Royal Caribbean – Navigator of the Seas

My husband and I are pretty loyal to Royal Caribbean. We did Allure of the Seas a year prior, and found it too busy with their Dreamworks feature. So we requested a ship without Dreamworks, and were referred the Navigator of the seas. We were cautioned it’s an older ship, but it has most the new ship amenities including a flowrider and ice skating rink. We did a 6 night cruise in the caribbean.
We found ourselves very pleased with this ship. We honestly never walked the entire boat until about the 4^th day. We enjoyed the ship’s décor, it is not the usual crazy ship artwork we have experienced before. The Sapphire dining room is all ballet themed, and gorgeous. We had MyTime dining, but were sat with our regular servers all but one night. Andy and Rene were very personable and a true joy to share dinner time with. Several mornings we had breakfast in the dining room, as well as lunch. We enjoy the quieter atmosphere and conversation with other families.
We didn’t see many shows in the theater. But we really liked the ice show, as well as the comedians. We went to several «events/​competitions» and really enjoyed those. There was more than enough to do onboard. I’ll be honest I was only able to nap twice…
I loved the pool decks. The solarium was a nice quiet space, since you have to be 16+ to be in there. Yet on the main pool decks they had live music usually twice a day. I really liked the «shelf» area on their pools, so you could be in the water sitting, and not in the entire pool. We did the flow rider several times. The flow with with pro show was very fun. My husband rock climbed a few times as well. We did not get to go ice skating, there was not many times that fit our schedule.
The ports of call were nice. Grand Caymen is always beautiful. We visited the sea turtle farm. In Jamaica we stayed on the boat, we did the Dune’s Falls a year prior. We met a couple that went to Red Stripe beach, and they loved it. I would not advise trying to venture on your own from the port in Jamaica. The final port was Labadee (Royal Caribbean’s private beach in Haiti). It is a nice place to spend the day. Just be careful porters will try to haggle you. Which we experienced last year, not this year.
We did purchase the drink packages. However I don’t think we came out ahead on these. Next time we’ll buy the 10 drinks for $ 80 special. I did notice with the drink package in high demand, there were less bartenders, and drink runners. Which was very heavily experienced in Labadee.
We went to the spa, and got a special from the open house. That was nice, but a little pricey. Yet that is to be assumed when on a ship with a few thousand people and only so many spa specialists. I took a cycling class that was fun. While in Labadee my husband and I did yoga on the beach. It was nice, but I wish it was closer to the shore, and in a quieter space.
Overall we were very happy with this ship, and our experience. Instead of going to the biggest and the best boat, we will continue to go with a ship that is a little older.
So why the 4 stars? The drink package and the lack of bartenders. I feel as if Royal Caribbean knew so many people had already spent so much, there is no need to push drinks.

I’m gonna talk about the food since I love food. I heard a lot of good things about the food. To sum it up if your a Unilocaler and like good food just enjoy the cruise and try not to think about your tounge.
First the main dinning room
1. The appetizers were very diverse and tasty.
2. The main courses were of course hit or miss. mostly because they are cooking for around 2 to 3 thousand people and the main courses are
order something that can stand that and you’ll be ok.
I complained about it and got a filet minion 20% discount cooked at chops to order no food storing for my dinner. the only other good meal was the lamb shank.
3. Desserts were the bomb, congrats dessert chef you are the best chef on board that ship.
Windjammer café
1.man I think they use powdered eggs for the scrambled eggs, YUK. But they do have a station that cooks over easy (real eggs). Bacon is supper thin and fatty (greasy). & the bread is hard.
2. Lunch, well if you like burgers, dogs, and such great, but if you like flavor opt out very average at best. one day they had an Indian dish with rice that was great thank god one good lunch.
3. Dinner never ate there.
The drinks
1. Unless on a long overseas cruise don’t get the drink or beer package you won’t break even. especially when you have port days.
2. I asked for water because it’s also a separate package from mine and the other packages and they tried to give me water from the sink!!! thanks royal Caribbean for being the cheapest company in the world. Not even one lemon offered at anytime.
3. Water bottles should be free for everyone.

