We just arrived home last night from our Spring Break trip on Navigator of the Seas, and while things are fresh on my mind, I wanted to post a review. I'm going to forego photos as I know there are loads of them in previous reviews, and I don't know that I really have anything super "fresh" to add to the currently available photos.
Just a little about our group - We were traveling as a group of 7: my parents (late 50s-60), my sister and BIL (early 30s), my husband and myself (late 30s-40), and our 8-year old daughter. We have all cruised before, mostly on RCI (my sister made Emerald this trip and we bumped to Platinum), but this was our first cruise all together. We were booked in 3 balcony rooms (7250, 7252 & 7258).
Pre-cruise:
Though we really dreaded it, we opted to drive down from NC to FLL the Saturday prior to embarkation. Early on, we had planned to rent a 15-passenger van so that we could all travel together, but about a month prior to the cruise, there was a recall issued for those vans, and none were available for rental. Therefore we decided to travel in 2 separate vehicles. We were leaving from different parts of NC, so we met up in FLL on Saturday evening. The drive down was surprisingly smooth with very little to no traffic delays. We were surprised since this was Spring Break week and we had heard multiple news reports of the huge increase in travel to Florida this year. Unfortunately, we were not so lucky on the trip home (more on that later). We had booked at the Holiday Inn Express Executive Airport. It's about 20 minutes from the cruise port, but was slightly less pricey and in a quieter area. I had one very slight incident with an employee being a little less than helpful on the phone on the trip down (we were arranging a staggered check-in for the 2 rooms even though both were booked under 1 name). Other than that, the hotel stay was great. This hotel is very affordable (by FLL standards), has great sized rooms with mini-fridge, and a good continental breakfast. Our room had a huge flat screen TV, but my parents' and sister's room TV was much smaller. Overall, the hotel was all we needed for the few hours we would be there.
Embarkation/Day 1:
We took our time at the hotel having a quick breakfast and getting rounded up to head to the port. This was where we were really happy with our hotel selection. There were very few cruisers at this location making breakfast super easy and not crowded at all. I love that HIE offers a hot continental breakfast. After taking our time with getting showers and loaded, we headed out to the port. Our hotel was about 20 minutes from the port, but there was no traffic at all until we got close to the port, so it was a very smooth trip. Navigator is at Terminal 29, and I think that's definitely a con. It's the last terminal, and was a bit more confusing and "industrial" than some of the other terminals we've experienced. Additionally, the parking garage is not really walking distance, so you have to do the shuttle, but they will not run the shuttles until they are full, so there was a lot of waiting. We dropped off women, children and luggage, and the men parked the cars. It took a good 30 minutes for them to park, catch the shuttle and make it back. Since my sister was platinum, they allowed our entire group to go through the platinum line. This was fantastic. We basically went straight to the desk, checked in and went straight onto the ship. No sitting or waiting in chairs at all. We were on the ship by 11:30 and went straight to the Windjammer for lunch (because that's what you do on a cruise, right?). The Windjammer lunch was great (we were pleasantly surprised as we are generally not fans of the food at the Windjammer). By the time we had lunch and meandered around just a bit, it was time for the rooms to be ready. They made an announcement at precisely 1pm that the rooms were ready and opened up the doors. That said....the rooms weren't all ready. It was minor, but our steward still had not had time to vacuum our room, so he had to come in after we got to the room to finish up. It wasn't a big deal at all, but I kind of felt like they should give the stewards just a bit more time to get things done. It's just so hard on them to flip the rooms so quickly. The bright spot was that our luggage was already at