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Royal Caribbean - Navigator of the Seas 4/12 - 26/2008
The Navigator of the Seas is a Voyager Class ship with many amenities including a rock climbing wall, miniature golf, in-line skating, open court basketball and an ice rink. It began commercial use at the end of 2002.
Wi-Fi is not available in the cabins but is available in common areas on Decks 5, 11 and 14. The cost is currently 55 cents per minute. There are packages available that bring the cost to as low as 37 cents per minutes by prepaying $55.
The main attraction is the Royal Promenade on Deck 5 where most of the ship's shops are located as well as a pub, wine bar and premium ice cream & coffee bar. The ship features Seattle's Best coffee which is the best I have had on a ship in many years.
Our cabin steward Hassan was efficient and we experienced no problems. Halfway through the cruise he even started to leave towel animals (using our towels).
The first disappointment on this cruise was the quality of the food. Many of the guests were openly complaining to each other about how tough the beef was - especially the prime rib. As the cruise progressed, it did not improve. Several days into the cruise a waiter at lunch asked me if I was enjoying the cruise and I told him I was except for the food and especially the beef. He proceeded to tell me that he came onboard from other cruise lines (or ships, I don't recall) and he has been telling them the same thing. He said he sees the meat before and after it is cooked and he has never seen such low quality meat. He asked me to mention it on my evaluation (which I had intended to do and did) and he asked me to mention his name (Angelo from India) which I did not. When mentioning it to my Head Waiter along with my evaluation of the beef he was insistent on getting the name of the waiter - which I refused to give him.
The ship's entertainment is very good. The Royal Caribbean Singers and Dancers are very good even if the productions are typical of the cruise industry. Two of the dancers, Mitch and Peter, stood out from the rest. Additionally we were entertained by David Morgan and his puppet Chucky, Jonathan Kane - Elton John impersonator, Jonathan Clark - comedy and vocal impressions, Jamie Allen - magic, Mitchell Zeidwig - piano and comedy, Colleen Austen - singer, Samantha Jay - incredible musician playing sax, piano, obo and violin (She has played at over 200 gatherings for Prince Charles as well as his 50th birthday.), Mario D'Andria (singer, comedy and guitar) and DaVinci (a trio of male singers).
We left Fort Lauderdale and sailed to Bermuda arriving after one full day at sea. Bermuda is about 570 miles SE of Cape Hatteras, North Carolina. It consists of about 360 coral islands of volcanic origin - yes, it confused me too. It is 21 miles long and 2.5 miles wide at its widest point. There are about 62,000 residents who speak English. The Bermuda dollar is on a par with the US dollar and the USD is widely accepted. Bermuda is one hour ahead of Eastern Time and it follows Daylight Savings Time also. Downtown is in walking distance from the pier and taxis are available. We took the Segway (human transporter) tour which would have been pretty good if it were not for the rain that just kept getting worse. The tour ended early because of the constant rain and the owner felt bad enough to take us all to the Frog and Onion pub and bought us all a beer which is made locally by the Frog and Onion.
After spending a night in Bermuda we set sail across the Atlantic Ocean for Lisbon (Lisboa) Portugal. We spent six full days at sea. In my opinion, a Transatlantic crossing with multiple days at sea is the most relaxing way to cruise. There is no rushing about day after day getting off ship at ports of call to see as much as possible before getting back on ship to relocate to another port of call. The Transatlantics have several ports of call but usually group them at the beginning or end of the cruise depending on the direction and destination.
Day 11 we arrived at Lisbon. Lisbon, the capital of Portugal, is situated on a range of low hills at the estuary of the River Tagus (Tejo) and is approximately 6 miles from the Atlantic Ocean. It is both the western-most and oldest capital city of Europe with a population of just over one million.
Cruise ships enter the River Tagus from the Atlantic, following the course of Portuguese master navigators as well as that of Christopher Columbus.
The last time we were in Lisbon, we took an excursion to Fatima which I highly recommend. This time we decided to explore Lisbon on our own. The cheapest way to see much of Lisbon is to purchase an all day pass for the trams and busses. This pass can be purchased from any news stand for 4 Euros (currently). The pass allows you to hop on and off any tram or bus as you scurry from site to site before you have to get back onboard.
