Navigator 14 Night Med Mini Review

[Grumm]

Returned from Navigator 14 night Med cruise on Saturday. I hope that this mini appraisal will be of some help.

 

We flew down to Southampton on Friday 15th June and took a taxi to the terminal the following morning. We were processed very quickly and given a priority embarkation orange card. We boarded at 11.30 and went straight to the Windjammer for a nice lunch.

 

Our stateroom (JS 9314) was on the hump and in our opinion was far superior to a Grand Suite. The walk-in closet was a huge bonus, as was the full-length bath. The balcony was slightly larger than non-hump and provided a calm and relaxing place to have pre and post-dinner drinks.

A further bonus was a bottle of Champagne and some chocolate-dipped strawberries which had been left for us by Robin Shaw as a thankyou for a sailaway idea I put to RCI-a lovely gesture which we appreciated very much.

 

The ship is in pristine condition and most of the staff were fantastic, although I would like to mention Jerrime, our cabin steward, together with David and Dane in the Sky Bar. The service provided by these guys was above and beyond the call of duty and they fully deserved their tips.

 

Because we prefer to be flexible with dining options, we ate in the Windjammer most nights, but had two visits to Choppes and Portofino each week. We have no complaints about the food. The 'Jammer and Jade gave us what we expected and the speciality restaurants provided excellent food and service.

 

The Navigator is being vigorously advertised with special mention of the Studio B ice rink. The professional shows were brilliant, but the ice rink was only open for public use on four days-one of which was the final day when you could sign up for skating lessons! The sports staff seemed to be a tad apathetic and we reckoned that this was down to the demographic of guests. There were few children and a lot of elderly and disabled passengers. The kids were well behaved and the older folks were great fun and seemed to be having a ball.

 

There was a worrying time when Captain Rick Sullivan announced that the ship had to reverse course as a crew member was seriously ill and had to be flown to hospital in France by helicopter. This meant that we were delayed in arriving at Gibraltar, but I am pleased to say that no dissent was noted amongst the passengers and later in the cruise the Captain kindly advised us that the crew member was out of Intensive Care and no longer on the critical list.

 

The itinerary was typical Med. and nothing we haven't done before, but hugely enjoyable nonetheless.

 

The entertainment was the usual mix of the humdrum to the excellent. The American Drifters, Gary Lavini and the Elton John tribute were all brilliant. Graham Seymour was an excellent Cruise Director.

 

I'm happy to answer questions any of you may have.

 

Alan

[Len3]

Thanks for taking the time to write such a nice review. We're sailing in October and have only experienced the Voyager on a short 5 nighter from NYC to Canada. How did you find the "mix" of passengers - from Europe, Canada, America, etc.? We're on the early dinner seating as departure from each port is no later than 6:00PM. How was the choice of selection in the main dining room? Did you find this cruise to be to port intensive or was it a more relaxed pace? Thanks again for the review.

[Grumm]

Thanks for taking the time to write such a nice review. We're sailing in October and have only experienced the Voyager on a short 5 nighter from NYC to Canada. How did you find the "mix" of passengers - from Europe, Canada, America, etc.? We're on the early dinner seating as departure from each port is no later than 6:00PM. How was the choice of selection in the main dining room? Did you find this cruise to be to port intensive or was it a more relaxed pace? Thanks again for the review.

 

Hi Len3,

 

There was a fairly eclectic mix...we spoke to people from Canada & US, however the VAST majority of guests were Brits and this was reflected in the Windjammer choice of foods. The cruise WAS port intensive and offered a flavour of each country/region, but hopefully enough to whet the appetites of all our friends across the Pond to come over here again.

 

The dining room menus looked good, but I must stress again that we ate in the 'Jammer with the exception of two sittings at Choppes Grille and Portofino each week.

 

Please feel free to ask as many questions as you want to.

 

Alan

[saw777]

Hi Len3,

 

There was a fairly eclectic mix...we spoke to people from Canada & US, however the VAST majority of guests were Brits and this was reflected in the Windjammer choice of foods. The cruise WAS port intensive and offered a flavour of each country/region, but hopefully enough to whet the appetites of all our friends across the Pond to come over here again.

