Live Review from Explorer of the Seas - 24 Night Transpacific - Sydney to Seattle

[londongal796]

Preface:

 

I had intended to do a live review but due to some internet connection issues I have struggled to get onto the wifi on my laptop (just my phone) which meant my writings have been trapped. So I hope to catch up shortly. So this will be a live-ish report, as the connection problems continue (and I can’t spend hours trying to get my laptop to connect to the wifi just to post a few ramblings!)

 

Please note: I will answer some basic questions but people who want a full list of activities or prices, I’m sorry, I’m not going to do that. Please be reasonable. Yes or no questions only, really!

 

Pre-Cruise:

 

A quick little intro – my husband and I are 31 years old, no kids (but 4 cats), living in London, UK. We have managed to cruise about once a year since 2012, and I had done 3 cruises prior to then. I am from the US, my DH is from Scotland. We are fortunate enough to have enough vacation / holiday time to embark on a 24-night cruise, and the Transpacific cruise with all of its myriad destinations was a dream come true to us. We are also fortunate enough to have a friend in the airline industry who can help make one-way international travel a more affordable, realistic prospect.

 

We flew standby from London Heathrow and unfortunately for us, our entire plan went pear-shaped straight away. Instead of flying to Seattle to see some friends, we ended up in Detroit (although flying in Business class did help ease some of our wounds). We overnighted there but again, our travel attempts were thwarted and ended up having to get the later flight over to LAX and needed to buy direct tickets (not standby tickets) from LAX to Sydney for the following evening. Thus another overnight stay in another city, and then a flight right at the end of the day – we ended up exploring Hollywood by taxi and saw a few things before getting our flight that evening.

 

Flight itself was fine, all things considered, being in coach for 15+ hours. We survived, and it was easily our longest flight ever. Legs were sore and cramped, but that is to be expected. I managed a fair bit of sleep but DH only got 4, so he was tired. Ultimately, it took us from Sunday afternoon until Thursday morning to get to Sydney – quite a long journey! But we appreciated the breaks and tried to make the most of them.

 

Customs in Sydney wasn’t as bad as I had imagined (we have seen some of their Border Control shows and thought we were going to have massive problems) and then we got a taxi to our hotel. Quick note: I hate getting taxis in foreign cities as they always ‘cheat’ you. Sigh! Anyway, they only got an extra $6AUS out of us so not the worst I’ve experienced.

 

We had arranged in advance to have our hotel room an extra evening in advance of our arrival, as we knew we’d arrive around 9am but want somewhere to rest our weary heads. Fortunately the staff (eventually) found our pre-reserved room and sent us up to a room in the Holiday Inn – The Rocks (Old Sydney). We didn’t have a view of the Harbour Bridge but it was a nice enough room. Bed was comfy and the air conditioning worked – two essentials for our stay! DH napped while I grabbed a shower and changed, and then we went foraging for food. Then we got some amazing photos of the Opera House and Harbour Bridge, on a hot and sunny day. Wilting in the sun, we retreated to the sanctity of our air conditioned room, and promptly took another nap (oops), only waking when the sun had gone down. We went back out for more food and then got a nice sleep.

 

Embarkation:

 

This has been our first time travelling as a Suite guest, and therefore our Embarkation experience is rated based on what I have seen / would have anticipated as a Suite guest in the past. If I had been a non-suite guest, I probably would have ranked it similarly, but for very different reasons.

The terminal itself was very convenient for us to get to as we were staying in a hotel almost immediately opposite the cruise terminal, which made for easy transit for ourselves and our luggage. We had 5 roller bags, and 2 backpacks in total. We arrived and managed to see a sign for Royal Caribbean Baggage, so we trundled over with all our gear. We found a worker whom I mentioned we were Suite guests who promptly said ‘right, so priority luggage’, and I felt we were off to a good start. We handed over our 3 ‘checked’ bags and he got another guy over who helped him mark them as priority bags as we headed to the rather long outdoor queue. It was probably around 50 people long and had snaked back from the front door to the luggage area. At this stage I was already looking for the ‘Suite priority’ queue – it did feel unnatural, we’ve never had this ‘perk’ before, but having seen it at the start of EVERY other cruise terminal I have been to, I was rather disappointed not to see one straight away.

 

We waited patiently along with 50 others to get through the double doors and hopefully away from the humidity (caused by the rain). We were grateful that the terminal had a large overhang area and the queue was designed to ensure that we were not in the rain – that was a major positive of the staff handling the situation. When we were maybe 20-people from the front of the queue, a worker identified us as ‘Suite’ guests and then promptly said ‘right, when you get inside…’ and trailed off and walked away. Always a good start. We continued through the queue, eventually getting our Health Survey paperwork and filling that in just as we got to the front of the queue.

 

Through the double doors and we see – another absolutely massive queue, probably 50-75 people, snaking its way through the downstairs lobby. The queue was so long they were literally handing out free refreshments – bottled water and cookies. At this point, I was super grateful for being a Suite guest (for once!) but also worried because there were still no signs guiding us to the ‘promised land’. When we eventually got to the woman with the free snacks, we asked her if there was by any chance priority given for Suite guests? She very promptly informed us that yes, we could bypass this queue entirely and go straight upstairs. Well, we of course did this immediately, but wished we had been told so sooner!

 

When we got upstairs we saw the ‘Suite’ (and other Crown and Anchor Tier) priority queue and we were seen almost immediately. We also experienced the very efficient and super-streamlined version of check-in which normally has taken up to 10 minutes in the past, which only took us about 2 minutes from start to finish. Wow! We were really pleased and swiftly moved to the next session – up another set of escalators. We were immediately prompted to fill in even more paperwork (a ‘departure’ card for leaving Australia) and given a coloured card and, despite my prompting we were Suite guests, told to take a seat and wait our turn.

 

It goes against all of my natural goodness to try to ‘queue jump’ but the amount we spent on our room for the 24-nights was equivalent of getting a very nice brand new car in the US (maybe not a fancy car, but you get my drift), and frankly, I anticipated better. We sat down, did the paperwork, and waited for the agonising wait for our colour to be called. We also had been told at check-in that we had about 40minutes until our ‘free’ Suite lunch concluded so we really wanted to get there in time to see what it was all about. We sat and sat and sat… they called one colour forward. We were sat in a sea of Golds and thought they must be next. Wrong, it was Green. We thought, we don’t even SEE anyone with green cards, before a massive 40 people stood up with Green cards. Ohno. After waiting another 5 minutes and no more cards being called, I said that I was going to be rude and ask if there was priority for Suite guests. (They kept making announcements that those in Transit did not need to wait, but nothing about Suite guests!) So we went forward and asked the guy manning the queue and he promptly said ‘oh yes, Suite guests, straight through, no waiting for you’. Riiiight. So we had wasted 10 minutes because someone forgot to tell us we didn’t need to wait. Bummer.

