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

[kwbound]

 

I did the Make a Wish walk too. DH was just taking lots of pics to practice with the new camera. I found these 2 I thought you might like.

 

 

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[Hoopster95]

Super post ! Thank you. It may have been mentioned as I could not read it all , but the Navigator does go to Costa Maya once more on November 16, which we are booked on. Not sure why the May cruise was a 6 day, maybe a travel agent deal for one day ?

 

Ah? It does?? Cool! Great port imo... the 6 day was a weird one in that the Saturday night May 10 was some promo event for RCL "royalty", travel agents, etc. I don't know if they did a cruise to nowhere or not.

 

Btw, love your avatar ..... my favorite brew .... "Stay thirsty my friends" :p:D

[Hoopster95]

You're welcome :D

 

Enjoying this immensely. Thanks for all the pics! Really making me feel ready to go!

 

Ready to go???!!! I'm still 6 months out from my next cruise and already obsessing about it. Hell, I was surfing the RCL site yesterday to chk out late Aug/early Sept itineraries:eek:

 

"My name is Hoopster, and I am a cruise addict" :p

 

p.s. I've got tens of thousands of ship photos over the last 5 years of all the ships and trips in my signature below. If anyone is interested, I can do a photo only review of any specific ship (like the current Oasis photo review that's being posted). Let me know if you're interested :)

[Hoopster95]

 

I did the Make a Wish walk too. DH was just taking lots of pics to practice with the new camera. I found these 2 I thought you might like.

 

 

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Great photos! Thank you thank you

 

Not bad form if I do say so myself, hehe.... they burned me on the scoring....plenty of people giving me 4's and 5's but the Activcity Guy had this thing rigged for the big 330lb guy to win :rolleyes::p

 

 

 

Right back at'ya

 

 

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kw totally scored one of the best deals on this cruise, what, about 3 weeks out kw?? This corner aft balcony came avail at a super cheap price and she nabbed it. Good for you!! Say, I think you mentioned in an earlier post you might do a review... are you?

[Hoopster95]

Just a quick example.... 3 yrs ago I sailed Celebrity to Turkey/Greece and made friends with two single ladies travelling together whom I still communicate with today. 4 yrs ago I did a TA on the Adventurer meeting a family there also that I still speak with.... both sets of cruisers from OZ, one Melbourne and the other Sydney.

 

Just a year & 1/2 ago ladies came and visited my hometown and Whistler, and 3 months after that I was in Melbourne & Sydney visiting them... and then travelling with some of the family on the Radiance during Xmas up the Queensland Coast!!!

 

You just never know who you're going to meet and click with. Always be open, forgiving and happy when on a cruise... you're there to fulfill your dreams of travel and have fun.

 

I just want to give this shout out to delacruz & dh Paul whom we really & truly enjoyed their company :):). Delacruz and I are both cruise & RCL nuts so we shared that common thread ;). So anytime you wish to book an Alaskan Cruise, you are more than welcome if I can show you around Vancouver for a couple of days. I know I mentioned I would have no prob visiting them on the East Coast, and I mentioned I do need to get on the Grandeur sometime to fill my bucket list of trying to get on every ship in the fleet...

 

Hey delacruz, BWI is a hell of a lot closer than Sydney so be prepared. LOL!!! :D

[kwbound]

Great photos! Thank you thank you

 

 

 

Not bad form if I do say so myself, hehe.... they burned me on the scoring....plenty of people giving me 4's and 5's but the Activcity Guy had this thing rigged for the big 330lb guy to win :rolleyes::p

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Right back at'ya

 

 

 

 

 

 

[/url]

 

 

 

 

 

kw totally scored one of the best deals on this cruise, what, about 3 weeks out kw?? This corner aft balcony came avail at a super cheap price and she nabbed it. Good for you!! Say, I think you mentioned in an earlier post you might do a review... are you?

 

 

We watched the belly flop contest from the Cosmopolitan Lounge and had a great view. We agree that the big guys weren't the best - no form at all. Biggest splash per pound had to to to the first guy, who was the smallest participant.