 

The dining room menus looked good, but I must stress again that we ate in the 'Jammer with the exception of two sittings at Choppes Grille and Portofino each week.

 

Please feel free to ask as many questions as you want to.

 

Alan

 

Hello,

Thanks for the review. We are sailing on 28.07.07 from southampton. In the past we have always had late sitting on any RCCL cruise from southampton. Is the time still 8.30pm?

Many thanks

Steven

[celticfc]

Hi Alan

 

Glad you had a great cruise.:D

 

I sailed on the Nav on 19/5 and had a great cruise too. Only downside was the rudeness of some of the elderly English folks on board. Of the 3000 passengers there were only 250 mainly pre-five kids. I felt the older folks were resentful that families in Europe were nowgetting into the cruising market.

 

Myself and numerous other families had really bad experiences with elderly people pushing kids over jostling for the lifts etc. They would dodder around on with walking sticks, however when a lift arrived they would give Linford a run for his money. Didnt seem lame then. Also if you were already in a lift and it stopped at a floor regardless of how many folks were already in the lift they just kept shoving in. They would TUT if the kids were taking up space in the lift and would trample all over them.

 

I spoke to a few staff about it and they agreed that they had also experienced rudeness from numerous older ones.

 

In terms of Nationalities on boards the majority were English. Such a shame they portrayed themselves in this manner.

 

However it didnt put me off and I will cruise again.

[SissasMomE]

Returned from Navigator 14 night Med cruise on Saturday. I hope that this mini appraisal will be of some help.

 

We flew down to Southampton on Friday 15th June and took a taxi to the terminal the following morning. We were processed very quickly and given a priority embarkation orange card. We boarded at 11.30 and went straight to the Windjammer for a nice lunch.

 

Our stateroom (JS 9314) was on the hump and in our opinion was far superior to a Grand Suite. The walk-in closet was a huge bonus, as was the full-length bath. The balcony was slightly larger than non-hump and provided a calm and relaxing place to have pre and post-dinner drinks.

A further bonus was a bottle of Champagne and some chocolate-dipped strawberries which had been left for us by Robin Shaw as a thankyou for a sailaway idea I put to RCI-a lovely gesture which we appreciated very much.

 

The ship is in pristine condition and most of the staff were fantastic, although I would like to mention Jerrime, our cabin steward, together with David and Dane in the Sky Bar. The service provided by these guys was above and beyond the call of duty and they fully deserved their tips.

 

Because we prefer to be flexible with dining options, we ate in the Windjammer most nights, but had two visits to Choppes and Portofino each week. We have no complaints about the food. The 'Jammer and Jade gave us what we expected and the speciality restaurants provided excellent food and service.

 

The Navigator is being vigorously advertised with special mention of the Studio B ice rink. The professional shows were brilliant, but the ice rink was only open for public use on four days-one of which was the final day when you could sign up for skating lessons! The sports staff seemed to be a tad apathetic and we reckoned that this was down to the demographic of guests. There were few children and a lot of elderly and disabled passengers. The kids were well behaved and the older folks were great fun and seemed to be having a ball.

 

There was a worrying time when Captain Rick Sullivan announced that the ship had to reverse course as a crew member was seriously ill and had to be flown to hospital in France by helicopter. This meant that we were delayed in arriving at Gibraltar, but I am pleased to say that no dissent was noted amongst the passengers and later in the cruise the Captain kindly advised us that the crew member was out of Intensive Care and no longer on the critical list.

 

The itinerary was typical Med. and nothing we haven't done before, but hugely enjoyable nonetheless.

 

The entertainment was the usual mix of the humdrum to the excellent. The American Drifters, Gary Lavini and the Elton John tribute were all brilliant. Graham Seymour was an excellent Cruise Director.

 

I'm happy to answer questions any of you may have.

 

Alan

 

Alan, I have a 10-year old daughter, and I am seriously considering this cruise, or one like it, for she and I in the next year or 2. In your opinion, are there enough children for a child / pre-teen to be happy on a cruise this long? My daughter is very outgoing and social, and makes friends very easily. I am concerned that the longer cruises are mostly seniors. Do you happen to know apporoximately how many children were on board? Thanks much!

