We're veteran cruisers (Diamond loyalty status), and Royal Caribbean has been our cruise line of choice for several years. We have come to expect a certain level of performance and service, and for the most part, this cruise delivered. Nothing precluded our looking elsewhere for our next voyage ... in fact, we booked another Navigator sailing onboard. We're thrilled that Royal has seen fit to sail year-round out of Galveston, about an hour from our home. I'll break down the review into segments, and it's likely to be somewhat detailed (i.e. long), so please bear with me.

EMBARKATION ... we generally arrive at the port around 3:00 to avoid the crowd coming and going. There were absolutely no lines, and we were aboard in about ten minutes ... doesn't get any better than that.

THE SHIP ... it's amazing what $85 million and a month in drydock can accomplish. The new Navigator is absolutely exquisite, from the aesthetic to the technological. Of course, it can't rival the Oasis and Quantum classes feature-for-feature, but it works for us ... the Voyager class is our favorite. Among other additions, there's a Flowrider, several new specialty restaurants, and a state-of-the-art system which allows passengers to plan and review pretty much everything from their stateroom TV's. But the kicker for us was the "virtual balcony." We had an inside "accessible" stateroom, and the real time floor-to-ceiling projection of what one would see from a balcony was amazing. We didn't book the cabin for this feature, but we'll certainly try to get one on every future cruise. The Promenade remains our favorite attribute. Read more