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Finally, Navigator review, May 7th, 2005

1corona4u

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1corona4u

1corona4u

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Pre cruise

I hired a limo from A-1 Limo in Lake Worth, Fl. to take us to the pier and pick us up on the way back.. The total for the round trip, (embark/debark) which included an extra stop to pick up my friend, and it was $320.00, including the tip.

Embarkation

 

We arrived at the port of Miami about 11:00, and there was not that many people outside. We gave our luggage to a porter, he explained what he was going to do with them, as in taking them to security to be scanned, then to the ship, and they would arrive at our cabin. I tipped him, although I was not sure what a good tip was for them, but I wanted to make sure he was happy, so I gave him $20.00.

We proceeded to the terminal where there was about a 10-15 minute wait to go through the scanners and metal detectors. Once through there, I saw a sign that said "priority embarking for Diamond/Platinum members, and guest's with suites", so we followed that, until we came to a woman who asked if we were members, and we said no, that we were in a suite. She didn't ask to see any documents, and told us to go to the deck 10 line, which had no one in it. Once there, I asked the woman where to go for the wait, so she directed us to the lounge. It was super crowded in there, as there was a wedding party, with their guest in tow. People were using the occasional tables to sit on, and my friend and I were given the chairs from the check in desk. Everyone else that came in after had to stand. We waited about 2 hours, and at some point, about an hour into the wait, they were passing out fliers that said there would be a delay, which I got a chuckle out of. I guess they thought people were starting to get antsy.

About 1:45, I think, they said we would begin boarding in FOUR minutes, which I also got a chuckle out of. Four minutes? Not three, not five, LOL....so that's just about how long it was. Once in the area where you board the ship, it was only about 10 minutes until we were onboard.

The ship, what needs to be said. It's beautiful, well maintained, and I really do think there is something special about the Navigator. Not sure what it is, because I know there are other ships much like it, but it's the best as far as I am concerned.

Our first stop onboard was to Guest Relations, so I could get the Cybercabin, LOL. My friend asked if there was anything else I had to do there while we were down there, and I said no, so we went to the room.

We had JS 9308, starboard side, right to the front of the hump. We got to the suite and it was very familiar to me because I had seen so many photos before. In fact, someone else had the same JS on Webshots, so I knew exactly what to expect as far as which side the beds were on. We did bump into our steward in the hall, his name was Bobby, very sweet, so I asked him if he could separate the beds later on. He said yes, I will. Not much later, in one of our travels back to the room, he was in there with another steward, separating the beds, so I tipped them each $5.00.

After we got to the room, I remembered that we needed to go to the dining room to see about getting a table for 2, Not that we are anti-social, but I much prefer to not have to converse during dinner. Once we got to the dining room, there were a few staff members there who took your seapass card, and you were seated and waited for them to call you. There were only about 10 people ahead of us, so it only took about 20 minutes and we were speaking to the maitre d'. We originally were on the Nutcracker level, but were given a table on the Swan Lake level, which we were fine with. Nice table, not in a corner, but on a rail overlooking the rest of the dining room. Very nice location.

After that, we went up to the pool deck, took some pix, and just walked around until right before the muster. After the muster, we stayed in our room for the sailaway, taking pix of the Voyager as we passed. I know we went to the Windjammer for a bite to eat, but I can not remember when we did this. We also went to Portofino's to make a reservation for dinner on Tuesday night.

We had late seating dinner, so we had a bit of time to explore the ship before dinner. We were also waiting for our luggage to arrive, since they were still loading luggage right before we sailed. The one thing that I thought of was, that it's nice to get to the port early, but then your luggage is buried, and to me, seemed to be some of the last luggage to get to the deck. We ended up snatching our own luggage, and my friend was missing her duffle bag, until about 7pm. I had all of my luggage by 6:00 pm. Still, I would arrive early. I'd rather wait for the luggage, and be on earlier.

We unpacked our bags, except for her duffle, and there was more than enough room for two women and their "stuff", LOL. Although, it's a good thing my friend was light on stuff, because I was heavy on stuff, LOL, and took up all but 2 shelves in the cabinet by the vanity. I did not use about 80% of it either, so next time, all of it stays home. Mostly toiletries, things that I THOUGHT we may need. One thing though, I decided to take my own TP, and just a tip. If there are 2 women, who drink water, or other liquids like crazy, you will need at least 4 rolls for a 7 day cruise. I took 2, and by the 5th day, we were counting squares, LOL.

