REVIEW: Explorer/5Nt. Bermuda (AKA "Family Bonding Cruise" !)

[F27TW]

 

 

 

 

Welcome to my second Review! Hey... that's me!

 

　

This was the May 31 sailing of the Explorer Of The Seas (5-night Bermuda) out of Cape Liberty/Bayonne, NJ

 

　

So here's the background .. this trip was a family celebration that was almost a year in the works. My partner's son Justin was planning it as a surprise for his to-be-fiancee Teresa who he would propose to just a week before the cruise (she did say "yes", by the way!). This is the happy couple .. for some reason holding a Barbie sign they found somewhere on board!

 

　

　

　

　

There were a total of 9 of us; myself (Tony-49) and my partner (Guy-51), Justin (27) and Teresa (24), my partners daughter Megan (26), Guy's Mom and Dad and (here's where it gets fun) .. my partner's ex-wife and her husband too!

　

Long story short, things have been strained, at times, over the years between my partner and his ex-wife but they still managed to be great parents to their 4 kids. She has long since re-married and though there was not much interaction between she and I over the years, it was time to move on. Justin really wanted his entire family to be part of this wonderful development in his life. After all, this family is changing and growing now and it was all about celebrating the engagement! Of course I was a little nervous that there would be some unpleasantness as was she, it turns out, because this was the first time in years that she would be facing not only me, but my partner's parents too.

　

 

None of us really knew what to expect in some ways, but things all turned out just great (and maybe the liquor helped!); it was just nice to get the weirdness behind us and focus on them. There were no arguments, no one went missing overboard, and though I won't say we're all besties all of a sudden, it certainly went beautifully overall.

 

So there .. I'm sorry if that was a little "TMI" .. but thats the frank background on this little group trip of ours and when I read cruise reviews by other people, I'm always interested in the "people story" overall .. and that was ours! This is most of our group (Guy's Mom and Dad ducked outta this one .. but you'll see them in later pics!)

 

 

 

So now on to the cruise!

　

We are from the New Haven area in CT. so we hired a limo service for our trip to and from the port. Wow were we ever glad we did too .. Id never wanna make that drive .. what a confusing mess those roadways to the pier are. So strange too .. you are in this windy maze of roadways through this gritty industrial area, then you turn one corner and BAM! there's the ship right in front of you.

　

We got to the port at 10:30 and it was the perfect time. But I have to say .. what a dump this place is. I can not believe RCCL has been using this crappy facility for as long as they have. Its no way to begin a cruise on a beautiful ship. It looks like an old bus terminal and very make-shift and temporary looking. The check-in staff were all pretty nice (in that gruff Joisey way!) but the boarding process is terrible. The P.A. system is absolutely useless .. it's impossible to even hear whats being yelled overhead. They board by numbers here and you really have to be almost up on top of the boarding area to hear whats going on.

 

Look at this place ..

 

　

 

The other thing i thought was beyond stupid is how they board you onto a bus to take you over to the ship ... a couple of hundred feet away. 4,000 people boarding a ship by bus ?? I did see a construction area directly adjacent to where the ship was docked, so I can only hope thats a new permanent terminal going up there so they can finally do this right. I can not imagine when the Libery Of The Seas .. and then the Quantum get here that they could possibly keep this awful set up going !

 

 

Now call me silly, but i also kinda like boarding the ship for the first time via a gangway into the Centrum (like at Port Canaveral .. and on "the Love Boat"!) .. it just seems nicer than your initial entry onto the ship being down on Deck 1 and then cramming into elevators to go up. In fact the elevators were so jammed, Guy and I got tired of waiting and ended up -climbing- up to Deck 11 from there. Don't recommend THAT .. no ... REALLY.. that is one tall ship!

　

 

We were on board the ship by 12:00 and up in the Windjammer. It was just getting crowded at that time, but we managed a table and all enjoyed our lunch. I know alot of people on here ridicule the Windjammer .. but come on, people .. there is plenty of variety up there and it shouldn't be hard to make yourself happy. Are there a couple of things I think they could do better? Sure (like grilling up burgers and hot dogs rather than just steam-tables filled with pre-cooked ones) .. but I made myself happy each day there. Its a buffet afterall, not a 5-Star restaurant.