 

We were very quickly seen by the Border people and then we went through Security which maybe took 5 minutes and was fairly efficient, all things considered. Finally, we were able to board the ship.

 

I realise that our experience was very different to the other guests who, frankly, had a ridiculous amount of time to wait to board. We found even Allure of the Seas, with all 6000+ passengers needing to be boarded, to have a more efficient Embarkation, and our experience on many other cruise ships of similar size have, again, been much more efficient. I don’t quite know what the problem was other than the side of the Cruise Terminal was not sufficient for the amount of passengers needing to be processed. I think they had 26 or so desks to check people in, whereas in the past I have seen probably double that number, so I think this was where the snag was. They did handle putting people into queues well, but really, who wants to stand around waiting for an hour for check in when it could take a lot less time? Overall, our time from start to finish was probably 30 minutes – and for a Suite guest, that seems appalling. But what do we know? We’ve never been Suite guests before. But suffice to say that it has never taken me more than 30-45minutes to board a cruise ship before, EVER, and that speaks volumes, when I’ve only had mere Gold or Platinum status to ‘bump’ me forward.

 

Embarkation: 5/10

 

As for our first day on board the ship, we did enjoy ourselves, but we were minutely underwhelmed. The Suite ‘special’ meal consisted of desserts and some sandwiches, which is fine, but really, it was about the booze people wanted (I suspect anyway), which doesn’t appeal to us. We ate some desserts then headed to our room, as it was after 1:30pm at that point. We arrived to an absolutely gorgeous Grand Suite and found the new décor to be superb – I had seen online pictures of a yellow scheme which was nicer than the green but still not my favourite colour. Instead, we were greeted with a pleasing dark blue theme, with tan carpets and a tan couch. The bathroom was stunning, and my husband (who hadn’t done as much research as me) was shocked at how huge it was. They really did top themselves with the bathroom!

 

Storage-wise, I did find the space to be underwhelming. We were on Allure of the Seas last fall in a standard Balcony room and honestly… I probably had about as much space for storage. I think we have a few extra drawers overall, but as all of the storage is by the bar, it is a little unnatural to be storing all your unmentionables by where you would assume people might congregate to drink or eat etc. I get that it’s our own private suite and all, but I would have anticipated more storage by the bed area, as I am used to – still, it’s a small hiccup.

 

I must admit, we still aren’t sure what all of the perks of being a Suite guest area. People keep saying we are valued guests but we aren’t getting much value out of it. We’ll see. But the room is spectacular and for 24 nights on board, with a good 15 days at sea, we are really glad to have this huge amount of space. The balcony is very nice too, with two ‘nicer’ quality chairs and a sun lounger with a lovely padded cushion.

 

The first nights’ entertainment was, as it generally is, a bit of a disappointment. I must admit, we left early. Two people were playing the violin, one rather badly, and that one would randomly drop his violin and grab something to balance on either his head or his legs – sometimes a sword, sometimes his violin partner, etc. It was a bit … abstract. I like things that have a point, and this really did not seem to have any point at all, other than to distract us from the cruise, which seemed to be pointless as I rather enjoy cruising!

 

Well, that just about wraps up Day 1 onboard Explorer of the Seas. One more thing to mention – they offered a very good wifi price for the duration of the cruise – buy 10 days and get 14 days free (thus covering the entire cruise). We had budgeted to pay for the last 14 days of the cruise anyway, so this cost us less but meant we get wifi for the whole cruise. (Before anyone asks ‘why do you need wifi?’ I will explain that I am in the middle of a Masters degree which is online so I actually NEED access to the internet to keep up with my coursework! It is a very productive way to utilise those many sea days!). I won’t pretend for a minute that the wifi is GOOD. It works, which is all I’ve expected, but it does cut out intermittently. It is really just good for doing static things, like sending email or (for those patient enough), posting on the Cruise Forum (it takes a while for each page to load though!). Outside of that, I haven’t bothered to test it, as I know it wouldn’t cope with Skyping etc. But it is due for an upgrade very soon, and quite possibly the work is being done on this cruise as I type, so who knows what the future will bring!

 

* I forgot to mention our dining experience. After dessert for the Suite guests we had an actual lunch in the Windjammer. Food was plentiful and had a good variety of foods, so we were quite happy. Dinner we opted for the MDR (Mojo menu) and had a very good, efficient experience. The food was delicious. I had the seafood pasta and my husband had the beef tenderloin (I think that’s what it was). His Yorkshire pudding was very hard but otherwise everything was delicious.

 

** Another little note, my husband pre-ordered the Soda Package for the cruise but there was no cup in our room at the time of boarding. We had to ask for one where they were selling them and the staff there did not seem happy about it, no apologies given!

[londongal796]

Day 2:

 

Day 2 onboard Explorer has been a quiet affair for my husband and I. The seas are very choppy and unfortunately my DH hasn’t been feeling great. He has been off and on with how he’s been feeling, so that has dampened some of our activities.

 

We did get a good nights’ sleep (the jetlag is killer coming from the other side of the world) and managed to sleep in until almost 8 – much better than what I had been averaging, which was 3:30 or 4am! We immediately sought the goodness of breakfast in the MDR and thus experienced our first bit of rudeness from fellow passengers. There was a massive congregation of passengers going to breakfast and a family of 5 decided they had priority and cut in front of everyone. Unfortunately for us, their cut ended up right in front of us, and we were thus singled out to share a table with them. When we got to the table, they arranged themselves to sit exactly so that my husband and I were at different parts of the table. Uhhm, pardon? We waited the polite 10 seconds for them to rearrange themselves, once they had realised their ‘mistake’, and instead they just kept firmly gripping the chairs they were determined to sit in, thus splitting us. I looked at our host and said, sorry, but I’m not sitting like this, and walked away. I know I was rude, but those at the table were even more rude. The hosts started fluttering around trying to find us another table – and gave us a nice table for two.

 

Our waiter was polite and helpful but I will comment on the food as being a red-flag, something I’m a bit worried about. I ordered an egg white omelette with cheese, ham, and herbs. I also asked for a side of sausage. I ordered grits, which I was told, maybe they didn’t have, but if they didn’t, they’d get me oatmeal. Which I was fine with. My grits arrived and it was a grit soup. It was swimming around in a lot of excess water. Not ideal. I added the requisite salt and butter to make it palatable and attempted to enjoy my grit soup, but I gave up halfway through. My omelette arrived and the waiter advised, ‘the chef has run out of herbs’. Mind you, this is DAY 2 of a 24 night cruise. How can we be out of herbs already?? I was also given a single solitary teeny tiny sausage. I rolled my eyes at my husband and commented, ‘must really be low on food supplies’. We have cruised within 6 months and so I was really shocked at the breakfast portions. One half-sized sausage? Really?? I just was speechless. (But hungry, so I ate every bite!)

