Navigator 12/20 4 night - I'm back!

[want2seaitall]

I got home and found my computer non functioning...think it was a power surge. I had it shut down but not unplugged :(. Anyway...I'm on my son's laptop...with the smallest keyboard you've ever seen and it is rrrreallly hard to type on...so I just wanted to post a few things until my computer is fixed.

 

The Nav is on a 10 night through the holidays, but I know there are a few 4 and 5 nighters in Jan before she goes into dry dock...and reviews have been quite mixed.

 

My take on things:

 

Embarkation - fastest I've seen...we were on the ship by 11:30.

 

Staff - hit or miss - table 306 our wait staff was wonderful. Cannot complain one bit. Our Cabin steward for cabins 7253 and 7237...Ivan was wonderful. Windjammer staff...not present enough...waited for coffee and tables to be cleared too long. First day in Cafe Promenade same thing...tables were not being cleared fast enough for new guests to sit.

 

Ship itself -absolutely gorgeous...even looking...I found no wear. She is an amazing ship. The first 2 days I thought to myself...what are people complaining about the stabilizers for...it was the smoothest cruise I've ever been on...then day 3 came...WOW! I'm still swaying as I type. It was rough, but as I looked out on the ocean...there were rough seas with white cap waters...so I don't know that the stabilizers would have made a difference.

 

Cabins - we felt spoiled having 2 cabins for the 4 of us...one inside and PR cabin. Plenty of storage...very adequate. Loved the 7th floor forward cabins...close to everything and 2 flights down the Cafe Promenade.

 

Food - Windjammer, Cafe Promenade, and MDR - fantastic. No complaints.

 

Cruise Director - blah, blah, blah. Didn't get his humor. But, I have to say he looked fabulous on 70s night. The wig was a riot! Usually the Love and Marriage game is hysterical, but he didn't take it anywhere.

 

Entertainment - ENOUGH of the production shows! More comedians! We only saw the late night adult comedian and he was very good. Quest - what can I say...it was very funny...and my team won 2nd...wooooo hoooo! Ice Show was great...very talented skaters.

 

Art Auctions - yawn! The auctioneer never showed half the art that people had requested to see...instead he was pushing Dali...as usual. It lasted nearly 2 hours and my art was never brought up...or my DH's or my eldest son's. He asked at the end if any art hadn't been shown, but we were going to be late for dinner so didn't speak up.

 

The highlight - as usual, we were blessed with wonderful tablemates. Our tablemate had bid on a bridge tour at the Make a Wish auction and his wife didn't want to go so he brought my DH with him. It was an experience my DH will never forget - Thank you Wayne and Cindy!

 

Overall she is a great ship. I think they should rethink their choice of CD Ricky Matthews. I just don't think he is the right fit for the position. Bring your Dramamine...you may need it. I took some for the first time on any cruise starting day 3. As soon as I felt her rockin...I didn't waste anytime...my entire family began taking Dramamine and I'm glad we did. Many passengers had family members back in their cabins due to motion sickness. But honestly, unless you hit rough waters, it was very smooth.

 

Oh before I forget - Cozumel - Chankanaaab - water was pretty cold. My boys and I snorkeled and saw some beautiful fish etc, but my DH wouldn't get in the water...he found it too cold. We also found the stores on the pier and in town...really pushy...more so than ever. This was our 3rd time in Coz...and they definitely seem very pushy.

 

Debarkation - very smooth. We were scheduled to debark at 8:45 and were off the ship in minutes. The only thing I didn't care for was the line outside under the covered walkway to get to our luggage...it took about 10 minutes to get through...and the drizzle/wet weather made it unpleasant. But once at the end, we found our bags within seconds and were out waiting for our Park N' Go shuttle.

 

Park N' Go shuttle in Fort Lauderdale - 5 stars - through a special they are running as a new site - you get 1 day free plus a discount with AAA. It wound up costing us half of what it would have cost for port parking.

 

OK...so I wound up posting quite a bit...I'm getting the hang of this keyboard :).

 

Any questions???

[caribbeanboy]

Great review. Thanks!

[sbell1]

Did they offer the luggage valet option...(for $20pp they give you boarding pass and take your luggage directly from ship to aiport).

 

Also, could you stay in your cabin a bit longer if you had last debarkation?

 

Thanks.

[want2seaitall]

Did they offer the luggage valet option...(for $20pp they give you boarding pass and take your luggage directly from ship to aiport).

