Once again my husband and I have taken to the water aboard the Navigator Of The Seas. It's one of Royal Caribbean's older and slightly smaller ships. For her age she's a fine vessel but as of next year (2013) she will be heading to dry dock for a bit of a much needed makeover. Our cabin 9636 was really nice with lots of closet space for us to fully unpack and put the suitcases away. We had a nice balcony and we would have had a very relaxing time out there had it not been for our neighbours who smoked on their balcony.

Our itinerary took us from her home port of Ft. Lauderdale to Grand Cayman, to the brand new port of Falmouth, Jamaica to their own island in Labadee, Haiti and back to Ft. Lauderdale. Check-in was a breeze. I think it took us a grand total of 10 minutes from our shuttle to the ship. I was amazed as there was a big crowd but the line moved quickly. Especially since we are gold members and had a different line from everyone else. We got there early and our stateroom wasn't ready yet so we headed off to the Windjammer for some lunch. The food there was ok, with many choices. My one complaint was that it was packed and we had a tough time finding a place to sit. After lunch our room was ready and we were able to drop off our carry-on luggage and explore the ship. Our other luggage took until almost 9:00 p.m. to arrive and we were getting rather worried that it would never show up. Our stateroom attendant Clinton went to find it for us. He was a great guy. Just before we set sail everyone gathered for a muster drill. This was the first time we were not required to wear or bring our life jackets to our muster stations. The drill lasted for about half an hour and then we were set free to explore the ship or take part int he sail away party.

That night we were able to wear whatever we wanted to dinner, which was a good thing as many people were still were waiting for luggage. We were seated in the Nutcracker Dining room on deck 3. Directly behind our table was the Captain's table. Read more