ema773

Virgin Voyages earliest embarkation time is 1:30-2:00.  If Carnival waited until then for embarkation the rooms would be ready as well, but people would be complaining that boarding is too late.  If you want your room to be ready and your cards waiting for you then board at a later time.

We are new Celebrity cruisers having booked our first Celebrity today.  We have cruised Carnival, Royal and Norwegian enough to have pretty high status on all of them.  
 
We are looking for a change of pace, so we are going to see what Celebrity and Princess have to offer for our next couple of cruises.

25 minutes ago, toad455 said:

 

 

The 3/4 night cruises tend to be booze cruises regardless of the cruise line. Bunch of young kids looking to get wasted in a short timeframe.

I’ve been on two Navigator three day cruises since the restart.  Both were great cruises and I wouldn’t hesitate to book again.

One of my worries before the first one in December was the party atmosphere, but we saw absolutely none of that.  The second was in May just after college graduations and I was worried again, but again no partying.

Maybe we got lucky, but based on my experience I would say this is the exception rather than the norm.

2 hours ago, Cruzingal#9 said:

Was there a formal night?  We’re doing a 3 and 4 day B2B in two weeks and was wondering if there were any formal nights on the short cruises.

On the 3 night cruise formal night was the 2nd night.

21 minutes ago, claireruth said:

My husband and I are doing this cruise at the beginning of July...I just checked us in today!!  I'm also curious about the adults only pool area...was it pretty crowded?  I think most schools are still in session (we are also in Phoenix, and I know a lot of kids are done this week, and mine are done next), so that may change when we're on the ship since there might be more people in general.  I'm glad to know approximate travel times to the port, too.  We got an Airbnb for the night before, and it's near the Hyatt.  If you flew out of LAX, how was it getting back to the airport?  Our flight is at 11, but we want to take advantage of the Delta lounge beforehand. 🙂

The adult only pool area was busy, but there always seemed to be seats available.  
 

We were told by our head waiter that there were 2,500 on our 3 days sailing, but only 1,300 on the 4 night preceding ours.  
 

We flew in and out of Long Beach so I’m not much help with LAX.

39 minutes ago, britty1 said:

How was the adult only pool, was it also cold and was there any expectation of when the heaters will be repaired. We’re the water slides open.  Thank you for ant response.

 

 

There were several adults in the adult pool including my husband and FIL, but they were still very cold.  We did not hear when the heaters will be repaired.

The water slides were open all 3 days,  My husband used them Friday shortly after boarding with no lines,  When we walked back there Saturday the lines were halfway down the tower.

I don’t post too often, but I have obtained lots of useful information from Cruise Critic since the restart so I thought I would post a short synopsis and answer any questions about the Navigator.

We were a group of 5 who travelled from Phoenix to sail the 3 day Navigator cruise,  My husband and I sailed her in December 2021 but it was the others first time on board. 
 

We flew over the afternoon before and stayed at the Hyatt Regency Long Beach.  We find this to be a great pre-cruise for sailing from along Beach or San Pedro.  We left the hotel about 10:15 and arrived at the port around 10:30.  We were asked by an attendant our check-in time which was 11:00-11:30.  We were directed to the appropriate line and once we entered the line we did not stop moving until we were on the ship which was about 10:45.  
 

We ate in the MDR, Playmakers and the Windjammer.  We generally thought the food was great throughout the ship.  This was our first time being Diamond on Royal we found that we did not miss the drink package.

We did not see any shows, but they did not seem to be full shows but rather showcase of the casts.  In December there was Showgirls and ISkate, but this time they were advertised as see showcases by our casts.  
 

We did the La Bufadora tour in Ensenada.  It was a good time seeing the blowhole and doing a little shopping.  
 

Debarkation was very smooth.  We enjoyed a leisurely breakfast in the MDR and by the time we were finished at 8:30 our tag number has been called even though it was not estimated until 9:30.
 

One final note - The pool heater still appears to be broken.  There were few people in the pool and the hot tubs were packed with children.  We had beautiful weather, but not enough to make the pools swimmable.
 

I am happy to answer any questions you may have about the Navigator.  

Thank you!  Mine processed as well with the discount.  We aren’t sailing until 8/15, but wanted to get this excursion booked.

6 minutes ago, J0Y0US said:

I called again to get my ticket updated to include the information its everyone having the same issues with the same specific excursion. I also called out it doesnt have the name or overview of the excursion once you actually click in.

 

I think the excursion likely didn't have all the required information to "book" but the system never checked that info to just show up.

 

Hopefully this will help the excursion/IT team fix it. Still on hold while waiting for support to connect with my customer service person.

Thank you.  My other thought was the excursion is outside our port arrival window in Juneau that day.  I am wondering if the system thinks we can’t book it because we aren’t scheduled to be in a port at that time.  The person I spoke to said she was seeing a message that I had exceeded my allowable activities at that time.

1 hour ago, cuatthesea said:

JOYOUS and ema773, did you have any luck purchasing the Endicott Arm Fjord & Glacier Explorer excursion?

I have tried a couple of times today, but still no luck.

I don’t post often, but wanted to chime in that I had the same issue today trying to book an excursion that just appeared this morning also.  
 

I also called and they have opened a ticket as well.  I will report back if I hear anything.

BTW the excursion I am trying to book is Endicott Arm and Dawes Glacier Explorer.

I don’t post on Cruise Critic often, but my family was just in the Presidential Suite on the June 30, 2019 sailing.  We loved it.  We were 8 adults that shared the suite to celebrate my in-laws 50th anniversary.  We had plenty of room for all of us.  It was a great place to gather as a family.

My nephews were in interiors, but we were able to get them keys to access the room at any time which was really nice.

We didn’t really get any extra benefits other than what other suites get.  The real benefit was the suite itself.  

Fabio, the concierge, was able to get a table for all 13 of us after we were initially assigned to two separate tables which was really appreciated.

if you have specific questions please let me know.

We just got off the Bliss Panama Canal cruise.  The lowest limit for blackjack was $10.  The majority of the time the tables were NOT busy over the 15 days, but the limit was never lowered.

My husband and I sailed in the Garden Villa on the Star in Australia this year. My husband booked it as an upgrade. The ship lost total propulsion outside of Melbourne and had to be towed back to port, so we ended up cutting our cruise short by several days. We hated leaving the Garden Villa as we really enjoyed the extra space and butler service.

It did feel very strange staying there with just the two of us, but have decided if the opportunity presents itself we would love to do it again with our extended family.

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

Patrick Duffy is amazing. We have sailed with him twice and have loved every minute of it.

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Booked in an aft balcony on the Panama Canal, but not until March 2019. Can't wait.

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

We are also currently on the ship. There have been no meltdowns and no demonstrations that I have seen. The mood is generally upbeat with lots of passengers discussing their plans once we reach Melbourne.

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

I got the offer, we are just getting off of an NCL cruise two weeks prior so not in the cards for us.

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Because you never know what can happen. My husband and I were on a cruise and received word that my father died unexpectedly from a massive heart attack. We had to fly home from Cozumel. Could we afford it if we didn't have insurance? Sure, but why risk it? It made a painful situation a little less painful knowing everything was covered.

Fast forward 3 years later. On a cruise with my grandmother who falls and breaks a hip on the ship while docked in San Diego. Travel insurance covered her 6 week hospital stay and her subsequent air ambulance flight back to Iowa. Without insurance the family would have paid $25K -$30K for the flights.

We will never cruise without insurance now. The first cruise we bought insurance for was the one where my father passed away. We cruised 2 times previously without incident. We were lucky.

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk