NAVIGATOR 2016 vs 2017

[monkeyinhat]

We cruised Navigator February 2016. I gave it a not so good review and we were not so pleased with the trip. There were several areas of wear and neglect. Main problem was service and moral/attitude of staff. Most were rude, not helpful and would run rather than serve you or answer a question.

 

We booked this ship and cruised again last week. The only reason was we had wanted to do the ports on the itinerary. And even thought it had not been the best experience, it wasn't horrible.

 

So.....to be fair I wanted to give my opinions of the ship 11 months later.

 

It was definitely a major improvement. The ship was in great shape, clean. I had noticed torn and worn drapes in MDR had been replaced.

 

The attitude and service of the cruise was a major improvement. We had great dining service and good in other areas that had lacked before.

 

One of the staff on the the ship did a between you and me (wink wink) and told us the ship had been in code red. they had received so many bad reviews that headquarters came aboard from shore and did a "ship cleaning" fired cruise director and many managers in many areas. They have made an effort all around to approve moral and ship improvements.

 

And as I stated above it showed. Kudos, to Royal for listening to reviews and making the changes and the efforts.

 

Yeah, everyone is not going to be pleased with everything . We are not high maintenance people expecting everyone to jump to our needs. But I wanted to be fair and give notice to the improvements. I gain valuable info from these boards and feel I need to give back and give info also

 

Now for the other. Check in was annoying and there was no need for the back up and waits. This was totally caused by the port authority people checking passports and scan machines. They were rude , pushy and unnecessarily brusk. No need for it. We arrived at 12:30

 

I decided to book a 30% off spa massage right after muster drill. from now on I will always do this. What a perfect way to start off a cruise after stressful Thanksgiving, Christmas, life. I did a 75 minute hot stone. When it was over, she told me that on the first day they have a lot of time that she gives extra, she gave me a 100 minute massage.

 

Cuddy the cruise director did , that I know of, 3 sessions of "how to Meditate" sessions. I enjoyed.

 

This year the difference I noticed was they let us pick our departure time. gave us different times to leave and gave us luggage tags accordingly. Even though leaving the ship was unorganized and staff not helpful. We had 8:30 departure, at 8:50 we left as they had not called anything other than self assist and we needed to get to the airport. The terminal was empty and the luggage was there so made no sense.

 

The past few years we have gone out of Ft. Lauderdale. I was surprised that at the port they did not stop the cab to check our id's . no security driving up at all.

 

We stayed at Hilton Downtown on Biscayne Blvd as I used Hilton points. Really enjoyed it. We had high floor , 2 walls of windows, watched the planes look like the were headed right thru our room then veer up an over . So cool. There was a publix and liquor store maybe 4 minute walk. Only food other than hotel we saw was Checkers and Burger King across the street. Cab was less than 25.00 from airport, and again to port.

 

Happy Cruisin' Ya'll

[scorpluvsdolphins]

I was on this cruise and had a blast.

I won't do the ABC islands again from December to February. The water was COLD, especially in Aruba.

Disembarkation was the biggest cluster fudge.

Ft Lauderdale and PC do it right.

The CL concierge was very nice.

If you had card access, you were treated all the same.

 

 

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[Paris334]

Thanks for comments! We're on the ship in late February and had read mixed reviews. It sounds like an improvement. Of course nothing will ever be prefect but it sounds like they've made great strides in the areas that concerned you.

 

Super thanks for the tip on the massage - I was considering doing one but this helps me decide if I should skip it, book now or wait until I'm on board!

 

And I always love tips on pre-cruise hotels with nice details. We'll have a 4 year old along so I bet she'd LOVE the planes at that hotel!

[monkeyinhat]

Paris....what I did was think long and hard and waiver on booking massage. I received the precruise offer. A little deceiving when committing to book gives you drop down menu with different days/times/prices. One of the cheaper was debarked day 5 pm. I am telling you perfect time and way to start vacay.

 

We are diamond members. We get 20% off spa.Hubby wasn't feeling well one day and convinced me to go back to spa. I went for a facial. Since I prebooked day 1 massage at precruise discount. I was able to use diamond discount also.

