Just Home! Explorer Review 11/1/08

[Brenda33]

Hi all,

 

We (myself 44, DH 47, and DS 6) just returned from the Explorer of the Seas which set sail on November 1, 2008 through November 9, 2008. Our set ports of call were St. Thomas, Puerto Rico and Labadee. Overall it was a fabulous cruise. I give it 4 stars out of 5.

 

Embarkation was a bit of a wait, but no big deal. We arrived around 10:45 and were on the ship around 1 p.m. Rooms are not ready until exactly 1:30. We went at 1:23 and had to wait until 1:30. No biggie.

 

The ship is beautiful. I think everything was well maintained and I saw people painting, etc. constantly.

 

We had an inside cabin (8437) on deck 8. Our room steward was Keshan. On day one I made my requests for the week and he was fabulous about accommodating me......extra towels, ice in cooler, etc. He was a great steward.

 

Around the ship we played mini golf, ping pong and my DS used the rock climbing wall one time. DS was a little scared and said he didn't really like rock climbing....but I think that is because he let go and was swinging for a bit before he could grab on. It was very safe, but he is only 6 so its understandable that he may not like it. Most everyone I saw really enjoyed it.

 

The pool area was a lot of fun. We always managed to find chairs, but that was only because we ate breakfast very early and headed out right after. Yes, there were chair hogs out in full force. However, I saw a woman who was not going to stand for it and she walked up to a group of chairs, removed the towels and put her own down....the entire time ranting that she wasn't going to put up with any of this. Unfortunately, for the people who originally had those chairs, they were only gone about 20 minutes and came back to this woman and her family on their chairs. I really felt this was unfair. 20 minutes is a very reasonable amount of time to be away from your chair. The pools were fun. My DS loved when the water was more like a wave pool than a swimming pool. Sometimes the waves even came over onto the deck. Everyone was enjoying themselves so much. There was an instance of "throw up" in the pool and it was cleaned and ready in for use again in about 2 1/2 hours.

 

Drinks around the ship were very tasty. One strange thing was that even if I ordered the same drink at the same bar within 30 minutes of each other the price was different!!! I paid $6 something for the same drink I paid $10 something for 30 minutes later. It was like that all week. Most of the times it was $10 something though. I drank strawberry margaritas.

 

Maintenance: The a/c wasn't working in our room and I called when I left for breakfast and later that day when I checked in my room it was nice and cool!! FABULOUS SERVICE.

 

Later in the week my toilet was clogged, and this time it was unfortunate but I had to call from morning til 5:30 p.m. before the problem was finally fixed. My room steward even called. They kept saying they were on their way, but noone every showed until I called the last time letting them know I was upset. Then it was fixed within 10 minutes. I think all they had to do was push a button from another room. It took all of 30 seconds to fix.

 

Ice Show: Really fabulous show. We had to pick up our tickets night one during dinner. Well worth the trip to get the time we wanted.

 

The evening shows were typical cruise ship shows. They were all pretty good. My DH really enjoyed the Beatles show and I liked the Invitation to Dance.

 

Evening entertainment was a bit lacking. The live music seemed to be a bit "elevatorish". I would have enjoyed live bands playing Top 40 or classic rock. The only place there was really upbeat music was late night in the Chamber....DJ music.

 

The game shows were all fun. We saw Love and Marriage, Trivia games, Who Wants to Feel Like a Millionaire, Battle of the Sexes and The Quest. They were all entertaining. I did, however, feel that maybe they were a bit quick and that we barely sat and the game was over.....but still very entertaining.

 

Pool games included Bongo and Baggo......I got a gold medal in Baggo!!! WOO HOO!!! LOL Also, they had a Mr. Explorer Contest, pool Olympics and a Belly Flop Competition.

 

The Royal Promenade has a great Cafe Promenade where you can get pastries, cookies, pizza and great little sandwiches all day and night at no extra charge. There is a specialty coffee bar where you can purchase lattes, etc. However, coffee, tea, hot chocolate and ice water are available by machine at no additional fee. There is also a Ben and Jerrys in this area for an additional fee. The sandwiches were so yummy!! My favorites were the prosciutto and shrimp salad.

