Explorer Revitalized - Spain & Med Beaches, June 2015 - Great Times

We were on one of the early Explorer cruises post dry dock on June 3, 2015. I have been a bit surprised by some of the negativity regarding the recent cruises on Explorer - everyone has their own pov and those things which are most important to them - but we had a fine time and would not hesitate to book this ship again. Although, next time, I might book later in the summer as the weather was inclement and I definitely missed having a solarium. All in all, there were some minor annoyances but nothing to ruin our trip.

I plan to start with pre-cruise information, then general information regarding the ship, followed by our experiences at ports of call.

My husband, 21 y.o. daughter and I sailed on Explorer from Southampton to:

Gibraltar, U.K.

Malaga, Spain

Villefranche, France

Ajaccio, Corsica

Cagliari, Sardinia

Palma de Mallorca, Spain

Cadiz, Spain

This was a 14 night cruise and all but Villefranche were new ports of call for us.

Booking: I booked this cruise for DH and I the first day it became available and got a truly great deal on an aft JS (more on the cabin later). Unfortunately, by the time I knew for sure DD could go with us it was a few short months to sailing and we ended up paying nearly as much for her fare as the 3rd person in the cabin than we did for the 1st and 2nd cruisers. Prices just seemed to go up and up on this cruise.

Choice Air: We had not used Choice Air since a bad experience years ago when RCI booked us on an extremely short connecting time flight through CDG - an airport I avoid at nearly all costs now! That time, we didn't reach the ship until after hours of anxiety and while the ship's horn was blowing; our luggage followed us around the Med for 5 days! This time we decided to use Choice Air because due to DH's vacation schedule we could not fly into Heathrow until the day before the cruise. I was able to choose the flights I wanted this time around and we had no issues with them at all - in fact, we arrived at LHR 1 hour before scheduled.

However, 3 weeks after I reserved online I realized I never received written confirmation of the booking. That necessitated an email to customer service followed by a phone call with 2 different people before receiving confirmation that the tickets had in fact been booked. The Choice Air agent claimed an email had been sent but I know it had not because I checked my spam folder as well. (Guess I shouldn't be surprised I didn't receive it, as RCI can't seem to put me on its email list no matter how many times I ask. :eek:)

In any event, if you decide to use Choice Air, make sure to follow-up if you haven't received written confirmation within a few weeks. After I received the confirmation, I went to the airline site and changed the seat assignments as I didn't like the original assignments.

Packing Cubes: On longer trips DH and I try to each take one carry on and then share a large duffel. One of my pet peeves was the disorganization in the duffel and difficulty finding things after a day or two of people pawing through the clothes looking for something. I purchased two sets of 3 cubes each and they worked out brilliantly. I used 2 for clothing I knew I would not need until we got on the cruise. In the largest I put my blouses, dress slacks and skirts. The cube was just large enough to accommodate clothes hangers which made unpacking a breeze, kept the clothes mostly free of wrinkles and alleviated the ever-presnet issue of not having enough hangers in the ship closet. In the smallest cube I put swimwear, pareos, sunblook and a pair of flip flops. The medium cube was used for casual pants, shorts and tops.

I read about packing cubes on CC just a few weeks before our cruise. One of the things I love about CC is picking up a gem of a suggestion which is so obvious in hindsight but somehow I had never thought of on my own.

More to follow...

Pre-Cruise Hotel: Because we only had an afternoon and evening in England before boarding the ship, we decided to stay at the Heathrow/Windsor Marriott Hotel. It was somewhat dated but fine. The service was quite good. Late that night we ordered room service; our order came promptly the food was good and the beer even better. The price for room service was reasonable. DH spent a bit of time in the lobby bar and reported that it was quite nice. The hotel also reportedly had an outdoor patio but we did not search it out as the weather was uncooperative. The hotel very conveniently had an ATM right in the lobby.

Windsor/ Town & Castle After dropping our bags off at the hotel we decided to go to Windsor to see the castle and have a short walk around town. The weather on arrival was blustery, rainy and gray - typical English weather according to several English citizens. However, we had a great time despite the shivers. DD had previously been to the castle but had not seen the State Apartments. So, we went there and to St George's Chapel. The history was amazing - I especially appreciated seeing the tombs of Elizabeth Woodville and King Edward IV, having read several books about them over the years.

As you can see from our photos, the skies cleared a bit as the afternoon went on although it was still quite chilly and windy.

