Just off the Navigator-western --any questions?

[shopngolf]

We just got home on Saturday and I know these boards helped me out alot....I will follow with a review sometime this week-but if you have questions I think I can answer or get the answer from one of our travel friends!!:)

[Patgo]

I don't think we met on board. It was a fantastic week and I would be happy to answer questions also.

[WeirdEyes]

We're sailing the Navigator Western Caribbean on May 28th. Can't wait!

 

What did you do on the islands?

 

How was the staff?

 

Looking forward to your answers. :D

[pathdoc]

We're sailing this Saturday, 11/27. Can't wait. How was the food. Word on the boards is that Navigator is trying out a new menu.

 

How were the seas?

 

Was the cruise fully booked?

 

 

Looking forward to your review.

[Patgo]

The Food Was Wonderful Imho.

The Ship Was Full. 300 + Kids Although Not A Problem. They Were Going To Have 800 + This Week,

 

 

I Did Not Have One Complaint Wonderful Ship Service, People, Food.

I Think The New Menus Are A Hit. I Guess They Are Going To Be Trying New Lunch Menus In The Dining Room Also.

[shopngolf]

The food was unbelievable...I can't do it justice by describing...have never had such selection and service. The staff and service was excellent. I also did not have any complaints about the ship. Getting on and off the ship, well thats a different story!!

 

 

Heres what we did on the islands:

 

Labadee- We did the water park and played on the beach. My son and husband loved the water park. We also shopped and my 5yr old daughter had her hair braided. I do not have any complaints about the braiders. They were very gentle and quick(less than an hour)!!

JAmaica- Dolphin Encounter and Dunns River Falls($82)--this was very cool. I would not recommend doing the dolphin swim though. THey did not do much more than us and it cost them $150+. THey do not actually swim with the dolphins. We then did the jungle tour at the same place. DUnns River Falls was an excellent guided climb. We had the 2 kids and my Mom and it was awesome for all!!

 

Grand Cayman-Sotos Tours($25)- We booked on our own. It was a snorkelling(if you wanted) and StingRay City tour. Do not book the one through the boat...book this one!! The one through the boat costs more and there was at least 75-100 people on their boat. We had 16 on our tour. Talk about one on one service and making sure every one had photo opportunities!! They were awesome. We then went on our own to the Turtle Farm. I have never seen sea turtles up close. There were tanks and tanks of them of all sizes. We also had the chance to pick one up for a photo....really cool for the kids. THey loved it!!

 

Cozumel--We took a taxi to Paradise Beach( about 10-15 minutes). This was great. There was beach chairs, bar service($12 for a bucket of beer), snorkelling, beach mats as well as a water park for the kids---and get this- $5 each. It was really cool snorkelling!!

 

It was an amazing week with the exception of a flu bug that hit our group for part of Sat/Sun but we were ready to go after that!~~ Can't wait for the next big anniversary to do it again!!!

[WeirdEyes]

Thanks so much for the info.

 

About the Grand Cayman excursion....how long did it take you to get off of the ship and get on the tender? I heard that if you book an excursion through RCCL that you get off of the ship before everyone else. Is this true? Thanks!!

 

It sounds like you had a wonderful cruise. :)

[Patgo]

iT IS TRUE IF YOU BOOK STINGRAYS THROUGH THE CRUISE YOU CANT GET THE FIRST TENDER OF THE SHIP. WE DID THAT LAST YEAR AND WORKED GREAT i BELIEVE YOU CAN DO IT YOURSELF JUST AS WELL GOOD LUCK

[pringle]

Getting on and off the ship, well thats a different story!!

Can you elaborate on this?

 

 

Grand Cayman-We then went on our own to the Turtle Farm.

We have a 9am stingray tour (Nativeway) booked, and the itinerary says in port at 8am. Do you think we will make it no problem with the tenders?

 

Did you just catch a taxi to Turtle Farm? How much is the ride? Is there an admission fee to Turtle Farm?

 

 

Thanks for any input.

[cmason]

Went on same cruise as shopngolf. We were in GC at 8am. I went down to deck 4 about 845am, told them I had a morning excursion that I booked outside of the ship, and we boarded right away, no lines. We were on shore by 9am. Returned to the ship to change and grab a snack at noon, and only had to wait about 15mins to get a tender back, and no wait to return to GC. Round trip, including a snack took only 45mins. At end of day we got in a very long line at 2:30 or so, and had to wait at least 30+ mins to board a tender.

 

There were four ships in port that day, so patience was required when getting around and returing to the pier. But the cruiselines handle things well, with guides to direct you, and water and lemondade out while you wait. I was impressed with how they handle a difficult port, esp. with 3500 pax to move about.

[shopngolf]

Getting on and off at the islands was a breeze. It was embarking and disembarking I was displeased with. We waited just about 2 & 1/2 hours getting on and close to 3 to get off in a very disorganized state...with kids it was not real pleasant!! I'm sure for US citizens it was less, we are Canadian and had to wait in the line where everyone other nationality had to be photographed and fingerprinted. We should have probably been included with the US citizens.

 

We had no problem making our 9:15 meeting for our tour, in fact we were early!

 

Turtle farm was less than $20 entrance for 3 adults and 2 children. Cab ride is about $15. We hitched a ride back with a tour bus who didn't charge anything. we gave him a nice tip!!!

[Casachic]

I was on it too...Did not meet anyone (i was napping a lot!). It really was terrible embarking. I got off the ship very quickly (i was outside of customs by 8:30)

 

I did the Peat Taylor tour in Jamaica. It was wonderful.

 

I did not have to wait at all to disembark on the islands.

 

The seas were choppy but not too too terrible.

