Navigator of the Seas

We were very excited to be invited by Aunt Toni and Uncle Terry to join them along with Devin and his family for a 5-day cruise (would I have loved a 7-day one? You betcha. But they had already booked. We will take what we can!). It was on Royal Caribbean, Navigator of the Seas leaving out of Miami on Tuesday, February 20, returning Sunday with stops in Costa Maya and Cozumel. Duncan and I had been to both places before but for me, it isn't about the stops anyway. I'm just happy to be on the ship and not have to cook!

Headed into the terminal

Since you can only book four persons to a room, we put Calleigh and Aubree in Aunt Toni and Uncle Terry's room on paper. They, along with Devin and Leigh, were in an inside room but since this ship had the same kind of room we had on our last cruise (Freedom of the Seas), we couldn't resist. The stateroom is called a panoramic stateroom on the twelfth deck (room 1812 to be exact) which is where the whole wall is a floor to ceiling window. I absolutely love these rooms (they are big at 283 square feet) and I honestly believe it beats a balcony. I couldn't help but notice that they don't seem to have these kinds of rooms anymore on the newer, bigger, Royal ships so that's definitely a drawback of "upgrading." The girls obviously were in our room in reality and they slept on a pullout sofa while we brought sleeping bags for the boys. Plenty of room!

Our giant window

The room. People say the rooms don't matter because you are hardly ever in there but I just don't find that to be the case for us. Being able to see outside makes me very happy while sitting on the bed reading!

The cruise got off on the wrong foot, however, when we discovered that we weren't all seated together for the evening meal which was at 5:30 pm. They had the six Grodacks and Aunt Toni and Uncle Terry at a table for eight and then they had the other four Copseys at a table for 14. We went right away to try to rectify it but try as we might, they said they couldn't do anything until the next day because everything was full. We were not happy at all! I didn't want Aunt Toni and Uncle Terry to not be able to sit with their immediate family for the first meal so I had the girls go with them to the table of eight and then Duncan, the boys, and I went to the table of 14. As it turned out, there were eight empty seats. Only a newlywed couple showed up! Thankfully our waiter, Kadek (from Indonesia), was also the person who rearranged seating and the next day, he sent us a notecard saying that all 12 of us were now at the table for 14 (we never did find out what happened to the newlyweds but they disappeared). We were quite thrilled to be at the big table (314) which was also right in the front of the dining room so very convenient (especially since it seemed like multiple kids had to go the bathroom during the meal every evening).

The diners during the first evening meal.

So relieved to get this note in our door on Day 2.

Much better!

Our waiter and assistant waiter were very nice. The assistant waiter was a lady named "Young-shoe" (that is how we remembered how to say it) and she was from China. She was cute and talkative. However, we weren't impressed with the food. We immediately noted that they really had no soups or appetizers that were vegetarian although there was at least an entree. We seemed to recall in the past that there was usually at least one soup or salad that was or the salad could easily be made vegetarian. Instead, they now had soups and salads that stayed permanently on the menu each evening and then they only had one new soup and salad each night. It was definitely disappointing. We mentioned this to the waiter who had the maitre d come over. To his credit, he was very accommodating and would bring the next evening's menu over to me each night to see what was on it and if it would work. If not, they'd make us a special soup or salad. Nonetheless, we did find it odd that these days where people are trying to eat healthier, they don't have these options already on the menu. The waiter was also great about bringing us special Indian food each night after Duncan asked about it. So all in all, the food worked out but it was more work to get there than in the past.

Hard to see but you can see the lack of menu options here if you look closely.

The dining experience can be lengthy, of course, but the kids did terrific. It was wonderful having Bode (who is 6) there because the three boys could easily entertain themselves playing Spot It, Uno, or just acting silly. The girls had Mia (16) who is so great with them and they worked on word puzzles or just talked (and giggled). So really, it was a relaxing experience being there. No one was bugging us about wanting to leave. Also, two years ago on the cruise, Brady ate pizza every single night. This time is was grilled cheese. Both he and Colby only ate that and actually Calleigh did mostly too. Aubree always ate off the adult menu since she has a much better repertoire of acceptable food.

The first day we were at sea. We did the pool in the morning and then after lunch, we took the kids to the kids program so we could have some time to ourselves. I thought it was all going to fall apart for a second because they didn't want to let Brady go in with Colby in the 3-5 age group or Aubree in the 9-11 group (even though she's two months away from 9). The siblings wanted to be together, as I suspected. They were being real sticklers about it, saying that they had quotas like how many kids per adult there could be. But there were barely any kids there at all so it was a lame excuse. Finally, in the end they allowed it and the kids had a great time. We had to come check on Brady each hour but each time he barely looked at us.

Unfortunately the Navigator didn't have a cool kids pool area like the Freedom did but they still had fun.

Devin tried the Flow Rider

Day 2 was also the one and only formal night.

I was just able to squeeze the girls into their dresses from two years ago.