 

We booked that cabin two weeks before the sail date. Probably the best deal we've gotten on a cabin. I loved that balcony but it was a LONG way from the elevators!

 

Yes - doing a review is on my to-do list (my long list) for this weekend! It has been hard going back to the salt mines this week after such a relaxing vacation last week!

 

 

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[wanman]

Super post ! Thank you. It may have been mentioned as I could not read it all , but the Navigator does go to Costa Maya once more on November 16, which we are booked on. Not sure why the May cruise was a 6 day, maybe a travel agent deal for one day ?

 

It was a TA deal for Saturday/Saturday night.

[hanna04]

 

I then thought I'd walk to the front of the ship to see what the view is like. It was since day 1 that I was up there and I mentioned how I thought deck 13 forward is such a total waste of space... well this solidifies that thought

 

 

 

What a shame that nothing was done with this space during the refurbishment, I wonder why? Such a waste!

[Texasbum]

Thanks

 

 

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[~Christie~]

Thanks for the review! I am very interested in going on this ship next April so it is nice to read about it and see photos!

[tinker-bell]

that corner aft balcony looks amazing!! what room number is it?

 

cant wait for my 1st RC cruise in July!!!

[kwbound]

that corner aft balcony looks amazing!! what room number is it?

 

 

 

cant wait for my 1st RC cruise in July!!!

 

 

It is room 8390. The balcony was really nice. Often times you could position the lounge chair to lay in the sun, or you could usually find some shade too. It was also a very quiet room. Really the only problem with it is that it is so far from the elevators.

 

 

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[Hoopster95]

 

Dreaded Debarkation Day is upon us.... yuck!! :mad: And while I've gotten up at 5am on some cruises to witness sail-in (ie. the heads in Sydney or Santorini), there was no way I'd be up that early this morning :p

 

I actually awoke just as we were beginning to spin 180 in the basin in order to point outwards and the Navigator backs into it's spot. So here were are back in Galveston

 

 

So still full from Sabor & Giovanni's the last 2 nights, we certainly didn't need a massive breakfast this morning, so we decided to go up to the DL which I've never done... I guess that's why I've never done it... it was empty! No food, no coffee, nada! SO down to the WJ we went for fruit, my final bowl of muesli & condiments, and some other goodies. We actually had the chance to walk the ship again for 10-15 minutes so we walked pool deck, promenade, and deck 4 before heading back to our room to finally say good-bye to Stateroom 6204. Triumph had pulled in.

 

 

Because of the pre-airport drop-off excursion, we were led down to to baggage claim right on time and they got us into an empty line. I won't elaborate too much but the first couple, British, were questioned for over 10 minutes then pulled aside and detained. If it weren't for this, we would've been gone at about 8:30am! 55min later at 9:25am A bunch of us on the bus were close to asking the RCL operators if there will be a refund for missing an hour of our tour, but at that moment the officials coming out running and waving and the Brits got on. They were pissed off to say the least...basically came down to re-filling out a document they had already filled out and handed in on embarkation! Ah well... off we go... you juyt never know what will happen in a customs line..

[Hoopster95]

The excursion was $75... just the shuttle to IAH from RCL was $49... so I considered this a decent deal in order to spend the morning in a really cool place I had never seen before. Because of the TSA delay, we were denied a site-seeing tour of Galveston itself and we headed directly for the causeway. We got to JSC maybe around 10:10-10:15 I think, and we had time there until approx. only 12:30. It was enough to get a feel of everything, but I would definitely go back to do the tram tour, and learn more about the presentations/movies they have there

 

Since these are not ship pics and likely not interesting to the many Texans who have been to JSC, I'll just post them... they're kinda self explanatory!

 

 

 

 

 

[sharse]

What a shame that nothing was done with this space during the refurbishment, I wonder why? Such a waste!