 

We went to the Meet and Mingle at 10am and unfortunately the staff on board decided to hold it in the Star Lounge, and there were probably 30 or so people who simply had nowhere to sit, as there were too many people for that space. But we had arrived early and so fortunately this wasn’t a detriment to our own experience. Activities Director was okay – he was energetic, but didn’t manage to pass that on to us passengers, at least that’s how I felt. They had planned the Crown & Anchor Welcome Back Party for immediately after the M&M (in a different venue) so they were basically ploughing ahead to get through all the free gifts. I didn’t know what half of them were, trying to concentrate on the ticket numbers he was reading out in fast succession.

 

We decided to skip the C&A party and went to our room for a wardrobe refresh before another top up of food – when the ship is rockin like this, we find it best to keep our tanks at ‘full’. It tends to help, anyway!

Next disappointment was lunch in the MDR. I know I will sound fussy / picky, but I’m simply basing my experience on past experiences, within the last 6 months. I was looking forward to my Tutti Salad, which is one of my favourite things about Sea Days. Their Tutti Salad selection was okay, but not the best. And they had three dressings to choose from. Blue Cheese, Thousand Island, and a Raspberry Vinaigrette. I was not impressed. I’m used to at least 6 different dressing choices. And I’m picky with my dressings, my main are really Ranch or Honey Mustard. I got the Blue Cheese which was okay but not the best. My main arrived and I had ordered a chicken yakitori skewer with rice. It arrived and the skewer was mostly made up of vegetables – which is okay, but I was hungry and wanted chicken! It had made no mention of being chicken & veg skewers. Oh well!! It did taste amazing, and I enjoyed the veg, but I wanted more than just 4 bites of chicken! (Especially considering the steak sandwich is literally comprised of an entire steak, you’d expect to get more than 4 bites of chicken for a chicken dish!)

 

After dessert we looked at the time and saw it was almost 1pm, and we were looking forward to the 1pm Movie trivia. We hightailed it to the Star Lounge and were greeted with confusion – it was an Art History talk and the signs all said it was 2pm. What do you mean it’s 2pm??

 

We checked the interactive signs and sure enough, it was 2pm. Many other people huddled around us in confusion – when did it become 2pm? Did we have a time change at 12pm? How come no one told us? We were in the MDR at the time the Captain’s Announcement went through which meant we didn’t hear a word of it. But still, surely it would be in our Cruise Compass? I got mine out and scoured the first three pages of ‘important’ notices – not a word about a time change. At the Headliner Show on Day 1 the Cruise Director said they would make time changes at noon (jumping from noon to 1pm) to ensure no guests (or staff) lost sleep. He said they would give us plenty of notice – but never mentioned our very first day at Sea would include a time change.

 

At this point we saw our next activity we wanted to do, Origami, was at 2pm, and we were now 5 minutes late to it – so we hauled our butts back to the MDR (Deck 5 this time) and went for the Origami. That only lasted maybe 20 minutes but it was nice. The person directing the activity said he would offer more challenging opportunities in the future.

 

I decided to go to Guest Services and file my complaint about the lack of notice in the Cruise Compass. At this point my husband noticed that in the Daily Activities Guide (the individual list of activities taking place on board which, and I counted, comprised of some 70+ unique activities), at Noon it just has, Clocks Move Forward by One Hour. Apparently we were supposed to pick up on this. I spoke to a desk person in Guest Services who confirmed that this is how they give notice for time changes. I argued that it was buried within a 70+ list of activities and hardly had any prominence. He insisted that this is how they do it and that ‘now I know where to look you can always find it’. Grrrreat. While he had a point, I felt it wasn’t good enough – when we were on our TA on Allure, we had 6 time changes, and these were announced with a large notice in the Cruise Compass on the front page right at the top, denoted with a Clock Symbol and a notice that the clocks were moving back by one hour. We also received a little ‘card’ in our room that was separate to the Cruise Compass that alerted us to the upcoming time change. We were told that the Cruise Compass could not be changed and they don’t issue the little cards in the rooms for midday time changes. He then informed me my ‘concern’ had been noted and tried to move us along. I did politely state that it simply wasn’t good enough, telling me that my complaint was noted and that was it. I said that they really needed to make sure that guests would not miss the time change, as this could be very important if we were in port and the time changed then. He said he had noted our complaint and what else did we want him to do? I asked to speak to someone else at this point, if possible, and he asked ‘who?’. I said ‘Whomever is responsible for the contents of the Cruise Compass, or else someone else who can speak to me about this issue.’ He huffed and went to get his, presumably, supervisor, who was polite to us. I expressed my concern that if we were in port and there was a time change, we could miss the boat because we might miss it in the poorly noted Cruise Compass. He assured us that the time changes will ONLY occur on non-port days (Sea Days only) so that was good. But I expressed our dissatisfaction in missing some activities and showed him how the Cruise Compass has a section for ‘Important to Know Today’ issues and not one of them was the time change, and asked him if anything could be done about this. He apologised and agreed that this would have been an appropriate place to note the time change and said he would personally speak to the staff responsible for the Cruise Compass to see if it could be included. I felt this was the best that could be done at the time and left it at this – it was certainly better than simply being told ‘your complaint has been noted’.

 

Okay, I probably sound like the equivalent of a ‘Bridezilla’ when it comes to cruising, but stick with me if you can. I base my expectations on previous cruises and in all of my previous cruise experiences, including forwards and backwards time changes, I anticipated more adequate notice. I certainly hope any future time changes will be made ‘fool proof’ for us guests to understand and comprehend upcoming time changes. It was also nice to know we weren’t alone, as no one else we had spoken to knew there was a time change!!

 

After our little fiasco we went back to our room and considered a nap. Jetlag isn’t great, really! We ended up watching some (very crap) TV for a bit and fell asleep a little while before dinner. Eventually dragged ourselves awake and decided to go to a Specialty restaurant for dinner -- we pre-bought a 5 dinner package online. We tried Chops but they were full, so we went to Izumi instead. For whatever reason, Izumi always seems to be empty, but it has easily been our favourite venue on every ship we’ve been on which featured it. We highly recommend it.

 

Overall our dinner was good but the staff were lacklustre (considering how few guests they were serving) and for whatever reason, the sushi-making staff decided to omit a key ingredient in my Crispy Philly Roll – the Philadelphia cream cheese!!! This is the whole reason I get that roll, so I brought this to the attention of the waitress who came back and said the chef would remake it with the Cream Cheese. It took a while (of course) and our new version was overcooked and had the tiniest, TINIEST amount of cream cheese inside. I was really disappointed, but we love sushi too much not to eat it. Overall it was a tasty meal, but I do hope the service gets better as we intend on eating there again in the future!

