Recently got off the Navigator & wanted to post some insight & answer questions

Thank you for the review. I have one question. Do the cabins have alarm clocks? On previous ships they didn't hoping they put them in the rooms during the refurbish.

We order room service (coffee, juice, Danish, cereal) and they call 20 minutes before they arrive to make sure you are in your room. Works for us.

Sailing on the Navigator in 15 days! How were the beds & pillows?

We were on the Navigator last month. I slept very well. My wife didn't get much sleep at all. She said the bed was "as hard as a cement slab."

Beds are another one of those "subjective" topics where everyone has an opinion based on their likes/preferences. I like a firm bed. She doesn't. :D

Happy sailing!

Thank you for the review. I have one question. Do the cabins have alarm clocks? On previous ships they didn't hoping they put them in the rooms during the refurbish.

No and the room wake up call didn't work (or we didn't do it right one morning) that is one reason I was happy for the $10 watch sale, I needed a throw away :)

It did come with a blow dryer.

Thanks for the review. I'm curious...how do you know which are the booze cruises? Is the size of the ship, the itinerary (i.e. trans-anything is less likely to be boozy?), or something else. Thanks!

This is just IMHO - booze cruises seem to be Carnival's shorter cruises. It's a younger crowd (they can afford the 3 - 4 days at sea) Not usually the 7 days or longer.

It's nice of you to take your mom on a cruise, Glad yall had a good time. Hope I'm still cruising at age 82 :D

Nice review so far!

Check out this post for help on adding images to your posts: http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=1234944

Nice review so far!

 

Check out this post for help on adding images to your posts: http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=1234944

Someone suggested photobucket but they would only send a link to the whole album ?? so I am not sure how else to do it.

I wrote to Cruisecritic help and they said "Unfortunately this is a known issue that we have not been able to resolve as of yet. Sometimes members have luck after clearing their cookies."

Someone suggested photobucket but they would only send a link to the whole album ?? so I am not sure how else to do it.

 

I wrote to Cruisecritic help and they said "Unfortunately this is a known issue that we have not been able to resolve as of yet. Sometimes members have luck after clearing their cookies."

When you upload to photobucket and click on a single picture you've uploaded, you should see over to the right a field called something like "Direct URL". You can click in there to copy it, the paste it into the tags on the post here on CC.

When you see the image, double click on it. new menu with your photo, on right side, click on the "img" window. This will copy the image to your mouse. Log out, go to Cruise Critic's Test Forum, select New Thread, click on it. In the lower title, your choice, in the lower box, paste, now the image as : xxyfdck hhhtek or something like this, then click on the submit. Your image should appear. This is what I do. I open a word document and paste this there. Name it, then you can copy & paste to your message board. Good Luck.

I have our first trip on RCI scheduled on the NOS in October. I cannot wait. I am enjoying reading these reviews, and will be sure to post reviews when we return. Next up, though, is a 3 day HAL cruise from San Diego to Vancouver, to help hold us over until October.

We order room service (coffee, juice, Danish, cereal) and they call 20 minutes before they arrive to make sure you are in your room. Works for us.

Thank you :)

No and the room wake up call didn't work (or we didn't do it right one morning) that is one reason I was happy for the $10 watch sale, I needed a throw away :)

 

It did come with a blow dryer.

Thank you :) thinking about bringing a small alarm clock with me

I take a small digital alarm clock and it also makes a perfect night light. Also, the phones can be programed for wake up calls.

Mom & I did the Navigator of the Seas May 3 - 10, she is 82. I chose this ship because it is not the booze cruise some of the others are known for. I chose right. This was the PERFECT ship for both mom & me!

 

My 1st suggestion is, if you need to travel far, get there a night earlier. We did not. We traveled 1 hour to the airport then 3 hours to Houston then supposedly it was 90 minutes to the pier but with a 4 car pile up, that turned into 3 hours. By the time we were to finally get on board we were rather tired & had a 2 hour time difference.

 

We had a balcony room on the 8th floor and actually keep the door opened all the nights we were on the ship. You just can't open the inside door at the same time or you think your in a time tunnel. Things fly everywhere.

 

Yes, I took wine on board. I was worried about it on the airline but with 2 layers of bubble wrap, 2 plastic bags - they arrived safe. After the shuttle took us to the pier, I opened our larger suitcases and moved them into our carry on. That way we could declare them and not go to the naughty room. I also had stored a 6 pack of water, I wish I had taken more water but I couldn't because of the weight flying with the airlines.

 

Check in was pretty fast. As was the checking of our bottles of wine (they did not ask anything about the water) and I saw many with cases of water carrying in.

 

Away we went to our room to check it out and got introduced to our stateroom attendant, Florian Pinzon Mitchell. If you happen to get this guy, you are in LUCK. (tell him Joan & Cindy said hello) What a asset to this ship! He made mom and I & felt cared for, taken care of and like a valued guest ! (yes I put that in Royals comment survey after we got home)

 

The 1st night was low key for us as we were pretty tired from all the other travels.

