Just off Navigator - A review

[TC1957]

Obviously all the the comments below are anecdotal but some observations;

 

Embarkation: You see, on a fairly regular basis, negative comments about Galveston so I was expecting the worse (or at least bad). When I got back into my car after dropping off the spousal unit and our bags I noticed the time was exactly 11:00. I parked, walked back to meet her, we grabbed our bags, went thru security and check-in, had our picture taken and were on the ship before noon. Not bad...in fact, easy peasy lemon-squeezey. I also spoke with several who arrived later and the longest time I heard mention was an hour and a half (they arrived at the port at 1:00). My grade; 9

 

The ship: For the most part we were pleased. I was a little dissappointed to see several places around the ship where the carpet was worn. I also noticed several places where rust was visible (even on our balcony, one of the new ones on deck 12). While I didn't expect the ship to be like brand new, I also didn't expect to see worn carpet and rust just seven months after drydock revitalization. They also had issues with the telephone and some plumbing issues but they were addressed quickly. My grade; 7

 

The staff: Our cabin steward and MDR staff were amazing. Most of the other staff we encountered were very nice and friendly. The woman making annoucements during debarkation in the theatre seemed a little on edge but that may have been (probably was) passenger driven. There was also one woman in particular that I refered to as "The Purell (take your pick)" who was VERY aggressive. I take a medication every morning for fluids (heart condition) that makes my skin dry. Using the sanitizer (even with multiple applications of hand lotion) had my hands almost to the point of cracking by Wednesday morning. Because of that I started washing my hands agressively right before we ate (and yes, I used a clean paper towel to open the door). Even telling her I had just washed my hands didn't help. She actually followed me into the MDR Friday morning shouting "Sir, sanitize." I finally stopped and told her to back off. It helped some...not much. I understand why, but she shouldn't (in my opinion) attempt to humiliate passengers if she doesn't know all the facts. Overall grade; 9 (I give her a 3).

 

Food: Rating food quality is subjective as taste are different. Compared to past cruises the quality was about the same...nothing to rave about, but nothing to beat them up over. Did hear a lot of comments about inconsistent quality within a particular dish (people got a small amount in Windjammer to taste something...it was good but when they went back to get more it was completely different, usually overyly salty). We ate mostly in the MDR but did hit The Windjammer when we returned to the ship after excursions (and one breakfast). One thing was consistent in both dining venues...the kitchen had problems keeping up (getting food out in a timely manner). In the MDR we were at a table for six (great tablemates by the way) and there were mixed reviews about quality amoung that small sample. My issue...on several occassions the food arrived warm at best (when it was supposed to be hot). They didn't have a temperature issue when it was supposed to be cold. Two off the nights it took well over two hours to eat and most of that time was spent waiting for food. I noticed several passengers around us checking watches and looking for food...many comments about it during discussions with random people. As I said, we did not try any of the specialty venues but I heard consistent high grades for Sabor. The most frequent comment about others was it was not worth the extra cost. My grade; 6

 

Entertainment: We skipped one show (Royal singers and dancers) because we were dead tired. The other shows were fantastic. The comedians were hilarious (with the possible exception of the "Adult" show...seemed he just put in foul language for the sake of putting it in when it served no other purpose). I will say I am amazed at the number of people who will come in late and leave early (while sitting in the first few rows) with a comedian on stage. Do they not realize they are going to be the set topic for a some time? Moving on, we were please that The Texas Tenors got on the ship in Belize. They were, by far, the best show. My grade; 10

 

Debarkation: Since we were driving and had time we chose to let them take our bags on Saturday night. We had tag number 11 and were not scheduled to get off until 10:30. Since we were packed, we ate early and just went to the Metropolis Theatre and relaxed. They called our number at 10:15 and after collecting our bags we were through customs, I had retrieved the car, loaded and pulled out of the port at 12:02. My question...what are people complaining about? Do they really think they are going to get that many people (and their luggage) off the ship and through lines controlled by the government faster? The only complaint I had was I noticed that when they decided to check someone's bags the agent at the desk left and either checked them himself or observed. Seems like things would go better if they just added an agent or two so that agent didn't have to leave the line unattended. My grade; 8

 

One thing that might bother some (maybe many) here is there were the two formal nights but every other night was casual...LOTS of shorts, t-shirts (collarless) and flip-flops/sandals. On the first formal night I estimate particapation amoung those I could see was 75-80%...on the second it was down to well less than 50% (late seating). Of the men that did dress, the vast majority were in suits. I saw very few tuxedos.

 

While it may fit under entertainment I will single it out. The piano player in the MDR for the second seating needs to learn more songs. He/She kept playing the same 5 or 6 songs over and over...and most of those were from Disney movies.

 

Overall, very enjoyable. But let's be honest, your worse day on vacation is typically better than your best day at work.

