Reporting Live From The Explorer of the Seas - A Review

[Melissa_Phillips]

Day 7 - Ville Franche

 

We started the day with breakfast on the balcony, we docked at about 9am ish so by the time breakfast was here we were pretty much docked and there was no breeze, lovley!! I woke up to the sound of the pilot boat pulling along side us, Mum was already awake. I got up and went straight in the shower, feels good first thing in the morning, was nice to cool off as well, it was very hot in the night. Our breakfast arrives after the usual phonecards letting us know it was on its way, as usual the food was as ordered and was lovley and warm. My toast was lovley and I got my favourite jam, strawberry Mmm! Once we finished with breakfast I went down to guest services as I needed to drop a departure luggage form off, along with a mid cruise review, also for some reason my seapass card stopped working in the door So I got a new one of those too. With the luggage departure we found out this year that we need to be out the rooms by 8am and off the ship by 9am, this sounds ideal as last year, depending on our muster station we were given a specific time and place to meet, ours was at like half six in the morning, not nice!! I then went to the Star Lounge to pick up our tender tickets, we were number 10, I think they were calling number 5 at this point so still plenty of time. We packed our supplies for the day as the plan was to spend all day ashore returning to the boat at about 6pm. When they announced boat 9, we headed down to one of the lounges on deck 5 to wait, soon after our boat was called and we headed down to deck two where we were guided to our tender. This year they were using the lifeboats as tenders, last year on the adventure of the seas they had ones from Port, the tenders were really regular, there was one waiting all the time, I think they had 4 in operation in total. Our tender took us to shore, only a 5-10 min trip and getting out the other end was easy, there was no security to get out. We headed to the little market which had some nice things, I returned and bought a Labrador purse, though unfortunately the slots are too small for cards, maybe they'll expand as I use it. We headed up some back alleys and found a place to get a coffee, well mum got a coffee, Im not a hot drink drinker. Once she had her coffee me and mum headed down to the beach, God it was a scorcher! We sunbathed for a bit and we positioned ourselves near the lapping water leaning up against a rock. It was lovley to have the cool water lapping over my feet. We relaxed there for a few hours and then went off to find our lunch. We found a nice restaurant near the market, Mum ordered steak and I ordered a cheese, tomato and mushroom pizza. We started digging in and the waiter came back to say Mums order was wrong, as it was veal! She'd already ate some though and was allowed to keep it. The food was really nice but the portions were huge so felt bad leaving some. We decided to head back to the ship to dump some of our stuff (I bought a 2ltr bottle of coke) and return with some swimwear so we could go in the sea. We headed back to the harbour and our tender took us back, we headed back up to the room, emptied our bags, got changed then caught the tender back to shore. Mum had seen a bag she liked so she went to buy that whilst I went to the beach. I found a nice place and settled my stuff down, I bought a Labrador towel that I saw earlier :-) mum arrived about 20 minutes later and I went for a paddle in the sea. Unfortunately it started to cloud over so the heat wasn't as intense. Mum then went for a swim while I did some reading whilst I dried off. After about an hour or so we packed up our things and returned to the ship. The tender was very busy going back as it was nearly 6pm and the last tender was 7:30pm. We returned to our room and unpacked our bags, and watched a bit of Top Gear. Mum took herself down to the Windjammer but I wasn't hungry yet so I stayed upstairs and did some washing. We agreed to meet at the quiz at 8pm so I headed down there at about 7:45pm and sat with the same couple as yesterday, the more brains the better! We scored 12 tonight! Definitely an improvement, by the end of the cruise we may well win! We then headed to the show at 9pm which was an RC production show called "Invitation to Dance", at 10pm we planned to go to the TV quiz, Mum should be good at this! The show wasn't all that great, it was a bit repetitive and there were a few techy hitches at the start. But it passed the time and did get better as it went on. Once it finished we then went to the Star Lounge to do the TV quiz, we did so well and we're in the final few! It was a picture quiz first of all which was really easy, then a normal quiz and then a TV theme tunes quiz, it was really good fun, we met two guys who helped us with the quiz and a couple as well, we all teamed up, the more brains the better! After that we took a stroll down the promenade and headed back upstairs to bed where we watched top gear and then went to sleep.