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DSC_0055 by Dawn Johnson[/url]

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Lunch in Windsor After spending several pleasant hours at the Castle we decided lunch was in order. Upon getting directions from a very helpful guard at the castle, we headed a few blocks away to Dhinchak (http://dhinchak.co.uk/), an Indian restaurant I had read about online. Unfortunately, it was too cold to sit outside to eat but we enjoyed a pleasant and tasty lunch indoors. The restaurant lived up to its good reviews. I had some of the most flavorful rice ever. My Shrimp Biryani was excellent and DD and DH said the same of their Butter Chicken. The naan service was also quite good.

While at the restaurant, DH asked the waiter if he could recommend any art supply stores in the area. Not only did he tell us about 3 different stores, he provided much information about the type of wares they carried and pricing along with detailed directions to each. So off we went in search of art stores. We easily found each of the stores and DH was happy as a clam to pick up a journal, water color pad and some pens to use whiling away some time on the cruise.

Wine Shop in Windsor After doing a bit more shopping and walking around Windsor we headed back towards the Castle and happened to see a sign for a small shop on High Street selling wine and beer. The selection was very limited but we managed to pick up two bottles of wine for the cruise -saving us from stopping on the way to the ship in the morning. We also picked up a few bottles of beer and pre-made G&Ts to take back to the hotel with us and then headed to the taxi queue across the street; tired but happy and excited for the day ahead.

thanks for your review. Very interested in your review about the ship. We are looking at an itinerary later this year and concerned with all the 'crowding' after dry docked. thanks

Enjoying your review.

Keith

I am doing this itinerary this weekend, looking forward to more of your review. Glad you enjoyed the ship.

Michelle

Thanks for the review. We were on that cruise too and like you apart from a couple of little niggles found Explorer and her crew to be great and we'd certainly go back on her anytime. Looking forward to reading the rest and hopefully bringing back lovely memories a part from the rain in Cadiz

Hi

Its great to see another review on Explorer. I look forward to following along. I've nearly finished mine now. I agree with the previous post. We had a fabulous time apart from a few niggles.

Can't wait to read more.

Transport from Hotel to Ship pre-cruise and from Ship to LHR post-cruise: I made advance arrangements with Smiths for Airports (http://www.smithsforairports.com/index.html) and could not have been more pleased with the service. We had the same driver both ways - he was prompt, personable, informative and witty. We left the hotel at 11:00 am and stopped at a very nice convenience area along the way for coffees.

At the end of the cruise, RCI disembarked much faster than expected, so we had our luggage collected and were in a waiting area 30 minutes before the time we had arranged to be picked up. We called Smith's to see if it was possible to be picked up earlier and the driver was at the port within 5 minutes. He had been waiting in advance just down the road - really great service!

If you have some time on the way to the port or after your cruise, Smiths will also take you to Portsmouth or Winchester for a few hours.

We thought the cost was very reasonable for the service - 90GBP to the port in a van with 3 people, 5 suitcases and 3 backpacks. The ride back to Heathrow was 85 GPB. The driver even checked which terminal we needed to fly out of since Delta flies from two different terminals at LHR, which are quite distant from each other.

If you want to use Smiths, look into reservations well in advance during peak vacation times - especially if you need a larger vehicle. Our driver told us the company has something like 30 drivers; he was one of 7 who had vans and he was fully booked for the next 2-1/2 months. The day before he picked us up, he had taken a couple with a scooter to a Princess cruise.

Embarkation/Passport Collection: Embarkation was a breeze. When we pulled into port there were several porters waiting for luggage - fastest luggage drop-off ever.

Inside the terminal things were also running very efficiently. We waited no more than 30 seconds for a gate agent and were all checked in within 10 minutes. It would have been even faster but as non-EU citizens the cruise line was required to collect our passports, which also necessitated the filling out of a form for each of us. The gate agent told us there were 300+ people on our cruise whose passports needed to be collected but that on the previous cruise there were over 1200! :eek: Now, that could have slowed things down a bit.

I noticed your discovery of packing cubes, I've been using them for years and don't pack a suitcase now without them. I also have a spare on I just keep 'stuff' in. Adaptor plugs, mini sewing kit, mini first aid kit, anything little you would put in pockets, keeps everything together

.

A couple of companies also make pack-it folders. Great for clothes you don't want to crease, great for business trips. I know a few companies make them, I think you have the Eagle Creek brad there too.

Thanks for the review. We were on that cruise too and like you apart from a couple of little niggles found Explorer and her crew to be great and we'd certainly go back on her anytime. Looking forward to reading the rest and hopefully bringing back lovely memories a part from the rain in Cadiz

The rain in Cadiz was something else, wasn't it? We enjoyed Cadiz despite the rain and being there on a Sunday but probably would have loved it were circumstances different.