Navigator of the Seas… Two tired and worn out stars… this is a review of the 8-​Day Caribbean (Labadee, San Juan Peurto Rico, St Kitts, St Maarten) departing early March of 2016.
We had cruised on Navigator a few times in the past, had a great time… and things have changed since our last visit. Some good, but mostly not so.
1. SMELLY STATEROOM
First and foremost, our lodging on the 7^th Floor Forward Port-​side, STANK, and I mean– waste-​water-​treatment-​plant stank. Upon our entry to our cabin day one, we noticed a sewage smell in our room. Our kind and overworked room attendant immediately sprayed it with room freshener which made it then smell like faux-​cherry air freshener in the Paris Sewers. We spent an hour waiting in line at the guest services desk where the Brazilian Rep did not know the word SEWAGE and wanted me to not only define it, but spell it out so she could add it to her vocabulary. Something was done to the room and the smell truly disappeared until day 7 – 8 when we were disenfranchised and broken and we just endured…
2. NO HOT WATER
Plus for added fun, for the first three days we had no hot water. We went back in the line and some uniformed man came to our room to give us a lesson on «How to turn on the Hot Water because you are ladies and obviously this task is too hard for your inferior brains, poor dears». After running the hot water for Twenty minutes, they realized there was actually a problem and then fixed it. But only after the humiliating lesson in how to turn a faucet on. Bite me.
3. AVERAGE AGE: 78. March 5 – 14 «Spring Break»
Bring your oxygen, walker, and wheelchair! This cruise was very very geriatric and the shows, trivia, and food were geared to the children of the 40’s and 50’s. You’re not going to hear «Bitch Better have my Money» on this cruise. In fact, one act scrapped a song from the 80’s when the crowd didn’t recognize it.
4. General Condition: Run down, tired, used up
The ship looked and felt old. Bits of rust on the patio, the varnish on the railings peeling with dry wood patches, stateroom furniture covered with fabric pills, dents in walls, broken shelves. Sad.
5. FOOD: Abundant if not foodie
The Windjammer buffet was always loaded with ample options for breakfast lunch and dinner and truly was consistent in quality: Think Salad Bar and Sizzler quality. The dining room was disappointing in reduced food quality from past years, but service was excellent. Soups were thin and served in tiny cups. Lobster night was memorable, as was the filet night. Nothing really memorable going down cuisine-​wise in the dining room so we mixed it up at the pay restaurants: Johnny Rockets, 2 star grease bomb; Chops, 4 star steak house with great service $ 35 pp; and the sushi restaurant, a failing 1 star full price concept with expensive rolls and the opportunity to burn meat on a hot rock.
Our favorite dining place was the new coffee café next to Starbucks. They had little sandwiches, hot pizza, lemon tarts, and tea & coffee for FREE!
5. Ports of call & excursions– GREAT!
I cruise to get off the ship and experience a variety of beaches and activities. This cruise itinerary was pretty great, though if the weather sucks, Labadee Haiti is a wasted day.
We took a great museum and sangria tasting tour in San Juan Peurto Rico, a fabulous escape to Cockleshell Beach in St Kitts, and a wonderful catamaran sail/​snorkel in St Maarten. It was a drag getting back on the ship.
6. Onboard entertainment and activities: YAWN, mostly
My daughter and I bonded over the musical entertainment– we LOVED the disco inferno dance party night, and the ABBA stage performance, plus the ice skating was amazing! The orchestra on this ship was amazing.
On the downside, we had a ventriloquist (sexist and aged material, downright creepezoid– a ventriloquist???), tenors from Vegas (tacky and sexist), a juggler (please sedate me from this excitement), and the worst cruise director ever, Jerome. Am I right, yes or yes?
7: In room: Bad TV, internet $ 20/​day and did not work!
Limited tv channels, no news, one advertising movie channel TNT that played BRAVE three nights of 8. Internet was pricy, could only be used on one device at a time, and did not work! Slow, could not load data, emails, pictures on sites. Worthless
8. THE SPA!!! They will make you feel like poo!
Even though my daughter (20) and I were arguably decades younger than the average guest, the SPA made us feel awful and ancient, utilizing what has become a very unbecoming sales technique: Make the guest feel
I would not do Navigator again for the Sewer smell and the geriatric factor. Otherwise, this vacation was a 4 star family vacation. Smelling sewage and no hot water is by no means «Luxury» multi-​thousand dollar vacation travel. Clearly Navigator has gone to the Golden Girls… plus, after this trip I would reconsider Royal Caribbean and seek out a more relevant brand — one that functions in this century!

What a crappy ship! Do not, I repeat, do not cruise on this ship. Everything is cheesy, tired and worn. The food was especially bad. It just seemed like they were trying to cut corners on all aspects. We tried the Japanese restaurant and I’ve had better food at Panda Express.
Plus, the bartenders were always trying to slip top shelf liquor into mixed drinks!