 

The hotel and planes were cool. You could also see Miami version of people mover. Could probably walk to it to use it.Hotel super nice top notch toiletries.

Nice pool with ocean view. When my boys were little they would have loved it

 

 

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[Dr. Pam]

Thank you for your thoughts and insight. We are looking forward to our cruise on the NAVIGATOR this Friday. You have reassured me that the NOS is still a good ship!

[zdad59]

I'm happy to hear you enjoyed this years trip so much. I'm a sucker for happy reviews.

 

My group of six, like you, were on the Navigator of the Seas in 2016, in late January. We loved every minute of the cruise, found the staff extremely friendly, loved the food, and liked the ship so much that we booked this years cruise on her sister ship, Adventure OTS while we were on board.

 

Not writing to challenge or dispute your experience. I wasn't in your shoes. Just like to let every one know all kinds of folks have all kinds of different experiences on the same cruise.

 

Happy cruising.

[George C]

We really like this ship when sailing out of Texas in 2014 and 2015 and we are booked for November, thanks for info on Hilton most likely will book that for our pre-cruise. Have not sailed from Miami in a decade or so

[monctonguy]

Glad to hear there have been some changes, as it seemed like this ship got more than its fair share of not so good comments and reviews!

 

Makes me even more excited to be heading on her in 10 days!....

 

One thing I am wondering about as I spend a lot of time on the pool deck and have pre-purchased the drink package...how was the bar service? Both the pool bar/sky bar as well as servers coming around to take drink orders? Thanks!

[nelblu]

I was on this cruise and had a blast.

I won't do the ABC islands again from December to February. The water was COLD, especially in Aruba.

Disembarkation was the biggest cluster fudge.

Ft Lauderdale and PC do it right.

The CL concierge was very nice.

If you had card access, you were treated all the same.

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Forums mobile app

 

Really, we've been in Aruba in Feb. many times and always found the water to be warm. Was there a recent storm for the coldness.

 

Disembarkation, this is one of the few times sailing out of Miami and concerned with our 10:32am flight. I guess we'll do self-disembark. What is the root cause for the back up & delay.

[monctonguy]

I would be worried about a 10:32am flight.....that's a close call.

[BillOh]

I was on this cruise and had a blast.

I won't do the ABC islands again from December to February. The water was COLD, especially in Aruba.

 

 

Really? I'm about to go there in May for the first time, but I just wonder if this was a one week aberration. All over the Caribbean last week was pretty strange weather with high winds at the least.

[Clarea]

Really? I'm about to go there in May for the first time, but I just wonder if this was a one week aberration. All over the Caribbean last week was pretty strange weather with high winds at the least.

I suspect it was an aberration. We've been there several times in January and February and never felt cold. They are so close to the equator, I figure their seasonal variation must be fairly minor.

[nelblu]

I would be worried about a 10:32am flight.....that's a close call.

 

Navigator is scheduled to dock at 7am, and I'm hoping that if we get off with our luggage by 8:30am we should have no problem as the airport is only 15 minutes from the pier.

[monkeyinhat]

Nelbleu. I really feel the embark and debarked problems it port problem. Felt ship staff unhelpful as the didn't know what was going on either. No organization or care. It seemed part problem was delay getting enough wheel chairs and personal to escort wheelchair passengers off ship due to large quantities (to be expected).

 

As I said terminal and passport line flowing not backed up.

 

They have conveyor system to claim luggage rather than search a pile. So much easier/less chaos.

 

We had 11:30 flight and plenty of time. With boarding starting 30 minutes prior and uncertain I would do walk off

 

 

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[nelblu]

nelbleu. I really feel the embark and debarked problems it port problem. Felt ship staff unhelpful as the didn't know what was going on either. No organization or care. It seemed part problem was delay getting enough wheel chairs and personal to escort wheelchair passengers off ship due to large quantities (to be expected).

 

As i said terminal and passport line flowing not backed up.

 

They have conveyor system to claim luggage rather than search a pile. So much easier/less chaos.

 

We had 11:30 flight and plenty of time. With boarding starting 30 minutes prior and uncertain i would do walk off

 

 

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ty,