 

The MDR menu was Portobello, and as neither of us are mushroom fans, and most of the dishes featured mushrooms, that’s why we had decided to eat elsewhere.

 

Unfortunately my DH did not feel well afterwards (not because of the food, because the ship was still rocking a lot and being on deck 14, you could REALLY feel the motion), so we retired early to bed. Almost made it through a movie before falling asleep. He is snoozing now while I type this… hopefully he will be feeling better soon!

 

Day 3 awaits us… and I will update again soon!

[londongal796]

Day 3:

 

On Day 3 we discovered another Suite perk, which was breakfast in Chops Grille. We were under the impression that it was a place to eat your breakfast from the Windjammer (so you didn’t have to fight for seats which, as many will know, can be very difficult in the Windjammer). However, it turns out, they actually do the MDR breakfast service in Chops (or at least a variant of it) plus some continental breakfast items. It was VERY nice and we loved sitting in Chops and enjoying the view and having a very nice breakfast service. (One big thing was having a FULL glass of apple juice instead of the ‘shots’ they hand out in the MDR!) We both had the French toast which was AMAZING and I asked for a side of sausage – it was still a single link but it was a BIG one.

 

Afterwards we got lathered up with sun cream before heading out on deck to soak up some rays. There were lots and lots of empty sun loungers but not many in the sun, so we ended up in the regular pool area (I prefer the nicer loungers found in the Solarium) but it was comfy. We laid out for maybe an hour or so, which is almost unheard of for the two of us – living in England, we just don’t see those kind of rays regularly! We tried the hot tub (too hot), then the pool (too cold), so a bit like Goldilocks, we went back to our sun loungers – it was juuuuust right.

 

Afterwards I was ravenous – apparently sitting in the sun doing absolutely nothing will make you hungry – so we went to the MDR for lunch. We were prompted by the staff that we could have lunch in Chops Grille (as Suite guests) but I wanted the Tutti salad so we were given a table for two. It was nice. I had a Tutti salad and chicken sliders. They were pretty good (but needed a sauce).

 

Next on the agenda was the Cabin Crawl / Poker Run. I had helped organise the crawl with another Cruise Critic person and I like to think it went okay, albeit in a way in which organised chaos can reign supreme. Ultimately, we got through it, and I certainly hope my fellow cruise passengers enjoyed themselves. There were approximately 130 participants between the two and considering it was paper-work organised by two persons only, and implemented by four (thanks so much to those who assisted!!) along with ALL of the VERY wonderful and kind cabin hosts, I think we did very well. We showed I believe 14 different cabins with a couple of ‘connecting cabins’ so 11 or 12 categories overall. The real wow-ers were the new Deck 12 Panoramic Oceanview rooms – they were simply gorgeous and gave even the Suites a run for their money!! I would highly recommend them from what I saw!

 

Afterwards it was time a for a drink, so I treated myself to a ‘lava flow’ which was actually a half-pina colada and half-strawberry daiquiri. It is worrying when you know more about how to make a drink than the bartender – I corrected him after he’d put the drink together but didn’t penalise him. One interesting thing to note – I’m not sure why but none of the drinks are coming with gratuity pre-added. Not sure if that is an Australia thing or not – so I’ve been having to do the maths to add it on, not always easy!

 

Afterwards we spruced up in our cabin before heading off to Formal night for dinner in the MDR. Before the cruise we bought the full digital photo package as it was the same price as a 7-night cruise, so we have been making the most of the photography on board. After we had dinner (which featured the Saffron menu, I had the bisque and duck for dinner and my husband had the scallops and duck as well), we spent a good half hour trooping around to all of the photography stands getting our photos done. Hopefully some of them come out nicely!

 

For whatever reason, I have been finding myself VERY tired… it doesn’t help that I am waking up very early most days (sometimes 4 or 5am) and finding it hard to fall asleep. So, despite our young ages, we have been toddling off to bed rather early, and we have missed all of the fabulous onboard entertainment. Oh well – it happens!

 

Stay tuned for Day 4… in Noumea, New Caledonia!

[Clarea]

This will be very interesting for me as we are booked on the same cruise next year. Thank-you!:)

[Ex-Airbalancer]

Say Hi to Phil, Carol, Claudia, Harald and Fred :D

[londongal796]

Day 4: Noumea, New Caledonia

 

Thump thump thump thump… woo woooooo! Wooo wooooooo! Thump thump thump thump… wooo wooooooo! Wooo woooooo!!! AyyyyyyyyyAAAAAAH!

 

No, I haven’t gone mental – these were the sounds emitted from the local ‘tribe’(?) which greeted our ship in port this morning. I thought the thump thump thump represented the lowering of the anchor, while my husband thought the ‘AyyyyyAAAAH!’ was an alarm going off. Instead, it was a troupe of, I’ll call them natives (although no one dresses in grass skirts normally these days, just for special celebrations!), playing drums and ‘singing’ to us. There also may have been some whistles involved. It was very loud but very entertaining, and being on the Port side we did get to hear them VERY clearly at 6:35am. Made for an interesting alarm clock, shall we say!

We were due to get up at 6:45am anyway, as we had two tours on our agenda, so it wasn’t a huge problem. Plus it was neat to see. They were gone after another 5 minutes of singing / chanting and didn’t stick around for the debarkation process, so not sure what the point was, other than to wake us up on the Port side of the ship!

 

We headed to breakfast but we were too early for the special Suite dining in Chops so we headed to the Windjammer where we had a nice breakfast. Back to our cabin to apply copious amounts of mosquito repellent as we had signed up for a Nature Walk in Mt Koghi, which is a rainforest on the island. We were in a very small group (just 5 of us passengers and one guide) and the walk was interesting. It was hot and humid, but dark and beautiful – the trees in the rainforest were just stunning, the sort of things you see in the movies but never picture seeing in person. There were also really REALLY friggin’ big spiders everywhere. Yikes!!!!

 

Fortunately we seem to have survived and emerged mostly unscathed from the ‘jungle’ (one person got a few bites from some ants, we think, but the rest of us managed to avoid the worst of the bugs) and we also were very lucky that it wasn’t too wet or muddy for our walk. Just hot—we left almost soaked in sweat. Lovely!!! We were served some ice cold drinks back at ‘the lodge’ (where our very brief 20-30minute hike had started) while we cooled down, and then were driven back to port.

 

One thing to mention that was a little niggle – this port (or else RC, depends on who you speak to about it) does not allow anyone but the Cruise Terminal buses to transport passengers around the port, so as our tour was in a 4x4 (not a bus) we had to board the cruise terminal bus and the moment we passed through the port gates, we were let off the bus and got in our 4x4. Regrettably the reverse had to occur upon our return, which meant that we had to watch multiple completely-full Cruise Terminal buses pass us by at the Port entry before one was empty enough to stop to pick us up. We were maybe 150metres from the ship but we were not allowed to walk to it, because of the regulations in place. It was annoying but fortunately our wait was maybe 5-10minutes so not a deal breaker.

