Navigator of the Seas Cruise Reviews - Reviews

This was our first cruise with Royal Caribbean. We have cruised many times before with different cruise lines. Royal Caribbean is a little different than the others in terms of entertainment in the dining room by the staff or assisting you in celebrating a birthday or Anniversary, however, in all the cruise was relaxing but pricey in certain areas. Spa was very expensive. The food was very, very good in both the Windjammer and dining room compared to other cruise lines. There was a big problem with the plumbing on the ship with stools not flushing in both cabins and in public areas. This I'm sure is isolated,

In all it was a nice time.

The ship is beautiful and there was lots to do.  I think that the crew could have been a lot friendlier, often felt like you were inconveniencing them when you asked a question.

Food was adequate, but not spectacular.

Boarding and exiting processes were great and everything went smoothly.

Felt that it was very commercial.  We spent a lot of money just booking this trip and didn't really appreciate all the plugs for the spas and restaurants that were at the beginning and ending of every show.  Didn't like at all that the scheduled events for the guacamole making and sushi making ended up just being advertisements for those pay to eat restaurants.  I thought that those were going to be lessons on what they were putting into and how to pick the best ingredients so that was a big disappointment. In fact a LOT of the "activities" during the day were demos from the spa trying to get you to buy services and then these food demos trying to get you to book at one of the 4 restaurants that you pay for and I think that is wrong.

Overall, we had a great time, just got sick of the constant sales plugs.

We have cruised with Carnival before but it was a few years back.  I don't remember this feeling of being stuck in a situation with relentless sales pitches on that cruise line.

We had been on the maiden voyage of The Navigator and were anxious to see how the ship had held up.  It was rennovated in January, so it still looked great.  The crew kept it clean and functioning. The service was wonderful in the cabin and in the main dining room, as well as in the other venues.  Overall, the food was good. The shows were hit or miss.  One guest comic was great; the other was ready for retirement.  The best shows were the ones with audience participation - Love and Marriage and The Quest.  The beverage packages had increased in price significantly since our last RCCL cruise, and I thought the soda packages were unreasonable.  Our biggest issue was the poor quality of the teen program.  Teens are a tough audience, but it did not live up to the description.  They ended up forming groups and hanging out at the same few places everyday.

This cruise was better than I could have anticipated!  My husband and I just celebrated being married fro 25 years, and this was a little gift to ourselves for our anniversary.  We were traveling with 4 other couples, so we had plenty of friends around to hang out with. This cruise made stops in Roatan Honduras, Belize, and Cozumel Mexico, and all of the ports were awesome! This was my 3rd cruise, and I must say, it was may favorite so far!

First lets talk about the food, because let's face it...we all like to eat well on vacation! As always with Royal Caribbean, the food was excellent.  We dined every night in the main dining room (my time dining) and every meal was fabulous...lots of selections, even for my husband who tends to be rather picky. We had lunch one day in Giovani's, the Italian restaurant, and I would highly recommend it. If you enjoy Italian cuisine, you will love Giovani's. We also had lunch in the Promenade Cafe a few times, and breakfast in the main dining room 2 times. The food in each venue was really good.  We skipped dinner in Chops this time, but from previous experience, we know it is really good. We visited the Windjammer for breakfast and lunch most days, and there were always lots of choices...from salad, to pizza, to soup, sandwiches, grilled food, etc.  The food in the Windjammer tends to be a little simpler than that in the main dining room, but very tasty nonetheless, and there is always something for everyone.

As for the entertainment on this cruise, it was, for the most part really great.  The Royal dancers and singers were excellent, and we enjoyed the many shows they put on.  We also loved the ice dancing show. The various musical groups that performed on the ship were, for the most part, really great. We especially enjoyed the reggae band, the southern rock band, and the Latino band. There was 1 performer, however, that left a little to be desired.  He performed most evenings in the 2 Poets Pub, and his name was Papa-T. He actually has a very good singing voice, but he tended to play music that was unfamiliar to the audience, and he didn't like to take requests so much, even though the song being requested was on his play list. He liked to do his own thing, and we got kinda tired of it. Other than him, the musical performers were top notch.

