Navigator Food Choices (Seeking Opinions)

Greetings,

We will be taking our first RCI cruise in October, and wanted to get a general overview of recent opinions on which venues are not to be missed on our trip. We will be doing 7 days, Roatan, Belize, Cozumel...

The Mexican place (Sabor IIRC) sounds good... what does everyone think? I LOVE food (see video below), sadly for my waistline... but it is a cruise highlight for me....

Sabor is great.

On that itinerary we did "Lamanai & New River" (ship's tour as it's lengthy) in Belize, went with Victor Bodden in Roatan, http://boddentours.com/ and just wandered around in Cozumel. Navagator is a fine ship.

Thanks for the feedback. I will look into those tours you mentioned. Sabor looks interesting to me, since I currently live in Arizona, and am a huge fan of Mexican-style food.

Anyone else have any food input?

Greetings,

 

We will be taking our first RCI cruise in October, and wanted to get a general overview of recent opinions on which venues are not to be missed on our trip. We will be doing 7 days, Roatan, Belize, Cozumel...

 

The Mexican place (Sabor IIRC) sounds good... what does everyone think? I LOVE food (see video below), sadly for my waistline... but it is a cruise highlight for me....

I was pleasantly surprised with lunch on Sabor.

Greetings,

 

We will be taking our first RCI cruise in October, and wanted to get a general overview of recent opinions on which venues are not to be missed on our trip. We will be doing 7 days, Roatan, Belize, Cozumel...

 

The Mexican place (Sabor IIRC) sounds good... what does everyone think? I LOVE food (see video below), sadly for my waistline... but it is a cruise highlight for me....

We enjoyed both Sabor and Giovanni's Table. We ate at both twice last year and plan to do the same this year. Great wait staff at both.

Chops Grille was OK but seemed a little overpriced to me.

We did not try Izumi or Johnny Rockets.

Curt

Thanks, Lurch and BillOh. I appreciate you taking the time to provide feedback.

For us, Sabor is always great on Navigator.

Last cruise we planned for two nights at Giovanni's since my wife loves it on Allure/Oasis, but it was so bad the first night that we cancelled the 2nd reservation and went to Chops instead. We told the Chops waiter about our unpleasant experience at Giovanni's, and how we were worried about Chops due to some less than stellar reviews lately, and they delivered our best experience at Chops ever.

Johnny Rockets is Johnny Rockets, it does the trick if you get a craving for a burger and fries. It's better than the Windjammer burgers, but it's nowhere near the upscale burger joints that are popping up everywhere.

Haven't done Izumi on Navigator.

I love all the food options on Navigator. Giovanni's Table is open for lunch on sea days and lasagna is on the menu (not available at dinner). For dinner at GT there is a filet available that is very good( it's as good or better than Chops).Sabor is also open for lunch on the 2nd and 3rd sea days. Lunch for both is less expensive than dinner. I usually eat lunch and dinner at both GT and Sabor during the cruise. I also like Izumi. It is also open for lunch on sea days. At dinner you can cook your own meat on Hot Rocks. I happen to like the new Chops menu. I have trouble deciding which appetizers to order. The grilled pepper bacon is my favorite. I just got back from the butcher shop where I purchased pork belly to try to duplicate it tonight[emoji1]Johnny Rockets is always fun. I'm doing a B2B in September on NV and I'm looking forward to the restaurants.

Sabor is a very good restaurant and I agree with those who say that perhaps a better value for lunch than for dinner.

We really enjoyed Giovani's. It was SO reasonable for lunch and WAY too much food. We honestly thought it was better than Chops.

I haven't been on the Navigator, but I ate at Sabor on the Oasis and it was excellent. I am also a fan of Izumi.

Such great responses. Thanks, everyone for the feedback. If I hadn't just returned from eating too much lunch, I would probably be drooling. :)

We have done all the specialty a few times except for Saber, Giovanni's is our favorite and Izumi is a close second, best bargain by far was they were only charging 12 dollars for a 4 course lunch at Giovanni's but that is only open for lunch on sea days. While we have never done Saber most of the people we have talked to loved it. Have a great cruise

Thanks, George C... We will have a great time, for sure.

Food included -- no extra charge:

* MDR (main dining room) breakfast, lunch (sea days) and dinner

* Buffet (Windjammer) deck 11

* Cafe Promenade (deck 5) open just about all the time

* Soft serve yogurt -- back part of pool deck 11 starboard side (opens around 11am I think)

* Room service (but a tip is recommended -- a couple of dollars or so)

* Sometimes there is a buffet in the pool area for lunch or a late night party, but the lines can be long and slow

Food for extra charge:

* Johnny Rockets (burgers)

* Izumi (Asian -- deck 14)

* Sabor (Mexican -- deck 4)

* Chops (steak -- deck 11)

* Giovanni's (Italian -- deck 11)

* Ben & Jerry's (ice cream -- deck 5)

* Specialty coffee (deck 5 -- the bar in front of Cafe Promenade)

* Whole lobster and Chop's fillet steak in the MDR (lobster tail "fisherman's plate" on Friday is no charge).

