Cruise Review- ISSUES on Navigator of the Seas Med Sailing 24th July 2016 14 Nights

[ADCON82]

Hi,

 

To introduce myself, I am a seasoned cruiser (approx 8-9 cruises, Med and Caribbean) and have voyaged on Royal Caribbean (Grandeur/Splendour/Navigator), Carnival, Celebrity and NCL lines in the past. Yesterday my wife and I along with our two young girls returned from our latest trip- a 14 night Med voyage from Southampton on the Navigator of the Seas. I must mention that this was my first trip BACK on RC after my last 3 cruises on Celebrity (Eclipse and Equinox) and NCL (Epic) and my first experience cruising from a 'Home' port (just SLIGHTLY different from a Miami sailing..) and I was interested to compare my experiences with the latest 'renovations' since I last voyaged on RC quite a few years back.

 

Whilst I appreciate the 'Voyager Class' ships are no longer RC's shining light of the fleet and have been surpassed in recent years by the larger super ships, I watched on my stateroom TV on the 'RCTV' Channel a propaganda programme telling me that ALL ships should now be viewed as the 'Best' Ships with the renovations etc meaning that our experience should not be hindered at all by this ship being an older member of the fleet. .. Read on to see if this statement held up..

 

Although in general we had a fantastic time (cruises are the best vacations), there certainly were some surprising issues we found, and some major and minor grievances that affected the enjoyment of the trip that I will share below.

 

To note, I am not a serial complainer by any stretch of the imagination and indeed have never felt the need to write an email of complaint after ANY trip, but I must say I have just fired off a lengthy email to Royal Caribbean asking for some explanations of the issues I will now detail.

 

Firstly, drinking water stations on the pool deck in particular. SHOCKING. On the other lines I have mentioned earlier, there are numerous SELF-SERVICE water/Ice-Tea/Coffee stations ALL OVER the ship- and in particular the Pool deck where it is vital to keep hydrated. If you take the Windjammer out as an option (which means having to leave the deck) there was only ONE self-service water fill-up on the WHOLE of the pool deck situated on the end of the Solarium Pool Bar. To make things worse, when you did walk over to get some needed water, the fact that this dispenser was manually filled up periodically meant that often it was completely empty as the overworked barman (serving alone) had not had a chance to fill up the dispenser.. This meant a number of times I had to either join the queue at the bar for a glass of water, or more frustratingly go down to the Cafe Promenade on DECK 5 to get a drink. This is completely outrageous and with two young children (4 and 1.5 years of age) actually bordered on dangerous.

 

Secondly I must mention the over-crowded pool deck on sea days and insufficient number of chairs for the amount of people on deck. Whilst I appreciate sea days are always more challenging (and we had at least 5/6 on this cruise) to cater for, I have been on plenty of cruises where they have not been such an issue or with such a lack of chairs. On a number of occasions ours (and many others) belongings were removed by the pool attendants (whilst we were in the pool) to satisfy angry guests who were complaining about the lack of seats. On our second sea-day there was a mini-revolt as around 20 people had crowded around the poor deck attendant who was unfairly bearing the brunt of everybody's anger when it was hardly her fault that there was nowhere near enough chairs to cater for the amount of people who required. Quite simply if that is the capacity of the amount of deck chairs that the deck can physically cope with, then that many people on the ship should not have been allowed in the first place, as once again it bordered ion dangerous, especially with young children again with nowhere to sit in the Summer heat. NOT GOOD ENOUGH.

 

My next major grievance concerns the 'in-room entertainment offering' or lack of it. Quite simply the Stateroom TV offering on this ship was by far the absolute WORST I have ever ever experienced. I'm not sure if this is cut-backs on RC's behalf or what but it was absolutely shocking- ABYSMAL. As I explained to the member of RC customer service team on the phone, I am not alone in finding the 'in-room experience' a vital part of any vacation I take, Cruise or otherwise. Indeed, I know I am not alone in eagerly flicking through channels the MINUTE I enter my Stateroom to find out what TV/Movie/Kids shows are at our disposal. There are people without doubt who do not find this important, but having a young family means that a good deal of time will be spent in the stateroom and the TV is undoubtedly a major part of this, .. On ALL the other ships I have been on there have been numerous Movie/TV/Kids channels (NON-PAID)- on this cruise there was ONE 'Entertainment' channel showing around 3 shows on a CONSTANT loop. There were the same 2 episodes of the Big Bang Theory, shown every SINGLE DAY. The ONE kids channel showed around 3 programmes (1 episode of Sofia the First, One episode of Doc Macstuffins and ONE episode of Jake and Neverland Pirates on the SAME loop EVERY single day for 14 days. Does RC think that people NEVER use the in-room TV's any more? With young children, it means that often my wife and I were both in our room from around 9pm and were expecting (as per all our other cruises) to have some sort of selection to watch at night in the form of movies /tv shows etc. To not have a SINGLE MOVIE CHANNEL is outrageous! To ONLY have the option of Pay Per View movies at a ridiculous rate (12 Dollars per Movie) as the option was a complete DISGRACE and I will be VERY interested to hear an explanation back for why this is. My parents are currently on a Princess cruise on the med and have 20 ENTERTAINMENT CHANNELS Alone. What on earth has happened to RC?? It certainly never used to be as bad and as explained on the phone to RC, if this is now representative of the in-room TV offering I will certainly never be travelling on this class of ship again.