[bridetobe(m)]

It sounds like there are a lot of kids on the ship. Would you recommend this cruise for a Honeymoon?

[shopngolf]

There were just over 300 kids on board including our 2. I can honestly say I would have guessed there to be maybe 50. We just didn't see that many and weren't bothered by anyone elses kids. I would say they must have been relatively well behaved or well spread out because honestly we were unaffected. People do their own thing on board and I think couples have a marvellous time without children as you can take in the evening entertainment. We are a pretty close family and wanted our children there. We all had a wonderful time---definitely a trip of a life time for anyone!!!

 

PS> We heard that on spring breaks and holidays like this week there are up to 1000 kids on board--might be a different story!!:rolleyes:

[PARNAMI]

Yeah..this week, there's just shy of 900 kids on board..and I hear they're monsters with nary a parent in sight! :( And the week's still young!

[k2]

Hi there! Can you please tell me a little more about the embarking and disembarking process? We were just notified that it is taking alot longer (RCCL). Do you know what time they started boarding the ship? What time did you get in line? How long were the lines? Did this delay the muster or mess up first seating dining? How about disembarking...What time can I expect to be off (we have prearrange 10am transportation)? We are US citizens (I think that someone mentioned it makes a difference). I would appreciate anything that you can tell me. :confused:

[cmason]

Getting on the ship was delayed because of the delays from the previous pax getting off (imagration). We arrived at 10:30am, waited an hour, then entered the terminal, where we waited another hour or so to get on the ship. It wasnt that bad. If you arrive around 3pm, you can likely just walk on board.

 

Getting off I thought was MUCH better handled than my last cruise. The windjammer was open for breakfast, and you could wait most anywhere before disembarking, but they only call tag colors in the Theater and Studio B. My last cruise only the dining room was open for breakfast, and we had assigned waiting locations, which was awful and did not have room for folks to sit. Anyway, we ate a leisurly breakfast, then waited up on deck, getting the last minute suntan, waiting for our time to leave. We had some a color somewhere in the middle of the pack, and they announced it about 30 mins after the stated, estimated time. BTW, they actually printed the estimated disembarking times per color in the Compass!

 

Once off, it was about 45mins total to get thru customs and wait for baggage. We were at the airport by 11:00am, and we got off the ship just before 10am.

[k2]

Thank you! How were the lines at about 11:30? How late was the Windjammer open for lunch? We are hoping to get on, have a late lunch and tour the ship before it is too packed. That is why we like to be amoung the first to get on. Did they still take your checked bags at the curb when you got there at 10:30? Thanks Again for the info!

[cmason]

We arrived at 10:30am,and the porters took our luggage right away. We were eating lunch at around 1:30pm, so it took a while to get on board. At 11:30am, the lines were massive, at least within the terminal. Two long lines snaked thru the terminal backing up to security. Now this may be unusual due to some specific circumstance that day, who knows?

 

Windjammer was open until 3pm for Lunch, but continues serving food till 5pm, only a more limited menu from 3-5pm. Due to the lines and the mass of folks getting on, we figured that the Windjammer would be packed, but it wasn't. We dropped out bags in our room and ran up to lunch, but it never got completely packed.

[Tjukka]

It is going much faster now but it is homeland security that delays it . No the Ship.

 

Tj

[avuncular57]

hi,

 

we were on the same cruise. i wasn't terribly excited about the concept, but we all had a wonderful time. everything went well getting on and off the ship, the food was pretty good to very good, service was excellent (we had James, table 372 in the Nutcracker - what a terrific guy!), our cabin was awesome, the ride was smooth. my sis-in-law wore out the spa, my wife and i wore out the gym (which was EXCELLENT, and which offered the driver's seat view of the ocean), my daughter and i used the sports court to play HORSE late night (she was the girl practicing piano in Cloud Nine, btw), we all enjoyed the ice show, and my daughter and i enjoyed checking out the variety of musicians on board (who ranged from fantastic to, mmmm, best enjoyed after many drinks). the children aboard were well-behaved, the adults were well-behaved, everything was just grand. (i'm afraid to go again after reading these boards!).

 

excursion-wise, we simply chilled on labadee and enjoyed the dance show and the beach. ocho rios we hired a cab-for-the-day, went to dunn's river falls and hired a guy to help take our party of five to the top (one of our number is less than athletic, but game), then he took us to a roadside restaurant called BiBiBip's for an open air meal -- small and expensive, but really fine -- at a table overlooking the coast below from a height of maybe 200 feet. terrific service, very hospitable. we'd planned to go into the mountains, but lingered too long. incidentally, if you find yourself in the shopping area and are approached by a one-legged man with a guitar, hire him for a dollar to sing a song -- he's good! grand cayman, we got off the boat and hired a private tour on the street. i think we could've done better -- crowded boat -- but our group wound up on the roof, and that was fun. guides were terrific, stingrays were fun, and so on.cozumel was our favorite place - we hired a cab to chankanaab state park, rented some $5 snorkel gear and spent the day! what fun, what clear waters! lunch at the open-air restaurant was out-of-sight, and frankly, we just ordered appetizers which were MORE than enough food. (be brave and go for the ceviche!) the last day at sea was just wonderful -- everyone was sunning themselves, happy and content, the bands playing.

 

so, yeah, i guess there were some things that might bug some folks based on what i've seen on these boards, but anything we didn't like -- there was something else nearby we did.

 

i'll be happy to field any questions. my perspective may be a little different than some folks, and i'll be candid about anything i'm asked directly. oh, yeah, my daughter's 11, and the listed activities for the 9 - 11 year olds were too juvenile, and the ones for 12 - 14 year olds too, mmm, racy, so she hung with us throughout. i'm happy she did -- we don't want to get away from her!