 

Dining Room: I had sent a few requests to RCCL Dining before my cruise, the last one being the week before we set sail. Each time the response I received was that they were doing their best to accommodate me. When I got on the ship I went to check on my table....#304.....it was a cute little table and I was pleased. However, when we got to dinner that night the table numbers were moved...????.....and now we were at a huge table. We went directly to the matre d' and he told us that he would try to switch our table for the following night. So we sat with our tablemates....it was a family from Canada....3 adults and 4 children. Noone really spoke too much to us. I tried to make conversation with the woman next to me, but they pretty much liked to keep to themselves. The next day I received a note in my room telling me that my request was granted and we were now at a table for 3....table #4 in the Magellan Dining Room....Main Seating.

 

Our waiter and assistant waitress were ok......at best. Some things were fabulous, but, it really didn't make up for the rudeness of our assistant waitress. She snipped at us if we dared to ask for anything. If we dared to ask the waiter and he said something to her, she came over and scolded us. It was crazy. However, me being me, and never letting anything ruin my trip, just laughed about it with my DH.....it was a big joke all week that we were going to get in trouble if we wanted anything, etc. Also, the dinner was so rushed. We were in the dining room a total of 1 hour to 1 hour and 20 minutes for a long night. I like a more relaxed dinner.

 

The food.....REALLY GOOD!!......I was very happy with the flavors of most of all the dinners. A couple things I didn't like were the lobster....it was rubbery and fishy.....and the Vegetable Risotto as a main course. It was just not good. However, I had the scallop risotto appetizer earlier in the week and it was awesome. The duck was one of my favorite dinners, along with the prime rib.

 

Portofino's: We were very happy with Portofino's....although I can tell you I have had better....but it was still really good. I think I was expecting more after all the talk. I would like to say that Portofino's was very accommodating to my needs. I had originally booked it for the night we were in St. Thomas, figuring I would be getting back to the ship late and would miss dinner in the dining room. I found out that St. Thomas night was the same night that Adventure Ocean was going to be having the Pirate Parade. Well of course I wanted to see my little guy march so I went to Portofino's to ask to change my night and they were very nice about it and changed me to Thursday evening instead....the night we were scheduled to be in Labadee. I had the tiger shrimp risotto, salad with blue cheese, apples and walnuts, the pasta ribbons with mushroom sauce and the filet mignon.......and finished with the dessert sampler. I'm not into desserts and I only really liked the vanilla creme brulee on the platter....DH had the tiramasu and enjoyed that. Service was good in there also.....one weird thing...our waitress introduced herself, then we never saw her after that. She said that her and her assistant would be taking care of us, but she disappeared and we only saw the assistant.

 

Adventure Ocean: TERRIFIC!!!! My little guy loved it so much. There was so much for kids to do that they were never bored. The funniest part was that my son wanted to stay up later than we did!! One night DH went to pick him up and came back alone.....it was trash the room night and he needed more time. LOL....They totally toilet papered the whole place. The counselors were wonderful with the children. I give it 5 stars!

 

St. Thomas: We took a taxi to Emerald Beach Resort. Taxi was $6 per person each way. The beach was really beautiful. The water was warm and the bottom was soft and sandy....no rocks, rough shells, etc. Chairs are $7 each and if you want an umbrella its $10. However, if you just put the chair under a palm tree no umbrella is needed. There was an attendant who got us drinks and took very good care of us. The place was very private. There were only around 20 people on the beach. We were near the airport so we saw a few planes take off.

 

San Juan: We took the free trolley to El Morro. DH really enjoyed it, as he loves history. For me, I was melting and would have preferred a beach or something......but of course I wanted to do something to make him happy. DS liked it for about half the time and then he was melting. It cost $3 per person to get in....children free. After that we stopped at a few stores. I bought a couple purses at Guess and DH got a Harley tshirt. We actually walked back from El Morro. It wasn't so bad when we stopped along the way to cool off.

 

Labadee: We never actually made it here. We stood in line for the tender for about 1 1/2 hours and finally we noticed that the ship was moving in the opposite direction. We headed for the pool. About 10 minutes later the Captain came on and announced we would not be going because of a labor dispute. I think it was the best choice made so that everyone was safe. We all received a $100 per person on board credit. I think this was more than fair. We enjoyed a great day at sea poolside that day.

 

There was an announcement made the last day that the Coast Guard would be bringing in blood for a passenger who needed it. I never did hear what happened. I hope all turned out OK and everyone is healthy and OK.

 

Debarking: We had red. This meant we were next to last to get off. We had to wait in Studio B. Although the wait was long, it was an easy process and there were porters to help with luggage. My porter brought my luggage all the way to my car in the parking lot. That was a huge help.

 

Overall this was a great cruise. If I could change anything it would be that there would be better musical entertainment in the evening and more entertainment poolside.