Later on in the evening, after we came back from dinner, I decided to try to get the Cybercabin going. I followed all of the instructions from the booklet that is in the bin with the phone. You have to unplug the regular phone for the data phone to work also, but it also functions as your regular phone. After reading all of the installation directions, I tried to connect, and got nothing. So, I read it again. It said that if you can't connect, to pick up the phone and dial 60, to see if you had a "squawk", such as a fax, data line, etc. I did not have it, so I waited for about an hour, and at 11:00 pm, I got connected. I went to my fav home page, left the email up, and prayed that the 5 minute refresh from the home page, and email would keep the connection live the entire cruise, which it did, other than about 3 hours on the way to St. Maarten. I was connected, but no data was transferring TO my computer. It started working again shortly before we arrived in St. Maarten. I was not disappointed in any way with the connection, as it was 46K the entire time. I just got DSL last November, after the hurricanes, so maybe I am a bit more patient with connections, plus, I have a wireless laptop in my car, so I have to be really patient with that. But, overall, I was happy to have it.

One thing, pay attention when they tell you which phone cord goes to the phone, and which goes to the PC, LOL. I thought I would remember, but by the time I did it, I had to do trial and error, because they were the same type of cords, not like they show in the instructions, as in black and white.

The only other thing that happened this night, was that the toilet stopped flushing, so when we called they said they were aware of it, and working on it. No biggie. It was working about an hour later, when we heard it flush on it's own. I think it/they just lost pressure or something.

The next morning, we were at sea, so we went to Windjammer for breakfast. I will address the food in another portion of the review. We finished, and today was the day for the M & M, and I was going back and forth on whether or not I should go, LOL, since I can be so outspoken, I was not sure how I would be received. After about an hour, and going to the Viking Crown, and watching the others from a position of anonymity, LOL, I decided what the heck, I'll go over. Cruisinmimi was the first one to speak to me, and then we sat down. Mrs. Bang showed up, which was nice, and then Cindy(not sure of her title) gave a brief overview of the RCCL Visa, booking onboard, and other things like C& A. They did give out tickets for a couple of drawings, for RCI logo items. After a while Capt. Bang came up to say hi, so him and Mrs. told a few funny jokes about cruising. It was nice. They also picked a ticket for dinner with the Captain. I don't remember who won it though.

After the M & M, we went to our room for a bit, then to the gym/spa. I worked out, while my friend sat in the hot tub. We left there and went to lay out about 2pm, stopping at the Skybar for a cocktail before we started to hunt for a spot. It wasn't that bad, and there were chairs, but they are really close together.

Food- Breakfast & General

Let me preface the food portion of this. I am a chef, and fully understand what it takes to feed people. I am also not a fancy eater, and prefer a more mainstream meal. Overall, I thought all of the food on the ship was really good, with a few exceptions. Bacon. I LOVE bacon, so I was really disappointed the first morning when I tried the bacon. I did not like the flavor at all. I chose the ham from then on, which was really good, and the corned beef hash. The scrambled eggs were ok, but I have never been a fan of eggs that were totally scrambled, so I chose other things. The hashbrowns, and the country potato's were good, but the best thing was their chocolate covered doughnuts, which we first discovered on the 3rd day, eating breakfast in the dining room. It was all downhill from there, LOL. If we ate in the dining room, the poor waiters had to go find them for us, if they did not have them on the tray, LOL. They were so good about this, then they would bring each of us TWO!!! I tipped the first waiter to do this, but the second waiter refused my tip? Oh well.

Dinners

For the first night, (and most of the other nights) I chose the Chef's Signature Entree, the Herb Crusted Filet of Atlantic Cod. I thought that crusted would mean that it would have some sort of crunch to it, but it was much different. It was very spicy, good, but not at all what I had thought. It was a large portion for me, and I could not finish it all. But, I did have room for dessert. I don't remember what it was, but I didn't have any complaints.

The second night, as I had in the first, I chose the Chef's Signature Entree, which was the Filet of Beef. Now to me, this was out of this world good! Sliced Filet cooked to perfection (for me anyway) laying on top of the best mashed potatoes, with a peppercorn sauce that was to die for! This was my favorite meal. I could have had this every night. I believe this night for dessert, I had the Gran Mariner Cream Brulee, which was incredibly good. For the 3rd night, I had the Insalada Mista salad, which was really good, and the rigatoni with marinara, which wasn't really what I thought either, but very good. There really was no sauce to speak of, but peppers, tomato's, onions, and other veggie's and Italian spices. I should mention too, that on all nights, I thought the bread was really good. Lots of choices.

On the 4th night, we had reservations for Portofino. I'm not sure if my friend and I were getting cranky, or if the waitress was just not as attentive as we both would have liked. It took a while for her to get to us, and I made the comment to my friend, that we needed to chill out a bit. Not that we said anything to the waitress, and she did get better within about 20 minutes.

She brought a selection of breads, and mushroom pate`, chopped tomato's in olive oil & Italian spices, and balsamic vinegar & spices for dipping the bread, which we really enjoyed. We also had a salad, it was a Caesar, prepared A la minute'. The menu was not what I expected for an Italian venue, so we both decided on the Beef Tenderloin. It came with the same great mashed potato's, and all of the meal was really nicely presented, but I was stuck on he Filet of Beef from the 2nd night, so I ended up comparing the two, and I still liked the dining room's better. The filet was a bigger portion though, and it was prepared right, but the flavor of the one in the dining room was much better. I will say that the presentation of the food in Portofinos was excellent. For dessert, we ordered the flourless chocolate cake, because I had heard so much about it, that I had to get it. The waitress tried to convince us to try the Tiramisu, but we declined. When she brought the desserts, she also brought us a Tiramisu! That was so nice of her, but both of us were STUFFED, so we had to work hard on getting it down. LOL....but we did.

