Explorer of the Seas Cruise Reviews - Reviews

Loved the shows. Didn't think much of the food. Was told a certain price when friends signed us up for the cruise but then found out the price was twice as much after giving them our visa number. We were out of town at the time. Paid the same price for a 10 day cruise earlier.

This was our 4th time cruising this itinerary, and 2nd overall cruise with Royal Caribbean. Overall, we had a wonderful time due in most part to the fact we were a group of seven adults and know how to have a great time. We had rooms on the 12th floor that adjoined and that couldnt of been better. Our balconies opened into each other and we just loved being up top close to the pools and bars, very cool. We went to the shows and loved them, we played mini golf, basketball, and shuffleboard. We explored our ports and enjoyed ourselves walking around town and hitting the Pubs and Grills, as well as talking to people and taking in the sights. The downside to this cruise was the food, or lack there of. The Buffet(Windjammer) was ok at best, good assortment that repeated itself and just wasnt that good. The Cafe on the 4th floor which was the only other "free" place to eat was always crowded and VERY limited selection, very. The other 2 places cost $25 @person or 35 @ person which doesnt make any sense and then there was Johnny Rockets, at $6.95 per person could of been ok but the service was the worst in the world, prompting me to walk out completely and in the middle of the meal, just down right awful. So try room service and if you could get them to answer the phone, they would send you what you ordered IF they were not to busy, which was told to us. They will also charge you if you happen to call them between midnight and 6am, go figure. So, yes, we had a great time, and yes, the shows were good, really good, and yes we had a great room which we paid for, but man, the service really sucked and the food was really bad and confusing. Will we go again, yes, but the last 3 times we were on Celebrity which at the time we thought was very average. Now, I will be glad to book with them. Royal Caribbean really needs to step it up or lose some business, and believe me, this was the sentiment of a lot of passengers.

First time with Royal. The boat was great new and clean. Ports were low-key but for a four day getaway that's all you really want so it was relaxing.  Service with the exception of a few was good not great.  Food was okay but not great.  Not a bad experience I think we've just been spoiled on other trips.

I took my disabled cousin and I on this 4 day cruise for our 50th Birthdays. This was my first cruise with Royal Caribbean.  First the food in the buffet was a joke. Salad bar with no lettuce (we requested from 6 different food servers and no one seemed to understand us when we asked for lettuce.  Finally 6th person said no lettuce.  This was pretty much the case through the 4 days.  One day when shopping a table that had some souvenirs the 2 crew members made a smart comment to my cousin and then started laughing and making fun of her "disability".  I was appalled, I wanted to toss them off the boat!!  I complained to management at the customer service desk, nothing was done.  The food lines were long.  No accommodations for people who could not stand up to 30 minutes to be seated at their designated dining time.  I could go on and on, but we have sailed many times with Norwegian, this just confirms why I will never sail with anyone but Norwegian.  Far above the rest!!

Food was not of great quality. Took over 2 hours to get served and eat. All show and events were at the same time as the meals. Buffet closed at 10 and most activities were over at 11. During the sing a long the person holding the event shut it down around 11 even though everyone was having a great time and the bar was doing a booming business. Best thing about the cruise was the ship stayed afloat!

First let's preface this review with, if you're on a long cruise what can you really complain about.  So let's begin

The Explorer of the Seas is an okay ship.  Last year we did an Atlantic crossing on the Allure and the two ships don't compare.  The crew as always on a Royal cruise were great.  The cabin was as usual.  I purchased the soft drink package, there were 5 soft drink machines throughout the ship, and at any given time, only one or two were working.  The food was just okay.  Actually the best meal of the day was lunch at the Sapphire dining room.  The nightly entertainment was a real highlight.  But now for the stops.  Noumea, New Caledonia is a charming little city.  I recommend the tchou tchou train tour, its only 2 hours, and takes you through the whole area.  The next stop was Mystery Island, a cruise ship stop.  Online its says no one lives there because it is taboo.  Islanders come over to Mystery Island to work the ships, then leave the island.  Crushed coral beaches, so wear shoes.  Beware of jelly fish in the ocean as many cruisers were stung.  In reality, I think it gets its name because it's a mystery that the ship stops there.  Next up is Vila, Vanuatu.  This is a perfect example of third world island.  The walk from the ship to the city center is about three miles.  And I have to mention the first half mile is on a two lane dirt road with vendors on both sides and taxis and vans trying to make it a three lane dirt road.  Dangerous at best.  Prices for things on the island go up when the ships arrive.  One shop actually changed the price on a bag of local coffee as I was paying, so I gave it back.  After a relaxing day at sea we pulled into Suva Fiji for an overnight stay.  Suva is a dangerous place.  3 crewmembers got mugged the first night and had to be sent home to recuperate.  One of our table mates was warned to be back on the ship before dark by a local.  Did take a tour to a spice farm which was great.  My advice, take tours and see city center by daylight only.  After Fiji it was 7 days of sailing then to Honolulu, then on to Maui for an overnight.  Nothing bad can be said about Hawaii.  then 5 days sailing to Seattle.  All in all it was an extremely okay experience.

