Mini-review: Navigator B2B Rome-Barcelona-Galveston

[margeecruiser]

Hi: I will try to pare down my review to give just the bare-bones review of our B2B Rome to Barcelona 11-3-13 and Barcelona to Galveston Transatlantic 11-10-13.

 

TRAVEL TO ROME: We flew to Rome via United on 10-29-13 from Houston through Newark. Flights were on time and all our luggage arrived in good shape. Transfer to our hotel arranged with Romeinlimo, including a tour of the city. Wonderful experience, with Claudio our driver. Cost 320 euro for 4 people in a Mercedes van.

 

HOTEL IN ROME: We booked Hotel Lancelot in the Coliseum area. Wonderful hotel with charming ambience and great staff. Large breakfast included with great dinner available for 25 euro per person. Highly recommend them.

 

TOURS IN ROME: We booked with Romeinlimo for most our tours. Wonderful experience with Claudio again as our driver/guide. We toured Tivoli Gardens, Hadrian's Villa and Villa d'Este; Medieval Rome, Underground Catacombs; and Roman Forum and Coliseum. We booked a sedan, and this was a little tight for 4 adults. Next time, I will book a van for a little extra cost.

 

We booked the food tour of Rome with Bruno's Evening walking tour. Cost was 85 euro per person and included several courses at different restaurants and worth every penny!

 

TRANSFER TO SHIP: We again used Romeinlimo for the transfer. They were right on time with a Mercedes van for 4 people and all our luggage.

 

EMBARKATION: The embarkation at the port of Citivecchia was very easy. There was a tent-like structure for processing the cruisers and our luggage was taken by porters. Very fast process and we were on the ship in 15 minutes.

 

CONDITION OF THE SHIP: The Navigator was in good shape, considering the age of the ship and the fact she is due for a major renovation in January, 2014. We had cabin 7692 for both legs of our cruise. This was our first junior suite and it has spoiled us for regular cabins forever! We loved the aft location with its larger balcony. The air conditioning in the room kept us nice and cool (cold) just the way I like it.

 

FOOD ON THE SHIP: We ate most meals in the main dining room. The staff was wonderful and did everything they could to enhance our enjoyment of the dining room. We had great table-mates on both legs of the B2B, which made dining a fun experience. We ate in Portofino's once for their wine paring event and enjoyed it immensely. Great food and the wine was very good. We ate there again with our friends and again had a good time. We ate once in Chops for a group dinner with our Cruise Critic Roll-Call mates and loved it. They made a special event for us because we were such a large group. Cosmin Andries, Restaurant Operations Manager, arranged this for us.

 

Food in the main dining room was very good, but I ordered the Chops steak on the last formal night since everyone else wanted the lobster (large size and cooked to perfection), but I don't eat shellfish. My steak was the same as in Chops, but was not freshly-cooked. It seemed a little tired and had been kept under a heat lamp, but was very tender.

 

The Windjammer for breakfast and lunch was a zoo, as usual. We only went there a couple of times, instead we went to the main dining room, Johnny Rockets (once) or used room service.

 

STAFF ON BOARD: We cannot over-praise the staff enough. Our room steward took very good care of us. When we asked for egg crates because the bed was too hard for our comfort, Adrian got them immediately. After that, the beds were very good. Our dining room waiters and assistant waiters were wonderful. My husband wanted extra vegetables every night, and they brought 2 platters of vegetables every night, so we had enough to share with the entire table. All the bar tenders took very good care of us and knew our likes immediately after our first drink. We especially liked the wine tenders in Vintages; they really know wine. We requested large red wine glasses because we like very good cabernet (read $$$) and received them in the main dining room and Vintages every time. On other cruises, this has been a problem because they are more expensive and breakable and they staff has been reluctant to use them.

 

ENTERTAINMENT ON BOARD: We liked the ice skater's show very much. We thought the Royal singers and dancers were good but not great. The group that did a Jersey Boys take-off were very good. We did not see all the special acts. The cruise director, John, was very seldom seen. The activities manager, Tom, seemed very good and inter-acted with the cruisers quite a lot.

 

TOURS ON THE CRUISE: We booked most of our tours with private operators. We used Romeinlimo again in Naples for Herculaneum, Sorrento and Positano. Our driver was Tony and he was a delight. We had a guide in Herculaneum so we got a private tour and could hear all her commentary, which was very good. Tony was funny and gave us a sheet of lyrics for sing Italian songs while we drove along. So much fun!! Romeinlimo is absolutely the best tour company we have ever used.

 

Our ship had to miss Malta because of very bad weather, so we went to Messina, Italy instead. It was raining very hard and the wind was really blowing, so we did not get off the ship. After all our hard days of touring, we took the day off. Malta and Messina will have to be on another cruise; that means we have to go back!

 

We toured Sardinia with Sardinia Dream Tours. We had an 8-passenger jeep and we toured Barumini and Giara di Gesturi, 3500 year-old stone towers, wild horses, cork trees, and a stone cave. This was a once-in-a-lifetime tour and we would highly recommend Sardinia Dream Tours with Francesco Bayre. Cost was 65 euro per person.

 

We toured Palma de Mallorca with maiorcaescursioni.com. This tour was in a mini-bus and took us to the main sites of historical interest. We saw the Castle of Bellver, LaCartuja Monastery, the Cathedral, walked the old town. The cost was $265.59 for 4 people and was pre-paid through credit card. Wonderful tour and I would recommend them to anyone.

 

We toured Valencia, using Royal's tour #VN22. This was a tour of the city and included the underground river tour. The cost was $50 per person. I would not do this again because it was a large ship tour with the usual cattle-call atmosphere. The underground river tour was interesting, but seemed very disney-like and over-commercialized.

