Advice Indepedence or Navigator?help

I'm 21 never been on a cruise before, decided on one around europe for two weeks with my boyfriend but really can't decide i want to enjoy the ship but also explore.

Independence is bigger apparantly better,but for my age whats better i mean i know there will be lots of kids and family holiday stuff since there is a kids pool and I don't want to feel out of place as a young couple?

Also navigator stops in Florence and Rome till late(two main places I want to go) and stays in city's much later/arrives at port later so more opportunity to get up at a comfortable time,explore and expeirance night life in a few places.

The independence mostly arives port at 7am(who the hell is happy at that time) and leaves at 3pm /4pm which isn't long to enjoy places,however it does stay in a city (Palms de Mallorca)overnight which I'm not sure is like

Is independence really better/such a difference?

I would prefer Navigator. A bit smaller, with most all the bells and whistles that are in Indy.

While I agree with Bob - we like Navigator - you really need to pick by the itinerary and hours you are interested in. More time in ports is always a good thing. In the Med you will probably spend very little time onboard. We sailed from Rome so the travel time from the port to the city didn't matter, but it is about an hour and a half each way (yes, the train is a bit faster if you catch it at the right time). Shore excursions there are also very expensive.

If you have never been on a cruise then any ship is amazing, and you won't see the whole ship in even two weeks. Main pool deck and flow rider area had most kids but there is a quiet adult area with none.

Research the ports for each cruise, pick what you are most interested in, and then pick a cruise.

I agree, choose based on ports. Both ships are similar .

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We're currently having this debate also between 2nd Sept on Indy or 15th Sept on Navigator. We've been on Indy before and have been on both Adventure and Explorer which are sister ships to Indy. We also like to think we're a young(ish!) couple though are still over 10 years older than you (!) but I'll give you our views.

We loved Indy. It was our first cruise and got us hooked. Comparing it to Adventure when we got on board, at first glance we really didn't notice a huge difference. The Royal Promenade was slightly narrower maybe and there was one cafe/eatery short. Unless you literally get off one ship and on to the other it is not a massively noticeable difference.

The rest of the ships' facilities are very, very similar so there's not much to choose between them. If anything, Indy is almost identical, just ever so slightly supersized!

We always find things to do on board though rarely get involved with ship's organised activities (other than the M&M which is good fun, especially when you accidentally win ALL the good raffle prizes (sorry!)). We spend our days walking around the ship, playing shuffleboard (which is quite fun as you often get chatting to people walking round the deck each time they go past), we muck around on the sports court playing basketball, play table tennis (this can get quite vicious in our relationship!), play mini golf (again, rather competitive!), and of course relax. We have always had balcony cabins so sitting on the balcony just watching the sea go by and looking out for dolphins, etc, is one of my most favourite things to do.

Bottom line? There's nothing significantly different between the ships that I would say you should base your choice on, so choose the itinerary best for you. We're leaning towards Navigator because although the 2 choices we have are nearly identical, Genoa is more appealing than Marseilles.

Let us know what you choose!

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I'm 21 never been on a cruise before, decided on one around europe for two weeks with my boyfriend but really can't decide i want to enjoy the ship but also explore.

...

Also navigator stops in Florence and Rome till late(two main places I want to go) and stays in city's much later/arrives at port later so more opportunity to get up at a comfortable time,explore and expeirance night life in a few places...

It appears that you are interested in destinations in the Med. You list no home location, but a cruise out of Southampton to the Med wastes a lot of time (2.5 days both going and coming) on the often quite bouncy Bay of Biscay. As far as I can tell none of the cruises you are considering stop at Livorno (for Florence) or Civitavecchia (for Rome) for more than 12 hours. Allow 3 hours from docking (disembarkation and embarkation are 30-60 minutes after docking time) at either of those locations to get to the city, and 3 hours to get back - and that is assuming that EVERYTHING works perfectly. I love cruising, but sorry, this is NOT going to give you an opportunity to experience night life in those cities.

IMO rather than worry about the differences between two ships, I think you need to reconsider what you really want to see and do (ie do you want a cruise or do you want to see cities). My (hopefully not too blunt) 2 cents.

I have been on Independence and Explorer (sister to Navigator) out of Southampton to the Med.

If I have to pick just ship alone, I will pick Independence every time. Independence is basically a stretched version of the Navigator. I really felt the extra space on the Independence over the Explorer/Navigator and surprisingly that extra space was enough for my decision to go for the bigger ship.

But if the Navigator has the right itinerary and costs then I will go for the destinations rather than the ship.

I prefer Indy...but with the port times and what you are looking to do, I would book Navigator....not a huge difference between them really so.

I would book the Navigator. I've been on both ships and they are very similar. Navigator has gotten most of the upgrades Indy has anyways. When going to Europe I'd pick the best itinerary port wise.

I have been on Independence and Explorer (sister to Navigator) out of Southampton to the Med.

 

If I have to pick just ship alone, I will pick Independence every time. Independence is basically a stretched version of the Navigator. I really felt the extra space on the Independence over the Explorer/Navigator and surprisingly that extra space was enough for my decision to go for the bigger ship.

 

But if the Navigator has the right itinerary and costs then I will go for the destinations rather than the ship.

I can understand what you mean re Explorer actually. We went on it post-refit and it was beautiful but they'd taken away the nightclub and had removed the seating from the opposite side of the bar outside the casino (not Schooner, the other end - Bolero's I think?). This left the ship feeling very short on space in the evening. We often ended up buying a drink and taking it outside to the promenade deck and sitting on the deck chairs out there!

Navigator still has those seats though and although the nightclub is gone, on a European sailing the nightclub was always practically empty anyway. We much preferred the nightclub up in the VCL as it got more people involved and you still had a bit of a view.

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The extra length of the Freedom class ships over Voyager class enabled extra venues such as Sorrento's, extra shops on the Royal Promenade, H2O zone, Jade within Windjammer etc are enough for me to prefer the Freedom class.