I've never seen rain like it , we were soaked as we managed to get lost in the little side streets but we still managed to laugh it off .were going back next year on Indy so hope to see it in the sunshine ..lol

OBC/Automatic Gratuities & Tipping We had tons of OBC on this cruise - which turned out to be a good thing given the increased drink prices. :eek: I used one of my last great Next Cruise Certificates which provided a good amount of OBC, had $100 OBC from an online TA I used, prepaid gratuities for two of us AND I cashed in $500 worth of OBC from my Royal Caribbean Visa Card. I used to use that card for nearly all purchases but when reward options became more limited and restrictive, I switched to a different rewards card for most purchases.

All of the OBC was correctly credited to our account when I checked via the television in our cabin several days into the cruise. Despite all that OBC we still managed to owe some at the end of the cruise even though we did not do any shore excursions through the cruise line. We did do some shopping on-board.

Although tipping customs vary and an auto gratuity was added to service, I took a large stack of small bills with us for great service and I was glad I did. The service was, but for a few notable exceptions, excellent. Almost every crew member thanked us, some profusely, for the extra tip. Several long time crew members mentioned that it was hard to get used to not receiving many extra trips in Europe - they were not complaining, just stating the facts.

Foreign Currency: After an issue several years ago with our non-chip credit cards in Scandinavia, I always estimate how much foreign currency I need and order it from our bank prior to leaving the states. On this trip we actually returned with several hundred Euro; guess I will just have to plan another trip! :)

The Cruise Compass did indicate that the ship had Euros, GBP, etc available on board. I don't know what the exchange rate was and whether it was competitive but I thought this was a great service.

Wednesday departure/return: Somewhat strangely, I thought, this cruise operated on a Wednesday departure and Wednesday arrival day, rather than leaving and returning on a weekend. When I booked this cruise as soon as it was available I was envisioning taking 3 weeks off work to have several days in London pre-cruise then several days to "recuperate" at home post-cruise before going back to work. Lesson learned! DH did not have enough vacation days to do that so we ended up flying in the day before the cruise (with no time in London to offset the very steep flight costs) and flying back the same day as we returned to Southampton. We arrived home after midnight and got up and went to work 8 hours later. :eek: I probably won't be planning another long cruise in Europe leaving and returning mid-week until DH retires (or we move somewhere civilized which provides a reasonable amount of vacation time)!

I noticed your discovery of packing cubes, I've been using them for years and don't pack a suitcase now without them. I also have a spare on I just keep 'stuff' in. Adaptor plugs, mini sewing kit, mini first aid kit, anything little you would put in pockets, keeps everything together

.

A couple of companies also make pack-it folders. Great for clothes you don't want to crease, great for business trips. I know a few companies make them, I think you have the Eagle Creek brad there too.

Thanks for the tip - I will have to take a look.

AFT JS 1694 We thought the ship looked great, including our cabin - which we loved. All of the finishings seemed new and bright and the balcony was fantastic.

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View from the Aft balcony at Southampton:

Stateroom Attendant: Campbell Cherton was our stateroom attendant on this cruise and he was very good. He brought ice water every afternoon after we asked for it on the first day, an extra coffee cup/wine glass for DD and once he realized we were serious about not needing our room cleaned if our DD decided to sleep in on a sea day, he was very equable about it. (On an earlier Liberty cruise, our stateroom attendant seemed very passive/aggressive about DD sleeping in. :()

Thank you for taking the time to post your review.

Can't wait to read more.:)

Thank you for taking the time to post your review.

 

Can't wait to read more.:)

Thanks to everyone following along for their patience. It's taking longer than I would like since I only have a few minutes here and there to post.

Sailaway Party: Sailaway took place right after Muster Drill and the party was well attended and fun. The music set was quirky and plastic British flags were handed out on the pool deck.

Bon Voyage Parade:We thought the parade on the Royal Promenade the first night was bizarre and lame. The crew members were good natured about it but it seemed clear several thought it was pretty ridiculous - maybe we only noticed it because we were right by the staging area. In any event we thought parades on other ships were much better, particularly some of the themed parades like on Allure. It was definitely not worth working your schedule around for it.

Movies: All but one of the movies was shown on the outdoor poolside screen; the sole exception was shown in the theater. Some days it was quite windy and cold but there were blankets available to wrap up. We thought the movie choices were very "interesting." On one of the sea days mid-cruise, "American Sniper" was scheduled to play at 3:00 pm. We thought that an odd choice but decided to stay at the pool and watch since we had not seen the movie before and it had received good reviews. 22 minutes into the movie it stopped playing with no explanation. We spoke with one of the officers several minutes later when we went to the pool bar to get a drink and the officer told us the movie was pulled due to a complaint about cursing.