As for the daily activities on the ship, to be honest, we didn't participate in too many of them, but there certainly seemed to be a lot going on. My friends enjoyed playing Bingo every day, and we played trivia a few times, which was great fun. The pool activities (World's Sexiest Man, Belly flop competition, etc) were a lot of fun. Mostly, we enjoyed laying in the sun, drinking cocktails and listening to the various music on board. We also enjoyed the on board duty free shopping.  They had some great sales throughout the week, and we picked up some nice gifts at very good prices. (I got a $500 watch for my husband on sale for $149, which I thought was a really good deal).

As for the ports on this trip, we enjoyed them all.  In Roatan we spent a relaxing day at one of the beaches, and did some shopping at a location recommended by one of the locals.  For this, we didn't use the ship's excursion, we simply hired a guide right at the port. They provided van transportation for the 8 of us that went. The guide was very knowledgeable, and she stayed with us all day. In Belize, we took a cave tubing tour, which I would highly recommend.  It was a very relaxing afternoon, and the guide provided was excellent.  By far our favorite excursion was the Snorkel with the Sea Turtles in Cozumel!  Sea turtles are a favorite animal for both my husband and I, so we signed up for this with great anticipation.  We were not disappointed!  We saw maybe 7 or 8 turtles during our snorkel session, as well as some sting rays and other sea animals.  We were so close to the turtles we could have reached out and touched them (however, touching the animals is a no-no)!  We got some great underwater photos.  After the snorkeling, we were driven to a private beach for lunch and time in the sun. Everything about this excursion was awesome, from the guides we were with, to the snorkeling, to the lunch on the beach.  This is a must do if you are a fan of sea turtles!! Afterward, we did some great shopping in downtown Cozumel.

As always with Royal Caribbean, the staff and crew members on board were excellent!  I don't think I encountered 1 crew member that was rude or unhelpful! In short, I would highly recommend this cruise to anyone. Aboard the ship there are activities for all interests, and the port excursions that we participated in were awesome!  Go....and have a great time!!!

We really had a good time and enjoyed the ports we went to.  However, while the ship was really beautiful, there were little details about the ship that should have been fixed;  like some paint that had drip on the railing, broken pieces of a figurine, black duct tape take on the ceiling. etc.  These little things should have been fixed.  Someone should go around and detail the ship.  I have never seen anything like this on our other cruises.  

Also this is the first time we were really disappointed in the Windjammer.  The food was just Ok and NO variety at all.  Same desserts for lunch every single day, The Dinning room food was a lot better, but also was disappointed in the quality of the food in the dining room.  I did not feel anything special about the dinning room experience.  This was completely different from other cruise ships I have been on.  Other ships I looked forward to the dinner meal, I did not feel this at all for this cruise. 

I don't feel there were enough sea day activities.  

The entertainment was really good and enjoyed it. The Cruise Director was the highlight of the cruise.

 At this point I would not go on the Navigator of the Sea again.  I have been on other RC ships and Celebrity ships and this ranks the lowest of all of them.  However NCL and Carnival rank the lowest of all our cruise experiences, and I will never go on any of those ships again, I will continue to go on RC ships, just not the Navigator of the Sea.  

Registering for the cruise with Cruises Only was very easy and received lots of help from the agent that I talked to.  He made sure I understood the steps needed to have a good registration and cruise.

The ship was nice, the room was very nice, good size, and enjoyed the port hole.  The staff on the ship also made sure we were settled in and were ready to help us at any time.  Please do not take an iron on the cruise as it will be picked up.  Fire hazard, and was returned with no problem at the end of the cruise.  We had some problem with not having enough warm water when bathing, but it did not detour from the enjoyment of the cruise.

The two movies shown were old and held outside.  The entertainment was good, our favorite was the comedian show.  I think the Windjammer, the main cafeteria needed to change their menus at noon.  It was almost the same menu throughout the week.

Over all, It was an enjoyable cruise.

I cruise so I can get together with friends I would otherwise not have a chance to visit.    The staff, the ship overall, and my room were outstanding in every way.   The food was very good as were the cocktails!  We all thoroughly enjoyed a show each night ---excellent.  It is amazing to me how pleasant, efficient, and professional the staff is in any situation in which I found them.   I hope that Royal Carribbean recognizes every staff's contribution and understands it is the "Staff" that is their bread and butter so to speak.   Thank you for a wonderful, fun filled and relaxing week.