[slvrbllt]

We'll type up our review of the cruise later, but my son was less than impressed with the number of times the MDR piano player played Let It Go. He had to play it for orchestra this year and was hoping to get away from it ;-)

 

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[lacruiser]

TC1957, thanks for your review. We board next Sunday, and I'm looking forward to seeing the renovations.

[KirkNC]

Thanks for the report!

[PompeySailor]

Enjoyed your concise review, glad you had a good cruise

Thanks

Happy Days!

[JBSteelerfan]

Glad to hear embarkation went smoothly with all the mixed reviews we hear about that!

[LBumb]

good job

[Billerica]

I need to take lessons from you. I think we were on the same cruise (Aug 10 Navigator). Getting on was great, getting off was a disaster. We had luggage tag 5. We were supposed to get off at 9:15. We were called at 10:00. It was 12:15 before we cleared customs, so we were in line for over 2 hours. There were very long uncontrolled lines. People simply cut the lines and probably saved at least 30 minutes. We also saw many people with verb high luggage tags (how did luggage tags 25 get ahead of us).

 

We visited with people from Carnival dream that got in at the same time as we did. It took them 45 minutes to get off to our 2 hours. So I am thinking the problem is not with the port, but with RCI.

 

That said it was a great cruise and I will be back with RCI.

[miccheck]

TC1957, we're in one of the balconies on 12 coming up in October. Just curious if there were any issues of note. How's the ship motion?

[AustinCruise]

Curious how many customs agents carnival dream had? Navigator had 5 when we got through customs around 10am (tag 1). I heard it was less earlier. Dream also went into New Orleans.

[TC1957]

TC1957, we're in one of the balconies on 12 coming up in October. Just curious if there were any issues of note. How's the ship motion?

 

Only notied a lot of motion a couple of times...arriving at and leaving Belize. The Captain announced that there are "sharp turns" involved with stopping there. Other than that we felt no more or no less than our last balcony (on deck 9).

[TC1957]

Curious how many customs agents carnival dream had? Navigator had 5 when we got through customs around 10am (tag 1). I heard it was less earlier. Dream also went into New Orleans.

 

When we went through all the lines (9 or 10) were staffed.

[slvrbllt]

When we went through customs around noon, all the lines were open. The problem was there was no separation between the luggage pick up and the no Porter line.

 

And there's never any policing of who gets off first that I've seen. I visited with several people who self-disembarked but didn't check in to get a pass. So they crowded the lines at the beginning.

 

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[ddj1x1]

Agree with OP (8/10-17) with all but disembark.

 

There has to be a better way than putting the luggage in the very middle of the room. Put it at the back and then develop the lines. It was a mess. And not just because it takes over an hour to get out but because the management of the process is chaos.

 

 

 

I need to take lessons from you. I think we were on the same cruise (Aug 10 Navigator). Getting on was great, getting off was a disaster. We had luggage tag 5. We were supposed to get off at 9:15. We were called at 10:00. It was 12:15 before we cleared customs, so we were in line for over 2 hours. There were very long uncontrolled lines. People simply cut the lines and probably saved at least 30 minutes. We also saw many people with verb high luggage tags (how did luggage tags 25 get ahead of us).

 

We visited with people from Carnival dream that got in at the same time as we did. It took them 45 minutes to get off to our 2 hours. So I am thinking the problem is not with the port, but with RCI.

 

That said it was a great cruise and I will be back with RCI.

Edited August 18, 2014 by ddj1x1

[Fat Paul]

Thanks for the review. We were on the Navigator in June, agree with most of your points. One of the highlights for us was the concierge in the Diamond lounge (forgot her name). She was very good at her job, always made us feel very welcome.

[Caribbeansunrise]

.…...................

While it may fit under entertainment I will single it out. The piano player in the MDR for the second seating needs to learn more songs. He/She kept playing the same 5 or 6 songs over and over...and most of those were from Disney..............

 

In May, we were "Treated" to a couple of female passengers who chose to sing along loudly with the pianist. Needless to say, I was not amused.

[PompeySailor]

Thanks for the review. We were on the Navigator in June, agree with most of your points. One of the highlights for us was the concierge in the Diamond lounge (forgot her name). She was very good at her job, always made us feel very welcome.

 

 

When we were on in June it was Larissa:)

[MCKC]

Customs was horrible in my opinion.....ppl cutting and zero organization. We were group 11 and didn't get to an agent until 1!!! Not a great way to end a cruise....not RCI fault but geez!! One of the customs agents said he caught 2 drug smugglers, I'm guessing this had something to do with why it took sooooo long. Had a good cruise but still prefer Celebrity.

