I am very thankful for the exceptionally friendly and helpful RC staff. The itinerary and ports offered a great balance of relaxation time and beautiful islands to explore, and the beaches were ALL exceptional. The food selection was good, and quality of preparation very good.
Embarkation
5 out of 5
Easy on - efficient and friendly service!
Ship experiences
Food and Dining
4 out of 5
Very much appreciated the attention to GF needs. A separate buffet area is now dedicated to GF and each evening in the dining room the head waiter presented the next evening's menu so I could select my meal, and they would ensure it was prepared GF The quality of breads and pastries were OK, coffee in main dining room was blah, but could go to Cafe Promenade for good alternative.
Onboard Activities
5 out of 5
The CAFE on the promenade offered excellent service, and great tasting coffee. We stopped by multiple times per day. The servers were all exceptional and very friendly
Entertainment
2 out of 5
Was disappointed in the water access, and ability to even get near the pool or whirlpools due to high density of bathers. Super crowded, and always filled with people drinking from beer cans, the drink of the day, etc. The Solarium pool was so small that it wasn't really a pool unfortunately. This would be my biggest disappointment of the ship. Additionally, the water was murky and off color - likely due to sun screen and self-tanning dies. I made a much greater effort to get in the water off the ship so I could get in my swimming exercise, and LOVED the water in each of our port locations.
Children's Programs
4 out of 5
It was really a novelty to be able to skate at sea! A special memory for sure :) My husband and I have been trying to make a date to ice skate for over 20 years, and FINALLY got to enjoy a quick skate on the Navigator. Was busy, but very fun!
Service and Staff
4 out of 5
Ship Quality
3 out of 5
While I did like the layout, more pool space would be appreciated. The common areas were well cleaned, yet the ship is getting VERY tired in it's hallways, and the artwork is bizarre and does not tie together at all. We had a Barbie doll in a shadow box, outside our stateroom - very bizarre.
Cabin / Stateroom
3 out of 5
Overall very clean.
The pullman bed was super comfortable, but the other twin beds seemed VERY well worn. The cabin was clean, yet very tired looking and outdated. Lots of bumps and dents, and rusting around the base of door frames etc.
*** OUR EXTERIOR ROOM - 8232 the beds were lumpy and again, VERY tired - needing replacement. The door frames, and bathroom had rust, dents and chips from years of wear and ear.
Ship tip
The Windjammer Cafe is just that ... jammed pack full of people. Make the extra effort to plan your meals around the dining room schedule and enjoy the excellent selection of items on the menu, exceptional service and wonderful lunch salad bar.
Beautiful village, good for a 1/2 day of exploration. Take time to get to a beach and float and snorkel in the beautiful blue Southern Caribbean This port does a great job to ensure that local artisans get a good location in the terminal when returning to the ship. I found this was the best area to pick up small local, reasonably priced items.
Our Excursion was excellent, not much to see in the immediate port area, however make sure to take a trip to see the caves, flamingos and salt flats. OH, do go find some gelato in town. There are several good locations.
Well, ARUBA. I am biased this is my favorite island in the Caribbean to visit. Lots to do, and a great place for an extended visit. The beaches go on forever!!! The water however on this trip seemed to be churned up in port and along the southern coast. Not sure if this is from dredging or a recent storm. There is nothing quite like floating in the ocean, in the ABCs
Concerning. We were offered self-assist early departure and waited for over two hours for Disembarkation. We had an early #, #2. There was a mix up in port and the security/govt personnel were not available to process the volume of our ship, and the escalators were "acting up".
**** While disembarking several passengers became unruly, and behaved aggressively with other passengers. Unfortunately there was no security evident to calm the situation. I can see that this could have become a larger issue if one of the passengers in line, a police officer, didn't intervene. With children, and Seniors nearby it was very disheartening to see this be their last impression of their trip. I thought RC, could have followed-up with a guest apology, but have not seen anything in my email. Requiring 3,000+ passengers to be out of their rooms by 8am, and not even starting early or priority disembarking until after 8:30am was problematic, for both the staff and passengers.
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