Royal Caribbean has recently started sailing out of the Port of Los Angeles again. The Navigator of the Seas is the ship that is based here in LA, and does a 3 night to Ensenada Mexico, 4 night to Catalina and ensenada, and a 7 night cruise to Mazatlan, Cabo, and Puerto Vallarta.

The cruise I went on in June of 2022, was the 3 night cruise to Ensenada with my little brother. It started on a Friday and ended on Monday morning. I only had to take friday off work to make this trip.

I did not book through a travel agent but directly off Royal Caribbean's website. I ended up paying $325 for the cruise fare and tax, $43.50 for gratutities ($14.50/day), for a base fare total of $368.52 per person for a Balcony room. I did get a soda package for $31.80 ($10.60/day), and paid for parking at the port of Los angeles for $60 ($20/day). No other expenenses such as onboard spending, specialty dining, or internet package. I could have saved more money by booking an inside cabin, which I normally do, but I really wanted to see if the balcony room was worth the upgrade or not. Inside cabin would have saved me $80 per person. (Inside cabin would have cost me $288.52 per person base fare with tax and tip)

Day 1

The buffet opened for lunch at 11:30am on embarkation day. That's the first thing I went to because I did not eat breakfast that morning and I was hungry. El Loco fresh was also available for lunch, but we there wasn't many vegan options. (chips and salsa)

After lunch we did a round of mini golf. Best time to do it is early in the day of embarkation day, we were the only ones there, then it was the playmakers bar in the promenade to play some jenga, connect four, foosball, and ms pac-man. Which were all free.

Finally at 1:30PM our stateroom was ready. Whether or not the Balcony room is worth it or not is very subjective. I ended up mostly just laying in bed with doors open to the outside. You can get a similar experience sitting out all through out the ship. I've found many spots with little to no people around.

Shortly after we got settled into the room, we headed out to do to the back of the boat do do the Flowrider, and the waterslides. Embarkation day and port days are the best time to do this. All included in the cruise fare.

Finally my fav part of the cruise has arrived, 5:30 PM. Dinner. I highly recommend selecting the early 5:30PM dinner if you want to catch the shows and as it generally will start at 7 or 8pm for the early showing, and catch all the live music through out the ship. Also do tell your servers that you're going to catch the shows after dinner so that your dinner doesn't into any of the shows that night.

On the entire Royal Caribbean fleet, you can just go to the Main Dining Room and request the vegan menu without any prior notifications, like you would do on other cruise lines.

The show that was available the first night of the cruise was the Ice skating show, which also included a drone show at the beginning. The show started at 7 pm so we had to make sure dinner didn't take too long.

Day 2

The morning started with breakfast at the buffet. They open in the morning at 7am, some days earlier. Breakfast is also offered at the Main dining room as well but the head waiter suggested us go to the buffet as there are more selections. He did say that if we do opt to go to the main dining hall that they will make something vegan for us.

Following after lunch we went back out to do more water slides, and rock climbing, it was surprising empty as well. After those activities we went back to the room and just relaxed in the room with the balcony door open. Dinner for day 2 was a suggested formal night. A lot of people including myself got all dressed up. There was even a large group of middle aged Vietnamese dressed up in their traditional "áo dài", doing a photoshoot in the atrium.

After Dinner, we went singing/dancing show called "showgirls" the male dancers were better than the female dancers and the female singers were better than the male singers. There was also a dancing, karaoke, game shows, movie at the pool/jacuzzi and a lot of live music around the ship. After the show, we opted to go to back to the room, do some sudoku, and went to bed early.

Day 3

Today was the last day of the cruise and was a port day in Ensenada Mexico. We got up early, went to the Stretching class in the fitness center at 7AM, follow by some cardio to work off all the food we had in the last 48hrs. Breakfast was available in both the main dining hall and buffet.

After walking around Ensenada for an hour, we went back on the ship for the waterslides again, there was no one else doing it. It was super windy so we didn't last very long. Had to thawed in the jacuzzi for a bit afterwards.

After dinner the show they had was the same ice skating show as night 1. It was really good so we of course watched it again. Following that show there was a farewell show with a comedian. My brother wanted to sit in the front row, and you NEVER sit in the front row of a comedian act. He got grilled by her, so I hope he learned his lesson. We went back the bed right after the show since the following day was disembarkation day.

The next morning we got up extra early, breakfast the buffet was open at 6:30 AM, and it was pretty much the same as the two previous mornings. after Breakfast they let off the ship at 7:15AM, made it home before 8AM to plan for my next cruise and to get ready for work that same day.