Mini-review on Navigator

[sdf89]

There are several superb comprehensive reviews on the RSSC Navigator, I thought I would just pass along a few observations that differ from those reviews.

 

Overall: WOW! It was a wonderful cruise. A lot of pampering, attentive care at each point, and it felt like we experienced what cruising was like many decades ago...

 

About us: we are in our late 40's, left 3 kids at home with their grandparents. Have been on 4 cruises before, most with Princess.

 

Embarkation/disembarkation: smooth as many posters indicate. (On our particular cruise, we could not board until 1:00 since incoming ship was 2 hours late).

 

Food: Outstanding. But with following caveats: if you choose to eat with others and you get a 6 or 8 person table, you run risk of a slow eater will slow the whole meal. (with rare exception, they will not bring out a main course or a dessert menu until everyone has finished salad or main course, respectively). Portofino's is great. I would urge you to try to book 2 nights.

 

Last caveat is that the portion sizes for everything, except pasta and ice cream are small (many passengers agreed with me). We liked that, as my DW does not eat much, and this allowed me to order multiple main courses, appetizers, etc. The waiters did not seem to mind. Portofino portions are larger, so I am mainly referring to Compass Rose.

 

Ship: This is admittedly schizophrenic: we loved it and did not love it: the condition is good and it is nice to be able to get anywhere with ease and learn the layout quickly. We did not miss any amenities on the mega-ships of Princess. But now the problems: we did encounter the infamous vibrations of this ship. Sadly, we were mid-ship (838), so the frequent posts saying it was confined to the aft are not accurate. We did not mind vibrations in Portofino's, but it was annoying to have them in our cabin. I am a heavy sleeper, so no problem. My DW decided that she probably did not completely awaken from them, but it was annoying. One suggestion, the rubber doorstop is great for sticking into things to stop their shaking. Lastly, we had periodic noises like a pump (about every 10-15 minutes) through the night that we could never identify.

I spoke with one of the officers who said that the vibrations are a permanent problem and date back to how the ship was built. All this being said, we might avoid this ship in future...

 

Activities: not a lot; but that is ok for us. We do the ships for the people and the ports... one bonus compared to Princess, Royal Caribbean is that the Bingo payouts were almost the same for each game, even though there were only 10% of the number of players AND cheaper cards... I'm not sure but I bet RSSC does not profit on it, unlike the ridiculous low payouts on the other lines.

 

Cost: As many have said, you save so, so much money on not having to tip and on beverages.

 

I am not mentioning things said on all the reviews: the entertainment is great; the excursions are well run (see future post for more details)

 

Smallest drawback: The shows start at 9:45PM each night. We missed half of them due to being too sleepy. We wish they could start by 9 or 9:15. We recognize that would affect people who go to dining room at 8:00 or later... no easy solution.

 

Biggest drawback for us: there was only one couple younger than us--the captain's relatives! Only one couple our age. My DW and I estimate average age was 75. At the very least, 73. As said below, we enjoyed getting to know everyone, but we felt a bit out of place.

 

2nd place prize for overall best thing about Navigator: the workers: every day we were greeted by workers with genuine smiles throughout the ship. They seem content and happy about being there. On our other cruises, we had some workers like that, but not such a global atmosphere through the whole ship.

 

1st place for best thing about Navigator: the passengers: we so enjoyed having a 480 passenger ship in which we could really get to know people. By the end of the week, you knew something about at least 1/4 of the ship's passengers, if not more. Such a contrast from the mega-cruise liners.

 

I hope to post some suggestions regarding the New England/ Canada ports this weekend on a different thread.

[JanMD]

Have been on the ship to Bermuda last July and will be going again over Christmas. Yes, you did mention about the shows being so late. That is one thing we miss. It is ship to really just chill out on. The staff is really great! You did not mention about the ports that you did go to. Would like to do that trip one of these days.

Jan

[Sage]

Thank you so much for the review. We are looking forward to our first cruise on the Navigator next year, the November 8th sailing to the South Pacific and Hawaii.

