Navigator of the Seas - May 19-26 (Cabo, Mazatlan, Puerto Vallarta)

[DukeASUGirl]

Just got home after sticking around LA for a couple of days after our cruise on Navigator of the Seas. Will write an in-depth review once I've had a chance to decompress from the drive, but in the meantime, feel free to ask any questions!

[JaynBNA]

I'm on this cruise in late September and am looking forward to your review. Did the same route on NCL Bliss in 2019.  

[DukeASUGirl]

I'm going to do this in sections.

__________________________________

 

Embarkation/disembarkation:

 

Port of Los Angeles - San Pedro has to be the worst cruise terminal I've ever sailed out of in the US. The entire process was just so chaotic compared to other terminals I've been to. Probably the smoothest I've ever experienced was Port of Long Beach (Carnival), but have also enjoyed the process in Seattle, Port Canaveral, and Miami. Houston was okay, but still better than San Pedro.

 

We had the 10:30-11 check-in time, and our entry to the terminal kept being blocked by people trying to enter early for their 1 pm check-in. We literally stood for 20 minutes at the curb trying to flag down a porter while people who just arrived would get one immediately. Porter after porter kept skipping us.

 

My mom was in a scooter, so we did get taken out of the long lines inside the terminal once we got to the front to be able to enter the building, but even getting to the entrance of the terminal was a process with rude people who kept trying to enter 2 hours early.

 

But once we got on the ship, it was much better. We skipped the safety briefing until closer to sail time and headed straight for the Windjammer because our hotel didn't include breakfast.

Edited May 29, 2023 by DukeASUGirl

[DukeASUGirl]

Dining:

 

We had My Time Dining, and due to food allergies, we made a standing 6:45 pm reservation for our party of 6. We loved our waiter Meckinson and assistant waiter Clive. They were absolutely wonderful. Meckinson heads home to India on July 7 for 2 months for a well-deserved break.

 

Our daughter's food allergies were much more standard (peanuts/tree nuts) than mine (parsley, cilantro, sesame, chickpea). She's not an adventurous eater, so she stuck with chicken fingers off the kids menu every night except Night 7 when she went crazy and ordered a grilled cheese. Thankfully our son likes to try new things. He's our kid who actually qualified for Kids Sail Free (she missed it by 5 months), but he ordered off the adult menu every night - usually steak.

 

Because of my food allergies, the supervisory waiter for the section would stop by every night and take my order for the next night, so they would be able to alert the kitchen ahead of time to prepare something special without my allergens - usually the biggest issue was parsley, but sometimes cilantro. They would bring me the menu for the next day (or I could look on the app), and they would also let me know if they didn't think I'd enjoy that selection once it was altered to be safe, so I could choose something else as needed. 

 

We had the same table every night except for Night 4, after Mazatlan. We didn't enjoy that port, so returned to the ship early, and as a result we were ready to eat earlier than 6:45, so we decided to just go early and see if they could seat us. We got there at 6, and there actually was a table available for us because a different party of 6 decided to skip the main dining room that night. It meant we didn't sit in our normal section, though, so the supervisor on that floor had to hunt down my special order ticket. So we stuck to 6:45 after that.

 

We enjoyed everything we tried in main dining room. I know there have been a number of complaints about the current menu, but we liked it.

 

We brought our carry-on bottle of wine to dinner 4 nights, and never got a corkage fee.

 

We ate in Windjammer most mornings (although I did have breakfast in dining room one morning), and some lunches. I ate at El Loco Fresh for lunch a couple of times when I didn't want to leave the pool area.

 

Never tried the pizza in the Cafe Promenade. I snuck peeks at it in the glass display case and on people's trays as they went back to their cabin with a late night snack, and never found it appealing. the crust looked like Peter Piper Pizza or a prebaked shell from the grocery store.

 

We got room service continental breakfast for the kids on the morning of our early shore excursion so they could sleep a little later while my husband and I braved the Windjammer.

[DukeASUGirl]

Entertainment:

 

This is where Royal positively sparkles.

 

Go see iSkate on the first night and at least 1 or 2 more times. They had 2 shows on Night 1, 2 shows on Night 4, and 1 show on the afternoon of Day 7. We missed the first seating on Night 1 because of dinner, but made it to the 9:15 seating. We skipped it on Night 4 because dinner was running late and the later seating wouldn't get out until 11 pm - but we had a very early shore excursion (and were also losing an hour of sleep anyway due to a time change), so we decided to just go see it on the last afternoon instead.

