Review: Explorer of the Seas (Auguest 22-29, 2004)

Here is the first draft of my review of my cruise on Explorer of the
Seas. After I get a change to edit it, I will report. If anyone
anyone has specific questions, please e-mail me.

Leo

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Travelers:

Our group consisted of 5 adults and two Children ages 3 ½ and six
months. All but the 6 month old have been on others cruises. This
was my forth cruise and third on RCCL. I last sailed on Carnival
Victory in May, so I may be comparing the two as I go.

Pre-Cruise:

We booked our own air transportation on Air Tran. The only problems
we encountered on this trip all revolved around Air Tran. About a
week before we left, we received a call from Air Tran telling us they
changed their schedule and our flights to and from Baltimore were no
longer being offered. They rebooked us on a 9:00am flight to Miami
and a 12:15pm flight back to Baltimore. We were worried about the
tight connection back to Baltimore if the ship was late. We called
RCCL and they understood our concern and said as soon as we board the
ship, go to the Guest Relations desk request to be in the first group
off of the ship/

I booked two rooms at the Hyatt Regency Miami via Priceline for $45.00
each. On my last cruise I stayed at the Wyndham Airport and was
disappointed. I was impressed with the Hyatt. It's in easy walking
distance of Bayside Market (I think that's the name) for shopping and
dinner. We ended up eating at Bubba Gump's that evening.

The hotel recommended a shuttle service to the port for the next
morning. The cost was $5.00/person, which worked out well since most
taxis couldn't handle 7 people and our luggage.

Embarkation:

We arranged for the shuttle to pick us up at 10:15 for the 10-minute
ride to the port. I noticed that we weren't asked for ID when driving
into the port like we were in May. This wasn't a big problem or
concern for me. Explorer of the Seas was the only ship in port that
morning, so traffic wasn't bad at all.

Since we received e-documents this time, we didn't have pre-printed
tags for our luggage. The first baggage handler was obnoxious and
said we couldn't get blank tags until 11:00 when an RCCL
representative would arrive. We asked another handler the same
question, and he pulled a stack of blank tags from his pocket and gave
them to us. 5 minutes later, we were on our way into the terminal.
Since Explorer passengers were still leaving the ship, we had to wait
downstairs for about 20 minutes since upstairs was jammed up. As soon
as we were let upstairs, the process to get our SeaPass cards and onto
the ship took about 15 minutes. Once boarding I headed to Guest
Relations to ask about debarking early when we arrived home. They
said a card would be delivered on Wednesday asking for flight
information. This information would be used to determine the order in
which people would leave and nothing could be done right then. I had
one of our group go back about 30 minutes later and ask the same
question. This time they took the information and arranged the early
departure. Sometimes it pays to ask the same question twice.

The Cabin:

I reserved an inside promenade view cabin (8575) on desk 8. Since I
don't care about seeing the outside, I decided on a window onto the
Promenade. The cabin was smaller than the one I had on Carnival
Victory in May. I was disappointed by the size and thought it lacked
dresser and closest space. The rest of my group had outside cabins on
deck 2. They had considerable more dresser space than my cabin. As
is true with most RCCL ships, the bathrooms (and showers) are small.
The cabin had two sofas which was a nice touch. All in all, I was
pleased with the cabin. The attendant (from India) kept the cabin
clean and always had fresh ice on hard.

The Ship:

What can you saw but "Wow"? The ship is huge (15 decks). The only
strange layout issue involves decks 2 and 3. You can't get from the
cabins in the front of the deck to the rear without going though a
crew only area. I never did figure out why, but on one occasion the
stairwells were packed with people waiting to go ashore, so I cheated
and cut though the service area. Needless to say, I set off an alarm,
but just kept walking. In order to get from the front to the rear,
you have to go up to deck 4 and then back down. I enjoyed the way the
ship was decorated by placing art in the common areas, hall ways, and
stairwells. I was always stopping to read who the artist was and the
description of the piece. This was a nice change from the decorations
on Carnival Victory. My favorite place had to be the Royal Promenade.
There was always something going on there and is lined with shops,
bars, and the Café.

On one of my many walks around the ship, I wandered into the 19th Hole
bar on deck 14. They have a piece of art using golf balls which
reminded my of the old Mousetrap Game when I was a child. I could sit
there for hours and watch this thing. I took the 3 ½ old there to see
it, and had problems getting her to leave.