[Gsel]

Thanks so much for the review. Helps with our decision to take the Navigator next Fall.

[Joanandjoe]

Gsel, if you decide to take the Navigator next fall, let us know. We've just signed up for the 9/16/05 cruise from Montreal to New York.

[Gsel]

Will do! We are currently waiting on another couple to decide what they want to do. Looking at Navigator and Massdam. Men are sold on HAL and women want to try RSSC. Guess who is going to win....

[Joanandjoe]

Gsel, we looked at Maasdam vs. RSSC as well. If you want the cheapest cabin, Maasdam is cheaper. If your minimum cabin on HAL is (as ours is) a B veranda mini-suite, then you have to add wine, drinks at dinner, bottled water, soda. and tips to the cost of the Maasdam. When you do that, the cost is very similar to an H without balcony on the Navigator. Considering the degree of luxury and the quality of the food, the Navigator is a better deal.

 

FYI, we've been on HAL twice and loved it, so we're not knocking it.

[SkiCruiser44]

Your review was right on target in my opinion. We sailed the Bermuda trip in May and there were a lot of things we liked about this ship (food, service and size) but we too had a problem adjusting to the vibration on this ship and we were in cabin 525 and had the pump noise you describe only ours was much more frequent. It drove me nuts fortunately we didn't have the vibration probem in our cabin. We liked Radisson but think if we sail with them again it will be on another ship.

 

 

Kathy

[Dolphins]

JoanandJoe- We are also booked on the same Montreal to New York cruise in October 2005. We have also sailed many times on HAL and agree that if you want a veranda cabin on most HAL ships, the price with gratuities and drinks is comparable to RSSC. We sailed RSSC for the first time on Navigator to Bermuda in May and were so impressed that we booked next year's fall cruise both ways, New York to Montreal and return, leaving NY on Oct. 8. We liked HAL very much but RSSC spoils you for any other cruise line. With less than 500 pasengers, the service is great, food superb with more varied dining time options and the cabins were huge. We look forward to observing the fall foliage on the St. Lawrence River next year from our Navigator balcony.

[naples007]

I was thinking of booking the Navigator for this coming January 05, however with all the negatives about the vibration on this ship, I'm having second thoughts. When you $$$ for a cruise who wants to deal with that.

[Sage]

Is the vibration really that bad that one should think about cancelling or changing to another ship? This will be our first time on Navigator, and we have a 26 day cruise booked for next year. Should I be worried?

[sdf89]

Whooaa! As the author of this thread, let me remind you that a search of vibrations and Navigator will lead you to many posters who have been unimpressed by the vibrations. Moreover, while we were annoyed, it would not be a "deal-breaker" for being on this magnificent ship.

 

I more want to make people aware so that it doesn't surprise them, plus there may be a few people who are sensitive to the issue. There are plenty of things about Navigator that are better than other ships...

[Sage]

Thank you for your clarification regarding the vibrations. We are so looking forward to sailing, but we were growing concerned. I am really looking forward to the passenger space ratio. What ever will I do not having to stand in lines?

[Dolphins]

We had cabin 731 on our last Navigator cruise and had no problem at all with vibrations. We booked cabin 633 for our next cruise and expect no problems at that location.

[Joanandjoe]

SDF89, one of the reasons we've signed up for the 9/16/05 Montreal to New York cruise on the Navigator was to see the beautiful Saguenay River. However, while some of the cruises list "Scenic cruising of the Saguenay River" as part of the itinerary, ours merely lists "cruising the St. Lawrence River."

 

If your cruise didn't list the Saguenay, did it go there anyway? If it did list the Saguenay, should lack of this scenic area be a deal beaker? Since we live 15 minutes from the New York dock, we chose 9/16 instead of 9/24 because we wanted to end our cruise a short taxi ride from home. But if the Saguenay is truly "not to be missed", maybe we should switch to the 9/24 cruise fom New York to Montreal.

 

Your thoughts on this subject would be appreciated. We'll also be posting this as a separate thread.

