On our last day of the cruise, Mom was feeling a little better - well enough to leave the stateroom! We started the day with breakfast in the dining room.

I don't trust the (carton) eggs, but the smoked salmon isn't half bad...


I took some photos the giant Christmas tree in the Promenade because I realized I wouldn't have many more opportunities...

At the end of Day 7 in Bonaire, Mom was not feeling well (we made her take "medicinal shots" of whiskey). She woke up today completely sick - stuffed head, sore throat, achy body... she wasn't coming out of the stateroom. It really sucks to get sick on vacation (I think we've all been there at some point... except Dad).

Rachel and I went to workout in the gym that morning and decided to check out the sauna and steam room in the ladies' locker room that Rachel had remembered. They're probably redone this layout in the drydock, but the Navigator had gender-separated sauna and steam rooms, which isn't as common on cruise ships anymore.

We ran into Dad after our workout and decided that today might be a good day for Johnny Rocket's (though we felt guilty because Mom loves Johnny Rocket's).

So Johnny Rocket's has been slowly climbing in price over the past fifteen years. There was once a day when it was less than $5 per person. The price for our sailing was listed as $6.95 per person, which we found to be a little ridiculous considering it's fast food burgers, and they're getting closer and closer to their "on-land" price. I'm wondering if Royal Caribbean is reconsidering their partnership with the Johnny Rocket's franchise because Rachel said she got a survey from RCCL asking about what kind of burger she'd like to have on a cruise, having her choose between Johnny Rocket's and other brands.


So we sat down thinking this is kind of pricey, we should get all of the things while we're here.

Service wasn't great.  We were seated for maybe ten minutes before anyone came to take our order.
 We all ordered milkshakes and made the plan that Dad would ask for a to-go milkshake for Mom before we left.

Good morning, Bonaire!


Of the four ports we visited this cruise, Bonaire is the only port that none of us had visited before.

Next up: Curacao. This is the only port we didn't have an excursion planned for, so we weren't quite sure what to do. I had been to Curacao before on an 8-day Southern Caribbean cruise on the Carnival Breeze. The great thing about the detailed blog that I've kept (I used to be so much better!) is that we can refer back to it and remember what we've done. Rachel had the internet package, so she went to my blog post on Curacao and learned that I had been to Mambo Beach. So Mambo Beach it was!


We were in port with the Carnival Conquest.

Merry Christmas from Aruba!!

We spent Christmas Eve on the Navigator of the Seas at sea.  Rachel and I joined our parents for breakfast in the Sapphire Dining Room. It's a nice alternative to the craziness of the Windjammer. They section the dining room so that half is sit-down, order from the menu, and half is buffet, serve-yourself.  Even if you sit on the sit-down side, you can still get up and walk over to the buffet area.


Here is a navigational map of the ship located on each floor near the elevators/stairs. Now that the Navigator of the Seas has been to drydock, this has changed.

Rachel likes to sleep with the balcony door open.  I know this is generally frowned upon because it messes up the balance for the air conditioning, but we do it anyway (my sincere apologies to the mechanical engineers and environmentalists of the world).  And because our stateroom was a lower deck than normal, the waves at night were LOUD.  Around 7 AM we woke up to the ship pulling into port in Labadee.  Soon after we were greeted by an incredibly untalented Caribbean band BLARING Caribbean tunes.  Rachel got up to shut the door.  But we could still hear them.  Especially the piercing woodblock.  It was like a metronome for every song they played.  *PING-PING-PING-PING-PING-PING-PING-PING*  Uggghhhhhhh someone make it stop!!!!  It is too early for this.  We tried to sleep in, but the woodblock haunted my dreams.

Labadee is one of Royal Caribbean's two private islands.  We've been here a few times before.  At the moment, Labadee is more developed than CoCo Cay.  However, CoCo Cay is under construction and will receive a lot of new facilities like a water park, so it may soon be the nicer Royal Caribbean island.


There they are, the terrible Caribbean band, located in the prime location also known as directly underneath our balcony.

Our first true day on the ship was a sea day - perfect for sleeping in and not really doing anything!  To our surprise, our father did not call and try to wake us up.  We found out a few days later that the ringer on our phone was muted, so he actually might have tried to call, but we didn't hear it.

We got up and I unpacked Rachel's suitcase.  Rachel has learned that over the years all it takes is for her to ask, "Will you unpack my suitcase?" and I'll do it.  Storing things away is something I enjoy doing.  Like I said, there was space for everything - and even extra shelves up high that we didn't use.

Then we debated for awhile and decided to head to the gym.  The gym on the Navigator is really nice.  It's large and at the front of the ship with a great view.  There's a nice open area for cardio where they also host classes.  Unfortunately, they're going to be doing away with this large gym in the remodel - they're putting additional staterooms in its place and moving the new gym to a different location.  I took a few really horrible photos of the gym -

Ahoy!  Welcome to my Navigator of the Seas Trip Report, and my family's 10th Annual Christmas Cruise!

My family started cruising over Christmas back in 2009 with a 9-day Eastern Caribbean Cruise aboard the Grandeur of the Seas, and we've gone every year since.  We like to sail where it's warm, so we often choose Caribbean itineraries, and we've also done 10 and 17-day Panama Canal cruises (my personal favorite itinerary if you have the time).  We aren't loyalists to any particular cruise line, and choose our cruise based on the itinerary, length, and ship.

Rachel has taken over as the family's cruise planner, so she narrowed down our options.  We ultimately chose the 10-day "ABC" Caribbean Cruise on the Navigator of the Seas because it included ports that we haven't traveled to before.  While we've been to Aruba a few times, none of us had been to Bonaire, and only I had sailed to Curacao.

Also, Rachel was on the Royal Caribbean website and excited about the Navigator's new upgrades including new pools and water slides... only to learn that they hadn't actually happened yet.  The upgraded Navigator of the Seas will start sailing in Spring 2019.  The Navigator of the Seas we were sailing on had been most recently updated in 2014 to add the Flow Rider to the aft.

The Navigator departed from Miami.  I live in Los Angeles, so I had to fly cross-country.  My parents live in South Carolina, and my sister in Atlanta, so they had the option of driving.  For better airline pricing, my dad decided to have my sister and I fly into Orlando the night before, while he and my mom would drive to Orlando.  We'd all spend the night near the airport there, then drive the rest of the way to Miami the morning of departure.

Alas, the Port of Miami, and a glimpse of the ship!


We often drive to the port, and it always results in the same kind of scramble.  My parents like to tetris-style pack the Suburban with luggage and snacks and a cooler.  And my mother always packs in an assortment of bags - some which stay in the car (they were headed to Walt Disney World after the cruise), so when we pull up and they start unloading our luggage, it results in my mom saying, "Woah, woah, woah!" and then crawling into the third-row seat and pointing and what should stay and what should go.  And then there's the tidying of the car to situate everything before it's parked.  And my dad trying to decide whether or not he should carry his own passport or leave it with us.  All while Rachel and I wait on the curb awkwardly dodging men tossing around suitcases.  At least we're organized and not bringing things on the ship that we don't need.  Nearly 20 years of cruising, now, and some things just don't change.

Then we wait on Dad to park the car, and hopefully remember where (one time we returned from a cruise to check every single level of a parking garage, only to learn that had returned to a different terminal and were parked in a different garage).