World Navigator Review

Not quite ready for prime time

Review for the Eastern Mediterranean Cruise on World Navigator
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jwsfun
10+ Cruises • Age 60s

Rating by category

Cabin
Family
Embarkation
Dining
Public Rooms
Entertainment
Fitness & Recreation

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Sail Date: Sep 2021

Here's the Good, The Bad and the ugly:

The ship is stunning. she's intimate, well designed , sails like it's on rails and has a very thoughtful layout. the cabins are really gorgeous with wall coverings that shimmer and back lit walls with residential furniture that makes you feel like you are in a high end hotel, not a ship. my hope is that all this wears well. being just on the 6th voyage- it still has that "new ship smell" the public spaces too were just so well designed ( some not as functional as they could be - more on that later). the bathroom in the cabin has without a doubt, the best shower at sea ( that should be an award on it's own). I actually looked forward to showering twice a day. It's like a car wash with side jets an an overhead rain head with water pressure that many folks will envy. The bathroom overall isn't huge but well laid out with supple towels of the highest caliber. The atlas brochure promised a bottle of bubbly waiting for us. No one seemed to get that, nor did we receive the pillow menu or "private stationary", as mentioned on the atlas site ( not a big deal but..) terry cloth robe and slippers, robe yes ...slippers, nope . Music channels were promised ( there were none on our cruise), nice is the fact that you can tether your phone to the tv and play music off your phone, which was nice. there were a handful of movies and several select tv stations including bbc news and sky news as well as hgtv and perhaps 10 others. Hoping for my friends doing the transatlantic, they can up the number of selections for those long days at sea.

The food: here's where things went a bit upside down. breakfast and lunch are buffets and while they were pretty good, it got a bit repetitive and the selection at lunch seemed very limited. i know it's hard to have tons of choice with only 140 folks on board (the count on our sailing) but some innovation and quality was needed in the buffets. in the morning there is an omelette/eggs benedict station, but the problem was that by the time the omelette was delivered to you had already eaten all the accompanying items from the buffet to go with it.. would be nice to be able to do table orders for a full breakfast served hot at all at once. Don't miss the house made doughnuts - my goodness they are good. the poolside eatery is "7 aft" and this was a bust in terms of both quality and selection. thought it was odd that the only desserts offered there during lunch were a bowl of whole apples or pears. when we asked the waiter simply said "the chef didn't send anything up" the burgers were not great (dry) and must be cooked somewhere else and brought up. the selection of salads and other items was good but much more limited than even the dining room (which is called "porto"). in the evening, 7 aft turned into a bar-b-que spot of steaks and such. no one seemed to be rushing to go back. it really didn't seem to have much ambiance. On the atlas site it talks about a portuguese restaurant and in fact we saw it on the onboard display monitors, but it was never offered our entire cruise. Also they consider "paula's pantry " a restaurant..it's really like a starbucks with a few cold salads/sandwich options but mostly cookies, coffee, tea and pastries. room service is breakfast only, but if you want something when the restaurant is closed supposedly someone can get you something from paula's pantry.

Cabin Review

Great Cabins- However we saw the Infinity Balcony cabins and they are amazing - Gives you so much more cabin space.

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