Food:

Most of the reviews spoke poorly of the food on the ship. We found
quite the opposite. For the most part the food was well prepared and
tasty. We ate all of our dinners in the Columbus dining room except
for one night we ate at Portofino's. We ate all of our breakfasts and
lunches .in the Windjammer/Island Grill on Deck 11. Our waiter,
Geraldine from the Philippines was incredible. She took an instant
liking to the 3 ½ year old and always brought out something special.
On one night when the wait staff performed, she took the child with
her and made her part of the performance. I don't remember ever
having a bad meal in the dining room. Some of the dishes I had was
Prime Rib, Blackened Fish, Lobster and Shrimp, and Beef Tenderloin.
They were very accommodating to substituting side dishes if you didn't
like something. Sometimes if someone couldn't make up their mind, she
would simply bring you both. The dining room always offered a "light"
menu option every night. Sometimes they offered the same item, but
with different sides or sauces. Twice I asked for the light version,
and got the regular version. Not a big problem since I just ignored
the items I wanted to avoid. The night we ate at Portofino's, they
had Bananas Foster. Since one of our groups loves them, they arranged
to have it made for him the final night on the ship. They really
seemed to go out of their way to accommodate everyone. I wish the
dining room would enforce the no t-shirt/short rule. On several
occasions people where allowed into the dining room in shorts and
sleeveless shirts even on a formal night.

As I mentioned, we ate at Portofino's one night. The food was simply
incredible. The service was first rate and well worth the $20.00
cover change. Portofino's has a rule that no one under 13 was
admitted. We found children obviously younger eating there, which for
me wasn't a problem. There was a couple who brought a 1 year old
which I didn't agree with.

We ate all of our breakfasts and lunches in the Windjammer. Here the
food was hit or miss. Breakfast every morning was the same, but
because of the variety of food, I never got bored. They also offer an
omelets/egg station where they will make custom omelets. The menu for
lunch changed daily and they varied the menu.

On Friday, they had the Gala Buffet. They opened the doors from 11:30
to 12:!5 to allow people to view the food and decoration. As usual
the presentation was spectacular. Since they didn't open the doors
for eating until 12:30am, I didn't go back and actually try the food.

Entertainment

The cruise director was Chloe O'Connor from Ireland. By far she was
the most energetic and funny cruise director I've found on any of my
cruises. We had the opportunity to meet and talk with her at the
Crown and Anchor Welcome Back party. As it turns out, her husband
also works on the ship, and we learned a little more about how live is
for the crew on board.

They had two comedians on the ship. I didn't find either of them
particularly funny. The had a group called Mystique which has an act
much like Circus De sol. This group (a man and woman) were
incredible. Although they only performed for about ten minutes, they
left you wanting more.

On two nights they had the Singers/Dancers perform. I hadn't seen the
first show on previous cruises, but they also performed "Fast Forward"
which I've seen on my other 2 RCCL cruises. Might be nice if they
replace this show with something new.

Although I never had a chance to try the ice skating rink, we did
attend the "Plant Ice" show on Friday night. All of us enjoyed the
performance. Just the thought of an ice rink on a cruise ship is
impressive.

I'm not into the bar scene on cruise ships, so I didn't spend much
time there listening to the bands play. My friends found a Latin
group on deck 3 and enjoyed dancing there.

On Friday we decided it was time to give the rock climbing wall a
shot. They have several sessions during they day. Once you sign the
waver, you're given a harness and helmet and a brief instruction on
how to climb. We were warned they the sun had made the rock wall hot,
so if we had a problem, we could some back in the afternoon and try
again. We did end up having to stand in line for about 45 minutes
until it was our turn to climb I did make it up to the top the first
time. I had hoped to try it again, but never found the time.

Some of the "Problems"

We only experienced a couple of real problems on the cruise. One
evening I was checking my SeaPass account on the TV and found two
dining room changes that weren't mine. I went to the Guest Relations
to find out more and found the $60.00 change was for two bottles of
wine and a $6.00 change was for Espresso and Cappuccino. I mentioned
didn't order two bottles of wine in a single night and fact I don't
drink coffee probably meant that my account was changed incorrectly.
They said they would investigate and credit the account if they were
in error. Sure enough, later that night I received two credits for
the charges.

The other problem involved babysitting. Before booking the cruise, my
friends checked to ensure they could get in-cabin babysitting for the
children and were told it wouldn't be a problem. When they attempted
to book the babysitter, they were informed the minimum age was 1 year
for this service. After explaining what they were told, the agreed to
provide the babysitter.

Ports of Call:

Since I was traveling with a group that included children, I decided
to stick with them and didn't take any organized tours this cruise.

Puerto Rico (Tuesday)

We weren't overly impressed with Puerto Rico. We did some shopping
then headed back to the ship. I noticed a Wyndham hotel near the
ship, so I decided to "sneak" up to the roof to take a couple of
pictures. We took the elevator to the top floor and found the pool
deck had a nice view of the ship.

St. Martin (Wednesday).

