Welcome to the Royal Caribbean blog podcast, a weekly look into the world of Royal Caribbean cruising.

I'm your host Matt Hodgeberg, and this is episode number 27.

I'm really excited for this week's podcast because at the end of this week, I'll be taking

my next Royal Caribbean cruise vacation on the beautiful and recently refurbished Navigator of the Seas.

I want to take you on this cruise with me, virtually anyway, and preview my cruise on Navigator

the Seas and the Western Caribbean itinerary that I'm taking.

We'll look at why I booked this cruise. Take a closer look at Navigator of the Seas itself,

the islands we're visiting, and review some of the plans we have for the trip. Here we go.

I enjoy recording every episode of the Royal Caribbean Blog podcast. It's a real treat for me, honestly, but episodes like this week are when I really, really, really, really are excited for it because I'm just a few days away from my next cruise, and honestly, it's as good as it gets. This Sunday, I'll be taking my next Royal Caribbean cruise on Navigator the Seas. Now, like all cruises I take, I want to share with you some of the thought process that went into booking this cruise, including why I booked this particular cruise and what my plans are. Of course, you can look forward to a review episode in about two weeks where I'll look back on my experience to see how my plans worked out, or didn't work out as the case may be. So let's begin with the basic cruise details. I'm going on a seven-night Western Caribbean sailing on Navigator of the Seas out of Galveston, Texas. Navigator of the Seas is a Voyager-class ship and was launched in November 2002 and is the first of the second-generation Voyager-class ships. basically of the Voyager class Navigator of the Seas and Mariner the Seas

were is the first of the second-generation Voyager-class ships. Basically, of the Voyager-class, Navigator of the Seas, and Mariner the Seas were kind of had a little bit of a change to them. They had slight upgrades, nothing major, but there was enough of distinction that it was kind of like a version 2.0, if you will. Navigator the Seas was one of the largest ships in the fleet at the time of launch, And she's definitely a big ship today, but Voyager class, well, it's not as big anymore because you know, freedom class and a wasteus class certainly much, much larger, but it's still a very large ship. Now, the cruise that I'm going on with visiting the islands of Cozumel, Belize City, and Roetan, Navigator of the seas just finished a month-long dry dock and is taking her first cruise today, Wednesday of this week, in fact. The dry dock is important because it was part of Royal Caribbean's fleet-wide renovations that are bringing innovations first seen on the Oasis-class ships to all the ships into fleet, and this happens to be Navigator's turn. In addition, Navigator of the Seas is unique in that it's the first Voyager-class ship to get this revitalization, and it's also a small test bed for a lot of quantum of the C's features in a few different ways. This includes it'll be the first ship to get virtual balconies, a brand-new Wi-Fi internet system, and new specialty restaurants. There's also a number of other changes coming to navigate here this season, including

after a movie screen, updated Vintage's Wine Bar, the addition of R Bar,

an edition of Giovanni's table specialty restaurant, Izumi's specialty restaurant,

Sabor Modern Mexican Specialty Restaurant, Flowrider Surf Simulator,

new state rooms, digital signage, pervasive Wi-Fi, flat-screen TVs that are interactive as well, concierge club, diamond club, nursery for the kitties, and a few more things as well. Frankly, it's an impressive list of changes, and I'll actually post a link in this episode of show notes on rural Caribbean blog.com with deck-by-deck changes. You can see exactly what's coming to Navigator the Seas.

So here's the first question. Why did I book this cruise? I really love exploring why anyone

books a particular cruise, because let's amaze it, we all consider a lot of other options first,

and I think it's really insightful to share with you why I booked this one and not other ones.

There are three major reasons why I booked this particular Navigator of theas Cruze. First, the changes to the ship I outlined earlier really impressed me. Breathing new life, new ship like Navigator, really put it back into contention for me and my family because of what's offered now. We had been sailing really freedom and oasis class ships a lot in the past, so it was nice to get back to Voyager class, and the new upgrades to me really appealing. It's just really, again, I said earlier, a breed in new life. It really makes a ship, it is like a new ship, really. We didn't have the entire list of changes back when we booked the cruise, but the idea of a completely reverbered ship really appealed to me, especially after seeing the amazing job Royal Crimin's done with some of the other ship upgrades in the fleet. Now, as, of course,

the self-profess geek that I am, being one of the first cruises post-refurbish ship really also

appeal to me because it's exciting to report on the changes firsthand to all our blog readers. So

from a very geeky blog standpoint, there's that. Second, the itinerary

included two new destinations for me. I've never been to Belize City or Roatan, and I love

...