Speaking of the pool bar: On day two we went to the pool bar several times to get drinks during the playing of "Jupiter Ascending." We met Navin Borania from Turkey, who was bartending. Navin had just joined the company after dry dock. He gave us excellent service throughout the cruise and always remembered our standard order. We made a point of patronizing the pool bar as often as possible. :) We did not experience long waits even on sea days. If you are traveling on Explorer in the near future keep your eyes out for Navin!

Specialty Dining: Do not even think of going unless you have at least 2 hours to spend.

Chops We went to Chops twice on this cruise and found it inconsistent. Pros: this was the first cruise we've been on where a cruise member asked if we wanted to use a second D+ BOGO offer on a subsequent night by pre-paying the first night. The meats were excellent and the desserts to die for both nights. Our server was also excellent on the first night. He brought DD a HUGE slice of Red Velvet Cake to go when she mentioned it was her favorite dessert.

Cons: The hostess was on the phone always - and I mean ALWAYS - whether people were waiting at the podium to make reservations or people were waiting to be seated. She was clearly distracted by the incessant phone calls and would be in the middle of doing something but if the phone rang she answered it. We used our second BOGO offer on the next to the last night and that was a huge mistake on our part. The line was very long when we arrived for our reservation at 8:30 but the hostess ignored my DH when he finally reached the front of the line for long, long minutes. My DH is a very patient person but he was hot under the collar that she didn't acknowledged him even to apologize for the wait or to say it would be just a few minutes more. Once we were seated we noticed many table were open - clearly there was an issue in the kitchen or from lack of sufficient servers.

We had planned on going to the Rock Brit Party in the Promenade at 10:30 but missed the whole thing because dinner took so long.

The side orders our first night were plentiful, well presented but lukewarm. Ordinarily I would have returned them to the kitchen and requested hot sides but we were all suffering from jet lag by the time our food arrived.

I only took photos the first night and forgot to do so then until after we had started eating - sorry! Anyway, here they are for what they are worth:

Giovanni's The food was great at Giovanni's and our server was very good BUT, he was extremely overloaded with table so dinner took much longer than it should.

I would definitely avoid going to a specialty restaurant on one of the last few nights unless it was a special occasion or we had absolutely nothing else we wanted to do.

MDR: We enjoyed the meals we had at the MDR including a few breakfasts. As D+ we were able to have breakfast in a reserved section of the dining room on Deck 5. The Eggs Benedict are worth a special trip to the MDR. There were plenty of two seaters for breakfast as well as larger tables for groups.

We spent our first night at Chops and our second in the MDR. We decided to change tables and spoke with Jorge the concierge in the Diamond lounge. On the 3rd night we went to Giovanni's. The Dining Manager took the trouble to actually track us down in Giovanni's and come speak with us personally about the table change. The next night we went back to the MDR and all was good. Really excellent service!

Our waiter and assistant waiter were also quite good and eager to please. My only complaint was the length of time it took several evenings to get our cup of coffee. Several times it came after we had already finished eating dessert.

Windjammer: We went to the Windjammer for several breakfasts as well as several lunches, including on the first day. We thought the food was just fine and the variety sufficient. We tended to head to the very back to get food as it was generally less crowded at the food stations (plus, that is where the burgers for DH and bread pudding for me can be found). :)

Coffee: Thank goodness for Starbucks VIA! What is up with placing personal individual coffee pots in the rooms but providing large packs of coffee which make multiple cups???

Tea: The hot water kettle was very convenient for making tea and our Starbucks coffee. I liked the tea choices offered in the Windjammer more than the tea in our room so started getting tea bags and milk in the Windjammer to make in our room later.

Thanks for the review, will be on her next February and am looking forward to testing her out.:D

Tea: The hot water kettle was very convenient for making tea and our Starbucks coffee.

The bonus of sailing out of UK, you get your own kettle :)

The bonus of sailing out of UK, you get your own kettle :)

Does that mean if you are sailing on a cruise that originated in the UK, but you are joining the EOS in Singapore for the Singapore to Australia leg you still get a kettle? I hope so, can't see the water from the coffee maker would be hot enough for tea. Perhaps I should sneak my water heating coil into my suitcase just in case!

Does that mean if you are sailing on a cruise that originated in the UK, but you are joining the EOS in Singapore for the Singapore to Australia leg you still get a kettle? I hope so, can't see the water from the coffee maker would be hot enough for tea. Perhaps I should sneak my water heating coil into my suitcase just in case!

I don't know but if not, I'm sure you can ask your room attendant for one as they clearly have them onboard.

Someone can answer this, does the Australian market gets kettle too in their cabin? I have a feeling they do.

...Someone can answer this, does the Australian market gets kettle too in their cabin? I have a feeling they do.

I believe someone posted here recently that cruises out of Australia also get kettles in all the staterooms.