We're experienced cruisers (Platinum status on RCL) and this was our second time on the Navigator. Our first was a short Caribbean cruise in March of 2011. Overall, we had a wonderful time and they definitely have gotten most things right on the Navigator. A few aspects could use improvement.
THE FOOD: Okay, this sure isn't in the class of Celebrity but we didn't expect it to be. Still, the food in the Windjammer cafe is just a notch or two above institutional fare. It need not be that way. The food in the dining room was good but the service at dinner (at table 418) on this July cruise was little more than competent. Unlike on other cruises and unlike our experience in March on this same ship, the wait staff never learned our names and were not engaging. Yes, we received our selections but it went little beyond that.
THE MUSIC: On both of our cruises on the Navigator, we found the musical entertainment to be poor. Either whoever does the booking has an inadequate budget, is incompetent, or both. Jazz consisted of a mediocre piano or guitar player with a backing track. The entertainers in the lounges were barely passable in terms of their their abilities and talents. The band out at the pool muddled through well-known pop tunes with the vocalist reading the lyrics and often getting the melody wrong.