[Melissa_Phillips]

Hi Melissa

I wondered if you could explain a bit more about the 30 per cent off your future booking? There are some threads saying that's an offer in the states at the moment but it's not on offer for U.K bookings on royal caribbean website so that sounds good.

 

We've sailed on Indy twice she's a beautiful ship. A hump balcony cabin is a great place to be and her cabins on slightly larger than explorers. Indy is a stretched version of explorer.

 

Glad you enjoyed nerja it's a lovely place. I've not been for 20 years so I bet it's changed a bit.

Funny to think of the ship meandering along at 7 nots.

I got excited about American sniper as I'd like to see that, shame they can't show it as a late night open air viewing.

 

Looking forward to hearing about villefranche and the tender process. We are hoping to go to Monaco when we are there in a few weeks. X

 

The 30% off per person was a deal just for online bookings, the deal isn't currently available to book from the UK off the ship, so booking on board has got us the cheapest deal :-)

Edited June 10, 2015 by Melissa_Phillips

[Melissa_Phillips]

On board not online

[Melissa_Phillips]

Hi Melissa

Really enjoying your review. We are doing the same cruise on July 26th. Is it possible for you to give us some information about show times?

We are booked in for traditional dining at 8.30 each evening, but still want to watch the shows. Do they have 2 shows each night?

Also, we have friends who have booked to stay in one of the new cabins at the front of the ship on deck 12. These are not on any of the deck plans that we have seen. What do these new cabins look like?

Thanks for all your help. Enjoy the rest of your holiday.

Best Wishes

Chris and Hayley

 

Hi, they do two shows a night and the times vary, sometimes 7pm and 9pm, other times 9pm and 10:45pm :-)

 

The ones on deck 12, do you mean the panoramic staterooms? If so they look awesome.

[EvertonCJ]

Hi, they do two shows a night and the times vary, sometimes 7pm and 9pm, other times 9pm and 10:45pm :-)

 

The ones on deck 12, do you mean the panoramic staterooms? If so they look awesome.

 

Thanks for the reply Melissa. It sounds like you and your Mum are having a great time.

Our friends only booked for the July 26th cruise this week and wanted an outside cabin. Apparently, there had just been a cancellation, so they got one of the panoramic staterooms on deck 12.

How long do the shows normally last? If we are eating at 8.30pm, could we watch the 7pm show?

We have never cruised before, so don't really know what to expect, but your positive comments have been very reassuring.

Once again, many thanks.

 

Chris and Hayley

[Melissa_Phillips]

Thanks for the reply Melissa. It sounds like you and your Mum are having a great time.

Our friends only booked for the July 26th cruise this week and wanted an outside cabin. Apparently, there had just been a cancellation, so they got one of the panoramic staterooms on deck 12.

How long do the shows normally last? If we are eating at 8.30pm, could we watch the 7pm show?

We have never cruised before, so don't really know what to expect, but your positive comments have been very reassuring.

Once again, many thanks.

 

Chris and Hayley

 

The shows aren't long, anywhere between 45m to an hour :-)

[sky0000547]

How long do the shows normally last? If we are eating at 8.30pm, could we watch the 7pm show?

 

 

The shows are always scheduled around the early and late seating. As you are in late seating, you will generally watch the show first before going to dinner. You won't miss either dinner or show.

 

The shows are less than 1 hour and generally around 45-50 minutes.

[cymru cruiser]

The porters approach each car as it parks with a van and load luggage straight from the car into the van- very efficient service.

