California Dreamin' on... Navigator of the Seas (6/7/24)

[mashley1021]

Hi All!

Back again! Decided worst case scenario, writing this could entertain me if I get bored on this cruise.

Anyways some backstory, my mom and I have been wanting to do a girls cruise for years now and we decided now was the time... also it is a week before father's day so my dad is getting a weekend without us to do what he wants... and also it might have an ulterior motive in me hitting a certain milestone on the Icon of the Seas group cruise at the end of the month. An added bonus... it is mid 70s in Long Beach and very likely to break 110 in Phoenix this weekend so it worked out to be a good weekend to get away. 

In terms of plans for this cruise, we booked the key, I know Matt would kick me overboard but it was basically the same price as internet on Black Friday when we bought it, it gets us boarding day lunch, and maybe disembarkation breakfast if we decide to stray from Chops Grille breakfast (we are both Pinnacle and since we received no access denied or access granted email, I am assuming there is a very low count on this cruise). The boarding day lunch was a problem solver for my mom since she won't step foot in the Windjammer and my favorite Navigator of the Seas does not have Coastal Kitchen. We also booked a lunch in Jamie's Italian and a dinner in Hooked. We understand the new menus have rolled out on Navigator so it will be good to see the new options. The other 2 dinners will be in the MDR, late seating, hopefully, our cruise reservation says 8pm dining but the cruise planner popped up with the option to book My Time dining so I hope that is another lovely IT glitch (I work in tech remember, I spend way to much time trying to figure out these darn IT issues when I see them on Royal Caribbean and then remember my job is with another company). We also have no intentions of getting off in Ensenada, we have been there before and it really is a throw away port for PVSA in my opinion.

In terms of cabins, we have 2 connecting Junior suites. It has the benefit of us not needing to share a bathroom or a desk both of which would be fairly disastrous but is also helpful for my ulterior motive .

Anyways, we fly out to LAX after I finish work tomorrow, my dad is going to pick me up from my house after lunch time tomorrow and I am going to work the last couple hours of the day from a Sky Harbor admirals club. I have done this before and while not ideal, it does the job. My mom will likely spend that time reading her Kindle. Also, apparently a certain former president is going to be in Phoenix tomorrow so we decided to get to the airport early enough that we can avoid the traffic if there is any. We are staying in the Hyatt Centric Long Beach tomorrow, we have stayed there before, we are sharing a room for the one night, I think it will be fine .

I guess that is all I have to go over pre-cruise! I am going to keep these posts a lot shorter than my first live blog was on Odyssey, it is not as exciting of a cruise, so prepare yourself for mainly food photos and misc stuff on the ship. I might go with the approach that I see some others doing of posting a couple times a day with shorter posts instead of huge recaps that I literally had to take notes for.

Thanks for reading!
Ashley

[Sweety]

Love Mother and daughter cruises.

[Ampurp85]

I don't think I could ever do a mother daughter cruise even with separate rooms. 

[OCSC Mike]

17 hours ago, mashley1021 said:

not as exciting of a cruise, so prepare yourself for mainly food photos and misc stuff on the ship.

Otherwise known as most cruises for some of us. Also, some of us get excited by food pics & have no plans to visit Europe.

In other words, I may be your target audience for this one.

[OCSC Mike]

20 minutes ago, Ampurp85 said:

I don't think I could ever do a mother daughter cruise even with separate rooms. 

Which comes as a shock… to absolutely no one who reads your blogs.

[Sweety]

Have a great cruise.

[mashley1021]

Hey Guys!

Ok here is a slightly delayed photo dump from last night/today. We made it to LAX last night and checked into our hotel and then headed to dinner at Solita Tacos and Margaritas:

I guess pre-cruise Mexican food is our go to thing. 

Anyways, this morning, we took an Uber to head to the ship but before that I snapped some messy hotel room photos. We had a 1 king/1 queen room at the Hyatt Centric Long Beach:

Then we headed to San Pedro too early as per normal with my mom. We went through security and check in literally as they were opening the doors and then sat a bit before we were cleared to board. Shockingly, they called pinnacles first, usually in Florida it is suites, but they didn't really do a goo job controlling the flow, all the key folks and even the general boarding just all seemed to get up when they called the first group.