　

The only thing I didn't like was that i ordered a Diet Coke from a server and it took a very long time to get it. In fact, I had already finished eating by the time it came. I was a little nervous too because the server had taken my SeaPass card off with her. Turns out they had to send someone to the Pool Bar to get my can of soda but it took a long time. Lesson learned there .. I stuck with the Iced Tea from that point on!

 

　

The Windjammer was one of the areas that I can say I did notice fewer staff than I am used to seeing. Fewer servers and people coming around to clear the tables off .. definitely some cutting back in this area (I'll mention a few others as I go along with this report). The only thing I can say that got a little tiresome was the "Washy-Washy" uh, lady (?) at the WJ entrance. Seems like each time we went there it was the same big black tranny (i swear!) at the door scream-singing his, uh .. her .. song about Washy-Washy to the tune of the Macarena! ("HEEEYYYYY WASHY-WASHY..!") .. Cute maybe the first couple of times, but enouuuuuuugh already by the 4th day!

　

 

After lunch we all went down to the Promenade and had a cocktail or 2 (we were still breaking the ice, afterall!) outside the Sports Bar there and just people-watched until the "Staterooms Are Ready" announcement .. which was right on the button at 1:30. We all love the Royal Promenade .. its a great place to people watch.We were on Deck 9; port side in D-1 adjoining balcony cabins 9532 (us) and 9530 (Guy's Mom and Dad). =

　

 

The rest of the family were elsewhere on the ship. Megan had her own cabin on Deck 6 (6515)and her Mom and stepdad were nearby in 6511. They were inside cabins. Justin and Teresa were down in Deck 2 in an outside cabin. They actually got a kick out of being close the water .. even the next day when it got a little rough and the waves smashed up against their window a few times! (More on that a little later!)

 

Cabin pic and more coming in the next installment. I had it all ready with 16 pics in here .... and when I clicked to submit it, I had to re-format and delete, etc ... this is a lot more work than I had remembered!

 

... Continued very soon!

 

　

[sha88]

Thanks for sharing your cruise with us. Looking forward to the rest!

[marci22]

Washy lady: people seem to love her but she got on our nerves. We were on deck 9 and would wash our hands before entering WJ. She still wanted us to use the purell. I just pretended to do it (backlash expected) but my one son refused, said 'I just washed my hands'. She literally followed him into the WJ with her banter. That was awkward.

[F27TW]

This is cabin 9532.

 

 

 

Noticed that the furniture was a little dated and had seen some use, but certainly still a nice cabin. The balcony, on the other hand, I wasn't crazy about overall. We were on the Liberty 2 years ago and loved the opaque rounded balcony dividers that could be slid open to make a big balcony with your neighbor (assuming, of course that you were travelling together). The balconies on Explorer are solid steel walls in between and it felt sort of confining to me. Also, even though there is a glass pane just under the railing, the area beneath that is also solid steel. On Liberty and even the Monarch, it was all glass and just felt alot more spacious. Also noticed some sloppy painting on the balcony too. There were loose paint chips and splashes on the balcony floor and paint kinda quickly re-touched. Nothing horrendous, but definitely noticeable.

 

 

　

The rest of the family were elsewhere on the ship. Megan had her own cabin on Deck 6 (6515)and her Mom and stepdad were nearby in 6511. They were inside cabins. Justin and Teresa were down in Deck 2 in an outside cabin. They actually got a kick out of being close the water .. even the next day when it got a little rough and the waves smashed up against their window a few times! (More on that a little later!)

 

　

OK .. now here's where I'm gonna get in trouble with some of you .. i am gonna talk about my smuggled liquor .. :eek: .. so please skip the rest of this paragraph if the subject horrifies you! Really ... look away now . here it comes!!

 

 

We had 2 checked bags and the one without the Rum Runners came quickly to our cabin by 2:30 ... but the other one -with- the contraband wasn't turning up. We waited and sweated a little bit .. waiting for the call to the naughty room .. but it finally did come by 4:00 .. Stoli and Captain Morgan all safe and sound. Please be assured that even with the brought-on-board booze, we still had a horrifying bar tab at the end!

 

　

Met our cabin steward Newton and asked him to be a good boy and keep our ice buckets filled and he did a great job with that the whole time. He was terrific the whole way through and got a nice extra tip. We got towel animals on 2 of the nights (for those of you who count!).

　

This ends Part 2.

