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The Navigator is a beautiful ship and we spent the first day walking round in the rain saying WOW!!!! The staff were amazing, so friendly and kept the ship in beautiful clean condition. Our stateroom attendant was Orson and waiting staff were Alonso and Jorge. We cannot praise them enough for the service we received. Dinner in the dining room was excellent and breakfast in the Windjammer was always good with plenty of choice. We are torn with our favourite bars, both the 19th hole where Alfred Thomas was excellent or the Schooner Bar with Andrew, Arnold & Randall. All great barman and always made us feel welcome and gave us a smile. How they remember everyones names amazes me. The entertainment was very good all professionally done and although not always our particular taste, the detail and effort was remarkable. Cruise Director Graham Seymour was excellent, very very funny and do not miss quest or the love and marriage show, both great. Captain Sullivan seems very nice and was great fun when interviewed by Graham Seymour with a question and answer section for guests to join in. The gala buffet is not to be missed, we went in to take photos at the viewing session but did not go back and eat any of the food. It was far too late and too pretty to be eaten. Chops and Portofino and both fantastic and well worth the money. Johnny Rockets was good fun athough we went three times and didnt see them dance once. Shame as I was looking forward to that.. staff nice though and really happy and friendly. Huge portions of food, naughty but nice. The excursions we did were Pisa and Rome on your own. Enjoyed both and will give info if required. So that was the good......here goes with a bit of whinging The Ice show was cancelled on day 2 which was a sea day due to us white water rafting in the bay of biscay. Now I know that we were just unlucky with the weather and that is just one of those things but.....when they cancelled the ice show, they brought the Drifters show forward instead. What happened was me and DH went back to our cabin due to the rough weather and apparently an annoucement was made on the PA that the Drifters were going to appear that night instead of the following week. Because we and many others were in our cabins at the time, we didnt get to hear that announcement so we missed the show. I didnt find out about it till the following week when I said to another passenger that it was a shame that the Drifters show had not appreared in the cruise compass as I was really looking forward to it. He told me then that they had already been on the previous week and explained what happened. I was really miffed, I was sooooo looking forward to seeing them. Kids!!!!! I saw three babies in the pool on the first good weather day, one in a normal nappy, one in a swim nappy and one with a recently removed "brown nappy"being put into the pool. The attendant stood there watching and said nothing. Older kids were diving and bombing into the pools and taking over the hot tubs, again nothing was said and done and this situation deteriorated over the two weeks making for a miserable cruise for some passengers. Groups of teens were running around the decks and especially during the shows taking over entire sections of the theatres causing chaos. This did not effect us as we did not feel intimidated by them but a lot of passengers were and more should have been done to control the brats before things got out of hand. A group of teens took large chocolate and strawberry cakes from the gala buffet and threw it into a pool and a hot tub closing them both down the following day. Sunbeds- Too many chair hogs and too many beds squashed in too close together. If you were lucky enough to get a sunbed, you are within an inch of the next bed. During the entire two weeks I never saw one towel removed by a member of staff despite the fact that towels were put down by passengers going out on day trips. There were some very selfish and ignorant people onboard. One family held four beds in the sun and four in the shade for a family of three. The Spa - I in my stupidity opted to have the teeth whitening done onboard. It is advertised on the RC TV showing the entertainments manager having the procedure carried out and his teeth "apparently" went 6 shades lighter and was "given" aftercare sticks to use for seven days after the treatment. Now because I have a stained stepped back tooth, I actually went into the spa before booking to show them the tooth with the stain and ask them about the procedure. I was told that another passenger had exactly the same as me and had got excellent results from having it done. Now I might be a bit naive but I booked it for the next day and was given an appointment card but nothing else to take away and read or sign. When I went back the next day, I was shown into the spa and told to take a seat. A girl came in with an A4 page and said I had to fill in some questions about my teeth like, did I have any cracks or cavitys or have any allergies. I filled in the form with her and she asked me to sign it as she was ready to start. I was not given this form the previous day or asked to bring my glasses with me so could not read the form but naively and trustingly signed it after asking loads of questions. The cost of the treatment was $179 dollars as it was a port day special offer. When she looked at my teeth she held up a colour chart against them and laid it back down on the side without selecting a colour. She painted some liquid onto my teeth and the I had to put glasses on and sit with a light on my teeth for approx ten minutes. After this time she came back and painted more stuff on my teeth and put the light back on the another ten minutes or so. When she returned, she turned off the light and held the colour chart against my teeth again. She then said, you have gone up about one to two shades lighter than you were and selected a before and after colour from her chart at that point. She gave me a cup of water and told me to rinse and then without her offering to show me, I looked into a mirror on the wall and saw no difference whatsoever. I pointed out that the stepped back tooth had not even lifted slightly and she said, Oh no it wouldnt, you will have to get the dentist to do that for you, we are not allowed to scape your teeth. I told her that I had asked the previous day when I booked and she just said you must go and see your dentist. She them explained that I now needed to "BUY" the aftercare sticks starting at $147 USD going up to $588 USD which is what she would recommend for me. She gave me a slip to sign and after I signed it (still without having a proper look at my teeth), she told me that 10% gratuity was automatically added making the total price $196 USD. She gave me a price list for the additinal aftercare sticks and I went to show my DH and have a good look to see if we could see any difference at all. He agreed that he could not see the slightest difference and we both felt that I had been conned after what I had been told when I made the appointment. I went straight down to guest services and explained what had happened. They said they would ask Vivvienne, the spa manager to contact me. She rang late afternoon the following day after a reminder to guest services and I told her that although the girl said my teeth were one or two shades lighter, it had made no difference whatsoever and the main reason I went had not been sorted as I had been told it would. I disputed (politely) that there has been any change at all and had not agreed a before and after shade with the girl. All she said was, some people have no change at all and I was probably one of them, she said it was in the small print that I had signed and there was nothing she was prepared to do about it. I feel totally conned and think this is bad practice by RCCL and will be writing to them very soon to request a refund. In summary I did have a very good cruise only spoilt by a bad experience with the spa, missing the Drifters and a small percentage of ignorant passengers and their offspring. I met the lovely wendylovescruising and her DH Dave - A great couple and we had plently of laughs along the way with them. Did I enjoy my first ever cruise, YES, YES YES, would I do it again,YES but on a smaller ship with hopefully less unruly kids onboard, Im afraid to say, the first thing I did when I got home was cancel my cruise on the Independence for May 08 I do not feel that a bigger ship is for me. |
Royal Caribbean International Navigator of the Seas June 2007 Mediterranean |