Navigator 5/7/05: First-Time Cruiser Highlights

[scaevolatn]

I just returned from my first cruise, on Navigator's 5/7/05 Eastern Caribbean sailing. As you can guess, I'm now addicted to that way of relaxing.

 

I thought I'd share some of my thoughts and experiences, collected from our group of 10 that sailed together. To get a comprehensive review of this ship and tour, read Schplinky's excellent threads on Navigator's Eastern sailing the week before ours.

 

Things I packed but NEVER used:

1. Extension cord: there were two 120v plugs at the stateroom desk, which we found sufficient. We actually only used them to recharge our digital camera batteries.

2. Blazer: I had packed this for the announced 'Smart Casual' dinner, which never occurred. We had 2 formal nights (on the days at sea) and the rest were casual.

3. Highlighters: we usually got an extra copy of the Cruise Compass, so we didn't need to mark up the one that was left for us the night before.

4. Clothespins: we were in a D2 stateroom with balcony (9286). Our shower had a rotating door instead of a curtain, and we did not leave our balcony door open because we wanted to preserve the A/C in the stateroom

5. Money belt: this is de rigeur when I travel out of the country, but on this cruise I wore cargo pants with front velcro pockets, which were great for keeping everything secure and in-sight.

6. Beach towel: our stateroom attendant always left 2 towels each in our room. These were plenty for poolside and excursions.

7. Binoculars: I thought I would use these on the island tours, but did not, and regretted the extra bulk and weight in my suitcase. All the adjacent islands are visible sans-binoculars.

 

 

Things we did in port:

1. San Juan - we had 4 boys in our group of 10, so we walked to the two forts in Old San Juan (San Cristobal and San Felipe del Morro). For $5, you can visit both of these National Park Service sites. We all had a great time exploring the forts, despite the temps in the high 80's and oppressive humidity; the overcast was actually a blessing. There was a 15-minute walk between forts (no trolley service because of a partial road collapse). One word of caution here, though: there are no safety chains at the perimeters of these high fort walls - don't let your kids wander through the breaks in the walls.

 

After El Morro, we dined at El Patio de Sam on Calle de San Sebastian, just a few blocks away. This restaurant was recommended to us by a native. The menu seemed largely Americanized, but we tried the local cuisine and found it to be excellent (personally, one of the top-five meals of my life). We especially enjoyed the churrasco, beans and sweet plantains. We took an evening stroll back to the ship, stopping along the way for a little shopping.

 

2. St. Thomas - I took the Sightseeing Tour and really enjoyed it. We were in the covered back of a Ford pickup, but the weather was fine and the guide/driver made the journey around the island very informative. Our tour stopped at an overlook above Charlotte Amalie and the harbor, the St. Peter Greathouse and "World Famous" Mountaintop. If you're looking for an overview of the island and some panoramas, this is a good excursion. If you're looking to shop, this isn't a good excursion: Mountaintop was very touristy, in a cheap way.

 

In the afternoon, some of our group took the Cas-Cay Eco Tour Float/Hike/Snorkel. We all enjoyed the hermit crab race. The hiking part of the tour seemed a bit long, and you could tell our guide was a passionate nature-lover. I think the snorkeling part was cut short because the hike dragged on, but we all had a good time snorkeling anyway - the water was quite shallow so we didn't have fins, but saw some good color and a fair number of fish. Our guide picked up a sea cucumber, and convinced the girls in our group to kiss it for good luck. On this excursion, a photographer accompanied us and took photos (including underwater). He was selling a DVD compilation of our excursion photos, plus hundreds of his other photos, for $30, which seemed reasonable.

 

3. St. Maarten - I did the St. Maarten Island Tour. This time, the island tour was in an air-conditioned motorcoach. Our tour guide was very informative and humorous, and we circumvented the entire island, even venturing off the guide routes into a couple of scenic residential areas. Again, if you're looking for vistas and an overview of the island, this is a great excursion. The tour stopped for 45 minutes in Marigot, the French capital. It's a lovely town, and the bi-weekly flea market (Weds. and Sat.) was underway, which made for a fun shopping break.

 

In the afternoon, I did the Shipwreck Snorkel. The snorkel boat picked us up right next to the ship and took us to Shipwreck Cove. Our excellent guide, Bert, led us on a tour of the cove for about 1.5 hours in the water. The water was clear and we saw a lot of fish amidst the shipwrecks, and Bert stopped along the way to explain the things we were seeing. There were a lot of sea urchins here. After the snorkel, we sailed along the coast to see a bit more of the island as the crew entertained us with music. Very enjoyable.