 

We had signed up for a second tour for the afternoon so we grabbed lunch on board, lathered up in sunblock this time, and headed off to the Wild Bird Sanctuary. This was another excellent tour, although, again – hot hot hot! We melted in the sun but a lot of the tour was in the shade of the beautiful forest the sanctuary was in. It was a wonderful tour and our tour guide in particular was excellent – we had been separated into two groups and I really think our group may have had the better deal!! We were treated to ice cold beverages upon returning to the bus and then back to port. Unfortunately, the timing of our tours, and the tours we happened to pick, meant we did not have any opportunity at all whatsoever to get souvenirs. I have always collected a magnet from every port / city I’ve ever visited, so I was a little gutted, but I am hoping I can find a magnet online somewhere as it wasn’t worth getting worked up over not getting to go to a souvenir shop. I have been, and even if the magnet wasn’t purchased while physically in port, it will still remind me of my precious memories :)

 

We had decided to do Chops Grille for dinner as part of our dining package as the MDR menu wasn’t appealing to us (Tarragon) so we spruced ourselves up after our sweaty day and headed to dinner. It was wonderful – everything was perfect, really. We had gone to Chops Grille on a previous cruise, I think our 14-night Mediterranean cruise out of Southampton on Independence of the Seas in 2014, and fell in love with the restaurant. However, our experience on Allure of the Seas last fall (12-night Transatlantic from Barcelona to Ft. Lauderdale) we found the service to be terrible and the setting was not great (the other ships you have a view of the sea, this one you had a view of ‘Central Park’ – IF they sat you near the windows, which they never did for us). Anyway, I had been worried we would be disappointed but fortunately it was a perfect meal. Only one thing to say – Royal Caribbean, if you are reading this, three teeny tiny croquettes are NOT a ‘sharing’ serving for the sides! We came across this on Allure and ended up ordering two lots of them. When the steak is the size of a small dog, you cannot serve three thumb-sized croquettes and call them worthy of ‘sharing’ with another adult-sized human being!

 

We both started with the colossal shrimp cocktail which was okay but the shrimp were so packed in ice it made them too hard to really enjoy. We also had the scallops, which were delicious, but, like on Allure, there weren’t enough – two small scallops do not make an appetiser in my book! (Especially when they taste that good!) We both had filet mignon (the 9oz) and they were cooked perfectly – mine a medium rare, my DH preferring his rare. Bearnaise sauce was lovely and we shared the creamed corn, potato croquettes and the asparagus, all of which was lovely. We finished the meal with the chocolate lava cake with coconut ice cream – delicious!!!

 

We retired early again, having had a long yet fulfilling day in port. And now, as I type this, I can see Mystery Island, where our next adventure awaits…!

[britty1]

Following along with you. Will be doing this cruise in 2018, quite a long time away but thank you for sharing your experiences.

[Missusdubbya]

Subscribing - we are doing the Seattle-Sydney in 2017, so following with interest.

[crusinot]

following! Thanks for the review

[VK3DQ]

Hi Folks

 

Thanks for your story which we are enjoying.

 

We sail on Explorer of the Seas on Nov 10th for a 10 day trip ex Sydney and for the first time we have booked a suite (Grande Suite) we are My Wife and I and my MIL who is a sprightly 92 y/o who can run rings round me at 70 especially as i have health issues at the moment.

 

Any information tips that you can tell us about the Suite will be gratefully received, I was very surprised at you messed around a little during the embarkation process in Sydney , I hope They make it as easy as possible for us I cannot stand about too long due to a back problem and one of the considerations in booking the suite was the "fast track" perks

 

But also nice to hear about breakfast and lunch in chops, which sounds very nice.

 

Once again many thanks for posting your story ..

 

 

Best Regards

 

John

[campingsk8er]

It will be interesting to see if the "issues" you are having now will still be present on her first stateside sailing, which is May 16th. I'm on that one, unfortunately its only a four day cruise. But as my mom says, everyday on a cruise is better than a day on land.

[aussie1944]

Day 4: Noumea, New Caledonia

 

Thump thump thump thump… woo woooooo! Wooo wooooooo! Thump thump thump thump… wooo wooooooo! Wooo woooooo!!! AyyyyyyyyyAAAAAAH!

 

No, I haven’t gone mental – these were the sounds emitted from the local ‘tribe’(?) which greeted our ship in port this morning. I thought the thump thump thump represented the lowering of the anchor, while my husband thought the ‘AyyyyyAAAAH!’ was an alarm going off. Instead, it was a troupe of, I’ll call them natives (although no one dresses in grass skirts normally these days, just for special celebrations!), playing drums and ‘singing’ to us. There also may have been some whistles involved. It was very loud but very entertaining, and being on the Port side we did get to hear them VERY clearly at 6:35am. Made for an interesting alarm clock, shall we say!

We were due to get up at 6:45am anyway, as we had two tours on our agenda, so it wasn’t a huge problem. Plus it was neat to see. They were gone after another 5 minutes of singing / chanting and didn’t stick around for the debarkation process, so not sure what the point was, other than to wake us up on the Port side of the ship!

 

We headed to breakfast but we were too early for the special Suite dining in Chops so we headed to the Windjammer where we had a nice breakfast. Back to our cabin to apply copious amounts of mosquito repellent as we had signed up for a Nature Walk in Mt Koghi, which is a rainforest on the island. We were in a very small group (just 5 of us passengers and one guide) and the walk was interesting. It was hot and humid, but dark and beautiful – the trees in the rainforest were just stunning, the sort of things you see in the movies but never picture seeing in person. There were also really REALLY friggin’ big spiders everywhere. Yikes!!!!

 

Fortunately we seem to have survived and emerged mostly unscathed from the ‘jungle’ (one person got a few bites from some ants, we think, but the rest of us managed to avoid the worst of the bugs) and we also were very lucky that it wasn’t too wet or muddy for our walk. Just hot—we left almost soaked in sweat. Lovely!!! We were served some ice cold drinks back at ‘the lodge’ (where our very brief 20-30minute hike had started) while we cooled down, and then were driven back to port.

 

One thing to mention that was a little niggle – this port (or else RC, depends on who you speak to about it) does not allow anyone but the Cruise Terminal buses to transport passengers around the port, so as our tour was in a 4x4 (not a bus) we had to board the cruise terminal bus and the moment we passed through the port gates, we were let off the bus and got in our 4x4. Regrettably the reverse had to occur upon our return, which meant that we had to watch multiple completely-full Cruise Terminal buses pass us by at the Port entry before one was empty enough to stop to pick us up. We were maybe 150metres from the ship but we were not allowed to walk to it, because of the regulations in place. It was annoying but fortunately our wait was maybe 5-10minutes so not a deal breaker.