[Grumm]

Celticfc,

 

I think that with any group of 3000 or so people, you will always find a few rogue grumpy guests who are hard to please. On this cruise I didn't really experience much tetchiness and when I did, I easily ignored it because the rest was so great!

 

PS The Bears will give you a run for your money this year;)

 

SissusMomE

 

Our friends had their 14 year old son with them and we hardly ever saw him. Their are many activities for kids and I'm sure your 10 year old will love being part of the Pirate's Parade......go for it!!

 

Saw77

 

Late sitting this year is 8.45pm, although we saw guests going into the various levels of the main restaurant from 8.30.

 

Hope that these answers help. Please feel free to ask anything else.

 

Alan

[Elizanessie]

Welcome home Alan and Mrs Grumm :D

 

Thanks for the review...nicely done :D

 

What did you do in the ports ? Which ones did you enjoy the most etc ?

 

Happy to hear you got pressie from Robin ;)

 

As to the dining times etc...normally...when they do the 30 minutes window, people are allocated different deck for different times....what I mean is...if your seapass says 6.15 then you would be seated on deck 4 and if it says 6.45 you would be deck 5....and same thing for later seatings.But maybe this has changed.

 

Did you book another cruise when onboard ?

[Len3]

We were on the HAL Volendam in March of this year. This was a 10 nighter from Ft. Lauderdale and certainly an older group (70's and up) - lots of walkers and wheelchairs. By and large, they were a lovely group and quite interesting as they had numerous stories of their travels, etc. We really enjoyed them, as we're in our 50's, it was an interesting experience.

[Grumm]

Welcome home Alan and Mrs Grumm :D

 

Thanks for the review...nicely done :D

 

What did you do in the ports ? Which ones did you enjoy the most etc ?

 

Happy to hear you got pressie from Robin ;)

 

As to the dining times etc...normally...when they do the 30 minutes window, people are allocated different deck for different times....what I mean is...if your seapass says 6.15 then you would be seated on deck 4 and if it says 6.45 you would be deck 5....and same thing for later seatings.But maybe this has changed.

 

Did you book another cruise when onboard ?

 

Hi Liz,

 

Many thanks for the kind wishes...what the heck have you done to the weather in my absence?

 

The only port we hadn't been to before was Cagliari, and as it was a Sunday, the town was closed. Did some Duty-Free shopping in Gibraltar and went to see some friends from Uni who now live in Florence. Apart from that, we just lay back and enjoyed a near-empty ship for most of the time. We managed to win the final of the Trivia contest which had been ongoing throughout the cruise. I even managed to win the mini-golf competition, so by my reckoning I only need another 3 trillion Shipshape Dollars to get a RCI baseball cap!!

 

Best regards,

 

Alan

[disneyloo]

Hi, I was on this cruise too. I was in the group that came third in the Think Bowl Trivia! What an amazing cruise and Graham Seymour was definitely the best and most funny CD we have ever had.

 

Florence was definitely my fave place we visited. Monte Carlo and Monaco were really impressive too.

 

The food was delicious in the restaurant. We had the cold "soup" every night which was really like a smoothie. We had ours in a glass every night and had more than one.

 

Still feeling down about being back at home. Loved every minute of our cruise!

[Grumm]

Hi, I was on this cruise too. I was in the group that came third in the Think Bowl Trivia! What an amazing cruise and Graham Seymour was definitely the best and most funny CD we have ever had.

 

Florence was definitely my fave place we visited. Monte Carlo and Monaco were really impressive too.

 

The food was delicious in the restaurant. We had the cold "soup" every night which was really like a smoothie. We had ours in a glass every night and had more than one.

 

Still feeling down about being back at home. Loved every minute of our cruise!

 

Ahh! One of the elusive "Losers". If you guys hadn't missed the first one, you would have won the Trivia contest. I'm glad you enjoyed the cruise as much as we did. Maybe you can get revenge next year?

 

Alan

 

PS In case anyone thinks I'm being rude "Losers" was Disneyloo's team name

[MAKEM]

Both my sisters in law were on this cruise and thoroughly enjoyed it.

