What I expected.... But not what I had hoped for!
Explorer of the Seas Cruise Review
Contributor Level:
Cruise Director
Cruises: 7+ cruises
Reviews: 14
Helpful Votes: 309
8 Night Southern Caribbean (Miami Roundtrip)
Sail date: June 11, 2022
Ship: Explorer of the Seas
Cabin type: Balcony
Cabin number: 8528
Traveled as: Couple
Reviewed: 2 years ago
Review summary
The best I can describe this cruise was... Ehhhh. We enjoyed the 4x sea days, and needed the sea time to relax. The ship itself is un-impressive. The weather was haze-gray most days, but very little rain. The entertainment wasn't good at all, and activities were short and limited. The good thing was they played some good nightly movies... which was nice since the entertainment shows were soooo horrible! Never a bad thing to enjoy an outdoor good movie at sea! Embarkation and disembarkation were the worst we have experienced in over 20 cruises!!! Par for the course cruising out of Miami! And of course, we were 45 min late pulling out of Miami.... again, par for the course! Food was ok... again.. ehh. Service was great! They did the best they could to make the most of the situation we were in. Especially the Winjammer greeters!! These two girls had their own music going every time, dancing, and smiling, and "Welcome... time to washy washy" as you entered and "Thank you... Have a great day", as you left. 🙂 All in all... An "ehhh" cruise /at sea is still better than anytime at home! But we will not be booking another cruise on anything smaller than the Freedom class again!!Embarkation
This was by far, the WORST RCL embarkation I've ever experienced!! I hate cruising out of Miami... We got there at 1040am, and traffic along the piers was a disaster mess. It took us 20min to get from the tunnel and loop around to terminal G! We were parked in the port garage, and walked across to the terminal...It took 10min to drop our bags. Lots of people standing around, only one guy loading carts! But once in the terminal doors, it was a pathetic zero information mess! No greeting, No right this way, chaotic at the security, then once upstairs it got worse! There was absolutely NO COMMUNICATION!! They checked our paperwork and we were ushered towards the back area.. then they said "Go have a seat until called"... but guess what? Not a single PA announcement for boarding. By 1145 I got up and walked to the front area, and heard the staff telling others "just tell everyone up front to start board..." There was never an announcement, no board by crown n anchor level, nothing!! Worse thing was, as soon as people in the back saw others heading to the escalator to board it was a stampede... my wife was stuck behind a wall of people 300 deep! This has happened EVERY time Ive cruised out of Miami!! CRAP communication and CRAP organization!!!
Ship experiences
Food and Dining
First off... Im not a picky eater or care about fru-fru foods. Second... The staff did a great job trying to give good service in the Windjammer! MDR was horribly slow service, overwhelmed, and the food was "ok". Windjammer was a terrible layout as to where food was, and how the food was organized for efficent people flow! The food was pretty good in the Windjammer... though REALLY lacked diversity on this cruise... even compared to the other 5 cruises since the restart!
Onboard Activities
Unfortunately... The Explorer of the Seas pales in comparrison to two other classes of RCL ships Ive sailed on... (Freedom class and Oasis class) It just didn't have the number of activities, and even the onea they had, were only open short periods of time.
Entertainment
Other than the ice show, which was good.... and one comedy show which was good... the rest were horrible! Stage shows were so bad we walked out. The singers were painful to listen to... Even the pool deck band was terrible. Usually, the music on RCL has been their strong suite, but damn... They put the C, or D team on the Explorer! Even the piped in music around the ship was spotty, and not good. Which on other classes, the music is consistent and fluid throughout the ship.
Service and Staff
The staff did a great job trying to give great service... Thia was the only saving grace! Bar staff, walk around servers, room steward, windjammer servers.. they all were friendly and always offered drink refills, asked if we needed anything!
Ship Quality
Definitely NOT the ship for us. Again, unfortunately it isnt a fair comparrision for the Explorer, because we have sailed so much on the Oasis class and 3x on the Independence. The Explorer just PALES in comparrision!! The entire cruise, the ship just felt.. ehhh. Nothing interesting or impressive. Even walking back to the ship in ports.. it just looked.. ehhh.
The ship is old and needed the planned 2020 refurbish (canceldd due to covid).
Cabin / Stateroom
Had a ocean balcony cabin 8528. It was fine. Bed was comfee after the cabin steward put a topper on it. The bathroom was very small, and the balcony was terrible!! It was a steel box, with 12in glass panels between the steel wall and the railing!! WTF??? You got zero air flow, and if unlucky enough to be on thw sunny side, it was an oven!!
Ship tip
If this is your first try for the RCL fleet... DON'T judge RCL by this class of ship!! Explore the entire ship, and find the out of the way places to enjoy the ocean breeze on sea days
Thumbs up
0
Ports of call
Ehhh... Not a big fan of Aruba. Unless your doing paid tour, its just a bunch of expensive shops.
I HATE cruising out of Miami!!! Total chaotic disaster compared to Ft Lauderdale and especially compared to Port Canaveral!!
Disembarkation
Again... Disembarkation was a total mess!! We always self-disembark. The announcement was made that the ship was cleared at 630, and It would start at 7am, and at 650am, the line was 500 deep!! Excuse me.. LINES... two lines wrapping around both deck four outter deck rail areas, as well as around the mdr! The line didnt start moving at all till 735am. Then we had to go through customs agents, since this terminal doesnt have the face recognition setup that other RCL terminals have! SLOWWWWWWW process!!!