Cheapo Dad's Trip Report on the Navigator of the Seas (Maybe with few pictures added)...

[harryfat1]

With a lot of people at the buffet, it was hard to take pictures of the food without someone sticking their hands out to get food and photo bomb my picture.

 

 

 

Tip – If you like smoked salmon for breakfast like we do, you have to ASK FOR IT. As I learned from previous RCI sailing (as well as Princess sailing last year), the staff “hides the good stuff” in the back. 

 

You have to go to the staff person behind the “cold cuts” section to get the salmon.  Sometimes he gives it to you on a small plate   Sometimes he just plops it onto of your plate of other food so be prepared to make space for the salmon.

 

This is something of “tribal knowledge” as they don’t show the salmon early on in the cruise but by the end of the cruise, where they no longer need to “ration” it, they have the salmon out.

 

Here is where you ask for the salmon

 

 

 

As I mentioned already, RCI serves Lavaaza coffee and it’s pretty strong so you will wake up fast.

 

The last food picture to get some fruits and then we are done with breakfast

 

[harryfat1]

Piano man working hard outside of Windjammer.

 

 

After breakfast, back to the cabin to decide on what we wanted to do for the morning by looking at the hard copy of the daily schedule.

 

 

By then Melanie had already cleaned our cabin and left us some cute friends.

 

I like these small towel animals versus the old-school towel animals as props like eyes and ribbons, they add another dimension

 

This is from our cabin

 

 

 

Adding the boys' towel animal to make it two

 

 

Adding the inlaws to make a triplet family

 

 

[perfect match]

Harry, I loved your cost comparison of RCCL food costs. Unlike you, I do not particularly like working with numbers so I would be highly unlikely to do it myself. However I did appreciate seeing your results.

 

We collect ship related Christmas ornaments for our tree, too. We have a few ship model ones but have frequently looked at keychains as acceptable substitutes. I either detach the key ring portion and replace it with an ornament hanger or if I’m in a hurry I’ve been known to slip the ring over the tree branch and hang it that way. I have the same Freedom model ornament as you do and can only use it on my heavier tree because the branches on the other tree aren’t strong enough to hold it. The keychains are smaller and lighter so I can use those on either tree. 
 

We sailed on Odyssey in April and I know I came home from that cruise with a keychain I’ll be using as an ornament. I’m sorry but I don’t remember if they had the ship model ornaments available.

 

I like a sea day as the last day on our cruises too. It doesn’t take me long to pack for departures but I always seem to have piles of wet beach and dive gear that do not want to get dry so I can get everything packed. So if you ask me how many of my most recent cruises have had the last day as a sea day the answer would be zero. Finally on the next couple cruises we have booked the last days are sea days!

 

Those sofas in your room look more like beds than sofas to me. I’m a bit on the short side so I’d either be sitting on the edge of the sofa and no contact with the back rest, or sitting way back in order to use the backrest with my legs sticking straight out in front of me unable to bend my knees or put my feet on the floor. Neither position would be comfortable. 

[Coralc]

6 hours ago, harryfat1 said:

If you appreciate mooring lines, just ignore the front gate barrier and do a “Patti Maneuver” to take some up-close pictures with or without the sea lion and then point at your cell phone when yelled at by the dock workers.  Just say, my friend Patti told me it's OK to do it...

 

You should probably wave, smile and point at your camera item, too. 😊 We did.

[JamesEM]

Harry, I have an old flip phone that I use on cruises because it works to make calls on the islands, however my jitterbug does not work outside of the US.

[Fishfan0073]

On 9/6/2023 at 8:30 PM, harryfat1 said:

Wow.  Thanks for the compliment.  Glad the trip report has been entertaining in getting you ready for your upcoming cruise. Yeah, I would be “checked out” of work a few days prior to sailing as well.

 

We were on the Mariner years ago for a 7-night Mexico cruise when she was out on the west coast – the same San Pedro port I discussed ad nauseam many posts ago.

 

As it’s effectively the same ship as the Navigator with some cosmetic changes, hopefully, the day 1 pictures I have posted so far have gotten you excited for your cruise.

 

Maybe you can take pictures of all the areas I failed to take pictures of and you can upload them here after you get back since the two ships are identical inside such as drawers and electrical plugs and bathroom tiles - Yeah, I know, you are not THAT bored...

 

I saw the news on Hurricane Lee which is forecasted to grow even bigger by early next week.  Does your cruise to the Eastern Caribbean that might need an itinerary change to avoid the Hurricane? Hope everything turns out well.