Day 3 was the stop at Costa Maya, Mexico. I had researched ahead of time and saw that they had just built a new water park in the last few years called "Lost Mayan Kingdom." It looked really, really good as it had a bunch of water slides and then zip lines that would land you in the water. The drawback was that it was $97 adult/$87 kids to get in. Almost like paying to go to Disney and I had no interest in that for six persons. But I read some reviews where folks said they were able to get a better deal by talking to some people when they got off the ship. I was holding out hope that it would somehow work out. As soon as we got into port, I found a guy selling tickets for it and told him how we had 12 persons and wanted to go but couldn't afford the prices. He said under five (so Colby) was free and he'd give the two seniors, free admission. That still didn't quite get us there. After a little more talking, he finally gave us one more free ticket. But then...he discovered Devin had been talking to another guy in the company trying to get a better deal and the manager got wind of it and shut it down. He would only give us the two seniors for free. We were ready to walk away but then at the last second, he capitulated. Thank goodness because the place was awesome! It ended up coming out to $59/person (Colby free) and it was very worthwhile. The place was virtually empty with no waiting at all for anything. They had so many ziplines and you had a bird's eye view of the whole harbor. The kids loved it all so much and really, we would go on another cruise to Costa Maya just to go there again.

The kids area. We were the only ones there the whole afternoon. The boys went down these slides probably a hundred times.

The view of the "pyramid" from one of the ziplines.

It was only a five minute ride from the port to the park. The other neat thing is that you could do all the ziplines in tandem so here are Calleigh and Aubree going together.

It was so pretty walking around.

Also a neat lazy river ride that we did several times.

Day 4 we were in Cozumel, Mexico. We knew we wanted to do a beach and according to Trip Advisor, the number one beach was Mr Sanchos Beach Club. We decided we would go there since it had such great reviews and it was free just to do the beach. But then, when we tried to catch a taxi, the guy in charge told us we wouldn't be able to get in if we didn't have a reservation. That threw us for a loop and we spent a lot of time trying to figure out an alternate beach. This same taxi guy (he's the guy kind of managing all the taxis at the port) then proceeds to try and talk us out of our second choice, Paradise Beach, by showing us pictures of it that supposedly weren't nice and recommending a beach right next to it called Beach City (this wasn't exactly it but can't remember name now). Thank goodness I had the internet (I had forgotten that we have the Canada/Mexico plan where you get data and texts for $5/day) and could look it up. Immediately, I see all these reviews that are like "STOP. DON'T GO THERE. WORST PLACE EVER." And "Ruined my trip to Cozumel.""This place is dirty and run down." Ugh. I hate that I can't trust any of these people at these cruise ports but that's basically what it boils down too (after our experiences on the last cruise in St. Maarten...same thing). So then I thought, I should call Mr. Sanchos because I bet he was lying about that too. Sure enough, I called them and they said it was open...no reservations needed. There you go! I'm very glad I called because we went and it was a terrific beach. It did cost about $60 (including tip) one way for a taxi to the beach (this was for 10 persons since Uncle Terry stayed on ship and Colby didn't count).

Seeing Brady in Mexico although he looks weird.

A little ship envy as we parked next to the bigger, Oasis of the Seas.

Me talking to the taxi guy. That scammer!

These water activities were $12 which Calleigh, Aubree, and Brady did although Brady not that much.

Day 5 (Sabbath) we were at sea again so we had a leisurely day of eating all of our meals in the dining room since we weren't in a hurry.

We have cruised with Aunt Toni and Uncle Terry at least three or four times in the past and we always think of Uncle Terry eating "stinky" fish (aka, herring?) for breakfast so we were very excited when he ordered it the last day.

I did a scavenger hunt and the girls were the winning team.

The sad, loser boys.

Some other random pictures and tidbits from the trip...

Hanging out on Deck 5 in the Royal Promenade after one of the shows. A couple of the nights they had Big Band music right near here and I was in heaven!

Colby got this snake in Cozumel and left it in the Windjammer (buffet restaurant) and we never did find it. He was greatly saddened.

We were happy to see that the Windjammer at least stepped up its game in the vegetarian department with a special section. I found it to be very tasty.

I think these two enjoy hanging out.

Photos of the kids taken by Aunt Toni.

Bode, Leigh, and Mia trying to rock climbing wall.

And Aunt Toni!

The last meal together! Sunday morning in the Windjammer.

Sunday morning it seemed a little chaotic (on the ship's part) getting off. Things were definitely behind schedule and it wasn't clear where we were supposed to wait. They finally called our number (about 9:15) and we got in line to disembark. Duncan then realized that he needed his ship card to get off and he didn't have it. We immediately saw an employee and asked him what we should do. He said that he needed to go to the customer service and get a new one. We stepped out of line and I waited with the kids while Duncan ran up a deck. He called me a minute later and said there were a hundred people in line and it was going to take forever. So meanwhile, I ran back up to the room to check and be sure it wasn't there. I was certain he had left it in his pants' pocket from the night before (which turned out to be true). There was no option but to wait it out. He finally got to the desk and the person there says to him, "Oh, you just have to show your passport and they'll let you off." Yup, sure enough, that's all he had to do. We were pretty disgusted we wasted at least 45 minutes for nothing! But now you know in case this ever happens to you.

From there, it was pretty smooth sailing to get home and now are left with nothing but the dream of the next cruise.

Before I close, here are a few more things we were up to just before the cruise.

Sabbath 2/17 we had all the Copseys, Bob, Karen, and Kenzie McDougall, and David and Yully over for Sabbath lunch. A total of 35 persons. We had a great fun with all the cousins.