Review: Explorer of Seas 4/1/07

[FcapAcap]

Here’s my review for EXPLORER of THE SEAS April 1st to April 8th 2007

Going to San Juan, St Marrteen, St Thomas, and Nassau

This was our second cruise, our first being Carnival liberty about a year ago.

We left out of port of Miami, no problem getting because it’s was a Sunday. Some people told us that any other day could be a nightmare because shipping trucks also you this port to pick up merchandise. It was very easy getting on the ship. We got to the port around 10:30 and were in the first 10 to arrive. We sat around for about an hour until they let us on the ship. We got on the ship around 11:30- 12:00 and used that time to get familiar with the ship. We walked each level. Explorer of the Seas is a very beautiful ship and very well kept. When we cruised on the Liberty last year it was a brand new ship and I was shocked to see that the Explorer looked just as new. My first impression was that the Explorer was more elegant.

We explored the ship until around 1:30 when we headed to the dining room to change our seating. My wife and I like to eat alone and this was no problem to change this.

After this we went to the Windjammer to get a bite to eat.

FOOD:

My only negative about the Explorer was the non dining hall food. The windjammer it did not compare to the buffet/ café on the Liberty. The Liberty seemed to go the extra mile. The liberty had a stir fry wok, fresh made to order burgers, cheese steaks, Chinese food station, a made to order deli and a pizza place that had decent pizza and calzones. The Explorer had just a buffet with food piled high, nothing made to order. And they repeated the same food every day. The lines also seemed to be longer with a longer wait because they took there time replacing empty foods. This was the only negative. Explorer did have Johnny Rockets which was spectacular, just like home but they did charge you a fee of $3.95 per person. Then you could order as much as you wanted. Shakes were also extra $3.60 each. So I paid about $20 each time for my wife and I. We also went to Portifino one night for a fee of $20 per person. It was Very Good and worth the price. A dinner like that would cost over $100 on land. The dining hall food was equal to that of the liberty as was the service. Don’t forget to order as much as you want. I order an app, a salad, and two entrees every night with no problem. I was disappointed to see that the Explorer did not have a chocolate buffet.

ROOM:

We had a Promenade inside Stateroom. I liked it a lot it was large enough for the 2 of us and it was nice to have the window. I would never do an inside cabin over this room. The only mistake I made was that I got our room at the beginning of the promenade and it was hard to see. I recommend that you get one closer to the middle.

DAYS AT SEA:

Make sure you get up early 7:30- 8:30 to get a chair if you are picky about were you lay out. Chairs on the top deck seemed to be available until around 9:30 had nice bands playing and plenty of activities to keep you entertained. I did miss the Big TV Pool side

That was another plus on Carnival Liberty. It was nice to see all the shows and activities we missed as we laid by the pool.

BINGO:

The wife and I won bingo! $50 card won us a 7 day Caribbean cruse for 2 on any ship. Best prize of the cruise! Anyone else every win this? Please let me know. Would like to know how it worked out

BARS, LOUNGES, SHOWS:

The Explorer had much more to do at night. Carnival would be a ghost town at 11:30, but the Explorer would just be starting. Piano Bar was great! And Bands in the lounges ran late. Casino was great but could put a ban on the smoking, Way too smoky in there.

Don’t miss the late night adult comic, very funny. And don’t miss Quest of Karaoke Finals both very fun.

INTERNET:

Available on deck eight I paid $35 for 89 mins for the week

PORTS:

SAN JUAN- Please get off the boat! This place was beautiful! We did the walking tour found on this site on our own, and it was fun. It took up the whole day. Then the wife did shopping at Coach, Guess and Polo We got some of our best pictures here. We went to both forts and still had plenty of time! The Forts were very cool and a must see.

ST. MARRTEEN- got off the boat and went straight to Orient Beach. St Marteen is run down and it was a very sad $20 ($10 per person) cab ride to the beach. Sad to see people living like that. The beach it self was very very nice. I had planned to go to the Pirate Bar at Orient based on reviews here on cruise critic. However, when I got there it seemed very run down. Another place caught my eye, about 50 yards past the pirate. It was called the MEXICANO BAR. I recommend this bar to everyone! We had a blast $12 per chair and you got a free beer or margarita. Beers were $3 each. The owners are French and very friendly. I was shocked to find out that they only know the Yankees because 50 Cent and Jay-Z wear the hats in their videos. The Mexicano also has the very rare Penis Cactus that you need to take a picture with. Food at the Mexicano was very good. I had Fajitas. Everyone eating got free shots of tequila and sand to the song “tequila”. Very cool time. Another $10 cab ride per person back to port. There are a lot of shops at port so leave yourself some time.