 

SO good. It really is a fantastic production! (We were originally supposed to sail on Harmony last fall because my daughter's coach was taking a hiatus from the rink to skate in the Harmony of the Seas shows, but we had to cancel our cruise because the hurricane made it impossible for us to get to Port Canaveral - Delta canceled our flight and couldn't reschedule us in time. Royal gave us Future Cruise Credit, but we wouldn't be able to use it before Jaclyn's skating contract ended, so we decided to just go on a ship closer to home instead of flying.) Her coach told us that Navigator's iSkate is her favorite show of the entire fleet, so we knew it would be good. But it really did blow us away. And we're a skating family, so we watch competitions and skating shows all the time!

 

As for the Royal Theatre, our favorite production show was Showgirl. I watched it twice (due to a miscommunication, my daughter didn't end up going with us to the 8 pm, so I insisted she come with me at 10:15) because it was that good. On the whole, the men are stronger dancers than the women, but that's a bit of an unfair comparison because a portion of the time the women are reduced to just walking in a straight line with showgirl feathers on her head/back. The can-can number was amazing!

 

I also really liked Ballroom Fever, especially Nastya and Dima (the professional ballroom couple from Ukraine). I'd taken a master class with them many years ago, back when I competed on the collegiate level, so it was fun to see them perform again. Take their cha-cha class! It was at 11 am on the Cabo day, before we got to port.

 

I also enjoyed Oh What a Night (the Franke Valli tribute show), which was flown in from Vegas the morning before (met the ship in Puerto Vallarta). But my dad thought it needed less "humor" and more songs. I heard that same complaint from several other people.

 

The main comedian Angelo Tsoukalis was funny, but the "physical comedy" unicycle guy was kinda meh.

[DukeASUGirl]

I have a bit of a headache, so will continue tomorrow.

[neverbeenhere]

enjoying the review, 
 

Not to be a thorn in your side, but what your did on the night of Mazatlan was what folks are trying to do on embarkation day. Show up early-get in early. 

[DukeASUGirl]

10 minutes ago, neverbeenhere said:

enjoying the review, 
 

Not to be a thorn in your side, but what your did on the night of Mazatlan was what folks are trying to do on embarkation day. Show up early-get in early. 

No, I definitely agree with you on that, and wasn't intending to go early but my parents/kids were all complaining that they were hungry so we decided to just swing by the dining room to see if there was any way to get in. And I flat out told the reservation desk I knew we were early so if it wasn't possible I totally understood, and we could just go sit on deck and listen to music for a little bit. But they said they had an empty table just sitting there, so we decided to take it. However, I'm not sure how much earlier we ended up eating anyway, due to the search for the special order ticket on the wrong deck.

 

So I let the complaining people (in my family) know the next day that we needed to stick to 6:45.

Edited May 29, 2023 by DukeASUGirl

[DukeASUGirl]

Teen Club:

 

After eating lunch at Windjammer on embarkation day, the kids started itching to meet other kids their age, and asked to head to the clubs, so I told them I'd take them over. We began at Adventure Ocean, where I assumed my 11-yr-old would have to stay.

 

It's a smaller ship, so Adventure Ocean is just one big facility, without separate areas by age group, so when the brand-new elementary school graduate went inside, he immediately said "This is for babies." He found the video game corner while I spoke with a counselor, and was disappointed to discover that there was no controller - apparently they take away the controllers most of the time except for the first 30 minutes of the morning. Oh, heck no. There was no way a kid who had just had his "clap out" the day before and who will be starting middle school in the fall was going to stand for that.

 

When I spoke to the counselor to sign him up, she asked how old the kids were. I explained that I was only there for my 11-yr-old because the 13-yr-old would be in Teen Club, and she then told me we had a choice - we could put our son in Adventure Ocean's 9-11 age group (which is actually in the same large room as the littles), or put him in the Teen Club. Apparently they let 11-yr-olds choose on ships that don't have a dedicated space for tweens. She recommended we start with Adventure Ocean and give it a try, and if he decided it was too babyish, then move him to The Living Room, but he wasn't having it. 