our room! Definitely the fastest we have ever gotten luggage delivered. Our rooms were very close to the forward elevators, which was fantastic all week! The rooms were plenty spacious and larger than our balcony room last year on Brilliance. They've removed the little "coffee table" from the rooms, which I liked. It never served us much purpose other than being a toe-stubber late at night, and removing it makes the room seem so much larger. We took a bit of time to unpack, and then set off for exploring the ship. I had opted for the Premium beverage package prior to the trip (booked online), but my husband had decided to wait until we got on the ship to figure out if he wanted to purchase the package or just buy drinks individually. He and my dad both decided they would do the package. Here's a peeve/tip....if you think you want the beverage package (or really anything), book online ahead of time. They ended up paying about $45 more for the same package by buying onboard. We were never given a super clear answer for this, but I would definitely buy ahead. I noticed price differences from the online price on several other things throughout the trip. Also, for those who plan to wait a day or so for buying the packages so that you can prorate, this may or may not actually save you money. My dad asked a nice bartender about this, and he said you can definitely do it, but often times they bump the price up a bit on the 2nd day to make it not that much of a savings. Sure enough, on Day 2, the cruise compass listed the premium package as $65 per day rather than the $55 that they paid (I paid $49 online). You could maybe fight it and get the lower price, but I think it's going to vary, and I would prefer to just buy it online prior to the trip to avoid any headache. If you purchase online, your cup will be waiting in your room when you get onboard. We had 5:45 reservations each night with MTD on Deck 5. My sister and I double checked these, and we were happy we did. They had our reservations right but the number of people they had for each night varied. It was an easy fix, but I was thankful we got it taken care of right away. We also requested to have the same table and wait staff each night as meeting the staff is one of the things we enjoy most throughout the week. They can't guarantee this with MTD, but it generally isn't a problem at all. We enjoyed a few pre-dinner drinks at the Schooner bar and then headed off to dinner. This was when our week really got started off to a fantastic start. At first, we were disappointed that they had crowded the 7 of us at a 6-person round table. We were worried we would be really tight with eating throughout the week and even talked about requesting a larger table after the first night, but when we met our wait staff, we quickly decided it was worth being a little snug. We also ended up enjoying the smaller table as it made conversation much easier at times when the dining room is a little loud. Our waiter was Darwin, and his assistant was ****ra. Collectively, in all of our cruising, we all agreed that these 2 were the best team any of us had ever had. They made the trip truly delightful, and we found ourselves seeking them out during non-dinner times throughout the trip. We've adopted them as our additional family members now. We also had impeccable service from our bar waiter, Julius, who we nicknamed "Dr. J", and from the head waiter, Luis. Dinner the first night was the Mojo menu, and we all enjoyed it very much. It was a great start to our cruise dining! As a side note, my sister, BIL and dad were all excited to see that escargot are now offered each night as a starter (which they ordered each night), and my husband enjoyed the shrimp cocktail most nights. I tend to order the unique items, so I didn't order any of the "staples" very often. The NCAA tournament was on the big screen at the pool, so we opted for that over the welcome aboard show (we are all huge UNC fans). It was fun, but the volume wasn't quite enough to drown out the crowds, so 4 of us watched the last half of the game in our room (we had plenty of room). Since we were up late watching the game and had an early dinner (and were on a cruise), we ordered late room service snacks around 11pm. They were quick and good (not amazing, but good for room service).