On the 5th night, I had the Caesar salad again, as it was very good previously. In general, I found their salads to be great! Fresh greens, spring mix, and the romaine was really crispy. I think we had some sort of salad almost every night. And also for lunch in the Windjammer. I also had the cream of asparagus soup with almonds, very good. Almost an unrealistic green though, as though they used some food coloring. For the entree, again, I had the Chef's Signature Entree, which was Thai BBQ chicken breast, with coconut-lemon grass jasmine rice. I am not big on Thai, but I really liked this. I can't remember what dessert was though. My friend had the fisherman's plate, and she loved it, and even had a second lobster tail, as they were small.

During our dinner, I thought something was amiss with the wait staff, they all seemed to be on edge, and I noticed that our waitress, Gabriella, from Romania, who had normally been very social, and funny, seemed to not have much time for anything. I noticed that she was going to the kitchen for all of the food for her tables, where nights before, Nikolas, her asst. waiter had gone to get the food too. It didn't occur to me until later that they were very stressed, because this was the same night of the Gala Buffet, in which they had about 1 1/2 hours to get the dining rooms reset, and get the buffet up. That is not much time, considering the scale of the buffet. I felt really bad for everyone concerned here, as I have been under that same pressure too. Thankfully, the next night, everything was back to normal. Smiles, jokes, and everyone was in a good mood.

Side note here. There was a table across from us, for 8, and 2 of the people were ALWAYS at least 30 minutes late for dinner, every night. We watched the others at the table, and they did seem annoyed, but after the first 2 nights, they ordered when they got there. It became our nightly ritual to watch what time they got there, and the reaction they got, LOL. I saw this over, and over, at almost every table around us, that 2 or more of the people were late arriving. PEOPLE, let your table mates know if you are not going to be there, OR, show up on time!!

6th night, I had the grilled pork chop, which was probably the best pork chop I have had in a long, long time. Tender, juicy, and full of flavor. Don't remember dessert, but it was something chocolate, LOL. But it was good. My friend had the Maryland Crab Cakes, and thought they were really good. She had the alt. herbed chicken breast for her entree, and said it was really good. This same night, they also started this large salad bowl on the table. It was nice, but you had no choice on the salad. They just told you what it was. I think this night it was Focaccia salad. Very good. No choices on desserts this night, they brought 3 small pastry-like things on a plate. They were ok.

And the last night, same salad situation, it was the Caesar, which we both loved anyway. I started with the fire roasted red pepper hummus, and had the Mahi Mahi Tempura, which was pretty good. I think we ordered dessert this night, which was a chocolate brownie, with some whipped cream, and something else on it, but the brownie was really dry. This was the worst dessert we had all week. We did not say anything to the waitress. In general, I thought the desserts were rather good, with the exceptions mentioned here. Even in the Windjammer, there were several things I likes, especially the mandarin orange cheesecake.

Ok, enough on the food. We really liked it overall.

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1corona4u

1corona4u

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Ports

San Juan.

We decided to go to lunch at JR's. We were about 1/2 hour from pulling in to SJ, and the weather was so humid, and cloudy, that it was hard to see very far. We ordered a burger, and I wanted the fries, and she, the onion rings. Well, they brought both to us for the starter, so we were happy about that. I asked the waiter if the bacon was the same ship wide, and he said yes, so I opted out of the bacon burger. It only took about 10 minutes to get the burgers, which he forgot to bring the condiments for, even though I had asked him for initially. No biggie. The burger was nothing special, and same with the fries, and onion rings. In fact, I thought the fries in the Windjammer were way better than at JR's. They were thinner, and more crunchy, in a light sort of way, like they were wet when they went into the fryer. Really good. For the 2 of us to have the burger and fries/onion rings, and a drink each, it was aprox. $12.50. Neither of us were that impressed with the food. They only sang one song, YMCA....and really, by the end of the cruise, I had heard that song in many places.....not sure what the attraction to it was.

We started to enter SJ, by the fort, so I went to the port side of the ship, and started shooting pix. Once we got into the terminal/pier area, I knew we would not go too far from the ship. We did get off and walk around the downtown area, didn't buy anything, or eat anything, just took some pix, and walked up to fort Cristobal, which neither of us wanted to pay to get into. We took some pix, and headed back to the ship. We did notice that Carnival Triumph was now pulling in, which we had passed at some point in the night. We did stop at a liquor store near the pier, and my friend bought 2 bottles of Bacardi 151 for her friends back home. I think they were $9.99 each. When we got back to the ship and they scanned her backpack, they took them and put them away, and later delivered them to the room on the last day.

