Onboard Explorer of The Seas Eastern!

[baycruiser]

We're about to pull into Nassau so I'm going to make this a short review before my full review when we return for those leaving for the Western tomorrow. We are in JS 9328 with the wedge/pie shaped balcony on the hump. The balcony has a lounger, two chairs and two small tables. We brought along that Roll A Table and ate many breakfasts out there. Best purchase I ever made!

 

This is our first Voyager class ship, and we are significantly impressed! The hot tubs were always available, didn't look like too many chair hogs on the pool deck, the Solarium was nice and quiet, the Ice Show was fantastic, and the food is much better than our last cruise on the Monarch of The Seas.

 

Shopping in St. Maarten was fantastic. The Coach store there doesn't have much, so do your Coach bag shopping in San Juan because I heard the outlet there was better.

 

We didn't have much time to do much in San Juan except eat an early dinner and go back to the ship. There is an amazing pet store there that makes custom "sofas" for cats ($80 so I skipped purchasing one).

 

In St. Thomas, we went on the SNUBA excursion and were a bit disappointed that it was at Coki Beach and not Magen's Bay. We saw plenty of fish, but my husband was a bit miffed that myself and two other women were on the same SNUBA raft as him because one of us dropped the weight belt while only 10 feet down (and had to surface), the other woman panicked some and requested her belt off, and my mask would fill with water every time I cleared my ears. So us women took up most of the instructor's time and my husband felt a bit cheated because he wanted to go deeper. He plans on getting SCUBA certified when we are back in San Francisco so he can SCUBA on our next cruise. We did see lots of colorful fish and snorkeled afterwards.

 

I'll try to check back later if anyone has any questions.

[patry]

hi i am glad you had a great time. in overall the shape of the ship how is it to you as a personal opinion?

[baycruiser]

Overall, the ship's condition is great. You'll only notice imperfections like worn or stained carpeting if you specifically look for it.

 

My only complaint was the scheduling of the Pool Party night. They had it on Wednesday night, the night before we docked in St. Thomas. Great idea... get everyone drunk at 10PM and then make them get up at 5:30AM in order to clear Immigration. :/

 

They should have scheduled this the night before the second sea day (the day we are in St. Thomas). This is the one event I really, really look forward to on any cruise and was very disappointed that we had to miss it because of our early SNUBA excursion.

[asrubin]

I noticed that you said there was not much time to do anything in San Juan. Do you know if the rain forest tour is available to go on? I know some cruises are able to do it, but I don't know about the Explorer. We are going in July.

 

Thanks!

[KMYork]

We will be sailing on Explorer 3 weeks from today! Any info you can give would be great! You said you had to get up at 5:30am for the immigration clearing.... can you elaborate? Also...what time were you able to board on Day One? Did you try Portofino's and if so what did you think?

Were the seas very rough? I have heard that eastern is rougher than western...

Thanks!!!!!!!!!

[2VaCruzers]

Baycruiser...we'll be on Explorer a week from today to also to the Eastern Caribbean. I too was wondering about the immigration clearning. I don't remember doing this at any ports on our western caribbean last year. Is St. Thomas the only place this occurs?

 

How was the entertainment? The food?

 

Thanks ahead of time!!

[Erie Dave]

Immigration was a piece of cake, only took about 10 minutes and we have had to to this before when going to St Thomas from a foreign port--the day before was St Martin. The sea days on this trip were cold...high 60's, low 70's. The pools and hot tubs were never that crowded because it was cold on the first sea day, and cold and cloudy on the second.

I don't know about th OP, but I was very dissapointed with the food and service in the dining room this trip. Our food was never hot, the sirloin was tough and dry, our assistant waitress was borderline incompitent. We ate in Portofino on caribbean night, which was Wednesday, and it was terrific! We tried to get in for the last 3 nights, but they were booked.

I did think, that the ship overall was in terrific shape, no let down there.

[baycruiser]

I noticed that you said there was not much time to do anything in San Juan. Do you know if the rain forest tour is available to go on? I know some cruises are able to do it, but I don't know about the Explorer. We are going in July.

 

Thanks!

The El Yunque Rain Forest Tour is available on this Explorer itinerary. 4.5 hours / $30pp Adult.

[baycruiser]

We will be sailing on Explorer 3 weeks from today! Any info you can give would be great! You said you had to get up at 5:30am for the immigration clearing.... can you elaborate? Also...what time were you able to board on Day One? Did you try Portofino's and if so what did you think?

Were the seas very rough? I have heard that eastern is rougher than western...

Thanks!!!!!!!!!

 

5:30am is when we had to get up to shower, eat breakfast, etc. in order to clear immigration by 7:15am for our 8:15am excursion. Since there were so many people going on early excursions in St. Thomas (you are up already to clear immigration so might as well schedule an early excursion), we had about 30 mins to wait on line to clear immigration.

 

All of the ship's passengers had to clear by 8:15AM the latest, regardless if you were getting off the ship or not. If you miss it, you get fined $3,300 according to the cruise line's documentation. They scan everyone's SeaPass cards to verify you showed up. I'm sure those who overslept got a knock on the door to get down to the dining room. :)

 

Edited to answer your other questions: We had Late Seating and since we aren't much for 2.5 hour dinners when there are so many activities, we only ate in the dining room the first formal night, the 3rd night and the final night. We didn't find it necessary to eat in Portofino, as the Windjammer provided a good meal each night we didn't eat in the dining room from either being too wiped out from the day's activities or because we didn't want to miss something going on in the evening.

 

We had rough seas the last two days when we were definitely in the Atlantic. The Captain came on and made an announcement that we would experience 4 ft swells. You could see the pool water coming out of the pool and the movement was very noticable in the Windjammer. I didn't see anyone visibly seasick or anything like that.