 

 

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This sounds a lot easier and quicker than pulling up in the car and waiting for the car to be called forward. Is this the norm then now? We are on explorer in 3 weeks so do we just drive straight into the car park, park up and they get our bags from us? What time does the car park open as we can board from 11am. Thanks

[Melissa_Phillips]

Port was open from 10:30am :-)

[cymru cruiser]

The 30% off per person was a deal just for online bookings, the deal isn't currently available to book from the UK off the ship, so booking on board has got us the cheapest deal :-)

 

30 percent per person for booking next cruise whilst on board. That's very interesting. The promotion is currently on offer in the states from what I've read but not to us in the U.K. hmmmm interesting. Do you mind me asking what conditions there were? As I may look at booking harmony for next year whilst on board explorer in a few weeks if the offer still stands. 30 percent sounds great.

[cymru cruiser]

Day 7 - Ville Franche

 

We started the day with breakfast on the balcony, we docked at about 9am ish so by the time breakfast was here we were pretty much docked and there was no breeze, lovley!! I woke up to the sound of the pilot boat pulling along side us, Mum was already awake. I got up and went straight in the shower, feels good first thing in the morning, was nice to cool off as well, it was very hot in the night. Our breakfast arrives after the usual phonecards letting us know it was on its way, as usual the food was as ordered and was lovley and warm. My toast was lovley and I got my favourite jam, strawberry Mmm! Once we finished with breakfast I went down to guest services as I needed to drop a departure luggage form off, along with a mid cruise review, also for some reason my seapass card stopped working in the door So I got a new one of those too. With the luggage departure we found out this year that we need to be out the rooms by 8am and off the ship by 9am, this sounds ideal as last year, depending on our muster station we were given a specific time and place to meet, ours was at like half six in the morning, not nice!! I then went to the Star Lounge to pick up our tender tickets, we were number 10, I think they were calling number 5 at this point so still plenty of time. We packed our supplies for the day as the plan was to spend all day ashore returning to the boat at about 6pm. When they announced boat 9, we headed down to one of the lounges on deck 5 to wait, soon after our boat was called and we headed down to deck two where we were guided to our tender. This year they were using the lifeboats as tenders, last year on the adventure of the seas they had ones from Port, the tenders were really regular, there was one waiting all the time, I think they had 4 in operation in total. Our tender took us to shore, only a 5-10 min trip and getting out the other end was easy, there was no security to get out. We headed to the little market which had some nice things, I returned and bought a Labrador purse, though unfortunately the slots are too small for cards, maybe they'll expand as I use it. We headed up some back alleys and found a place to get a coffee, well mum got a coffee, Im not a hot drink drinker. Once she had her coffee me and mum headed down to the beach, God it was a scorcher! We sunbathed for a bit and we positioned ourselves near the lapping water leaning up against a rock. It was lovley to have the cool water lapping over my feet. We relaxed there for a few hours and then went off to find our lunch. We found a nice restaurant near the market, Mum ordered steak and I ordered a cheese, tomato and mushroom pizza. We started digging in and the waiter came back to say Mums order was wrong, as it was veal! She'd already ate some though and was allowed to keep it. The food was really nice but the portions were huge so felt bad leaving some. We decided to head back to the ship to dump some of our stuff (I bought a 2ltr bottle of coke) and return with some swimwear so we could go in the sea. We headed back to the harbour and our tender took us back, we headed back up to the room, emptied our bags, got changed then caught the tender back to shore. Mum had seen a bag she liked so she went to buy that whilst I went to the beach. I found a nice place and settled my stuff down, I bought a Labrador towel that I saw earlier :-) mum arrived about 20 minutes later and I went for a paddle in the sea. Unfortunately it started to cloud over so the heat wasn't as intense. Mum then went for a swim while I did some reading whilst I dried off. After about an hour or so we packed up our things and returned to the ship. The tender was very busy going back as it was nearly 6pm and the last tender was 7:30pm. We returned to our room and unpacked our bags, and watched a bit of Top Gear. Mum took herself down to the Windjammer but I wasn't hungry yet so I stayed upstairs and did some washing. We agreed to meet at the quiz at 8pm so I headed down there at about 7:45pm and sat with the same couple as yesterday, the more brains the better! We scored 12 tonight! Definitely an improvement, by the end of the cruise we may well win! We then headed to the show at 9pm which was an RC production show called "Invitation to Dance", at 10pm we planned to go to the TV quiz, Mum should be good at this! The show wasn't all that great, it was a bit repetitive and there were a few techy hitches at the start. But it passed the time and did get better as it went on. Once it finished we then went to the Star Lounge to do the TV quiz, we did so well and we're in the final few! It was a picture quiz first of all which was really easy, then a normal quiz and then a TV theme tunes quiz, it was really good fun, we met two guys who helped us with the quiz and a couple as well, we all teamed up, the more brains the better! After that we took a stroll down the promenade and headed back upstairs to bed where we watched top gear and then went to sleep.