　

Part 3 will include some semi-rough seas, Our 2 days in Bermuda, and one mother-in-law who decided to try and take the gorgeous Tunisian assistant-waiter Kacem home with her (I do have pics of him later on too!).

 

For now, I'll leave you with a couple of pics of Guy hammin' it up posing with the celebrities on the stairwells!

 

[h20cruzer]

Great review, really enjoying it. Please give us some more!!

Norma

[trvlmil]

Great review so far! Thanks for sharing!

[F27TW]

Washy lady: people seem to love her but she got on our nerves. We were on deck 9 and would wash our hands before entering WJ. She still wanted us to use the purell. I just pretended to do it (backlash expected) but my one son refused, said 'I just washed my hands'. She literally followed him into the WJ with her banter. That was awkward.

 

And then the other one ... "NO WASHY, NO FOODY ... NO FOODY, NO HAPPYYYY ... !! " Gahhhhh !

 

Seriously ... she actually followed your son in ? Yikes!

[wk1226]

Boy some of these people are a little stuck up for my taste! She followed him in because months prior a lot of people got sick! But I'm curious, I know you showed pictures of your stateroom, but how was the condition of most of the public rooms onboard?

 

 

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[marci22]

Boy some of these people are a little stuck up for my taste! She followed him in because months prior a lot of people got sick!

 

This cruise was last May 2013. She didn't have to keep repeating herself. It was annoying. He is an adult. He told her he just washed his hands. No need for her to keep harassing him or anyone else.

Edited June 8, 2014 by marci22

[ajdickinson]

Thanks for a great review so far-- excited to hear about the rest of the trip!

[jmrothermel]

Following along :)

 

 

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[jerseygirlinsi]

Ok, I did not know you were going to post so quickly (I'm happy that you did), so imagine my surprise when I spotted the review had already started:eek:

I took the better part of yesterday, and this morning, to watch the entire second season of Orange Is The New Black. FYI, FREAKIN AWESOME!!!!!

Anywho, I'm all in now. And you are my kind of guy, funny as hell!

Ok, the dynamic of your group had my eyes bugging out, and my jaw on the floor. THATS.A.LOT. Now, because I am so dam nosey….I must know the rest!:D

Hahaha! No but really, loving it!

[excited1stcruise]

Following along :) Excellent start and can't wait to read more! We are on Explorer for a 9 night cruise this November.

[Mrsfabo]

So Guy was married how long? Well I'm guessing many years and how long have you been a couple?

 

 

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[F27TW]

Ok, I did not know you were going to post so quickly (I'm happy that you did), so imagine my surprise when I spotted the review had already started:eek:

I took the better part of yesterday, and this morning, to watch the entire second season of Orange Is The New Black. FYI, FREAKIN AWESOME!!!!!

Anywho, I'm all in now. And you are my kind of guy, funny as hell!

Ok, the dynamic of your group had my eyes bugging out, and my jaw on the floor. THATS.A.LOT. Now, because I am so dam nosey….I must know the rest!:D

Hahaha! No but really, loving it!

 

 

 

Yea we get that a lot! LOL Trust me when I first found out way back that his ex wife was coming along I was a little uh .. shocked .. too .. but it ended up we all had a great time.

 

So glad ure enjoying the review so far ... that makes me happy ! Next installment coming up tonight!

[F27TW]

Following along :) Excellent start and can't wait to read more! We are on Explorer for a 9 night cruise this November.

 

I am SO jealous .. u are gonna love it .. I'd kill do do the 9-day on this beautiful ship!!

[F27TW]

So Guy was married how long? Well I'm guessing many years and how long have you been a couple?

 

 

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Hi Mrsfabo .. he was married for about 15 years. We've been a couple for 17 yrs now .. it'll be 18 yrs next month.

[F27TW]

OK here it is ... Part 3. (is it Part 3? i'm not good at organizing these things!)

I have to say that I had read a lot on here about the crowds on the Explorer being a little bit on the rough-around-the-edges side (being mostly NYC and NJ), and oh yea, there were some definite Jersey Shore-Jerseylicious-Mob Wives kinda folks on here! But you know what ? It was a great crowd I thought. Everyone was in vacation mode, in good spirits and never did I see anything like rudeness or any trouble. Could also be that I’m used to this crowd having been a NYC/CT boy myself forever!