 

 

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[poodog]

Good review thank you

[MAHA]

Debarkation was the worst we have ever experienced in 15 cruises with Royal. We were luggage tag #6 - priority for diamond, diamond+, and pinnacle members. There were 6 in our family - all Diamond. We waited in our lounge until being called, which was 35 minutes late. The staff member who was in charge of notifying us that we could leave told anyone with luggage tags numbers that were a higher number than us they could leave as well. Our oldest son and his wife had people in front of them in line for customs and immigration that had numbers in the mid 20's - they were local residents who drove and just wanted to get home earlier. This was a common problem that people left the ship well ahead of their luggage tag number being called. I heard from one person in line that their waitstaff at dinner the night before had encouraged people to leave the ship before their number was called as it was usually a mess in the terminal. This was on Royal as they should not have any staff telling people to leave before their time. The debarkation needs to change so that only those who have been called can exit the ship. It created a nightmare in the terminal. The lines for customs were winding back and forth in the terminal amidst the luggage. People were cutting in line ahead of those who were already in line as the lines were somewhat hard to distinguish. We were supposed to be called at 9:15, but were called at 9:50. We had scheduled a Super Shuttle to get us to the Houston Hobby Airport for 10:25-10:40. We thought with a debarkation for 9:15, we'd have no problem getting the shuttle from all of our previous experiences. It took us over 2.5 hours to get through customs and out of the terminal. Our son and daughter in law were ahead of us in line and we gave them cash for a taxi to the airport as they had a 1:30 flight. We had followed Royal's suggestion of not booking a flight until 12:30 or later. They left the terminal at 12:15 and the taxi driver sped to get them to Hobby by 1PM, just barely enough time to catch their flight. We left the terminal later (probably finally through customs at 12:30 and then had to call the Super Shuttle driver, who had been waiting since 10 AM) and got to Hobby at 2:05 PM for a 3:05 PM flight. We will never cruise out of Galveston again unless they fix this mess!

 

As for the rest of the cruise, our much anticipated shore excursion in Belize, Underwater Windows of Wonder to the Barrier Reef was cancelled the morning of the tour. Evidently, the glass bottom boat was experiencing mechanical problems. We were supposed to gather at 9:30 AM for the excursion and were notified in our cabin at 9:15 AM and told to come to the shore excursion desk to see what was available. the only thing for our family of 6 adults was a City tour of Belize City, something that did not interest any of us. We really wanted to see the Reef as it is the second largest in the world. It was going to be one of the highlights of our cruise! Most of us don't snorkle, so the glass bottom boat was ideal. the only thing shore excursions was willing to do was give us the refund and offer 10% off an excursion for the next day in Cozumel that we had not previously booked. Four of our group had already booked a trip to Nachi Cocom beach club on our own. Our oldest son and his wife had booked the Tulum shore excursion months in advance through Royal. I finally got them to give us 30% off our excursion from Roatan, but it had been a $24 per person excursion. Not much compensation for a cancelled excursion at the last minute in my opinion.

 

At dinner, we had the late seating and there was a group of mid teens with a few adults, who started singing loudly to Disney songs that the piano player was playing one night. They then started going up to the third level to request other songs that they could sing along to. In my opinion, it was rude and the waitstaff did nothing to stop them.

 

This is my first complaint with Royal on these forums as we have been pleased with all of our cruises. We enjoyed this cruise, too, other than the problems above. We had a wonderful cabin steward, and MDR waitstaff. The diamond lounge staff were always very attentive. Entertainment was good as was the food in the Windjammer, MDR, Chops and Giovanni's Table. The deck patrol had a handle on chair hogs.

 

Mary Anne

[AustinCruise]

They really need to provide stickers for sea pass cards to designate groups for debarkation. That or make people wear a numbered luggage tag around their neck.

 

Of course that addresses priority/order. But something really needs to be done on the port side. There is no excuse to take that long to process the ship passengers (though it sounds standard on belize trips).

[TC1957]

They really need to provide stickers for sea pass cards to designate groups for debarkation. That or make people wear a numbered luggage tag around their neck.

 

Of course that addresses priority/order. But something really needs to be done on the port side. There is no excuse to take that long to process the ship passengers (though it sounds standard on belize trips).

 

DING...DING...DING, We have a winner. At the farewell show they mentioned two or three times that debarkation would be a long process because of the stops in Honduras and Belize.

 

I will admit that there would be less confusion if the luggage was placed against the back wall of the building and more "cattle lanes" were added to control the line. After we got in line we heard an official (honestly cannot remember if they were RCI or Port) tell people to just get in line when a gaggle of people caused a large break in the line...picture a large group of people looking for their bags and the line basically going through the group. It created a big gap and they wanted to keep funneling people out of the building.

[gweedo]

TC1957 Thanks for the review.:) We will be on the Navigator in January. Is there any chance you could post the Compass for this itinerary? I have seen the other itinerary but not he Honduras/Belize one. Thank you

[slvrbllt]

Gweedo... I have them and will post them all. Hopefully this week.

 

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[slvrbllt]

Mary Anne... I think we (me, hubby and two boys) shared a cab with you to Nachi.

 

Cheryl

 

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