Explorer of the Seas Cruise Reviews - Reviews

We went on this cruise with our two daughters, 10 and 13, and another family.  First of all, I'll say the staff everywhere on the ship is top notch.  We especially loved our dining room waitstaff, Norberto and Richard.  Food was very good, especially when you consider the amount of people being fed.  Good variety and even my picky eater was happy.  Rooms were good.  We loved being port side and had great views coming into each port.  Bermuda was beautiful.  Took taxi is Horseshie Bay.  Highly recommend.  In st, Martin, we did a catamaran snorkel and that was fun.  In Puerto Rico, we went on the canopy zip line .  That was fun, a bit scary too.  Finally, Haiti is simply gorgeous.  

Only small all complaint about the cruise was that by halfway thrugh , preteen kids (not ours) banded into hordes and since many were without chaperone, they could be disruptive like at the pool, or in hallways, etc.  

The service on the cruise ship was excellent.  The cruise director was fun and the entertainment for the most part was good.  The dining room food was satisfactory.  Our server and assistant server were excellent and tried to accommodate and vary the food at our table because of food allergies of two of us at  table #631 anytime seating.  Our table servers were Barrato and Simms.  .  The pastry chef could add some variety to the menu the same Danish and muffins were served every day with no variation, also dessert on the buffet was pretty redundant with very little change.  After 9 days you get tired of seeing the same food offered. 

The condition of the ship itself is pretty tired.  Stains on couches and the balcony was in need of a good paint job.  The carpeting was old and stain .  The ship definitely need refurbishing. 

We  encountered a few day of our toilet not working and had to call maintenance many times. They would repair it and after a few flushes was broke again and again and again. Then we came back from going ashore in Labradee and there was no water for two hours or more.  An ice bucket was not standard in the cabins nor where bathrobes.  Both had to be requested.

The buffet closed early even on shore days.  Tried to get a cup of coffee in the buffet and told it was closed. Went to the café  for coffee and asked for lactose free milk and they would not accommodate me.  They offered to sell me lactose free milk from the same café.  I was irate and wrote a complaint.  The next time I tried to get Lactose free milk at the café there was no problem. Someone got the message.

All in all I would give the cruise 3 stars.  I had expected the stateroom to be in better condition with fewer maintenance problems and a cabin that was better then a low cost motel room. 

Fun ship with great entertainment and food but the staterooms are in dire need of refurbishing. Carpets and drapes were very warn out and furniture and bathroom fixtures had stains that could not be removed. The rooms were clean but not in good repair. I had to call maintanence three times to fix things. The refrigerator did not even chill a bottle of water. My complaint to the desk staff received no response. The ports of call were fun with lots to do and the weather was fantastic. The ship needs to go to dry dock soon. Once refurbished it will be a great cruise ship. 

From our stateroom attendant to our waiters, the food, all of the activities on the ship, we were always busy doing something and enjoying ourselves.  We had excellent service and an overall great time.  I have been on multiple Royal Caribbean cruises and would absolutely sail again!  Thank you!

Leigh made the cruise for our family. He is the best in terms of taking any situation and making it funny. I can't think of anything that was a negative, everything was great!!!!

The staff was great.  The cruise director was a little bit crude and the entertainment could have been better.  There wasn't much of a choice in things to do when at sea.

The food was great.  The ports were amazing.