I don’t think we will need an itinerary change if the turn to the north happens soon enough.  The only port that might need a change would be Cococay.  Just depends on how close to the Bahamas the turn happens.  
 

I will try to remember to take pictures of the plug situation and how we are dealing with it.  I have a few gadgets to help with the issue.

 

But my real question is, does anybody get as excited as I do to fold luggage tags?  And how anal are you to make sure you fold them so they are perfect in the tag holder?  I not going to say I print extra just incase I screw one up but my wife said “How many bags are we bringing?”.  Just getting all the final things done and will be driving north around noon ET.  Cruise day 1 is tomorrow.  

[HappyTexan44]

10 hours ago, harryfat1 said:

Tip – If you like smoked salmon for breakfast like we do, you have to ASK FOR IT. As I learned from previous RCI sailing (as well as Princess sailing last year), the staff “hides the good stuff” in the back. 

 

 Tell me more.   Does anyone know of other "Good stuff" that is hidden? 

 

Also, from one eggs benedict lover to another, can you get extra hollandaise?   In buffets they seem to use just a dribble.  Which I guess makes sense because if the muffin sat in the sauce it would get ookie.  

 

[h20skibum]

1 hour ago, Fishfan0073 said:

But my real question is, does anybody get as excited as I do to fold luggage tags?  And how anal are you to make sure you fold them so they are perfect in the tag holder?  I not going to say I print extra just incase I screw one up but my wife said “How many bags are we bringing?”.

Ok, I am probably much more anal in my method for luggage tags.  
 

First, I save that luggage tag PDF page as a JPG, and trim the JPG to the size of the tag.

 

Next, I drop that trimmed JPG into a Word document, so that four of them will fit on a page.

 

Next, I save the Word document as a PDF, and insert text boxes with our names, where they want your name on the tag.  Then, it is ready to print and cut them out for the tag holders.  
 

In true Cheapo Dad fashion, I only have to use one sheet of paper for four tags.  Of course, I have done this so often, I have a template with everything ready to go, except for the new JPGs.

 

 

[FionaMG]

19 minutes ago, h20skibum said:

First, I save that luggage tag PDF page as a JPG, and trim the JPG to the size of the tag.

 

Some PDF programmes will let you take a pic of just the tag bit that you can then paste on to a word document. Saves you one step, as you trim and convert in a single step... 😁😂

I use PDF-XChange Editor.

[harryfat1]

12 hours ago, perfect match said:

Harry, I loved your cost comparison of RCCL food costs. Unlike you, I do not particularly like working with numbers so I would be highly unlikely to do it myself. However I did appreciate seeing your results.

 

We collect ship related Christmas ornaments for our tree, too. We have a few ship model ones but have frequently looked at keychains as acceptable substitutes. I either detach the key ring portion and replace it with an ornament hanger or if I’m in a hurry I’ve been known to slip the ring over the tree branch and hang it that way. I have the same Freedom model ornament as you do and can only use it on my heavier tree because the branches on the other tree aren’t strong enough to hold it. The keychains are smaller and lighter so I can use those on either tree. 
 

We sailed on Odyssey in April and I know I came home from that cruise with a keychain I’ll be using as an ornament. I’m sorry but I don’t remember if they had the ship model ornaments available.

 

I like a sea day as the last day on our cruises too. It doesn’t take me long to pack for departures but I always seem to have piles of wet beach and dive gear that do not want to get dry so I can get everything packed. So if you ask me how many of my most recent cruises have had the last day as a sea day the answer would be zero. Finally on the next couple cruises we have booked the last days are sea days!

 

Those sofas in your room look more like beds than sofas to me. I’m a bit on the short side so I’d either be sitting on the edge of the sofa and no contact with the back rest, or sitting way back in order to use the backrest with my legs sticking straight out in front of me unable to bend my knees or put my feet on the floor. Neither position would be comfortable. 

I wasn’t intending to look into the cost side of the food for RCCL but the numbers is eye-popping in going down significantly while people are paying more for their cruises.

 

RCCL filed its annual SEC Form 10-K on February 23 of this year.  Assuming they will file the next annual report around the same time next year, it will coincide with my intended Odyssey post-cruise trip report.  By then the new menu will be out for almost a full year and we can see the longer-term impact. Let me give it some thought on what other metrics we can compare next year to incorporate that into the new report.

 

Any Finance folks are welcome to contribute to this discussion on what else we should measure once the 10K comes out.  The problem is the company just gives you high-level summaries of the Financials and not enough details to do a deep dive on where/when/what.  Those are privileged company-specific financials they don’t share outside of the company.