 

The 2nd day we did the meet & greet and it was fun to catch up with *friends* I met here and those who helped with our questions. (Mom won a bottle of wine so now we're at 3 bottles). There was also a bottle of champagne on our room when we got there but we thought it was one of the pay as you use items. Found out on the 5th night that it was ours to drink or take home. Not sure how we deserved it but it was a nice surprise. Speaking of room items, the frig isn't a frig at all, it's a place they store items you can purchase. Cokes, candies and waters. I asked why it wasn't cold because I wanted to put the bottle mom won in there to chill it and we were told it does not get cold. The stateroom attendant will chill anything and return it when we wanted it.

 

The 3rd day was Cozumel, I didn't book any excursions because mom does not really want to do water things and we have traveled to Mexico a lot in the past. We just got off the ship and shopped a little.

 

Our 4th day I booked the helicopter ride, which was $189 per person. We got notice placed in our room after dinner that the excursion was cancelled and the money will be placed on our ship board credit. I was rather upset because the other tour I wanted was now sold out (the trolley). The next morning I was glad. It was pouring rain in Grand Cayman & we just waited on ship for a hour or two and it stopped. I found our later the helicopter was a 15 minute ride !! I had done a similar ride / price in Alaska and it was a couple hours long and landed on a glacier. I would of felt ripped off if I had gone for just 15 minutes.

 

The 5th day was Jamaica and we did the 1700'S GREAT HOUSE & PLANTATION TOUR WITH LUNCH. Let's just say I wouldn't do this again. 100's of people going there to start their tour & stop at this plantation and it is PACKED !! The River Tubing, the zipline, the Good Hope Great House, Amazing race, to name a few. I would of preferred a tour of the town or some real culture.

 

 

More to come later, if there is a interest ~ getting tired of typing

 

I can't seen to be able to attach pictures? Can anyone help me ?

Hi Joan and Cindy!!

We were the "other" mom and daughter duo from the meet and mingle! We should have won that game - the one we were paired up for!

Thank you for your review. We plan on taking this cruise in October. My only RCCL cruise was in 1996, so it has been a while.

So, the refrigerator thingy doesn't cool? We might have to re-think that.

Sorry, just thought of something else.

A co-worker had been on this ship, maybe 5 years ago. He said most of the food choices in the buffet and dining room were fish/seafood. Also, a lot of the food choices were items with "curry." Did you notice that? I'm allergic to fish/seafood, and curry does not agree with me. I'm mostly a salad and veggie person, but sometimes will eat steak or chicken.

Sorry, just thought of something else.

 

A co-worker had been on this ship, maybe 5 years ago. He said most of the food choices in the buffet and dining room were fish/seafood. Also, a lot of the food choices were items with "curry." Did you notice that? I'm allergic to fish/seafood, and curry does not agree with me. I'm mostly a salad and veggie person, but sometimes will eat steak or chicken.

We were on the NOS last month. We thought the food was very good, nothing like what your co-worker experienced. Maybe that person was on a different itinerary. Navigator has not always sailed exclusively from Galveston, TX.

The food in the buffet and MDR was a very good balance of different items and all were well prepared.

Thank you for your review. We plan on taking this cruise in October. My only RCCL cruise was in 1996, so it has been a while.

 

So, the refrigerator thingy doesn't cool? We might have to re-think that.

It keeps things cool enough for me....an open bottle of white wine or my water bottle for the gym or some cakes/fruit that I brought back from the buffet.

If you need something that keeps things colder, just request it from the Special Needs department. They will accommodate your need.

Houston traffic has a HUGE reputation for being horrendous!

I live in San Antonio, but if we are going to go through Houston heading East, we time our arrival into Houston either very early or very late.

Just know this and keep a heads up when leaving out of Galveston.

Thank you JimAOK and Paulette for your responses. I'm feeling better about our decision to try this ship. I'm stressing a little about driving to Galveston and getting to the pier. I'll continue to read about hotel and parking options. Thanks again for your responses.

Thank you JimAOK and Paulette for your responses. I'm feeling better about our decision to try this ship. I'm stressing a little about driving to Galveston and getting to the pier. I'll continue to read about hotel and parking options. Thanks again for your responses.

We sailed on Navigator back in 2004 on our very first cruise....we hardly remember specific things on the ship. What we did realize, was we had a great time. We cruised with 'seasoned cruisers' who are very dear friends, who kept telling us about everything -- but through the lens of their personal experiences. We stopped listening to them during the cruise and did what ever we wanted and had fun, I guess....since we have been cruising ever since -- on larger ships and smaller ones.

We have never sailed from Galveston, so I have no personal experience from there. We are sailing on Navigator again in Nov 2015, for a return to the scene of the crime....the crime of 'getting us hooked on sailing' -- not a bad crime to have committed.