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Is Navigator of the Seas that awful?


tobyt
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Thank you all so much for the feedback! Any thoughts on number of children and impact on this ship? We have never had an issue and have travelled in March before. I would think with a 9 day I would suspect even less even in the busy March timeframe.

I think hubby and I will go regardless.....I just love the length and islands option!

 

 

 

Yes, typically the longer the cruise the less children. It is during spring break time frame but the longer itinerary should help reduce the ship being overrun with children

 

Dan

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Playstore is showing a Tapatalk & Tapatalk Pro ( $2.99 ) both 100,000 forums. I need to think about how much I will use this app.

 

Gay

If it's $3 for the version without ads, that would be a no-brainer for me.

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Just got off the 9 night ABC Islands cruise on Navigator in November.

 

You'll love it. The itinerary is by the far the best cruise we've ever done. Navigator is big but not so big that you get lost or overwhelmed. The staff was excellent, very friendly and knowledgeable and a lot of fun. The cruise director was great. We loved going to the pub in the promenade before dinner every day and getting a beer.

 

The food was the only negative we had. It was good, but not amazing. It wasn't as good as the food on the Grandeur or Empress, and was on par with Independence (our recent sailings).

 

Definitely try Izumi, Sabor and Giovanni's Table -- all of which were amazing and well worth the price.

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I've not sailed Nav, but from what I have seen, her glory days seem to be over, as shown by her being relegated to the 3 and 4 night Bahamas cruises as of next year. It sounds like a refurb will be much welcome. Adventure is looking great after her thousandth dry dock, so hopefully the same for the Nav.

 

Which ship is replacing the Navigator for long ABC cruises from Florida? Do we know yet? I definitely want to do that itinerary again but I wouldn't mind going to a different ship.

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Which ship is replacing the Navigator for long ABC cruises from Florida? Do we know yet? I definitely want to do that itinerary again but I wouldn't mind going to a different ship.

 

Looking at Jan - April 2020 itineraries it is the Explorer out of Miami doing the same 9 nights. The Adventure also does a few 8 nights to the ABC's out of Ft. Lauderdale during the same timeframe.

 

Dan

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Which ship is replacing the Navigator for long ABC cruises from Florida? Do we know yet? I definitely want to do that itinerary again but I wouldn't mind going to a different ship.

 

Celebrity is sailing the new ship Edge 9 nights out of FLL to Caymans first then the ABC's. Yes, I'm on it as well as this December's NOS trip to ABC's...

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For the theme nights in Windjammer the following themes have occurred

 

Mongolian

Steam Boat

Italian Corner

Mexican Corner

Carribean

English Night

 

You'll likely also see

Seafood Night

Backyard BBQ night

Best of Themes night

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Re theme nights in Windjammer, is all the food offered related to the theme? Or will they also have other offerings in case we don't enjoy Mexican food, for example?

By the way, what is Steamboat? No Chinese or Indian nights?

Thanks

They will have other food besides that which is theme related.

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Thanks for the info on the WJ theme nights.

Another question for anyone on or recently on Navigator of the seas?

I have just double checked the smoking policy FAQs on the RCI website where it states that smoking is allowed on the starboard side of the outside decks, apart from Oasis class.

However I have just been browsing through some posts showing the daily ?Compass leaflets from a Navigator cruise in November 2017 and it says on them that smoking is allowed on the port side, not starboard!

I went to a great deal of trouble finding and booking a stateroom on what is supposed to be the smoke free side of the ship! Can anyone reassure me?

Thanks

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I went to a great deal of trouble finding and booking a stateroom on what is supposed to be the smoke free side of the ship! Can anyone reassure me?

 

Thanks

 

Smoking is on the port side but on deck 11 - you will be fine on decks below that.

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We are doing the TA now. Nice weather, very calm. Food in mdr hit or miss. Strip steak terrible. Something like pot roast cut to a steak. Better have good teeth to chew it. Tiger prawns were inedible, just a mess where the shells were on and the batter was outside the shells and almost no meat after you work through the glob of shell and coating. Did Giovannis and pretty good and chops was better but both good. The bread and baked goods worse than other ships .

The staff on the ship has been great if not exceptional. Voom streaming is bad if streaming and worse if regular. I get 1 to 1 1/2 mbs streaming with ping of 1200-1500. You can stream youtube some of the time but no real,streaming. They will credit days you get nothing if you complain. They advertise it like a sports car that you buy and top speed is 5miles per hr.

The activities have not interested us other than 2 fair lectures. None of the shows interest us either. The walking deck on 4 is better since the wind on the track on 12 is challenging . Almost no kids and very quiet.