 

Hopefully, I remembered everything........any questions, I would be happy to help.

[espmass]

Sounds like you had a wonderful time. I'm with you that I never let anything ruin my trip. So the waitstaff isn't as good as they should be? Better than waiting on myself. The pool was crowded? Better than my bath tub. You get the point. We're going on the same cruise 1/23 and are really looking foward to it so it's nice to hear your positive comments.

[mchin]

Thanks for the review. We are sailing Explorer for the second time next month. How many kids were in Adventure Ocean? We are sailing with our 3 1/2 year old DD. During our cruise on AOS in April, she didn't use the kid's program because she was not totally potty trained. This time, we hope she will participate more.

[wrp96]

Thanks for the review.

 

If you happen to get bad waitstaff again immediately say something to the headwaiter. There was no excuse for the attitude you received from the assistant waiter. If you did let the headwaiter know, and it wasn't taken care of then go up the ladder from there - but definitely don't suffer in silence because if you don't let them know there is a problem, they don't know to fix it. The one time I had poor service from an assistant waiter, the issue was fixed immediately after we spoke to the headwaiter.

[PEMCO007]

nice to read your review, we are off on 21 Dec, and our cabin is 8441! Cant wait now, we have never done RCCL before so nice to hear everything. Thanksx

[Brenda33]

Thanks for the review. We are sailing Explorer for the second time next month. How many kids were in Adventure Ocean? We are sailing with our 3 1/2 year old DD. During our cruise on AOS in April, she didn't use the kid's program because she was not totally potty trained. This time, we hope she will participate more.

My son was in the age group above your daughter....the Explorers. Your daughter will be an Aquanaut. In his group there were 75 kids.....usually around 30 or so were there at a time. It is a fabulous program not to be missed. Your little one will also have an opportunity to march in the pirate parade and perform in the talent show. The little ones had instruments they played to a song. It was really cute.

[Brenda33]

Thanks for the review.

 

If you happen to get bad waitstaff again immediately say something to the headwaiter. There was no excuse for the attitude you received from the assistant waiter. If you did let the headwaiter know, and it wasn't taken care of then go up the ladder from there - but definitely don't suffer in silence because if you don't let them know there is a problem, they don't know to fix it. The one time I had poor service from an assistant waiter, the issue was fixed immediately after we spoke to the headwaiter.

I was afraid to complain.....they might spit in my food. LOL :eek:

[Brenda33]

nice to read your review, we are off on 21 Dec, and our cabin is 8441! Cant wait now, we have never done RCCL before so nice to hear everything. Thanksx

An easy trick to getting to your room......cut through the Internet room instead of walking all the way around.

[honeywell]

Thanks for sharing! Any idea what the delay was that caused you to wait to board? That sounds like a long time to wait...

[Brenda33]

Thanks for sharing! Any idea what the delay was that caused you to wait to board? That sounds like a long time to wait...

All I was told was that the previous passengers were not finished getting off the ship yet.

[hunnybunny5475]

hi brenda,

 

My grandfather is the passanger the coast guard needed to bring blood for. He ended up with pnemonia but is getting better each day. Thank you for your thoughts!

I don't have much time for a review, but I wanted to say this was my 6th time on the explorer and it was the worst dining room service I have ever had! But I didn't let that ruin the trip. I must say the ship hospital was excellent! they even called my mother yesterday to see how my grandfather was doing! So even though service lacked in the dining room it was made up in other places!

[jajsmom]

Great review. I'm so excited as we're the next group to get on the Explorer. This will be our first time. Did the ship seem overly crowded? We know there were lots of people on board, but were there places to go to get away from the crowds? Are the pools very crowded? Thanks.

 

Lauri

[phantom728]

We love Explorer and will be sailing her again in Feb.

 

Can you tell us which Cruise Director you had? We had Allan last Nov and he was excellent! Would love it if he was on the ship again.

 

Glad to hear overall you had a great cruise!

[ERTHDOG]

I was afraid to complain.....they might spit in my food. LOL :eek:

 

YUCK, this is my fear too,so DW wants to say something,i would rather she didnt...laughing about sometimes works better;)

 

dave

[green eyed lady]

Phantom,

The cruise director is Mike Hunnerup. He was just OK...no big deal. We also had Allan Brooks last Nov and we really liked him. He was much better than the current one :rolleyes:

[phantom728]

Phantom,

The cruise director is Mike Hunnerup. He was just OK...no big deal. We also had Allan Brooks last Nov and we really liked him. He was much better than the current one :rolleyes:

 

Thanks for the update. We really enjoyed Allan, he was one of the best cruise directors we had so far and was hoping to see him again. I know they move ships quite frequently.