Once we looked out our balcony at the Triumph, docked next to us, we began to compare our ship to theirs, LOL.(as if there is any comparison) I have never even thought for a nano second about cruising with Carnival, and I have no doubts I made the right decision. All of their balconies have the plastic chairs, like the stacking chairs from Home Depot. I thought this was so cheesy. I also noticed that they had stacked up all of the loungers from the pool area, so if someone would have wanted to lay out, they would have had to get their own lounger and drag it to the pool. Odd. No offense to those who like Carnival, but they are not for me. There is an obvious difference in quality.

We pulled out at 10:00 pm, and it was kind of pretty, with the lights off the water, so I took some night pix. We went to bed early, so we could get up to se the sunrise in St. Thomas, which only I managed to do.

St. Thomas

My friend missed it. I woke up at 5:30, and knew we were getting close, so I threw on some clothes, and went up to deck 12 to take pix. The sun started to come up about 6-ish, and I could see that it was cloudy, and hazy, but beautiful just the same. The Triumph was in front of us, just starting to turn, to back into the pier, so we were just kind of floating there, moving slowly, waiting for it to dock. The funny thing is, that we had passed the Triumph before we got to San Juan, then we left San Juan before them, but they arrived in St. Thomas before us.....apparently, they passed us at some point. LOL.

I took up the entire memory card I had, so I went back to the room, and told my friend that she missed it, LOL.

We took a cab into downtown, and then just went through all the quaint alley's with all the shops. I found a favorite clothing retailer, one that I can't find, unless I am at a resort, so I spent a TON of money in there, and we had only been in town for about an hour! We sat on the waterfront downtown for a while, and we had planned to do the Skyride.(tram to Paradise Point) We were looking at the ships from where we were, so I said that we should just walk to the tram, which was between us, and the pier. Well, I had broken my foot last year, pretty bad, and have only been walking on it since Feb. of this year, but I was bound and determined not to let the pain of walking for a long time ruin anything for me. We stopped at Wendy's to get something to drink, because we were totally parched, LOL, after we had walked about a mile. It was right across from the tram station. We finished, and went to the tram. This is $16.00, but to me, well worth it. You go to the top of Paradise Point, and the views from there are beautiful!! There are shops, a restaurant, and a lady who does bird shows with Mc Caws, Cockatoo's, and other exotic birds. We missed her last show for the day by 15 minutes, bummer. The birds are sitting in the open, but she will not let you take pix of them, unless you pay her. I was not going to pay her for that, when I have an exotic bird myself, but she did have a GORGEOUS windchime, which I had to have. It is very ornate ceramic leaves, with exotic birds on about every other thread. Very nice, and was only $45.00.

Then we went outside to the restaurant for some lunch, while overlooking the bay, ships, and the entire area of Charlotte Amalie. Beautiful. There was a singer there, but his taste in songs was really weird. I can't tell you what they were, as this is a family board, LOL, but there was one about who put the pepper in the Vaseline.....whatever. The burger was decent, fries, like most Denney's. Nothing special, but the views made it all worth it. They did have a nice variety on the menu though, but we felt like burgers. I remember they had fish, chicken, frog legs, mostly snacky types of foods that go well with drinks.

We went back down the tram, walked back to the ship, went to the room, and hit the shower!! We were so hot and sticky we couldn't stand ourselves. This alone is the reason I will be cruising earlier next year. We left there at 6:00 pm, with a huge flock of birds hovering near the ship, since people were feeding them. It was kind of cool though, because unbeknownst to me, the pilot was onboard, and I watched as the boat came out to get him. This was really neat, which I have video of, the pilot boat comes in very carefully, very close to the ship, then the pilot gets off, and they head back to St. Thomas.

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1corona4u

1corona4u

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St. Maarten.

 

I was again up early, LOL, as this has always been a favorite island. It was still dark when I woke up, so I tried to contain my excitement so as not to wake up my friend. I had my coffee on the balcony, and just watched the water go by. I decided to go up on deck, where I took a bunch of pix, once the sun started to come up. Once we were docked, I went and woke my friend up. We went to breakfast, and then got off the ship and headed to the tour/taxi area of the pier. I knew that I wanted to go to Maho beach, and there was no way I was not going to get there one way or another. I asked quite a few cab drivers and tour guides, and none of them seemed interested in taking us. I know it's because they want more people, and want to make more money. So, as I grew dejected, I said to my friend, let's just get a cab and go downtown, we'll figure it out when we get there. At this point, it was about 10:30, and I wanted to be at Maho by 11:00-11:30 at the latest, because that's when the big planes start arriving. The last time I was in St. Maarten, I did not go there, and really wanted to this time. We walked briefly through the shopping area, but really, I was bored with all the jewelry, jewelry, jewelry, that's all there really is to some of these ports. I like the knick-knack shops, but really did not want to dawdle.