Day 2 (Sea day):
We ordered early room service coffee and pastries and had planned to meet up for true breakfast in the dining room around 9. It wasn't crowded at all on this day, and we very much enjoyed the nice breakfast. We often opt for the dining room over Windjammer, when available, for the quality of food. My BIL and I are trivia buffs, so we decided to hit up the morning trivia in the Schooner bar. This was lots of fun, and we played trivia often throughout the week when it worked with our schedule. The Schooner bar is also our favorite bar on all of the ships. It always seems to be comfy, low-key and has great waiters. This ship was no exception, and we found ourselves migrating here multiple times per day throughout the trip. By mid-week, we were on a first-name basis with the bartenders. My daughter wanted to check out the pool, so she did a quick trip up there during the morning. As expected, it was nuts, so she limited her time this day since we knew we would have better opportunities later in the week. I wanted to try Sabor at some point through the trip, but didn't really want to book during dinner since we enjoy the dining room so much (we already had a Chops night planned). The Schooner is right by Sabor, so while we were hanging out there, one of the waiters started talking to us and gave us a "deal" for lunch (4 people for the price of 3). We were the only people in the entire place, so we figured out quickly why we got the deal. My mom doesn't love Mexican, so she and my daughter went to the dining room, and my dad opted for the Windjammer for lunch. I have to say, after reading all the reviews for Sabor, my expectations were pretty high. It didn't measure up. The table-side guacamole was neat, and the guy made a TON of it, but it was just not great...it was super bland. The pico was much better. My sister and I ended up having the Sabor guacamole later in the week at the galley tour, and it was MUCH better, so I think our guy just didn't do it well. We had margaritas, and they were great. The waiters ended up bringing us about 1 of all of the appetizers. The queso is delicious, as is the stuffed jalapeños (though they are not spicy at all). None of us were crazy about the calamari. For entrees, my BIL and I had the snapper (I had heard great things), my sister got the shrimp and my husband had a quesadilla. They were all good, but nothing stood out as amazing. The waiter also brought an order of the carnitas burritos for the table, and they were again okay, but not great. Desserts were good, other than the flan, but to be fair, I do not care at all for flan. Overall, if Sabor wasn't a specialty restaurant with a cover charge, I would have said this was a good meal, but I was a little underwhelmed with it given that it was a specialty restaurant. It could have definitely been contributed to being a very slow day as well. We had to rush a bit after lunch to get to the ice show. They are now assigning ice show times to passengers based on your muster station, but there are standby lines if this doesn't work well. They have shows at 2pm and 4pm on the 2 sea days. We were assigned the 2pm show, which was fine. We got there early so that we could get seats all together. Even after opening up to the standby line, there were empty seats. I love this plan....no worrying about tickets, and you can still opt for the show that best works for you, if you're willing to gamble on the standby line. The ice show was great, and my daughter was especially impressed (this was her first ice show). After the ice show, we all did just a little down time, and soon it was time to get ready for dinner. Tonight was the first formal night, and the menu was Saffron. Dinner was fabulous, and we were able to get to know our wait staff even a little more. It's amazing to me on each cruise how quickly the staff get to know their passengers by name (our waiter called us each by name on the first morning when he saw us in the dining room for breakfast) and what we like (the bar waiter had our drink preferences memorized by the 2nd night). After dinner, we headed out to the show (an homage to Broadway). None of us were overly impressed, and since we luckily had seated ourselves in the back row of the theater, we snuck out early. We checked out some of the other activities throughout the ship, but mostly just enjoyed some time together before turning in for the night.
Day 3 - Grand Cayman Island:
We had an early breakfast in the dining room prior to heading down to get our tender tags. We arrived to Grand Cayman a little early, and tendering was fairly smooth (though it's definitely not my favorite thing to have to do). We had booked with Captain Marvin's, and we were basically just across the street, so we hopped over to check in. It was a zoo! Tons of people, and the office here is about the size of a walk-in closet. We checked in, and the sweet lady that checked us in had a little confusion with our boat assignment for Stingray City. Once we had all of that sorted out (we thought), we headed down the street to kill some time before our bus would be ready to take us to the boats. Two tips here....1. If you have lots of time to kill, go to the right of Captain Marvin's (if standing facing the office with your back to the water....there is nothing to the left). 