Navigator of the Seas - 9 Day Southern Caribbean- Another Sayvan Semi Live Report

[Roofire]

Thank you for your review. We are thinking of doing the same itinerary, and are looking forward to your reviews of the ports of call. :)

[nonibop]

Let me give you a bit more background. We hail from Stratford, located in southwestern Ontario, Canada. Yep, we get lots of lake effect snow that streams off of the shores of Lake Huron. No doubt, you're starting to realize why we have this real need to escape the snows and cold of winter and head as south as we can. Thus, the reason for Southern Caribbean cruise. In fact, truth be known, I loathe the winter and am happiest when I have my flip flops on and an ice cold beer or frozen drink in my hand!

So how did we happen upon Navigator and her journey south? Well.... obviously winter is one reason but actually we were just searching (as we are always looking) and came across a great deal that we couldn't refuse. Royal Caribbean had some kind of a sale on and we happened upon it. The next phase was trying to find some flights to see if in fact a deal was what we actually had....

As I mentioned, we are in Stratford, Ontario which actually gives us some great options when looking at flights. We are approximately two hours (give or take) from Toronto, Buffalo or Detroit. So with that we headed off to Detroit and Spirit Airlines where we found a return flight for $159.00 total.... yep for the two of us! We had sealed the deal.

 

We left on January 31 and stayed in Miami for a few days then we headed off to meet up with Navigator. The Cruise was a nine day jaunt out of Miami, leaving on February 3 with stops in Labadee, Curacao, Aruba and Bonaire. Cruise ended on June 12th and we stayed in Ft. Lauderdale after for a few days after.

 

Stay tuned... pictures are almost ready...

 

 

I presume you mean February 12th ! Otherwise you're very lucky to cruise for 4 months

 

 

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[nonibop]

We're on this cruise 02/02/18. So following with interest

 

 

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[sayvan]

I presume you mean February 12th ! Otherwise you're very lucky to cruise for 4 months

 

 

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You would presume correct! Little typo to see if folks really are paying attention.... thanks for the catch!

 

 

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[jimbri]

Great review and photos!

[Poplin]

We're on this cruise 02/02/18. So following with interest

 

 

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We have a group of 10 sailing on this date too!!!!

 

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[rajacks]

Thanks so much for sharing your cruise experience with all of us! This is an itinerary I would love to do, so will definitely follow along.

[Russ Lomas]

We had to cancel our upcoming 9 day on the Navigator with the same itinerary, so I am grudgingly following your review....

Still hoping to do this itinerary one day, so I will be taking notes as I read your review. Hope you have a wonderful sailing.

[sayvan]

Day 2 - Sea Day

 

After a restful night we were up the next day and ready for a full day at Sea as we cruised toward Labadee. I would start each day with a trip to the gym for a run on the treadmill and then some other exercise. Interesting enough, I did not take any pictures of the gym or spa area for some reason... Sorry about that. That being said, the gym was never really that busy and you could always find a machine to get on, especially as the cruise progressed. Seems to me that a lot of folks have good intentions at the start of the cruise but as the week goes on I guess the buffet and everything else get in the way.

 

I noticed that the fitness classes seemed to only ever have a handful of people present. At least when I was in the area. The spa is located at the forward part of the ship and you do have views of the ocean and outside walking deck area as you work out. The gym was located on Deck 11, but the spa consisted of both portions of Deck 11 and 12. Overall, the area was very nice with a centre winding staircase linking decks 11 and 12.

 

While I was busy burning off the calories of the previous day of drinks and buffet time, Vanda would usually have scouted out a spot on Deck 12 for us to hang out. We liked this deck, which also had the outside track, as it allowed you to watch the ocean, while also keeping an eye on any activity throughout the day in the pool area and what not.

 

This was a view that we had...

 

 

The pool was located on Deck 11 as well as the hot tubs..

 

 

Another view from our spot...

 

 

 

 

The Sky Bar...

 

[sayvan]

The day would be spent mostly on Deck 12 and I managed to take a few pitcures of some of the fun on the deck and a few of the other rooms on the ship.

