Navigator Issues.... Review

[sail2day]

We cruised on the November 29th 4 night cruise on board the Navigator of the Seas. All of the posts on the board have been accurate. Disembarkation was an absolute nightmare. In addition, we found other issues that left us wishing that we had been on the Mariner of the Seas. We had just cruised on the Majesty of the Seas in September of this year and were pleasantly surprised by the food, service and amenities offered by the ship on a 3 night cruise. What surprised us about the Navigator was that a Crown and Anchor repeaters party was not offered on our sailing. In fact, the guest relations desk said when I inquired that the Navigator does not offer it because it was a "short cruise" (4 night). When we cruised on the Majesty in September of this year we attended a Crown and Anchor repeater's party. The explanation I was given by guest relations made no sense and seemed inconsistent with our past experience on the Majesty (3 night cruise). In addition, I found that there were problems with restocking the ship after its transatlantic crossing. Almost all of the beers that were normally offered on tap were not available. The pub only had Heineken available. There were also other non existent items such as certain wines that were on the menu and were not available, both in the bars and the restaurants. The crew also had not adapted to the new itinerary and seemed "out of sorts". I hate to focus on the negative issues in a post, but I think it is important to alert other CC members that this ship still has a "way to go" in meeting the standards set by RCCI. We did enjoy our cruise and found the food and entertainment to be outstanding. The service in the dinning room was excellent, but it was rather inconsistent in other parts of the vessel. I think RCCI just needs to tweak the operations element on board the Navigator in order to adjust to the 4 and 5 night itinerary. Provisioning seems like a simple thing, but I imagine it is quite complicated when dealing with almost a 3,800 passenger vessel.

[leahmariess]

i can also agree with you that disembarkation on the navigator is a mess!

doesn't ruin the cruise but definitely makes you wish they could get it right.

[COCKYMARK]

how many cruises that you have been on that have been perfect????

[juniorsmom]

I didnt find embarkation to be a mess, it only took us 20 including security, getting our seapasses and walking on. I do have a few issues with Navigator and I will post a review as soon as my laundry is somewhat under control.

[Host Kewlguy]

We cruised on the November 29th 4 night cruise on board the Navigator of the Seas. All of the posts on the board have been accurate. Disembarkation was an absolute nightmare. In addition, we found other issues that left us wishing that we had been on the Mariner of the Seas. We had just cruised on the Majesty of the Seas in September of this year and were pleasantly surprised by the food, service and amenities offered by the ship on a 3 night cruise. What surprised us about the Navigator was that a Crown and Anchor repeaters party was not offered on our sailing. In fact, the guest relations desk said when I inquired that the Navigator does not offer it because it was a "short cruise" (4 night). When we cruised on the Majesty in September of this year we attended a Crown and Anchor repeater's party. The explanation I was given by guest relations made no sense and seemed inconsistent with our past experience on the Majesty (3 night cruise). In addition, I found that there were problems with restocking the ship after its transatlantic crossing. Almost all of the beers that were normally offered on tap were not available. The pub only had Heineken available. There were also other non existent items such as certain wines that were on the menu and were not available, both in the bars and the restaurants. The crew also had not adapted to the new itinerary and seemed "out of sorts". I hate to focus on the negative issues in a post, but I think it is important to alert other CC members that this ship still has a "way to go" in meeting the standards set by RCCI. We did enjoy our cruise and found the food and entertainment to be outstanding. The service in the dinning room was excellent, but it was rather inconsistent in other parts of the vessel. I think RCCI just needs to tweak the operations element on board the Navigator in order to adjust to the 4 and 5 night itinerary. Provisioning seems like a simple thing, but I imagine it is quite complicated when dealing with almost a 3,800 passenger vessel.

 

Thank you for your review. Both positive as well as negative comments are welcome on this web site. We'll be sailing on Navigator on January 10 and will see for ourselves how smooth the operations are running on board as well as during debarkation. You are correct, on the Majesty of the Seas three and four day cruises they have a Crown & Anchor repeaters party as well as a cocktail party for Platinum and Diamond/Plus members. As you can see every ship is run differently even though it's the same company.