2. If you have less than 30 minutes to wait, just find a quiet area that's out of the way and hang out there as they may call you earlier. Our earlier confusion came back to bite us as we got back to the office about 10 minutes prior to our scheduled time. They were looking for people assigned to our boat, and I went forward with the ticket for the 7 of us. She said we weren't supposed to be on that boat. Long story short, the check-in lady had manually added us to this boat, but it didn't update in the computer, so the boat ended up overbooked (if we were on it). We had to wait an additional 30 minutes to be put on another boat. While this was very frustrating, we were assured we would be able to get our full tour as well as our turtle farm tour later, and the staff were very sweet. These things happen, and we just didn't let it get to us. We ended up on a fantastic boat with a great crew, so all ended well. Stingray City was lots of fun. It's very neat, but also very crowded with lots of boats. I asked one of the crew for our boat, and he said it was actually not a terribly crowded day, so I would hate to see it super crowded. They got an older stingray for our group, Spotty, and she was very sweet. Even though they are in the wild, these stingrays are like pets. They perform on queue for the crew members. The crew were patient to allow every person time to hold, pet and have photos with the stingray. They do take photos that they offer for a price, but they are not at all pushy about this....it's just there if you want it. After Stingray City, we were taken to 2 different snorkeling spots for about 30 minutes at each. The snorkeling was very good, but not the best I've ever experienced. At the last spot, one of the crew members did some conch diving and got about 7 conch to take back. On the way back in, he opened them and explained about the conch, even offering up some for anyone who wanted to try them. After we got back, our group had booked the Hell/Turtle Farm tour also with Captain Marvin's. We were the only group on this tour, so we were able to customize as we wanted. We didn't have an abundance of time after our morning delay, but we had all the time we really wanted for all of the stops (we were pretty tired at this point). Hell is kind of neat, and it's cool to see the coral formations, but you can do this in about 10 minutes. We did go in the little store to have our passports stamped so that we could show that we've been to Hell and back. We also cracked lots of jokes with our tour guide. Our turtle farm stop was very neat, but again, this can be a pretty quick stop. Our tour guide was very knowledgeable about the turtles and the farm and he shared lots of information. We were able to pick up and pet the small turtles, which my daughter loved. The tour guide for this part of the tour, Lucas, gave us lots of information about the island. We always love talking to the locals about their home and the customs there, so we really enjoyed this. Grand Cayman is a gorgeous island...one of my favorites. Once back to Captain Marvin's, we tendered back to the ship (pretty smooth), and grabbed a quick snack at Cafe Promenade (we had skipped lunch and were starving). We were able to catch afternoon trivia, and then we grabbed quick showers and got ready for dinner. My husband and I had reservations to Chops for this night, so the rest of the crowd went to the dining room. I had tried to plan our Chops night for the night with the least appetizing looking menu. I failed as our family said the dining room meal was incredible this night (Pimento). Nevertheless, our dinner at Chops was incredible (the filet was delicious!). The restaurant was again very empty. I'm not sure if this was happening because it was Spring Break (lots of large families) or if the specialty restaurants are just not being booked much, but I kind of hate it for those waiters as it hurts their wallets to not make tips when the restaurant is empty. Our waiter, Ivo, was so sweet. Since they were slow, he was able to chat with us a bit about his life on the ship and at his home in India. Even though our reservations were just a little later than our family in the dining room, we finished a bit ahead of them, so we stopped in to see them and our waiters. They were raving about the tiger shrimp on the menu that night. We hit the Bon Jovi tribute show, which was fantastic!
Day 4 - Falmouth, Jamaica:
We had planned a ship day on this day as there wasn't much that interested us in Jamaica. It's a gorgeous island, but you really have to plan an excursion, and even with that, you can really encounter lots of harassment from the locals, so we just decided to opt out. It was a GREAT day! Staying on the ship with everyone else off on an island is just a little magical. We hit the pool early with our daughter so that she could get some non-crowded pool time in. We had it completely to ourselves for nearly an hour before anyone started showing up. The adults also had our picks of chairs in the Solarium for a little reading and sun soaking time. The only downfall to a ship day while in port is that lots of the dining options are closed, so we had to go to lunch at the Windjammer. It was again surprisingly good (much better than we experienced last year on Brilliance). We basically just enjoyed lots of down time and relaxation on this day before dinner. Dinner menu for tonight was Basil. After dinner, we took in the headliner show which was an a cappella group from Las Vegas. They were incredible! Tonight was also the Love & Marriage show, which is one of our favorites, so we made sure to catch it. It was definitely funny, but this show is always at the mercy of the couples that are chosen.