ST THOMAS: Got off the boat at about 7:15 ( First ones off) and based on review here skipped Meagan’s Bay and headed to SAPHIRE BEACH. $20 cab ride ($10 per person)

Sapphire Beach was beautiful. My wife said to me “man this beach is nicer then Wikki Beach in Hawaii” I have to agree. Very very beautiful. Bring your camera for some of the nicest picture spots you will ever see. Large Iguanas were right on the beach! A nice pool right on the property but it’s for “Hotel Guests only” Beach Chairs were $8 each to rent. One of the major complaints that I read on this board about Sapphire was that there was no place to eat. Well Sapphire now has food delivery available. There is a pizza place which delivers as well as a Grill which delivers right to your chairs. I paid $35 for lunch from the grill. It took About 30 mins to be delivered. Good food. Sapphire also has a shop where drinks and snacks are sold. Anther $10 cab ride per person back to port. Once again there are a lot of shops at port so leave yourself some time. If you want to call home this is your chance One of the shops (just ask for calling cards and they will direct you here) has calling cards and phones to rent. We paid $5 for a calling card with 500 mins and $2 to rent a phone. We called everyone we knew for $7.

NASSAU:

The wife and I decided to skip the tourist trap known as Atlantis and go to another cruise critic find the British Colonial Hilton. It was about a 5-10 min walk from the pier. Right next to Senior Frogs. We got there around 12:30 (in port 12:00) the hotel was very nice and had private beach access for a charge of $15 per person. The hotel has a bar and grill. Drinks however were pricey $15 for can beer and mudslide. We decided to leave the beach at 2:30 and go to Senior Frogs for lunch. Very good time and good Mexican food.

We did some shopping and were back on the boat at 5:30

In this entire cruise was great. Explorer is a great ship and a lot of fun. Ask any questions Hope this helps.

[Michellervc]

Thank you for your review. I am going on this ship for the first time on June 17th out of Bayonne, NJ. We are going to Bermuda. Congratulations on winning your free cruise!

 

Michelle

[roadnut]

Yeah, again, nice job on winning that cruise.

 

Great review. I have a promenade room coming up, a little closer to the middle of the ship. Tried avoiding a totally inside cabin, and this seemed to be a decent alternative for very little additional $$$.

[gkrebs]

ST Marteen is run down? wait to you get to see some of the other ports. I thought St Marteen was fantastic, and the people live no differently then the others in that area, even St Thomas. Wait to you go on a deep western cruise,or even a deep southern one, then you will see what I mean.

[rain_bowbrite]

Hi,

 

I was also on this cruise and had a wonderful experience! Here are my impressions and as well it is kind of long:D

 

We arrived at the port around 11:45 and were onboard the ship within 15 minutes. We parked at the port in parking deck G and the price per day has gone up to $15, so it was $105 for the week. I had planned to do shuttle parking for $8 a day but with such a busy week leading up to this trip I didn't get around to booking it so we just opted to pay the higher price.

 

Wow, this is a big ship! We spent a good amount of time exploring the ship before heading up to the Windjammer to get some lunch. The selection in the Windjammer was great. They had the two buffets lines on each side and then they also had two additional buffets, one which was Asian inspired called Jade. It always had some Asian dishes to choose from and occasionally it had some great Indian curry dishes as well.

 

I was very budget minded on this cruise having just done a cruise in Dec. and Feb. so I opted for the inside cabin. Boy did we luck out, we didn't get upgrade to an ocean view but we did end up in cabin 1637, a handicap cabin on deck ten. This was my first time staying in a handicap cabin and all I can say is I want to be handicapped for the rest of my cruises!! All kidding aside the handicap cabins really are great and provide plenty of room for someone in a wheelchair. The bathroom and shower were very large and the shower had a seat that folded down from the wall and lots of railing. There was also railing provided on both sides of the toilet as well as a phone should you need to call for help from inside the bathroom.

 

While I am on the subject of the handicap room, I also want to mention that there was a lady on the cruise that was traveling with two dogs. I am familiar with blind people traveling with their help dogs. I found out that the dogs traveling with this lady were her heart attack dogs, trained to help or call for help in case she were to have a heart attack. I was pleased to know that Royal Caribbean would allow her to bring them onboard. I heard a few people make comments about being concerned about how the dogs use the bathroom on the ship but as far as I can tell the dogs did not cause any problems.

 

The cabin also was in a great location on deck ten. Just a few steps away from the stairs up to the Windjammer and pools up on deck 11. The pool deck was nice and we found it possible to find seating on either the pool deck or on the deck above the pool pretty much anytime during the cruise. There were a fair amount of chair savers but they didn't pose a problem. There were alot of kids on this cruise but they were very well behaved for the most part and I never felt overrun by kids which was a concern since we were cruising during spring break. The only place were the rules could have been better enforced was the hot tubs, which were always filled with kids. Your only chance of getting in a hot tub was the two located in the Solarium, which were usually available and they did do a great job of keeping the kids out of there.

