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“Departure Date 7-Sep-2008 - Navigator of the Seas ”

written by jamesgittins on 20/10/2008

Good Points
Cabin fantastic. TV programmes, Interactive, Ships-own-TV. Show-based Entertainment top quality. Nice ship

Bad Points
Very poor hygiene. Poor quality food, even in premium restaurants. Poor value-for-money. All-round poor standards (service, cleaners, guest relations, spa). No infant facilities. Infants generally not welcome. Overcrowding and chaos during dis-embarkation

General Comments
Departure Date 7-Sep-2008 - Navigator of the Seas
Civitavecchia/Palmero/Ephesus/Athens/Istabul/Thessaloniki/Valetta/Cagliari/Barcelona
Low quality cruise, with low standards, poor hygiene and was an all round low value for money disappointment. Some elements of the overall cruise were excellent, but did not make up for unbelievably bad aspects in other areas.
* Day 1: first impressions 8/10
- First impression were great. Embarkation process worked smoothly, (though we did it all online) - they forgot to give us a ship map. The ship looked great from outside, and we ended up sat in the Library over looking the Royal Promenade, waiting for rooms to opens. Wow. Library was nice (although where were the books!) and a nice view down the prom. The cabin was fantastic. Great room. We'd had a bigger room on a previous cruise, but this was well designed, pretty and everything worked. Balcony fantastic, TV fantastic. Comfy sofa. We sat on the balcony watching the ship get ready, and got our first visibility of the poor standard common throughout the rest of the holiday.
Food 2/10
Firstly, reality is that there are only 2 dining options for any 'normal' meal: (ie. Deck 11 or Deck 4 aft)
1 - Windjammer, Jade, Plaza Bar are all the same restaurant <>. Just to point out also: Portofino & Chops Grille are also in the same restaurant area.
2 - Main dining is one big room over 3 decks (waste of valuable space) <> * Food in general 2/10
- Very little vegetables - No raw vegetables
- Fruit was very bad - Meat wasn't good - Deserts were very nice - All prepared food was very healthy, with low saturated fat. Plenty of options for sugar-free, low-fat etc. that were standard rather than options. Well done RCI
* Hygiene 2/10
in my opinion - very poor all around
- Where was alcohol gel station at the start of each food line?
- The dining chairs on Deck 11 Windjammer/Jade/Plaza Bar were wicker chairs, hence extremely difficult to clean. As a result, and on inspection, dirt can be seen.
Drinks/Tea/Coffee 3/10
- There are stations in each restaurant to pick up the 'free' drinks. The free cold drinks are: Ice-Tea, Homemade style Lemonade, Fruit Punch (cordial) & Water. The drinks would always be made up with ice. We always had to ask for them without ice. The lemonade was very nice, though a bit too sweet to drink everytime, the others weren't to our liking.
- There are also stations with tea sachet's. It was great that they had decaffienated tea bags, and this is what we predominantly drunk.
- The coffee was awful. Always 'warm', rather than hot, and when milk is put in, it goes even colder.
- So our only choice for drinks was either the hassle of making up tea, or having to deal with the drinks station attendant to get a water or lemonade without ice. We felt our options were very limited, and we often went thirsty (especially with all the salt in the food)
- I appreciate the US have a fascination with coffee, but this cruise was predominantly British (1000 Brits to 700 US) - tea should have been catered for better.
- It was not obvious how to get normal drinks (Cola, Beer). We presumed that we'd either be asked by a waiter, or that we could ask a waiter ourselves. But the former never happened and we never saw any waiter available when needed, so didn't ever bother
* Restaurants 3/10
- Closed 4-6:30pm!
- Result was that at a time when people want feeding, either after a day on deck, or in port, or on excursion, there's nothing available. As consequence, the masses congregate at the only available food & drink place - Cafe Promenade. We'd go down for a tea and cakes (very nice). The tea/coffee is self serve - once both machines broke down, leading to chaos. As the cruise went on, the Cafe became very popular, and very busy. We'd even eat there instead of going to Windjammer or Main Dining
We had a 2yr old infant. Now, after a hectic day, we wanted to get our daughter to bed as early as possible, meaning she needed to eat as early as possible. The main dining was not an option due to no kids food, so it had to be Windjammer, meaning 6:30pm at the earliest. Absolutely crazy!! Why bother serving main food up until 4pm, then closing the whole restaurant?!
* Main dining 3/10
- No kids food
- Starters pretty ok, deserts same as elsewhere on the ship - Main courses very poor. Presentation poor, taste quality poor, standard of meat poor, no locally sourced (ie. fresh) produce.
Its certainly not like going out for a meal, or worth getting dressed up. Asked for steak medium rare, and it just came as-it-was ie. medium. Didn't bother sending back because the whole dish was poor, and I'd rather skip and eat breakfast.
- The waiters made a huge effort, but they were badly let down by the food. It wasn't just below average, it was really bad
- In the usual American way, lots of people thrown at ensuring people have a good time: there was 1 waiter who had the sole responsibility for filling up your glass with water. I'm really paying for this? All this money for a water-filler and bad food?
- Food came out really quickly.
- The difference between the Main Dining and Windjammer, is that in Windjammer you can see the food, and avoid whats bad. In Main Dining, its a gamble. And instead of hundreds of options in Windjammer, you've just got 6 mains (veg, beef, chicken, pork, ...). Also, menu only rotated by 1 option each day
Of all the fantastic ports, that each sell their special breads, could NV not source some decent bread whilst in port?!! We went for the first 3 or 4 days, then gave up * Windjammer
5/10