 

On the subject of entertainment, I must finally comment on the dreadful poolside offering we experienced this cruise. On Celebrity (which by the way I paid a similar rate for ) on every sail-away and a few times in the day there was live music from the various artists. On this cruise I counted only 3 times in 2 weeks there was any live music. Once again was this cut backs on RC's behalf?

 

I could go on with some other niggly issues (such as the lack of security policing kids behaviour on board, or the lack of organisation on some of our ports of call) but I would prefer just to highlight the above as the main issues that certainly affected our enjoyment of our cruise experience with RC. I LOVE CRUISING and certainly overall had a great vacation but MY WORD was I disappointed with all of the above. I have been seriously racking my brains as to why these things happened to a company renowned as THE innovative, and one of THE largest cruise companies on the planet, and until I hear back from RC directly I can only presume several cut-backs have been made on the older class of ships to make way for all of the innovations and developments on the Oasis class ships.

 

If you are reading this with a young family- I hope this helps, my recommendation for anyone with children would definitely be stay away from Voyager class ships and favour instead the larger ships in the fleet- I simply can't imagine for example on the Harmony of the Seas people having to put up with NO in room TV entertainment or ONE water dispenser on its pool deck!

 

Onwards and Upwards! If you want to hear any more info from our trip or ANYTHING else in terms of advice (about ANYTHING) cruising with a young family (bearing in mind I have cruised on a few different lines) then please don't hesitate to let me know!

 

Adam.

[Clarea]

Welcome to Cruise Critic.

[reallyitsmema]

Thanks for sharing your thoughts.

 

Your point on the water dispenser being empty is very confusing. If you are going to have to go get water somewhere other than the bar with the empty dispenser, why would you rule out the Windjammer and go all the way down to deck 5? That makes no sense.

 

As far as in cabin TV, it has never been great. Having been on 3 Royal Caribbean cruises prior, I am surprised you didn't remember it is lacking. Didn't you bring any entertainment for your kids, like an ipad? We always brought a portable DVD player for our son so that we knew we had something that he would like.

 

Sounds like you would be better served cruising a line that has what you find important for an enjoyable cruise.:)

[ADCON82]

The point here is that you should not have to go into the Windjammer to fill up on water. On the NCL and two Celebrity Ships I have sailed on, there were numerous SELF-SERVICE water/Ice-Tea/Lemonade/Coffee stations situated on the pool deck meaning wherever you were situated you were never far from filling-up. This was only the Mediterranean don't forget, in the Caribbean this would have been an even bigger issue. Can it really be correct that a ship this size has only 1 small self-service water dispenser? Clearly not. One other small point I had noticed in terms of drink stations again, was in the Windjammer, the two or three Water/Ice-Tea/Coffee stations were not self-service, meaning you had to constantly ask a staff member behind the counter for coffee etc. I can't help seeing the point of this and a waste of staff time when on most other ships this is all self-service.. Once again, Celebrity and NCL everything was self-service, far easier, and not to mention its far nicer pouring your own Cold drink with fresh ice, rather than picking a drink from a ready prepared tray with ice already melted!

 

As for your point on the TV choice I completely disagree, I have been on many cruises in the past and have never seen such an awful 'offering'. There are always at least a few movie channels and some form of TV show schedule. After the first week we were sure the scheduling MUST change for the second week but sadly not.

[Aidy2009]

I could go on with some other niggly issues (such as the lack of security policing kids behaviour on board, or the lack of organisation on some of our ports of call)

 

Hi Adam, I was also on this cruise, and do agree to some extents about the feral kids, although it was only very occasionally an issue, and was usually the same group of 10 or so 13 year olds suddenly being given the run of the ship because their parents were enjoying the free drinks package too much to care!!