* Specialty coffee drinks in the MDR (menu says "bar price" -- some people don't see this)

I'm happy with the "free" food. You'll find others who only eat in the "pay" places, and others who do a mix of both.

Free drinks are both non-alcoholic and non-carbonated -- eg: coffee, tea, milk, punch, hot chocolate (packets)

Alcoholic drinks and carbonated drinks (cokes) are extra.

Note...Free champagne at the Captain's party deck 5 Monday evening.

Thanks, Jimnbigd.

That is a very nice, concise list. I am one of the people that normally just enjoys the "free" food, but thought it would be worth it to find out the other options as well. The other lines I have been on are arranged in a similar fashion, with the free vs non-free drinks.

I look forward (always) to checking out a new ship, and a new line... I like seeing the differences and similarities between them.

MDR - pretty good for the most part. Never had a "bad" meal there.

Windjammer - some items really stood out as great, some were so-so, others

were like WTH???

Giovanni's - best meal we had all week. Our experience was excellent.

Johnny Rockets - Won't spend my money there again. Burger was OK, but when

we have much better choices available at home (Fatburger, Stuft, Good

Times, Steak & Shake, Five Guys, Freddy's, Carl's Jr, and yes, even Wendy's - Sadly, no In 'N Out here).

And, my guilty pleasure, donuts, were few and far between on Freedom, and had withdrawal symptoms all week. Maybe RCI needs to add either a Krispy Kreme, LaMar's, or Tim Horton's franchise to satisfy the donut cravings.

Ben and Jerry's, of course, had excellent ice cream/sorbet, and the prices weren't that much higher than on land.

Sorrento's - so-so pizza - tasted sort of like a DiGiornio pizza with 1/3 of the sauce - edible, but not great - Carnival and Princess had much better pizza.

Cafe Promenade - Coffee was Seattle's Worst, sandwiches - didn't care too much for any of them. Desserts there were hit or miss.

Desserts do not seem to be a strong suit for RCI, though their cookies tend to be pretty good. There was one alcoholic dessert at Giovanni's that was to die for (besides their awesome cannolis). I think it was a brandy and cream layered cake type dessert - really good.

No Sorrento's on Voyager class ships (Navigator). Pizza is usually available at Cafe Promenade.

No Sorrento's on Voyager class ships (Navigator). Pizza is usually available at Cafe Promenade.

You're correct. Sorry, was recalling the options on Freedom.

Can you tell me which nights tend to be the formal nights? Also based on this thread I am assuming that we should go to Giovanni's if we decide to try one of the restaurants for a fee.

Thanks in advance

I'm going to give the MDR a little love here. On night 1 we gave high marks to the salmon and mojo pork chop. For dessert that night, we both loved the carrot cake.

On night 2, we have always loved the filet of beef tenderloin.

Out of Galveston, Navigators formal nights are on Monday and Friday.

I have been on Navigator several times and have dined in all of its restaurants on more than one occasion.

Sabor is great. It is truly a lot of food and all of it is delicious.

Izumi is great if you love sushi.

Chops is great, but not as great as used to be prior to the menu change.

Giovanni's is okay, I've only had it for Lunch. I was a bigger fan of Portofino's.

Johnny Rockets, better than the burger on the MDR menu or in Windjammer, but that doesn't say much. I've only ever ate at Johnny Rockets on the second week of a Back to Back.

One other thing I'd like to mention is Navigator has Sushi making, Pasta making, and Guacamole making classes on the sea days. I have done the Sushi making class and it's a decent deal at $25 per person for 3 different rolls(california, spicy tempura shrimp, and spicy tuna) and a single shrimp nigiri.

The pasta and guac classes aren't as good of deal because they are priced like normal sea day lunch prices. The guac class is only offered on the first sea day, IIRC it is up to 50 people. Pasta and Sushi are offered twice a day on the first and last sea days with 20 people max per session.

Finally, the food/menu is pretty decent in the MDR on Nights 1, 2, 3, and 6. Not so much on 4, 5, and 7. If you are going to splurge on speciality restaurants I'd suggest those nights or lunch on sea days.

Why would anyone need to take a guacamole making class? That is a little silly even though I absolutely love guac. And if the price is the cost of a normal lunch and all you end up with is some guac? Seems a little odd.

We will be on a 12 night Baltic next summer. I have never paid extra for food on a cruise but on a 12 night I am pretty sure I will get tired of the MDR and the buffet day after day for 3 meals so we will probably check out Giovanni's and Sabor, at least.

Why would anyone need to take a guacamole making class? That is a little silly even though I absolutely love guac. And if the price is the cost of a normal lunch and all you end up with is some guac? Seems a little odd.

 

We will be on a 12 night Baltic next summer. I have never paid extra for food on a cruise but on a 12 night I am pretty sure I will get tired of the MDR and the buffet day after day for 3 meals so we will probably check out Giovanni's and Sabor, at least.

From what I understand, you get to make guac using their recipe(which is really good) and get to order whatever else you want from the menu. There may also be a free drink involved as well.

From what I understand, you get to make guac using their recipe(which is really good) and get to order whatever else you want from the menu. There may also be a free drink involved as well.

Well that isn't so bad, if you get to order more food. A drink included is even better. If that's the case then I may sign up. lol