Worst boarding process ever.   It started off the cruise on a very sour note.  I was told that we would have coffee in our suite every day.  On day three the cabin attendant said that they were out of coffee.  After complaining to the concierge, somehow they miraculously found enough coffee to keep us supplied for the rest of the cruise.  Debarking was not quite as bad as embarkation.  They had no signs indicating that you could leave via deck 1 as well as deck 4.  So, of course, everyone lined up almost the length of the ship.  

Ship and crushing were exceptional , food in the restaurants better than the dining room or windjammer stay away from those 

bar staff, shows, sports and spa awesome

excursions and ports were terrible had to tender to 2 different islands could not even get on the second island Jesu stayed on the ship the ports were awaful nothing to see or do beaches marginal why Royal decided to go to these three ports when there are many other options from Sydney is a mystery to me hopefully they will not go back to these ports

internet was bad, too bad to be able to use, web pages and e-mail wouldn't load, yet no refund; they try to take every last penny from you, whether they deserve it or not. $3.25 for a small bottle of water? Really? The excursions run from mediocre to terrible. Food is monotonous. Service staff - room attendants, etc. - generally very good. Unreasonable to charge $8.00 to be able to get fountain soda (and up to $22/day or more for other soft drink packages.). Entertainment ranged from good to bad, but unfortunately most of it was very, very bad. They cater to "Diamond Club" members who have full use of the best lounge (only one where you can really see out) to the detriment of the rest of the passengers (like me).  You can look at the food on RCI to see how they cut corners - no veal, for example, in any dishes -they substitute cheaper pork. Medical staff is not smart enough to figure that if they taped open the rest room doors that would decrease the chance of transmission of norovirus, a problem on cruise ships and on this cruise ship as well.

The itinerary was great!!  But the new RCL seems to just view the cruise as a platform for selling stuff.  The internet packages were outrageous and you had to purchase them in blocks (30 min or days).  You could not just buy some minutes use them during the entire cruise like before.  Also the soft drink package is outrageously priced.  We tried Chops and the Italian specialty restaurants.  They have really cut back and I could not get a medium steak cooked correctly in either one.  (I am not picky - I order medium in hopes of getting anything between medium well and medium rare!  If you want a good steak in Chops you have to pay an extra $20 surcharge on top of the $30 surcharge you already paid!!  Even the hamburgers were much smaller.  Very little in the way of port, cultural or educational lectures (the poorest of my experiences) and the one lecture they did have was always scheduled very early  in the morning so the ship could sell drinks via bar games and spa treatments during prime time.  Speaking of the time,  time changes were done in the middle of the day (noon) instead of midnight.  Very confusing and it shortened the daytime and always confused lunch in the dining rooms. (I  guess this reduced the need for day time entertainment of which there wasn't much and maintained the drinking during the night!!  And there was sickness.  They were scrubbing the ship 24 /7.  Mediocre food in the dining room for the most part.  We did enjoy the breakfast buffet and the lunch salad bar in the dining room.  The buffet on deck 11 had very good food with a wide variety but with much repetition.  The service was very good -  the crew really does  its best for the passengers.  But the WOW factor for me is:  WOW what happened to RCL???

The cruise was very relaxing and I was impressed at how smooth all the days at sea were. Been on many cruises with different cruise lines and usually there is at least one not so smooth sea day. I was glad that Captain did the safe thing and did not go to Israel, however we were very disappointed. They kept us well informed on what was going on both with not going to Israel and what we needed to do if there was a pirate attack.The excursions that we took were good and informative. The disembarkation was not pleasant.

it is a worthwhile cruise to take. We enjoyed Dubai and stayed a couple of days before we flew home. We could have used at least a couple of more days.