 

Not sure about your comment about ports of call; was this the RC Shore Excursions or just the general getting on / off?

[Tin can]

Thank you for your report.

 

Both the Navigator and Independence out of Southampton are getting slated on the reviews section of this website. Not the usual "this was wrong, that was wrong' reviews but proper angry criticism.

 

There is a bit of a theme if anyone cares to take a look which is a bit concerning as we are on Navigator in a couple of months :confused:

 

We have done a number of cruises in a relatively short period and don't recognise the complaints, not saying yours or the reviews in the section on this site aren't justified we just don't recognise this side of Royal Caribbean.

 

Hope things get resolved to your satisfaction.

[ADCON82]

Hi- Yes I have to admit after about 10 days the kids behaviour seemed to slowly improve. One evening after dinner, and approximately the 4th time in the day that I had been in an elevator with ALL the buttons pressed I marched over and complained to Guest services that something needed to be done by security, maybe had something to do with that!

 

In terms of the lack of organisation, I was mainly referring to Palma. Though I understand the shuttle service was not organised by RC directly, I was still somewhat surprised to see no RC staff at all outside the ship for any form of info or advice. When we got off the ship there was one small fold-up table set up with 2 people selling the shuttle tickets to the whole ship with no visible queuing system in place at all. If you remember this was on one of the hottest days on the cruise, and with absolutely no shade at all once we did find ourselves in the Queue for the Bus itself. I have to say thankfully the wait was not too long and we found ourselves on the bus within 10 mins or so- still long enough in that heat and two young children in tow. Once we were on the bus, there was a distinct lack of info as to where the bus was exactly going to, and though I probably should have read up on this more thoroughly beforehand (it was a last min decision to get off the boat in Palma) I was certainly not alone in not really knowing where the bus was stopping. In fact when we arrived by the Cathedral half of the bus was still sitting down thinking there were more stops! There wasn't much in terms of organisation on the way back to the ship either, a sign or tow (or even a staff member with a clipboard would have bene helpful telling you where to get the bus for your particular ship) There was a huge queue when we got back which turned out to be for the Harmony of the Seas, and we had to get on and ask the driver which buses were for the Navigator. Once again- not a minor point but certainly not a slick process.

 

I must stress- we had a wonderful time- I always do and there was certainly much to be admired as always (such as Main Dining Room service which was outstanding and the Windjammer which was great quality and choice as always). And I would recommend anyone to cruise- its by far the best value vacation choice but having been on quite a few before I was surprised at these issues.

[Aidy2009]

There is a bit of a theme if anyone cares to take a look which is a bit concerning as we are on Navigator in a couple of months :confused:

 

Hi, Having sailed IOTS 3 times previously from Southampton, and now Navigator for the last 2 weeks, personally I cannot see any major issues, other than sunbeds.

 

Sunbeds could be a problem, especially on sea days, so you do need to plan accordingly (i.e. get up quite early!); alternatively we usually managed to find some at the back of the ship on deck 12 or on the sports deck on the opposite side to the mini golf. Not ideal for the pool though! There were also some available on the raised deck (deck 13?) at the front of the ship above the spa area.

 

Otherwise, the ship was great. Very similar to IOTS in terms of layout but very slightly smaller.

 

Really enjoyable two weeks cruise - 14 days of wall-to-wall sunshine certainly helped as well :D

[ADCON82]

Hi- I have to say in terms of criticisms, I saw a number of real 'Kick-Offs' during the 2 weeks, of the likes I have never seen previously on any cruise I have sailed. I'm hoping this is an isolated case but fear it may be part of a wider issue of the Older ships service levels slipping. Believe me my anger in my review above was nothing compared to some of the complaints I overheard on our trip from other people, whose grievances ranged from rude Pool Bar staff, to problems with MDR reservations. From our experience I have to say the MDR was undoubtedly a cruise highlight, the service was outstanding (we were on Anytime Dining but requested the same table and servers without problem each night) and the front desk lady booking you in was extremely helpful and always made sure I got the table I wanted each night.

[Tin can]

Really enjoyable two weeks cruise - 14 days of wall-to-wall sunshine certainly helped as well :D

 

Great to hear, thank you :)

[Aidy2009]

Hi- I have to say in terms of criticisms, I saw a number of real 'Kick-Offs' during the 2 weeks, of the likes I have never seen previously on any cruise I have sailed. I'm hoping this is an isolated case but fear it may be part of a wider issue of the Older ships service levels slipping. Believe me my anger in my review above was nothing compared to some of the complaints I overheard on our trip from other people, whose grievances ranged from rude Pool Bar staff, to problems with MDR reservations. From our experience I have to say the MDR was undoubtedly a cruise highlight, the service was outstanding (we were on Anytime Dining but requested the same table and servers without problem each night) and the front desk lady booking you in was extremely helpful and always made sure I got the table I wanted each night.

