Just off Explorer of the Seas......

[cookmg40]

The things we really enjoyed this week were:

 

Dinner in Portofinos. Best meal of the week.

 

The Quest. It's amazing what people will do to win. I laughed until I couldn't catch my breath.

 

The Ice Show. The special guest doing the hula hoops routine was amazing.

 

The 70s dance party on the promenade. The Village People showed up and a good time was had by all.

 

Pets at Sea. I made a stuffed pink flamingo and dressed him in a Royal Caribbean hoodie. I carried him around all week and made lots of new friends. He was quite the ice breaker.

 

Please tell me more about the Pets at Sea. This must be new to Explorer. Is it on the Promenade? What is the cost?

 

Thank you.

 

Marilyn

[taryn237]

Were all the ferries running (haven't heard an update on the strike lately)? We leave in about a week :)

[gaylemh]

Were all the ferries running (haven't heard an update on the strike lately)? We leave in about a week :)

 

Just returned from our cruise on Explorer. Same cruise as Ken and Lisa (coasterwiggs). The ferries are running. Guest services told us the ferry to St George was not running, but when we got there it was.

 

The ferry to St George was one of the highlights of my trip. On board was the past mayor of St George. He gave a great informative talk on the history of Bermuda and pointed out many of the sights along the way.

On top of that he was very funny and had us all laughing all the way to St George. If you're lucky enough to get a ferry with him, it's not to be missed. He also was giving a complementary tour once you got to St George. I gave him a $5.00 tip when we were leaving, and told him to go have a beer on me, but he said he gives all tips to his church. He was a very sweet man.

[coasterwiggs]

Pets at Sea was on the Royal Promenade next door to the sports bar Weekend Warrior. Right in front of the store was a big gumball type machine with white stuffing whirling around inside the globe.

 

The store had many animal skins to choose from. I saw a tiger, lion, bear, rabbit, dragon, monster, frog, elephant and poodle. After you picked the skin, the salesperson put it on the machine and the stuffing flew into the skin and grew into a stuffed animal.

 

They had a book with pictures of many different outfits you could choose for your animal. I chose the hoodie warm up suit. They had a cheerleader, ship captain, chef, soccer player, princess, poodle skirt, tuxedo, ballerina and skateboarder. They let you dress your animal.

 

The cost for a naked animal was $19.95. It was $29.95 with one outfit. I prepaid for this in advance of the cruise and a ticket was waiting in our cabin when we arrived. I had fun all week taking pictures of my flamingo on the ferry, on the tour bus, at Fort St. Catherine, etc. We were even on the big screen at the Quest because I was holding him up cheering for our section.

[cruisinbanddirectors]

Thanks for all the good info! Juneagain, we are strongly considering the same sailing as you for our cruise next summer. I think the itinerary is really strong...a great mix of sea days and ports (especially excited about Bermuda), and the price is looking pretty good for a 9 day. That would be awesome to do a 9 day...7 always seems short!

[UandMe4Ever]

We brought a six pack of Coke on in our backpack. It went right through their scanner and they didn't say anything. We also picked up another six pack of Coke in Bermuda and it also went through the scanner in our backpack. It wasn't hidden so I guess they weren't worried about it.

Not that we would, but, what is the status of carrying 1 bottle of creme sherry on board in a carryone? (It is considered "wine".

 

TIA

[Loralie]

Well, it's a bit of a ramble, but my review of EOS from 9/25 just got posted. Much else that I'd have to say would repeat what I put in there (but of course, I LOVED it!)

 

http://www.cruisecritic.com/memberreviews/memberreview.cfm?EntryID=73584

 

And also of course, feel free to ask for clarifications, if need be.

 

RareBird, we brought a few bottles of water onboard, but I found the tap water to have no foul taste at all. (DW won't drink tap, but I have no problems doing so...) We also got soda packages for our kids. Never figured out if it was worth it, money-wise, but it was sure nice just waving the card and saying "Coke, plz" and not having to sign or anything.

 

Erie 13, I think I remember seeing Fox, although DD kept the set on Cartoon Channel for most of the cruise :) . (I tend to try to avoid tv, if I can, and news especially. Gets me too worked up, if you know what I mean. Not what I want on vacation.)

 

Dave

 

Great review! You mentioned that your kids liked the virgin drinks. I will be getting my kids the soda card and I heard some people say they can get shirley Temples with the soda card. Did you have to pay for the virgin drinks or are they included on the soda card? If not, how much did they cost? Did your teen join the teen club at all? My 2 boys will be 16 and 14 at the time of the cruise so I was wondering what activities they had for teens. Do you have any cruise compass to post? Was there a different one for the kids?

 

Thanks,

 

Loralie

[westlab]

What cable news channels are broadcast on the Tv

 

CNN part of the time and Fox (horrors!) all the time on Jewel of the Seas.

[cookmg40]

Thanks for the info on Pets at Sea! Can you tell me if they were offereing the new beer/cooler packages on EOS? If so, what was the deal? Thanks.

 

Marilyn

[Spike_Wilbury]

i sailed on the explorer on the Sept 25-30 cruise to Bermuda and they were doing the cooler bag special (only Budweiser varieties). It was $35 for the bag and the first 8 beers, and refills on the bags were $25 each. It was great, you can refill the bag at any of the bars and I brought it just about anywhere(except the MDR).

[coasterwiggs]

I never saw any of these last week on Explorer. The only bar I frequented was the Weekend Warrior sports bar, so maybe they were selling them somewhere else. It was one of the only non-smoking sports bars I have encountered, so I was happy.

[Langley Cruisers]

Not that we would, but, what is the status of carrying 1 bottle of creme sherry on board in a carryon? (It is considered "wine".)