 

We had an all-day tour in Barcelona while we were there in the middle of our B2B. We used Barcelona Day Tours and they customized a tour for us that included the city, Cathedral Familia and all the way to Monserrat. We got 2 tours in the time-frame of 6 hours, which would normally be all day tours. We insisted we be back on board by 3 PM and we actually got back about 10 minutes early. I would highly recommend Barcelona Day Tours.

 

We toured Cadiz (Seville) with Royal, using their tour #CD03, which included a town tour and the Sherry Cellars. We did not care for this tour because it seemed like the main purpose was to take us to the sherry gift shop. We would not do this again.

 

We toured Madeira, Portugal with lido-tours.com, doing their North West tour. Cost was 29 euro per person. This was delightful, with a bus tour to the north side of the island along the narrow roads, a gread lunch in a restaurant along the coast, viewing the lava swimming pools and our guide told about the island and the culture, economy, farming the steep mountain slopes and food. We loved this tour and will go back to Madeira if we ever have another opportunity.

 

We toured Nassau, Bahamas with Tru Bahamian Food Tours. This was a great

tour, and we learned more about the bahamas than we ever knew. This was a walking tour, but only covered several blocks, because they restaurants were all within short distances from each other. Cost was $69 per person and worth every bit. I have a shell fish allergy and they handled this very well. We got plenty to eat and the highlight was the tour of Greycliff resort and chocolate factory! With free samples!!

 

DEBARKING IN GALVESTON: This was a mess. We have disembarked in Galveston several times and it has always been a mess. The ship announced the Customs and Immigration people only sent 3 people to handle our ship instead of 10. This is the same announcement they have always made. Since our ship had come from outside the country, all the staff had to be cleared as well as the passengers. The problem seems to be the layout of the cruise facility itself. It took 2 hours from the time we left the ship until we got to our luggage, and then 1 hour to get through customs. Trying to get a porter was impossible, so we ended up getting out of the porter line and into the line to claim your own luggage. We will not even try to get a porter next time.

 

OVER-ALL CRUISE EXPERIENCE: This was our first B2B and was our best cruise ever. This was our second transatlantic, but we had been to Italy and Spain before. Our friends traveling with us had never been there at all.

 

Even though we had some bad weather and rough seas, we enjoyed every minute. We can't wait to go again.

 

 

I tried to make this review short; I sure missed on that one. I will be happy to answer any questions. Please feel free to ask me.

 

Margee

[Jiminy1955]

DEBARKING IN GALVESTON: This was a mess. We have disembarked in Galveston several times and it has always been a mess. The ship announced the Customs and Immigration people only sent 3 people to handle our ship instead of 10. This is the same announcement they have always made. Since our ship had come from outside the country, all the staff had to be cleared as well as the passengers. The problem seems to be the layout of the cruise facility itself. It took 2 hours from the time we left the ship until we got to our luggage, and then 1 hour to get through customs. Trying to get a porter was impossible, so we ended up getting out of the porter line and into the line to claim your own luggage. We will not even try to get a porter next time.

 

 

Great review. We will be debarking in Galveston March 2014, we will take Super Shuttle from there to the airport. I'm wondering what time to tell SS to pick us up, can you give me a ball park time?

[margeecruiser]

We used super shuttle too. We had a 10:30 pick-up time and missed it by 90 minutes. They know delays getting off the ship are common, so you can call them when you get your luggage. We waited about 30 minutes after we got outside the terminal and called them. They must pre-position the shuttles that have been reserved. Our shuttle was reserved by a member of our roll call, so we did not do this ourselves. I would not expect an early pick up time. We had 3 shuttles, one at 9:30, one at 10 and one at 10:30. Everyone else got through customers before we did. One couple on our shuttle probably missed their flight.

 

Margee

[pspercy]

Thanks for the quick summary. We were booked on that B2B (even in Hotel Lancelot) but cancelled and took Vision TA instead. Too bad you missed Malta but the eastern Med can indeed get really rough.

Edited November 30, 2013 by pspercy

[Beachin2]

Glad you enjoyed the cruise. Our group has resolved never to cruise into/out of Galveston again because of the problems they consistently have there.

[estoyer]

Nice review! My wife and I are going to book the same b2b.. We've been wondering how this cruise turned out this year. Did you say where you flew out of? Houston I suppose.....

 

Thanks

[shaggyofwv]

Thanks for the review and information about Navigator. A transatlantic is on our to-do list.

[Jiminy1955]

We used super shuttle too. We had a 10:30 pick-up time and missed it by 90 minutes. They know delays getting off the ship are common, so you can call them when you get your luggage. We waited about 30 minutes after we got outside the terminal and called them. They must pre-position the shuttles that have been reserved. Our shuttle was reserved by a member of our roll call, so we did not do this ourselves. I would not expect an early pick up time. We had 3 shuttles, one at 9:30, one at 10 and one at 10:30. Everyone else got through customers before we did. One couple on our shuttle probably missed their flight.

 

Margee

 

 

Thanks, this helps a lot, there will be 8 family in our group with a 6:00 pm flight. I'm thinking 11:30 or 12:00 schedule will be sufficient with possibly a shorter wait time.

[margeecruiser]

Beachin2: We will cruise into/out of Galveston again because it is so close to us so we don't have to fly every time. I plan on skipping the porters next time and leaving the ship sooner. We always get a late departure time from the ship because they know we are not going to the airport. Next time, we will just leave the ship after breakfast, well after the self-debarkers. I always think it will get better....I'm so hopelessly optimistic. The real problem is that the cruisers leaving run right into the newly arriving cruisers, with no way to separate the two groups.

 

Margee

[Ladysilver]

Thanks for taking the time to post your review. We leave in the morning and we're super excited!!!!! :D