The Navigator Cruise Blog

Dept. of Transportation grows teeth, fines airlines for trapping passengers

2009-11-24T21:49:00.003-05:00

If you travel to a cruise, you need to fly. If you fly, odds are good you've been inconvenienced by an airline. And the odds just went up a bit that when the airline really steps out of bounds, they'll have to pay. You undoubtedly recall one or more of the several episodes of truly bad airline...

Relive the 80s: Cruise with Rick Springfield

2009-10-20T16:52:00.003-04:00

There's a theme cruise for everybody, including Rick Springfield fans. Remember Jessie's Girl? How about Waiting for a Girl Like You? Well, you can relive those highlights live and in person about the Rick Springfield & Friends Cruise aboard Carnival Destiny on November 12, 2009. Rick told...

Sully suggests airline add the easy-find tabs back into the emergency procedures manual

2009-10-19T09:50:00.000-04:00

Did you know that, as a cost-cutting move, US Airways had removed the easy-find tabs from their emergency procedures manual? If you didn't catch Captain Chesley "Sully" Sullenberger's interview with Jon Stewart last week, it's worth the time. The best part is at about 17:50 into the episode. Sully...

Gay cruise prods straight couple to sue cruise line

2009-10-16T08:55:00.000-04:00

An Italian husband and wife are suing Grimaldi Lines for a refund, reports The Daily Mail, after finding themselves aboard "Italy's first all-homosexual cruise." It seems the unnamed couple booked the cruise direct with the cruise line, and were not informed of the theme for the 3-day trip from...

Daily Cruise Deal via Twitter

2009-10-15T14:05:00.002-04:00

Customers have been asking us how to see last-minute price drops on cruises, so we're happy to introduce our Daily Cruise Deal feed in Twitter. One day, one killer cruise deal. Follow us! Every morning, we'll review over 30,000 departure dates from the major cruise lines and look for the ONE very...

Titanic-themed cruise, anyone?

2009-10-14T09:10:00.000-04:00

Naturally the 100-year anniversary of the Titanic tragedy would be seen as a marketing opportunity, in this case to sell a "memorial cruise" sailing April 8, 2012 from Southampton, England. Is it just us, or is this cruise tempting fate? A British travel firm offers this "voyage of a lifetime"...

Details emerge in killing onboard Carnival Elation

2009-10-13T15:35:00.000-04:00

Newly released court documents shed more light on the events leading up to the murder of Shirley McGill by her husband Robert onboard Carnival Elation in July. For one, Mr. McGill confessed repeatedly to both Carnival staff and the FBI, and for another, he was extremely drunk. Given the...

Hey dad, sorry about the dent in the ship

2009-10-12T08:45:00.000-04:00

We thought it was bad to scratch the paint on the family car when we were kids. At least it wasn't a fender-bender involving two cruise ships. Carnival Legend, pulling out of Cozumel, hit Royal Caribbean's docked Enchantment of the Seas after being hit by a strong gust of wind. Nobody was...

United Breaks Guitars

2009-07-13T11:42:00.005-04:00

Most of us have no choice but to get in an airplane to reach our vacation or cruise destination. No other option. Have you ever felt powerless in the face of terrible airline customer service? If so, then you'll enjoy the sweet revenge musician Dave Carroll has taken on United Airlines via a...

Costa Pacifica and Luminosa Dual Inaugural Tonight

2009-06-05T14:21:00.003-04:00

Costa Cruises welcomes its two newest ships to the fleet during inaugural festivities in Genoa, Italy, tonight at 10 pm local time (4pm US eastern time). In fact, Costa reports that the dual christening, of Costa Luminosa and Costa Pacifica, represents a Guinness World Record. You might even be...

Royal Caribbean goes hip-hop; guests star in onboard Gotta Dance show

2009-06-04T19:48:00.001-04:00

Putting guests in a hip-hop dance show!? We have to give Royal Caribbean credit. Ever since introducing their "Get Out There" tag line years ago, the cruise line has lived and breathed that brand essence, enabling adventurous guests to immerse themselves in out-of-the-box experiences during their...

Swine Flu hysteria ebbs; cruise lines returning to Mexico

2009-06-03T11:25:00.004-04:00

As reason has gradually displaced the initial irrational hysteria about Swine Flu (yes, we know we're supposed to call it H1N1 Flu now, but choose not to), the cruise lines that had canceled their Mexico ports of call are now trickling back. To be fair to the cruise lines, they really had no...