Just debarked from the Navigator of the Seas several hours ago and we are so ecstatic to be OFF of this atrocious excuse for a cruise ship. Our itinerary was an 8-​day Eastern Caribbean (Haiti, St. Kitts, St. Maarten, and Puerto Rico). This was our first encounter with Royal Caribbean (as we’ve always been loyal Carnival cruisers) and will be our ONLY vacation with Royal Caribbean. We chose Royal to explore other cruising options because we cruise every 6 months… and honestly, Carnival has decided to make their ships «cookie-​cutter» and repetitive. I’ll list a few pros (literally a few) and cons of Royal Caribbean:
Pros:
— Sun deck lounge chairs are more available throughout the day than on Carnival.
— Pictures are easily viewed on iPads vs. continually searching thousands of printed photos.
— Pools and hot-​tubs are 24 hours.
Cons:
— SO MANY WHEELCHAIRS, RASCALS, and WALKERS. So many old people! (70+ years of age)
— Embarkation took hours and very unorganized (Ft. Lauderdale)
— Customer service overall was terrible (I’ll explain below)
— Did I mention there were SO MANY OLD PEOPLE!?!
— Every meal I ate could be considered lower quality than McDonalds… we went straight to McDonalds after returning to the US just to eat something good (and we hate McDonalds)
— Three towel animals on an 8 day cruise, THREE!
— Daily activities were mainly focused towards older customers. as if they knew the entire cruise would be seniors.
I could go on for days about the cons… so I will stop there. But I will elaborate on Royal Caribbean’s horrible customer service. To begin, Carnival’s room attendants know you by name on DAY 1! These room attendants had no clue who we were and they were SO hard to get ahold of. Secondly, we received 3 towel animals to the usual daily towel animal we’d receive on Carnival. Also, Carnival places a chocolate on your pillow EVERY NIGHT. I never saw one piece of chocolate the entire cruise. Store attendants in the shops were rude and had no intentions of actually working with a smile on their face. Lastly, the main dining room servers were mediocre at best and were there to do their jobs… no intentions of exceeding customers expectations.
Also, WHERE WAS THE LATE NIGHT BUFFET OR 24 HOUR FOOD SERVICE??? Room service charges you $ 3.95 after midnight… and if you haven’t eaten by 9pm, you better forget about it until breakfast! The food was just disgusting… we probably lost weight instead of gaining it!
If you are under 30, as we are, just go on Carnival. We didn’t see ANYONE who isn’t collecting social security on our cruise. I usually love older people, but my GOD they were so obnoxious and rude on this cruise ship! I have a whole different perspective now. If you are looking to enjoy your vacation by the bar with music from this century, shows that are not conservative and geared towards musicians after the 1980’s, or not stuck behind rascals and walkers… GO ON CARNIVAL!
We will happily return to Carnival and give them our money every 6 months. We can’t wait to inform our family and friends of how horrific our Royal Caribbean vacation was, hoping to encourage others to stay far away from Royal. Bön Voyage!

Just got off this cruise 2 days ago. Would not recommend. I probably will never cruise again on ANY cruises the experience was so bad with Royal Caribbean.
Pros: * Room Attendant was nice
* Ice Skating Rink — good ice show
* Flow Rider is available on board– very fun
* Rock wall
–Basically the sport deck is great and the guys working that area were wonderful
Cons: * Very disorganized– waited over 4.5 hrs to get on the ship– recommend ignoring their emails and getting there 4 hours before they tell you. They will let you on.
* Dining food is hit or miss– they don’t know how to actually Brulee, came out mushy every time (I tried to be hopeful and ordered it a few times to see if it was just 1 chef).
* Customer service is Atrocious– think Comcast customer service. Cancelled our prepaid excursion, and the sole reason for our cruise. Didn’t attempt to assist us. Waited so long to tell us that our 2^nd option fell through due to timing issues. Oasis of the seas was docked right beside the Navigator at port and they didn’t attempt to join excursions. Cancelling an excursion should not happen 2– 3 hours the night before and around the time the excursion desk closes.
* Schedule was not maintained, constant cancellations due to equipment failure or entertainer cancellations.
* Luggage never made it onto the boat– guests were asked for help locating the lost luggage of other passengers to verify it didn’t end up in the wrong room.
* Odd smells in the hallways, our dining group had several people who were in rooms where sewage was seeping into their rooms and they were told that it was normal.
* Multiple billing issues and they didn’t attempt to correct. Wanted everyone to come back on the last day. With Lines that long at guest services, you would have never made your flight unless it was scheduled for the evening.
I had high hopes for this cruise, and it just fell flat. When we were at port we thought about just leaving the boat and getting a flight back directly. Couldn’t make that happen as the Wifi on board didn’t work.

Went on Oasis of the Seas, but chose Navigator since Oasis wasnt available.

My wife, best friend and wife, and I did a New Year’s 7 day cruise in the Caribbean from Port Everglades, Bahamas, Cayman, Cozumel and back! Wow! Had a great time. This was a first cruise for everyone on this jaunt, and I was the only one in the group with any high seas ship experience… I watched as they got ill to some degree or another over the week’s adventure. Best New Year’s Bash ever experienced, the quiet nights on our room’s balcony (precious), the number of activities (terrific), food and wine selections (great), bars and bartenders (fantastic)… but there are a few things that just didn’t sit right with us… the crew members literally work 18 or more of 24 hours a day, things throughout the ship seemed to break far too frequently, prices are way out of proportion to what you’d expect duty free — not to mention volume, claustrophobia may strike most who have such propensity, and the limitations to food, entertainment and extracurricular activities are ultra controlled and limited — there is much more revenue-​driven, than customer-​driven. Overall our experience was good, not great — and probably would do another cruise, but not at this size and crowd. We look forward to doing a Euro-​River cruise, or the next time we do the Caribbean, it’ll be in something like a Windjammer — personalized. Bön Voyage, hope this don’t ruin your expectations.

Great 5-​night cruise. Can’t wait to cruise again.

5 days to Cozumel and grand Caymen. The ship is very nice, if a little outdated. Food good to very good. Service very good. Had an entire adult pool area to get away from the kids and noise. Entertainment decent. Solid vacation for the price