Excursion issues were never addressed even though we had submitted our concerns in writing TWICE. We submitted a RC survey requesting that they contact us directly and that has not happened either. Staff does not know what excursions they actually have as the excursion desk told us they did not have the excursion that we requested--after seeing it in THEIR brochure.  We were able to book it from our room The excursion was supposed to be 6.5 hours yet it was only 5.  It was supposed to include shopping in St Maarten--shops close in St. Maarten at 5:00 and the tour waited until 4:55 to tell us the shops were closing and we would not be going to them.  Yet we had just spent 2 hours on a beach instead of shopping first.  Windjammer food was dry and cooked to far in advance most of the time.  Carpets in staterooms were stained with what might have been coffee. When arriving in ports passengers are told to wait for an announcement before trying to leave ship--no announcements were made.  Dining room food was very good but the wait staff kept referencing tips and how we should pay it forward as money was sent back home.  Service should speak for itself without trolling or reminders--each passenger already pays $12 a day in gratuities and extra should be for exemplary service and not because the table's head waiter reminds us of how important tips are to him OR that we should give the main dining a '10' when we receive the RC survey via email.  The service and food was good but I was annoyed at these tacky reminders.  I will tip extra if I choose to do so and will fill out a survey based upon the experience I had on the trip. I actually did leave a very nice extra tip envelope for the main dining room staff --I had turned this in prior to the last dinner and the waiter amped up the trolling that night.  I actually would have left less of a tip if I had known he was going to amp up his efforts. 

The ship was a little dated, but the food made up of the decor.

Royal Caribbean Cruise Line staff are not adequately trained to handle

disable passengers. The cruise line has little or no tours for disable passengers.

They can not give information for those disable passengers who want to navigate

on shore alone. Although, their private island of Lababee is accessible, their idea

of giving a disable passenger an good time is transporting them to a beach chair

and not offering them access to the sand wheel chair throughout their stay on the

island. There is not much thought about this concept in regards to their ability to use

the facilities ; bathroom or otherwise.

My husband and I cruised with our daughters, sons-in-law and grandkids.  Even though the ship had over 5,000 people cruising, there was so much room to accommodate everyone. Our inside cabin was quite roomy and gave us the sense of being in our own private bedroom. It was kept clean and nicely designed. Food in the dining room and café was excellent and non-ending. Waiters were quite professional and accommodating. With so many shipboard activities, one needed never to feel bored. Our cruise director and assistant, Leigh and Erky, were a blast!  The shows also were outstanding. The one drawback we experienced was the time our cabin toilet didn't work due to a problem in the main line. This lasted just a short time. Overall, my whole family loved the cruise. We would certainly travel again with Royal Caribbean. 

It was great from start to finish. Booking another one soon! The room attenant was great. Our waiters for dinner did a great job getting to know us. The experience was awesome for our 1st vacation. The ship was big and plenty to do. The buffet had a lot of food except it wasn't so hot but food was ok. I can't wait for the next one!

at pier 10 to 15 minutes to get off bus tocheck luggage tags go into tent in line for boarding passes and take pictures same aslast cruise we took april 26 2012 then on bustram toship. We see the construction going on to accomidate future arrivals this is a plus.on board ship and at windjammer eating things are much better for our nine day cruise with mt family ,I have cabins to accomadate eleven people rooms on promenade 8th floor.rooms B0225 7 9 61 & B6119 for three people after nine days a wonderful trip for the family . crown&anchor bad job we were suppose to be all diamond but for one person so things did not go good at beginning we survived. time to go home bad embarcationand debarkation bad part of cruise shoving & pushing toget off short tempers not enough porters and long walk tobuswith luggage we seefuture to be much better with consruction going on.bad bus drivergoing back home did not help, did not want to stop for break .but did family cruise was still wonderful thankyou. William rapoza 53 howland street Dartmouth Ma.

After boarding we went to the Windjammer Cafe and found it very crowded (obviously) amd the lay out of food stations was very different from our previous cruise. It made it difficult to just select what you wanted without having to stand in a long line while people decided what they wanted or not.  Even after we were at sea, it was difficult getting around the Windjammer because some stations were closed, and you had to walk towards the back or front depending where you entered. The meals in the main dining room were superb and the service as always was impeccable as was the service from the cabin staff.

main dinning the food was awlful but the service was great. it wasn't fair to the servers. Was better in the Windjammer buffet, that where the extra tips went for me. The steak looked frozen and fake. it was better prepared in the Windjammer.... The slot machine where very tight, and the give ways where cheap. we won the same game on the cruiseline several years ago and got an excursion and a good bottle of champaign... this time 5 dollar cheap watches come on things aren't that bad. Not many selection for food for the night-line party crew... how about some hot wings and better pizza.