Day 5 - Labadee:
We again did breakfast in the MDR, but because this was a later port morning, the dining room was packed! We had a great breakfast, nonetheless, but we wished we had gotten up a bit earlier for a little less hectic atmosphere. We took our time getting off the ship as we didn't have anything major planned other than a beach day. Once on the island, we walked to Columbus Cove as I had heard it was a bit less crowded than some of the other beaches. It was definitely less crowded, but not what I would call "quiet" (though I'm used the the NC Outer Banks as my ideal quiet beach). We had no trouble securing a beach chair and even got a few in the shade and some in the sun for a variety. We had not preordered beach mats on the ship (and we were told by some that they weren't able to get them as the shore excursion desk said they were "sold out"), but we easily got 3 mats from the little hut at the beach. We talked with the sweet guy at the mat hut for a bit. Many of the people on the island are Haitians who have been brought over by Royal to manage some of the activities during the day. We have many friends who do mission trips to Haiti, so we talked with the guy a bit about some of his experiences with missionaries. Again, we love getting to talk to the locals on islands and learning a bit about their life/culture. We tipped him a bit (just a few bucks), and he was so shocked that we wanted to tip. We enjoyed the beach, and my daughter did an hour at the little water park (which wasn't actually her favorite, but I think that was largely due to being by herself). We hit the cookout early before lines got long, and the food was actually very good. The barbecue chicken was great! One thing to note....if you have the drink package this DOES work on the island BUT your selections are going to be very limited. The sweet chefs, bartenders and wait staff have to work so hard on this day to bring things off the ship and set up everything for the buffets then rush back to the ship for dinner. We got back on the ship just in time for a little trivia (we had started a little competition with another group on the ship) and then to get ready for dinner. Tonight WAS a formal night even though everything we had seen prior to the trip said there would only be 1 formal night on day 2. The good thing is that with MTD, we were able to dress a little less formal and be just fine. Tonight's dinner menu was Jasmine (lobster), and it was great! After dinner, we skipped the headliner show (ballroom dancing) and opted to catch the adult karaoke in the Star lounge. So much fun, and there was lots of really good talent. One note and pet peeve, though.....if you're going to a show such as this, please pay respect to the performers. We were seated fairly near the back, and the group beside of us was SO loud during the entire show, but particularly during one young girl's performance. Loud enough that we were not able to hear her performance, and even in the back there is no way she wasn't able to hear how loud they were being. It was incredibly disrespectful to the performer and the audience. The real kicker is that this group had a guy from the group perform in the show, and we had talked with them about how nervous he was. You would think they would recognize how rude it is to add distraction to nervousness, but they definitely didn't. Additionally, it was standing room only in the lounge, and they were taking up a huge section of seats just to sit and talk/laugh loudly with each other, even after their friend had performed. With so many bars and hangouts throughout the ship, there's just really no excuse for this. After karaoke, we headed down to the Quest. It was very fun. We've seen it several times, so we sat toward the back and just mostly observed, but it was funny and entertaining.
