Thread: Explorer of the Seas June 11, 2009 Sailing

This was a family cruise which included 25 people ranging in age from 65 to 12.

What a splendid sailing this was! This was only my 3rd cruise - once before on a large Carnival ship and a smaller Royal Caribbean ship. The EOS was magnificent. Yes, it showed some signs of wear and tear, like a little chipped paint on our balcony, a small stain on our comforter, and a few worn carpets... BUT this ship is a lovely lady.

The MDR is beautifully decorated. Although we had tables immediately inside the main doors, we made the best of it and commented on all the outfits that walked by us each evening, including the short skirts, the obnoxious hats, the very under-dressed teens, and the dazzling ladies on formal nights. ;-) (I can comment on the teens as we had 11 well-dressed teens at dinner each night). Overall though, most people dressed appropriately for the MDR in the evenings.

The food in the MDR was fine - not brilliant - but fine. A few of the evenings we had difficulty choosing something as there tended to be repeats on the menu. Some of our favorite dishes were the shrimp ravioli, the mustard-encrusted beef, the lamb shanks, the lobster (of course), and the chilled fruit soups. Desserts ranged from the wonderful Grand Marnier souffle, cheesecake, decadent chocolate cake, strawberry cream napoleon, to the daily offering of sherbet or ice cream (always a hit with a kid). Several people in our party ordered the tiramisu one evening and nobody liked it. However almost everyone ordered the warm, small chocolate cakes (with a scoop of vanilla ice cream of course) and everyone loved those - although they would have been better if the insides had been slightly molten like my husband makes them. We never left the dinner table hungry & never felt rushed!!! We had an issue with our asst. waiter the first few evenings but spoke with the Head Waiter and the problem was quickly resolved. Our Head Waiter, Mihai, was fabulous and very friendly. He visited all 3 of our tables each evening and always asked how things were.

Activities were all around from trivia, bingo, casino games, wall climbing, game shows, evening shows, inline skating, miniature golf, etc. The teens who wanted to be busy were always busy!!! Probably the only 'con' in this area was the limited amount of time the ice skating rink was open. Having an ice rink on board is amazing, yes... but many of the days it wasn't available for use as the ice skating performers were using it for practice. I understand that - but the kids really don't care about that - they wanted to use what was promoted in the brochures and online. Speaking of - the ice skating show was fun, fun, and fun! It was amazing what they could accomplish in a small rink. Unfortunately, only 5 of my family members saw the show as the tickets were quickly grabbed up during the 2-hour ticket handout after dinner on the first evening on the ship. Most of my family did not realize that there WAS an ice show, let along KNOW they had to get their tickets the first night on the ship when there is so much else going on.

Windjammer - food again was fine - lots of variety BUT not many changes to the menu - make sense? There would be 20 things for lunch, but those same things every day were offered. I did enjoy many dishes from the JADE counter though and if you like curry - well, you will be a happy camper on this ship! We never had a problem finding a table or moving through the lines. Probably the only lines were in the mornings for the FRIED EGGS line or the OMELETTE line.

Casinos... several family members played slots. One won $1200, another won $600 and another walked away a $300 winner. Bingo they weren't as lucky but they did break even or win < $100. The final jackpot of $7,000 on the final afternoon was won by a single mother...

Few shows we saw were fine. Marriage game was hysterical. Liar game was hysterical - although I was surprised to see young children at these shows - the crew said several times prior to the shows that they were ADULT only shows and the parents did not remove the kids and yes, they are Adult-only shows! There are plenty of things on the ships for the kids to do that will occupy their time - take them to Adventure Ocean and let them experience age-appropriate activities. We found ourselves in the Maharaja Lounge on many evenings and really enjoyed the entire atmosphere of that lounge as well as the bars in the Viking Lounge area. The Schooner Bar was a great place, too. Smoking wasn't an issue except in the casinos - which were non-smoking on formal nights and we took advantage on those evenings. I know people have different preferences on smoking but I am glad that they have a no smoking night in the casinos on formal night.