Our November 2014, 7-day western Caribbean cruise on Royal Caribbean's Navigator of the Seas to Honduras, Belize, and Cozumel was a fun event.  We have cruised previously on Princess in Alaska, and Carnival in eastern Caribbean, and the Baltic. We didn't really notice much difference between Royal Caribbean and Carnival (last two cruises). We just decided to go one week before we left so we were able to get an awesome price on a last minute vacation which was also incentive for friends to also book the same cruise.  We loved the directory boards near elevators that gave the current time, what was going on at that point in time, maps of how to get to your next destination, and the upcoming schedule.  We look forward to when they integrate that into an app for your phone.

The staff, servers, cabin attendants, entertainment staff, etc. were all pleasant and great at their business of hospitality.  The waiters kept us well fed in the dining room.  Of three excursions, we most enjoyed the cave tubing and zipline in Belize (it was unBelizeable!) and the "Save-a-Turtle" in Cozumel which was an amazing experience (lucky to be there when they were still hatching).

No complaints, but there is always room for improvement.  1) The at-sea schedule for less popular events seem to change fairly often from what was published.  2) It would be really nice to be able to easily be able to get a cup of ice 24/7 without bothering your cabin attendant. 3) It seemed like the Windjammer (buffet) was closed several times when we wanted to eat and we would have liked at least one ice cream machine and self-serve drinks to be available 24/7 like on Carnival.  4) Some of the products at the on-board sales seemed to be of a lower quality than we would have expected but it was always fun to shop nevertheless. 5) The elevators don't seem to be synchronized in any way so that we often had long waits.  Again, these are small things which would never hinder us from going on another trip like this one.  

It was great for us as Texans to be able to cruise out of Galveston to save time and airfare.  We look forward to the next trip although we are running out of destinations from Galveston.  Our service through was great as well!  Bon voyage on your next trip!

The service was great.  The staff was very friendly.  We did notice that they have cut out quite a bit of extras that they did in the past.

The waiters did not sing or parade around the dining room

The food seemed to be downgraded somewhat

They do not make the towel animals every night

The shows were good, but not as good as before.

The room and showers extremely small.

My first cruising experiences were with Disney, so I've had high standards from the beginning.  The RCL Navigator was very close to Disney in quality, and head-and-shoulders above the Carnival Triumph- and Magic-class boats.  (Life is too short to cruise Carnival... no matter how cheap.)  I haven't been on the Norwegian lines in a while, so don't remember well enough to compare, but I think they're comparable.  I've heard too many people say Princess is like Carnival, so I haven't even tried.

Pros: Attentive dining room and cabin staff.  Outstanding entertainment (especially the ice show).  Excellent quality food, both in the main dining room and WIndjammer.  The 24-hour Cafe' had sandwiches to die for - and I don't generally get excited about sandwiches.  Try the Jive Turkey and muffuletta.  They're served dry, so find the condiment packages.  Morning room service was always prompt, even on port days.  The fruit plate was wonderful! The Windjammer is entirely indoors, making it much eaisier to find a seat in hot or inclement weather. The WJ staff constantly brings you water, iced tea, and a yummy strawberry-kiwi water. Lobster night is spectacular.  Someone at my table ordered two entrees, and ran out of time to order a third.  Good general layout of the ship; it's easy to get wherever you're going, except Johnny Rockets, which is accessed from outside. Really nice, quality ship mates; dinner was always interesting and we made some lasting friends. 

Cons: The dinner seating only serves 3 courses, so if you're accustomed to 4, you'll need to double-order an appetizer.  There were one or two appetizers I didn't care for (e.g. chilled fruit soups), so I was glad to leave one untouched.   Elevators: There were fewer elevators than on most ships, but they were generally larger.  Still, on formal nights, when women were reluctant to climb stairs in ultra-high heels, the wait for an elevator was rough. DItto for getting on and off the ship.  Be prepared to climb stairs - a lot.