New Norwegian Epic breaks sales records

2009-06-02T19:20:00.003-04:00

Norwegian Cruise Line cheerfully announced that opening-week sales for its new Norwegian Epic--which sets sail mid-2010--broke all its previous records including those of its last two ships, Norwegian Pearl and Norwegian Gem. Epic represents a new class of ship for NCL, purpose-built with cool...

New passport rules now in effect to enter the US via land or sea

2009-06-02T17:53:00.006-04:00

Finally! June 1st, 2009, marks the day when the final, much-delayed, phase of the new US passport requirements became effective. The short story is that US citizens traveling out of the country should now have a passport for re-admittance to the US from Canada, Mexico, Bermuda and the Caribbean,...

Fuel surcharge intrigue continues

2008-03-21T11:15:00.006-04:00

Back in November when Carnival Corporation announced the retroactive addition of fuel surcharges to existing bookings, we knew, first, that the rest of the industry would follow, and second, that there would be eventual pushback from customers or regulators. Nobody likes making a reservation,...

Carnival singer makes top 20 in America's Got Talent

2007-07-25T13:55:00.000-04:00

The sometimes-maligned corps of professional cruise-ship entertainers got a boost from the success of Carnival vocalist Jason Pritchett at cracking the top twenty on hit TV show America's Got Talent. Pritchett, of Kansas City, Mo., performs lead male vocals during two production shows each week on...

Norwegian Majesty crew clean up Bermuda

2007-07-23T13:38:00.001-04:00

Kudos to the crew of Norwegian Majesty, who were reported by the Bermuda Sun as having invested a day in picking up trash around the ship's port in St. George's, and planning to do so again regularly. Bermuda has a well-earned reputation for being immaculate, so no doubt this effort on the crew's...

Liberty of the Seas first look report: surf's up!

2007-05-18T23:25:00.000-04:00

We had the chance to sail onboard Royal Caribbean's brand-new Liberty of the Seas recently from the line's artfully named Cape Liberty Port in Bayonne, New Jersey. Like sister ship Freedom of the Seas, Liberty is a home run for the target "active adventure cruiser" market. Take a look at our...

More details trickle out on Empress of the North grounding in Alaska

2007-05-18T20:10:00.000-04:00

The NTSB has released a few more details about the May 14 grounding incident involving sternwheeler Empress of the North, a riverboat operated by Majestic America Line. The crew was apparently trying to complete a turn, and failed, when the boat "raked across a rocky shoal" although still no word...

NCL decision to move Pride of Hawaii to Europe justified by larger Q1 loss

2007-05-16T19:38:00.000-04:00

Norwegian Cruise Line just announced a wider first-quarter loss, $60.8 million versus $28.8 million a year earlier, that completes the picture surrounding the line's April decision to move Pride of Hawaii away from the islands and to the Mediterranean. At that time, NCL acknowledged the cause to be...

Celebrity gives birth to Azamara, a new "deluxe" cruise line

2007-05-15T18:11:00.000-04:00

It's rare for an existing cruise line to split itself in two, but that's exactly what Celebrity Cruises has done with its introduction of "deluxe" cruise line Azamara Cruises. "Azamara" is word invented for the occasion, from Romance language roots blue ("aza"), and the sea ("mar"). The new...

Silversea offers MiG-31 flights in Russia

2007-05-14T14:38:00.000-04:00

Every guy dreams of piloting a fighter jet at one time or another. Well, that dream plus $29,815 will have you taking the controls of a MiG-31 Foxhound, Russia's most advanced interceptor, as part of a wild shore excursion announced by Silversea on select Baltic cruises this summer. Silversea...

New Carnival beverage policy prohbits bringing onboard... a bottle of water?

2007-04-04T11:28:00.000-04:00

Carnival has updated its policy, that till now had reasonably restricted bringing outside booze onboard, to oddly prevent bringing any non-alcoholic beverages onboard. A Carnival spokesperson declined to elaborate to us on the rationale behind the change, beyond saying that "there were some abuses...

Wii comes onboard Norwegian in new partnership with Nintendo

2007-04-01T11:43:00.000-04:00

Have you heard about the video game consoles where players get so involved and active that cracked TVs have resulted? Well, Norwegian Cruise Line announced that shortly all of its vessels will feature these addictive Nintendo Wii (pronounced "whee") games, displayed on huge screens in public areas,...

How to fall overboard from a cruise ship

2007-03-31T11:36:00.000-04:00

Mainstream media has been agog the past few weeks about two bizarre man-overboard incidents, with some breathless coverage insinuating that taking a wrong turn on the way to dinner could land you in the drink. But in fact, getting over high cruise-ship railings takes work, frequently in combination...