 

We had requested second seating but were a bit disappointed to find out we received main seating. We opted to go stand in the line at the dining room to see it we could switch. We were told told it was very unlikely that we would get our request as the number of names on the wait list was very large. On the second day of the cruise we found out they had given us second seating and taken us off the wait list. That night at dinner we were surprised to find out that they decided to open up all the back rooms of the dining room and accommodate all the guest who requested second seating. So while we entered through the dining room we actually had dinner in a small room way in the back of the dining room. Our waiter told us that they NEVER open those rooms and that he had never had to wait on tables back there. While it felt alittle isolating, and wasn't as grand as dining in the spectacular three level dining room we were thankful at the same time because the back room was very quiet and intimate and we had amazing tablemates.

 

This cruise had an usually large amount of international guest onboard so our table mates consisted of a German family (only dad spoke English), a young couple from Venezuela (neither really spoke English) on their honeymoon, and a family from Miami (mom spoke Spanish). So when you put all of us together some how we were able to communicate and we had a wonderful time dining together throughout the week. It really felt like a cultural experience! It was rare to be on the elevator with someone speaking English. I loved that about this cruise.

 

I could write an entire book just describing the ship, so I am not going to do that. Instead I will give my overall impressions.

 

Cabins

Wonderful accommodations and the new bedding was very nice and very comfortable.

 

Food

Breakfast -Only ate in the buffet for breakfast and the selection and quality was good. Offerings pretty much stayed the same every morning the only thing I noticed that changed would the offering on the Asian bar called Jade in that some morning it would had fried rice and some mornings it would have a stir-fry. The breakfast buffet had - variety of fruit, pastries, breads, pancakes, waffles, french toast, ham, bacon, pork sausage, turkey sausage, smoked salmon with all the trimmings to make a good lox bagel, yogurt, variety of cereals, grits, eggs (3 kinds with - ham, shrimp, or salmon or plain) an omelet station, oatmeal, etc. etc. coffee, juice, milk. Great breakfast selection,.

 

Lunch - Only ate in the buffet and the offering changed daily but there was a huge selection that usually include a seafood selection, poultry and ham or some type of red meat. The assign bard would have wonderful stir-frys and curries. They also had you standard hamburger, hotdog, and french fry line. Was kind of disappointed that they did not offer a veggie burger option here like they do on NCL and Carnival. But overall great selection and choices on the lunch buffet and the quality was pretty good.

 

Dinner - Only ate in the dining room and I must say that the food in the main dining room was hit or miss. The menu was pretty uninspired in my opinion and the deserts were lacking. I usually order the seafood entree since I don't eat red meat and they were all just so-so, really nothing special. Not much more to say here, I definitely did not go hungry but the dining room food is just okay.

 

Shows

The production shows I felt were very good and well choreographed. Talented singers and dancers. The comedian was very good as well. But the must see show that was truly wonderful is the ice show Planet Ice! That was a fantastic show, truly amazing!

 

Ports

We visited San Juan, St. Maartin, St. Thomas, and Nassau.

 

San Juan - We just walked around and visited the fort. Great day, great shopping, great pina colado at Barrachini Restaurant. For those of you who do not know - guest departing on cruise out of San Juan with early morning pre-flights or late departing post-flights can leave their luggage at Barrachini for no charge. It's a great service and from their website you can receive a free pina colado coupon which is to die for as they are the original home of the pina colada.

 

St. Maartin - We used SXM tours and did the 6 1/2 hour full island tour with Bernard. This is a great tour. You really get to see the whole island. The bus is very nice and the tour guides very good. It is $30 pp and you get shopping time in Marigot on the french side and 3 hours at Orient beach along with shopping time in Phillipsburg. Great tour and I highly recommend it. Bernard was great and gave us free beers and sodas on our ride back to the port along with a free handmade photo album as a gift for booking a tour with him.

 

St. Thomas - We went to Coki Beach which has very very good snorkeling and is a great locally owned and operated beach. We also visited the Wyndham Hotel which is a beautiful resort hotel across the bay from Coki Beach. The Wyndham's beach however is not nearly as nice as the beach at Coki. We walked to the Wyndham from Coki which I do not recommend but it was fun and we found a great art gallery on the way they called Kilnworks that had beautiful local pottery along with original oil paintings and lithographs. Prices ranged from $20 for the pottery to a few thousand for some of the paintings. I bought a lovely signed limited edition lithograph of a painting of trunk bay by a local artist for $35 so I was thrilled!!! We also saw many locals cleaning their catch of the day and found a great little corner store that had ice cold Red Stripes for $1.50. Sometimes the best excursions are the ones you don't plan!

 

Nassau - Been there done that so we just spent the day at the beach and did a little shopping at the Straw Market. Just don't care for this port at all.

 

I really enjoyed this cruise and loved the Explorer of the Seas. Am I hooked and will I only do the mega-ships from now on? Honestly - I am still waffling over whether the ship was too big. We never did completely learn our way around without having to use the ship maps and ironically this cruise may have been too smooth. You couldn't feel any rocking at all and I kind of missed it. Kind of didn't feel like you were on a ship at all unless you were looking at water. I will definitely sail on a mega ship again but I think my heart belongs to the mid-sized ship.

 

Jodie