Once on the ship, we knocked out all the important things, ie got our muster drill done. We had watched the videos in our hotel this morning so that was a breeze. We then ran into so many crew members that we knew from sailing on Navigator last year a lot. We probably knew more people on here than we did on Odyssey and this was 9 months between cruises, that was only 5, it is insane. They also all asked for my dad . Speaking of my dad, he is living the high life without us at home, he is using every stinking amenity in his HOAs clubhouse including getting a massage today.

Then we headed to the Key lunch (Sorry Matt!):

After key lunch, we headed to our rooms to unpack, our luggage was outside our doors a few minutes after cabins became available, I didn't even have to search for them down the hall and drag them this time.

Then we napped a bit (you will see this theme appear this cruise!) And then we headed to the ice show:

Best Ice show in the fleet in my opinion btw! And then we had dinner in the MDR (And update on that: we were assigned late seating correctly but they gave us a huge table, we went to the dining desk and got moved to a table for 2 earlier in the day):

And then we headed to the quest. I was surprised that the cruise director Clo actually ran it as it seems the activities manager has taken this over on many ships.

At quest, we witnessed many people who were far too drunk so they are living up the 3 day booze cruise aspect to the fullest (I was afraid one of the Ms Navigator of the Seas contestants was going to face plant at multiple points, as the cruise directors staff was as well since they followed him very closely). Also, I have seen many bachelorette parties on board. Pretty consistent of the typical 3 day crowd.

Ok now time to sleep! Hopefully tomorrow I will actually succeed with the goal of shorter, more frequent posts!

Thanks all!

- Ashley

 

[Sweety]

Love your pictures 

[mashley1021]

Hi All!

It is day 2, we are at sea, and it has been a very relaxed day so far.

One thing I forgot to mention last night:  we already went back once to San Pedro for a medical emergency, hopefully that is the last time.

Anyways, here is a photo dump from this morning: 

Breakfast in Chops:

(I am out of practice for taking photos before eating)

The cappuccino machine in the Windjammer is broken so no cappuccino for my mom, we went to Starbucks after breakfast instead. We also got the been there mugs for ourselves and a couple other people (one might be going on Icon with me to give to someone haha).

Lunch in Jamies:

(Once again, I get an F for taking photos before eating, I promise there was 3 arancini haha)

And now it is nap time. Tonight we have MDR dinner which is Italian night so I guess it is an Italian themed day. Other than that we will see what happens!

Thanks!

- Ashley

[mashley1021]

Hi All!

We just had a rather boring evening. First we went to the Suite lounge for a bit before dinner. There was a bit of a crowd in there but everyone was pretty much keeping to themselves. Then, we headed to late seating in the MDR at 8pm:

(I get an F again for not getting a photo before taking a bite)

And here is a screenshot of the time on my phone after finishing dessert:

A record 36 minutes, not sure whether I should be proud of that or concerned.

Anyways, after that we headed to the pub and mainly people watched on the promenade for a bit. The pub guy on here is sick so he has been coming out with a mask on and not singing. I could tell he would probably be good if he could sing but he can't. We also went in the Star Lounge for a bit for the Earth, Wind, and Fire tribute from the orchestra. We honestly thought they should have had the singers out there since there is no show tonight but they didn't and it was definitely not my mom's thing. They also had a random break from 9:30-10:30 for both the pub and schooner bar guys. I know when Marc Walker was CD on here he had both 70s and 80s night but now there is only 70s night tomorrow. I think this break was for one of those and Clo did not rework the schedule. 

Anyways, we headed back to our cabins a bit early. Here are our towel animals tonight:

Tomorrow is Ensenada day, aka a sea day for us basically. We plan to get Playmakers for lunch and we have hooked for dinner. Thankfully, no more MDR this cruise for us haha. Also, tomorrow is packing day but I don't think it will be too bad, this was a very short cruise obviously.

Anyways, Thanks again!

- Ashley

[Sweety]

14 hours ago, mashley1021 said:

Hi All!

