I’m back from Sunshine in the Canaries and Navigator!

So this week I’ve returned to my desk after 12 days off with Royal Caribbean. I’m straight back into the swing of things and excited to tell you all about my holiday! My family and i are back from a 10 night cruise on Royal Caribbeans Navigator of the Seas.  My Boys are 11 and 13 now , so we thought this would be the perfect ship for them to try! We’ve been trick or treating, surfing, eating, drinking, ice skating, eating, drinking, swimming , oh and did I mention eating and drinking?  We have cruised previously several times as a family with Princess but never Royal Caribbean and the family is divided!

The itinerary was Madeira, Tenerife, Gran Canaria, Lanzarote and Vigo! The sunshine was fantastic and so much better than we expected. I will be doing my next few blogs on each of the ports to give you all as much information as possible. We really did have such a fantastic family holiday but some things with Royal Caribbean would need to change before i’d be rushing to go with them again.  My biggest gripe was definitely the drinks packages and lack of flexibility. I’m not a wine drinker, I’m not a spirits drinker, I’m neither any sort of drinker before dinner! My children also drink other things , rather than just Fanta, Coca cola or sprite. My wife likes wine, but ended up with the soda package same as the children, because we just couldn’t justify the $65 per person a day for a deluxe drinks package. There was no beer only package, no wine only package, the children couldn’t have anything other than the 3 drinks I’ve mentioned unless we constantly paid extra.  It was definitely a negative and a huge reason that would make me think twice about booking them again. 

The ships facilities were as expected fantastic, with Surfing, Ice Skating, Rock Climbing, Parades, Shows , Golf, everything you would come to expect with the cruise line BUT there was something i didn’t expect. The very lack of seating or any space anywhere during the evening. I know the ship was full, but every night after dinner and after a show we would pace up an down , eagle eyed waiting to pounce on a table due to vacate. It really become tiresome. Everything was always full! And if you did manage to get a seat in the pub or lounge, you were watched and constantly asked if your chairs were in use should the children move away for 2 minutes. I don’t want this to sound like I’m being a downer on Royal , I’m not at all, we had a wonderful holiday just some things niggled us. We had an inside Category K grade cabin on deck 9, it was perfect for what we needed. Lots of storage space for a family of 4. The beds for the children were raised back into the ceiling every night to give us plenty of space , and an array of towel animals every night that left my 11 year old obsessed with rushing back to check what animal we were getting that night!  We had Tv with some English channels, films had to be paid for, $11.95 a movie. We had a 2 seater sofa, fridge and safe. Good cabin, good location, not affected by any noise. Our steward as expected went of his way to look after us, nothing ever seemed to much trouble for him.

I’ll do another update in my next blog – its good to be back, although Winter seems to have arrived while we were away, its freezing here in Wales!

Haydn

 

 


About Me

Hello everyone, My name is Haydn , I live in Caerphilly South Wales with my wife and 2 young sons. I have been in the Travel Industry for just over 23 years now, specializing in cruising for the last 13 years. I have been on a variety of Cruise ships,…

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