My View: The ABC Islands on Navigator of the Seas (A picture heavy trip report)

I finally made it to the flowrider during advanced stand up surfing:

Impressive jump (or whatever technical term there may be for this move)!

On the last sea day, we were invited to the behind the scenes Theater Experience. It was interesting and okay to do one time, but the talk before the tour was way too long. I wish they would do a shortened introduction, then the backstage tour. That way you can stay behind if you have questions or want more technical information. It was a bit disorganized, because the person who usually presents the information was late due to a meeting. So, some of the information was repeated. I will probably only do this again if it is offered on an Oasis class ship.

Backstage pictures:

Note the green bottle on the shelf. It is ‘vodka water’ (yes, a mix of vodka and water). They use this to clean costumes between performances. It gets rid of odors and helps preserve the costumes by not washing them every time.

Let’s take a tour to a few more areas on the ship. For those who do not know, there is a place where you can look down on the action on the bridge. Unfortunately, the blinds were closed when we got there on this cruise:

On our previous cruise on Navigator, we caught it open once. Here is a picture from that cruise:

Tip: To get to that overlook, you go through the Solarium to the outside, forward doors. In stead of going inside toward the spa, go outside and forward. Here is the port (left) side view to that door:

The library with pictures of games and books they have:

Johnny Rockets:

Izumi:

I have to borrow this post from my previous review of Navigator, as I forgot to take pictures of this area:

It was on this walk that we finally discovered the ship models - forward on deck 9:

 

 

 

 

 

APDMOM

My favorite view of the day… DH taking a nap on the balcony:

Sunset and the rise of the ’supermoon':

That blue feeling when you know it is the end of the cruise:

As my husband accurately dubbed the scene, "The Cruise Graveyard”. Those suitcases do look like headstones of the cruise:

Tip: We always take pictures of our suitcases before boarding and disembarking - just in case they get lost:

That is it for tonight. I will post our Miami views, disembarkation experience, and more tips tomorrow.

Thank you for coming along on our voyage :)

By the way... today, we re-priced the cruise we had booked while on Navigator. The price dropped by almost $200. I was very surprised, as it is now only $2593 (taxes included) for 3 in an oceanview balcony on Harmony! I did not think we would ever see those kinds of prices again. We keep our $200 OBC also! :)

Sent from my iPad using Forums

A wonderful review Pictures are great!

Loving your review. Thanks for sharing your cruise and all the great pictures. I'm curious..how do you get invited to backstage tours? My daughter and I would find that so interesting.

Sent from my ONEPLUS A3000 using Tapatalk

 

Sunset and the rise of the ’supermoon':

 

That's a nice shot of the better than average moon. I can verify this was definitely taken south of North America.

That is it for tonight. I will post our Miami views, disembarkation experience, and more tips tomorrow.

 

Thank you for coming along on our voyage :)

 

By the way... today, we re-priced the cruise we had booked while on Navigator. The price dropped by almost $200. I was very surprised, as it is now only $2593 (taxes included) for 3 in an oceanview balcony on Harmony! I did not think we would ever see those kinds of prices again. We keep our $200 OBC also! :)

 

Sent from my iPad using Forums

A big thank you for your review and wonderful pics! Looking forward to this itinerary in March!! BTW, our friends booked an ocean view balcony on Harmony for October, 2019 priced under $2k!!:') Not sure what she did or didn't include though. We booked the last aft BW balcony (we love that location) and paid $2,371.70 including all taxes, tips and insurance, and the BW cabins include the soda package x2 and a lunch @ JR. Our friend's cabin was cheaper than ours but we really like that location, since you can watch the aqua shows from the balcony, as well as see the ocean out the back!:hearteyes: Again, thanks for your wonderful review!!:*

Loving your review. Thanks for sharing your cruise and all the great pictures. I'm curious..how do you get invited to backstage tours? My daughter and I would find that so interesting.

 

Sent from my ONEPLUS A3000 using Tapatalk

It was one of the Diamond, Diamond plus, and Pinacle benefits. We received a card with the time and meeting place in iur cabin.

That's a nice shot of the better than average moon. I can verify this was definitely taken south of North America.

Now I need to know your trick. :D I only know it was taken south of North America because I was there.

A big thank you for your review and wonderful pics! Looking forward to this itinerary in March!! BTW, our friends booked an ocean view balcony on Harmony for October, 2019 priced under $2k!!:') Not sure what she did or didn't include though. We booked the last aft BW balcony (we love that location) and paid $2,371.70 including all taxes, tips and insurance, and the BW cabins include the soda package x2 and a lunch @ JR. Our friend's cabin was cheaper than ours but we really like that location, since you can watch the aqua shows from the balcony, as well as see the ocean out the back!:hearteyes: Again, thanks for your wonderful review!!:*

Thank you for the kind words!

Which deck did you book for the BW? We love that last one on deck 12. Oceanview balcony was also cheaper than BW for our booking. Under 2K sounds about similar to what we are paying, as our price is for 3. It is interesting that Harmony is so "cheap" in 2019... I am not going to complain about that ;)

My view: Debarkation day in Miami

We arrived in port pretty early and I enjoyed some final views from the balcony. Full moon setting over Miami:

We saw the arrival of three other ships.

Carnival Splendor:

NCL Getaway, which is on my "to do" list... :D

Seabourn Sojourn:

Beautiful yacht... but I still prefer cruising!

My final Miami Dawn views:

In stark contrast to our embarkation experience, debarkation was a breeze! We always eat our final breakfast in the main dining room, as we like to end our cruise on a more relaxed note. MDR:

Our luggage tags/debarkation numbers were called about 10 minutes early, while we were just finishing up breakfast. We walked off the ship without any line to hear that final "ding", got our luggage off the carousel, and went through a short line at customs within 5 minutes. Since the carousel only gets loaded with luggage tags that got called, we did not run into any of the problems we usually face when people disembark before their numbers are called (that just congests the customs lines and luggage hall). I wish all ports would go to this system.

In summary: I can definitely recommend this itinerary and all the excursions we took. It was a very memorable cruise, made extra special by the amazing roll call members we met.

Coming up next are some cabin tips.

Sent from my iPad using Forums

Cabin tips have been gathered over the years from right here on Cruise Critic.

But first, we often get the question about how cold the "fridge" gets in the room. We always travel with this thermometer, so I put it in the fridge for about 6 hours, with the following readout(53-55F):

I bought these magnetic hooks with soft back on Amazon a few years ago. They help save space and are handy for hanging hats, jackets, belts, a flashlight by the bed, and our beach bag:

I always pack clothing pegs to secure swim wear to the chair on the balcony for drying:

Put a rag in the soap dish to keep your razor and shampoo/soap bottles from falling/slipping.

There is extra storage behind the mirrors, both in the bathroom and the cabin:

Our luggage fit under the bed for storage.

You can ask your room steward for extra hangers, but we usually pack a few disposable plastic hangers that we got for free from department stores.

This is officially the end of my views of this cruise. I may find a few things to mention as I clean up paperwork over the weekend. For now, thank you for reading along!

I hope you enjoy your future adventures in cruising and never forget what an amazing privilege it is. "See" you on Epic when I share those views in March!