 

So off to the Living Room we go!

 

Got them both signed up with bracelets, and learned that this would be the one and only time I could come inside. LOL

 

Both kids went on the first night after dinner at 8 pm for the 411 session and to meet people. After the intro, all the girls left, so my daughter felt awkward. But that didn't last long when a 15-yr-old boy asked her to hang with him and his brother. He asked how old she was, and the 13-yr-old said "Yes!" and fist-pumped when she answered she was 13. I came across them later on the ship, and wondered where her brother was.

 

I guess I needn't have asked, because he quickly became one of the "video game kids" who literally would hang out in that same corner for hours at a time. When they weren't playing, they were watching other kids.

 

Son loved The Living Room. Daughter thought it was kinda boring.

Edited May 29, 2023 by DukeASUGirl

[DukeASUGirl]

Cabo:

 

We loved this port, and wish we'd had more time there. Ship arrives at 12:30 and by the time they were cleared by customs, began the tendering process about 12:50-ish.

 

Tickets were being distributed on Deck 4 dining room from 10-noon. I dined with my parents in Deck 3 dining room for breakfast and figured I'd just run upstairs at the time. Got to desk where they were handing out the tickets at 10:03 and was already up to Tender #23.

 

In retrospect, I realize now that the people lined up outside the dining room at 7:45 were lining up for tender tickets. I'd just assumed they were waiting for the breakfast to open (which would be weird since breakfast was on Deck 3, not 4). 

 

We got ashore about 2:15, and were supposed to check in for our private shore excursion (arch and snorkeling with Roger's Glass Bottom Boats) at 2:45, but we didn't get there until 3 because people (translation: dad, mom, kids) needed to use the restroom before we managed to get a pedicab. So we didn't get into the pedicab until 2:42. We should have gotten to the meeting spot about 8 minutes earlier than we did, except that the driver of the cab I was in with the kids (husband was with my parents in the other one) decided to take us to his friend's silver store instead. I kept telling him no, but he told us it wouldn't be an extra charge and he would wait for us to shop. I said no, we have a tour, and finally after much argument he agreed to bring us to where we'd asked. I'm fairly confident we circled back at least once, which means he brought us WAY out of our way, making us even later than we would have been.

 

We arrived at 3, only to discover that this was only one of 3 potential check-in kiosks, but that the tour folks who needed to check us in weren't there. So they walked us through the entire mall to find the actual one, outside the mall on the harbor side - not sure why the pedicab driver didn't just take us there in the first place. (I showed him the print-out with instructions.) My mom left the scooter on the ship, so she was walking with a cane through the mall and almost gave up several times.

 

We finally got to the correct kiosk at 3:15, and since it was a private tour booked just for us, they decided to use the time to refuel the boat and just begin at 3:30 instead. We still got 2 hours, which was really nice and unexpected. I really assumed we would just lose a portion of the time and would have been okay with that.

 

The tour itself was fantastic. Flat price for 6 passengers, and included snorkeling and then a sightseeing cruise. My parents stayed on the boat while the rest of us snorkeled, or at least tried to. 11-yr-old wimped out about 2 minutes in. 13-yr-old swam out to the rocks with me but was a little freaked out because when she adjusted her mask she got salt water in her eyes, so she mostly just swam and didn't actually snorkel.

 

Husband and I actually snorkeled. It wasn't as vibrant or colorful as snorkeling in the Caribbean, but there were a lot of fish over by the rocks. Water was surprisingly warm.

 

After about 30-45 minutes or so, we got back into the boat and dried off while the captain drove us over to El Arco. The interpreter explained what we were seeing, while he took over 80 photos of us and the rocks.

 

When it was over, they took us right back to the cruise port when we told them that's where were would ultimately be going. We had just enough time to wander around a little bit and shop before heading back to the tender line. One was right there, and we didn't have to wait at all.

 

In all, the ship was "in port" for 7 1/2 hours, but our group was only ashore for about 4 hours, of which a big part of that time was spent trying to get to where our tour left. I loved the service, but if we did it again, we would just book one right off the pier when we got off the tender. I thought I was being smart by booking ahead of time with a company I found online, but the hassle in getting to their launch spot wasn't worth it. It would have been fine if it was just me, husband, and the kids, but we couldn't exactly ask my almost 80-yr-old parents to walk that. Maybe my dad, but definitely not my mom, who had to leave her scooter on the ship.