 

As for ornaments, yeah, a key chain would work in a pinch.  Maybe the ornaments are seasonal in that they only come out during the holiday periods.  Will keep an eye out for them in December.

 

We had a port day on the Navigator on the last day, and I didn’t like the fact we had to come back from the tour late in the afternoon to have to pack and shower by 7 PM as we had to attend a show/dinner and then all luggage must be outside by 10 PM.  It made the last day very rushed.

 

The sofa by the glass window is very wide but hard and has no back cushion. In theory, if you get a couple of pillows as back/butt support, you can sit sideways leaning against the wall and people-watch as you read/play with the phone

[harryfat1]

11 hours ago, Coralc said:

 

You should probably wave, smile and point at your camera item, too. 😊 We did.

The same worker will probably just shake his head and think Americans are crazy in getting excited to see up close a boring mooring line or smelly and loud sea lions…

[harryfat1]

10 hours ago, JamesEM said:

Harry, I have an old flip phone that I use on cruises because it works to make calls on the islands, however my jitterbug does not work outside of the US.

It’s almost a novelty that people talk on a phone nowadays on a cell phone. It’s mainly texting and using Apps as the primary functions of the phone.

 

Whenever a new cell phone debuts, all the YouTubers and online reviewers care about is the phone’s photo quality.  Nobody ever talks about phone call quality in their reviews. 

 

People are fixated on the camera’s performance more than a phone’s performance in making phone calls.  

 

Soon we should change the name of the device to "cell cameras" instead of cell phones as we take pictures more often than make calls with it...

[harryfat1]

6 hours ago, Fishfan0073 said:

I don’t think we will need an itinerary change if the turn to the north happens soon enough.  The only port that might need a change would be Cococay.  Just depends on how close to the Bahamas the turn happens.  
 

I will try to remember to take pictures of the plug situation and how we are dealing with it.  I have a few gadgets to help with the issue.

 

But my real question is, does anybody get as excited as I do to fold luggage tags?  And how anal are you to make sure you fold them so they are perfect in the tag holder?  I not going to say I print extra just incase I screw one up but my wife said “How many bags are we bringing?”.  Just getting all the final things done and will be driving north around noon ET.  Cruise day 1 is tomorrow.  

Luggage tag folding is part of the cruise vacation process as it means you are one step closer to boarding the ship so of course you should be excited.

 

Until buying the luggage tags this time, we never folded the tags until the morning of Day 1 from the hotel where I asked the front desk person to borrow a stapler so I could staple all the tags in the front lobby as we were checking out.

 

Safe driving and have a great cruise.  Hopefully, the Hurricane makes a fast eastward turn and misses all land masses.

[NHProud]

12 minutes ago, harryfat1 said:

I wasn’t intending to look into the cost side of the food for RCCL but the numbers is eye-popping in going down significantly while people are paying more for their cruises.

 

RCCL filed its annual SEC Form 10-K on February 23 of this year.  Assuming they will file the next annual report around the same time next year, it will coincide with my intended Odyssey post-cruise trip report.  By then the new menu will be out for almost a full year and we can see the longer-term impact. Let me give it some thought on what other metrics we can compare next year to incorporate that into the new report.

 

Any Finance folks are welcome to contribute to this discussion on what else we should measure once the 10K comes out.  The problem is the company just gives you high-level summaries of the Financials and not enough details to do a deep dive on where/when/what.  Those are privileged company-specific financials they don’t share outside of the company.

 

As for ornaments, yeah, a key chain would work in a pinch.  Maybe the ornaments are seasonal in that they only come out during the holiday periods.  Will keep an eye out for them in December.

 

We had a port day on the Navigator on the last day, and I didn’t like the fact we had to come back from the tour late in the afternoon to have to pack and shower by 7 PM as we had to attend a show/dinner and then all luggage must be outside by 10 PM.  It made the last day very rushed.

 

The sofa by the glass window is very wide but hard and has no back cushion. In theory, if you get a couple of pillows as back/butt support, you can sit sideways leaning against the wall and people-watch as you read/play with the phone

I’m glad you did give us a mini-analysis of the RCI financial report.  Now , I’m curious as to where they do their food shopping . 
 

I bought “ The Idiot’s Guide to Behavioral Economics “ thinking it would provide info on how customers are lured into buying stuff and more stuff. The joke is on me because it’s more scholarly than I thought . No quick hacks there ! 

[harryfat1]

6 hours ago, HappyTexan44 said:

 

 Tell me more.   Does anyone know of other "Good stuff" that is hidden? 

