Just home from the Navigator

[sherlynn]

We arrived home last night from our Eastern cruise aboard the beautiful Navigator. We had an awesome time! I can't say enough about the food, service, entertainment, etc. It would be very difficult for me or my hubbie to find fault with anything.....except that we wish we could have stayed longer. We enjoyed the ports although I wouldn't rush back to San Juan. If anyone has any questions, I'd be more than happy to try to answer them for you. We would definitely consider sailing on the Navigator in the future.

[Momeof3]

Thank You!! Now I really cant wait. 61 days away and it seems forever!!!!!!

[daveky]

Glad you guys had a good time. Who was your Captain? Agree that San Juan can be a wasted stop. With all the beaches being public, there are no water type excursions. Shopping and site seeing fine, but done ALL those and wish there were more options on that stop. But, that's the nature on that island. Glad on the Eastern route on the Mariner they don't stop at San Juan.

 

Dave

[sha88]

We arrived home last night from our Eastern cruise aboard the beautiful Navigator. We had an awesome time! I can't say enough about the food, service, entertainment, etc. It would be very difficult for me or my hubbie to find fault with anything.....except that we wish we could have stayed longer. We enjoyed the ports although I wouldn't rush back to San Juan. If anyone has any questions, I'd be more than happy to try to answer them for you. We would definitely consider sailing on the Navigator in the future.

 

 

So glad you had a wonderful time. Just curious why you said you wouldn't rush back to San Juan. That is our last stop on our cruise on Explorer in 2007. Welcome Home, I know it's hard to get back to land based living!:D

[pach]

What excursions did you do? Any info on them would be helpful. Can't wait until January!!!

[sherlynn]

Our captain was the wonderful Captain Bang....he was just back from vacation. We had quite a rough and windy 2 days at the beginning and so he had to slightly change our course to San Juan in order to try to avoid some of the "rougher" waters. I met him and his wife one evening walking down the Promenade and we had a really nice chat. He is quite funny with a dry sense of humour.

 

As for San Juan, we didn't schedule an organized excursion; we simply got off the ship and walked to San Cristobal castle, took a few pics and then returned to the ship. I guess we just found San Juan the least "tropical" of all the ports. If we go on another cruise with that port, I likely would just stay on the ship and enjoy the amenities.

[sherlynn]

We actually took part in none of the excursions but did our own touring instead. See my above post for info on San Juan. In both St. Thomas and St. Maarten, we got off and shopped around town....we also rode the tram in St. Thomas...very nice views. We took a taxi in the afternoon to Sapphire Beach in St. Thomas and in St. Maarten, we went to Dawn Beach. Both were about a 20-30 min taxi ride from the ship. They are smaller beaches with the basics....chair and umbrella rentals and a few water sports...snorkelling and rafts at Dawn. They were both very pretty beaches and the water was nice and warm. The sand at Sappire was grainy and the sand at Dawn was beautiful and fine white. In Nassau, we took a water taxi to Atlantis and toured around there on our own....WOW is all I can say; then we took a short walk to a public beach....I think it was Cabbage.....very nice and quite a bit larger than the other 2 we visited....lots of water sports...parasailing, jet ski, etc.....beautiful beach but just busier.

[klever]

Sherlynn, I was on the same cruise you were and I totally agree about San Juan. Frankly, I think Nassau was a waste, too, given the short period of time we had there. Nonetheless, my wife and I had a great time. This is our second cruise on the Navigator this year.

[Lightsluvr]

As you can tell from our signature, we are taking the same cruise on November 18!!! :D

 

We're going to take a cab to El Morro and then walk back through Old San Juan to the dock...is that doable in 2-3 hours?

 

LL

[Alysia]

Glad to hear that you had a great time. After reading the posting about the Radiance of the Seas I started to get alittle worried. I have been on the Navigator previously 3 times with Captain Bang and his wife. All three times had a great time. Looking forward to the Christmas and New Years cruise. I have never been on a Voyager class ship during the holidays.

[Cruising89143]

As you can tell from our signature, we are taking the same cruise on November 18!!! :D

 

We're going to take a cab to El Morro and then walk back through Old San Juan to the dock...is that doable in 2-3 hours?

 

LL

 

Very easy to do. Did it a couple of years ago on the Navigator and the walk back is easy as it is downhill!!!!!!!:)

[Lightsluvr]

Very easy to do. Did it a couple of years ago on the Navigator and the walk back is easy as it is downhill!!!!!!!:)

 

We downloaded the Frommer's Walking Tour to give us some hints what to look for!

 

Go Gators!

 

LL

(UF Class of '68)

[Cruising89143]

We downloaded the Frommer's Walking Tour to give us some hints what to look for!

 

Go Gators!