 

El Arco rock formation was beautiful, and we loved the snorkeling/swimming. Definitely a fun afternoon. Just wish we had more time in port. 

Edited May 29, 2023 by DukeASUGirl

[DukeASUGirl]

Not that I recommend doing this, but actually nobody was checking the tender tickets. We easily could have walked onto an earlier tender if we'd wanted. I thought maybe it was just the later groups that they didn't check, but folks who had early numbers said the same.

 

So in reality, we probably could have been ashore an hour earlier if we'd cheated.

[Ashland]

Sorry you had a bad experience at San Pedro. It's our home port (45 min drive) and we sail as often out of it as we can. Perhaps it makes a difference as we use the suite check in line and it couldn't be easier. Our most recent cruises were January 2022, October 2022 and January 2023. Have to skip January of 2024 but we're booked again for February 2025. 

 

So glad RCI has returned to our coast and hoping they'll stay. And I certainly agree the iSkate Reach For The Stars is the best ice show fleetwide.

Edited May 29, 2023 by Ashland

[DukeASUGirl]

Medical clinic:

 

Wish we didn't need to utilize this area of the ship, but we did. Daughter ended up having an allergic reaction to a package of cookies she bought at OXXO in Cabo. She bought 2 flavors, and of course the ingredients were in Spanish. One package clearly read safe, but for the other, it seems that the actual "contains" warning (the "may contain" read safe) was sort of hidden under the flap. You had to actually break the seal to be able to fully read it, which you can't do until you've bought it. So that's why I missed the "CONTIENE: nuez" portion of the label.

 

That was entirely my fault for not catching it in the store, but she still shouldn't have just ripped into the package in the cabin without rechecking the label. But she'd already consumed two packages of the orange flavor safely, so I guess she assumed the strawberry one was also safe.

 

Within moments of eating the first cookie, she complained that her lips and tongue felt weird, which is always an early warning sign. My husband just wanted to give Benadryl and watch, but I grabbed the package and then clearly saw "contiene nuez" and my heart sunk. So we epi'ed.

 

I dialed 911 on the house phone as he was injecting her, but he told me to hang up. Within 10 seconds, we got a call back from the bridge asking if everything was okay. They told me to bring her to the medical clinic and asked if we could walk her or if we needed a wheelchair. I didn't want to wait for the wheelchair, so we walked, but of course the elevators were the slowest they ever were the entire trip.

 

She was quite pale when we arrived on Deck 1, but her color returned within the next 20 minutes. Her oxygen was always good, which doctor and nurses attribute to the quick injection of epi. They observed her for about 90 minutes, then discharged us with Benadryl and prednisone. 

 

They were all concerned that it had been the ship's food, but we assured them it was not. We made the mistake of buying packaged food in Mexico.

 

About an hour later we all went to see the final showing of iSkate: Reach for the Stars. Real fun final day at sea.

 

But the doctors and nurses were very nice and helpful. They didn't have a Spanish speaker in the clinic at the time to translate the package label, but a stop at Guest Services confirmed that "nuez" is walnut, which is actually the last nut she reacted to (again with the stupid cookies - she was SO much better about reading labels and avoiding baked goods when she was younger, but now that she's a teenager she seems to have lost her brain).

 

We went to lunch after the skating show, and when she sat down at the table in the Windjammer, she had a plate full of cookies. Seriously?! 

Edited May 29, 2023 by DukeASUGirl

[DukeASUGirl]

9 hours ago, Ashland said:

Sorry you had a bad experience at San Pedro. It's our home port (45 min drive) and we sail as often out of it as we can. Perhaps it makes a difference as we use the suite check in line and it couldn't be easier.

 

That's probably the difference.

 

We've sailed out of Long Beach a few times, and it's like night and day. Long Beach is a much better terminal - much more streamlined and organized. Almost to the point where my husband wants to sail on Carnival again next time, despite liking the food and entertainment better on Royal.

 

I wouldn't go that far, but it was noticeably more chaotic and disorganized.

Edited May 29, 2023 by DukeASUGirl

[DukeASUGirl]

Mazatlan:

 

It was 96 degrees and very humid. Quite a change from the 50s and 60s we had in LA on embarkation day, and from the dry 100s we currently have in Phoenix.