 

We walked down by the beach where I saw the water taxi's, so I said, let's see if they go to Maho...nope. So one of the guys at the pier said to ask one of the cab drivers by the entrance. I was getting so discouraged. Just then, a guy with dreadlocks, said "do you need a taxi", and I said, "yes, but you won't want to do what we want to do", so he said, "well, what do you want to do"? I said, "I want to go to Maho, I need you to leave us for about 2 hours, while we watch the planes land, and then come back and get us, and take us around the entire island." LOL....having been turned away so many times, I fully expected him to say no, when he said, "I'm your man", LOL... I said, let's talk money, so he said, $20.00 to Maho, and $80.00 for the whole day.....so I said we'll think about the whole day, but definitely Maho. My friend was walking about 5-6 feet behind me, and I know she was thinking I was totally NUTS to just go with this guy, but for some reason, I trusted him. I did not want to do the entire island if the car did not have AC, LOL.......So I am thinking, wonder what he drives. He said that his car was "just up the street", which really seemed more like a mile. We get there, and he has a small sort of beat-up Kia, but clean, so I said, "please tell me you have AC"...he laughed and said, yes. I then said that, yeah, maybe we will do the whole island, so I said, deal, and we shook on it. LOL.

 

 

We got in his car, and he and I started talking about the island, and he had been there for about 7 years, and said that he was a seaman, from Africa, or something like that, but let me tell you, he was one of the most courteous people I met the entire time I was gone. He would stop to let other people turn out on the narrow roads, he, or someone else was always honking back and forth, like they all knew him, so I was very relaxed. I sat in the front, my friend in back practically silent, LOL. I think she was scared. Or maybe just hot, it was very hot that day. He stopped along the way for me to take some pix, and I think it took us about 1/2 hour to get to Maho. He stopped the car, I paid him $40.00, and told him that I would give him the rest when he came back. We also shook on this, LOL. He dropped us off, and we agreed that he would be back at 1:00, it was about 11:10 at this point.

 

 

I got a strawberry daiquiri from the bartender, and we sat at under the awning just outside of the bar area. Then, I noticed the surfboard, that is stuck in the sand, that tells you when the planes land. it said the next one was about 20 minutes away. I was so thrilled to be here, and the water and scenery was beautiful. There was a guy singing at the Sunset Beach Bar, and they had some tables with umbrellas on a deck, then there were chairs, and umbrellas on the beach, which I assume you could rent. We just sat close to the bar, and eventually moved to the bar, because there was a fan there, which made it a bit cooler. I was watching the sky, when I noticed a large plane starting to come in, so I jumped up, ran over to the beach, and got ready to take the pic, and crap! My camera froze up, and the plane went whizzing by...I was so disappointed. There were plenty of small planes, flying in and out about every 5 minutes, but it was really the big planes that I had come to see.

 

Patience is a virtue, and I can't wait till I have patience, LOL. But a few minutes later, earlier than scheduled, a Continental came in. Not a huge plane, but nice size. Not sure what it was, but all the buffs can look at my pix and see it. I had several more drinks, and at some point, I noticed that the bartender, who was a cute female, seemed distracted, and I started to watch her, to see if I could tell what was going on. I thought someone had walked on a tab or something, and then some other woman got behind the bar, and said that the bar was closed!!! I saw the bartender take money out of her tip jar, and walk over to the other side of the restaurant area. When she came back, I said, what's going on? She said that immigration just came and took the cook, singer, and someone from the gift shop away, and said that if you don't have papers, they will take you. I looked over to see a "task force" guy, loading quite a few men into a van, then they sped off. People had ordered food, and the bartender had to tell them that they now had no cook.

 

Shortly after this, I saw the lights in the sky. It was about 12:30-12:45, so I knew this was the last of the big planes to come in before Dusty came back to get us. I got the camera ready early this time, and got a great shot of an AA, BIG plane coming in. I was so happy, I said to my friend, we can go now.LOL. We walked around for a few minutes, took a few pix of the place, then went to the front of the bar to wait for Dusty, our driver. My friend says to me, do you think he will really come back. I said, uh, yeah. Why would he want to make $40.00, when he can make $80.00, LOL. Like clockwork, he was there at 1.

 

We headed over to the Marigot/ French side of the island, which I thought was really pretty. We went through Marigot, Orient Bay, and Oyster Bay, which are all beautiful. Dusty did stop along the way for me to get pix, and was telling us about the places we were seeing along the way. He was an ok tour guide. When we were heading back to the pier, all of a sudden, we hear, chukkkkkk, plukkknngg, pssstttttt, blugggghhh.......the car just died, LOL....we just started laughing hysterically. Dusty was like OH NO Mahn....but he tried to start it a few times, then finally, it started. Wheeewww.....but I guess it would have been worse to be on the other side of the island, and have the car die. Thankfully, we could have walked to the ship if we needed to.