 

We had signed up for a second tour for the afternoon so we grabbed lunch on board, lathered up in sunblock this time, and headed off to the Wild Bird Sanctuary. This was another excellent tour, although, again – hot hot hot! We melted in the sun but a lot of the tour was in the shade of the beautiful forest the sanctuary was in. It was a wonderful tour and our tour guide in particular was excellent – we had been separated into two groups and I really think our group may have had the better deal!! We were treated to ice cold beverages upon returning to the bus and then back to port. Unfortunately, the timing of our tours, and the tours we happened to pick, meant we did not have any opportunity at all whatsoever to get souvenirs. I have always collected a magnet from every port / city I’ve ever visited, so I was a little gutted, but I am hoping I can find a magnet online somewhere as it wasn’t worth getting worked up over not getting to go to a souvenir shop. I have been, and even if the magnet wasn’t purchased while physically in port, it will still remind me of my precious memories :)

 

We had decided to do Chops Grille for dinner as part of our dining package as the MDR menu wasn’t appealing to us (Tarragon) so we spruced ourselves up after our sweaty day and headed to dinner. It was wonderful – everything was perfect, really. We had gone to Chops Grille on a previous cruise, I think our 14-night Mediterranean cruise out of Southampton on Independence of the Seas in 2014, and fell in love with the restaurant. However, our experience on Allure of the Seas last fall (12-night Transatlantic from Barcelona to Ft. Lauderdale) we found the service to be terrible and the setting was not great (the other ships you have a view of the sea, this one you had a view of ‘Central Park’ – IF they sat you near the windows, which they never did for us). Anyway, I had been worried we would be disappointed but fortunately it was a perfect meal. Only one thing to say – Royal Caribbean, if you are reading this, three teeny tiny croquettes are NOT a ‘sharing’ serving for the sides! We came across this on Allure and ended up ordering two lots of them. When the steak is the size of a small dog, you cannot serve three thumb-sized croquettes and call them worthy of ‘sharing’ with another adult-sized human being!

 

We both started with the colossal shrimp cocktail which was okay but the shrimp were so packed in ice it made them too hard to really enjoy. We also had the scallops, which were delicious, but, like on Allure, there weren’t enough – two small scallops do not make an appetiser in my book! (Especially when they taste that good!) We both had filet mignon (the 9oz) and they were cooked perfectly – mine a medium rare, my DH preferring his rare. Bearnaise sauce was lovely and we shared the creamed corn, potato croquettes and the asparagus, all of which was lovely. We finished the meal with the chocolate lava cake with coconut ice cream – delicious!!!

 

We retired early again, having had a long yet fulfilling day in port. And now, as I type this, I can see Mystery Island, where our next adventure awaits…!

 

I am really enjoying reading your daily observations on Explorer. Keep them up.

[BEENSAILING]

We are on the Seattle to Sydney crossing on the Explorer in October 2016. We are in a Grande Suite. Not happy to read about lack of storage space but would love to see photos if you can post. Your Grande Suite Concierge is there to assist you and should, among other things, be advising you of time changes. We had the clock changes on Radiance around the bottom of Australia and Quantum crossing Bayonne to Barcelona an I remember they were very good about keeping passengers informed of time changes. PS - re your sausage.... just order extra. Re chicken on skewer - order extra. Re salad dressings - did you ask if there were other options?

[britty1]

Although I have never sailed with a gold card I have friends that I sail with that have. You have several perks that go with that card you have not mentioned. Use of the concierge loung with drinks and snacks for a couple of hours in the evening. Use of the sun decks at the side of the sky bar. Usually special blocked off seating in the theatre. It might be too early in your cruise but there also should be a suite party that I understand is usually very nice.

 

I will be interested to know how many formal nights there are on a 24 day cruise. Again thank you for taking the time to let us all know about this cruise.

[Setting sail for fun]

Following along! I would love to do this itinerary.

[ronpes]

Thank you so much for taking the time and trouble to write this and I will be following it with keen interest. We are seriously thinking of doing this itinerary ourselves in 2018.

Regards

Ron

[dln929]

We are on the Seattle to Sydney crossing on the Explorer in October 2016. We are in a Grande Suite. Not happy to read about lack of storage space but would love to see photos if you can post. Your Grande Suite Concierge is there to assist you and should, among other things, be advising you of time changes. We had the clock changes on Radiance around the bottom of Australia and Quantum crossing Bayonne to Barcelona an I remember they were very good about keeping passengers informed of time changes. PS - re your sausage.... just order extra. Re chicken on skewer - order extra. Re salad dressings - did you ask if there were other options?

 

I think storage space, like food, is very subjective. We have no complaints about GS closets and drawers. The bar area is loaded with drawers underneath for smaller items and the closet space is more than adequate. I think some people must overpack perhaps?

[suncityga]

Following... same ship and cruise in 2017!

 

Thanks for the review!!! :)

[britty1]

Please let us know if using the us dollar is a problem in any of the ports and how you handled it. Thank you.

[demodawn]

Enjoying! Thanks

[Coralc]

Please let us know if using the us dollar is a problem in any of the ports and how you handled it. Thank you.

 

You will need to obtain foreign currency, either before you leave or at an ATM in port. :rolleyes:

[aussie1944]

I am really enjoying reading your daily observations on Explorer. Keep them up.

 

Where is Day 5? Looking for more daily blogs.

[retird]

Hi Londongal796, I'm on this cruise as well but I am not having the issues you are . My wife and I as well as our cruise mates enjoyed the native greeting in Numea.

 

Regarding the time changes, the Captain made a ship wide announcement in the morning of day 2.saying there would be 6 time changes during the cruise and the first one would be this day (2nd day) at 12 noon. He said that the next five time changes would be published on the applicable day on page one of the cruise compass. Tomorrow will be day seven of the cruise and I am currently looking at my cruise compass and the time change is in bold letters on page one under Important things to know today.

 

We have found the internet slow as well ( which we expected in the Pacific Ocean). But tonight at the diamond evening event the concierge announced that this ship would have Voom high speed internet on May 1st so only two more days to see if it happens.

 

Entertainment for us has been great with the exception of the violin people on night one.

 

We find that trivia, karaoke, and all other activities and venues are well attended and participated in

 

Hope things improve for you on the rest of the cruise

[londongal796]

Day 5: Mystery Island, Vanuatu

 

We started our morning at Chops Grille for the Suite breakfast, and had a delightful meal there. We then spent a good half hour lathering up top to bottom in sun cream in our cabin before venturing out to experience the delights of Mystery Island! This is a tender port so we used another Suite perk by visiting the Concierge Lounge to avoid the ‘ticket’ queuing system – this was a very nice perk as we bypassed the queue entirely and were escorted by Jorge, our Concierge, right to the tender area. We just needed to ‘boop’ our cards to exit the ship and then board a tender.

