Explorer of the Seas Cruise Reviews - Reviews

This was our 30th Anniversary Cruise that almost didn't happen due to covid, (it started out as an Alaska Cruise) but eventually things got better and the trip was on. We went First Class and reserved the Owners Suite. We had a great time, enjoyed all the ports of call.

We had issues but still had a wonderful family cruise! I loved both cocoa cay and labadee beaches and the included food and drinks is a very nice perk!

All in all we had a good time. The only parts I didn't care for was the bland food and the freestyle soda machines weren't working half of the time. But it sure beats a week at work!

Overall, my first cruise was a great experience!

We love the smaller ships. Explorer is due an update. We enjoyed this trip.

After long waiting for cruising, we enjoyed it as we did on our first cruise.

The itinerary is what we went for. The ship was my least favorite ship (we’ve been on 7 and that includes the empress of the seas). We had issues daily from the get go (from sewage smell in our bathroom, excursion issues, food quality control,etc). The kids club were decent but I can’t recommend this ship for anything else. Maybe if it had a full staff things may have been better but that isn’t what we had.

I had so many moments where I wanted to switch out of this cruise due to comments about the age of this ship and the lack of water slides and stuff for kids to do. I am so glad I stayed with it as we had the most amazing vacation.. even the kids said so. There was something to do everyday to keep everybody as busy as they want to be. The ports were all beautiful. Loved having the flexibility to do what we wanted at the ports and relax by the pool for the rest of the day or take a nap. It was money well spent and nobody wanted to leave at the end. The food was great with no complaints. We didn’t even get a chance to try the speciality dining as there were plenty to eat around.

Fabulous cruise. Island hopping cruises can be exhausting, I'll need to pace myself a little better if I do this type of cruise again. I really missed having a sea day!

It was our first cruise so we didn't know what to expect. I loved everything about this cruise.

Only 1100 guests on a ship designed for 3800. 😄😄😄😄

Royal Caribbean's "advantage" (lower cost than competing cruise lines) is also its fatal downfall: (cheap; charges for drinking water in the cabins, charges for soft drinks, etc.) I took my family to its Southern Caribbean cruise that sailed on 12/26/2021 on Explorer of the Seas. We had "stateroom" (marketing lingo for plain old cabin) 7594, so yes, we really and truly were on that cruise. Judge for yourselves if you find the following "policies" by Royal Caribbean acceptable or not: 1. Because of a medical condition, I asked for a few 1-liter bottles of drinking water in my cabin. Royal Caribbean refused and claimed that that the only choice is to buy individual soda cans with water from them at a hefty price (over $2 each such can that had the cruise company's logo. Royal Caribbean makes a hefty profit this way for hat is essential to life (drinking water). 2. During lunch and dinner we asked for a plain old coke or other soft drink. Royal Caribbean refused and directed us to a soda dispensing machine that will only work if the customer has paid for a pricey package deal for soft drinks. Keep in mind that a coke at even the cheapest hamburger joint costs almost nothing to any restaurant. I then complained up the chain of command all the way to a black gentleman who was in charge at the Customer Relations counter on board on deck 5, and who told me he had worked for Royal Caribbean for over 20 years and that "that is how things are", and that it costs Royal Caribbean to provide drinking water to its customers (who have paid thousands of dollars to get on the cruise) and that therefore they expect customers to pay for water. I told him that, by his reasoning, Royal Caribbean should also charge for toilet paper as that, too, "costs Royal Caribbean to provide to its customers". He failed to see the point. 3. Fresh squeezed orange juice was, similarly, an "additional charge" item. You get the idea. I have traveled with several cruise companies over the years, including Disney, Oceania, Paul Gauguin Cruise, and others. Royal Caribbean ranks at the bottom of the list because of cheap practices like the specific ones above.

The cruise was great. A good healthy protocol in all the ship. Good job for the all crew members.

The cruise was awesome! The food, cabin, service was great!

Loved this cruise. The pools were great. The solarium pool and loungers alone outweighs many other ships. Love that it’s a little smaller and so charming. A little dated but really loved it anyway. The staff tries so hard even though there is a higher guest to staff ratio now. Would cruise on the Explorer again

Great cruise and staff. Nice port of call. In some ports bad weather. The onboard safety procedures was great. Food and activities was great too.

I chose this cruise as a replacement for the one that COVID-19 got cancelled back in March 2020. This one had the same departure location (San Juan) and actually a bit of a better itinerary (6 island stops). I had never cruised with RCL before but heard good...boy was I wrong. Here is what went wrong for my combined group of 7 (4 cabins): 1. The terrible customer service started after we booked in May 2021 for pretty great rates, but due to COVID-19 space restriction (or so RCL claimed) they upgraded or moved our cabins at “no charge” from Promenade View to Balconies. The only issue with this was their system defaulted back to MSRP rates when they switched the rooms and we each spent 3-4 hours arguing with customer service getting it corrected. No matter what we said or supplied (I had an email stating paid in full), they wanted to collect more. After finally getting round 1 of all that corrected, they once again had an internal issue causing two cabins in our group to get their discounted drink packages cancelled entirely and one of them having their flights booked through RCL cancelled, which instead of honoring the price they originally paid, they gave as cruise credits. 2. The next issue happened on arrival day when RCL claimed one couple hadn't paid for their flights (again), which they had already flown to San Juan using. They wanted an additional $1,600 which they had already charged against their credit card and were not going to let them on the boat. They finally relented, but it took three additional days constantly going to customer service to get them to credit back the $1,600 they had automatically charged on their credit card. 3. The next issue was the security. One night I came back to my cabin and had another passenger's (who I didn't know or even run into) keycard in my room's air conditioner slot. This slot is inside each cabin. Security wouldn't believe that it was in my room and even went as far to say I stole it. If I stole the card why I wouldn't have returned it to security? Next, I had a message to come to customer service, when I did they flatly denied I had the message. I escorted security up to my room and again after listening to the message tried to argue it wasn't a request for me to go to customer service, but just to go to customer service for a discussion. Then the last night I found a cruise offer for a person in my cabin (different name) for another cruise they had obviously pursued with handwritten notes on it for the offer. How did this get in my cabin? Did the maid come in and drop an offer for another person but same cabin number off...I did not return this offer to customer service as I want it for proof of the issue. 4. Many so called restrictions were noted that you had to book RCL excursions. Don't believe them, none of the local taxis or tours knew anything of the "authorized restrictions". This was a RCL ploy to get more of their own excursions booked through them and if you do choose be prepared for cattle hearding boats and tours. 5. I didn’t receive a final invoice statement in my stateroom on my final night like everyone else in my group, but was watching the app and knew what to expect. I finally got a final copy of the invoice emailed to me yesterday (yes RCL, email is dated) and it showed a final amount. I had no issue with the charges, but I am however wondering why after you charged that amount against my credit card I am continuing to have charges against my credit card. I have two in the two days since I left the cruise. I will take this matter up with my credit card company and instead of dealing with RCL’s terrible customer service will let them take on Visa. This was not my first cruise, it was my third. I was truly looking forward to it, but after my experiences I will never book another RCL cruise again.

This was the ship's first consumer sale since the pandemic shutdown. Passenger capacity was about 50% which yielded no crowds and minimal wait times for things like dining room seating. Itinerary of a port every day was wonderful. We had the flexibility to make our own sea days when we wanted to. We will be happy when masks are no longer required, but all the other health safety measures were livable.

This restart cruise was great. The crew operated like a well oiled machine. We had an issue with our cabin, but it was quickly resolved.

Overall a great 9 day cruise.Weather just got better as the days when by. Behind the scenes theatre tour was a bonus