 

We walked through Havensight Mall, and I was sort of looking for a small set of Binoculars. I had wanted a pair when we were in the other ports, but never saw any that I liked. I went into this shop, oddly, called Royal Caribbean, no relation, I am sure. I asked to see a pair with 10X, and the guy tried to talk me out of them, and on to a pair that was 8X, which I did not find comfortable at all. I kept going back to the 10X...just liked them better. Plus, the other pair were NASCAR themed, which I am not into at all. The NASCAR ones were $45.00, and the ones I liked were $85.00. But he kept trying to get me to buy the cheap ones, so I finally said, let me ask you something, as a salesman, why wouldn't you want to upsale me on these....he had no answer, so I said I would take the $85.00 pair.

 

He and another guy had their backs to me, when they were getting them ready, so I got suspicious as to what they were doing. I checked the box carefully before we left the store, and could see nothing amiss. That is, until we got back to the room, at which point, I noticed that they had removed the price tag.....and so once again, the Cybercabin comes in handy.....I googled the binoculars, thinking that maybe they had only said they were $85.00, in an attempt to get me to buy the cheap ones. To my surprise, they were all over the internet for $89.00. So I was ok with that. The only thing I can think is, that either they had no profit on the ones I got, or the other ones were stolen, LOL. But they are nice, and I did use them a lot on the way back, and to Nassau.

 

All in all, a really fun, and entertaining day. We left the port at 5:00 pm.

 

Nassau

 

Probably one of the ports I have been to most frequently, since I worked on Yachts. We were there almost every weekend. So to me, this was a boring day. I did get to see the Disney Wonder, which is a nice ship, and got a video of a water plane in the channel taking off....really cool because you are just right there!! We did go to the Straw Market, not sure why, bought nothing. After that, we went to Senior` Frogs for a cocktail, and some photo op's. I was kind of bummed this day, as I know we will be going home soon.

 

Life onboard - Entertainment

 

My friend and I were not really into the shows, so the only one we went to was the Ice Dancing. I thought it was really good, but the best in the bunch was the couple that did the routine with the hula-hoops!!! OMG, this was so unreal!!! Don't miss it! I am not sure if they are always on, but they, or should I say, she is incredible!! Nimble, and so talented.

 

We also caught the last few minutes of Nick Lewin, who I thought was hysterical!! Too bad we didn't pay more attention to the Compass, and get there earlier. We did go to the Rock-A-Rokie one night, and there were actually a few good people who got up and performed with the band.

 

Bars, didn't really go to any, just grabbed a drink here and there. We did go to the 2nd Parade, but got there late.

 

Went to the Welcome Aboard, but couldn't even get close to the Ixtapa Lounge. They were passing out Champagne when you entered the Royal Promenade. I had a couple, then off to get our formal pix taken.

 

One night, they had dancing under the stars, and we went up to the 12th deck to watch. At some point, it turned into an exhibition for some of the bar staff to show off their talents, and they were really good.

 

The toilet, as I mentioned earlier, did stop working several times during the cruise. Again, we didn't make too much of it.

 

Our Steward was really nice, and one night I had gone back to the room for something, and he was in there turning the beds down, so I gave him another $10.00 tip. He was really good about beach towels, bath towels, and cleaning the room. I thought his towel animals were great, and somewhat different than some of them I have seen.

 

Ice was always in the bucket, and there was always a new batch of drinks in the fridge. YES, I drank the drinks in the fridge, and didn't mind paying for them. Seemed reasonable to me. The fridge though, as has been said many times, only keeps things slightly cool, not cold.

 

There were robes in our room, as well as the toiletries, which neither of us used, but I brought home with me, except for the bath puff, which I have a million of already.

 

The sliding door to the balcony. I have read where people are talking about the door staying open, and how to do this....bungee cords, chairs, etc. but all I had to do was flip the handle down, and it locked the door open in place. I am not sure if the others were talking about the NOS or not, and maybe other doors are different, but this one locked in place.

 

The balcony, there were 2 chairs, small table, and a lounge chair. There was plenty of room to walk around even with all of that out there. The only thing I had a minor annoyance with as far as the balcony goes, is that after a few days, the salt really builds up on the glass, and makes it difficult to sit in the chair and watch the water go by. Again, no biggie though.

 

We found the AC to work really well, even with the door open. We kept turning it warmer, and I am like the lava queen, always hot, so this was a pleasant surprise to me. I am hot more than I am cool seems like, but you could have hung meat in there, LOL, so that AC was great!

 

The walk in closet. We loved this, and lovingly referred to this as "The Bat Cave", LOL, because we would go in in our Jammies, or cover-ups and come out in our formals, LOL.....we dressed formally for both nights, and followed the suggested attire for all the nights in the dining room, however, not all did. I will not go too deep into this, but some people looked as if they didn't even bother to change after they came back from port. On the formal nights though, most people were dressed nicely, not that many Tuxes though, more dark suits on the men, and a lot of women just wore cocktail dresses, which looks fine, but not in the traditional formal sense.