 

Also, could you stay in your cabin a bit longer if you had last debarkation?

 

Thanks.

 

I apologize, I don't really have these answers for you. I live in FL so we drove home. But, I will say that debarkation was very smooth. We stayed in our cabin until 8:15 and there are no longer announcements pumped into the cabins. If you have last debarkation, I would just ask your cabin steward when you have to leave your cabin. You may be able to stay in the cabin until it is your time to disembark. But, again, you will not hear any announcements in there. You will only hear announcements in public areas of the ship. We went to the Windjammer for breakfast then headed to our meeting area in Studio B (the ice rink)...when we got there we were told our boarding group had already been called. So we went down to the debarkation deck and were off in minutes. Very smooth.

 

We had Beige group 3 luggage tags and were suppose to debark at 8:45 am. We never saw any long lines and debarkation chaos as described in previous sailings.

[ArkieCruisin]

Great review. Thanks for sharing.

[Hombre59]

I hated our 12/15-12/20 cruise debarkation, they just set everyones luggage in a small room and basically made everyone find it. Our luggage was scattered and with people literally everywhere it made it impossible to move. Took about 30 minutes - 45 minutes to find our stuff.

 

I thought Ricky Matthews was pretty funny in his flamboyant manner. Did you guys have the amazing juggler at the finale show? He was the highlight show of the whole trip, he was amazing.

[want2seaitall]

I hated our 12/15-12/20 cruise debarkation, they just set everyones luggage in a small room and basically made everyone find it. Our luggage was scattered and with people literally everywhere it made it impossible to move. Took about 30 minutes - 45 minutes to find our stuff.

 

I thought Ricky Matthews was pretty funny in his flamboyant manner. Did you guys have the amazing juggler at the finale show? He was the highlight show of the whole trip, he was amazing.

 

yeah...they seemed to have ironed out the debarkation mess earlier cruises had experienced since the ships return from the Med. They had the different color tags in different rooms. Ours were sitting there all together...we could see them waiting for us before we even got to the front of the line.

 

Ricky...to me...not funny enough to carry the shows. He fell flat. But...yes I enjoyed his flamboyant maneurisms. I spoke with him one on one and he is very personable, but I don't think he's cut out to be CD...JMHO. His name slips my mind...but the "Activities Director" was more suitable for the CD position. I really enjoyed him. He'd usually come in first to get the crowd going and to introduce Ricky.

 

The juggler :o my DH and I missed it. It was on the first night...and we had both Day 1 and Day 2 compasses in front of us...somehow, we confused the 2...thought it was going to be the production show on Day 1 and skipped it...to only find out later while watching it on TV...that we missed it. LOL Yes, we saw him on TV and he did seem quite amazing...especially the piano juggling. I can't juggle...or play the piano...both...WOW!

[PH8]

I hated our 12/15-12/20 cruise debarkation, they just set everyones luggage in a small room and basically made everyone find it. Our luggage was scattered and with people literally everywhere it made it impossible to move. Took about 30 minutes - 45 minutes to find our stuff.

 

.

I was on the same cruise and all our colored tagged luggage was in one spot..

[enyliram]

we were on the century and parked opposite you in cozumel. did you have rough seas the first night out and again the third night into the fourth day. it was rockin on this ship which is much smaller at 70,000plus tons

[LBB]

I was also on this cruise.

 

 

We walked onto the ship with no line at around 12:30. We had white for debarkation (the first color after priority) and also had little wait to leave. I had been worried about this after reading previous reviews. Took a taxi to the airport, $20, and was there in plenty of time for our 11:15 flight home.

 

I really didn't have any complaints, although the same boring food is getting old. I don't go on the ship for the food, so it doesn't matter to me that much. This was a relaxtion trip, so I only went to see the comedien, which I enjoyed. I honestly didn't even see the cruise director and once the captain started talking, I stopped listening.

 

As the previous poster mentioned, there was absolutely no movement for the first two days and then it was rocking. By this point, I was used to being on the ship and it didn't bother me. I actually prefer some movement. Great sleep.

 

I'd be happy to answer any questions.

[megnsamsgracie]

 

Ricky...to me...not funny enough to carry the shows. He fell flat. But...yes I enjoyed his flamboyant maneurisms. I spoke with him one on one and he is very personable, but I don't think he's cut out to be CD...JMHO. His name slips my mind...but the "Activities Director" was more suitable for the CD position. I really enjoyed him. He'd usually come in first to get the crowd going and to introduce Ricky.