 

Also, from one eggs benedict lover to another, can you get extra hollandaise?   In buffets they seem to use just a dribble.  Which I guess makes sense because if the muffin sat in the sauce it would get ookie.  

 

Hidden Salmon is the only one I know of. Others can chime in if there is more hidden food.

 

I assume you can get more sauce if you ask someone on the other side of the counter.  The only issue may be that the egg section is crazy busy every morning with people's special egg ordering so you may not be able to get someone's attention easily in that area

 

 

[harryfat1]

4 hours ago, h20skibum said:

Ok, I am probably much more anal in my method for luggage tags.  
 

First, I save that luggage tag PDF page as a JPG, and trim the JPG to the size of the tag.

 

Next, I drop that trimmed JPG into a Word document, so that four of them will fit on a page.

 

Next, I save the Word document as a PDF, and insert text boxes with our names, where they want your name on the tag.  Then, it is ready to print and cut them out for the tag holders.  
 

In true Cheapo Dad fashion, I only have to use one sheet of paper for four tags.  Of course, I have done this so often, I have a template with everything ready to go, except for the new JPGs.

 

 

I think you can safely remove the word "probably" from your opening sentence...

 

You should do a YouTube video on this process and call it "Customized RCI Luggage Tag Hack".  This should get you like 50,000 views and YouTube will pay you enough money for your efforts that you can buy a ream of paper and ink to just print the tags the regular way...

 

[NHProud]

17 minutes ago, harryfat1 said:

Luggage tag folding is part of the cruise vacation process as it means you are one step closer to boarding the ship so of course you should be excited.

 

Until buying the luggage tags this time, we never folded the tags until the morning of Day 1 from the hotel where I asked the front desk person to borrow a stapler so I could staple all the tags in the front lobby as we were checking out.

 

Safe driving and have a great cruise.  Hopefully, the Hurricane makes a fast eastward turn and misses all land masses.

My TA prints the final documents, luggage tags + holders and hands them to me in a wallet with a logo on it , of course. 
 

There’s a thread on cc on saving money . It was started in 2008 (?) and there’s one comment about a person being so frugal that she wouldn’t buy a stapler to affix her luggage tags to her bags . She taped them and it backfired.  
 

 

[harryfat1]

27 minutes ago, NHProud said:

I’m glad you did give us a mini-analysis of the RCI financial report.  Now , I’m curious as to where they do their food shopping . 
 

I bought “ The Idiot’s Guide to Behavioral Economics “ thinking it would provide info on how customers are lured into buying stuff and more stuff. The joke is on me because it’s more scholarly than I thought . No quick hacks there ! 

Cruise lines have a lot of buying power to get volume discounts for food. In the old days, the ship used to provide a laundry list of how many pounds of various meat/eggs/potatoes were consumed during the one-week voyage. 

 

You multiply those amounts by 20 plus ships at each different company’s fleet, that’s a lot of buying power they can bargain hard to get the food at a very low price at a wholesaler level.  Not the same as you or me buying a dozen eggs at the grocery store.

 

If you think about it, even at $20/day/pp for food cost that is still a very low number given how much/often people eat on each cruise.  That $20/day food number includes some of the high-end steaks and sushi at the specialty restaurants and not just the lower-end buffets.

 

The food cost at those restaurants brings up the average. Think how much lower the food cost number would be if there were no Chops/sushi/Wonderland on board to bump up the average daily costs.

 

We will never have the insider info on the cost of the food at the buffet and MDR but if we can just isolate the cost of the regular complimentary food of the buffet/MDR/café promenade, that would be very interesting info.

 

As for consumer buying psychology for RCI, I think it’s the promotion of the “hardware” as every RCI ad I have seen on TV/YouTube, it’s about the “wow factor” of the Oasis class ships and the exciting things first-time cruisers can do on a ship.  If they are new to cruising, they have no point of reference on what cruising used to be 10+ years ago and think it's OK to have fried chicken and enchilada are part of the MDR "fancy meal".

 

It’s like the Magician act on every cruise sailing – they want your eyes to be focused on the wrong things as they deceive you with the other hand

[harryfat1]

38 minutes ago, NHProud said:

My TA prints the final documents, luggage tags + holders and hands them to me in a wallet with a logo on it , of course. 
 

There’s a thread on cc on saving money . It was started in 2008 (?) and there’s one comment about a person being so frugal that she wouldn’t buy a stapler to affix her luggage tags to her bags . She taped them and it backfired.  
 

 

I have yet to meet any of my TAs in person in all these years.

