Explorer of the Seas Cruise Reviews - Reviews

I would never have taken this type of 'vacation' had it not been for a fundraiser/auction in which I was the highest bidder for a women's center my midwife daughter volunteers for in south Seattle.  Coming from a poor middle class family - I considered a Cruise only for those who were financially well off.  What I totally enjoyed is: I did not have to worry or look after anyone or Do Anything...no cooking, cleaning or taking care of anyone!  I could sleep in, eat well anytime, lay in the sun, hot-tub, swim or attend any of the various entertainment events on board.  Dinners were fabulous and our waiters were professional & so very kind!  Our room was miraculously sparkling clean when we returned, how did they know when we were out!?  I would do it again if possible and would recommend it to anyone who has not had this experience!

Loved the small South Pacific islands, the Captain gave good information at noon each day.  Ship, staff and atmosphere were all up to expectations of the cruise-line. 

The Diamond/Concierge clubs were pleasant, friendly and well-maintained.

One quite major complaint was the lack of availability for current world news.

The only North American channel available on the tv was the degrading and opinionated CNN - Why could RCCL not supply a channel which gives unbiassed world news coverage?  Also most of the other channels repeatedly showed outdated and boring entertainment shows.

Thank you to all the hard-working staff on the Explorer.

Nothing special. The promenade was the only place to be a night. The bars all had something, but high prices for the booze. Shows were mediocre. Food was good, especially a gluten free section. They were charging almost 10% for currency exchange, so if you didn't pay in USD, AUD and CDN money holders were getting ripped off. Cheaper to pay with credit cards, even though they charged a 2% premium. Didn't know what to expect on excursions. They even charged $8 for shuttles from the dock in one port. 

Overall, I was very pleased with this cruise.  We are veteran cruisers (20+), so my comments come with that background.  We were in a Grand Suite on Deck 10 and had access to concierge services and concierge Denzil was absolutely fantastic.  Our room was also nice and spacious, and stateroom attendant Nicholas kept the room nice and tidy and was super friendly.  The food in the main dining room and at Chops Grille was also pretty good, though this was first cruise kitchen that couldn't get a soufflé right (texture was like angel food cake).  On the minus side, this boat had some new and inexperienced staff and it showed.  The casino dealers were mostly new and several couldn't deal the poker based games (i.e., Texas Hold 'Em and 3 Card Poker).  I'm guessing they over- or under-paid several patrons.  The waitstaff in casino also took until day 7 or 8 out of 12 to remember your name and drink when when you had a beverage package, and so it was a pain to provide your seapass card every time you ordered, and the staff was slim, so getting drinks took a long time many nights.  This was also an uncommon experience as typically by day 2 or 3, I would never have to provide my seapass card to a casino waitstaff as they knew my name, order, and would have a record of my account reflecting that I had a beverage package.  I also found several public bathrooms to be rank--just lack of cleaning or regular cleaning needed to keep them fresh.  Casino bathrooms and bathrooms near the pool and Windjammer were the worse.   I learned from a spa staff that some of the inexperienced and new staff were due to where this cruise ported (Sydney, AU), and that it was far away from many places where the cruise companies recruited workers or too costly for workers to leave that part of world to visit home; hence some areas of ship had lots of brand new staff.  This was also the only ship I have been on with a single nail technician, which made getting nail appts more challenging. Lastly, we mostly had great experiences with shore excursions but, in Vanuatu, we were delayed into port due to another cargo boat.  That delay caused our excursion to be cancelled.  However, we received untimely notice of that cancellation and no alternative excursion was arranged or suggested despite being in port for another 7+ hours.  Again, while we experienced some issues, I still loved my time on the cruise, and enjoyed the beautiful ports we visited with some of the prettiest beaches with clear water (Mare, Lautoka, Isle of Pines) that I've ever seen. My son (age 10) also won an iPad Mini in the kids arcade playing a Stacker game, so he couldn't have been happier either.  He also generally enjoyed the Kids club and activities onboard (pool, rock climbing, bingo--free for kids, etc).

Took this cruise to see if we would like this many days at sea. Yes we liked it very much. Captain Rick had a great crew on his ship. Capt Rick was a people person and you could tell because his whole staff followed his lead.

Booked 3 back to back cruises while on ship.