[Brenda33]

hi brenda,

 

My grandfather is the passanger the coast guard needed to bring blood for. He ended up with pnemonia but is getting better each day. Thank you for your thoughts!

I don't have much time for a review, but I wanted to say this was my 6th time on the explorer and it was the worst dining room service I have ever had! But I didn't let that ruin the trip. I must say the ship hospital was excellent! they even called my mother yesterday to see how my grandfather was doing! So even though service lacked in the dining room it was made up in other places!

Tara,

I am so glad your grandfather is doing better!!

[Brenda33]

Great review. I'm so excited as we're the next group to get on the Explorer. This will be our first time. Did the ship seem overly crowded? We know there were lots of people on board, but were there places to go to get away from the crowds? Are the pools very crowded? Thanks.

 

Lauri

The ship at times seemed crowded, but at other times not. It all depending on where you were and when. When we first got on the ship the Promenade Cafe had a line half way down the promenade, but the rest of the week there were never more than a few people ahead of me in line. The pools were pretty crowded on the hot days, but I thought the pools were a pretty good size for ship pools. There always seems room for everyone.

[IKE]

So happy to hear overall You All enjoyed a great Cruise. However, even though You got your Table for 3 , no way should You have put up with the rude Asst. Waiter. This should have been brought to someone's attention immediately.

[mgmigs]

have they changed the ice shows yet or is it still that "spirits of the season" and i forgot the name of the other.

[B-52]

Beatle Show. Interesting. They were on the Mariner this past September. Performers must rotate around all the RCL Ships, not just contract for one.

Just a observation.

 

BTW, I really enjoyed their show also. It's a generation thing.

[midfiman]

My wife and I were on this cruise and let me tell you, we had the best vacation ever! Why? Because we weren't expecting the world. We were expecting good weather, good service, a nice staff and lots of activities and that's exactly what we got. Sure, there were some minor things here and there that we could nitpick about, but I don't think a perfect vacation exists, even if you were to spend $20,000.

 

Anyways, our dining room service was fantastic and our assistant waiter was exceptional. This was our second time on the Explorer and I think the Windjammer food has actually gotten better than before, though still not top notch.

 

The entertainment was great as there was always something going on whether it be rock climbing, volleyball, bingo, baggo, bloggo, cooking demonstration, a show, etc.

 

It's too bad we weren't able to go to Labedee, but my wife and I had probabably our best day on the ship the same day we were suppose to go there!

 

The cruise director Mike, definately wasn't our best cruise director, but still good and a very nice guy at that. We chatted with him a few times and he's a very nice guy. Better yet, his supporting cast, including Ana Banana, Mandy, Brandy, Nicole and David, were all fantastic. We were quite sad to leave them as we felt like we made some new friends!

 

If you get a chance, speak with the Captain. We were able to talk to him for a little while when we were docked in San Juan and he's a very intellectual person. He was telling us about the flag at the front of the ship and what that's for and telling us about other features of the ship. He's quite busy, but more than happy to talk to his guests!

 

We had an inside room on the 6th floor, which wasn't huge, but enough space for the both of us. We tucked the oval coffee table into the floor of our closet and it really made our room seem much bigger than when it was right in the way.

 

We would love to sail the explorer again, but we're all "Caribbeaned" out, so I think we're going to venture to another ship, but who knows what the future holds?!

[midfiman]

BTW - Beatles show, WOW, absolutely phenomenal! Horizons, good show, but not as good as the Beatles! Vibeology and the ice show, good shows, but saw them both last year.

 

I guess if there was one place for improvement, I would suggest they change the shows more often, especially since the dancer change so it wouldn't be too hard to do.

[psupa]

Hi all,

 

 

San Juan: We took the free trolley to El Morro. DH really enjoyed it, as he loves history. For me, I was melting and would have preferred a beach or something......but of course I wanted to do something to make him happy. DS liked it for about half the time and then he was melting. It cost $3 per person to get in....children free. After that we stopped at a few stores. I bought a couple purses at Guess and DH got a Harley tshirt. We actually walked back from El Morro. It wasn't so bad when we stopped along the way to cool off.

 

 

Where did you pick up the free trolley in San Juan? We'll be there in a few weeks.

[lynn247]

Is this the free trolly? It was like an open double bus.

 

 

I saw another trolly, red and green I think. I was not sure which was the free one.