Day 6 - Last sea day:
We all slept in just a bit and then had a nice breakfast in the MDR. We requested our dinner waiter for breakfast which wasn't super pleasing to the head waiter at the door, but we were so happy to have an extra bit of time with our friend who knew us so well by this point. We had gotten our fill of sun and water on the 2 previous days, so today was mostly a day of relaxing around the ship. My sister and I had planned the galley tour brunch, and my daughter went for the tour part (they did not charge for her to attend). This was $30 per person, but did include champagne/mimosas and a buffet lunch. It was definitely worth it! I loved the tour and information, but it was a little hard to hear while in the galley, even in smaller groups. After the tour, they took us to our dining room tables where we were able to go into the galley as waiters do and help ourselves to a massive buffet! The selections offered items from many of the specialty restaurants, so it was a great way to try some of those items. I have to say that the tables had pico and guacamole from Sabor, and the guac was night and day from the guac we had at our lunch there. There was also sushi from Izumi, several different hot dishes, a hot seafood stand, lots of breads and pastries, various desserts, and a crepe station. We ate and ate, and they were still begging us to go back for more. Fantastic! The rest of our family did lunch at Johnny Rockets, which they enjoyed (though we got milkshakes later that day, and I was very unimpressed with those). Dinner this night was, by far, my least favorite menu (Pomodoro). I just can't do Thanksgiving dinner in April in the Caribbean and I don't love lamb, so this one was a huge bust for me. My husband and I both said we wished we would have ordered a Chops filet for this night. If it had been any night other than the last one, we would have opted for Chops on this menu night. This night was our toughest night as we had to say good-bye to our friends. We truly adored this dining room staff for this trip. Our waiter, Darwin, made origami animals for my daughter each night which she now has displayed on her dresser, and the assistant waiter, ****ra, became like family. After dinner, we did the karaoke finals and enjoyed it a lot.
Disembarkation:
We opted to carry off our bags as we had a long 11-12 hour (or so we thought) drive to face. We were at the Windjammer when they opened for a quick 6 am breakfast, and then headed back to our rooms to grab our bags and head out. We walked straight off the ship, waited just a few minutes in line for customs and then were out to the shuttles. They do not allow you to go get the car and come back to load, so everyone had to catch the shuttle to the parking garage. This was a bit of a pain and probably held us up just a bit, but it was how they do it. We were on the highway by around 7:30. Unfortunately, due to it being Spring Break and insane numbers of people heading north after the week in FL, traffic was insane. We were stop and go on I-95 for hours before finally deciding to detour on smaller roads in order to just move and get home. What should have been a 12-hour trip took 16 hours, but we were able to all get home safely for which we were thankful.
Additional notes/tips:
1. If you want to book anything, do it before you board. In addition to the drink packages, I found that shore excursions and even the mats at Labadee were priced differently than online.
2. TIP! I know that the automatic gratuities can be pricey, but please factor that in to your overall trip price and then add a little on top. The folks on these ships work insanely hard 7 days per week for very little salary. We were curious, so on the trip home (we had plenty of time), we looked up some of the average salaries. There are people on these ships working for what factors out to be about $1.60 per hour! We always do a little extra for our wait staff and room steward, but this trip we budgeted for little tips for random people that helped us. In the end, it was probably less than $150 in additional tips, but it could make a big difference to those folks. Also, keep in mind that if you don't show up for your specialty dining reservation, that hurts those waiters tremendously. At least call to cancel so they can fill the spot. At Chops, they had 4 no show families just in the time spot we had reserved.
3. Look for silver linings/don't sweat the small stuff - There were several times that little inconveniences could have really gotten us frustrated, but being miserable doesn't do anything to make our trip better. Remember that you're on vacation, and little inconveniences on vacation are still better than a day at work.
4. Take the time to chat with the crew. It's awesome to get to meet these folks, and it's always one of my favorite parts of cruising.
5. Quiet spots on the ship: Helipad (deck 4, up the outdoor steps and all the way forward); Peek-a-boo bridge (Deck 11 all the way forward....great spot to take the kids to see the bridge); bars during the day can be pretty quiet spots to read or hang out; hot tub in the gym is a great place that isn't crowded; showers in the gym are very roomy and the one on the end even has a little ledge that you can prop your foot on for shaving; and this is a weird one, but the bathrooms on deck 4 just beside the forward elevators are private (1-seater and the door locks) if you need a little more room/privacy for your business.
That's a very long review, so if you've stuck in this far and still have questions, feel free to shoot them to me. I'll be happy to help if I can. I didn't bring cruise compasses home, so I may not be able to give specifics from those, but if I can answer anything, I definitely will.