 

This was our least favorite port, and if we ever do this cruise again, I'll either research better or just stay on the ship. We went to the old historic center, which proved to be not much more than the cathedral (which admittedly was gorgeous) and a nice big plaza. 

 

We shopped in El Mercado for a bit, but everyone was hot and underwhelmed and just wanted to go back to the ship. Discussions with other passengers showed that this seemed to be #3 on everyone's list. All the ship's shore excursions that were of interest to us had been sold out for months, so I figured we would just explore on our own because all the blogs I'd read said it was such a charming old Spanish city, but we found it to be crowded, dirty, and hot.

 

So we did waterslides for the rest of the afternoon.

[Husky1987]

29 minutes ago, DukeASUGirl said:

This was our least favorite port, and if we ever do this cruise again, I'll either research better or just stay on the ship.

We've always been underwhelmed by Mazatlan as well.

[DukeASUGirl]

4 minutes ago, Husky1987 said:

We've always been underwhelmed by Mazatlan as well.

The 3-day on Navigator goes to Ensenada, and the 4-day goes to Ensenada and Catalina Island. Wish they'd do one of those instead of Mazatlan. Either would be better, in my opinion. 

[crzndeb]

37 minutes ago, DukeASUGirl said:

This was our least favorite port, and if we ever do this cruise again, I'll either research better or just stay on the ship.

My daughters and grandkids did this cruise the week of New Years. We had the same experience at port (I have done LB a few times also), plus it was raining. Porters kept going up to cars pulling up, rather than getting luggage from the long line of people. I had never seen anything like it, and I have sailed from many ports, including international ones.

I agree with Mazatlan. I had been there a few times, so we just got off ship and had a few beers, and shopped around courtyard for souvenirs.

Thanks for the great review.

[DukeASUGirl]

20 minutes ago, crzndeb said:

Porters kept going up to cars pulling up, rather than getting luggage from the long line of people. I had never seen anything like it, and I have sailed from many ports, including international ones.

 

YES! That's exactly it! We unloaded our two cars at the curb, with a HUGE pile of luggage (5 checked bags for each of our two cabins, so a total of 10 checked bags) plus we were standing there with our carry-ons, and my dad and husband swung around to park the cars and we still couldn't find a porter by the time they'd finished parking and came back. They would walk right past us and help people who had just arrived.

 

I would call out to ask for assistance, and the porters would rush by "Sorry, I'm full" and would never return. I finally said something like "ARE YOU KIDDING ME? That car just got here, and we've been standing around for 20 minutes already!" so a porter helping a couple who'd just arrived told us to wait right there and he'd be back. And he kept his promise. 

 

But I was beginning to think we were invisible or something. It was crazy!

Edited May 29, 2023 by DukeASUGirl

[NJoynCruisin]

Sorry you had embarkation issues.  We were on same cruise, arrived via Lyft about 1050 for an 1100 checkin.  We did have a suite, so did get expedited check in.  No problem getting porter but only had 2 bags.  We were onboard by 1107.  Saw the lines that probably caught you.  We've sailed out of San Pedro 5 times in last 12 months, never had issues there.  We sailed out of Tampa in Dec.  Ships couldn't get to port due to heavy fog.  Hours of delays with little to no communications from RCI.  Finally got to ship at 9, waited in line 90 min.  Boarded at 11 pm with a 11 am check in.  Imagine 2 ships embarking and disembarking simultaneously.  

[DukeASUGirl]

22 minutes ago, NJoynCruisin said:

 We sailed out of Tampa in Dec.  Ships couldn't get to port due to heavy fog.  Hours of delays with little to no communications from RCI.  Finally got to ship at 9, waited in line 90 min.  Boarded at 11 pm with a 11 am check in.  Imagine 2 ships embarking and disembarking simultaneously.  

 

That sounds horrendous.

[DukeASUGirl]

Puerto Vallarta:

 

We thought this stop was great!

 

Split up this day - husband and I took the teenager on a horseback riding excursion while my parents took the 11-yr-old to a Fiesta because minimum age for horses was 12 and max age 70.

 

I only have personal experience with the horseback excursion, so I won't talk about the Fiesta excursion, although they said it was fun and the food was good.