Muster Drill (which was in the Maharaja Lounge) was quick and painless. Only thing I thought was strange was that certain Muster groups were told that they had to –sit on the dance floor-. Huh ?? Didn’t matter to us, we all had seats on our side … but “sit the floor”?

We had an amazing view of Manhattan and the Statue of Liberty from the balcony and we gathered everyone up and did sailaway right out on our 2 balconies. Guy, Megan and I ran up to the Solarium Bar to get a big round of cocktails for everyone (btw .. nice strong hand on the bartenders up at that one!), but suddenly I noticed buildings rushing by … we had started moving without even realizing it !

So we rushed back down to the cabin and enjoyed the views from there .. and that pass under the Verrazanno-Narrows Bridge is amazing. I’m not sure how close you actually come to it, but MAN its gotta be close and I wonder how many people driving across it get a little wigged out seeing this gigantic ship coming right at them!

The poor peeps in our group that didn’t have the nice balcony cabins like us announced that they had now been spoiled and would never cruise in anything less than a D-1 again! This is where we missed the open-able partition that we had on Liberty before, though!

I failed to mention that this was a first cruise for 3 of our group and so those of us more “seasoned” cruisers started to get a little bit nervous for them later that night when after dinner, the ship started rocking a bit. We were hoping they wouldn’t notice but even at dinner that night, the seas were beginning to churn a bit .. and we were at a big table right next to the window so there was no way they weren’t gonna see it!

We ate in MDR each night except for formal night (Night #2), since none of us felt like bothering to bring anything dressy. That night we all ate up in the peaceful and quiet Windjammer and a fantastic relaxed dinner with a lot of laughs. By dinner time that second night, the seas were just beginning to calm down a bit and the 2 in our group that were a little thrown off their game earlier in the day were back to their normal selves.

I was surprised to find that the ship gives free Dramamine out down at the Guest Services Desk. I thought that was a nice touch . and plenty of people took advantage of that.

The seas were described by the Captain (and the map on the TV) as “Moderate”; he said 10-14 feet seas. Yes, the ship was fishtailing and pitching a bit, but it really wasn’t all that bad.I am a former Flight Attendant (years ago though) and so being bounced around doesn’t bother me at all after my years of it on small regional-sized planes, but I did feel bad for the people who were under the weather that day.

So back to dinner the first night. We had reserved our 6pm table that day in port just after we passed into the boarding area where they had tables set up for booking MTD reservations, bar and drink packages. That helped us out because prior to that, we hadn’t really thought about it.

The guys looking after us each night in the Deck 5 MDR were Francesco (Philippines) and assistant waiter Kacem (Tunisia). They were just fantastic the entire week. Couldn’t do enough for us; Francesco offering extra entrees, double portions and bringing extra desserts to the table for us all to share each night. I’ve heard a lot (and seen myself) of the cutbacks in this industry, but the service we got in the MDR each night was really like a step back 10 years ago. The only thing I felt bad about was that the staffing levels made it so that these servers really had to run their (cute) butts off. They had several big tables, but in spite of it all, they did an absolutely outstading job!

Kacem and Francesco:

And the fact that our –HOT- Tunisian assistant waiter Kacem was being especially sweet and really fussing over Guy’s Mother just totally made her evenings. She lit up like a Christmas Tree each night when he flashed his gorgeous smile and dark twinkling eyes at her and greeted her. She also declared to Guy’s Dad (her husband of 52 years!) that she was taking Kacem back home with her after the cruise .. and I’m not sure she was kidding.. LOL!

The last night he told her how much she reminded him of his mother and she got a nice hug from him (yes I was jealous). She gave him a playful little smack on the way out that night and said “You Be A Good Boy Now!”.

Look at the smile on her! This is him … am I wrong ?? Grrrrr !

The food each night was actually very, very good. There were a couple of things that may have been not to our taste, but overall we were very pleasantly surprised. I even loved the bread basket offerings .. especially that pumpkin seed roll!

I was expecting it to be “Meh…” because just last month, a friend of ours was on the 7 Day Copenhagen-Russia cruise on Legend Of The Seas. She came back saying the portions were very small, the quality wasn’t great, the staff surly and disinterested. So imagine our wonderful surprise that we got incredible service AND great food.

