Cheapo Dad's Trip Report on the Navigator of the Seas (Maybe with few pictures added)...

[harryfat1]

Greetings! This is my trip report from our family’s vacation on the Navigator of the Seas 4-day cruise to Mexico from August 7 to 11. I called this posting a “trip report” instead of a “cruise review” because, in my opinion, I am not qualified to do a professional review. This is just a summary of what our family experienced during our vacation time – Days of our lives, so to speak.

 

Keep in mind when I say “trip” report and not “cruise” report. Meaning you will be taken along for a ride for the entire trip process, not just the cruise portion. It’s the mailman version of the vacation resort, stopping off at each and many detailed points that may be of no interest to the veteran cruisers. Another way to look at it in cruising terms is having to suffer through some idiot pressing every number on the elevator between decks 2 and 12 and you have to watch the elevator door open and close on every deck instead of going all the way to the top….

 

Background – We are an extended family of 6 on this cruise consisting of my wife, 2 boys, myself, and my in-laws. My wife and I are both CPA’s (aka bean counters – we have very boring mealtime conversations talking about taxes and we wonder why our boys tune us out) so I will probably have more numbers-related discussions than most people care to read.

 

Bias – Everyone has a bias on their preferences when it comes to cruises & life in general. The key is to identify the bias and discount the bias versus fact. We like the big ships, the bigger the better. Our best cruise was on the Allure of the Seas – an Oasis-class mega-ship. You will see that bias in my report. That’s just our preference, but certainly will not be everyone’s preference so discount it any way you deem necessary.

 

It’s been many years since I posted a trip report here on the RCI boards (I was on Princess boards last year for the Alaska cruise). Still, the format is the same as I typically throw in some random pictures in the first few introductory posts in what I considered highlights of the trip.  Similar to movie trailers that give you a quick overview of the cruise but not giving you any details.  For that, you would need to stick around for a while to read through my various posts. 

 

On the other hand, if you think these pictures suck, then go ahead and hit the return arrow on your browser as the future pictures won’t get any better than these first few sets.

 

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Dude, who cares about your background? I’m not interested in hiring you for a job.  Hurry up and show us your cruise pictures already.

I’m frustrated in trying to find a reasonable price for my next RCI cruise as I have spent numerous hours/days/weeks/months clicking on every dang RCI sales promotion that is not really a sales at all.  These inflated prices suck. 

 

I rather be on a real cruise than reading your gibberish but while I’m waiting for the “next big RCI sale”, I’ll read on…

 

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[harryfat1]

To borrow a phrase from the old Capital One TV ad – what is in your cruise? To me, a cruise vacation is the ultimate buffet of vacations. There are many ways to enjoy a cruise vacation and just like eating in a buffet, people will have different experiences from their cruise even on the same sailing. Just a matter of personal preference on how you approach your cruise.

 

For us, our preferences on a cruise are based on the 3 E’s:

 

• Entertainment
• Experience a new ship/port
• Enrichment/Fulfillment in seeing the awesome spectacle of nature

 

Notice that “relaxation” is not on the list. Being cheap, I want to maximize my dollar value when I go on vacation. I didn’t spend thousands of dollars and sat hours on a plane/car just to relax on a vacation. I can relax and sleep for free in front of the TV on the weekend in my living room for free. I vacation to see and experience different things. So that’s the bias of this trip report.

 

We take a lot of pictures on vacation. It’s from something I read awhile back which has become my motto – the most expensive picture on the vacation is the one that you didn’t take.

 

Essentially the thought is that you have spent a lot of money/time/effort to get to wherever your vacation spots are and you don’t want to go home and think – dang, I should have taken a picture ZZZ while I was on vacation. Even if you can go back later on, at the extra cost, the lighting/mood/people will be different and you may never be able to recreate the exact same atmosphere so when in doubt, take the picture.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[harryfat1]

Life is all about setting expectations.  If you set too high of expectations and things don’t turn out as expected, you are disappointed.  Whereas if you walk in with low expectations, then if anything good happens, it’s an unexpected bonus and you are happier for it.

 

If your expectation is to drop in looking for a quick synopsis on a cruise review with specialty dining/drinks package/expensive shore excursions, you can stop right now.  Click on the back arrow key on your web browser and move on.  This thread isn’t for you. However, if you are bored at work and want a diversion to talk about cruises/road trips/Disney/toilet paper (yeah, I plan to talk about that later), then hang around and share with me your thoughts on cruise toilet papers…

 

Another key to writing a trip report is knowing your primary audience.  For me, I want to appeal/help out the first-time cruisers.  Even though I have cruised enough times previously, I just considered myself to be a newbie +1 cruiser.  I didn’t find many cruise reviews for the Navigator of the Seas during my cruise research so hopefully I can provide some insights for newbies on cruise preparation as well as a detailed walk-through of the boarding process.

