Royal Caribbean Navigator of the Seas

first formal night

 

We went on a Royal Caribbean Cruise, on the Navigator of the Seas ship in November 2012.  It was our honeymoon. The ship sailed out of New Orleans and we actually drove 14 hours to get there. We left the day after Thanksgiving which worked out well since we had some extra time off work that we could actually drive down. I do like driving instead of flying just because flying tends to make me somewhat nervous and I like taking a lot of luggage. 

first formal night

This was a 7 day cruise, the stops were going to be, Cozumel, Grand Cayman, and Jamaica. We had been to Cozumel before and were excited to go there again.

The ship was very nice and large, it was the biggest ship I have personally been on. The promenade was very nice, but confusing because to get past it on other floors sometimes you had to go up a few more floors and walk across and go down again to get to your room. This cruise ship had a rock climbing wall, basketball court, adult only pool (which was really nice) and adults only hot tub (this was a whole adults only area), other pools and hot tubs, ice skating rink (also an ice dancer show), roller skating, mini golf, restaurants, bars, coffee shop (we really liked that), casino, and much more. We had an ocean view room which I liked, I would not like a room without a window it would make me feel closed in, but I would like to try a balcony on our next cruise because my parents had one on the Carnival Ecstasy and I really enjoyed it. 

Video of this cruise

 
On our first stop in Cozumel, since we had been there before we didn't really need to tour the city so we decided to go swimming with the dolphins and a manatee. We went to a place called Chankanaab which was really pretty, and there was also a pool a sea lion show, and the ocean with a really nice beach, we also ate at a restaurant here. We had a great time the dolphins were really friendly and it was just a good time, I also really liked seeing the manatee that close since I have always really liked manatees. 

Grand Cayman was the next stop, it was an overcast day, and we took a city tour with a stop at a turtle farm. The tour left late because the tour guide waited for a late passenger and we were all squished in to a little bus and it was not fun. The tour guide didn't give us much of a tour, he barely talked. 

turtle farm

Margaritaville

Grand Cayman Church

turtle farm

                                                       The turtle farm was the only highlight of this trip, I feel like Grand Cayman was kind of a let down. Later I heard that the other side of the island is nicer, and that we should have done the stingray excursion. Oh well.

jamaica port

jamaica beach

The Last stop was Falmouth Jamaica. Jamaica is really beautiful. We were sick on this trip I had developed bronchitis and a sinus infection and wasn't feeling the best, we decided to go to a near by beach ( a cruise offered excursion) and it wasn't the best. There were beach chairs and a little restaurant, but not much else. The beach in Cozumel was much nicer on this trip. I had an ok time going in the water, but my husband just wasn't feeling well we ended up going back to the ship earlier than scheduled. I feel that in Jamaica we should have taken the plantation tour, or dunns river falls excursion. (We are both not people that can just lay around on the beach for a long time anyways). 

jamaica

All in all I would totally take this cruise again, and hopefully I won't be sick next time!

Christmas tree on ship

2nd formal night

in jamaica

dinner time

 

Carnival Ecstasy Cruise

I recently just took a vacation on a cruise. I flew down to Florida with my husband, and my parents met us there (mom doesn't like flying). I do NOT recommend Spirit airlines, they charge so much for luggage and they were not very comfortable and probably the worst plane I've ever been on, but enough of that lets move on to the enjoyable parts of the trip.

We flew into Orlando they day before, and our cruise was out of Port Canaveral, so we stayed in the hotel at the Orlando airport which I highly recommend, its called the Hyatt Regency and its actually in the airport which makes it really convenient to get your shuttle from the airport the next day. The hotel had pretty nice spacious rooms and another great thing was the airport had a mall in it for shopping.

Then we took the shuttle bus about 45 minutes to Orlando the next day. It wasn't a bad ride.Then we met my parents coincidentally in the cruise terminal line, and boarded the ship. We got our id cards and then headed up to the lido deck for lunch since our rooms were not available yet. The food was OK but not as good as the Royal Caribbean cruise we were on or the previous Carnival cruises I had been on. We then founded our rooms and waited for our luggage to unpack, and then explored the ship. There was all the usual cruise ship activities, pools, hot tubs, water slides, mini golf, show lounges, casino, restaurants and bars.

We had a really nice formal night where we all dressed up and went to a nice dinner and then course the show and had drinks etc.

The first stop on our cruise was Half Moon Cay Bahamas it is really pretty island owned by Carnival. So all the places there take the carnival sail and sign card. We decided to go snorkeling with stingrays here and it was a good time. We also got to feed the stingrays a piece of squid. Then we decided to go to the barbecue lunch which was provided by Carnival since this was their own island. It was really nice not to have to pay for your own lunch on an excursion. Then we decided to go to the beach, which was also free, and it had the most beautiful water, it was as clear as a swimming pool. It's honestly my most favorite beach I've ever been to.

You have to take a tender boat to get to this island, while going on the tender boat we saw para-sailors.


The next stop we made was Nassau, which I've been to before but no one else I was with had. It was really fun we went to the Atlantis Resort which I had also previously been to. But we had a great time exploring the aquariums, and going to the water park etc. It was very overcast that day and it was supposed to storm, so the cruise ship was offering refunds, we decided to chance it and still go to Atlantis, and it turned out fine it only rained for maybe 5 minutes when we were leaving and it wasn't a heavy rain. Atlantis is really beautiful and I will post some photos now.

Then our last stop was Freeport Bahamas which is not my favorite Mom and I just did some shopping and Dad and Justin went kayaking.

mom with coconut drink

Here are some other pictures from the cruise and the ship!

Here is the video I have from our cruise trip
Cruise Video