2 midnight buffets by the pools were fun and food was good...

Getting on and off the ship was a breeze but don't expect the port to be anything special. It is definitely an old navy base. The Statue of Liberty can be viewed from the port.

Drinks were great - but pricey. $8.50 for drinks of the day - includes glass but honestly, who wants to keep those glasses? Ultimate mai tais and rum punches were our favorites with a few martinis of different flavors.... someone needs to teach them how to make margaritas as everyone in our party sent them back several times. A few of the drinks had to be re-ordered as they made the wrong ones... but overall the bar service was quick and efficient and ALWAYS readily available - maybe too much so around the pools. They drove us a bit crazy on a few days. I felt like putting a sign on my chair saying, "No! I don't care for a drink from the bar!"

A few cons: $3.95 charge for room service between midnight & 5 am. This wasn't an issue for me personally, but many nights, the teens wanted something to eat when returning from their activities. They quickly realized there was food on Deck 5 24-hours but each of them said they would have like to have had room service for free around 2 am.

Johnny Rockets has a $4.95 cover charge for walking through the door. If you only wanted a milkshake, you had to pay the $4.95 cover charge and then an additional amount for the milkshake as well. Needless to say, milkshakes weren't ordered unless they were ordered during a meal. Although it may be a bit dishonest, I just had my son bring me a milkshake to-go the one day he had lunch there as I didn't want lunch there - I just wanted a good chocolate milkshake! We did eat there one afternoon for lunch and it was very good, but the other odd thing was many days, it did not open until 3 pm so if you have an early seating for dinner, you couldn't eat there.

gotta get dinner fixed... will write more later... let me know if you have specific questions!

Sounds like a good cruise! Waiting to hear more.

Great review so far.

Well I spent an hour adding to this yesterday but I guess it failed to post.

We really took advantage of every aspect of the ship as we had such a large group so if you have any questions, let me know...

The Excursion Desk on the ship was probably our biggest disappointment. Not only were they not helpful but they weren't open much either... Several of the excursions our group wanted were booked by Day 2 on the ship so go early or book immediately or even online prior if you really want to do something! The mountain biking in St. Martin that I wanted to do was canceled 2 days before arriving in St. Martin due to lack of interest. If you want to SHOP in the ports, there is tons of help, great maps, recommended vendors, and a special desk with a very nice lady but for anything else that isn't booked through the ship, you are on your own. For example, the night before we arrived in San Juan, I went to the desk to ask for a walking map/guide of Old San Juan. I was told they did not provide those but I could use a shopping map or just check with the Tourist Information Center that was "somewhere in town once we arrived at the port." Ok, fine... I can manage that. Well, we docked at 7am, off the ship by 7:45 am to beat the crowds and the heat and guess what - the Tourist Information Center does not open in the month of June until 9 am (8:30 other months). This seems like something the Excursion Desk people would know since they dock there weekly??? I guess the reality is that the Explorations Desk only helps those that are booking excursions through the ship - but don't ask too specific questions as they did not have answers there either - they would just hand you a brochure or the guide - not really answering your question. Take this and move along! This did bring up a question though -

Do the cruise ships get kickbacks or special deals from the 'recommended vendors' in the ports as they sure did push those vendors pretty hard? Maybe special deals on jewelry for the 'duty free' shops onboard from the recommended vendors?

Sports Deck Crew and most Activites Crew members were fantastic! Darryl, Ester, Nicki Numbers and Kevin Rooke on the climbing wall were great and will be remembered - as was the young lady in the inline skating area. The climbing wall guys were very enthusiastic and worked hard to help people get to the top of the wall! Our daughter took full advantage of this activity!