 

Villefranche sounds lovely. We are looking forward to this port and hope to go to Monte Carlo. What time could you go and get the tender tickets from? Just wondering as to make the most of a full day in port we need to be off as quick as possible. Thanks.

[Melissa_Phillips]

Day 8 - Corsica

 

By the time I woke up this morning we were already docked in Corsica, in fact the captains announce the woke me up, how rude :-o mum had already gone down to breakfast so I headed into the shower and made my way down too, but couldn't find her so ended up eating solo. I then went back to the room where we met up, she must have left the Windjammer as I arrived. We got our things together and headed to deck 1 to go to shore, it was soo hot!! We walked through the port and arrived to a road train, so for €7 boarded that for a little tour of Corsica which was nice, although the driving slightly erratic! A lot of sudden braking and we nearly knocked a copper off his bike, Oops! After that we looked around a little market and visited the compulsory souvenir shop where Mum bought fridge magnets, postcards and the like. We then headed back to the ship, as it was so hot so we went to the room for a while to cool off, got changed into swimsuits and then headed to the pool deck where most sunbeds were empty. It was so hot I went into the pool and clung to the edges, after about half hour I taught myself to swim! I'd never been able to swim but after a while I were swimming like a fish doing doggy paddle and breast stroke. The rest of the afternoon was spent in between sunbathing and swimming to cool off. We headed to Johnny Rockets for lunch as Mum had never been there before, it was lovley! I had a route 66 burger and mum had the rocket double, we finished off with ice cream Sundaes for dessert Mmm! Afterwards we headed to the pool deck again and did some more sunbathing and swimming, Annie (2014) was just finishing up so I watched that for half hour, what I saw was good :-) mum headed back up to the room and I moved to top deck as the sun had disappeared from our deck, after about half hr up there, by which time we had started moving I went to the solarium where there was an adults only pool to swim in, much better! Once I had finished I came back up to the stateroom and had a shower, I had a mean suntan going on on my back!! I don't want it there though I want my arms and legs to tan grrr! I don't understand I only spent like a maximum of 2 hours total swimming and exposing my back yet I lay there all day for hours with my arms and legs out and nothing happens, why?! Grr :-( felt good after a shower, the pools are salt water so you get salt on you left behind when you dry off so was good to get that scrubbed off. I got dressed up in a nice top and black trousers as it's formal night tonight so want to look a bit smarter than last time! Tanga our activities manager left a voice mail on our stateroom phone about the American Sniper movie, apparently they didn't edit it before it got showed by the pool deck and they didn't realise how much violent content was in it (really?? A film about the most deadly sniper in us history??) anyway she said we could pay to watch it in our stateroom and they would refund the movie so that's really good, were pleased about that :-) we headed down to the Star Lounge for the 8pm quiz and sat with our usual couple (we must learn their names!), we got 9/15 tonight, well hopefully break the ten barrier by the end of the cruise! After the quiz we went to the theatre to get our seats for the show which was a comedy vocalist, she was so funny! Really good singer and great one liners, she really got the audience involved. After the evening show we then returned to the room for a few minutes to nip to the loo and what not before returning to the theatre for the Love and Marriage game show, that was SO funny, three couples up on stage answering questions which their other halves had to guess the right answer to, some of the questions were very racy and there were some amazing answers. After this show we returned to the room to bed.