 

I want to just address the staff of these ships for a minute. These people work really hard. Yes, they choose to do it, but I don't think anyone should take them for granted. The staff of the Navigator went out of their way to be nice to you. Except for one guy in the photo Gallery.

 

I had decided at some point to buy some of the pix. After the first formal night, we went down to the gallery to see the pix, and ours were missing. We talked to a guy at the register, who actually took the pix, and he said that he would find them, and have them for us the next night. When we went back, he was not there, so we told another guy what happened, and he didn't seem to understand what we were telling him, and he more or less just shrugged his shoulders and said, OH WELL, when we told him. That rally annoyed me. So much so that I said, no, you lose, because now I won't spend $20.00 for the PIC!! We left the gallery.

 

The next day getting off the ship, the same guy from the first night was taking our pix, and he said hey girls, I found your pics, and I have them downstairs, so we told him what happened, and he said that he would make sure they all knew, when we went back to get them that night. Which he did, BUT, at this point, I had bought 3, 8X10's, and only needed 1 more to get the free portfolio. Well, I forgot to take the coupons down there when we went to get the new pix, and the same guy that was rude before would not give me the portfolio, without them. So I went back upstairs, got them came back, and had to wait another 15 minutes, or more to get them to him. Then he says, that he needs the receipts!!! He never mentioned this before!!! He said he needed the coupons!! Guess I should have known, but I was starting to get cranky, and my foot was hurting, and the size of the Staypuff Marshmallow Man, LOL, so I said to him, look, in about 2 seconds, the top of my head is going to come off...you never said anything about that.

 

With that, he took the one receipt that I did have, did a refund on that one, and then charged me for the portfolio? Whatever.....well, I did not look inside the portfolio, but when I got home, he gave me one formatted in landscape, with a pic of the Navigator also in landscape, at night. I really had been wanting a pic of the Navigator at night, so this was a happy accident, but none of my 8X10's work in it, since they are portrait. Oh well.....guess I just have to go back and get another one..... ;)

 

What else....

 

We just had a great time. I have already booked another cruise for early next year on the NOS, with another JS, because I am spoiled now.

 

I know that I am forgetting things, and will think of them later on. Any questions fire away. I am including the links to my pix, for those that haven't seen them, and I still do not have the Nassau ones up yet, but they are boring anyway....can't wait to do it all over again.:)

 

Enjoy!:)

 

 

Album 1- http://community.webshots.com/album/345475590AVkCxs

 

Album 2- http://community.webshots.com/album/345304555eGisqq

 

Album 3- http://community.webshots.com/album/345525201BcDDJs

 

Album 4- http://community.webshots.com/album/345762721ZElQOl

 

Album 5- http://community.webshots.com/album/345763824hlsiWo

 

Album 6- http://community.webshots.com/album/345835674UYQRHc

 

Album - 7 http://community.webshots.com/album/346243769xGdrhW/0

 

 

Oh, let me just add, I had prepaid tips, but gave our waitress, and asst. waiter and extra $20.00 the last night, and the head waiter $10.00. I also gave Bobby another $20.00. I like to reward people for all their efforts.:)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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1corona4u

1corona4u

Posted
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I don't understand why you were counting squares on your toilet paper. I have never brought my own and the steward has always brought more if needed...

 

did he not bring any more??

 

I brought my own because I like soft TP. I learned on this board that the TP onboard was something like sand paper, LOL. We were counting squares to conserve, so that we had enough good paper to get us through the week. See? LOL.:D

 

I guess it's all in what you are use to. Some people don't mind scratchy paper, I do.

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WeBCruisin

WeBCruisin

Posted
Posted

Thanks for the review. Glad you had a great time. We are cruising NOS June 11 - Can't wait!!

 

Quick question - we also have a JS (9272) located very close to where yours was. Do you remember the location of your Muster drill? Traveling with my 2 young sons and was hoping to luck out and have an interior muster location instead of being trapped out in the hot sun.

 

Thanks for posting the pics of the cabin!! Looks like we should have plenty of room for our crew!

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1corona4u

1corona4u

Posted
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Thanks for the review. Glad you had a great time. We are cruising NOS June 11 - Can't wait!!

 

Quick question - we also have a JS (9272) located very close to where yours was. Do you remember the location of your Muster drill? Traveling with my 2 young sons and was hoping to luck out and have an interior muster location instead of being trapped out in the hot sun.

 

Thanks for posting the pics of the cabin!! Looks like we should have plenty of room for our crew!

 

Ours was in B-13, I think it was on the 4th deck? Does that sound right? Yeah, it was, because it was on the level we came in on. It was out by the lifeboats, and it was a bit hot, but they did make sure everyone was there. You are a bit forward from where I was, so my guess is that you will be near where ours was. I know that's not what you wanted to hear, LOL...

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cruizinmimi

cruizinmimi

Posted
Posted

1corona4u

 

Great review and I love looking at your pics. We enjoyed meeting you and your friend at the m/m and our family got to enjoy dining with the Captain and Mrs. Bang. It was very enjoyable and they are truly gracious.