 

Our tour guide was Gerry, who took us to Hacienda Dona Engracia, where we were geared up and met our horses. We rode through a country road to the rolling hills of the Sierra Madres and the jungle by the banks of the Rio Mascota. We crossed the river twice before arriving at La Dolce Vista, where we took a break to swim bareback on our horses one at a time. That was SO much fun, and the river was such a refreshing break. The water was nice and cool, but not freezing like we were thinking it would be. After swimming with the horses and then by ourselves, we saddled back up again and rode back to the hacienda, where we were treated to a lunch of homemade tortillas, tacos (choice of chicken, pork, or steak), and quesadillas, and an open bar with unlimited beer, margaritas, and soda.

 

After lunch it was time for the tequila tasting tour. I joined in, while my husband lagged back at the lunch table having another beer and more tacos, and my daughter shopped. The peach tequila was phenomenal and I'm kicking myself for not buying any. But my parents bought 2 bottles of mango tequila on their tour, so I'm sure I'll get to try that sometime.

 

After we returned to port around 1, my daughter begged to go shopping at the mall across the street, but was disappointed not to find any stores she liked. It really catered to middle-aged or older women. So we walked to the nearest beach for a little while (probably should have hailed a cab to go further away from cruise terminal, but it was already 2 by then and we needed to be back by about 5 so we didn't want to go too far), then went back to the ship to do waterslides and FlowRider while waiting for parents and son to return.

 

All in all, a great day!

 

 

[AZSwissGal]

We had the same waiter / assistant (Meckinson and Clive) on our April 28 seven night cruise and I agree they were wonderful, including greeting us by name after the first night.

 

In Mazatlan we did a non ship excursion and actually enjoyed that.  We were driven out into the countryside to some of the villages out there and got see some of the arts and crafts, like making tiles, adobe bricks for building houses and stopped at a bakery where we bought some yummy pastry fresh out of the wood oven for dirt cheap.  We did spend a little bit of time driving through the city and ate at a beach front restaurant.  There were only four of us on this excursion, another mother /daughter duo.  I was surprised they didn't cancel the tour.

 

In Puerto Vallarta we did a ship's tour.  My daughter had wanted to do the horseback riding tour you guys did.  Unfortunately for her, I was over the age limit:(  We were very disappointed in the first part of the excursion (too much selling). Also there were too many people.  Two buses full and what really irked us, the mixed Royal and Carnival passengers on this tour.  It improved with a lunch at a beachside restaurant and got better with a tequila tasting and a show depicting some of the history.  The show was actually pretty good.

 

Sorry I kind of hijacked your review.

[jcc1025]

13 hours ago, Ashland said:

Sorry you had a bad experience at San Pedro. It's our home port (45 min drive) and we sail as often out of it as we can. Perhaps it makes a difference as we use the suite check in line and it couldn't be easier. Our most recent cruises were January 2022, October 2022 and January 2023. Have to skip January of 2024 but we're booked again for February 2025. 

 

So glad RCI has returned to our coast and hoping they'll stay. And I certainly agree the iSkate Reach For The Stars is the best ice show fleetwide.

Jumping in out your post becuase we live in Long Baach and are also happy they are back. We have done four cruises out of the port, a cople of the test two day cruises and a couple of regualr 4 days. The port is not as good as most of the ports you might sail out of. Galveston and Ft. Lauderdale are much better but I understand that a new terminal out at the end of port area is in the works so that they can support bigger ships. We like Navagator a lot, but then we like about any ship although the Oasis class is our favorite. So I think the port experience will get better, especially as the new San Pedro warf project finishes next year. 

[jcc1025]

1 minute ago, jcc1025 said:

Jumping in out your post becuase we live in Long Baach and are also happy they are back. We have done four cruises out of the port, a cople of the test two day cruises and a couple of regualr 4 days. The port is not as good as most of the ports you might sail out of. Galveston and Ft. Lauderdale are much better but I understand that a new terminal out at the end of port area is in the works so that they can support bigger ships. We like Navagator a lot, but then we like about any ship although the Oasis class is our favorite. So I think the port experience will get better, especially as the new San Pedro warf project finishes next year. 

We are on the same seven day the end of this month and really apprciate your insite into the ports, its been a few years since we have been down there.