My wife and I sailed RCI Navigator of the Seas on May4-10, 2014 from Galveston, Texas. As a senior couple now retired we take cruises as our only form of vacation. This was our 11th cruise, we have sailed 3 Carnival, 2 Royal Caribbean, 2 Norwegian Caribbean, 2 Princess, 1 Celebrity, & 1 Commodore(now defunct) cruises, and I must say we have enjoyed every one of them. We just enjoy getting away from hectic everyday life and leaving all worries behind. Since Navigator of the Seas was just returning from a refurbishment, we wanted to sail on it while it was still fairly new. We had sailed Carnival Magic in December, 2013 and we liked the size of these 2 ships. Since we live only 90 miles from Galveston, Texas in Southwest Louisiana, we drove our car to the cruise terminal. We had reserved our parking in advance at one of the parking lots across the street from the cruise terminal, paying only $45 for the 6 days. Embarkation was a little faster at the Carnival Terminal as they are more organized than the RCI terminal, even though they are right next to each other. Both have long wait lines before getting on the ships. Our cabin, (8336) was a Superior Balcony mid-ship on Deck 8. It had plenty of storage areas, with many drawers and a nice sized closet. The bathroom shower had a curved sliding door which I liked better than the shower curtain that we had on the Magic. Balcony was average size with 2 chairs & small table. We liked the layout of this ship, it was very easy to navigate and with the touch screen monitor at each elevator area, you could see how to get anywhere on the ship, (A very convenient item). The Royal Promenade is unique with the shops along with the bar & cafe. We opted for My Time Dining and reserved our table & time in advance so we never had to wait to be seated and had the same waiters for the entire cruise, and they were fabulous, always had our iced tea and bread of our choice available upon seating. The food was average-it seems that the quality of food has gone down in recent years on most cruise lines. We liked Johnny Rockets for a nice change with their burgers, fries & malts, also the waiters danced to the 50's music. We ate most breakfast & lunches at the Windjammer Buffet. The omelets were not as good as those on Carnival Magic. There was a lot of activities while at sea, especially enjoyed watching the Rock Climbing and the Flo Rider Surf Simulator participants. Entertainment was average but the Ice Skating Show is a must see, it was great. We had only one shore excursion as my wife has bad knees(waiting on replacements) and is limited to lesser activities. We went on a Glass Bottom Boat ride and a bus village tour in Honduras. I had booked a zip line excursion in Honduras but two weeks before we left I received an email from RCI stating that age restrictions were put in effect after I booked so they cancelled my excursion and returned my payment. Needless to say I was upset because that is on my bucket list. I have since found that Austin, Texas has zip-lining and no restrictions.

Disembarkation was a breeze as we opted to carry off our luggage, we were off the ship and in our car in less than 20 minutes We enjoyed this cruise so much we booked another on Navigator of the Seas sailing November 2014. We have also booked on Liberty of the Seas in November 2015 as she will be at the Galveston port at that time. We will continue sailing on both Carnival & Royal Caribbean as well as any other cruise lines that leave out of Galveston or New Orleans, as they are within a few hours driving of my home and we prefer not to fly.