[Melissa_Phillips]

Villefranche sounds lovely. We are looking forward to this port and hope to go to Monte Carlo. What time could you go and get the tender tickets from? Just wondering as to make the most of a full day in port we need to be off as quick as possible. Thanks.

 

I believe the tender tickets were available from 8:30am :-)

[cymru cruiser]

thank you for the info on the tender tickets. I read somewhere that if you want to get off early, its advisable to be queuing for the tickets at least half an hour before they are available in order to get one of the first.

 

Congratulations on learning to swim that's a great achievement.

 

I'd have loved to visit Corsica and Sardinia but our cruise doesn't visit there which is a shame because otherwise the itinerary is the same.

 

Do you have any plans for Cadiz? We are going to go to the royal spanish riding school and have already booked our tickets. It means getting the train to Jerez and back which I'm a little concerned by. One of the other members on our roll call is also considering going.

If you do dock in Cadiz and there is a taxi price list in the port please could you let me know how much a taxi would cost from Cadiz port to Jerez de la Frontera for four people and for six people if they have cabs big enough?

 

Wishing you a wonderful day, the weather sounds amazing!

[Melissa_Phillips]

Just saw a Dad let his child wee next to the pool into the water, think I'll go in the adult pool for my next dip how gross!! They need to have a child only pool somewhere and have the main pools adults only, so unhygienic :-( now they're in the jacuzzi so that's that out of bounds as well despite the fact that Jacuzzis are adults only.

[TheGinBoy]

That's gross. Make sure to report it to Guest Services so they can do a proper clean over night.

[karen armstrong]

thank you for the info on the tender tickets. I read somewhere that if you want to get off early, its advisable to be queuing for the tickets at least half an hour before they are available in order to get one of the first.

 

Congratulations on learning to swim that's a great achievement.

 

I'd have loved to visit Corsica and Sardinia but our cruise doesn't visit there which is a shame because otherwise the itinerary is the same.

 

Do you have any plans for Cadiz? We are going to go to the royal spanish riding school and have already booked our tickets. It means getting the train to Jerez and back which I'm a little concerned by. One of the other members on our roll call is also considering going.

If you do dock in Cadiz and there is a taxi price list in the port please could you let me know how much a taxi would cost from Cadiz port to Jerez de la Frontera for four people and for six people if they have cabs big enough?

 

Wishing you a wonderful day, the weather sounds amazing!

 

We are on the 26th July cruise and we are planning on going to the Spanish riding school too. Have looked up trains and can easily get one there just a big concerned at the return times. Might have to get a taxi back.

Karen

[cymru cruiser]

We are on the 26th July cruise and we are planning on going to the Spanish riding school too. Have looked up trains and can easily get one there just a big concerned at the return times. Might have to get a taxi back.

Karen

 

Hi Karen

Yes that is our concern also. I've planned and researched the day to within an inch of its life lol but it's nice to have a back up plan. Hence it would be great to have an insight before hand of the taxi rates etc. Hopefully Melissa can help us. x

[cymru cruiser]

Just saw a Dad let his child wee next to the pool into the water, think I'll go in the adult pool for my next dip how gross!! They need to have a child only pool somewhere and have the main pools adults only, so unhygienic :-( now they're in the jacuzzi so that's that out of bounds as well despite the fact that Jacuzzis are adults only.

 

yuk I think I'd have said something. We all know kids are likely to go whilst in a pool by accident, but for a parent to intentionally allow that to happen is unacceptable.

[Paulette3028]

I was told that Tanya Yates Tongue is the Activity Manager on Explorer until 6/17/15. I am looking to learn who is taking over as Activity Manager from her on 6/18/15. Hopefully someone can let me know.