[Inshape]

I heard they do a lunch for the plat/diamond members. Maybe some free drinks with it???? Got me. Will let you know, doing Jan 19 and Jan 24 cruise to make it a 9 nighter.

[Conanc]

We cruised on the November 29th 4 night cruise on board the Navigator of the Seas. All of the posts on the board have been accurate. Disembarkation was an absolute nightmare. In addition, we found other issues that left us wishing that we had been on the Mariner of the Seas. We had just cruised on the Majesty of the Seas in September of this year and were pleasantly surprised by the food, service and amenities offered by the ship on a 3 night cruise. What surprised us about the Navigator was that a Crown and Anchor repeaters party was not offered on our sailing. In fact, the guest relations desk said when I inquired that the Navigator does not offer it because it was a "short cruise" (4 night). When we cruised on the Majesty in September of this year we attended a Crown and Anchor repeater's party. The explanation I was given by guest relations made no sense and seemed inconsistent with our past experience on the Majesty (3 night cruise). In addition, I found that there were problems with restocking the ship after its transatlantic crossing. Almost all of the beers that were normally offered on tap were not available. The pub only had Heineken available. There were also other non existent items such as certain wines that were on the menu and were not available, both in the bars and the restaurants. The crew also had not adapted to the new itinerary and seemed "out of sorts". I hate to focus on the negative issues in a post, but I think it is important to alert other CC members that this ship still has a "way to go" in meeting the standards set by RCCI. We did enjoy our cruise and found the food and entertainment to be outstanding. The service in the dinning room was excellent, but it was rather inconsistent in other parts of the vessel. I think RCCI just needs to tweak the operations element on board the Navigator in order to adjust to the 4 and 5 night itinerary. Provisioning seems like a simple thing, but I imagine it is quite complicated when dealing with almost a 3,800 passenger vessel.

 

Hi -- we were also on this cruise. We had a great time, but I agree that disembarkation was a nightmare and we were among the lucky ones. There was a C&A party held in the dining room for Platinum, Diamond and D+ members on this cruise.

 

Happy Holidays!

Nancy

[alexkrn46]

We just got off the Navigator yesterday, I was going to change our flight home due to all the complaints about disembarkation, and our flight was at 11:20 am.

 

We left our stateroom around 7:30am, we stopped and had some coffee, and were at the airport at 8:30am.

 

We did have a Plat/Diamond lunch, which was great, but there was no C&A event ( I don't remember one on the Majesty this August).

 

 

We found the crew in good spirits and had a great 5 day cruise.

[sail2day]

how many cruises that you have been on that have been perfect????

 

The truth is that I have been on close to ninety (90) cruises in my forty seven (47) years. There are very few cruises that I feel had issues in "provisioning". In fact, I think this is the first time that I have even noticed a provisioning issue. Yes, many times cruises have not been perfect either in the food department, service or entertainment. I have never been critical of the differences since they are usually characteristic of the individual ship, cruise line or crew. Provisioning is something that has never been an issue since it deals with the shore side/ operations aspect of the cruise. It is something that cruise lines usually get "right".

 

I also feel that we tend to judge our cruise experiences by other experiences on the same line and or class of vessel. I compared this cruise experience with my past cruise on the Mariner of the Seas and even the Majesty of the Seas. There were certain elements that were missing. It was a great cruise notwithstanding the "lack" of beer on tap and the debarkation process which involved a walk of approximately 100 yards to another terminal building. A logistical nightmare since the terminal where we were docked is not the one where our luggage was located. In fact, we then had to hand carry our luggage to the parking garage since private cars were not allowed in front of the terminal building. This was another 1000 foot walk. Obviously an operational issue that RCCI has to address. In fact, Customs Border Protection personnel at the pier were discussing the issue with RCCI Managers shore side.