 

Not to mention I haven’t sailed with RCI since 2017 and a lot of things have changed since then so I am approaching my cruise as a newbie +1.

 

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Dude, I don’t care if you are a newbie or old-bie wan.  Just show me some food pictures

 

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[harryfat1]

The itinerary is the basic 4-night west coast sailing.  Nothing exciting with a private island or wonderful beaches as the Caribbean.  You don’t get those in the west coast sailings but the pricing somewhat reflects that in being a lower priced cruise.

 

 

Although with the skyrocketing prices, we are seeing across the board on many cruise sailings, I saw the price for our cruise essentially doubled just a couple weeks prior to sailing.  We paid around $500/pp for 4 people in 2 cabins. It went as high as $1K/pp a few weeks ago.  I can’t see anyone paying that much money to see the “meh” destinations of Catalina/Ensenada but that’s just me being cheap.

 

I booked the cabins in April for the August sailing and the price effectively double in 4 months.  Now only if my stock investments in my IRA/401K can increase as much as my cruise fares…

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[harryfat1]

Anal Scale

 

So how anal are you on a scale of 1 to 10 with 10 being the highest level? I think my friends and family and coworkers will probably rank me a 10 (not a Bo Derek type of 10 – old people reference not meant to be understood by the younger crowd). 

 

However, when you start to hang around the various forums throughout the years, you realize that there are people far more anal than you.  So I am probably a 9.2 compared to other cruisers on CC.

 

It’s like you think you are THE Star Wars fan having read all the books and watched all the movies and TV shows.  Going to sleep in Star Wars underwear and pajamas makes you think there are no bigger fans than you.  Until you attend a Star Wars convention, and you meet someone with a tattoo of Princess Leia on his bottom. Then you realize you are not fanatical after all…

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[perfect match]

I like your pictures, your storytelling and your cruise philosophy in general. Plus, IIRC you’re known for mooring line pictures and I’ve already seen one of those. I’ll be sticking around to read the rest! 😁

[FionaMG]

Yay!!! A new cheapo dad report. It's been soooo long!!! Have a great time @harryfat1 😊

[LuCruise]

omg...so excited to see you a post from harryfat1.  You are one of the ones I remember and your "reports" stand out. I love your sense of writing and can relate.

DH and I were just on a 3 night Navigator in July so looking forward to hearing your trip...and I love all the details.

[CTCruiser76]

Agree - welcome back - can't wait to follow along !

[edspec]

Yes, a Cheapo Dad trip report :):):) 

I'm looking at the 7 night Navigator so very interested to read what you have to say.

[UK Fan 78]

Following along. Love all the pictures! Thank you for sharing your adventure with us!

[Band1Mom]

Following.  Love the writing and I'm an oldie so I get the reference to Bo Derek 😄

[bobmacliberty]

Great to see this review Harry!  I always love your pictures, even if they are just pictures of rocks.  I agree with @perfect match, you're the OG when it comes to mooring line shots.  I especially like how you've included a decimal point in your anal scale value. 😜  Since this is just a 4 day cruise, I won't try to find my old spreadsheet that tracked posts for your trip reports. 😁

[Kellie in Texas]

@harryfat1 I'm only two paragraphs in to your introduction and I'm already hooked. 😄 And we have zero plans to cruise on Navigator, but I'm still reading!

[Rusty_lock]

I'll be enjoying.  I'm doing this exact itinerary this Monday.  As long as Hilary doesn't mess things up.

[NHProud]

@harryfat1  Always happy to read your trip reports.  Your photos are exceptional. 
We were on this same itinerary and ship last October.  I’ll let you be the judge if we got a good deal.  The cost of the cabin was $129 pp for a guaranteed interior cabin .  Now , we would never have done this except for the 3 points we needed to reach Diamond. We never got off the ship because we’ve been to those ports .  We took the train so no flying so it was probably a good deal. 
 

Hooked was the best meal in my opinion. 

[Foodluvr]

@harryfat1 You just made my night!   Your Cheapo dad trip reviews are fantastic! Reading and so informational. Doesn't hurt that I might be a recovering numbers addict too!

 

Keep posting! There are a lot of us out here that look forward to your threads. Would be nice to have the links to some of your previous reviews for the folks that are not familiar with them.

 

If you don't get another cruise planned soon, I might start campaign to send you back on the water just for the enjoyment factor of the posts that come out of it!