 

Selfishly, I'm rather happy that this space isn't used much. I have booked one of the new deck 12 cabins and I'd rather there not be much traffic above. :D

[Hoopster95]

 

 

 

 

 

Buh Bye Texas!!!!!!!

[Hoopster95]

I'm tough and realistic on my ratings so bare with me and my perception of things this past week if you disagree:

 

• "5" is a pass, but just barely...
  
• 6 ok
  
• 7 is very good but not memorable
  
• 8 memorable, but not the best ever
  
• 9 totally excellent, have recommended or raved
  
• 10 the best EVER
  

 

Food:

Sabor 10+++ :D (totally memorable, I'll be talking about this for a while)

Giovanni's 9 (only a 9 because penne salmon didn't have as much bite to it as night #2, it was waaay better on 1st night, 9.5 on night #2)

MDR 7

WJ 6

DL 8 (great venue, best DL in the fleet with view and access to Sports Court viewing deck)

 

Entertainment:

Production Shows 7.5

Singers 8 (Rachel was outstanding)

Dancers 7

Headliner 6 (only one on this cruise: Elton John tribute, wasn't that good imo)

1st comedian John Corso 8.5 (this guy was really funny)

2nd comedian Jeff McTeague 6 (lots of same material as 2 yrs ago)

Caribbean pool band 9!!

Latino Band 9.5!!

Bubba Band 7

Ice Dance Show 10 (one of best crews technically, not a single slip-up and many spins/rotations/etc throughout the routines), great sets

Activity Director and staff 8 (trivia, dancing, events)

CD John Perry 7 (not as visible as many others, decent job but I'll forget who the CD was on this vacay in less than a year... I'll have to look up this review to remember)

 

Venues

Sports Deck 10 (no brainer now with Florider!)

Cosmopolitan Club 9 (great venue for nightclub instead of Dungeon, I like it better up there actually)

Boleros 9 (great bartenders! and always standing room out in the isles of people listening or watching the dancers)

Studio B 9

Promenade 10 (love Voyager Class "cozy" promenade compared to Freedom & Oasis for parades, etc)

Casino I didn't use this time (normally play poker)

R-Bar I didn't use this either

Star Lounge 7 (bland colour scheme, didn't like that room, I'll have to look at pictures on this review to remember)

Pool Deck 9 (Perfect sizing, always busy but also exciting that way, great bars)

Solarium 4 (sorry, that's a big fail imho)

deck 13 forward 1 (per my prev posts and pictures on this area, I hope RCL adds something here as it's very expensive real estate to have totally empty with 2800 people on board imo)

 

Excursions:

Costa Maya 10

Roatan 9 (only because of the "issues" with tour guide) else a 10

Cozumel 9

JSC in Houston 8 (great value include airport tx, need a full day there though)

 

People

Fellow Cruises 10+++++++ (never had an issue with anyone, 80%+ Texan population and y'all are great!!! ... did I say that right, eh? :p)

 

If you take away the deck 13, Solarium, Star Lounge & WJ (which I didn't go to these areas very much), all the ratings are very good to excellent:D

 

Overall thought? I'll give this cruise an 8 to 8.5. I brought back great memories of several things and days which absolutely stand out. I had zero expectations about this cruise as it was to be a quick shorter (6 day) getaway in order to get on the Navigator for the 1st time after the refurb, but turned out to be much better than average, with excellent staff, excellent ship and meeting incredibly awesome cruisers!!!!

 

I really hope you enjoyed my review.... I can't believe how many views this thread has had... unbelievable. I will do a full heavy photo review of my Dec Quantum cruise, and I'll surely take a ton of pictures for everyone. I'm hoping also to sneak away late Aug/early Dec and do a last minute maybe from the Going Going Gone sales... RCL has been offering 150% supplement for solos on Allure recently ;):D .... but I'm kinda also keeping tabs on Vision 10-day to Bermuda and of course Grandeur for 6 or 7 maybe (hello Delacruz??).

 

H A P P Y C R U I S I N ' E V E R Y O N E ! ! !