[Dolphins]

JoanandJoe- Our documents show our Oct. 8 cruise New York Montreal cruise has cruising the Saguenay River on Thursday, Oct 13th 8AM to 12:30PM and arriving in Quebec at 8PM. There is 51 hours cruising time from when the ship leaves Halifax at 5PM on Oct. 11 to docking in Quebec at 8PM on Oct. 13.

 

Our return cruise Montreal to New York does not mention the Saguenay River and the cruising time from leaving Quebec (12:00PM Oct. 17) until arrival in Halifax (9:00AM, Oct. 19) is only 45 hours. I assume the six hour less cruising time would eliminate the Saguenay River on the Montreal to New York cruise which spends 5 hours more docked in Quebec.

[Skip's Dad]

Thanks so much for the mini-review. I have been on 8 cruises to date. Last year my partner and I sailed on the RSSC Diamond, along with other family members to celebrate his parent's 50th Wedding Anniversary. By far the Diamond, and RSSC, exceeded our expectations!! We liked it so much we booked a cruise on the Navigator for the November 17 sailing out of Tampa. We are very much looking forward to the cruise, but appreciate any and all advance information and insight we can get! Thanks again!

[mike35]

We were on the 9/22 - 10/1 New York to Montreal 7Seas Navigator. The ship was great - especially our huge suite with veranda, walk-in closet, tub, shower, etc. The internet room was outstanding - good connection speed, reasonably priced.

 

The itinerary was equally outstanding, although we saw very little "fall foliage" - if we were to do this cruise again, we would wait a month. Tours were well planned.

 

Now for the Navigator experience. The food, while good, wasn't, in our opinion, up to 6-star standards. Although the presentation was beautiful, the quality and variety left a bit to be desired. We couldn't understand why, in the heart of lobster, clam, and mussel country, they only served lobster once, and didn't offer Prince Edward Island mussels, clams, etc. Also, no caviar, foie gras - items we've come to expect on other 6-star lines (Silversea and Crystal).

 

Service was good - no complaints, except in several instances dining and wine service was slow, with no maitre 'd in sight. We didn't meet the maitre 'd until day 6!

 

Entertainment was marginal. The singers/dancers were fair, the featured male singer (Steve Washington) was outstanding, and the comedian, a Welchman named Kenny Smiles, was funny the first time, less so the 2nd, and rather boring the 3rd. Again, we're probably spoiled by Crystal's magnificent entertainment. The "late" hour (9:45) kept many of the 70's+ passengers from attending.

 

Room service was spotty the two times we used it; the first time was a simple order of smoked salmon, bagels, cream cheese, and coffee - somehow they forgot the smoked salmon. The second time was a bit worse - we filled out the room service order form the evening before, ordering full breakfasts between 7:30 and 8:00. We were awakened at 7:10 by a waiter with a small pot of coffee. Somehow the kitchen thought we had ordered the coffee and forgot about our full breakfast order. Oh well.... again - something we might expect on Carnival, but not Raddison.

 

The vibration problem was most noticeable in the Portofino and didn't bother us on our mid-ship deck 9 cabin. The food in the Portofino was good, although a minor suggestion - since it's Italian oriented, they should offer a decent Italian red wine with dinner (all they had was a California Merlot). Picky, picky - I know, but just a suggestion from this "wino".

 

Hope this helps.

 

Mike & Carol

[venicecruiser]

Dolphins - I had 633 on the second leg of a back-to-back in April. Great location!

[charvella]

We have booked cabins 810, 815, 817 on the Navigator.

Do you think this is a good location, or should we move more midship in 843?

[Jeanne S]

We booked an H Guarantee (window suite deck 5) and were upgraded to D - 863 (there was no D and D1 then). We were Aft but not all the way Aft and felt no vibration whatsover. The Rabbs (Cruise D's) were down the hall in a more aft cabin.

 

 

Our cruise this past June to Bermida had a varied mix of passengers: singles, newleywed, middle aged and elderly.