- On the whole we enjoyed Windjammer. It became an art of avoiding the bad food, but we eventually found suitable items. There were some great Indian dishes (Dal, Masala, Veg) that were amazing, but thats about it. There were very limited vegetables, and these were say roasted pumpkins one night, or runner beans the next. Yes, great, but never any real selection at anyone time.
- The fruit was terrible. In UK we have Grade standards, that dictate the quality: Grade 1 perfect, Grade 2 slightly bruised etc. The fruit on Navigator was not even Grade 2 in my opinion, seriously. It wasn't even possible to pick out any decent item. I could live without fruit, but this was terrible for our daughter
- The deserts were special. Freshly made cakes, great cheese selection with apricots/grapes to accompany (cracker accompaniment choice poor though). Very healthy choices available ie. fat free, sugar free - which were as nice as the normal deserts. * Cafe Promenade 0/10
Joke!! We'd ask the waiter for "1 roll, 1 croissant, and a slice of pizza", we were given only the first item! Funnily, he did this everytime!! It was comical. Very annoying. Hard work.
- The cakes were good, but nothing can make up for this poor service, so 0/10
* Johnny Rockets 3/10
- JR is a great little American diner, tucked away at the back of the ship. It looks great from the outside, and its pretty cool in the inside. There is a Nickelodeon on each table which is a cute feature. The menu is very basic. Its nowhere near as good as a typical American diner, neither say TFI Friday's in the UK. On the menu is only: burger, hotdog, sandwich, ... and thats it. There was more choice on the Room Service menu in our Barcelona hotel. Everything so often, the staff do the obligatory dance. But no room to dance on the tables, so they just stood like lemons twizzling their arms, and 1 360 degree spin on the spot. They didn't look too happy and was a case of going through the motions. They put fries on the table as soon as we sat down. The burger tasted ok, better than the Windjammer burger. Advantage of Windjammer though was that you could make it yourself.
*** Children, Kids & Infants 1/10 ***
- Very bad!!!
- No Day Nursery - No Night Nursery - No In-room baby listening service- No play room- No kids programme for under 3's- No kids pool- No kids food- No special hours/times for kids dining- No outdoor kids toys (trucks, cars, bikes, balls)- No childrens play area (ball pits, climbing areas)- No outdoor safe area to let kids play - No kids room (to watch TV, movies or to do drawings) - No high chairs in Cafe - No Day care facility, where parents can leave kids on ship alone, to get some free time - Kids not allowed in the adults pool
All the above are on other ships, such as Ocean Village and all P&O !!!!!!!!
- Suitable infant cots not provided in stateroom. Our petite 2yr old daughter was far to big for the cot provided. There was no infant mattress, just the hard surface of the cot floor. No sheets were provided. We were given a full size adult sheet to use, and make up ourselves!! The stateroom attendants did not assemble the cot, we were left to do this ourselves.
- There was a $20 per hour baby sitting service, where a member of the crew could get some extra money on their night off. The concept of having someone active in the cabin just doesn't work. Where do the sit? On the bed? Not enough light to read, can't watch TV.
- There's simply nowhere to go with kids on the ship, except go up and down the stairwells, in the elevators, take a walk to the basketball court, and then the Peek-a-Boo bridge when open. - RCI advertise an unrivalled Kids Programme for under 3's - called Aquatots. This stated next to water cannons in the brochure (from Independence).