 

Perhaps we were lucky then!! :D Didn't see any arguments etc. throughout the two weeks. MTD was never any issue - the lady on front desk was very helpful, and we did discover ½ way through that reservations weren't required - we were advised just to turn up and they would do their best to accommodate us - every time we used this tactic (because no slots were available between 6:15 and 8:45) we got seated straight away!

[Tin can]

Hi- I have to say in terms of criticisms, I saw a number of real 'Kick-Offs' during the 2 weeks, of the likes I have never seen previously on any cruise I have sailed. I'm hoping this is an isolated case but fear it may be part of a wider issue of the Older ships service levels slipping. Believe me my anger in my review above was nothing compared to some of the complaints I overheard on our trip from other people/QUOTE]

 

........ you want to read some of the reviews in the reviews section on this site :eek:

 

I think its possibly more to do with an apparent business model Royal is adopting in the UK rather than the age of the ship regarding service levels. Royal is clearly going down the route of all-inclusive with the 'free' drinks packages with nearly every UK cruise.

 

Whether staffing and service levels are adjusted accordingly to compensate for the cost of these packages?

[Billy Baltic]

Hi all. I signed up to CC because this thread mirrored my own experience on IOS earlier this summer. I've only cruised with RC but this was my first cruise out of Southampton. In short, they just aren't providing a true RC experience. I too have young children and value good TV. This was the first cruise that it was worthless. The ship just doesn't have the same feel. They've dumbed it down, perhaps as others have said for cost but the party atmosphere of other itineraries just isn't there. It's like going to the west end to see a show and finding the performers from the local village hall.

 

 

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[George C]

Pool deck does run out of chairs but if you walk up 1 deck you get great view of ocean and pool with plenty of chairs, never had a issue finding a chair, finding a chair exactly where you want is another issue, looking forward toward our 3 cruise on Navigator in 2017, want a great seat buy a suite very nice seating close to the pool

Edited August 8, 2016 by George C

[Katybean]

We were also on this cruise and were really disappointed!

 

We sailed on Independence at the end of May and loved it, already had this cruise booked - but cause we enjoyed Independence so much we went in Next Cruise and got a great deal on Navigator for Aug 2017 which we are thinking of cancelling :(

 

We were told there was over 1000 children on board, and had more than 400 passengers than normal due to all the beds in cabins being used - apparently the current cruise has 1200 children, so guessing it's going to be worse?

 

I don't think it would have been so bad if the children were with their parents (my 14 year old son stayed with us) as the behaviour and language I heard was disgusting - from some that were about 9years too! Running amok in corridors, stairwells and in and out of lifts - surely dangerous? It does say in the compass that guests under 17years of age should not be without supervision in public areas, wish this was adhered too!

 

Trying to watch a late night movie outside was a no-go!! How can parents let their children play in the pool (I'm not talking teenagers - a lot of the children were as young as 7ish) at 11pm at night alone? I felt sorry for the poor pool guy who was left to 'babysit' every night. Surprised there wasn't any accidents! This also spoilt the 'one' night deck party we had in Palma, as deck 12 was so slippy with all the pool water.

 

Sunloungers were a joke - why do people save loungers all day for children that don't use them?

 

Sorry I sound like a moaner that hates children - I don't LOL, I actually work with them;) And am blaming parents that don't give a hoot.

 

Cannot fault the food and service in Windjammer and Main Dining Room - it was always fautless.

 

Bar service was quite slow as most people (myself included!) had drinks packages and properly got their moneys worth. The pool bar on deck 12 had the most slow and miserable staff I've ever seen.

 

Will be looking at other options for next year.

[Thorben-Hendrik]

I have bin on NOTS about 6 times.....

 

I totally can not relate to the lounge-chair complaint as well as to the water-dispensers not being filled or not more then 1 available there was never a problem with both - lounge-chairs can always be had on the deck above the pool specially towards the front or around the sports-deck

 

I can confirm the problems with the TV programming as well as security being worthless when it comes to pushing kids to follow the rules - we constantly had teenagers eating ice - cream in the adults-only hot tubs security or guest services would do nothing about it so I started to take pictures and mailed them to the headquarters in Miami....:D

 

Both issues have nothing to do with the class of ships but are common on all RCI ships in the fleet....