 

You were not the only one who had trouble with the photo galley. I think the Navigator is also a great ship and the staff and crew are top notch, BUT the phot galley is one of the worst we've experienced on all of 16 cruises with rccl. Our daughter had a major issue with them after presenting her diamond coupon and they still refused to give her a free photo. We had to contact the loyalty ambassador who in turn had to speak with the mgr. at the photo galley and then yet another trip back down to the photo galley. It was resolved, but the customer service area from the photo galley is lacking big time. The pictures they take are great and good quality, but they need to work on the sales end a little more.

 

We had a great time and glad to hear you and your friend did also.

 

Linda :)

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CruisingOutaNorthCarolina

CruisingOutaNorthCarolina

Posted
Posted

1Corona4u,

 

Loved the review and especially the pictures. Had not heard of Maho Beach on St. Marteen, but must admit, after seeing your plane pictures, that I want to go there!

 

I will be in St. Marteen in two weeks, on AOS...I hope I can get there to see that, because your pictures make it look awesome!

 

Thanks

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ckrobyn

ckrobyn

Posted
Posted

Corona,

 

Thanks for an excellent review - possibly one of the most comprehensive I have read so far. The Navigator sounds like a great ship. I also took a look at your pictures and they are terrific.

Glad you had a good time on your cruise :)

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kind kat

kind kat

Posted
Posted

We had such a great time. And I see that you did too! What a great review!

 

Turns out, we arrived at Maho Beach just after you left. And when we tried to order some food and were told they were not serving food that day (with no explanation) I was confused. But your review filled in the blanks! Mystery solved.

 

My boyfriend managed to snap this while at Maho:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/gocarrt/14430539/

 

It was for sure one of his most favorite pics taken that week.

 

I also wholeheartedly agree that the fries in the Windjammer were very yummy. We never ate at Johnny Rocket's, so I don't have comparison, but I had at least a small service of fries every day at lunch.

 

Kathy :)

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cunninghamjr

cunninghamjr

Posted
Posted

Does anyone know if you can get an extra key for your room. We will be going on the Navigator in 2 weeks and I would like for my son to be able to have a key for our room and I would like to have a key for his room. Is this possible?

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cruizinmimi

cruizinmimi

Posted
Posted

Yes, you can get an extra key. I'm assuming your son is under your supervision. If he's 25 or older, you may have to take him with you to the purser's desk to get an extra key. But, most of the time they'll make an extra key for you at the purser's desk-Deck 5.

 

Linda

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peteukmcr

peteukmcr

Posted
Posted

Thanks 1corona4u for the review, brings back all the memories - too vividly. Getting withdrawal pains already and I've only been back to work for 1 day!

 

I wish we could have got into the lounge as we were also in a JS on deck 10, but instead were directed to the long line in which we waited for 2 hours! Maybe because being from the UK, we had to do the US-VISIT security bit as well as handover our passports. That's a new thing as it didn't happen last year on Mariner.

 

If you check out the photos, you'll see we were very happy with the JS. Plenty of space for everything.

 

I can't remember as much detail as you, but enjoyed the Meet & Mingle as it helped recognise people during the week with whom we would stop and chat. I think it was cruizinmimi and family who we bumped into the most, also saw alyee777 many times who always appeared to be shopping! Also bumped into georgina many days later and also landzcaper and also phlame's parents on the ferry back from Atlantis.

 

I agree with cruizinmimi that Matt Yee was great, we had seen him on Mariner last year and it was a good surprise to see him listed on the compass. As we met the production manager (I work with his sister here in the UK), he mentioned to Matt that we enjoyed his show and he left a message to invite us. That was cool.

 

I only had a couple of issues, 1 regarding a duplicate charge for Vintages that I reported to Guest Relations but was not corrected until I had to visit the bar myself. The only other major one was that as a UK resident my Visa card is obviously issued here and RCI ask if you wish to have the Seapass account converted into your home currency after paying them a commission or just to be charged in US$. It is beneficial for me to be charged in US$ as UK Visa give a good exchange rate, so I opted out. However, the check in agent had not done this and I had to ask that it was changed, which appeared to be a great problem to Guest Relations. I was not alone in this either. This is a new thing from last year, so I will be vigilant next time!

 

Other than that all went smoothly from the delivery of the Tux to the cabin, the dining staff, stateroom attendants, bar staff, Cindy the Loyalty Ambassador, Captain and Mrs Bang and every other member of staff. I think they're ace.

 

I was hoping for table service tonight at 8.30, but no chance now I'm back on dry land!

 

It was great to meet everybody and can't wait for the next one!

 

Just jealous that one of the couples on our table are still on Navigator as they did a back to back - lucky people!

 

Take care all.

 

I've started a thread as well, but not as much detail! 'Navigator Eastern Caribbean - May 7th'

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