The only RCI event for under 3's is a member of staff bringing a bag of Fisher Price toys into the Cloud Nine room, for 45 mins each morning. Thats it. The 45 mins is just playing with toys. So much for unrivaled kids programme. (We're writing a formal complaint about this - clear case of false advertising)
* Room (Stateroom) 10/10
- We were on Deck 7
- Room was fantastic, and we loved being there. We could escape the madness of the ship, and the searing 38C heat of the Med, and perfectly relax. Balcony was perfect, great view, safe. Sliding door was good. Bed comfy. Sofa comfy. Bathroom and shower great. We didn't seem to miss the bath, even with an infant. Our daughter loved the shower and we had loads of fun. The TV was great: super choice of channels, great picture and sound. Interactive TV was 1st class: booking excurions. There were about 6 dedicated RCI TV channels, with great music, great programmes, films - that were not repetitive. There was even a channel for the ships own TV studio, with a daily programme from the cruise director on daily events and news. Top class. The room was probably our favourite aspect of the cruise.
- "The fridge"
- why bother?! What a waste of energy, having a fridge in every room. When there is free room-service, with free drinks & food and 24hr dining a 5 min walk away... why would anyone want to pay for fridge items??
Itinerary 6/10 ***
- Rome: too hot to do anything. 38C and 100% humidity
- Palmero: nothing to see
- Kusadasi: very nice, plenty of variety, picturesque. Ephesus is great (been previously) so just went to Kusadasi, which itself was probably even more interesting than Ephesus. Great shops, great beaches, lots of stuff to do immediately of the ship. A perfect cruise dock. Well done Turkey.
- Athens: good. Parthenon covered in scaffolding
- Istanbul: absolutely amazing
- Thessaloniki: fair city. Great Macedonian Ancient museum, that surpasses the museums in Athens and Olympia. A must see. Best in Greece.
- Valetta: very nice, but the crowds of the Navigator swamped the main street, and huge queues were seen from all the main tourist areas.
- Cagliari: total waste of time after following the RCI map (see below). I would not recommend - "Day at Sea"
- Barcelona: very nice, great city. Be warned - not for kids
Day-at-Sea --> Before reaching our final destination, there was a Day-at-Sea. Now obviously, this was in the itinerary so was accepted, but it only takes 5 mins to sail from
Cagliari to Barcelona. As a result, the boat was pretty much stationary for a whole day, just coasting of the coasts of Barcelona and the Iberic islands for 1.5 days.
Instead of going 20mph, we were doing 4mph. The islands of Majorca, Ibiza and Menorca could be seen for the whole day. Now why couldn't we either have made a stop at one of those islands, or had an extra night in Barcelona? If I was an American, spending my harding earned money for my 2 weeks holiday, and wasting a whole day like this, I'd be even more gutted! Luckily, I've been to the Iberics before. Couldn't the boat have stopped, and some passengers take a tender into say Ibiza town?? Also, there was no sense of travelling anywhere, we were just floating adrfit at sea - hardly a "cruise". Excursions 6/10
- Well organised overall. Great way of booking via the Interactive TV service. Prices seemed ball-park/acceptable and factoring in the good quality initially seemed value for money
- We took a 2-day excursion in Istanbul (£135 for 2 adults), just because we didn't want to research and plan ourselves, and what initially would seem a very foreign place we wanted tried/tested experience. The guide was likeable, genuine and helpful (in fact we tipped him).
Day 1: coach first took us to Topkapi Palace (amazing place), then the Hagia Sophia (even more amazing place), then back to boat
Day 2: coach drove across bridge to Asian side, to take photos, then back to Europe to the Grand Bazaar (great) for 'shopping' then to the Hippodrome (to see an obelisk) and

