Beautiful Baltic Bliss

Explorer of the Seas Cruise Review to Europe - Northern Europe

Cruises: 1 cruise (first)
Review: 1
Helpful Votes: 49

Overall rating:

4.2 out of 5
Explorer of the Seas

14 Night Scandinavia & Russia (Southampton Roundtrip)

Sail date: August 04, 2019

Ship: Explorer of the Seas

Cabin type: Oceanview

Traveled as: Couple

Reviewed: 5 years ago

Review summary

Overall, a first fantastic cruise. The staff must be praised for their attention to customer care. Entertainment was excellent and range of evening events. Don't agree with the customer tier system-a little outdated. We need to embrace all customers as equals. Apart from that little moan-a fantastic holiday.

Embarkation

5 out of 5
An extremely smooth, efficient and effortless embarkation

Ship experiences

Food and Dining

5 out of 5
The food was varied with a wide selection of food types. Dining in the evening was also very good, excellent service. To be honest, we didn't use the speciality restaurants-why would you with so much food available at other times?

Onboard Activities

3 out of 5
Day time activities were predominanently aimed at younger passengers. Entertainment in the evenings was varied, particularly range of shows offered in the theatre and a spectacular ice show. Credit must also be paid to Perry Grant who was extremely entertaining.

Entertainment

4 out of 5
Extremely professional and varied. See previous comments.

Service and Staff

5 out of 5
The level and standard of service is to be highy commended. The staff evidently work their socks off to ensure customer satisfaction.

Ship Quality

4 out of 5
Ship's design was engaging. However, felt the outer top deck was completely wasted-perhaps due to weather? Hardly used-perhaps it would serve better as a panoramic bar-similar to Dizzie's bar.

Cabin / Stateroom

5 out of 5
Happy with the cabin-spacious and comfortable for 2 people. Guess it would be more tricky for families. Why does the bed back onto the window? We moved ours sideways to open up the window view. Much nicer!

Ship tip

A great ship to sail on. I disagree with some rviews that it is a little tired. Perhaps it is but i'd rather be comfortable than coping with larger numbers n some of the larger ships.

Ports of call

Oslo, Norway

2 out of 5
An ok port although not a great deal to offer. Visited the Ice Bar which was a lot of fun.

Copenhagen, Denmark

5 out of 5
A great place to visit-lots to do and beautiful too.

Tallinn, Estonia

5 out of 5
A gem of a find. Fairy tale, walled city which we will certainly return to. Beautiful and charming.

St. Petersburg, Russian Federation

2 out of 5
Booked an excursion through Shipmate app. Thank you to Anastacia who was excellent and no reflection of the star rating. I awarded it two due to the visa situation and the obsessive passport being stolen patter by Royal Caribbean staff. Not a great way to put guests at ease.

Helsinki, Finland

3 out of 5
Quite pretty. Rock church was worth a visit but not a great deal to do otherwise.

Stockholm, Sweden

5 out of 5
Fabulous. Will most certaily return. Abba museum is a must and old town worth a visit. Shame we didn't have more time here.

Skagen, Denmark

3 out of 5
Quaint but not much to do here.

Stavanger, Norway

3 out of 5
Again, quaint. Lovely walk along the beach to the point where North Sea and Baltic meet. Very nice.

Disembarkation

4 out of 5
Relatively easy - no major problems.

Traveler Photos

Copenhagen
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2 Comments

juju2454    5 years ago

Was our first cruise. Loved the inside balcony

Ahoy79    5 years ago

Agree with this review, fellow cruiser! Be prepared to feel a bit short changed by other types of holidays now...

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