 

4. Nassau - now addicted to snorkeling, I did the Sail & Snorkel excursion. We boarded a catamaran and motored for about 20 minutes out to Atholl Island, and anchored next to a reef full of beautiful colors. The water here was clearer than St. Thomas and St. Martin, and we saw a lot more fish here as well. I saw a sea snake on the bottom, and my friend saw a barracuda. On the return trip, the crew hoisted a sail and backed off on the motor. After docking, we did a bit of shopping before returning to the ship.

 

Things that could have been better on the ship: (in my opinion)

1. I really couldn't find much to complain about our D2 stateroom. Our attendant seemed to sense our particular needs and kept the room looking great. The only problem was that the bathroom floor had become a bit de-laminated, so it popped when you walked on it. In our friends' cabin next door, the safe wasn't working, but they had a spacious Junior Suite.

 

2. RCCI staff seemed to be staffing the disembarkation lines feeding into the Immigration checkpoints. There were fore and aft stations, and each station had about 8 agents working. The RCCI staffer had split us into 2 lines at the fore station, but was allowing our line to queue up for only 1 agent, while spreading the other line amongst the other 7 agents. We waited an inequitable amount of time, and the RCCI staffer seemed puzzled and miffed when we complained.

 

Things we really liked:

1. The kids in our group loved Adventure Ocean. We chose Navigator because of the size of its program, and the parents in our group were very happy with it as well.

 

2. Even though the ship was full, it only seemed crowded by the pool on the sea days, and at the very peak of the 4-hour lunch session in the Windjammer. I was happily surprised at this.

 

3. Matt Yee's Late-Night Adult Sing-a-Long, at the Schooner Bar. This was a riot. Not only a fun sing-a-long activity, but Matt puts on a hilarious show, and doesn't allow bystanders to just watch - he puts them up front and makes them lead everyone in the songs. I got the most aerobic exercise on the trip from being at Matt's show. If he's on your sailing, go see his show! Oy!

 

4. If you're planning excursions in the water, seriously consider investing in an underwater housing for your digital camera. Half the pictures I took were on snorkel trips, and the pictures I got were priceless.

 

5. We really enjoyed the evening meals in the dining room. Our waiters, Omer and James, took great care of us, anticipating what the kids would like, and making sure they were fed first so they could head off to Adventure Ocean (opened at 7PM following our 6PM early seating). We found the quality of the food to be great, and never had any problem asking for extra portions. It was perhaps the most relaxing part of our day. We purchased 5 bottles from the Gold-level Wine and Dine package, which offered some very enjoyable wine for our un-sophisticated palates.

 

6. Cafe Promenade: it was great to be able to stop by there any time of day for unlimited coffee and light snacks. Anything there was available for dine-in or take-away. In the morning they had breakfast pastries, and the rest of the time they had pizza, nice sandwiches and yummy cookies.

 

Before the trip was over, our group was already discussing where and when to sail next. We are particularly intrigued by the Radiance-class ships, which have water slides and gimbled pool tables. We will definitely be sailing on RCCI again.

[cme]

Scaevolatn:D

 

 

What a nice review. I am glad you enjoyed your cruise on the Navigator. It was by far the best cruise that we have been on so far.

 

Carrie:p

[1corona4u]

There's just something special about the Navigator, isn't there? I thought so. My review will be posted by the weekend. I had hoped it would be sooner, but business calls....:rolleyes:

[sk8man]

Thank you for the review. My wife and I will be sailing on Navigator in Sept. and can hardly wait.

[kind kat]

We did too....

 

I couldn't help notice the format of your review looks a lot like mine. For a moment there I thought it was!

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=178740

 

:)

 

Kathy

[kind kat]

Did someone say Matt Yee?

 

http://flickr.com/photos/gocarrt/14245933/

[Marykatesmom]

Does Matt let other people sing? One of our group would really enjoy that, especially after a couple of cocktails.:D

[kind kat]

Does Matt let other people sing? One of our group would really enjoy that, especially after a couple of cocktails.:D

Everyone in the audience sings along....he makes sure of that. However, there were a couple of karaoke nights onboard as well.

 

Kathy

[scaevolatn]

Kind Kat,

 

Yep, your cruise review format looked so good, I thought I'd borrow it for my humble review. Imitation was my sincere form of flattery...

 

When I was browsing the boards in search of tips before this cruise, I wished that the reviews followed a format, so I could more easily pull tidbits. Maybe others will see your format and adopt it, and I'll have done my part to get you your 15 minutes of fame.

 

Thanks for the photo of Matt's show, too: that's me on the right-hand side of the frame, just above the gentleman in the yellow plaid. That night, I got to lead the "all the Boys and Girls" part of Joy to the World. What a riot!

[kind kat]

I thought the same thing as I was doing the research before our cruise. I read through pages and pages of posts that I wished for a more concise version. However, I really enjoyed reading peoples comments and reviews. It really got me more excited!

 

I'm glad we got you in that pic!

 

Kathy