 

In case you do come back to this thread -

 

It doesn't matter what it is considered, RCI does not permit passengers to carry their own alcohol aboard. None of any kind. If you put it in your carry-on it most certainly will be confiscated.

[Never content]

and all I can say is that Royal Caribbean is AMAZING!!!!!!!! Review and pics to come! If anyone has any questions about Explorer feel free to ask!

 

Going on the EOS Nov 19, 2010. I have read that the pool water is salty, Is this true? Can you taste/feel it or is it filtered? Any pointers for kids activities?

Thanks

[Sugar*Magnolia]

Going on the EOS Nov 19, 2010. I have read that the pool water is salty, Is this true? Can you taste/feel it or is it filtered? Any pointers for kids activities?

Thanks

 

Yes, they are salt water pools.

 

Regarding kids activities, how old are your kids?

[UandMe4Ever]

In case you do come back to this thread -

 

It doesn't matter what it is considered, RCI does not permit passengers to carry their own alcohol aboard. None of any kind. If you put it in your carry-on it most certainly will be confiscated.

Thanks, just curious! We have NO intention of bringing any liquids on....Just wondering how strict RCI has become...

 

Guess the bars will have our $$ ~ That's OK..It's vacation!

 

Thanks for answering.

[sarduccio]

Thanks for the review - we're boarding at the end of November and can't wait! I noticed part of your group had the Royal Family Suite. We are in one for the first time on our cruise - were they happy with it? Did they use the concierge services very much?

 

They didn't mention the concierge much this time, but I know my SIL has used it quite a bit on past cruises, and has enjoyed it quite a bit. And they loved being in the FS, as did we the few times we went down there.

 

Dave

[sarduccio]

Well done on the review, thanks for sharing it!

 

Glad you liked it. I tend to ramble, but hopefully folks can pull out the gems. :)

 

Dave

[not2old]

Thanks so much for the review! We will be on her in Oct of 2011 to Canada/New England. If anyone could give us suggestions on where to stay and park , we would appreciate it. We have never sailed from NJ and so we are sort of "in the dark" as where to stay. We are looking @ the Hyatt in Jersey City, but are open to any suggestions We don't want to pay an enormous amount for just one night pre cruise but don't want bedbugs either-LOL! We will be driving up the day before from Richmond,Va. Thanks for any help.

[sarduccio]

Great review! You mentioned that your kids liked the virgin drinks. I will be getting my kids the soda card and I heard some people say they can get shirley Temples with the soda card. Did you have to pay for the virgin drinks or are they included on the soda card? If not, how much did they cost? Did your teen join the teen club at all? My 2 boys will be 16 and 14 at the time of the cruise so I was wondering what activities they had for teens. Do you have any cruise compass to post? Was there a different one for the kids?

 

Glad you liked it!

 

The virgin Lava Flows we got were not included in the soda package, unfortunately. And we only really got those drinks for them in Dizzy's, so not sure if other locations onboard would have had other "included" offerings. I seem to remember them being around $4 each.

 

My kids (DD 9 and DS a week or two shy of 14) stuck with us most of the time, although by day 3 or 4 were venturing off to play minigolf or go to the arcade. There were different compasses that we got each day, one for each age range, although I'm sorry to say I didn't save any. At 16 & 14, I'd guess they'd be covered by the older group; due to fewer kids sailing during the school year, they combined the 12-14 and 15-17 groups, as well as the 9-11 with some of the younger kids, although it looked like they still had a good number of staff (the few times I saw the kids groups).

 

Arcade games were in the $1.25 to $1.50 range, mostly, and at least the way we had things setup, both kids could charge more to their cards, although they didn't really spend a lot of time in the arcade, (i.e. DS is a solid Guitar Hero addict, but the GH game they had was setup much harder than his home game, so after a few songs, he'd had enough; same for DD and the DDR games).

 

HTH,

Dave

[sarduccio]

Going on the EOS Nov 19, 2010. I have read that the pool water is salty, Is this true? Can you taste/feel it or is it filtered? Any pointers for kids activities?

Thanks

 

I'll add that yes it's salty, and DD (age 9) complained about it stinging her eyes a bit, then proceeded to not go underwater much and spent as much of the cruise as we'd allow her to, in the pools. (So it didn't slow her down at all.) I noticed not only the taste, but the added buoyancy (I can't float much in fresh water, but was bobbing like a cork in the pools; neat stuff!)

 

Dave

[ginger2000]

Thanks for the review - we're boarding at the end of November and can't wait! I noticed part of your group had the Royal Family Suite. We are in one for the first time on our cruise - were they happy with it? Did they use the concierge services very much?

 

We were also on the Oct 9 sailing. The concierge Carlos is a wonderful gentleman! He contacted us via e-mail about 6 days before sailing. He arranged for a bottle of champagne to be in our stateroom with 8 glasses - and it was waiting for us when we got to our room at 130pm! We booked an excursion with him as well as some spa treatments. We went there every morning for our relaxing coffee before breakfast and every evening for drinks before dinner. He and his bartender Ken - were simply amazing!!!!

[Sugar*Magnolia]

If this has been mentioned, sorry for repeating. Does anyone know if they have replaced all the televisions to flat panels yet? Specificaly the D1's on Deck 7???

[coasterwiggs]

We had a flat panel TV in our Promenade view room, but it was small.

[sarduccio]

And we had D1 8516 on 9/25/10, no flat panel there yet.

[cookmg40]

Going on the EOS Nov 19, 2010. I have read that the pool water is salty, Is this true? Can you taste/feel it or is it filtered? Any pointers for kids activities?

Thanks

 

Hi,

Have you joined our roll call? It is getting active now. We have an informal meet and mingle planned and a slot pull confirmed. You can also sign up for the RCI Meet & Mingle. Here is the link to the roll call.

 

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=997510

 

Marilyn