Ah, we loved St. Martin. We took a cab from the the ship to Marigot
on the French side. After some shopping in the stores, we headed to a
large outdoor vendor area I remember from a previous trip. We all
bought various gifts and grabbed a taxi to Orient Beach. My friends
insisted the only reason I recommended the beach is since it's
clothing optional. After eating lunch, we had about an hours to spend
on the beach before we had to head back to the ship. Everyone ended
up falling in love with the beach. Unfortunately we had to get back
to the ship. We never ended up having time to shop in Philipsburg.

St. Thomas (Thursday)

We did the usual shopping then headed off to the beach. We decided
to go to Meghan's Bay which was rated as one of the top 10 beaches in
the world by National Geographic. It's a $6.00 taxi ride from the
ship and $3.00 entrance fee. We were not impressed by the beach and
really can't understand why it was rated so high. We understood from
a taxi driver that other beaches are nicer and not as crowded, but
they're a longer taxi ride. We were concerned the children wouldn't
be able to handle the longer ride back if they got tired.

Nassau

This was the last full day of our cruise. We found the shopping here
to actually be the best of any of the islands we visited. We spent
about 2 hours shopping then I decided I wanted to visit the Atlantis
resort and look around. Instead of taking a taxi, I opted for the
$6.00 roundtrip water taxi. They drop you off at the marina which is
about a 10 minute walk to the resort IF you know where you're going.
I ended up going the wrong direction and had to walk around the
private marina. I did enjoy looking at the massive yachts docked
there. One of them had to have been at least 100'. I finally made
it to the hotel and started heading out to the beach when a security
guard stopped me and asked for my room key. When I said I was just
interested in taking pictures, he said I could get a day pass for
$30.00. I wasn't about to spend that to take pictures, so I headed
into the Casio and found a side door leading outside. I was actually
able to avoid the security and make it all the way down to the beach.
I ended up getting my pictures and then caught the water taxi back to
the ship.

Debarking the Ship

We were assigned orange luggage tags which turns out was one of the
first groups to exit the ship. Since we didn't have time for
breakfast, I ran upstairs and grabbed some cereal and muffins to take
with us (I highly recommend taking sandwich bags with you on a cruise
as they come in handy). Getting through immigration took over 30
minutes. I seem to remember last time I simply showed them my
passport and was on my way. We grabbed a van on the dock back to the
airport ($8.00/person). Now the real fun began. When we checked in
with Air Tran we ended up with a really obnoxious woman checking us
in. It turns out that one of our bags exceeded the 65 pound limit.
She said we had to take out 15 pounds to get it under the limit. When
we inquired about paying a fee for the extra rate, she said it was
$65.00. The owner of the bag agreed, but the woman kept trying to get
them to lessen the weight of the bag. After 15 minutes, she printed
the 5 luggage tags and found only 4 of them there. The idiot sent of
the bags down the conveyor belt without a tag. She then had to down
into the back and find the missing bag to put the tag on. After about
20 minutes, we headed to security and found we had been "randomly"
selected for a security check. Hmm, makes be wonder how random this
was J. This really didn't bother me since we weren't in a hurry.
Fortunately the flight home was uneventful. After this experience
with Air Tran, I think I'll avoid them in the future.

Conclusion

I believe we all had a fantastic time on the cruise. I would rate it
a 8.5 out of 10. The weather was fantastic (the hurricanes hit this
week) and the ship was impressive. I would sail on the Explorer of
the Seas again.

On 1 Sep 2004 06:38:30 -0700, Leonard Nisenoff wrote:

Our group consisted of 5 adults and two Children ages 3 ½ and six
months.

one strike

All but the 6 month old have been on others cruises.

two strikes

This
was my forth cruise and third on RCCL.

"forth" strike. PLONK.

In article , Leonard
Nisenoff wrote:

Everyone ended up falling in love with the beach.

Orient Beach is one of my favorites too.

I believe we all had a fantastic time on the cruise. I would rate it
a 8.5 out of 10. The weather was fantastic (the hurricanes hit this
week) and the ship was impressive. I would sail on the Explorer of
the Seas again.

Great review. Thank you for posting it.

--
Charles

Leonard Nisenoff wrote:


I believe we all had a fantastic time on the cruise. I would rate it
a 8.5 out of 10. The weather was fantastic (the hurricanes hit this
week) and the ship was impressive. I would sail on the Explorer of
the Seas again.

There's 4 like her, may want to check out another one. Of the 5 of them,
her dining room doesn't have the ornate opera house look of the others.

I think the ship delivers on what it sets out to, rather not a ship in
the conventional sense, but a scaled resort with a evening to nighttime
buzz and electricity to its atmosphere.

Ben S.