Being ripped off as Royal Caribbean sold 1500 tickets at less than 60% of what we paid ruined what was otherwise a wonderful cruise. I was lied to by RC and told prices would be frozen after the final payment date. Once on board, all of us who booked early through an agent, spoke to the many who got the "deal". Take my advice if you can and do not book early through an agent as that is the excuse RC uses to do nothing to correct you being ripped off. It is a circular scam. The dining staff were also rude when we tried to change our dining reservations from 6 PM fixed to "My Time" so we could make the 7 PM show. I had to involve the Captain.

This was my 4th time on Explorer. The other 3 times have been out of Bayonne NJ either to Bermuda or Canada. These trips were enjoyable with good food, entertainment and service.

Not quite the same on this coastal trip.  Firstly, although it is called coastal, you only get to see the coast on your way in or out of port.

Also the trip was in Oct, so no surprise, it was cold and rainy, yet most of the tail activities were scheduled for outdoors (most were cancelled or unattended).  The big option for indoor entertainment was Trivia.  Unfortunately, everyone on the ship was there so unless you got there an hour ahead there was no seating (or pencils for that matter).

Food was just ok with little variety. 

We did not see our cabin attendant for the first few days.  but the one bright note is that he was very attentive.  He saw we had a bottle of wine in our cabin and brought us wine glasses I hate the sheets being tucked and without being asked, he left them untucked after the first night. Nice!

Loved stops in Santa Barbara, San Francisco, and Victoria. Could have skipped Astoria (San Diego, Monterey or even an extra day in San Francisco would have been nicer).

We enjoyed the time together in the ship's friendly atmosphere.  Service was excellent, the food was good an plentiful and the facilities  on board provided some exciting activities, such as the ice skating rink for our 8-year-old grandson.

The Explorer of the Sea is a beautiful ship.  I loved the common area (The Promanade) where everyone gathered.  It reminded me of a little village.  I was impressed with the fact that some of the inside staterooms actually had windows overlooking this area. There was a few shops and a 24 hour cafe where you could get coffee, sandwiches and pastries included in your package.  It also included Starbucks and Ben and Jerry's ice cream that was extra cost.  The cruise staff hosted many celebrations in this area as well.  We had a really fun 70's disco party.  

I could not rate this a 5 because I was not impressed with the shows that were offered on the ship and normally I love going to the shows.  Additionally, the times offered were a bit inconvenient.  Also about scheduling, we had a situation where we wanted to go to Karaoke one night and when we showed up at a place called the Tavern there was a group of people watching a game on the big screen.  At first the cruise director wanted to cancel the show but then he waited and we got a late start.  It seems to me that if this was a scheduled activity in that venue it should have been coordinated better with the Tavern.  

I have done this cruise before and did not participate in any shore excursions but I love all the ports the ship stopped at.  

Everything else was o.k. but they did seem to be short staffed and I felt better services had been offered on other cruise lines.  

MORE TIME IN SF. WHEN I BOOKED IT  THE  SCHEDULE YOU GAVE ME WAS CHANGED COMPLETELY. YOU HAD 1ST STOP IN ASTORIA AND 2 DAYS IN SF. THEY CHANGED IT COMPLETELY

It started like most cruises but even a little bit better on the boarding process.  That was where the good mostly ended. We (wifey & I) were travelling with eleven other friends and our expectations were high because four of our party had cruised RC b-4 and really talked them up. They ended up apologizing saying that this was an anomaly and not the real RC. It took me three days to finally make the room stewards understand I wanted four extra pillows not the four that I had. No stationary or pen in the cabin. The server team in the dining room was slower than mud going uphill and when we got the nearly stone cold food because of their lack of speed it wouldn't have been much better if it were hot.  The food for the most part was bad in the dining room and totally terrible at the 11th deck buffet. We complained to the team supervisor to no avail and finally got tired of going over their heads and went directly to the food and beverage director after two days of piss poor service. The service got better but the food was still second grade at best ediblwe but not of the quality we have come to expect on our 12 previous cruises on Norwegian, Carnival and Holland America. It kind of makes me feel a little apprehensive about using RC again

4 days to straighten out the pillow situation in the room,   2 more days and 4 phone calls to get the television to work,   food was low quality and the service even lower.  Activities on board were sorely lacking during the day.   dining room not open for lunch,  buffet only upstairs.   descriptions of excursions sounded great but 2 different ones we booked n board were deceptive as we found out while touring.  disappointed was not the word.