We tried the diamond lounge for drinks first night. Just too many people so we do schooner usually or have wine with our early dinner. Did the specialty coffee , fair. As everybody agrees windjammer is better than used to be and usually has something decent and tends to be better than MDR. I am trying to diet so the weak food has me eating less than previous cruises.

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Put us down for one more family that did the 9 day ABC on Navigator about a month ago. Overall, the ship was really well maintained.

 

Disclaimer: we tried the all-specialty-dining package for the first time and didn't eat in the dining room at all. The food quality in Navigator's Sabor might be the best of all we've tried (for example, the chicken stuffed jalapenos are often really dry and here they were consistently moist and terrific) and Izumi's on Navigator might be the best run specialty restaurant we've tried on Royal period (great service, consistently high food quality, etc.)

 

OP, if you like the itinerary you can't go wrong with this.

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We did this cruise this past March 16th. We had a great time. Excellent cabin attendant. Excellent bartenders. Excellent waiters in the dining room. Entertainment options can’t compare to Oasis class, but we still had a great time. There were not a lot of kids on this particular sailing.

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Put us down for one more family that did the 9 day ABC on Navigator about a month ago. Overall, the ship was really well maintained.

 

Disclaimer: we tried the all-specialty-dining package for the first time and didn't eat in the dining room at all. The food quality in Navigator's Sabor might be the best of all we've tried (for example, the chicken stuffed jalapenos are often really dry and here they were consistently moist and terrific) and Izumi's on Navigator might be the best run specialty restaurant we've tried on Royal period (great service, consistently high food quality, etc.)

 

OP, if you like the itinerary you can't go wrong with this.

 

 

 

My husband and I will be on the Navigator in September for 14 nights. When I read the exclusions for the Specialty dining package it states $35 dollars for the al a carte restaurants. I called RC and they couldn't tell me that it was 35 a day for those restaurants or 35 once. Without the Sushi restaurant or the Mexican restaurant it isn't worth it for us as we don't eat a lot of Italian food. Were you able to go to the al a carte restaurants daily if you wish?

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We are considering a 9 day to the ABC islands next March with some non cruising friends. As the planner of the group I am growing fearful with the awful reviews of late. We know this is not the newest, largest or the shinest of ships but since it is going for a refurbish next January curious what is so awful? Many of the latest reviews seem to be about the new menus but since that is a fleet wide change and could change again by 2019 I am trying to be open minded. Please help me if there are enough redeeming qualities on this ship please chime in!
You have cruised enough to know that any cruise is generally what you choose to make of it. I have read several reviews of ships this past March where people were complaining about the number of kids onboard. Duh? Some even complained that the cruise line (Brilliance of the Seas) did not warn them about this. Well since Easter falls in March as does many spring breaks then maybe the folks should have thought that through.

 

I know that was not the gist of your concern but "negative reviews" are such an eye of the beholder kind of thing.

 

Food is so subjective. We cruised on the Brilliance in March and had great food. We cruised her in March 2 spring breaks ago. We felt like the food was better this time than before. It was not bad before but it really stood out to us this trip....go figure.

 

One of our best cruisers ever was on the Navigator over New Years' '16. Great food. Wonderful beds. Just a great trip.

 

We went from the Oasis this past December to the Brilliance this past March with teenagers fearing that after the Oasis that there might be a let down. Not the case. It was a different cruise but then again they all are. Headed back to the Oasis this December.

 

To me unless one were to get sick, it would be tough not to have a great vacation on a cruise ship.....especially, if you are with good friends as you mentioned you might be doing on the Navigator.

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You have cruised enough to know that any cruise is generally what you choose to make of it. I have read several reviews of ships this past March where people were complaining about the number of kids onboard. Duh? Some even complained that the cruise line (Brilliance of the Seas) did not warn them about this. Well since Easter falls in March as does many spring breaks then maybe the folks should have thought that through.

 

I know that was not the gist of your concern but "negative reviews" are such an eye of the beholder kind of thing.

 

Food is so subjective. We cruised on the Brilliance in March and had great food. We cruised her in March 2 spring breaks ago. We felt like the food was better this time than before. It was not bad before but it really stood out to us this trip....go figure.

 

One of our best cruisers ever was on the Navigator over New Years' '16. Great food. Wonderful beds. Just a great trip.

 

We went from the Oasis this past December to the Brilliance this past March with teenagers fearing that after the Oasis that there might be a let down. Not the case. It was a different cruise but then again they all are. Headed back to the Oasis this December.

 

To me unless one were to get sick, it would be tough not to have a great vacation on a cruise ship.....especially, if you are with good friends as you mentioned you might be doing on the Navigator.

Everyone likes different things and it is usually the complainers who are more likely to review.

The Royal Promenade on that class of ship is fantastic so i would take bad reviews lightly.

 

Sent from my Kestrel using Forums mobile app

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