There are many quiet areas in the ship if you want to be alone - the library, the game room adjacent to the Viking Lounge area, quiet spots in lounges during the day but not the pool deck areas! ;-) Just know going in that these areas are jam packed from 8:30 - 4:30 ish. Don't go looking for a chair at 12:30 and expect to find one. The pools had people packed in sardine-style with no room for actual swimming. The Solarium area - well, I think that there were people that booked interior cabins but then stayed in the Solarium the entire cruise, never leaving their 'reserved lounge by the pool" as we would see the same people in the same chair regardless of when we walked through. My husband and I spent several lovely hours lounging there one afternoon reading while it rained - obviously we were parked under the deck. The hot tubs were busy, too, but typically on rainy days or most evenings they were a bit emptier. Just know that the pool areas are fun, fun, fun and don't go looking for quiet and find your chair early - like so many others did! Be sure to lay your towel across 5 or 6 chairs and stick your bag in another one so that you have enough chairs reserved for a small army just in case someone you don't know wants to sit close to you. ;-) We found a great little spot on the upper climbing wall area - wasn't quiet by any means, but it was shaded, we could see the kids come and go on the sports deck, men could get up and be in some sports competition, we could get drinks from the Dizzy's Lounge w/o being bothered every 20 seconds as we were on the pool area decks for drinks - enough already!!! - and we could meander for a dip in the pool and come back to our seats w/o having to wage war with someone over a chaise lounge. It was a great find and we enjoyed our fun days at sea! The pool decks are what they are and I don't see them changing so just take them with a grain of salt and make the best of the situation... or have another drink at the bar!

Bermuda beaches were lovely - highly recommend. The island itself is quite lovely, too. St. Martin beaches were lovely, too, but glad my 'men' stayed on board that day. St. Thomas it poured all day so we stayed on board and enjoyed the hot tubs, naps, solarium, and less crowded areas of the ship while everyone was off. My parents went shopping and said the traffic was horrendous - same in St. Martin... it was a crawl from the beach back to the ship - wondered if we would make it in time. Old San Juan was very quaint and so glad we got off the ship to see it. We wished we had more time in port to really walk it, see the rain forest, and visit a beach. Traffic was awful in San Juan, too, so walk if you can.

One thing worth mentioning, I suppose, is that my parents were slightly disappointed I think as they had only previously sailed on Celebrity Cruises. Of course, due to the large number of kids we had, we picked RC for all the activities but my parents felt like the service, food, and attention to detail was lacking on the RC ship and that they much preferred the smaller ship they previously sailed on with Celebrity. These mega-ships are large and they offer many activities but my parents are correct - you trade some of the attentiveness and personal detail for activities, fun, and excitement!

Our cruise was fantastic and I highly recommend the ship and this type of vacation for any family looking for a great vacation with other family. We enjoyed our time on The Explorer of the Seas and can't wait to book our next ship to either Alaska or the Southern Caribbean... any suggestions?

Thank you for taking the time to write the trip report.
I am glad you had such a fantastic time onboard.
If you havent tried one of the ships in the Radiance class you should so for your next vacation.

Thank you for writing your report travelmom

It sounds like you had a great cruise! Other than the Excursion Desk's lack of information.

I'm wondering, did you make it to Horseshoe Bay Beach and the Lighthouse?

Thanks for the review! I'm sorry your parents weren't thrilled, but as Lars said, they should try the Radiance class. They are a bit more on the "classier" side of RC.

It seems like many of the mass market cruiselines have special deals of some sort with some of the port shops. (like Diamonds International) Usually I try to bring along my own maps for each port (just in case any prebooked excursion gets cancelled) as the ones given out by the cruiseship will just have those "preferred stores." Sometimes we just are walking around the port so those maps won't be too helpful to us anyway. When we go shopping in the ports, we'll walk past the "preferred stores" and end up finding the same stuff for less.

I love the Explorer too because I live so close. I can't wait for her to go to drydock because she does show signs of wear. I wonder what they will add? I am hoping for a Chops Grill.