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Catch a Falling Star (Class) and drop him on the Navigator


Rags1

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I will board the Navigator of the Seas tomorrow morning for a short 4 day adventure. My last RCCL voyage on anything other than an Oasis Class ship was on the Song of  Norway in 1992. Having forgotten everything about that ship I searched for clues about what I might expect tomorrow. And as usual the goldmine of information was found in a 2019 blog by @twangster.  After his extensive review of the newly amped Navigator there is certainly no need for me to do this. Wanna know anything about Navigator just read his blog. But in the end I decided to go ahead with this hoping I can add something about the new home port, new ports of call and the overall return to the West Coast. I’ll do my best to simply put the facts out on this trip and keep my warped sense of humor in check. 

 

We booked this trip about a month ago. It began as a casino comp for two, inside cabin. Total taxes and port fees were $200 and change. Not bad for 4 nights of being back on a ship and it’s only a 2 hour drive to the Port of Los Angeles. But I chose this particular cruise because the last full day will be my bride’s birthday. So I upgraded us to a Junior Suite as a birthday gift. When I told her the exciting news she reminded me that she has a twin sister who,  coincidentally, shares the same birthday. Another call to Casino Royale and now we sail in a 2 bedroom Grand Suite with the twin and her husband. We will be in suite 9394.  Looks like about the same walk from the elevators as it is to the Aqua suites on Oasis class. We shall see. We received email from Jorge, the Navigator concierge, 5 days before the sail date. I asked for the entertainment schedule so we could plan our dinner schedule. He replied the same day and our evenings look like this:

 

            Day 1- Dinner at Hooked and I-Skate.

            Day 2- Dinner at Jamie’s and the production show Showgirls

            Day 3- Dinner at Izumi and the Headliner, juggler Randy Cabral

            Day 4- Birthday dinner at Chops and Headliner show, Kivi Rogers

 

We again used the proctored home COVID tests from E-Med. We took them yesterday morning and printed our results. We will leave Palm Springs tomorrow morning at around 8:30. Should be a 2- 2 ½ hour ride to the port.  We’ll park at the port where the daily cost is about $20 per day. Ship sails around 5 pm  I believe. We have a full day at sea on Tuesday which we love but is also amusing since our first port of call is just about 26 miles from our port of departure!  Those must be some awfully big, slow circles we’ll cruise in.  Wednesday, day 3, we will call on Catalina Island. Beautiful little place for Southern California tourists. The twins were there as youngsters. I was actually a waterski instructor there when I was 18.  That was just after islands were discovered. On Day 4 we will visit  Ensenada, Mexico. We have no plans for the ports other than to take a walk around and have a drink. This isn’t a cruise we would take for the ports but I’m sure we’ll enjoy them both. 

 

We are excited to see and experience the Navigator. Looking forward to eating at Hooked, having drinks in the Bamboo Room and taking our first cruise that our Sea Pass cards will open the door of the Diamond Lounge. 😂. This will our first cruise in 5 years without the Genie Magic – whatever will we do without the 3 tons of daily snacks?  As I mentioned I sailed on the Majesty and Song of America in the early 90’s. I then took about a 10 year break from cruising after I retired from the government and opened my own business. In the early 2000’s I began sailing again but on the Disney Magic with my then toddler. I returned to Royal some years ago but then only sailed on Oasis Class. I’m looking forward to returning to the experience of a smaller ship. 

 

I hope to provide some words and pictures that may be of interest to those that will once again sail RCCL from Los Angeles. If there’s a question I can answer or a picture of something you’d like to see just let me know.  And for any of you Navigator veterans, I’d love to hear your tips and suggestions. Hopefully in about 18 hours I’ll be describing the boarding process in Los Angeles!  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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5 minutes ago, Lovetocruise2002 said:

I am cracking up at the title of this blog…”Falling Star? Drop him on the Navigator?” 😂 you are too funny! I want to cruise with you guys one day. 

I had some things to say about @deck17, first night filet in CK and 150 but I promised not to try and be funny😂. Would love to cruise with you someday too but it would have to be SC. There isn’t a ship big enough to hold us both going through withdrawals 😂

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Excited to follow along! I had a great time on Navigator a few years ago, she is a great ship. The Blaster water ride is lots of fun. We were also in the 2brgs and the walk wasn't too bad. Expect to feel azipod vibrations in the mornings if you are backing into ports.

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The trip to the port was uneventful and took right at two hours. Port is easy to find and appears to be plenty of outdoor parking. We parked probably 30 yards from the check in entrance. This is only the third revenue cruise for Navigator since coming out here. The terminal crew has some work to do getting familIar with procedures.  Let me preface this by saying the boarding process was quick and took less than 45 minutes. But it should have been easier. No one had any idea that suites had a separate line.  We had a 12:00 boarding time and arrived at 11:10, well within the hour earlier arrival offered to suites. The first person told us to return at 12. When we explained the suite perk she just put us in line with the current group of folks. After working our way through the switchback lines and reaching the screening area I was sent to a different door, with no line, because I have a pacemaker. The lady at the new door explained that we should have been sent there first because it was the suite guest entrance. Would have reduced our waiting time by 30 minutes. But in the end we were on board. Negative test results, vaccine cards, and passports checked 3/times. Set sail pass 4 times. We went directly to the suite lounge and dropped our luggage and then to Playmakers for lunch.  Only one other party of two was in Playmakers the entire time. After lunch we went back to the suite lounge and met with the concierge, Jorge. The schedule we had set up via email wasn’t going to happen because “things are full.”  We basically just said, ok, forget what we asked for and set us up to eat somewhere and see the shows. A Concierge is not a Genie:😂. E 
 

At 2:00 the rooms were ready so we hiked back to the suite and unpacked. We then just wandered our new ship to take in the sites and get a couple of drinks. Watched our sail away from our balcony. Had a wonderful dinner at Chops with a really great staff. Everyone was tired to we passed on the ice show and will see the early show on Thursday. We took a drink back to the room and just talked for a couple hours.  Had a great nights sleep. Before going to bed I went out on the balcony and the fog was so thick you couldn’t see the water  Heard the ships horn a couple times during the night  

 

 

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1 hour ago, tdiedrich said:

I will be getting on board on Friday! Has the ship seemed very full to you? 

It doesn’t seem crowded overall.  Today is a sea day and both the solarium and the Windjammer were very busy. Bars, lounges, stores and the promenade are not crowded at all. The hot tubs are full, it’s a cloudy, cool sea day. I read this ship carries 3387 passengers full and we have right around 1500 this week. 

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How are you liking the 2 Bedroom Grand Suite? We had considered it for our first RCCL cruise in 2022 as it was not that much more than booking 2 balcony rooms, but the trek from the rear of the ship to the front looks a bit daunting. We opted for balcony rooms towards the front of the ship instead, but would have loved the convenience and perks of the 2BR suite.

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