I have cruised several times now and decided that this year I would take the family. My children are teenagers and the ship seemed to offer the perfect solution to being able to give them their freedom, add a bit of culture to their constant diet of TV and computer games and give us all a much needed dose of sunshine! We opted to fly to Rome and join the Navigator of the Seas for a 7 night cruise around the Med calling at Sicily, Piraeus (Athens), Kusadasi and Crete.

We had an early start and reached the ship around 1pm. The cruise terminal was busy but efficient and within 30 minutes we had been checked aboard & found our cabins. As we’d been up for ages our first job was to freshen up and find the Windjammer for lunch! As expected there was a huge choice of food from burgers & salads to a full cooked meat and several veggie options with fresh fruit and a dessert counter to finish off. Although the ship was still in port the pools were already surrounded by people who had kept their swim things in their hand luggage and bagged their sunbeds for the day. We decided to have a look round the ship and try to get our bearings.

Navigator of the Seas is a Royal Caribbean ship and has their trademark ‘Royal Promenade’ through the middle of deck 5. This is designed like a shopping street with the café promenade open 24hrs serving coffee, cookies and sandwiches. Here we also found the logo shop, the duty free and general store alongside the English pub and the wine bar.

The children were keen to find things they could do without us so we went up to the sports deck to see the kids dens, Johnny Rockets (50’s style burger bar) , the climbing wall, in-line skating track, crazy golf and check out the sports schedules. Every day there’s a daily planner left in your cabin which lists the huge array of activities & entertainment available. Most are free but some, such as scuba and wine tasting have a nominal charge. In the end we spent most of our time around the pool during the day but when the kids were doing activities we often went along to watch. Dodgeball seems to be the activity of the moment with a junior, teens, 18-20 and adult age range offered for games.

Our evenings soon fell into the routine of early dinner, a drink in the theatre watching the show, maybe a drink in one of the other lounges listening to live music or watching a parade on the promenade then a coffee and cookie before bed. Inevitably our evenings got later and so did our breakfasts but ship life enables you to eat at virtually any time so we had lazy days and did several things during the course of the evening.

Kusadasi was our chosen port of call. Mainly because we could walk directly off the ship into the town. The grand bazaar put a smile on our faces as soon as we arrived advertising 'genuine fake Rolex watches'! The resort was clean and everyone was friendly. We wandered around for a few hours and did most of our shopping here getting into the swing of bartering. Around the port you can still see the fishermen mending their nets and the many carpet shops often have someone sitting outside weaving the most intricate designed carpets and rugs - all available for DHL delivery home!

Even though we didn't visit Athens, Ephesus or any of the other classic sights offered, we had the benefit of being able to watch the information programmes in the cabins - we saved ourselves for Rome which is a separate journal!

We were prepared for the (2) formal nights and I would say that around 70% made the effort. We felt conspicuous walking to dinner and being in the lift with people still in their pool clothes but by the time all the second sitting guests were down on the promenade there were some amazing ball gowns around. The ship photographers were making sure they captured everyone in their finery - pictures were around £10 for a 10 x 8 print. It all made for a great party atmosphere and you could have shots taken all round the ship with different backdrops.

We didn't see a cloud or have a cross word all week - that says it all!