[hanna04]

This has been an enjoyable review to read through. My first RC cruise is on this ship and 2 years away and I'm really looking forward to sailing this ship. We have an aft cabin booked on deck 10, so I hope I will like that room, never stayed in an aft cabin. I will definitely book Sabor!

[kwbound]

I'm tough and realistic on my ratings so bare with me and my perception of things this past week if you disagree:

 

 

 

• 
   
  
• "5" is a pass, but just barely...
   
  
• 6 ok
   
  
• 7 is very good but not memorable
   
  
• 8 memorable, but not the best ever
   
  
• 9 totally excellent, have recommended or raved
   
  
• 10 the best EVER
   
  

 

 

 

Food:

 

Sabor 10+++ :D (totally memorable, I'll be talking about this for a while)

 

Giovanni's 9 (only a 9 because penne salmon didn't have as much bite to it as night #2, it was waaay better on 1st night, 9.5 on night #2)

 

MDR 7

 

WJ 6

 

DL 8 (great venue, best DL in the fleet with view and access to Sports Court viewing deck)

 

 

 

Entertainment:

 

Production Shows 7.5

 

Singers 8 (Rachel was outstanding)

 

Dancers 7

 

Headliner 6 (only one on this cruise: Elton John tribute, wasn't that good imo)

 

1st comedian John Corso 8.5 (this guy was really funny)

 

2nd comedian Jeff McTeague 6 (lots of same material as 2 yrs ago)

 

Caribbean pool band 9!!

 

Latino Band 9.5!!

 

Bubba Band 7

 

Ice Dance Show 10 (one of best crews technically, not a single slip-up and many spins/rotations/etc throughout the routines), great sets

 

Activity Director and staff 8 (trivia, dancing, events)

 

CD John Perry 7 (not as visible as many others, decent job but I'll forget who the CD was on this vacay in less than a year... I'll have to look up this review to remember)

 

 

 

Venues

 

Sports Deck 10 (no brainer now with Florider!)

 

Cosmopolitan Club 9 (great venue for nightclub instead of Dungeon, I like it better up there actually)

 

Boleros 9 (great bartenders! and always standing room out in the isles of people listening or watching the dancers)

 

Studio B 9

 

Promenade 10 (love Voyager Class "cozy" promenade compared to Freedom & Oasis for parades, etc)

 

Casino I didn't use this time (normally play poker)

 

R-Bar I didn't use this either

 

Star Lounge 7 (bland colour scheme, didn't like that room, I'll have to look at pictures on this review to remember)

 

Pool Deck 9 (Perfect sizing, always busy but also exciting that way, great bars)

 

Solarium 4 (sorry, that's a big fail imho)

 

deck 13 forward 1 (per my prev posts and pictures on this area, I hope RCL adds something here as it's very expensive real estate to have totally empty with 2800 people on board imo)

 

 

 

Excursions:

 

Costa Maya 10

 

Roatan 9 (only because of the "issues" with tour guide) else a 10

 

Cozumel 9

 

JSC in Houston 8 (great value include airport tx, need a full day there though)

 

 

 

People

 

Fellow Cruises 10+++++++ (never had an issue with anyone, 80%+ Texan population and y'all are great!!! ... did I say that right, eh? :p)

 

 

 

If you take away the deck 13, Solarium, Star Lounge & WJ (which I didn't go to these areas very much), all the ratings are very good to excellent:D

 

 

 

Overall thought? I'll give this cruise an 8 to 8.5. I brought back great memories of several things and days which absolutely stand out. I had zero expectations about this cruise as it was to be a quick shorter (6 day) getaway in order to get on the Navigator for the 1st time after the refurb, but turned out to be much better than average, with excellent staff, excellent ship and meeting incredibly awesome cruisers!!!!

