This was my first Royal Caribbean cruise as I have sailed Carnival 5 times prior and wanted to try something new. Also my wife and I were celebrating a child-free 15th anniversary cruise.
First off, I will post as things come to mind but want to state that we really had a great time overall and will book on RC sometime in the future.
So let's get started: I liked how RC handled online checkin and printing of luggage tags, pretty self sufficient. The last time I sailed was in 2007 where Carnival would mail them to us but that was a long time ago and tech changes all the time.
Galveston port was the same as I remembered except we sailed out of terminal 2 this time.
Checking in was a breeze, we got there at 11:30 and were onboard, drink in hand by Noon.
We decided to walk the ship, something we like to do to get our bearings so we don't have any last minute scheduled items we would like to do but only panic when we can't find it :P
The ship is beautiful, a very different style than what we also equally enjoyed on prior cruises. The ship is enormous and navigating it, while i still always confused fore and aft, you can go the length of the ship from most floors and the new LCD navigation finders are awesome and came in handy! You can search anything and it will tell you how to get there.
This was our first RC cruise as i said so i can't really give comparisons as to other RC experiences or what has changed, but from a newbie's point of view, we were pleased with what was introduced to us as new and improved.
Starting with the Virtual Balcony. I read some other reviews but from the internet searching i had done for expectations i got what i expected it to be and a little more as I am a programmer by trade and enjoy new tech. It is a floor to ceiling LCD screen with remote to lower volume or turn it off and on. I have a youtube video if you wish to see a video of it in day and night mode and also when it does not work.
You can skip this part if you are not interested in the tech or issues with it.
First as I said it did work but for only a 1 1/2 days then it was nothing but Redhat Linux (operating system) network pushed home screens of the desktop to then dropping the signal all together to the LCD to then awaking to the same Linux desktop.
I was intrigued by it and love tech so I actually got to work with 3 IT guys from RC helping them debug its behavior. They were pleased with the details i gave and showed me how it worked.
First you have several cameras on deck and that is important because the video server sends the correct live image to your stateroom orientation or if it did not do this, you could experience sea sickness. Then it detects night and day mode which will change the CGI balcony rail and floor image to the appropriate light and shadow effect.
The video server to shorten does the appropriate conversion from outside cameras to the network which then pushes over Linux to your node LCD screen which is a little box inside the the bottom of the LCS behind a panel.
I like how RC pushes the edge with stuff like this no matter how corny it may be to some. To me when it worked, it was very useful, if i woke up at night it helped me gauge the time as when i had window or balcony rooms before. For example going to the bathroom at 6:30 yielded beautiful early morning scenes that then i knew the day was about to start vs having nothing but a clock. It was just really nice.
Navigator of the Seas Feb 5th review
in Royal Caribbean International
Posted
This was my first Royal Caribbean cruise as I have sailed Carnival 5 times prior and wanted to try something new. Also my wife and I were celebrating a child-free 15th anniversary cruise.
First off, I will post as things come to mind but want to state that we really had a great time overall and will book on RC sometime in the future.
So let's get started: I liked how RC handled online checkin and printing of luggage tags, pretty self sufficient. The last time I sailed was in 2007 where Carnival would mail them to us but that was a long time ago and tech changes all the time.
Galveston port was the same as I remembered except we sailed out of terminal 2 this time.
Checking in was a breeze, we got there at 11:30 and were onboard, drink in hand by Noon.
We decided to walk the ship, something we like to do to get our bearings so we don't have any last minute scheduled items we would like to do but only panic when we can't find it :P
The ship is beautiful, a very different style than what we also equally enjoyed on prior cruises. The ship is enormous and navigating it, while i still always confused fore and aft, you can go the length of the ship from most floors and the new LCD navigation finders are awesome and came in handy! You can search anything and it will tell you how to get there.
This was our first RC cruise as i said so i can't really give comparisons as to other RC experiences or what has changed, but from a newbie's point of view, we were pleased with what was introduced to us as new and improved.
Starting with the Virtual Balcony. I read some other reviews but from the internet searching i had done for expectations i got what i expected it to be and a little more as I am a programmer by trade and enjoy new tech. It is a floor to ceiling LCD screen with remote to lower volume or turn it off and on. I have a youtube video if you wish to see a video of it in day and night mode and also when it does not work.
You can skip this part if you are not interested in the tech or issues with it.
First as I said it did work but for only a 1 1/2 days then it was nothing but Redhat Linux (operating system) network pushed home screens of the desktop to then dropping the signal all together to the LCD to then awaking to the same Linux desktop.
I was intrigued by it and love tech so I actually got to work with 3 IT guys from RC helping them debug its behavior. They were pleased with the details i gave and showed me how it worked.
First you have several cameras on deck and that is important because the video server sends the correct live image to your stateroom orientation or if it did not do this, you could experience sea sickness. Then it detects night and day mode which will change the CGI balcony rail and floor image to the appropriate light and shadow effect.
The video server to shorten does the appropriate conversion from outside cameras to the network which then pushes over Linux to your node LCD screen which is a little box inside the the bottom of the LCS behind a panel.
I like how RC pushes the edge with stuff like this no matter how corny it may be to some. To me when it worked, it was very useful, if i woke up at night it helped me gauge the time as when i had window or balcony rooms before. For example going to the bathroom at 6:30 yielded beautiful early morning scenes that then i knew the day was about to start vs having nothing but a clock. It was just really nice.
more to come