Worst cruise ever

Navigator of the Seas Cruise Review to Europe - Northern Europe

Cruises: 2-3 cruises
Review: 1
Helpful Votes: 7

Overall rating:

1 out of 5
Navigator of the Seas

12 Night Northern Delights (Southampton Roundtrip)

Sail date: June 28, 2016

Ship: Navigator of the Seas

Cabin type: Inside

Cabin number: 6641

Traveled as: Family (older children)

Reviewed: 8 years ago

Review summary

Held an extra day in Russia  due to bad weather which is totally understandable.. But that's where things went bad.. Captain decided to skip Bruges and head for Helsinki only.. He didn't tell us that choice was only made because of a staff transfer that had been scheduled for there.. He then informed us we would have to be all aboard by 2 pm. Only on the way to port did we learn that this was brought forward to 12 pm but last bus was leaving Helsinki at 11 am .. We got 3 hours so he could collect staff from airport.!!!  Lost more time waiting for one of the acts that had to be collected in Helsinki.. A useless violinist. That arrived 40 mins later with his child..   We set sail and literally bombed it for 3 sailing days of speed and no air conditioning while eventually being told we were all going to miss our connecting flights.. Most passengers spent a day queuing at customer services trying to straighten out ongoing flight changes.. Indeed I have taken video footage on the second last day of long queues and only one staff on the counter..  Of course the Internet new voom system crashed and people were informed that they would have to use their own phones to contact travel agents or family's.. All at €2 a minute.. For my own part I wasn't too bad understanding what was happening. But did see more vulnerable guest getting the brush off from customer services.. This was a disgrace of a voyage and while we could not do anything about the weather the information and deceitfulness of Royal Caribbean was a disgrace .. The only thing they offered anyone was a letter for the travel insurance.. Kevin

Ship experiences

Food and Dining

3 out of 5

Onboard Activities

1 out of 5

Entertainment

3 out of 5

Children's Programs

3 out of 5

Service and Staff

5 out of 5

Ship Quality

3 out of 5

Cabin / Stateroom

3 out of 5
I am waiting for someone to contact me as I have frozen my credit card.. I will pay what is due but not my inconvenience costs or wifi that was slow and then off for three days..

Ship tip

My email is answerswift@gmail.com and would love to hear from others on this cruise.. I saw one very complimentary review which makes me think Royal are posting good reviews here or else this guy was not on the same ship as us!!!

Ports of call

Southampton (London), England

1 out of 5

Oslo, Norway

5 out of 5

Copenhagen, Denmark

5 out of 5

Tallinn, Estonia

5 out of 5

St. Petersburg, Russian Federation

1 out of 5

Helsinki, Finland

1 out of 5

Zeebrugge (Bruges), Belgium

1 out of 5
Was this review helpful? 7

4 Comments

davebhoy    8 years ago

Have to agree with most of Graham's points (personally wasn't impressed with the violinist, but loads of folk were). Was obviously disappointed to have the stay in Norway cut short, and to miss Belgium altogether, but it simply wasn't safe to sail earlier - could have been much worse if the storm hit a day or so earlier and we'd missed St Petersburg.

valdeane    8 years ago

I personally enjoyed the whole holiday and that was due to the wonderful staff who were bombarded by angry passengers of which I understand but some were total overboard roll on next Royal holiday

kevnlynne    8 years ago

Totally correct Graham. Truth and facts go amiss when people have to change plans when there is no alternative. Royal Caribbean were very good explaining the issues.

grahamjonesuk    8 years ago

Amazing how people see things differently. The captain had to go to Helsinki for fuel. We could not take on extra fuel to get to Belgium at St Petersburg. The harbour is just 30ft deep and the draft of the ship is 29. Just one foot clearance. So extra fuel would have been an issue. Hence Helsinki was essential. The time change was due to tides and the need to get back to Southampton as close to schedule as possible. That was tough as we had a Force 5 against us most of the way. The cruise after us left three hours late so the Captain clearly made the right decision. The violinist was not 40 mins late. But 14 mins late. He also got two standing ovations so he was not as bad as you imply. The cruise was excellent. The only thing that marred it was people complaining about things like the weather which is out of the company's control.