We liked the Explorer so much that we used the Instant Reward certificate that my husband earned in its casino to book a 12-night transatlantic cruise for next November - on the Explorer!
Embarkation
4 out of 5
We were back-2-back cruisers; enjoyed the luncheon provided for us in the MDR
Ship experiences
Food and Dining
5 out of 5
Same food items that we have seen in other Royal ships
Onboard Activities
5 out of 5
We enjoyed many of the trivia and other games. There were several friendly and competent trivia hosts.
We attended the veterans ceremony in the theatre, but it wasn’t too well-attended. Too bad- as usual, the live orchestra and a vocalist performed. Perhaps they need to advertise the event a bit more.
We also attended the egg-drop contest in the Promenade. While it’s a fun thing to do, it was more fun to watch the same event on the Grandeur and the Enchantment because they dropped the eggs, etc. from deck 8. On this ship they dropped the items from the bridge in the Promenade and most people couldn’t see where they landed. We didn’t stay long.
Entertainment
5 out of 5
Enjoyed seeing El Gaucho and 3 members from Oh What a Night, but my favorite show was probably the Ice Skating show; I think it’s one of the best ones that I have seen on any of the Royal ships.
Service and Staff
5 out of 5
Our waiters, head waiter, and room steward were all excellent. We were on the second leg of a B2B, so we were fortunate enough to keep the same cabin and room steward.
Ship Quality
5 out of 5
The Voyager, Freedom and Radiance classes are my favorite Royal ships. While it wasn’t spanking-new, everything seemed to be clean and they were always being maintained.
Cabin / Stateroom
5 out of 5
Ship tip
Go see the Ice Skating Show- one of my all-time favorites on the Royal ships!
We stayed, as we have previously, at Comfort Suites Miami Airport North. This hotel provides a free shuttle to the airport, as well as a free coach bus that takes one to PortMiami.
Because I didn’t find any of the ship’s excursions interesting, I decided to book an independent one through Shore Excursioneers. It’s the same as the Antiguan Experience as seen on a link on this app, but cheaper through the former company. If you see Heavenly Tours elsewhere, that’s the same group that took us on the tour. We visited a comfortable, private home, the ruins of a church, a pineapple farm (their fruit was delicious!), then onto Ffryes Beach where you could swim, chill, and eat the lunch that was included. I’d go again!
Beautiful island, but we decided against wearing swim suits since we figured that the water would be cold. Other people who we met as we were leaving the ship confirmed this to be true. As usual, we ate lunch al fresco at one of the large buffet restaurants on the island.
This trip, we didn’t get off the ship. On previous visits, we’ve done a shore excursion that took us to Mount Isabel de Torres and its gardens, as well as a city tour. It was all really good and enjoyable. We also have done tubes on the lazy river at Taino Bay - it’s located next to the pool right off the dock at Puerto Plata - it’s free and fun!
Fine - I was a bit concerned about being able to find an Uber from PortMiami to our hotel in Fort Lauderdale, especially on Christmas Eve morning, but all went well, and it was a reasonable rate.
I wasn’t able to change my rating for St.John, Antigua, but if I could, I’d rate it as 5 stars, not 3. This was a fun and reasonably-priced shore excursion! My apologies for not double-checking the rating before submitting the review.
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