 

 

We passed a few ships who were heading back toward Florida... This one was the Carnival Vista..

 

 

Princess ship but I am not sure which one...

 

 

Another rail view...

 

 

 

A GoPro selfie....

 

[sayvan]

Vanda enjoying the deck and some drinks...

 

 

More from Deck 12...

 

 

I always enjoy the wake of the ship...

 

 

 

I then headed up to Deck 13 to check out the flow rider... was quite a popular spot....

 

 

[sayvan]

More Flow rider fun or not......

 

 

 

Wrong way...

 

 

Some folks were pretty good...

 

 

 

[sayvan]

but then.....

 

 

 

 

 

After some time at the Flow Rider, I made my way inside to cool off a bit and take some photos of one of the speciality restaurants Izumi, the Japenese restaurant. We didnt eat at any of the speciality restaurants and I have to admit we never have on any of our cruises. I just can't get my head around paying extra for a meal when I have meals already paid for in the main dining room (which I will talk about eventually).

 

[sayvan]

More from Izumi....

 

 

 

I then headed up to the Chapel on Deck 15...

 

 

 

 

Edited February 26, 2017 by sayvan
adding information

[sayvan]

I then made way into Chops Grill located on Deck 11 just inside the Windjammer...

 

 

 

 

 

I took a few shots of the Promenade area as well on Deck 5... more to come on the final sea days of this area tho... These were taken from Deck 10 looking down...

 

 

[sayvan]

and this one was taken from deck 6...

 

 

 

And then back up to Deck 11 and 12 for some wide angle GoPro shots....

 

 

 

 

Day 2 was formal night so we were off to the main dining room and then up for some Karaoke in the Cosmopolitan Club on Deck 14...I will talk about this some more later on in the review. After the evening we headed back to our room and we were greeted by this fellow...

 

 

With that Day 2 came to close....

[runningmoms2girls]

Great job so far!

[sayvan]

Great job so far!

 

 

Thank you...

 

 

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[sayvan]

We had to cancel our upcoming 9 day on the Navigator with the same itinerary, so I am grudgingly following your review....

Still hoping to do this itinerary one day, so I will be taking notes as I read your review. Hope you have a wonderful sailing.

 

 

Sorry to hear that...

 

 

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[sayvan]

Thanks so much for sharing your cruise experience with all of us! This is an itinerary I would love to do, so will definitely follow along.

 

 

Thanks for following along....

 

 

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[BillOh]

Sorry this post went on twice. I think CC is having some issues this weekend...

 

 

I'll use that as an opportunity to say if you liked Adventure, you will like Navigator! BTW, thanks for the tour on Adventure that helped me get through my long wait!

 

Navigator has a nice looking CHOPS with a great Seaview and the Sabor restaurant.

[14Terry]

Great photos! Great review! Will be doing this same itinerary in about 47 days (but who is counting)!

[sayvan]

Day 3 - Labadee

 

This would be our first time to Labadee. In fact, of all the cruises we have done this was the first time we were ever at a cruise lines private stop! We were looking forward to this stop. I liked the idea that all I needed was my ship card on the Island.

 

Our arrival in Labadee was for 7 am and we were on time. The weather was a bit overcast when we first arrived but that quickly cleared and we had a beautiful day. Temperatures for the day were forecast at 81 but it had to be around 85. It was perfect.

 

From our balcony we would get our first look at Labadee.

 

 

 

 

 

People were starting to get off the ship and head over to the island and then suddenly the gangway was closed and we had a medical emergency on board. Overhead, we could hear and see in the distance a helicopter heading towards the ship.

 

 

[sayvan]

The helicopter circled the ship a couple of times before finally landing on the dock... thus the reason for the gangway closing down.

 

 

Those that had made it onto shore where also watching the activity on the dock.

 

 

 

The delay would last for around an hour so I snapped a few more shots from the balcony.

 

 

Another selfie that give a nice view of the balcony...

 

 

You can see in this shot that the cloud cover started to disappear...

 

[sayvan]

a few more shots overlooking the island....

 

 

 

 

 

Later on the medical staff had loaded up the patient and things were almost ready to go.