 

The tendering process was ok – it took ages for them to fill each and every single little seat, so even though the boat was nearly full when we boarded (and I do mean NEARLY full) we waited another 5 minutes as they accepted one or two more passengers at a time and squeezed them in. The ride to Mystery Island was maybe 10 minutes, then more queuing as we waited for an empty pier.

 

At first we thought there was a big wedding going on, as a second pier was highly decorated with balloons and streamers – but it turns out it was the NEW Mystery Island Pier which was being unveiled and opened that very day. All of the locals were there along with lots of Explorer’s staff for the opening ceremony.

 

We arrived and had a quick look around – first things first, they have a new modern toilet facility almost immediately opposite where the piers are so that was excellent news for those wary of the older ‘toilet’ facility. We walked towards what was labelled as the swimming / snorkelling areas and also took a few photos as we walked – the island was just gorgeous! A little slice of heaven.

 

We got to the water’s edge and I couldn’t resist dipping my feet in – the water was cool but not freezing, and it was just sooo blue. We walked about halfway down the island to where everyone else was swimming and I essentially went right in to the water and swam around for a bit. I was trying to work up the courage to swim further out (I’m not a strong swimmer) to where there was some more coral to see the fish that everyone said was there, but I couldn’t get the guts to do it without someone else accompanying me and unfortunately DH isn’t a swimmer. I tried to get some of those swimming near me to join me but alas, no good. Then two very friendly Australians advised me that the half a pair of goggles I’d thought I’d seen floating right past me had actually been a bluebottle, a type of jellyfish, and they gave me the heads up on how to spot them and how not nice they were. They said they wouldn’t kill me or anything, just give me a bad rash, but I wasn’t interested in learning just how bad the rash would be!

 

So thus ended my quest for the corals as I spent the rest of my time keeping an eye out for bluebottles. I still had a nice swim and there were a few pieces of coral right near the shore and I got a few photos of some highly colourful fish on my waterproof camera. It was still a wonderful experience. I was lucky as I had bought a full-length sleeved swim top and my swim shorts went down past my knees (this is my ‘I can’t be bothered reapplying sunblock everywhere’ swimming outfit, I don’t normally dress this way!) and I had aqua shoes on, so I was very nearly top-to-toe protected, but I didn’t want to risk getting stung on my hands or face, as those are fairly sensitive areas!!

 

I came back to shore and we walked a little further to another pod of where people were swimming. At this point the wind was picking up and appeared to be rolling in (amazingly it held off until the ship was leaving port, so I don’t think anyone got a soaking) and this seemed to help the bluebottle situation, as the waves appeared to keep them from being in the area where I was swimming. As I got to shore, where the waves slackened, they were around, but not the bit where I had been swimming which was just about 5ft or so deep.

 

Just to add one thing – the ‘waves’ I speak of were just little swells, not proper waves. The beautiful thing about swimming on Mystery Island is that the waves on the open side (the one facing the ocean) all crash on the coral reef that forms a ‘barrier’ around it, and this means that you don’t get waves crashing on the shoreline at the beach, which allows you to have a real swim in the ocean – something I haven’t experienced in absolutely years. It was brilliant!

 

As the sky turned a very ominous dark colour I decided it was time to dry off and make our way back via tender, as I assumed once the storm broke there would be tons of people trying to leave. We stopped by the lobster place, which I had read about online, and we grabbed a quick lobster and then I did a tiny bit of shopping from one of the local stalls (there were about 50 of them but I went to the one nearest the lobster place). Then we headed back to the tender area and we were able to use the NEW pier. The queue lasted maybe 5 minutes so that wasn’t too bad. When I got to the tender the drop from the pier to it was … VERY big. Too big. I couldn’t mentally do it, and physically, I could probably have BARELY been able to do it. I was a bit like a skittish foal and I said a few times, no, I’m sorry, I can’t do that gap. And the staff were getting more and more impatient with me and then one grabbed me and said ‘come on ma’am’ and tried to force me on, and I backed right up and said firmly, NO. I can NOT do it.

 

At this point the two staff started bickering in another language and then one stepped off the tender and grabbed a set of steps made of plywood which he put onto the tender, and then that meant I had an extra foot of ‘tender’ to step down onto, which made all the difference, and I was instantly compliant.

 

The problem at the time was that the new pier has multiple levels of steps and boarding points, to match (I am assuming) the shifting tides. They had tied the tender up to the middle-height boarding point and I imagine, when the tender was empty, this was the right height. As more and more passengers boarded, and they added another 100+ passengers onto the tender, the weight pulled the tender down to a point approximately 1.5-2 feet lower than where the dock was situated. Taking a step down of 2 foot is not easy for anyone and even my 6’3” husband had had trouble, and he went before me and that’s how I knew I couldn’t do it.

 

Anyway… I boarded easily but I was very disturbed by how the staff tried to force me to do it. I had stepped aside to let others board as I wasn’t trying to hold things up, but I was just being honest – my body doesn’t bend that way!!

 

This time we were only another 2 or 3 minutes and then off we went to the ship, very quick to ‘dock’ at the ship as well so all in maybe 10 or 15 minutes from pier to ship. It was easy to get off as we were at the right height and the only real issue at this point was the amount of sand in my shoes! I wasn’t entirely sure what was best but as my clothes stank from the sea water we went to the showers on deck 11 and used them to rinse ourselves off thoroughly and then dried a bit in the sun before heading back to the room for a full change.

 

We then went to trivia – first movie quotes trivia, where we did VERY well but not well enough to win. We met a lovely couple who were quite good as well so that was fun. We all decided to stay on for the ‘Diva’s’ music quiz which was okay – we did decently, considering we had two blokes on our team, and surprisingly my DH did very well indeed! But again, not well enough to win.

 

As soon as the second trivia ended we were advised we needed to get out because the Star Lounge was turning into the Diamond Lounge for the happy hour. We were rushed out and when we got back to our room I realised I’d forgotten my handbag. My DH, ever the gentleman, offered to go back for it, and let me get ready for dinner. He came back a few minutes later with the bag in hand, but said that the staff had given him a little grief, emphasising he wasn’t ‘Diamond’… he’s like, I’m not here for the bloody drinks, I’m here to get my wife’s bag!! The second person he spoke to said they trusted him and let him go in, so he grabbed the bag and made a real show of ‘displaying’ it when he went back through, just so the staff knew he wasn’t trying to pull some elaborate ‘free drinks’ ruse!!!