Our favorite part of the cruise was Victoria, B.C.  It is a beautiful place.  We would like to recommend that you spend more time in this port.  Overnight, or at least until 9 p.m.

This was the third time that I sailed on the Explorer of the Seas.  While the Explorer is a great ship I enjoyed it better before they did the recent changes.  While the outside theater is a nice idea,  it does not always work when there is high wind or rain.  The inside screening room was nicer. I liked that they made more use of the Palace Theatre.  I missed the little private areas throughout the ship where you could just relax and read. They eliminated the card and board game room and combined it with the library.  This made the library very crowed and it was difficult to find a book with all the people in the way.  The main dining room did a nice job and the waiters that took care of us (Ieka and Oka) were excellent.  The room and balcony and bathroom and closet were excellent.  Only the mattress could have been better.  Lunch in the main dining room was a little bit of a disappointment.  We had eaten there on our last two sailings on this ship, and thought that offerings were better on the previous cruises.  There needs to be more communication between the shore excursion people and the food staff..  In San Francisco if you went a night excursion you had to leave the ship before supper . The wind Jammer Café close early after lunch and opened too late for people who had to go on a tour. In our case the tour was bus tour that did not stop to allow a meal.  Something must have happen on the last day in Canada because at lunch there were no vegetables to be had at lunch.  We were not the only ones to notice this.  I also missed some of the seminars such a music appreciation or music history as well as just some general history.  Also any possibility of having some additional channels for the tv.  While we did have some disappointments, we did enjoy our cruise.  The staff was great and friendly and very helpful.  The ship handled very well in the seas. One area I was worried about was the fact that in order to make connections to get home we needed a very early flight of 9:50 a.m.  The staff helped me by telling us we could use the express departure and  told us there would be cabs available.  That gave me great peace of mind.  We were able to get to the airport in plenty of time. Just a though.  We had to leave our cabin around 600 a.m. but all the eating areas were still closed.  Perhaps one dinning area could be opened with a continental breakfast fir those who leave early.

a great cruise west coast cruise was one of the best cruise i have taken , food and service was super,going to san franciso for 2 days was great . the shows were super .the service was great all over the ship.the pomanote deck was the place to be.

This was a great cruise for relaxing and getting away from it all. Two full days in San Francisco was nice, especially since the weather was perfect.

With so much going on on other cruises (day tours) this was nice in that they were limited so everything was more casual and not as rushed.

This is the secind time we have taken this cruise and it was a nice break from the usual Med cruises.

Explorer of the Seas is a Hugh, beautiful ship that is kept spotless. We opted for the My Time Dining. We made reservations before we left home. The two servers we had each night, Michael and Jeffrey were the best. Always cheerful, polite and just plain nice. The dining room food was incredible. Our room Stewart, not sure of his name but we were in cabin 6525, kept our room clean and always managed to do that while we were out of our room..

San Francisco & Victoria,British Columbia were beautiful and fun. Astoria, Oregon was pretty small and shops old. Not much to do there. People there friendly.

This is my fourth cruise trip. I've cruised with Carnival and Norweigian before. A strong feeling is this ship only cares about getting more money out of your pocket, and it can be reflected by having only one complementary dining restaurant, more strict dining policy and shorter dining time. As for the the buffet place, its dining time is also shorter than other cruise ships, and out of the three food sections, almost always there's one of them closed for cleaning. There's no free barbecue food court or free fountain drinks on the deck either, but there're at least a dozen bars. Be careful with the menu they offered on their website, we found out later that not all the dishes are free even in the complimentary dining restaurant like you thought when looking at their website info. Als be careful with their last day's breakfast time, they closed off food section way before the schedule. Overall, it feels like a military dining room, not a relaxed vacation restaurant. Blame the short-sighted management. 

We (my older and younger brother, their wifes and my niece and her husband) took this cruise because we grew up on the Oregon coast and hadn't spent much time together in the past 10 years... we wanted to spend quality time together and my brothers (younger dealt with cancer in the last year) (older has diabetes) so we needed to do something that would be close to Seattle.  This cruise was perfect.  We got to spend time together, enjoy wonderful dining and great entertainment.  Thank you so much for a wonderful time together and great memories...

The ports were awesome.  The ship made changes since we last cruised.  Johnny Rockets is not included for free.  My dining needs reservation time.  Windjammer does not have much of a variety from day to day.  Grilling outside is gone.