 

LL

(UF Class of '68)

 

If we don't find some offense we won't be going much further!!!!:)

[maddysammy]

We are headed on our NOS on Sat.. I'm so looking forward to it.... Any suggesstions, tips would be appreciated..Do you happen to have the dinner menus....TIA

[sherlynn]

We are headed on our NOS on Sat.. I'm so looking forward to it.... Any suggesstions, tips would be appreciated..Do you happen to have the dinner menus....TIA

 

Sorry, I didn't get the menus but there was quite a good variety of dinner choices. We only ate dinner in the formal dining room.....b'fast and lunch were at the Windjammer and Johnny Rockets for us. I had beef 3 times, chicken 2 times, pasta and I know there's one more but I can't think of it right now. :confused: Our friends we travelled with enjoy seafood and there was a good variety there as well. Believe me, you will NOT go hungry!

[sherlynn]

Glad to hear that you had a great time. After reading the posting about the Radiance of the Seas I started to get alittle worried. I have been on the Navigator previously 3 times with Captain Bang and his wife. All three times had a great time. Looking forward to the Christmas and New Years cruise. I have never been on a Voyager class ship during the holidays.

 

We were on the Majesty 10 years ago for our honeymoon on the 15th of December and the ship was completely decked out for Christmas.....it was spectacular!

[sherlynn]

Sherlynn, I was on the same cruise you were and I totally agree about San Juan. Frankly, I think Nassau was a waste, too, given the short period of time we had there. Nonetheless, my wife and I had a great time. This is our second cruise on the Navigator this year.

 

Yes, we would have liked more time in Nassau as well but we tried to pack in as much as we could.....it was our first time there so we just had to see Atlantis but next time I would likely go straight to the beach for a few hours of relaxation. Did the rough seas at the beginning of the week bother you? We were ok.....thought it was actually kind of a neat experience, wierd as that may sound....good story for everyone back home! After that though, we couldn't have asked for more perfect weather in my opinion.

[sherlynn]

As you can tell from our signature, we are taking the same cruise on November 18!!! :D

 

We're going to take a cab to El Morro and then walk back through Old San Juan to the dock...is that doable in 2-3 hours?

 

LL

 

Yes, it is doable. You are going to have an amazing time! I am JEALOUS!!!!!! Be sure to say "Good Morning" to Nestor in the Windjammer ;)

[LABCHICK]

When you got off the ship in Naussa, which direction do you go to get the water taxi? This will be our second cruise 0n the Navigator. Love that ship. We'll we on her on Dec. 2.

 

To the person who was going to take a taxi to El Morro. Why not take the green bus. It's free. We were going to do the self walking tour also, but found something else to do instead. Read about the green bus in the Frommer book. Have fun.

 

Judi :)

[chitowngoose]

When you got off the ship in Naussa, which direction do you go to get the water taxi? This will be our second cruise 0n the Navigator. Love that ship. We'll we on her on Dec. 2.

 

Judi :)

 

When you get off the ship, you now have to go through a small mini-mall filled with touristy trinket shops before you can exit into town. The mall exit kind of leads you out to all the intrusive cabbies and hawkers. The water taxi is right there (to the west) before you get to the street. Probably can't miss it. I think someone was also renting scooters right there also.

[sherlynn]

Judi,

 

Just follow the crowd and you will need to go into the bright yellow building just after you depart from the end of the pier....it is called Festival Place...you can't miss it. You buy your ticket in there, then they will have you wait at the exit door and a large group of you will walk out together to the right and voila, you are there! They'll tell you which boat to board as they're all lined up in a row along the dock. Have a wonderful time!

[Lightsluvr]

We are headed on our NOS on Sat.. I'm so looking forward to it.... Any suggesstions, tips would be appreciated..Do you happen to have the dinner menus....TIA

 

MaddySammy, go to the roll call for the 11/18 cruise. I posted the cruise compasses and the menus on there... I suspect there may be a few changes, for example I woudl bet there will be turkey and the fxins' on Thanksgiving...

 

LL:D

[Lightsluvr]

To the person who was going to take a taxi to El Morro. Why not take the green bus. It's free. We were going to do the self walking tour also, but found something else to do instead. Read about the green bus in the Frommer book. Have fun.

 

Judi :)

 

We'll be looking for the green bus... Thanks!

 

LL

[LABCHICK]

We will be sailing on the Navigator on Dec.2 Will be in San Juan on the 4th. Someone said we will be docking in Pan Am east. The only Pan Am pier I know is where the ships that sail the southern itin. sail from. I thought the rccl ships that sail into San Juan dock in OSJ. Could someone help ? We have a excursion booked, but not through RCCL. The tour company is now under the impression we will be at Pan Am pier. I call cs and the tried to call port services which had already closed. I thought maybe some here might know the answer. Thank You for any help you can give.

 

Judi :)

[vermontvoyager]

Hi sherlynn...

Glad to hear you had a great time on Navigator.

My wife and I will be there in 24 days from now and cannot wait.

Do you remember what nights were formal nights and what each night of the week had for theme nights (Caribbean Night,Venetian Night,etc) in order by chance ?

I wanted to get an idea of what nights of the week we would book Chops and Portofino's.

Bob:)