Blue Mosque (nothing special)
Now, sounds good, but this was a very unproductive way to spend time in Istanbul. The Blue Mosque, Hagia Sophia, Topkapi Place, Hippodrome, are all within 200yards of each other(!). Depending on what ones personal preferences are, one would be able to spend appropriate time in each are when going independently. Fine if they were in the opposite corners of the city. Infuriatingly, after spending only 30mins max at the key sites, we were left for 2hrs for 'shopping' at the Grand Bazaar. Our whole coach had reconvened at the meeting point after about 1hr, just because the shops and tourist things are same in every city. The Grand Bazaar is amazing to see, but its 80% repetitive tourist rubbish. Thankfully it wasn't too hot on the day we were there, didn't like being left in a city with nothing to do, when valuable time can best be spent elsewhere. Why couldn't guest relations or the tour manager just say "best way to see Istanbul - just take a taxi to the Hippodrome area, don't bother with shopping" instead of "best way is a tour". Would have saved £135, and lots of wasted time on coaches. Spending 2hrs to drive to take a photo of a bridge - total waste of time! Overall - very disappointed and let down by RCI. In every other port we toured independently, which was the better choice.
Independent travel in port - The ship provides port information. Absolutely useless! Worst example was Cagliari. The map was very misleading, and hundreds of cruise passengers were led on a wild goose chase trying to find the 'key sites'. We bumped into countless people who were lost, found gazing downwards at their maps, trying to find churches and monuments. After the first 2 were not on the map, we stupidly attempted to find a 3rd which was the "number one recommended site" which was the Church of xxxx. After walking for 40mins we found it! But we ended up at a disused Church, which was closed, had been for some YEARS, covered in graffiti around the walls, had been used by tramps/homeless as a toilet, full of cats... unbelievable!!!!
What a waste of time. We gave up and just went back to the ship. The day excursion to Cagliari had been a total write-off. Interestingly, the sites on the RCI map were not even on the local tourist map, which listed a completely different set of interesting sites, not mentioned by RCI. Wish we had known.- When we got back to the ship from Cagliari, we were very interested to be met by the Tourist Office, taking surveys from returning cruise passengers. Very interesting! Not surprised though. I can imagine countless complaints. We duly filled in our survey. Putting 2 + 2 together, its clear that the local tourist office had been making an effort to handout their own maps to combat poor ones from RCI!
* Ship information 4/10
- There is a daily fact sheet called the Daily Compass. Atrocious!
Full of errors, bad spelling mistakes, missed items, wrong info. Just no quality at all. We had to ask Guest relation numerous times about events - which ultimately defeated the purpose of the fact sheet (and helps explain the huge queues at Guest Relations!). The whole RCI experience was becoming a joke, and laughable.
* Entertainment 7/10 *** - Metropolis shows 10/10
- Day activities 4/10
- Reggae music on deck 2/10
- Ice dance 8/10
- Trivia quiz 4/10
Ship 6/10 ***
* Royal Promenade (aka the bit in the middle of the ship)
- The royal promenade looks pretty, but has zero atmosphere. There is 1 English pub, 1 Duty Free shop, 1 Wine bar, 1 cosmetics shop, 1 cafe, 1 RCI logo shop which were all dis-interesting and poor. But there was no convenience shop!!! Nowhere sold chocolate/crisps, books/magazines, newspapers, toiletries
, basic medication/health items (etc. etc.) Convenience shops are part and parcel of any holiday, any resort or hotel complex normally has one - nothing on Navigator
- The English pub was nice to look at, they did a pretty good job at styling the place, but the whole layout was terrible, and the chairs were uncomfortable. This led to the place being v unpopular, and again having no atmosphere. Rarely would any one be seen here! The pub is boxed shaped, with an open front, a bar at the back, and just tables/chairs in between. It would have been so much better if they'd made it into a lounge bar with comfy chairs or sofa's ie. somewhere nice to relax and have a drink. Maybe put in a pool table, or darts, or fruit machine or jukebox... pub was nothing like anything in the UK in my experience!!
- The shops in general were uninspiring. Alcohol, cigarettes, cosmetics, - just not my thing, and available at everything single port terminal anyway. Such a waste of space, and a huge lost opportunity to do something creative to make the Royal Promenade interesting
- The Wine bar was ok. A bit more relaxing, and quite popular. There was a pretty good selection of wines, though mainly focussing on New World, and specifically Californian.
They had a very good idea, of a wine taster menu, where you could sample a couple of different wines. Great idea!! Why couldn't RCI apply this sort of invention, initiative and execution elsewhere on the ship. There was also some v expensive top quality wines, where you could sample 6 glasses/types for £20 - very good idea. I didn't actually try this, but good concept. - The result was what initially seemed an attractive part of the holiday, "to walk down the promenade, where passengers hustles & bustled, maybe have a drink" was totally the opposite. And passengers went elsewhere (Schooner Bar!) - Self serve yoghurt, no serviettes to clean mess, hence food spills all over deck - On deck, there was music blaring out constantly, and little seclusion available to relax after a day in port. Thankfully we had a balcony* Schooner Bar 8/10
- By the end of the week, most passengers had found the Schooner Bar. Most of the English seemed to congregate here, and sit, drink, relax and chat. Seats were comfy, atmosphere good. We wish we'd discovered earlier in holiday. The Brits just seem to make their own atmosphere wherever they go. - Pub quiz: perhaps things are done differently in the US, but the "Trivia" as they called it was far from a Brit quiz. Organisation not great, and no real winner or prizes. Mildy fun nonetheless.