Ports of call Roatan, Honduras.  Docked port-side (but nothing to see but a bunch of trees).  The Roatan stop was almost a waste of time.  Maybe 5 shops are open at the pier with overpriced, unoriginal merchandise.  No internet, but I did find a tiny booth with $1/min calls to the US.  Tours will take you past grinding poverty (tough for sensitive children).  By all means, stay within the touristy pier area, where you're protected from aggressive begging.  It's a good day to stay on the boat and chill, or take classes (belly dancing and ballroom were great). Belize City, Belize - ships tender about 5 miles out - plan 30 minutes to get to/from shore.  The bar right by the pier (second floor) offers free internet service; just buy a $2 can of soft drink.  It's also a great place to watch the line for the tenders, and choose your time to get in line.  The best prices on prescription pharmaceuticals was in Belize.  Cozumel was twice the price.   The shopping at Cozumel was excellent.  Internet service was easy to find in local bars.  There were 4 mega ships that day: the RCL Allure, the RCL Navigator, Carnival Magic and Dream.  Tourists vastly outnumbered the locals.  It was a little crowded, but not as bad as I thought it would be. 

Suggestions: Events, like giving out ice show tickets, start the very first day - even before the ship departs - so find a Compass and get going! With such outstanding service, the staff deserves higher tips (so budget for it).  The really good food in the Windjammer is at the very back (onion gravy over mashed potatoes - yummm!).  There can be lines at peak times. People dress well for every evening meal.  Formal night often means a tux, but almost always a suit. Ladies often change into nicer dresses for dinner (no flip flops, even if they're formal). Galveston on/off ship:  Boarding is from boarding from 11:30 - 3:00.  (We asked; the staff at terminal said best time to arrive was either 9:30 or after 2:00.)  We arrived at 2 pm and sailed right through, with a brief wait to get our room cards.  leaving the ship, we were in the first self-assist group (pick up a ticket at Customer Service the day before, being queuing at least 15 minutes early) and again, sailed right through.  Both were between 30-45 minutes.  The Galveston terminal is largely un-air conditioned, with almost no seating, and waiting in line can be miserable.   Bring an ice chest, and stop by the local fish market (the pier is just down from the cruise terminal) to buy some fresh shrimp and fish.  They'll supply the ice.  Ask any local for help.

If you have cruised much you will know that all ports are not the same.  This was our 14th cruise. We have sailed out of a lot of ports. Galveston TX was the best by far. The line was short due to a ton of workers checking us in. Once we got through the metal detection line we were on the ship eating lunch in 15 minutes.  It was awesome.  Thank you Galveston. We also had our luggage by 3:00. We have never had it that quick. Nice job Royal.  The cruise was just as good. Staff was great.  Our only complaint was in Belize.  No port there, had to tender in which once on the tender boat took almost 40 minutes to get in and out.  Honduras beach was very dirty (garbage everywhere and floating in water that you had to swim through) and we had people selling stuff in our face the entire time.  Would not go to either place again.  Love cruising and love Royal Caribbean.  Ship has an Ice skating rink that they have an Ice Show on, seen many, this was one of the best.

We have cruised before on Carnival but that was seven years ago.  We were instructed to board at 11:30 a.m.; however, we couldn't get into our cabin until 1:00 p.m.  Fortunately, our cabin steward let us stow our luggage in the closet so we didn't have to lug it around.  We were really not pleased with the urine smell in our cabin. The only explanation we got was chemical.  However, the toilet stopped working a couple of times and we learned there was a clog right outside our cabin.  The service in the dining room was great. Not happy with the shore excursions.  Debarking was a nightmare and we would have to think twice before we would sail out of Galveston again.  Two and half hours of waiting is unacceptable.  

All in all the cruise was great.  Was only our 3rd Royal Caribbean cruise out of 17 total cruises.  I would rate this one as a 7 out of 10.  The Ice Show was excellent, but other entertainment was only good.  The cruise staff had lots of energy, but not the pizzazz other cruises had.  The Royal Promenade was way too narrow to hold some of the events during the week, with limited sitting areas and usually had to stand most of the time.   The food was good, but nothing spectacular, and was somewhat boring by end of the week.   The only negative was the long time and very long lines it took to leave the ship and get thorough Customs, which is beyond Royal Caribbean's control. 