It is day 2, we are at sea, and it has been a very relaxed day so far.

One thing I forgot to mention last night:  we already went back once to San Pedro for a medical emergency, hopefully that is the last time.

Anyways, here is a photo dump from this morning: 

Breakfast in Chops:

(I am out of practice for taking photos before eating)

The cappuccino machine in the Windjammer is broken so no cappuccino for my mom, we went to Starbucks after breakfast instead. We also got the been there mugs for ourselves and a couple other people (one might be going on Icon with me to give to someone haha).

Lunch in Jamies:

(Once again, I get an F for taking photos before eating, I promise there was 3 arancini haha)

And now it is nap time. Tonight we have MDR dinner which is Italian night so I guess it is an Italian themed day. Other than that we will see what happens!

Thanks!

- Ashley

I love Jamie's.

[SweetPea]

On 6/6/2024 at 6:08 PM, Ampurp85 said:

I don't think I could ever do a mother daughter cruise even with separate rooms. 

You and me both .... 

Well, i mean, i could probably do a cruise with your mom in separate rooms. 

 

My own? No friggin way.

[mashley1021]

Ok So I think I failed on this blog worse than I failed on Odyssey, at least I mostly kept up on Odyssey... 

Here is one final wrap up post from NV last weekend:

On Sunday, we ate breakfast in Chops, with coffee we brought from Starbucks as the cappuccino machine was still broken:

(This was unique because when we told the waiter what we were going to do with the eggs, cheese, and English muffin, he offered to just do it for us)

Yes, I know this is as boring as Coastal Kitchen breakfast was for us on Odyssey.

Then we at lunch in Playmakers with some people we met on the ship who happen to live in AZ:

(I took this photo of the cricket game on the TV for my coworkers, many of them were in NY to watch this game, India vs Pakistan, India won which most of my coworkers were very happy about)

Then we napped, probably, and packed, probably, this was nearly a week ago now haha.

And then we had dinner in Hooked, also with our new friends:

This was the new hooked menu. They replaced the blackened salmon with the cajun salmon, I am honestly not convinced what I got was actually cajun as it just looked and tasted like grilled salmon. Also, the old bay seasoned fries were kinda sad. Other than that, the food was pretty typical for hooked. I did try one of my mom's coconut shrimps and those were excellent, I should have gotten those for my main instead but I guess you live and you learn .

The next morning was disembarkation morning . We once again ate breakfast in chops, this time they finally got the cappuccino machine fixed! I think they got a part in Ensenada the day before (oh yeah, we were in Ensenada on Sunday, not that you would know with us

We then took the ship transfer to LAX for a 1pm flight to Phoenix. We spent the day in the LAX terminal 4 admirals club which is a lovely admirals club, just probably for a couple hours max. Our new friends were driving home and we had a little race going. We won but I think it was a fluke because they got stuck stopping for things a few times, in normal conditions they would have won driving.

Finally, here are some cabin photos I took the last morning:

(My mom's room, note it has a coffee table)

(Connecting door)

(My room, missing coffee table, we didn't notice it was missing until the last day when we were packing)

(My empty closet on disembarkation morning)

(More storage next to the desk)

(bathroom)

The old style junior suites are really very functional and have a lot of storage, highly recommend.

Ok so I will try to remember to link the compass once it gets added to the compass page, I just emailed it over. Other than that, I think this cruise is pretty much done! Let me know if you have any questions about Navigator of the Seas, I have now counted that I have done 12 cruises on her literally all over the world. She ties with Oasis as my most cruised ship in the Royal Caribbean fleet. Overall, this is a great weekend cruise and while there were some misses, I think the hits outweighed them.

(And yes, I did survive 4 nights and 2 flights alone with my mom, according to some on here and even possibly my dad, that deserves a medal or something. I had to do everything for her that my dad normally does on cruises and I found out that was a lot ).

Thanks again!
Ashley

[WAAAYTOOO]

Having a missing coffee table (in ANY cabin) is a good thing, IMO.  I'm sure you didn't miss it !

