Thoughts of my Navigator cruise last week

[pookeysmom]

Thanks for the review! Good info!

 

We just got back a couple of weeks ago from our Navigator cruise to Cozumel, Cayman & Falmouth.

 

The ship was nice. This was our 2nd RC cruise.

Our teens enjoyed the flow rider, and we mostly chilled at the Solarium adult pool.

 

Our only complaint was that there aren't enough places to eat that don't cost $$. The only freebies are the buffet, room service, the main dining room & several items at the coffee bar in the promenade. Embarkation day the only place serving lunch was the buffet & it was crazy crowded & gross. Make sure to order room service breakfast the night before with the door tag, because twice I was told in the morning that our food would arrive in 1 or 1.5 hour.

 

I agree the shows were just "alright", but Texas Tenors were amazing.

 

The buffet food at Windjammer was really bad (dry & tasteless) IMHO, but our boys ate there several times.

I agree the service was very slow in the Sapphire (MDR), but our waiters worked very hard & were extremely nice.

The only time we didn't like the MDR was breakfast. It's open seating & they kept trying to sit us at large, crowded tables, even after we asked for a table for 4. When we re-stated our request, they appeared aggravated with us & sat us (almost every morning) at the worst tables in the room, next to the serving area, in the middle of a busy walkway, or among all the crying babies.

 

I don't understand why they didn't do anything with that empty boring deck area on 13. It seems like it should be another bar area. What a waste.

 

We loved the observation deck at night for gazing at the stars. Beautiful.

 

We had a balcony on deck 7, 7242, starboard aft, and it was very nice. Room enough for 2 chairs & a small table. Not too windy. The room was quiet and very close to the library & elevators/stairs. Our only complaint was that the beds were very hard, but as soon as we mentioned it, our steward placed foam pads under the sheet & it really helped a lot.

 

Cozumel is always fun. We went snorkeling at Chankanaab. An easy, do it yourself kind of day. $11 cab ride each way & $21 to enter per person, or $37 I believe if you want snorkeling, free Tshirt & 1 free beer per person.

 

Cayman is always a blast too, once you actually make it onto a tender, that is. We've done Stingray city twice (Captain Marvin & Moby Dick tours), so this time we went to a beach club, Royal Palms, on 7 mile beach. It was inexpensive & nice. $4 per person cab ride each way + $2 per person entry. I believe the umbrella was $7 and the chairs were $5. There's an adult pool with swim up bar, showers and restrooms, water sports, restaurant.

 

I thought Falmouth is a waste. It's too new & too boring IMHO. The port shopping area is beautiful & large, but unless you've booked an excursion, everything you may try to do yourself is too far away & cabs are super expensive! Just head over to Margaritaville for the day & enjoy! Or take advantage of the ship while everyone's out.

 

I enjoyed myself so much I'm going on Navigator again in November with my BFF. I Can't wait!!

[websiteauthor]

 

** Something went horribly wrong with the photo section. All the kiosks went down

about 20 of them. One was operational. My brother and his wife waited 2 hours

for their turn to select the photos they wish to order. They paid for them and were

told to come back at 11:00 that evening to pick them up. All this just to be advised

the photo producing machine was not working. Here's your money back. This was

their first cruise and after hearing me bragging on how great Royal was they were

a bit disappointed.

 

 

There have been several complaints about the photo ordering with RCI lately, and then of course there's the wedding photography they screwed up. They really need to get their act together with the photography.

 

It definitely makes sense to shoot your own pictures to make sure you'll come off the trip with something, at least.

[Texasmotherofthree]

Regarding the question about Water Caye, if this is the excursion Tropical Island Getaway offered by RCI please change your plans. We sailed on the Navigator in August and the In-laws took the young kids on this excursion. They said from the moment they arrived on the so called private island a large majority of the passengers wanted to turn around and go back to the boat. It should not be called a beach they said, it was rocky, restrooms were terrible and there was very little to do. There was nothing private about this beach. After being to Tabayana beach in Roatan, this place was terrible according to the family.

Back on the ship we asked for a refund and the RCI rep at the excursion desk responded by saying he would never sell this excursion to anyone. Complaints have been made to Head office.

The passengers that complained all received a 100% refund.

You may want to enjoy an empty boat that day!

[Centex]

Regarding the question about Water Caye...

 

Thanks for this. We were looking at doing this one.

[jcc1025]

Thanks for the review. We sailed on the old Navigator several years ago and are looking forward to the new look. Our last two cruises have been on Allure and Oasis and some of these upgrades are items from those ships, which we loved. We know that nothing can match those two ships but look forward to our first cruise out of Galveston.

We are sailing with some friends who have not sailed on these big ships and we are looking forward to showing them RCCL. We have sailed every class and find they all have their own specific positives. We are off the first week of Nov. so thanks again for giving us some preview of coming attractions.