Although I was first apprehensive about cruising, I am glad I agreed to go. I had an awesome time! You can do everything or nothing. The drink package is highly recommended.

Only thing I would have liked to have was more food choices during the day for people who do not eat beef or pork.

The customer service is not great compared to other cruise lines that I have been on before.  The cruise director was a dud and basically read the daily news letter from his office word for word.  The boat closes up at about 10 pm so good luck finding an open bar.  I was very disappointed with this cruise and the experience.

Very good cruise, service on RCC is excellent! Although daytime activities are very good, could improve on variety of evening entertainment, such as a comedy club that offers a show every night like Carnival has.

Enjoyed the trip despite not the best weather.  Entertainment was very good, enjoyed the variety.  Borelos Bar staff was friendly and efficient but music was a little loud at times. Ship was clean, overall great staff and the variety of food options was over the top.

Thought the cruise itself was one of the smoothest cruises ever. The ship  was clean and presentable. The loading & unloading of the passengers was ok.  The attention given by the room attendant, waiter and his assistant was really good.

The whole theme of the cruise, as far RC is concerned, is to sell alcohol  and merchandise.  The ports of call were the same. 

Having cruised the Caribbean many, many times, I can say that this is probably my last visit.

This was a very relaxing cruise.  The ship was well maintained on the interior but we had a problem with a loose vent cover above our stateroom.  Our stateroom attendant, Amir, worked to identify the problem and to get maintenance to correct the problem but it seemed that they would not listen to him.  We reported the issue to guest services and after two days we finally caught a bridge officer passing our stateroom and asked him to look at the problem.  Within 30 minutes a group of maintenance staff came to our cabin, assessed the problem and began temporary repairs at night while at sea.  The next morning they completed the repairs.  Guest services sent a nice bottle of wine and an apology note the next day.  Our room attendant, Amir, was very, very good.  He was easily available but never in the way.  We could leave our cabin only briefly and upon returning, he had serviced our cabin.  This is an employee that should be considered for promotion.  In the Windjammer, our table service attendant, Sergii from the Ukraine, was always there with a smile and a kind word.  No matter what the various guests said or did, he remained very positive and helpful.  Some passengers can be rude to those that serve them but this never changed Sergii's cheerful attitude.  We were not able to use the casino because cigar smoking was restricted to a single cigar lounge.  The music in the cigar lounge was hip-hop which was very odd since the majority of the cigar crowd was older and would have preferred something like the old crooners or some light jazz or blues.  Several guests requested a change of the music but they had a difficult time locating the key to the audio control cabinet in the cigar lounge.  They finally were able to tame the music down but still the wrong genre.  We eventually had them just turn down the volume for the rest of the cruise.  The food in the Windjammer was very good overall except for the deserts which are typically lacking in taste and texture (most likely due to the limited use of flour and sweeteners) on all cruises that we have taken (Norwegian, Carnival and Royal Caribbean) so nothing really negative on the deserts ... just this passenger's preference.  The ship events, venues and shops were great.  We are port shoppers so we have no comments on the excursions.  Overall, we will cruise with Royal Caribbean again as they are the best that we have experienced to date.

This was our second cruise with Royal Caribbean.  We went with my husband's two sisters and their husbands.  This cruise was just for us, not our children and grandchildren. However,  I would like to take my grandchildren on a cruise someday.  There was a lot to do if you wanted to stay busy and also plenty of time and space if you just wanted to relax. Music was provided at poolside everyday.  There were a lot of activities to join in around the pool.   Dining in the main dining room was marvelous.  You could take every meal there is you wished or oft for dining in other venues on the ship. I felt that the Windjammer Restaurant on Deck 11 was always to hurried and crowded.  Also, the same food was offered everyday unlike the Dining Room which always gave you great options and a pleasant place to enjoy your meal.   Our waiters/waitresses in the dining room were exceptional.  So wiling to serve and make your dining experience one you would remember.  Our stateroom attendants were helpful and kept our rooms in great shape.  My attendant checked in with me everyday, and sometimes twice a day.  She had this wonderful smile that warmed my heart.  The crew was very helpful and all crew members were able to answer my questions regardless of the area they concerned.  Tours were available for every level of expertise.  I will be traveling again with Royal Caribbean Cruises in the future, for sure.