* Ixtapa Lounge. 6/10

- The Ixtapa lounge looked promising at first. With a bar, nice chairs to relax on. But again disappointment. The chair arrangements were focused on the centre stage, - perfect opportunity here missed to turn this lounge into a proper lounge - but sitting there, was like waiting for an event that never came. There was never any mood lighting either. Waiters hung around, trying to look busy that didn't add to the mood.- There was a fun Nintendo Wii event that we watched, but taking up a lounge with a capacity for 100's, with 8 people playing on a Wii?
* The Day Spa 2/10
- I decided to try a hot stone massage. After being in numerous spa's, hotels and resorts, I decided to give one a go. At £135, it was expensive, so I was expecting something special. Now, the hot stones themselves are pretty good, but apart from that nothing else was. I was met by an American lady, who wasn't the most warming, charming or pleasant person. She then drew I diagram for me, showing how having a massage can help the lymphatic yadda yadda yadda. I don't need a lecture on how it works! I began to suspect that this was a ploy for her to display her education in massage. Now, all massages are good, and as I said the hot stones were pretty good. But the lady had zero technique, or interest. My wife gives a better massage. After having a Thai massage just a few weeks earlier, this was a million miles away. Having my back was massaged by this lady, was like she was washing & scrubbing the floor of Deck 14.- I'd asked for the 1hr 20 session, rather than 50mins ... but you guessed it, only 50mins. I wasn't exactly in a position to say, where's my other 30mins, but I wasn't that bothered, and happy to go. Of course, only paid for 50mins. - After the massage, I got the whole hard sell on the products. A 5 min lecture on why I needed them. "Here, look how nice it smells". Then a quotation. My excuse was "ummm, hey, I'm gonna be back plenty more times before this cruise ends, so ask me next time ... "

- One of the ongoing niggles with the whole cruise, was the tips/gratuities. After the awful experience, I had the "this is where you enter my tip " on the bill. I ended up giving $10. I'm crazy. I likened it to the bit on Pulp Fiction where Jules gave his money away. It made me feel better. Service 3/10
- "In your face" constantly
- Staff behind counters had no idea what they were doing
* Guest relations 4/10
- Really poor service
- I asked where the Crows nest was (its labelled in the lifts, in the brochure, in the daily handouts) ... but its nowhere on the ship! Guest relations had no idea, and were stumped. They said they'd find out and call my room - but they didn't
- Bad information on taxi for embarkation
- Queues
Room service 5/10
- Why bother? Its quicker to pop to Deck 11, and get your order right (and hot).
- Coffee always luke warm and never hot.
* Sports facilities 5/10
- Empty, just like the photos show in the brochure!
- Huge section of ship wasted
- Golf, climbing, in-line skating - great concept, but not something you end up doing on the ship unfortunately.
* Ice rink 5/10
- Does any sane person really want to risk Ice Skating on holiday? Great concept, not so great execution.
- Exactly when would one go ice-skating? The day is pretty much: breakfast - port - dinner - entertainment - bed. Didn't seem to be open in the evening, and didn't seem to be open during the 2 days at sea. Since we had an infant, we only spent half-days ashore, so we spent a lot of afternoons on the ship also ... and still wasn't open
- Opening times are not advertised in the ship info "Daily Compass" either.
* Dis-Embarkation 2/10
- 90% of the ship chose independent travel. In Barcelona, there was 1000 people in taxi rank. It triple snaked around the queue waiting area. Hello! Didn't anybody thing to put on a shuttle bus to Barcelona city centre? Or arrangements with private hire taxi firms? When trying to book a hotel transfer on the ship, Guest Relations stated the getting a taxi will be no problem whatsoever ... surely they knew +1000 people couldn't easily be catered for. Bad information. Bad organisation. Result: plenty of annoyed customers, babies and families with children waiting for long periods in the static queue
- Queues getting off the ship

* General/Summary
- Too big. Crowds on/off ship, in port, resort, embarking
- No child facilities.- Kids not welcome.
- Poor food choice and very poor quality
- Bad hygiene
- The "wow" factor is certainly present, but with absolute zero substance, the whole concept just does not work. Experience? 2 out of 10 So what was good?? - Cruise Director is top class. The next Graham Norton
- Metropolis Entertainment - huge wow factor. Very entertaining - Great ship. Felt safe on the seas - Enjoyed the Peak-a-book bridge, being able to view the captain and crew - The Royal Promenade area looks very pretty, especially with the glass lifts - The Navigator own TV channel/studio
- Healthy food choices. My overall analogy is: the cruise experience was a bit like going to the cinema and coming back saying the chair was comfy, and the exit sign was well lit, but the film & sound, screenplay & story, acting & directing was very bad.
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