The ship needs updates but overall had a great time!
Embarkation
3 out of 5
Check in time was at 12pm. We arrived about 40 minutes early and was met with an already very long line. By 12:30, no one had moved and no announcements were made as to why we weren’t allowed to board. We asked a crew member who told us that the system was down. By 12:45 they opened the doors and was a fairly quick process after that. They checked covid tests and paper work a few times and got us on board.
Ship experiences
Food and Dining
4 out of 5
Ate mostly in main dining and Windjammer buffet but also splurged for a night at Chops. Food was good all around. Pretty decent selection and tasty food. I will say that the steak that I ordered in the main dining room was just as good as the $50 steak at Chops. Im glad we tried it but, most likely won’t be spending the money on speciality dining again!
Buffet was always crowded (especially for breakfast) but that was to be expected on a spring break cruise. Breakfast had the same options every day but lunch seemed to rotate between some different options. We LOVED the burgers and hotdogs especially!
Onboard Activities
3 out of 5
Flowrider, rock climbing and ice skating were only open for short blocks of time and usually at inconvenient times (right at dinner time or in the morning on port days during excursions). My massage in the spa was fantastic even with trying to be sold on products and more services afterwards. Solarium pool was great!
We attended activities like trivia and karaoke often. Maybe it was the cruise Staffs first cruise? It was always a hot mess. They would accidentally give out the answers for trivia/play the title of the song that was to be guessed and scramble to stop the music. The karaoke songs in the book didn’t match the numbers in the system and the projector screen was from the early 00s (all red and continuously got error messages)
The main game shows like battle of the sexes and love and marriage were great. They knew what they were doing with those!
Entertainment
4 out of 5
We attended three main stage shows: Invitation to Dance, Cool, hot and swinging and the Comedian Phil Tag. Comedian was great. Very funny and relatable. Performers were great in both musical-type shows. I just wished they were re-vamped. They were very outdated. Explorer definitely needs some new shows!
We also went to a theater screening of Dune. We had to leave after about 15-20 minutes. The projection was so blurry that with the motion of the ship, it was giving me a headache to try and focus.
Cabin / Stateroom
4 out of 5
Cabin was a little outdated, only had one outlet. (Im used to seeing them next to the beds but that wasn’t the case on those ship). Im also not a huge fan of the tube shower. otherwise it was very comfortable and had lots of storage space.
Thanks for the information on outlets. I was just on an older Carnival ship. Only 1 outlet. I was insane . They need to add USB ports . 2 cell phones and 1 outlet. Luckily I was able to get a power strip from my cabin steward.
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