ship a bit before getting into port. We usually made our way across either deck 12 to enjoy the sea view, or head through the Promenade deck 5 to see if anything was going on (ie. shops/sales/music/etc). I figured since I didn't get pics of the theatre on day 1 that I would see if it was open (and empty) this morning... and it was! We walked in through deck 4 (balcony) before heading up to our room... I have more pictures on later day from the main level of the theatre, but for now here's the view of the theatre from deck 4 balcony:

 

 

The bar area at deck 4

 

 

[cruizinmimi]

Hoopster - I'm loving your review. Thank you for giving such details. I'm anxiously awaiting the next few days and I can't wait to hear about Costa Maya. I may be in a rare group, but I love Costa Maya.

[Hoopster95]

While this is the only time the Navigator sails into Costa Maya, I feel many of you might be interested in that the Vision of the Seas as a superb itinerary this winter from Tampa with 4 port days which includes Costa Maya... there are a ton of things to go see and do from this port.

 

Sailing into port didn't seem like much actually, there's not a lot immediately there at all so definitely make plans to do an excursion or go to the beach.

 

The view from my porthole as the Navigator prepares for docking facing directly to the pier as we spin 180 degrees

 

 

[lovinthesea89]

Great review! I will be on her next May!! Looking forward to the rest of your review!! :D

[cruisesR4me]

Loving your photos. I have never been on this class of ship and your photos are helping me visualize what it is like. Thanks !!!

[Hoopster95]

I normally have not been impressed with the RCL excursions I have taken in past cruises, having done many private and DIY port days over the last few years, but a specific excursion really caught my eye on the RCL website: 2 Mayan ruins - Dzibanche & Kohunlich. Not knowing much about them I googled and studied a bit, then decided this was what I wanted to do for the day.

 

Leaving the pier right away at 10:15am and getting back at 7pm I know that if I tried anything close to this on my own (with 2 hr drive time each way) could end up being asking for trouble, so I pre-booked this on the web prior to the cruise. Turned out to be one of the best RCL excursions I ever had!

 

Daniel Balam Balam (a true Mayan descendant, 28 yrs as a guide) led our tour and we were blessed by his enthusiasm, knowledge and passion to make this excursion an experience for us all. Balam means "Jaguar", and important animal in the Mayan life, and thus he came from Noble caste of the Mayan culture... 2nd to royalty. He had many interesting stories.

 

First stop Dzibanche... a little over 2 hours to get there but totally worth it. Like all important monuments, these pictures do not do it justice compared to standing there in person.

 

Dzibanche is one of the very few sites still allowed to be climbed on! According to Daniel, this and Kohunlich are his favorites as they are very raw and predominantly untouched for public viewing. We were able to climb here, very steep and great view

 

A Howler monkey family was out swinging in the trees. Wow, when they howl you can hear them a very very long ways away! Incredible actually. We all watched them for a while before moving on. I took this shot with my zoom from the top of the temple

 

You can get an idea of how steep this really is... note the fellow cruisers making their way down backwards!

[Hoopster95]

The Mayans invented gum! Here is a gum tree. On the bus, Daniel had a very large sample of the raw gum. We were allowed to break off a small piece to try it... it starts off like a powdery substance but after about a minute, it turns into solid gum! Unlike our "normal" gum we buy at the store which is 3% natural and 97% plastics, this is 100% natural and fully biodegradable. They will be selling this in the states soon! It will be packaged and called "Chicza"... it will not be cheap, but I would buy it in a heartbeat as my piece did not break down nor lose and flavour or consistency

 

 

You can see the added on thatch cover... underneath are many carvings in the stone, and various layers of the rocks. As explained by Daniel, each ruler would add layers to the temples, and you can see the various types and sizes of the stones over time

 

[Hoopster95]

Kohunlich is only about 20-25 minutes away from Dzibanche. The tour provided a boxed lunch & water so we were all good. There are no restaurants or food facilities at either location so be prepared... these are truly very raw and totally beautiful sites.

 

Kohunlich was a hilight of this cruise and we spent most of our time there on this excursion. This was well worth the travel time.

 

 

That's Daniel speaking about the arch and the significance of this temple

 

[Hoopster95]

 

 

This was the most important area of the site that they are trying to keep from degrading... The Temple of the Masks.

 

 

[Hoopster95]

Here are the last couple of pictures of the Temple of the Masks. The view from the top was awesome

 

 

 

I think we all left the site tired and extremely satisfied. Being experienced, Daniel allowed quite a bit of "no talk" time so most everyone looked to be napping... much needed! So the 2 hour drive back to port went very quickly actually. We got back right a 7pm with a few other stragglers heading down the pier to the ship. Our group was one of the last ones back

 

We think Costa Maya was a fantastic port. Those who took other excursions also seemed pleased as I did not hear one negative from anyone. I can see why more ships are going there with it's proximity to so many things to do and see in the southern areas of Mexico.

 

We enjoyed sailaway within about 20 minutes of getting on board with a beautiful sky and view. This was the night we went to the Windjammer... and we weren't the only ones! It was very busy up there. I put my camera away for the night and we enjoyed the Elton John tribute show, some more ship site-seeing & walking around, and a little more dancing... we hit the sack early as it's been a real long day.

 

It's Roatan at 8am tomorrow!!!

[39august]

No big deal, but I didn't see the Fisherman's platter listed on second formal night on our in suite dinner menu. Was there a Fisherman's platter in the MDR?

[TBone2K]

It was a great cruise. Seemed very shopping-intensive based on the way they kept pushing the port shopping events.

 

Even if you don't care about old ruins, Costa Maya is a nice place to hang out. In the centre of the shopping area is a big pool and two bars (Senior Frog's and Carlos and Charlie's). Lots of shade, too. After drinks, we were able to grab some loungers under a tiki umbrella on the beach next to the dolphin pool and relax and watch the ocean. (In my experience, most places charge for that sort of setup.)

 

We visited Goombalimba Park on Roatan and loved it as well. Hands-on interaction with the monkeys was a wonderful experience.

[kwbound]

We were on this sailing and also had a wonderful time. I think we met more friendly people on this trip than any other cruise we've done. We also enjoyed the meet and greet and cabin crawl. (Our cabin was that corner aft.). Those suites were beautiful and we may have to upgrade at least to a JS next time.

 

Hoopster thanks so much for posting this review. I'm going to try to do my own this weekend. I will include a link to yours so people can see you beautiful photos.