 

 

Is it Mitch??? I 100% agree with you on it.. he was AWESOME all week!

[want2seaitall]

Is it Mitch??? I 100% agree with you on it.. he was AWESOME all week!

 

Yes...thank you...Mitch. He was great.

[Hombre59]

I was on the same cruise and all our colored tagged luggage was in one spot..

 

We had about 8 bags of luggage (big enough party), and they were scattered from the front, to back, to the very side and other side. Perhaps we were unlucky?

[PH8]

We had about 8 bags of luggage (big enough party), and they were scattered from the front, to back, to the very side and other side. Perhaps we were unlucky?

Im :confused:..do you mean your luggage was scattered amongst different colored tags or just amongst your color tag?? If the latter, thens that usually happens..

[Hombre59]

Im :confused:..do you mean your luggage was scattered amongst different colored tags or just amongst your color tag?? If the latter, thens that usually happens..

 

Scattered with the beige area, but with so many people in there, and such a small room, how was it suppose to go smoothly :S?

[PH8]

Scattered with the beige area, but with so many people in there, and such a small room, how was it suppose to go smoothly :S?

Kinda hard to keep ones luggage next to each other........hey,at least your beige tags werent mixed in with blue tags...........gotta think positive!:D

[Hombre59]

Kinda hard to keep ones luggage next to each other........hey,at least your beige tags werent mixed in with blue tags...........gotta think positive!:D

 

I agree :D, but what I guess I forgot to state was that I only disagree with the format, small room, find your luggage?

 

Bigger port should be like Port Canaveral with luggage with conveyor belts and all that good stuff that made it a whole lot easier then sitting in a tiny room with a looooooot of people.

[PH8]

Dont get me started on Pt Everglades...........NOT my fav port.....

[Annieeee]

We were on the 12/20 Navigator sailing too. Had no problems with debark. We were the first group to debark, white tags. Once we got to where the luggage was ( long, long walk) we spotted out two suitcases right away. No they were not together nor did we expect them to be. We were out of there in about 5 mins and on our way to the airport. It all went quite smoothly from embarkation to debark. Only non smooth thing was the 3rd night, but that was due to Mother Nature and not RCI! Yikes, think I am still rocking.

 

Annieeee

[want2seaitall]

We were on the 12/20 Navigator sailing too. Had no problems with debark. We were the first group to debark, white tags. Once we got to where the luggage was ( long, long walk) we spotted out two suitcases right away. No they were not together nor did we expect them to be. We were out of there in about 5 mins and on our way to the airport. It all went quite smoothly from embarkation to debark. Only non smooth thing was the 3rd night, but that was due to Mother Nature and not RCI! Yikes, think I am still rocking.

 

Annieeee

 

I couldn't agree more...everything went so smooth for us embarking and disembarking. Day 3...wooooo weeeee...that was fun wasn't it??? My DH was with the Captain on day 3 while we were in rough seas and the Captain said the stabilizers were working just fine...it was rough seas and that is the motion one should expect while in rough seas. I was still rocking yesterday but today I feel pretty good.

[FrannyK]

Thanks for posting about Navigator 4-day. We sail the Jan 8th 4-day on Navigator. Do you remember what night(s) and time(s) the ice show is? How do you get tickets? Thanks.

[pmfan]

Great informative review. Thanks. :)

[want2seaitall]

Thanks for posting about Navigator 4-day. We sail the Jan 8th 4-day on Navigator. Do you remember what night(s) and time(s) the ice show is? How do you get tickets? Thanks.

 

Franny...sorry I'm a bad CCer this time around. I don't have any of the Compasses. But I can say that there was usually 2 shows a day...except for the day in port. You will have no trouble seeing it. There are no tickets for the show...it is first come first serve seating. I recommend you get there at least 15 minutes before it starts.

[FrannyK]

Franny...sorry I'm a bad CCer this time around. I don't have any of the Compasses. But I can say that there was usually 2 shows a day...except for the day in port. You will have no trouble seeing it. There are no tickets for the show...it is first come first serve seating. I recommend you get there at least 15 minutes before it starts.

Thank you. Good to know.

[ahmad]

we were on the century and parked opposite you in cozumel. did you have rough seas the first night out and again the third night into the fourth day. it was rockin on this ship which is much smaller at 70,000plus tons

very nice