I'm sorry for not having done any food-porn, but some of the dishes that stand out in my mind as especially enjoyable were The Mushroom-Puff Pastry Tart, the Horseradish-crusted Salmon, the Prime Rib, the Lamb Shank (huge and just falling off the bone!), the mixed Seafood plate (which I added an extra portion of salmon to) .. and to my utter shock, there were Lobster Tails on the regular menu one night too! Definitely not expecting that, so we all enjoyed that lobster .. so much that Francesco insisted on bringing extras .. as in a whole new round of lobster tails out to the table! They were a good size, very nicely cooked and were demolished by us. Now I’m a New England Boy .. and believe me .. I can eat .. but this was the first time I can say I actually got full on lobster! This pic is a little embarrassing, but its what our side of the table looked like after our lobster extravaganza!

Another thing I was pleasantly surprised at were the desserts. On our last cruises on Liberty and Monarch, I remember the desserts were mostly mousse-y, jiggly, Jello-y things that were either tiny portions or Sugar-Free. And they still had those. BUT .. they also had a delicious carrot cake wedge and something called Chocolate Sensation, which was my favorite. It’s a rich dark real mousse .. very rich and decadent served in a rectangular slice .. amazing. The Key Lime Pie (regular!)was very good as was the Peach-Blueberry Crumble. Couldn’t have been happier with our meals. The only misses I can remember were the soups .. a little watery and overly salted. And the French Onion Soup is just a little cup of onion-y broth with a crouton floating in it .. not the bubbly drippy stringy cheese thing you expect.

Oh .. and the coffee. OMG was the coffee strong. All over the ship it was that dark roast jet-fuel coffee. Now, this is a bunch of Italians in this family and it was too strong even for us ! I think you’re either a Dunkin-Donuts type person or a Starbucks person. And the Starbucks people, being used to the charred dark coffee I;m sure were just fine with this stuff .. but I do have to take some points away from RCCL for the coffee … bleeccccch ! (OK, I'm ducking now! .. LOL!)

Speaking of coffee, I’ll close this Part off with a pic of the cool Windjammer server that runs around the WJ at breakfast serving coffee with a tray of cups balanced on his head! People were either fascinated .. or horrified by him coming at them….. check this dude out .. he was great !!!

Continued soon with Bermuda .. and Guy’s currency conversion blunder in port! Hahhhhhh!

[F27TW]

P.S. Doing this review is giving me some serious cruise withdrawals. :mad:

 

Cheers, everyone! (And yes, I'd kill to be back here again right now !!)

 

[jerseygirlinsi]

Must of been awesome for the first timers to sail away on the balconies. The balconies are very addictive, and hard to go back from. We usually do suites, but since it's just the two of us, went D2.

I've been so worried also about the meals in the MDR. There has been an overflow of negatives, and I was hoping to hear that you all enjoyed your experiences there. We're pretty easy people to please, and have always enjoyed the MDR in the past. Btw, very impressive pile of lobster shells! You all went in on the lobster that night! I enjoy the soups, but especially the chilled options. Did you notice those being offered? Awesome update.

[bugsy43]

Thanks for your great and entertaining review. My partner and I are sailing in the Explorer in just over 3 weeks for the 9 day cruise and reading your review and seeing your pics are getting us so excited. Thanks so much for taking the time to do this. :):)

[Mrsfabo]

Thank you so much for this review been on 8 other cruises with the other company aka party cruise which my hubby and I love so it's refreshing to hear you loved it. I'm going in august on this same cruise and my first time with this company so thanks again

 

 

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[EmpressofPurple]

Hey Tony great review so far!

 

Of course, I'm tuning in hoping for some, er, revealing photos... let's see what happens when beach day or poolside rolls around... but in the meantime, I'll wrassle your partner's mom for that tasty assistant waiter x:eek:;):p:)

 

Seriously, glad it all worked out with the interesting family dynamics. You're old enough to remember the tv show "soap" which at the time my parents referred to as "the only show on tv about real people leading real lives"... so yeah, interesting family dynamics I'm used to:D

 

Looking forward to the rest of your review!!

 

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[KirkNC]

Thanks for the report!

[JohnGaltny]

Nice job Tony.

 

OF COURSE a New Yawk/Joisey crowd won't be Monaco but that can make it fun if a little weird to people from normal parts of Planet Earth. LOL

 

We got off Explorer two weeks before you got on.