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Navigator of the Seas *LIVE* 11/23/2018 - 12/2/2018

Rogueperson

By Rogueperson,
in Royal Caribbean International

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Rogueperson "Live from...." Rare

Rogueperson

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A couple of you may remember that I did a live thread back in April on the Grandeur's 9 night sailing down the coast.  Well, I got such a warm reception and so much encouragement, that I'm doing it again, this time, on the Navigator of the Seas.  We depart on Friday from Miami, and travel south to beautiful Labadee.  After that, we continue south to Aruba, Bonaire and Curacao.

 

A couple things are different this time.  For one, my wife will be with me.  I won't be complaining so much about the internet because I can't communicate with her as much as I would like.  Also, this is my first time on BOTH Navigator and to these Southern Caribbean Islands.  I have excursions booked, which I won't reveal until we get there.  When i did the Grandeur, it was my 4th time on her, plus 2nd time on that same itinerary, so I was kind of a pro at both the ship and the ports.  This time, we will both see these for the first time, for the most part.  We've been to Labadee before.  I plan to load plenty of pictures as well as cruise compasses and menus like last time.  Hopefully, the internet on the Navigator will cooperate better than the Grandeur.

This Live thread is also an experiment of sorts.  On our meet and greet, we had another person interested in doing a live thread, so we may try to combine two live threads into one and see how that works.  I'll let her introduce herself if she chooses.

 

Hope you enjoy this thread as much as I enjoyed writing it last time.

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Kilmarlic

Kilmarlic

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Yall keep an eye out for me. I plan on wearing a PINEAPPLE shirt to the meet & greet.

 

I'm currently enduring THE longest work day in the history of mankind. While I'm stuck in a cubicle, my suitcases are hanging out in the trunk of my car. Overnighting in Norfolk, VA tonight before a 6:30ish flight in the morning to Miami. To say I'm excited about this cruise is an understatement of epic proportions.

 

Our roll call here and on Social Media has gotten busier. Safe travels to everyone cruising with us. Also a very Happy Thanksgiving to those reading and following along.   - Iris

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Rogueperson "Live from...." Rare

Rogueperson

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Also, this will be our first diamond cruise.  A little background, I did 2 solo nine night cruises on Grandeur within a year to essentially hop over Emerald status.  That gave me 36 points in two cruises to give me exactly 80.  So I get to check out the Diamond Lounge this time!!!

 

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BillOh Holiday Sharing Rare

BillOh

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1 hour ago, Rogueperson said:

.  We depart on Friday from Miami, and travel south to beautiful Labadee.  After that, we continue south to Aruba, Bonaire and Curacao.

 

Are you flying down on Thanksgiving?

 

I'll be watching, we are just now considering longer than 7 day cruises. 

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BillOh Holiday Sharing Rare

BillOh

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52 minutes ago, Rogueperson said:

Also, this will be our first diamond cruise.  A little background, I did 2 solo nine night cruises on Grandeur within a year to essentially hop over Emerald status.  That gave me 36 points in two cruises to give me exactly 80.  So I get to check out the Diamond Lounge this time!!!

 

 

 

I'll watch for your report here.  My first Diamond cruise on a Voyager class was on Adventure and that was my favorite Diamond Lounge so far.  I'm to lazy to go check the Navigator deck plans to see if the Diamond Lounge is in the same place, so I'll watch for your report. 

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Rogueperson "Live from...." Rare

Rogueperson

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One more step closer.  We are checked in to our flight.  As of right now, the flight is on time.

 

Another bit of background.  Originally, I was supposed to fly out on American from BWI to Miami at 5:30pm.  We had hoped to do some kind of Thanksgiving lunch with the kids.

 

A couple weeks back when i started hammering things in place, i tried to confirm our flight and it was giving me an error.  I manually looked up or reservation number and to my surprise, I'm on a totally different flight that takes off 5 1/2 hours earlier.  I call American Airlines and they told me they changed my flight back in August!!!  It would have been nice for them to tell me.  Apparently they cancelled my flight and put me on another one.  Now the latest flight left at 3:15pm, BUT, it would have taken me on a tour through Dallas Fort Worth, FIRST, and gotten me to Miami and 11:30pm.  So we kept this flight.  We could have flown out like 5am on Friday, but that would mean losing our hotel room, and other stuff.  Who knows how many people on that flight was bumped and not told if I wasn't told.
 

We are still packing, or better yet, my wife is because she doesn't trust my packing skills.  There were some things we could not find, like my swimming trunks.  I know I have at least 3, but I found only 1, but they say Carnival on it.  Wife vetoed that.  We actually found some in Target last night surprisingly.

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GTO-Girl

GTO-Girl

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We are on this cruise too!!!  We fly out tomorrow from Atlanta arriving in Miami about 3:00pm.  We are staying at the Hampton Inn Brickell...

 

A little nervous about the flight (hate flying); but so excited for this cruise!!

 

Hope to see you onboard....

 

Dianne

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FionaMG "Live from...." Rare

FionaMG

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I'm the other person who had been thinking of doing a live review. It's a first for me, following my post-cruise review of the 11-night Serenade cruise DH and I did last December.

 

For this Navigator cruise, we flew across the pond from Portugal on Tuesday. We arrived into Miami International at 5 PM, two hours later than expected due to a technical issue with the aircraft arising just prior to departure. 

 

We flew with TAP Air Portugal. Recently people have been asking about this airline on the cruise air forum due to its very competitive prices, so I will be updating my last year's review of it on that forum.

 

We are spending our three pre-cruise nights at the Hampton Inn Brickell based on the excellent reviews it gets on these boards. I am happy to report that the reviews are justified. The included breakfast is very decent. They have a fresh fruit salad that is incredibly good. The location is great and the bars nearby are buzzing this evening. 

 

We had dinner last night at Perricones, an Italian place just a few minutes walk from the hotel and often mentioned on the Florida departure boards. The food was good, plentiful and reasonably priced and the service was good too.

 

Today was spent doing touristy wanderings. We walked from the hotel to Bayside and had lunch there, at the Mambo Café. The marinated steak was very good.

 

And dinner tonight was at Toscana Divino, again just a short walk from the hotel. This was pricier and the portions were smaller but the food was more upscale. I had an unusual but very tasty gnocchi and rabbit dish and DH said the lasagne was very good too.

 

The plan for tomorrow is to ride the water taxi over to South Beach and spend the day around there.

 

A couple of photos from today's walkabout just to check I'm able to upload pics correctly. 

 

2018-11-21 12.03.19.jpg

2018-11-21 11.53.01.jpg

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twangster "Live from...." Rare

twangster

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I would appreciate if you could report the onboard pricing for the deluxe beverage package.  I'm sailing her in a few weeks and I've noted some variance from ship to ship from $57 to $63 onboard.  

 

Considering using my D+ discount onboard vs. potential Black Friday deals (if any).

 

Thanks.

 

Enjoy your cruise!

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bonsai3s

bonsai3s

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21 hours ago, thjeepster said:

We will be on this Cruise also!  Can't wait.

 

Last day of work today...luckily we live here in Florida so come Friday morning we will be driving across to Miami.

 

This will be an awesome time!  See everyone Friday!

See you on Friday! Happy Thanksgiving.:classic_smile:

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