 

 

 

I really hope you enjoyed my review.... I can't believe how many views this thread has had... unbelievable. I will do a full heavy photo review of my Dec Quantum cruise, and I'll surely take a ton of pictures for everyone. I'm hoping also to sneak away late Aug/early Dec and do a last minute maybe from the Going Going Gone sales... RCL has been offering 150% supplement for solos on Allure recently ;):D .... but I'm kinda also keeping tabs on Vision 10-day to Bermuda and of course Grandeur for 6 or 7 maybe (hello Delacruz??).

 

 

 

H A P P Y C R U I S I N ' E V E R Y O N E ! ! !

 

 

 

I agree with your overall rating of the cruise and especially your rating for fellow cruisers. We met so many nice people everywhere we went. I would not rate the MDR has high as you did. The food was just ok and the servers stretched too thin. It definitely wasn't worth the trouble we went to dressing up to eat there. And the one breakfast we had in the MDR was just bad - cold eggs Benedict. :( I also disagree with your rating of the Bubba Feathers Band. Those guys are really good. I also liked the CD more than you. I prefer my CDs to not be so in your face, and he fit the bill. The show he and the other guy did on TV every morning was pretty funny. This was our first RC cruise in 7 years, but it won't be that long before out next one.

 

Thank you so much for doing such a wonderful TR. I'm looking forward to reading more of your reviews in the future. And Happy Cruisin' to you too!

 

 

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[nicwoodard]

Again, I LOVE this thread! It helped us so much as we are going on the Navigator in 52 days... Thank you so much!!!

 

 

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[Hoopster95]

I agree with your overall rating of the cruise and especially your rating for fellow cruisers. We met so many nice people everywhere we went. I would not rate the MDR has high as you did. The food was just ok and the servers stretched too thin. It definitely wasn't worth the trouble we went to dressing up to eat there. And the one breakfast we had in the MDR was just bad - cold eggs Benedict. :( I also disagree with your rating of the Bubba Feathers Band. Those guys are really good. I also liked the CD more than you. I prefer my CDs to not be so in your face, and he fit the bill. The show he and the other guy did on TV every morning was pretty funny. This was our first RC cruise in 7 years, but it won't be that long before out next one.

 

Thank you so much for doing such a wonderful TR. I'm looking forward to reading more of your reviews in the future. And Happy Cruisin' to you to!

 

Hehe.... yep, I was being overly generous regarding MDR. My bennies were a 5 or sure but the granola/muesli station/xtra condiments and extra varieties of fruit of the MDR buffet area brought up my breakfast experience. Spot on... worst eggs benny on any ship ever. I had only two dinners in MDR ... I thought both good but I can't remember what I had other than the Escargot, therefore the 7 (not memorable). Obviously my thoughts on the week are with Sabor and Giovanni's.

 

Ya, Bubba Feathers rating was only my personal rating. They always had a very high volume of people watching and dancing so obviously a huge hit on the ship for most... I should've said that beside my rating. Of course with the ship being 80% Texan, they had Bubba playing country in both Boleros and on pool deck a couple of times... I was country'd out just a little personally... being from the North Pole I wanted the Caribbean band on pool deck all the time :p

 

Hopefully we cross paths again sometime!! Happy Cruisin' :D

[Hoopster95]

Again, I LOVE this thread! It helped us so much as we are going on the Navigator in 52 days... Thank you so much!!!

 

It was a little more work than I expected, but I had a blast putting this together. You're very welcome :D

[ummgood]

Thanks so much for your review. There seems to be not many of the Navigator on here. We are going on our first RCCL cruise without our kids for our anniversary next year. We have cruised only on Disney before. We are using this cruise just as a break and to also see if RCL is a good choice for our family since they cruise out of Texas and Disney wasn't here for long.

 

 

The ship looks awesome and I lobed that someone posted the corner aft stateroom. We have the one above it I think on deck 9.

 

Anyway some questions...

Do you know if the discount for three restaurants can be used for lunch or dinner or is it just dinner?

Did the Navigator have freestyle machines?

How much axe the drinks in Sabor? I saw you posted you had some.

Why did you not like the solarium?