 

We too would have beenon but family circumstances perevented it.

However Jewel of the Seas will have us in September.

[pandaTO]

Alan - Did you get Euros on board at Guest relations? Any extra fees?

[sweet angel]

We had Graham as our cruise director in November 2006. I agree that he's a wonderful cruise director. Was Captain Bang still at the helm? Did you get the opportunity to meet the Captain and his wife?

[itsonlyme]

I have just read this informative review of Navigator. My DH and I are due to sail on her on 28/8/07.

 

You mentioned "Jade" in the Windjammer, could someone tell me anymore please we would be very interested.

 

Thanks

[miss mental]

Hi Alan,

 

Didn't you sail on Legend of the Seas last year? I seem to remember your name? If so, how would you compare Navigator to Legend? We loved Legend and we're hoping NOS is as good.:confused:

 

Did it seem more busy ? overcrowded at all?

 

By the way, we won trivia quiz on 22/07/06 sailing on LOS. We only won a medal and a small back pack each! It was fairly a controversial affair as some american guy accused us of cheating during each round, which we did not! sore looser! :p It was very heated to say the least!!

 

Glad you enjoyed NOS.

[Grumm]

Sweet Angel

 

The Captain this time was Rick Sullivan from Canada-a great character with a dry wit!

 

Itsonlyme

 

Jade forms part of the Windjammer and serves @Jammer food at breakfast and lunch. In the evenings, it specialises in Oriental dishes ranging from Sushimi to Curries...just watch out for that lethal green Wasabi paste...PHEW!!

 

Miss Mental

 

I was indeed on the Legend last year. The Navigator is a completely different proposition. The Royal Promenande is probably the most significant difference, buty the ice skating rink also adds another dimension. Despite the cruise being full, there was plenty of space on deck, especially in port when it seemed that we had the entire ship to ourselves.

 

Hope these answers help.

 

Please feel free to ask anything else. In the meantime, happy cruising to you all.

 

Alan

[pandaTO]

Alan - 'Did you get Euros on board at Guest relations? Any extra fees?' :)

 

Who was the concierge?

[Grumm]

Alan - 'Did you get Euros on board at Guest relations? Any extra fees?' :)

 

Who was the concierge?

 

Euros available at Casino cashiers...didn't notice any extra charge, although there will undoubtedly be one. ATMs on board paid out $, so I would advise you to visit a Bureau De Change either at the airport or at the first port of call.

 

Have a blast!

 

Alan

 

PS No idea who the Concierge is....it was a standing joke between us and our friends who were in a Grand Suite...every time they mentioned the Concierge, we mentioned our full-length bath and walk-in closet!!

 

Best regards,

 

Alan

[pandaTO]

Alan - Thanks for the euro & ATM info. Did you visit your friend's GS? A full bath is also in a GS. Unfortunately, the JS are a bit small for a family of 4 for 2 weeks. The JS walk in closet is a plus, though.

[weliketocruise86]

Hi Alan,

 

I presume the cruise was Mediterranean Treasures on Navigator. I am trying to find out what nights are formal - my parents are sailing on 14 July. Any help would be appreciated.

[Grumm]

Alan - Thanks for the euro & ATM info. Did you visit your friend's GS? A full bath is also in a GS. Unfortunately, the JS are a bit small for a family of 4 for 2 weeks. The JS walk in closet is a plus, though.

 

Hi Panda,

 

Yes we did visit our friend's GS and thay had twin wash hand basins, but only a "sit-up" bath. I don't know if they had an unusual GS because they were sharing a room with their son?

 

Alan

[Grumm]

Hi Alan,

 

I presume the cruise was Mediterranean Treasures on Navigator. I am trying to find out what nights are formal - my parents are sailing on 14 July. Any help would be appreciated.

 

Hi Folks,

 

From memory, the Monday and Thursday of the first week were formal. I think the last formal night was the Thursday of week 2, although I can't be certain. I know that we went to the two speciality restaurants on the Mondays and Thursdays of each week, so I'm basing my assumption on this.

 

I hope your parents have a great time.

 

Alan

[Grumm]

Bump....for the time differences.