 

Heck Harmony does not even have an adults-only pool!:eek:

[George C]

we avoid any times that may have a lot of children , do not cruise in summer, avoid peek spring breaks and holidays. Another great option are higher end adult only resorts like Sandals when I want to vacation during one of these times

[fragilek]

I can't comment on this cruise but I can confirm that last year on the Rhapsody in the med they completely run out of sun beds and chairs on sea days. I am in a wheelchair and at the time my teenage daughter was in crutches with her leg in a cast thing and we were appalled that no-one offered us a bed (even to share)- we arrived at 10 am not realising there would be an issue (never had this before on other cruise lines).

 

Round about us there were adults keeping beds for their children (some even vacant for large amounts of time) so my dh asked if we could use them but got a NO:( . Even the staff tried to find us a seat but failed . We sat on towels on the ground and took turns in my wheelchair - getting up from the ground was interesting :eek:

I couldn't believe that some passengers were so selfish, if that had been my girls I would have had them yanked out of their beds in a flash- No in second thoughts, I wouldn't have had to yank the look I would have given them for not offering up their bed up would have had them jumping out.

[ADCON82]

Unfortunately I believe English teenagers are the worst behaved in general and was the one major down point from travelling to Southampton with 90% of the boat being English.. Completely agree with the above point regarding parents leaving pool attendants to 'babysit' children in the pool, we saw kids as young as 3 being left to their own devices by the pool and jacuzzi whihc I found pretty shocking.

[HaraldOslo]

Unfortunately I believe English teenagers are the worst behaved in general and was the one major down point from travelling to Southampton with 90% of the boat being English.. Completely agree with the above point regarding parents leaving pool attendants to 'babysit' children in the pool, we saw kids as young as 3 being left to their own devices by the pool and jacuzzi whihc I found pretty shocking.

 

I believe you might be right.

 

At a vacation resort in Turkey I learned the difference between british and "brits". Our hotel most certainly had the "brits". I suspect that the all inclusive alcohol package for free might attract more "brits" than british.

 

I believe they sometime go by the name "chav":

http://www.dailyecho.co.uk/news/4039825.Yobs_blamed_for_ruining_Ventura_cruise/

[Aidy2009]

I believe you might be right.

 

At a vacation resort in Turkey I learned the difference between british and "brits". Our hotel most certainly had the "brits". I suspect that the all inclusive alcohol package for free might attract more "brits" than british.

 

I believe they sometime go by the name "chav":

http://www.dailyecho.co.uk/news/4039825.Yobs_blamed_for_ruining_Ventura_cruise/

 

Hmm, Chav maybe correct - Wikipedia article is here:

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chav

 

Unfortunately the All-Inclusive did attract parents & grand parents who drank pina coladas and Bud's all day and let the children have a free rein - you could guarantee seeing the same faces at the pool bar from 9-6 every day, and then suddenly realising ½ way through they did actually have their children on the ship when you saw them in the evening (briefly - before the children went off on their own again!). On the whole it wasn't an issue (don't forget we were all children once so would run around a bit or be mischievous with lift buttons :o) but you got the odd issue with 'cocky' children blocking corridors etc. - Security could have nipped this in the bud early on but were quite invisible.

[westerngardener]

Unfortunately I believe English teenagers are the worst behaved in general and was the one major down point from travelling to Southampton with 90% of the boat being English.. Completely agree with the above point regarding parents leaving pool attendants to 'babysit' children in the pool, we saw kids as young as 3 being left to their own devices by the pool and jacuzzi whihc I found pretty shocking.

 

Let me tell you...our cruise out of Sydney was appalling when it came to rude, ill-mannered kids. The parents on our particular cruise also let them do as they like. One evening, a young child was parading in the dining room with only a diaper. In all cases, even after several complaints from cruisers, absolutely nothing was done by RCCL staff to curtail their behaviour. We were left to try and 'govern' them ourselves. And, as a staff member in my school district, I had no qualms about doing so. I refused to let them push me around. I keep reading similar stories on RCCL cruise roll calls and don't know why this is allowed to continue. It's a disgrace.

[Arzeena]

Kids are kids.

You guys have no right to judge which country had the worst kids! Get a life!

[firstcarib]

Kids are kids.

You guys have no right to judge which country had the worst kids! Get a life!

 

This is exactly the reason some peoples kds are badly behaved!😖😱Badly behaved parents!!!!

[Billy Baltic]

I think the original comments were more than just the behaviour of kids. The thread has been sidetracked a bit by kids alone. IMO the problems on IOS out of Southampton are more related to a general acceptance of lesser standards than on other routes. I suspect NOS is seeing the same.

 

 

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