We thoroughly enjoyed our 10 day cruise on Explorer of the Seas!
Embarkation
1 out of 5
Embarkation in Miami was chaotic and unorganized.
My husband and I were travelling with my elderly parents, got separated, and ended up in separate areas to embark. They ended up on the ship almost 2 hrs before we did, unable to connect with us. We were quite anxious while all this was going on, however, are happy to report, all ended up well.
Ship experiences
Food and Dining
5 out of 5
Champagne Bar
5 out of 5
Still called the “R-bar” on this ship until, I assume, it goes into dry dock in a couple of months. Amar, Favio, Stefan, and Brandon are some of the best crew members we have come across. Excellent service, entertaining and attentive!
Main Dining Room
4 out of 5
Servers Dheeraj and Akash were great.Selections tended to be similar night after night, and flavour was generally on the bland side, but I understand they try to appeal to most people.My dad‘s salt-restricted diet was always catered to, and we could not be more appreciative about that.
Chops Grille
5 out of 5
We have never tried specialty dining before, but thoroughly enjoyed our anniversary celebration at Chops! Food was flavorful, delicious, and cooked to perfection. Service was impeccable. No complaints at all!
Onboard Activities
4 out of 5
Entertainment
4 out of 5
Ice show was very good. Singers and dancers were ok as well.
Cruise director staff (especially Georgie) was great!!!!
Service and Staff
5 out of 5
On the whole, every staff member we came across was great. We definitely had a few favorites, but we have no complaints about anyone.
People always said good morning, good afternoon, good evening… and always ensured that our needs were met. Couldn’t ask for anything more!
Ship Quality
4 out of 5
Cabin / Stateroom
4 out of 5
Our cabin was very tired, however, we were expecting that due to the fact that the ship is scheduled to go to dry dock soon. That said, it was clean, adequate, lots of storage, and our cabin steward Nadine was lovely.
The location was excellent, very convenient to elevator, stairs, and the fifth floor promenade.
The only complaint I have is that the door seal was broken, which led to a lot of outside noise, which we have never had before.
We have had rooms near the stairs before, but I’ve never experienced noise like this.
Perhaps my 3-star review is due to the fact that we have been there before, and there isn’t a lot to see or do.
Hubby and I ended up just spending the day at the beach, and soaking up some sun.
Water was lovely, most of the locals were lovely, but some could be quite pushy when it comes to sales. I don’t do well with that, admittedly.
Food was typical Windjammer fare, and there are many bars on the island if you want to drink.
That said, it feels very safe, mostly clean (minus the public bathrooms), and pretty!
Did an RC excursion “Champagne Cruise and Snorkel”.
Our Captain Dave was great, Very knowledgeable, and very entertaining. We made two stops for snorkeling, a shorter one where many different species of fish were seen, and some beautiful coral. Apparently Bonaire is renowned for its coral reefs, and snorkeling. It did not disappoint at all!
The second snorkelling location, was much larger, longer, with many different species of fish, plants, coral, and sea turtles! Swimming with a sea turtle is something I will never forget!
I also thoroughly enjoyed the champagne on the way back, just such a nice way to relax and enjoy being out on the water.
Beautiful beaches, easy to get around, and we felt very safe.
We were warned that it was windy, and it was, but beautiful.
We spent the day at Eagle Beach, which we accessed by taxi. Cheap and convenient taxi ride to a free public beach. Highly recommend investing $20 to rent a beach umbrella! Shade was welcome as the sun grew hotter and hotter!
I would love to spend more time in Aruba, we had 12 hours, but would love to go back for a week sometime.
We did a city tour, and thoroughly enjoyed seeing the beautiful colours in history of Curaçao!
The pontoon bridge is a sight to see, don’t miss it!
We also spent some time walking around, over the pontoon bridge, and through the little shops in the city. Locals were very friendly, and I felt very safe.
A beautiful city; we didn’t arrive early enough to see much prior to embarking, and on disembarkation, it was Super Bowl Sunday. Needless to say, exploring Miami on Super Bowl Sunday is not a great idea, so we headed straight to Fort Lauderdale (where we ended up catching our evening flight).
We have to go back and check it out another time!
I’m not sure what it is, but the port of Miami seemed very disorganized. Getting off the ship, was slow and tedious (we chose the express “self-disembarkation” plan that was supposed to save lines and time).
Lines were long, slow, and an escalator broke down at one end, they closed the whole area and redirected us to another end in which people were already getting off. There was pushing and bumping, and just bad manners all around. Discouraging to say the least....certainly saw the worst in people!!
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