Florida + West Caribbean Cruise 2016

Day 3 – 27/03/2016 – Boarding the Navigator of the Seas

We woke up at 6am due to the time difference with Belgium.. But no worries, we can have a relaxed breakfast and type the report of yesterday. It will be our last post for some days, because the internet on the ship is too expensive, 40 dollars/day!

Breakfast was typically American with eggs, gravy, donuts, toast, cornflakes, Belgian Waffles, … We chose the Belgian Waffle with maple syrup. While we were waiting for our waffle a Belgian women started talking to Heidi. She asked if we were also coming from Belgium and how we got to Fort Lauderdale. Normally they should have been on our plane from Brussels to Montréal. They hadn’t booked via a travel agency and had booked another flight from Amsterdam. They were hoping to get a refund for their original flight.

Now we had to wait for the shuttle to come pick us up at 12.30pm. We knew there was a K-mart near our hotel. We checked at the reception of the hotel if it would be open on Easter Sunday. And yes, the shop was open from 7am. We walked to the store to get some water and M&M’s (Pretzels! We don’t have them in Belgium!). We noticed the air was hot and humid. It felt like it was in the summer of 2010. 

We had to check out at 11am. It would be quite some time before we would be on the ship and could eat something. Next to the hotel there was a McDonald’s and a Taco Bell. Since we had a bad experience with Taco Bell we chose McDonald’s. We left our luggage in the hotel and ate at the McDonald’s.

On our way back to the hotel a lady from the shuttle service asked us which cruise we were going on. We told her we were going with the Navigator of the Seas and we were lucky, she had 2 places in an earlier shuttle. We could leave half an hour earlier.

It was busy in the port. Multiple ships were docked. One of them was one of the largest in the world, The Allure of the Seas. A little further we saw our ship. Wow, a cruise ship is large! We had to put a tag with our room number on our luggage, so we could leave them at the drop off. They would be taken to our room.

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We could proceed to the check in counters. We had booked a junior suite, so we hardly had to stand in line. The regular rooms had very long lines. We advice you to try and book a junior suite. Often these don’t cost much more (or we wouldn’t have booked one! 😉 ) and they do offer a lot of advantages.

Navigator of the Seas

After we checked in we could head up the escalators to the bridge to board the ship. We were very small compared to the ship! We could start to explore the ship. At the elevators there was a touch screen with informations and maps. The first thing we had to locate was our room. We were in room number 1590. It was a small suite with a small bathroom and a balcony. On our way to the room the door of a large suite was opened. They were huge and there was even a piano!

We were welcomed by a special tv broadcast. It was a video with safety instructions. The best part of the video was a song that we will remember forever: “Wash your hands and make your mother proud!” All over the ship there are containers with desinfecting gel so you can regularly clean your hands.

Every day we will get a brochure in our room, named Cruise Compass. It has a list of all activities of the day. Ideal to plan the day. There is something for everyone. Sports, information sessions, dancing lessons, cooking lessons, shows, … On this first day we went to these activities:  First Time Cruiser’s Presentation, Luxury Spa and Gym Tour, Guest Assembly Drill, Welcome Aboard Showtime, Late Night Adult Comedy.

First Time Cruiser’s Presentation: Someone from the entertainment team gave information about cruises. For instance about the Seapass, a kind of passport everyone received at check in. This is your identity card, room key and credit card for this cruise. Easy, you don’t have to take your passport and credit card with you. Nothing is paid in cash, everything is paid with the Seapass.

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Luxury Spa and Gym Tour: We got a tour around the spa where everyone showed us his/her specialty: hot stone massage, hairdresser, pedicure/manicure, accupuncture, … We’ll pass for this. Heidi also wanted to see the running track. Nice, but it was difficult to run here with all the lounge chairs and glasses.

Guest Assembly Drill: EVERYONE has to participate. This is an evacuation excercise. When everyone is on board, there is a drill. On the Seapass we could find the code of the place where we should go in case of an emergency, C06.

Welcome Aboard Showtime: This was a short show with small parts of the shows we could expect on this cruise. The cruise director asked who was from outside the USA. We told him we were from Belgium. He presumed we spoke French… Euhm No! We’re from the Flemish part of Belgium.

Metropolis theatre

Late Night Adult Comedy: Only adults were allowed in this show. The comedian was Robbie Printz from Boston. Funny guy!

Well, we talked about the entertainment, but we haven’t talked about the food. CRAZY! Jelle read in a review that a guy gained 8kg during his cruise. We see how this is possible! It looks like a cruise is all about eating and drinking.. We bought the Royel Replenish pack, so all water, soda, koffie, thee and non-alcoholic cocktails were included. You can eat 24/24 here.

Main Dining Room

There are different restaurants but the largest is the Main Dining Room, where you get a table with 2 waiters. Every day there is a new menu with a daily menu and à la carte courses. But you can order as much as you want. Two starters, an entree and 3 desserts? No problem! The Main Dining Room has a very chique feel.

We chose the daily meny. A fish mousse for starters, then a porc chop with sweet potato, broccoli and artichoke and Jelle had the ‘Chocolate Sensation’ as dessert while Heidi took the Crème Brulée with banana and Bailey’s.

Tomorrow we’ll have a full day at sea.

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