Our cruise on the Navigator of the Seas took place at the end of May in 2022. The cruise was booked as a way to get out of town and cruise again after waiting way too long for other cruises that had been cancelled on us. I am normally a bigger fan of NCL than Royal, but my wife prefers Royal. We only live about 25 miles from the port and have cruised out of there on multiple occasions. We are couple in our early 60s and our friends are a few years older.

The embarkation process at Los Angeles was a piece of cake. We had booked a 12:00 arrival, but were about 30 minutes early. Parking was simple- closer than I usually end up during a visit to the mall. We were all (another couple joined us) going to just carry our luggage onboard with us. The agents waved us right into the terminal and we got checked in quickly with virtually no wait. There was no hassle with the COVID requirements as we had our testing and paperwork completed ahead of time.

We went onboard and walked around a bit then went to the Windjammer for lunch. The food up there was not high quality, but there was a wide selection. The service at each of our visits for lunch and breakfast was consistently good- it was obvious the crew was happy to have people back on board. There was some crowding in there each time, but we were always able to find a table. Read more