We finished our day of sightseeing and reboarded to our first problem. It seems that the port stabilizer stopped working properly. (Coming across the ocean the Captain apologized for some roughness and shuddering because he had to synchronize the stabilizers. Little did we know the extent of the problem at that time.) The port authorities would not give the ship permission to leave port until the stabilizer was fixed. Because we were supposed to be in Cadiz, Spain on Day 12 the Captain decided we would never effect repairs in time to get to Cadiz so we cancelled that port of call and an onboard credit of $100 per cabin was automatically issued to everyone.
The afternoon of Day 12 the Captain announced that, after ongoing meetings involving the port authorities, Portuguese government officials, RCCL hierarchy and himself, we would have to go several miles down river and anchor to effect repairs which would consist of cutting off both stabilizers! The "repairs" would only take about 3 hours but he has not been able to get the necessary permits to begin work. They will not let us leave until repairs are completed and they will not give us the permits to do the work. Do you smell an extortion scheme here?
At this point the Captain announced that Malaga, Spain would also be cancelled leaving only Barcelona, our destination. He said he did not expect we would be late in arriving at Barcelona. Another $100 per cabin refund was announced as well as $21.07 per person for port charges in Cadiz and Malaga. Also a coupon for 20% of the actual price paid would be sent to our travel agent if one used or directly to us if booked direct with RCCL.
As we sat around dealing with this news we started to hear things from crew members and other people onboard. I want to emphasize that the following is only hearsay as told us by some crew members and from some guests who claimed to have been told things by crew members.
Allegedly the Navigator has experienced problems with the stabilizer from early on and was finally scheduled for dry-dock last January. We were told that dry-dock was cancelled and the Navigator continued sailing with the problem. The Azores was cancelled as a port of call several months before departure supposedly because the ship had to maintain a speed below that needed to get from Sao Miguel to Lisbon on time. We were also told that the Captain failed to inform the Lisbon Port Authorities of the problem and began to attempt repairs. Somehow word got out and the authorities boarded the Navigator and ordered a cease work pending the proper permits. Allegedly this was the reason for the port authorities' actions in forbidding us to leave port until repairs were effected after obtaining the necessary permits. End of hearsay.
Finally permits were obtained, divers arrived from England and locally, a boat with the divers arrived and entered the water resulting in the stabilizers being cut off and dropped to the ocean floor. There was also a police boat observing the operation and after an hour they boarded the diver's boat for the remainder of the operation. After we left, a barge with crane was supposed to retrieve the dropped stabilizers.
By Day 13 a revolution was fomenting. A grassroots movement to protest what was perceived as insufficient compensation. Several hundred of the passengers gathered in the Grand Promenade and yelled all sorts of things showing discontent. The Captain agreed to meet with anyone interested in the theater at 3:30 PM to address concerns. When the time came the theater doors were closed. Easily 1,000 passengers or more were gathered outside the theater doors on each floor spilling into the surrounding common areas. The Captain came over the intercom and announced that he has been in contact with the home office in Miami and they are aware that a "small number of passengers were dissatisfied" and that they would responding in writing that evening or the next morning. He also announced that there would be no further meetings allowed to discuss the situation (sovereign power on the seas). The ship is torn between the apparent majority who feel that cancellation of 3 ports of call (the Azores was cancelled before sailing) was a major impact on their vacation because they selected this cruise for the ports of call and the seeming minority who feel that they enjoyed the voyage itself and point out that the contract written by the cruise line expressly says they are not responsible for anything and therefore we should be happy with anything we get.
Late Day 14 a letter went to each stateroom indicating that there will be no further compensation as RCCL feels that the amount already refunded is considered fair.
As the ship arrived at Barcelona 12 hours early we were allowed to go into Barcelona starting about 10 PM. RCCL did pay for shuttle busses which ran from the ship to Las Ramblas every 20 minutes until 5 AM.
Overall I would rate this cruise a B-. Food was a D; Ship was an A; Service was a B+; Stateroom a B.
This page was last modified on Sunday, May 04, 2008 09:20:30 PM |
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