We haven't done anything as a couple for so long what were your favorite couples activities?

 

 

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[delacruz]

You’ve done such an excellent job with this review. Having been there to share several of your experiences, I can say that you really captured it. And you took so many good pictures – I really appreciate them. For whatever reason I never got around to taking many ship pictures. I forgot to get the first day of the week shot on the elevator so ran out at 11:58pm Sunday to try to grab it; by the time the elevator came 2 minutes later it was changed to Monday - I think it just threw me off!

 

Ready to go???!!! I'm still 6 months out from my next cruise and already obsessing about it. Hell, I was surfing the RCL site yesterday to chk out late Aug/early Sept itineraries.

 

"My name is Hoopster, and I am a cruise addict"

 

I suffer from the same addiction! We came back from this cruise with 3 more lined up. Hoopster, your posts have really helped me relive this very enjoyable cruise. I have a few reviews I’ll probably do for Tripadvisor (Victor Bodden, Native Choice Mayan Experience Tour, Nachi Cocom, the restaurants & hotels we visited in Galveston, etc.), but it would be redundant for me to write a Navigator review – you said it all perfectly!

 

Now I'm settled enough to focus on the Quantum. Hoopster, so sorry that we will be embarking while you disembark.:( But hopefully our paths will cross again.

 

You just never know who you're going to meet and click with. Always be open, forgiving and happy when on a cruise... you're there to fulfill your dreams of travel and have fun.

 

I just want to give this shout out to delacruz & dh Paul whom we really & truly enjoyed their company :):). Delacruz and I are both cruise & RCL nuts so we shared that common thread ;). So anytime you wish to book an Alaskan Cruise, you are more than welcome if I can show you around Vancouver for a couple of days. I know I mentioned I would have no prob visiting them on the East Coast, and I mentioned I do need to get on the Grandeur sometime to fill my bucket list of trying to get on every ship in the fleet...

 

Hey delacruz, BWI is a hell of a lot closer than Sydney so be prepared. LOL!!! :D

YES let us know if you get to Baltimore for the Grandeur. And we’ll let you know when we’re ready to book an Alaska Cruise.

 

We have made friends with several people on our last few cruises that have enhanced our experiences - before, during, and after the sailing. I always recommend that people join their roll call and participate. It’s the best way to meet like-minded people. Our friends and family at home just don’t ‘get us’ when we obsess over our addiction!

 

... We met up with delacruz & Paul right on time at 6pm going into Giovanni's, and the Maitre'D and waiter whom I had such a good time bantering with on night #2 recognized us right away. We were shown to our ocean view table and proceeded to have an awesome dinner! They served to us the appies and pastas family style so that we could all share: we shared the jumbo scallops (garlic butter presented in shell), risotto ai funghi, crab ravioli w/shrimp, and an awesome Penne with a salmon sauce that had a bite. I had the Ossubuco w/polenta and GF had the Jumbo Shrimp. Delacruz, I forgot what you guys had so go ahead with your Giovanni's review if you wish :) The Tiramisu dessert is homemade and awesome, as are the cannoli's (especially the mascarpone cheese one, not so much the almond and chocolate). Oh boy... another stuffed evening!

We enjoyed the company, servers, and ambiance so much I can barely remember what we ordered! Every appetizer was delicious, it was nice sharing them all. I ordered the shrimp entrée, and although it was excellent, next time I just might try to get the scallops appetizer for an entrée, that was heavenly!

 

I DO remember that we worried that you would order ALL the cannoli and not leave any for us!

 

For all of you who have a Navigator cruise coming up - enjoy it! Royal Caribbean has done a great job of seamlessly blending in the new spaces like the Deck 12 cabins and Sabors, moving the disco to the Cosmopolitan Club, and the other updates.

 

It's been SO hard to get back to 'real life'!!!

[Susie51]

I give your review and pics a 10. I won't be on Nav. until March 2015. We will be in a Grand Suite. Do suite pax have access to the Diamond Lounge?