 

At most, we have a one-minute phone call for me to give him/her my credit card info on the payment dates.  Some online agencies are all automated so you never need to talk to a live person.  All info is self-input and you get the OBC on the back end while on board. 

 

If that money-saving cruiser can get a stapler from the hotel front desk on checkout, that's the best way to do it. Since she is not paying for the staples, she can even use more than 2 staples per tag to ensure everything is strapped on...

 

Or go to the port and ask a porter for a free luggage tag there and use their stapler.  But I guess that person is also so cheap that she won't tip the porter for it as part of their handling of the luggage

 

 

[harryfat1]

OK, more trip reporting time...

 

+++++++++++++++

 

Looking down below, it looks like they have opened up shops and have some sort of sidewalk sale.  That’s part of the reason we like these cabins as we can see what they have out for sale.  Looks like a visit to an uncle in prison (aka shopping) is in order later today.

 

There was a raffle event downstairs and the winner was allowed to select a couple of sales items from the table

 

 

 

Looking over on the left side of the 3 side glass we see a watch sale

 

 

No, kids, grandma is not buying you the $60 Playstation game from this cruise.  Instead, you might get an “I love Navigator of the Seas” t-shirt if it’s on sale or else it’s an “I love Ensenada” t-shirt instead…

 

[FionaMG]

2 minutes ago, harryfat1 said:

OK, more trip reporting time...

 

+++++++++++++++

 

Looking down below, it looks like they have opened up shops and have some sort of sidewalk sale.  That’s part of the reason we like these cabins as we can see what they have out for sale.  Looks like a visit to an uncle in prison (aka shopping) is in order later today.

 

There was a raffle event downstairs and the winner was allowed to select a couple of sales items from the table

 

 

 

Looking over on the left side of the 3 side glass we see a watch sale

 

 

No, kids, grandma is not buying you the $60 Playstation game from this cruise.  Instead, you might get an “I love Navigator of the Seas” t-shirt if it’s on sale or else it’s an “I love Ensenada” t-shirt instead…

 

 

Or conceivably an "I love [insert name of a random port you didn't visit on your cruise]" t-shirt! It wouldn't be the first time I've seen that. Like a Baltic cruise t-shirt when we were in the Greek Isles... 😂

[harryfat1]

OK.  We decided on what we would do for the day.  Time to head out.

 

Saw Little Henry working hard in the hallway as the cabin steward was cleaning various cabins as people were mostly awake by now after 10 AM

 

 

 

The Next Cruise area is where you can book your next RCI cruise while on board.  I don’t think they offer any better perks than what you can do with your own Travel Agency back home that should give you better OBC.  Nobody is looking to book the next cruise so early anyway on day 2.

 

 

The classic-looking cruise ship staircases.  Only on cruise ships have I seen these types of staircases as the land-based hotels typically don’t look like this.  This look has been the same for the past 25-plus years since I started cruising. 

 

 

If physically possible, use the staircase instead of the elevators as it’s faster than most elevators as well and it’s a good way to exercise off the 3^rd dessert from lunch.  However, if you need to go from deck 2 to 12, maybe walking up isn’t a good idea unless you can find some chairs and donuts and drinks along the way as a pit stop…

[harryfat1]

OK. The first thing is going down to deck 5 as we saw lots of people from our cabin so we wanted to see what kinds of goodies they have.  So it’s time to visit the uncle in prison (aka shopping).

 

 

 

Nobody was in line at Guest Services on the morning of Day 2.  I was hoping for hard copies of the daily compass by the walls to the right but nope, not that.

 

 

[harryfat1]

 

 

Hey kids, don't bother Grandma as she's trying to decide if she should buy a T-shirt here at 2 for $25 or wait until she gets Ensenada on Day 4 to buy you guys the T-shirts you will never wear.

 

If she gets those from Ensenada, with some bargaining, she might get some bargain basement T-shirts at 2 for $10. 

 

With the $15 she would save, she could get a drink for herself at the Bamboo Room next door instead of buying the more expensive T-shirts for her bratty grandkids from a marriage that she didn't approve of as her daughter married some bum 20 years ago...

 

 

 

Oh, I think she has made up her mind on what to buy as I see her walking inside the Bamboo Room to chill out and get a drink with Sea Dog as they sit around talking about the best angles to get the Mooring line photos at Ensenada...

 

 

 

 

 

[Sea Dog]

14 minutes ago, harryfat1 said:

I see her walking inside the Bamboo Room to chill out and get a drink with Sea Dog as they sit around talking about the best angles to get the Mooring line photos at Ensenada...

 

My kind of gal!