[OCSC Mike]

10 hours ago, mashley1021 said:

the old bay seasoned fries were kinda sad

Random tangent coming... there's a place in Philly famous for these; they call them crab fries. @ScottD knows.

Don't sweat the blog fail; I kept my last one going but felt it getting weaker and weaker as the week went on. Blog fatigue is a thing. Solid ending with the food pics.

[ScottD]

11 hours ago, OCSC Mike said:

Random tangent coming... there's a place in Philly famous for these; they call them crab fries. @ScottD knows.

Don't sweat the blog fail; I kept my last one going but felt it getting weaker and weaker as the week went on. Blog fatigue is a thing. Solid ending with the food pics.

Ahh yes...Chickies and Petes.  They have a stand at the Phillies stadium and they ONLY sell those fries, and it's the longest line at the stadium every night. People wait 30-40 minutes in line to get those damn fries. I think they're a bit overrated, BUT that cheese sauce they come with is where it's at!! 

[OCSC Mike]

1 minute ago, ScottD said:

Ahh yes...Chickies and Petes.  They have a stand at the Phillies stadium and they ONLY sell those fries, and it's the longest line at the stadium every night. People wait 30-40 minutes in line to get those damn fries. I think they're a bit overrated, BUT that cheese sauce they come with is where it's at!! 

I was young and out in the suburbs (plus it was decades ago) so my experience was limited but 30-40 minutes?!?

I'm suddenly in the mood for some Old Bay Herr's chips now.

[mashley1021]

Ok as promised here is the compass:

https://www.royalcaribbeanblog.com/cruise-compasses/navigator-of-the-seas/fri-06072024-0000

Also, thanks everyone for the supportive words! Thankfully my next cruise on Icon is the group cruise and a few of us will be jointly blogging it so I can't fail haha. Also to clarify, I love old bay seasoning, the fries themselves tasted stale and soggy and the seasoning was just thrown on top.

Thanks again!

- Ashley

[HBCcruiser]

Just curious as to why you purchased the VIP package (The Key) when you were in a suite and had all of the suite perks. ?  We are on the Navigator in the 2bedroom GS in a few weeks and have sailed on her in a suite and in a non-suite with the Key in the past. I love the Key, but feel that my suite perks are pretty similar. Am I missing something?  Also, it looks like you were in a jr. Suite yet got to eat breakfast in Chops. True? Good to know if so. I did not know that! Thanks for the review.

[mashley1021]

On 7/7/2024 at 1:19 PM, HBCcruiser said:

Just curious as to why you purchased the VIP package (The Key) when you were in a suite and had all of the suite perks. ?  We are on the Navigator in the 2bedroom GS in a few weeks and have sailed on her in a suite and in a non-suite with the Key in the past. I love the Key, but feel that my suite perks are pretty similar. Am I missing something?  Also, it looks like you were in a jr. Suite yet got to eat breakfast in Chops. True? Good to know if so. I did not know that! Thanks for the review.

Hey! Sorry I missed this as I haven't been paying attention to this blog anymore.

1. We purchased the key on Black Friday when it was cheaper or about the same price as internet so the boarding day lunch was just a bonus and my mom refuses to go in the windjammer. We just used the lunch and the internet, nothing else was worth it between the suite and everything else. Definitely wouldn't buy it at the normal price.

2. Chops Grille breakfast is only for Grand Suites and above, we got in because we are both are pinnacle and with only 5 pinnacles on that sailing there was no restrictions.

Thanks!
Ashley

[HBCcruiser]

9 hours ago, mashley1021 said:

Hey! Sorry I missed this as I haven't been paying attention to this blog anymore.

1. We purchased the key on Black Friday when it was cheaper or about the same price as internet so the boarding day lunch was just a bonus and my mom refuses to go in the windjammer. We just used the lunch and the internet, nothing else was worth it between the suite and everything else. Definitely wouldn't buy it at the normal price.

2. Chops Grille breakfast is only for Grand Suites and above, we got in because we are both are pinnacle and with only 5 pinnacles on that sailing there was no restrictions.

Thanks!
Ashley

Thanks for the response. Makes total sense. 
Happy cruising!