Navigator of the Seas Review

4.5 / 5.0
2,293 reviews

15th-29th May 3 b2b's

Review for the Western Mediterranean Cruise on Navigator of the Seas
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sddsddean
First Time Cruiser • Age 60s

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Additional details

Sail Date: May 2008
Cabin: Junior Suite

I am going to describe all of our holiday as there may be parts apart from the actual cruises that may be of interest, so feel free to skip paragraphs that you are not interested in! All comments are my opinions, so there!

Getting to Barcelona

We decided to try the 'eco friendly' way of getting to BCN and went by train. Northampton to Euston was no problem and it only took us about 15 minutes to walk to St.Pancras to catch the Eurostar to Paris. Although there is the inevitable waiting around, the trip so far was OK. We got to Paris Gare du Nord and headed off on the metro for Gare d'Austerlitz. This is where we had a few problems. Between my wife (Jane) and I we were pulling 3 bags on wheels and 2 holdalls (which were carried on top of the bags). We got down the escalators OK, but were confronted with a flight of stairs and no lift in sight. We got down to platform level after transferring one bag at a time down the stairs. We managed to get on the metro just before they closed the doors(!), which was no mean feat and got off at the 8th stop for Gare d'Austerlitz. The line here has just come over the River Seine on a bridge, so we were 2 floors above ground level and, yes you've guessed, no lift! So we humped the bags down 4 flights of stairs. By the time we got to the bottom I was knackered and had a good sweat on! It was a 2 minute walk into the station and we only waited about 10 minutes before we could board the overnight Trenhotel to BCN. We got on and the first shock was the size of the cabin. We had opted for Gran Classe(1st class) and for this we got a double room with toilet and shower. There is not a lot of room (swinging of cats would be tricky!) and our big bag had to go in the shower (so no shower in the morning) as I could not get it on the overhead storage shelf with the other two. We went for dinner (included) and sat with a couple from the US who were originally from the Ukraine. We were not alone in thinking the cabins small. As they said, if this is Gran Classe, what are the other cabins like?! Dinner was very good and we went off to get some sleep. However, the train had other ideas! I don't know if the its because the track is old or what, but we were thrown about from side to side most of the night (worse than the worse night I've had on a cruise ship in rough seas) and ended up regularly waking up. Got up for breakfast (croissant, toast, petit pain de chocolate, egg and mushroom concoction) and arrived at Franca station on time at 8.25am. Taxi to hotel was about 10 minutes and cost €13. Hotel Continental Palacete

Cabin Review

Junior Suite

Cabin JS

Great JS. On the hump,so view both ways. 10seconds to the stairwell/lifts, 15 seconds to the Concierge Lounge!

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