Please excuse the length of this review. As background info, my wife and I are recently retired and in our mid 50's. This was our 7th cruise, with the 1st two on Carnival, and the last 4 on Princess (Grand, Golden, Caribbean, and Diamond). We do enjoy the freedom of Anytime Dining on Princess, but have heard from many other people how much they enjoy RCCL, so thought we would give it a try. The Princess ships were large, but have more of a small ship feel with lots of different public areas, and we wanted to experience a Mariner class ship with the Royal Promenade and expansive centrum areas. We also used this trip to visit family and friends in Florida, and didn't have time for a full week cruise, so this 4 night cruise on Dec. 13th on the Navigator with 2 full days at sea seemed like the perfect opportunity to experience RCCL and the Navigator.

I would also like to say that we try to be objective. We understand not everything is going to be perfect, and have always strived to make the best of things. We hate to hear people complain about every little thing. If you can't have a good time on a cruise, then shame on you. But it was natural for us to make comparisons between our past experiences and this cruise. We tried to point them out, both the positive and the negative.

Embarkation = A- Arrived at Park N Fly lot and caught shuttle to port just before noon. Embarkation was quick and efficient, and we were eating lunch in the Windjammer by 12:30. Very smooth, except for the delivery of our luggage to room. We had early dinner seating, and luggage had not yet arrived to room by 4:15pm. We walked down hall and found a stack of luggage piled up near a crew elevator, and saw our bag on the bottom of the pile, so went ahead and took it to our room. No big deal. Read more