Compensation for missed ports should be increase. Should have more activities during the day.  Need to improve the quality of food.  Could not rate Israel because it was a missed port.

The room and the staff throughout the ship were wonderful. The food was just ok in the MDR however, Chops and Giovanni's Table were excellent.  The sushi restaurant was way over priced and not good.  We spent a lot of time at sea and there was not enough to do during the day.  It got boring.  The ports were great however Israel was cancelled for political problems and violence so we really only went to 2 ports on a 14 day cruise.  That was disappointing but the safest option.  The cruise line did give us a $150 on board credit for the cancellation of the port. There also was a problem with 'pirates' in the gulf of Aden.  This meant that for the 4 nites we were in the area we had to keep our balcony and curtain closed and we could go out on deck.

 The ice shows were really great but the regular entertainment was just ok.  They had some fun 'parades' on the promenade- 70's and british invasion.

Guest services went over and above to help me with a lost luggage problem.

Cruise was interesting due to the itinerary.

Very disappointed at not being able to visit Israel, due to the hostilities in that country.

Attentive crew, good food, happy atmosphere.

There was limited use of the on-deck facilities during the sailing through the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden.  For security reasons passengers were not allowed on decks or balconies between sunset and sunrise.  This certainly meant that the cruise line could not meet the expectations of it's passengers.

Would have liked more commentary when transiting the Suez Canal - we did not know what we were observing.  Also much better maps should have been displayed both on the tv channel and in public areas for this type of cruise.

Internet was expensive and ineffective.

Entertainment superb as always.

Disappointed that there were no lectures and presentations telling the history of the ports we were visiting.

Really enjoyed the ice show. They did a great job and it was really enjoyable. The movies at night were fun when it was warm but the big screen really made it fun to watch a movie. Great entertainment acts. Staff in dinning room great and delicious food. Had a wonderful time.

We absolutely loved it,from the captain singing to the wonderful cabin boy we rate it #1, the shows at night were varied and very good, enjoyed them all,the cruise director could do it all,sing entertain,funny,seemed to love his job,really liked him,always plenty to do on board,food as always,great,so was the service

The cruise out of Southampton was an okay cruise. It was our first time to cruise on Royal and we were disappointed in it.  The check-in took a long time and seemed unorganized.  For a ship that had been redone it was not what we had expected.  The shower was very small and had stains on the floor.  It seemed like they charged extra for everything!  Our toilet would not flush 4 times for a period of an hour or two and they did not seem to care.  The internet was EXTREMELY slow.  The service from our waiters and cabin steward were excellent.

Locations were great and excursion to Seville was awesome. Ship is showing the age and needs to be spruced up and restocked. Food in upscale restaurant (Chops Grilll) was not worth the additional cost and dining room odors were not appealing.  

The cabin and cruise staff were very good, the food on ship and the entertainment was very good but I was very disappointed on the fact that they changed the intinary and didn't notify me.....didn't find out until we had already set sail, the cruise was chosen specifically  for its intinary and the fact that there were a few sea days between ports, to make life easy for my mother who is in a wheelchair, the new intinary didn't include villefranche or Lisbon and it was six ports in six days.....rather tiring for my mother.. The Internet was overpriced at about $40 a day and necessary items like NyQuil were being marked up by over 300%...... 

Hummm.....When I complained about my wife's mattress, it wasn't resolved within the 14 days. Wine list was poor and over priced in my opinion. Too much pushing goods in my opinion and not enough shows, comedy acts, magicians, etc for the 14 nights. Very long waiting times for food to arrive at dinner time. Some tables complained that their food had arrived just plainly warm. Better soundproofing for forward cabins over Palace theater...had to wait noisy bands to finish their shows to be able to sleep. Our Cabin was 6525 so you know what I am talking about. Other cruise lines offer complimentary transportation to and from with NO CHARGE to bus/train stations. Us elderly don't have the mobility like the young ones. Windjammer café closed too early at night....9PM. No midnight buffet anymore....why? Too much greed being placed on pictures....charge less, and more will buy...since it's all digital now.