LONG REVIEW - Navigator Eastern Oct 9-16

[macgirl]

Hi everyone,

 

We just got off the Navigator this past Saturday, this was our first cruise, I'll try to cover off as much as I can.

 

Embarkation/Debarkation

Sucked in a huge way. From the time we arrived at the pier, it took about an hour to get on the ship. Getting off was worse, but this was more of a US Customs issue than RCI. We had to stand in so many US customs lineups that we have decided until they get their act together, we are never vacationing where we have to clear US customs again. If we have one complaint about the vacation, it was the lineups for customs. An hour to clear customs in St. Thomas, an hour to get into the US, and and hour to leave. That was at least 3 hours sucked out of my vacation that I could have done without. Getting back into Canada took about 35 seconds. I know the US has all these post 9-11 issues, but if it's that much of a concern, HIRE MORE AGENTS!!!!!!!!!!! But again, this wasn't RCI's fault.

 

THE SHIP

THE SHIP IS GORGEOUS!!! OHMYGOD, I had no idea it would be so beautiful. All during the cruise I tried to think of how many architects and designers it must take to put together such an endeavour, the attention to detail was amazing. It's so beautiful without being tacky, it's hard to describe. I could have stayed on the ship all week and never gotten off I loved it so much.

 

STATEROOM

We had a balcony cabin (#9338), and I would never cruise any other way. I'd rather give up an excursion or two than not have a balcony. My favorite memories of the cruise were the sounds of the ocean at night, and just sitting out on the balcony. I love the ocean. The room was beautiful, and much larger than I thought it would be, very nicely decorated, tons of storage space.

 

FOOD

How I managed to gain only 4 pounds is a mystery. YUMMY!!!! I love food, and I was totally blown away by the quality, even in the Windjammer. As a matter of fact, there were times I thought the Windjammer food was even better (or at least just as good) as the dining room. Desserts were all to die for. Sure there were a few things I didn't like, but that's just personal taste. I will say the pancakes left a lot to be desired, but how anyone can say the food isn't good, well, they must be a gourmet chef. I would never have the time or desire to prepare those meals for myself at home.

 

ACTIVITIES/ENTERTAINMENT

First rate, professional and amazing. The RCI singers and dancers are INCREDIBLE, the comedians were a hoot, and Ken Rush, the Cruise Director was a total blast. I was really blown away with the level of professionalism, I was expecting tacky, old school enterainment, and it was first rate. My favorite line from Ken was on the first night, "we want everyone to have a fabulous time, but just don't go overboard". :p I now understand why the cruise director is such a big deal, I looked so forward to Ken every single night. And the ice show - OHMYGOD is all I can say about that.

 

SERVICE

Our waiters were incredible. I actually felt bad about the amount of pampering they gave us, I wanted them to just have fun too. I can't explain the attention to detail and service they provided. They work like 15 hour days, and always with a "my pleasure" and a smile. I wasn't sure how I felt about tipping before I went, but on top of the regular tips, we gave our waiter and assistant waiter an extra $20 each. They were the only ones we extra-tipped. Our room was always perfect, and the service there was transparent. We never once saw our attendants, so because we didnt' have that "special relationship", we tipped the normal amount. Our head waiter was great too, she was crazy and a great host.

 

PORTS OF CALL

I'm not going to get into much detail here, for me the ship was the destination. We didn't do any excursions. My favorite port was San Juan, it's beautiful and I would love to visit it again (when it's not 100 degrees!) St. Thomas was pretty, but I was very disappointed in Magen's Bay beach. How it made it to the Top 10 beaches in the world is a mystery to me. It has nothing on Cancun, that's for sure. I thought Labadee was much prettier. Magen's Bay was not very clean, and the beach area was not very wide. The water was beautiful though. Nassau was a huge disapointment, I didn't think it was at all pretty. We went to Atlantis and have never felt so unwelcome anywhere.

 

OTHER COMMENTS

I did think there was too much "nickel and diming" on board. I still think all beverages except alcohol should be included all the time. I think there should be an alcohol package as well. We bought the soda cards, and I think for us they came in handy as I had a diet coke in my hand just about every minute of every day, and they can be used in Labadee as well.

 

We didn't visit Johnny Rockets, Chops or Portofinos, we enjoyed the food so much in the dining room and Windjammer, we couldn't imagine needing alternate dining. We looked at the menus and there was nothing on there that really caught our attention anyway.

 

We had requested a Table for 2, but were seated at a table with 8 others, and it really was great. I wouldn't request a Table for 2 again. We did request a table for 2 at both lunch and breakfast when we ate in the dining room and always got it, so by dinner time it was nice to sit and laugh with other people.

 

There were 500 kids on board, and were extremely well behaved.

 

Everyone seemed to dress up for formal night, I saw one person in jeans on casual night. OH YES, BEFORE I FORGET - THERE IS NO SMART CASUAL NIGHT!!! RCI should just get rid of that. I forced DH into a sports jacket and tie for Smart Casual night, and I think he was the only one, he was way overdressed, and so was I. He pretty much wanted to throw me overboard. LOTS OF MEN WEAR SHORTS in the dining room on casual night, but I thought it was fine. They were nice golf shorts with shirts, I thought they looked quite nice, not at all out of place.

 

Didn't notice much in the way of smoking. Our neighbor was a smoker, but maybe smoked 2 cigarettes on the balcony the whole time. The more annoying part was the coughing and hacking coming from him every morning. :p

 

I won't bore you with any other details. If you have any questions, just let me know!!

 

Overall from RCI's perspective, I'd give it 4.5 stars out of 5. US customs gets 0 stars out of 100.

[hstrybuf]

Thank you for the review! I'm in the process of packing for the western itinerary of the Navigator now. Another poster mentioned that RCCL might not be going to Labadee after your cruise because of civil unrest. Did you hear anything about this? Again, thanks!

[macgirl]

I think it would be such a shame not to go to Labadee, it and San Juan were my two faves, but for 2 completely different reasons. Loved San Juan for the history, Labadee for hanging out at the beach. I didn't hear anything about civil unrest at all.

 

Have a great time on Navigator!!

[cmason]

The civil unrest in Haiti is a long distance from Labadee, and concentrated in the capital, not all over the island. Labadee will remain open

 

Thanks for the review!

[clyde1818]

An Hour To Get On the Ship? And your complaining? Not trying to put you down, but there is a heck of a lot of things that they have to do in a short amount of time that you might not have cosidered. Like first get 3000 people off, 6000 bags off, clean ALL the cabins, the common areas, re-fuel the ship, put 3000 people w/bags ON and everything all within 9 or 10 hours. Actually I'm surprised that they can do it in such a short amount of time. And an hour to get on the ship, is normal most of the time. Hope you will try a cruise again soon.

[macgirl]

I just wish they had another way to do it that didn't involve standing in line for an hour. Have chairs, get people to take a number and at least sit around or something, it's the standing in line and moving a few inches every few minutes that really gets to me. But I live in Ottawa, Canada, a pretty small city and lineups are not something I'm used to. Whatever my next vacation is, I'm definetely going to look into what the lineups are like. We may pick a smaller ship next time, I'm sure that would help a lot, and it won't be sailing out of the US, I'd rather fly to Europe next time.