Worst cruise ever

Explorer of the Seas Cruise Review to Transatlantic

Cruises: 7+ cruises
Review: 1
Helpful Votes: 7

Overall rating:

2.8 out of 5
Verified Review
Explorer of the Seas

12 Night Spain & Azores Transatlantic (Barcelona To Miami)

Sail date: November 02, 2024

Ship: Explorer of the Seas

Cabin type: Oceanview

Cabin number: 9214

Traveled as: Couple

Reviewed: 3 days ago

Review summary

Other than the first couple of great days the entire trip to a nightmare after the storm hit us so hard that the ship tilted by 40 degrees and stayed like that for minutes. We had to turn around to Canary Islands due multiple injuries, 180 people decided not to continue the cruise. Most ridiculous was that Officers were trying to downplay the situation like it normal during crossings. Food and beverages became very limited due to massive breakages and spoilage during accident. Ridiculously Royal Caribbean refused to automatically offer any compensation, based on conversations with FD Manager and other Officers.

Embarkation

1 out of 5
N/A

Ship experiences

Food and Dining

3 out of 5
Dining room and Windjammer fair, Giovanni's was the dining highlight

Onboard Activities

1 out of 5
Lots of announced activities were either cancelled last minute or delayed

Entertainment

3 out of 5
All Production and Headliner shows were amazing. Game shows and Activity team involved events were poor, we had the feeling that Cruise Director (thought she was on a fashion show) and her Team were just there to place themselves in the spotlight.

Service and Staff

3 out of 5
Bar staff and room Steward were amazing; servers and FD staff needed lots of training.

Ship Quality

1 out of 5
Ship needs to go to dry-dock way ahead of July 2025 scheduled time. Nothing seems to work or things were falling apart. No way for the super hard working cleaning crew to keep the ship clean, it's way past the chance.

Cabin / Stateroom

3 out of 5
Good size and great location, Steward tried his very best to keep the dated room in shape.

Ship tip

Stay away from it until it is refurbished. Not the safest ship anymore, especially since we tilted after being hit by a "surprise storm" and huge waves almost took us down. Suggest watching the incident videos from this crossing, which made the news all around the world.

Ports of call

Barcelona, Spain

4 out of 5

Malaga, Spain

4 out of 5

Disembarkation

1 out of 5
Absolutely nightmare, waited two hours in line to get through customs
Was this review helpful? 7

7 Comments

uwep     2 days ago

Yes, absolutely correct: worst cruise ever. We left in Gran Canaria before transatlantic crossing.

TiffyTaffy     2 days ago

Yikes- I’m sure if the ship could have diverted it would have. Glad you all are safe. I’m off to look up the CD.

HeavySeas     3 days ago

Thanks for sharing your cruise experience

kellies26     3 days ago

You think they could have predicted this? I’m guessing none of the staff enjoyed any of it either. 🙄

RoyalCruzer     3 days ago

Agree on the CD. She believes she is a celebrity. Very obnoxious.

MarkXDStops     3 days ago

I heard about this cruise! I guees they had to go back to Canaries to check the seaworthy-ness of the vessel after the rogue wave. My question is Do you wish you had debarked with the other 180 and flown instead?

Gwbigdog     3 days ago

Oops, sorry, thanks for sharing your cruise

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