[Melissa_Phillips]

Day 9 - Sardinia

 

We woke up in the port of Sardinia, we didn't have any shore excursions planned and it was very hot so the plan was to get off, find a souvenir shop for the compulsory fridge magnet then return to the ship. We got on the free shuttle bus as the port was a working port and it dropped us at the end of the pier. We found a lady who was offering a 40 min tour bus for €10 around the town so we headed off to find the bus. Unfortunately we couldn't find it and the area around the port looked really rough and had dodgy looking folk trying to pressure you into buying their stuff. We felt very uncomfortable so headed back for the ship. We got a space on the pool deck by the TV screen as back to the future II was going to be on at 1pm. We took a dip in the pool to cool off, however I soon got out when I saw a Dad let his son wee into the pool, ew! They definatly need to have a seperate kids only pool and the rest of the main pools be adults only. Also loads of little kids where playing in the hot tub, despite the adults only sign. For my next dip I thought I'd go into the solarium pool. We spent the morning sunbathing and watching what was on the big screen, top gear and total wipe out USA mainly, which was good fun. We nipped to the Windjammer for some lunch which we bought back out to the pool ready for the movie. I had bread, chips, cold meat and salad mmmm. We watched the movie which was great, I'd not watched it in a while but they never get old. After the movie I took a dip in the adults only pool in the solarium and met a lady who lives in the next village along to where I used to live and her neighbour was a lady I used to work with, spooky! I came back to the sunbed and saw a guy we previously saw at the quiz one night, verrryyy dreamy but I bet not single :-( he was here was a chap he was caring for called Carl, dreamy guy was called Steve. Mum decided she was going to go back to the room and watch American Sniper, so I went over and plucked up the courage to talk to Steve. We chatted for ages and have some shared interests, seems a really lovley guy (and single), as the ship was departing it got really windy so we headed inside to the Schooner bar where we had drinks and chatted more. When they had to go and get ready for their dinner I headed back up to the room where Mum was just finishing her movie. I got washed and changed and ready for dinner, we were going to the Windjammer as usual. Tonight they had fish pie on offer, mmmm my favourite! It wasn't as good as the ones I get from home though, too much veg, but still filled a gap :-) for afters I had a cheesecake and some ice cream. Had some good banter with a guy in the ice cream queue, I asked for three scoops and the guy said "Three!?" and his wife slapped him, so I waited for him to ask and he asked for two, so I shouted "two?! You greedy bugger!" and his wife said "go on girl give him as good as you get", do like folk with a good sense of humour. After dinner we headed for the Star Lounge for our usual quiz at 8pm, our friends joined us just in time, but tonight we didn't do so well, we only got 7! We headed for the theatre afterwards and got ourselves our usual seats and waited for the show to start, David Knight comedy hypnotist. I saw him last year on the adventure of the seas, and he was really good. The only thing this year was it was the same show as last year so I knew what was coming next, but he was really really good and it was a great laugh watching the participants doing funny things, though one girl was clearly faking it. After the show we went for a walk around the ship on deck 4, it was kind of earie as not many people were out on decks. We then went for a walk around the promenade and stopped in cafe promenade where I had a hot chocolate, was really nice! Afterwards we headed back upstairs and went to the land of nod.

[Alohaaloha]

This sounds a lot easier and quicker than pulling up in the car and waiting for the car to be called forward. Is this the norm then now? We are on explorer in 3 weeks so do we just drive straight into the car park, park up and they get our bags from us? What time does the car park open as we can board from 11am. Thanks

 

 

Yes, all very quick and very proficient. Lots of port parking staff to guide you to your parking spot.

 

 

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[buffery]

We are on Explorer on the 26 July it looks like the weather will be hot!

 

You mentioned the nights were hot was the cabin aircon working? Will i need

 

to bring a fan with me? Thanks for great review.

[Gilpet]

We are on Explorer on the 26 July it looks like the weather will be hot!

 

You mentioned the nights were hot was the cabin aircon working? Will i need

 

to bring a fan with me? Thanks for great review.

 

We're on the same cruise so I'm really enjoying Melissa's review (thanks Melissa :)). You should pop in and join us on the roll call for the cruise.

 

Gill

[karen armstrong]

Melissa's blog is really getting me excited for this cruise. I'm on July 26th cruise too.

Karen