This was a great cruise.  The people were helpful and answered anything you wanted to know or would find out.  They were great!!!!!

The food was beyond anything I could imagine.  You had a variety of food and could find anything you wanted.  The breakfast buffet was great.  I could not say enough good about the cruise and the people.

This was my husbands first cruise and he never expected to enjoy it but to my surprise he said everything about the cruise was great and had to change his opinion.  The only thing is he said there is a lot of water and that did not impress him.

15 year old boat. You can see and feel it everywhere. It is also very dirty. The food is pretty bad and boring. If you enjoy healthy and unprocessed food you will be deeply disappointed.  The highlight of the trip was coming home. Oh, and the entertainment I won't even mention- a joke. 

Every part of our trip was wonderful!  We were a group of 14 and had a wonderful time.  The only problem we had was that our party was somehow split into 2 different dining rooms for the dinner hour, but this was fixed as soon as I mentioned it to the dining staff.  The only other problem was the lack of being able to communicate with each other when making plans or doing separate activities.  We wasted a lot of time trying to figure our when and where to meet up.  If we could call or text it would have been easier but the cell phone cost was prohibitive.

Great trip for family with grown up kids and grand kids. Things for everyone to do.  Ice show was really great.  Services was the best we have every had. Easy on and off at port liberty.

Everything was excellent!

Just one thing: television. Very old TV-set in our cabin, even not flat screen, from the beginning of last century. That grandpa-TV-set spoke only Spanish. Even English-speaking movie we had to watch with Spanish subtitles. Why?

I tried to reprogram launguage. Impossible.

There are several kinds of program on our ship TV - Spanish, German, Italian, French, Chinise, Mexican... I did not see anybody like French or German on the ship. However there are many, many Russian people there. Russian launguage was here and there but not on TV. Why?

I think it's right time yo add Russian program on TV as well.

Thank you very much.

We had a fantastic Time!!! From when we initially booked the cruise through working with Jon Kaden who guided us through the biooking process to the cruise itself was incredible.

This was our honeymoon and the ship was fantastic, I have been on 4 other cruises and this was the prettiest ship to date. The activities and shows were great as they had many different things to choose from. The ports of call were nice, we loved St. Maarten!

I woudl say my only two things for improvement woudl have to be having different selections of food in the Windjammer cafe for Breakfast and lunch. The food was good but it seems they served the same things each day. My othe suggestion for improvement wold be to add some sand on the beaches of Labadee Haiti. It was very difficult to walk into the water and navigate the rocks.

I woudl like to thank Jon Kaden for his expertise and the reminder phone calls regarding payment and priiting of documents for our cruise, as well s the follow-up calls upon our return asking about the cruise and making sure we submitted our on-cruise bill for reimbursment, I will definetly book through again and hopefully use Jon.

Thank you Royal Carribbean for giving us a great cruise and memorable honeymoon, we are looking forward to booking our next cruise soon!

Dave Ecenrode and Melis Diehm!

The overall food on the ship was poor quality. The 'so called' prime rib was such a low quality that I didn't eat it, as for the mushy lobster. Other than the omlettes for breakfast, there was nothing I found appetizing. The service in the dining room was exceptional. Our room Stewart was also outstanding. The entertainment was fair, ship is tired looking. The port in Bermuda is boring. The disembarkation was the worst I've seen, totally disorganized. We kept our luggage so we could walk off and leave earlier but that just didn't happen. They wouldn't let people use the elevators but made them carry their luggage down several flights of stairs. why??? It made no sense treating people like this. We are platinum members and the perks were sub par. The 45 minute cocktail reception was a joke. It was really just a sales pitch. Mediocre drinks and no passed appetizers. Not a nice way to appreciate your platinum and above passengers.

i will probably not cruise again with RCCL. We cruised with Celebrity in April and Regent in January, both being positive experiences. They know how to treat and pamper their guest. They did not treat their guest like cattle and present poor quality food.