 

We had dinner in the MDR and the menu was Arugula. We shared a table with two other couples and I had the seafood risotto to start and then I had the crab ravioli with a serving of the calamari from the ‘calamari salad’ as I just love fried calamari. Everything was delicious. I honestly can’t remember what DH had but I know it was at least ‘pretty good’ if not good as well. There was a nice theme, ‘Tropical Theme’, for the night, and it was fun to see all the ship staff dressed in Hawaiian shirts :)

 

We again were too tired for the show (pathetic, I know!), and headed off for bed. But it was a wonderful day spent at Mystery Island and definitely one I will treasure for a long time to come!!

[londongal796]

Day 6: Port Vila, Vanuatu

 

Our day in Port Vila was very interesting, and covered a wide range of activities. It started with an early visit to the Windjammer where we had a hearty breakfast. Next we packed our bags with all sorts of things to cover the myriad of activities for our non-RC shore excursion. I don’t think I’m allowed to give the name of the company (feel free to correct me if I am wrong) but the name of the excursion was ‘Cultural and Marine Conservation Excursion’ (or something very similar) so a quick Google search for that plus Vanuatu should pull it up.

 

When we exited the ship the tour company had emphasized we should head to the RIGHT, but that exit said it was for ‘Official RC Tours only’. Well, my DH and I decided to go against the grain and we went that way ANYWAY, and fortunately we were able to bypass the RC shore people and go right to the meeting point for our tour. There was a large group of people from the Cruise Critic Forums who had all organised a tour together but I had some difficulties with paying in advance, especially with currency conversions that were way off, so I decided to book independently of the group and in doing so, discovered a different tour that was liked better so we booked that one instead. Anyway, I will not go into huge detail on any of the very minor issues from the morning but there were simply too many people for them to deal with for the first part of our mornings tour. Fortunately this was a temporary issue and they handled things very well, and we had a wonderful tour overall.

 

We travelled to the ‘Cultural Village’ and here we saw some of the traditional costumes and huts and ways of life of the native Vanuatu people. We had a 5minute walk through the muddy woods to the entrance of the village, where we were greeted by the ‘Chief’ who let us in (and posed for photos as well!). We then were escorted to an area where they showed us some of the traditional tools they would have used. Next we were escorted to another area where we learned more about the ways they would have cooked and preserved their food. We were then taken through a very massive banyan tree (apologies for spelling if I am wrong) which we were able to walk right through, which was very neat. Then the final area we were shown to, the villagers and the chief did a dance / chant for us, and then afterwards two of the men walked over some very very hot coals!

 

We then broke off into our smaller groups for our tours and fortunately for us, there was only one other family on our tour – a family of 5 which meant we had just the 7 of us on our tour, and a huge bus to sit in – it was VERY roomy. We saw the other tour groups all crammed in their buses, so we really lucked out! Our tour guide was really friendly and made us laugh (and laughed at our jokes, which is always a bonus). We started off by visiting the Marine Conservation Centre for Sea Turtles. It was – interesting. Animal welfare is a far off concept, and although the PURPOSE of the facility was to rehabilitate sea turtles and also help sea turtles get big enough to go out into the ocean, at the same time, there was a lot of …. Non-animal welfare prospects going on, especially a cage for birds which had no real daylight in it and just … it wasn’t pleasant. But seeing all of the sea turtles was really neat and it was also interesting to see some of the remnants of the damage caused by a Category 5 Cyclone which had hit the island a year ago. The sea turtles were amazing and some were huge. It was really a very interesting thing to see and we got some wonderful photos. There was an ‘ok’ toilet facility on-site – no sinks or toilet paper but otherwise a modern toilet with flushing mechanism.

 

Next we travelled to the Eton Village to the Primary School to visit the students there learning English. I brought them stickers, as unfortunately pencils weighed too much, but I brought literally thousands of stickers for them so I hope that makes some contribution for them. The kids sang us lots of little ‘songs’ in English – perhaps ‘sang’ is a strong word here as it quickly deteriorated into a screaming match between the kids but, it was still cute (even as our eardrums bled haha). The kids were very sweet and our visit was maybe 5 minutes before we got back in the van and headed out to Blue Lagoon, only a few minutes away. Here I again went straight into the water and it was again cold but very pretty. They had ropes rigged up to the trees with platforms you could use to swing out and jump into the water. A big group of people were using this but I just went for a swim around the lagoon. One thing that was pretty funny was I had decided to swim out as far as I could to the other end of the lagoon, and once I got there, thought it would be nice to rest before swimming back – and then remembered it was too deep for me to stand up and rest!!! So I turned around and had a gruelling swim back, as I had no chance to break. At that point I was soooo tired I just climbed straight out of the water… haha! It was my mistake. The lagoon wasn’t THAT big but as I mentioned before, I’m not a strong swimmer, so even a 10 minute-straight swim was enough to wear me out! The family had a good time that was with us, the kids were all swinging out into the water and dropping in. I went back up to our covered picnic-type area and we had some delicious local fruit – grapefruit that wasn’t too bitter, bananas the size of your hand that were so perfectly ripe and tasted just how a banana should. We also had some papaya but for whatever reason I didn’t enjoy it (but my husband loved it). It was very refreshing, and as it was 1pm, we were very hungry by then!

 

After our snack we actually went right for lunch, a buffet at Aguana Resort which was pretty good -- the other big tour group had just departed (about 3 or 4 vans worth of people) and so the buffet was a little depleted and a little cold, but it was good considering how hungry we were, and some of the food preparation was honestly top notch – they served pork belly which was nicer than any I’ve ever had before!!

 

It started to rain in earnest while we were there (it had started at Blue Lagoon to be fair!) so there was no opportunity to pop into the water there, which would have been a nice treat on a sunny day. Instead we piled back in the van and as no one was interested in the Duty Free shopping, and we all agreed to give the Kava drinking a miss, we just had one teeny tiny stop to make which was at a shop in town for me to buy my souvenir magnet. Fortunately the tour guide was really helpful and even escorted me in and spoke to the staff and helped me pay etc. It was really nice and made my day, as I always want to get a magnet wherever I go!

 

We were dropped back off about 3:30pm so a good hour before our ships ‘all aboard’ time, so we had a good day of it. The clean-up process did take a while – my flip flops were absolutely caked in mud, my swimsuit smelled of sea water again, and I had several layers of sunblock to deal with!! But we got there in the end. We ended up having a quick refreshment in the Café Promenade as we were quite hungry, before heading off for dinner in the MDR – the menu was Shiitake. I had the spinach dip and the Pork Scallopine Oscar, while my DH had the shrimp cocktail and also the Pork for dinner. Some of those on the table with us had the rack of lamb which looked absolutely delicious.

 

Again, another early night for us – we have only made it to one show so far, which hadn’t impressed us, but there is a special Ice Rink show for us on Day 7 (just for Crown and Anchor members) and so we will definitely be going to that!