 

[harryfat1]

Hello Everyone - Thanks for the welcome-back message and I'm flattered that people still remember my old trip report after all these years.  Hopefully, I can live up to the expectations as my joke writing staff remains at one so you will likely hear the same bad jokes again.  Maybe it's good that I have been away for a while as you won't remember that I said 6 years ago so it'll sound new to you this time.

 

I apologize for the late postings today as I'm not feeling well.  No, it's not the dreaded "C" word.  As now I'm WAY past the age of 50, my doctor has been harping on me to get a Shingle vaccine.  Finally relented and went to Rite Aid last night after work and got my first of 2 shots.  

 

This morning woke up to body aches, headaches, and a general lack of energy as part of the side effects of the vaccine.  Similar to the side effects of the Covid vaccine. So I was out most of the day on the sofa sleeping.

 

So we'll see how far I get today before I run short of energy and need to lie down again.

[harryfat1]

17 hours ago, perfect match said:

I like your pictures, your storytelling and your cruise philosophy in general. Plus, IIRC you’re known for mooring line pictures and I’ve already seen one of those. I’ll be sticking around to read the rest! 😁

Thanks for the compliments.  Didn't realize that my claim to fame here on CC is from my mooring line pictures.  When I first posted them eons ago, I made the mistake of calling them Towing Lines.  As with anything incorrect you post online, someone very quickly corrected me.

 

I thought people remember me for the "Baby Got Back" YouTube videos...

[harryfat1]

16 hours ago, FionaMG said:

Yay!!! A new cheapo dad report. It's been soooo long!!! Have a great time @harryfat1 😊

Hi,

 

Thanks for remembering me.  Yes, it's been a while since we last cruised on RCI back in Christmas 2017.  We went to Disneyworld in 2018 and Japan in 2019.  Of course, 2020 and 2021 were the dreaded "C" periods where many people stayed home. 

 

Last summer we were on the Princess Alaska cruise so I was chilling over at the "other" board posting my trip report there.  Now I feel like I have returned to my "home port" - to use cruise terminology.

[harryfat1]

11 hours ago, LuCruise said:

omg...so excited to see you a post from harryfat1.  You are one of the ones I remember and your "reports" stand out. I love your sense of writing and can relate.

DH and I were just on a 3 night Navigator in July so looking forward to hearing your trip...and I love all the details.

Hi,

 

Yes, long time no talk. Hope all is well.

 

I see from your signature that you have been busy on the cruise scene the past few years as well as many future cruises booked.  You are way more advanced of a cruiser than me now.  You should write this trip report instead of me...

[harryfat1]

11 hours ago, CTCruiser76 said:

Agree - welcome back - can't wait to follow along !

Thanks.  Hope I don't disappoint you.  

 

It's like those old movies/singers from a long time ago and now they are making a sequel after many years in hiatus and you know chances are they will suck as they will never capture the original magic but you still watch it to see how much the dude has aged (looking at Harrison Ford)...

[harryfat1]

11 hours ago, edspec said:

Yes, a Cheapo Dad trip report :):):) 

I'm looking at the 7 night Navigator so very interested to read what you have to say.

Thanks. The Navigator only does the 7-day cruise once a month or so as RCI has only a token presence on the west coast with one ship out here.  The west coast market is dominated by Carnival and its subs. By next summer they will have 3 ships out of the LA/Long Beach area versus the lone one from RCI.

 

We have done the 7-day itinerary 3 times in the past.  One time was on the Mariner ages ago when Captain Johnny was stationed on the west coast as the Mariner's captain.

 

Feel free to ask anything about the 7-day itinerary but just know it's been a few years since we were on that but I assume things didn't change much.

[harryfat1]

9 hours ago, UK Fan 78 said:

Following along. Love all the pictures! Thank you for sharing your adventure with us!

Thank you for following along.  Hope you will like the trip report. 

 

If not, no fear, in my 147-page contract with CC in agreeing to write this trip report, they promised that if anyone is unhappy with the trip report, you can email them and they will refund your annual membership cost or like RCI would do - they will give onboard credit for future membership fees...

 

I will ensure you get your money's worth when you read this report.  You will get exactly what you paid for...

[harryfat1]

8 hours ago, Band1Mom said:

Following.  Love the writing and I'm an oldie so I get the reference to Bo Derek 😄

Thanks for following along.

 

I have 2 college-age boys and many times I make reference to something/someone and they looked at me with a blank stare - Eh?

 

With the various warm welcome I have received today, I feel like queuing up the "Welcome Back, Kotter" song.  

 

And this is before Travolta did his Saturday Night Fever gig that we still dance to in the 70s party on every RCI sailing...