Explorer 12-night - Our Experience - 11/11/07 sailing

To give a little background, my husband and I are Diamond C&A with about 20 cruises (all RCCL with the exception of 4 Celebrity). This was our children (ages 9 & 17) 9th cruise. This was our 4th time sailing on Explorer since 2003 and our 2nd time sailing on Explorer from Bayonne (most recently June 06).

In a nutshell, we found the dining room staff, bar staff and Adventure Ocean staff to be absolutely amazing!! Friendly, attentive, helpful, willing to research questions/problems and truly felt like old friends by the end of the 12-nights. The only staff we found lacking were the Explorations staff (I will get into the details a bit later). Also, Explorer is definitley starting to show her age...although not in any way that will adversely impact your ability to enjoy your cruise (again, more details to follow).

Interesting/new things that were noteworthy (be forewarned...this is fairly stream of conscious and is not really in any logical order!!):

There are 3 formal nights (even though RCCL literature and customer service pre-cruise all insisted there would only be 2). The Cruise Director's staff even mis-printed the Compass on the day of the 2nd formal night and had to make announcements and post signs on the gangway announcing that Day 6 was in fact formal and not smart casual as listed in the Compass. The formal nights are Day 2 (at sea), Day 6 (Dominica), and Day 11 (at sea).

"Invitation to Dance" (RCCL's version of Dancing with the Stars) is a great production show by the RCCL singers and dancers. A couple traveling with us was selected as one of the 4 couples to participate in the competition portion of the show. The try-outs are Tuesday night (Day 3 - at sea) in Studio B. Competitors wear numbers and dance to live music from the orchestra. There are 4 ballroom dancers on staff and they select 4 couples to move on in the competition (i.e., dance in the production show on Day 11; 2 couples dance in the 9pm show and 2 in the later show...a "winner" is slected from each show by audience applause). Some insight from the couple with us who was selected: they were told they would get to pick a costume, but when they showed up for costuming they were simply handed a costume and had no say in the matter; they were assigned a dance/song immediately upon being selected as a finalist in Studio B; practices were about 1 hour per day (our couple's were at 4pm, but were canceled a few times); the morning of Day 11 (at sea) was consumed by hair (10:30am - free in the salon) and dress rehearsal (11am...lasted about 1 hour). They also had to rush through formal night dinner (lobster night) to make curtain call. All in all, I think they enjoyed the experience and the behind the scenes look, but if you are selected, be prepared to lose some free time.

The Windjammer (as alwasy on the Voyager-class ships) was a point of daily frustration. It was near impossible to find a seat during peak times. One nice thing that the Windjammer managers did during the breakfast rush was to usher people wandering around with full trays over to Portofino's for seating through a back service entrance.

We did have one unusual circumstance in the dining room. We were traveling as a group of 8 (all family; all same last names) and for some reason the land-based dining room coordinator placed a solo-traveler at our table. We of course welcomed and included her, but after the 4th night we never saw her again. We've traveled as a family group many times before (sometimes 6 of us, sometimes 18) and we have never ahd this happen.

One thing that is conspicuously missing is hand sanitizer. All hand sanitizer stations outside the dining areas have been removed and replaced with a sign instructing passengers on the proper method of hand washing.

Portofino's was awesome. We ate there while in St. Maarten and St. Thomas. Augustino was one of our waiters and he was awesome. He also had a good wine recommendation...I believe it was the Sangiovese/Merlot blend.

The Poker table in the casino is now an electronic game with about 10 seats. The table was usually full and running "cash" games. There were also 2 tournaments a day ($50 buy in in the afternoon and $125 buy in in the evening...both buy-ins got you $2000 of chips).

As for days at sea, Day 2 was chilly, Day 3 was nice temperature-wise by mid-day, Day 11 was a good temperature but very windy (water sloshing out of the pools) and Day 12 was warm enough for lounging in the sun until about mid-day. The evening of day 12 was incredibly windy...we were in Dizzy's Jazz Lounge on Deck 14 and saw stacked pool chairs being blown in to the empty pool.

The new ice show (Spirits of the Season) was absolutely jaw-dropping. It's a must-see. Even my DH who doesn't care for any of the production or ice shows thought it was great. They have also changed the method for distributing ice show tickets since we last sailed...instead of having assigned pick-up times on sea days outside Studio B, the tickets were handed out in the Royal Promenade on the first night. Leftover tickets were then out for self-service pick-up at Guest Relations...and, of course, you could get tickets from the concierge if you have access (suite or Diamond C&A) - although in the past concierge tickets were good for any ice show throughout the sailing...this time we had to pick a show time.

There were very few kids on this sailing. Only 39 total between ages 12-17 so most of the 12-14 and 15-17 activities were combined. The largest age group was 9-11 with 38 kids (although the AO staff told us there were never more than 18 in the room at a time). The AO staff were amazing. Especially Mel (who is leaving for home after the current 9-night), Jennifer, and Alex (the teen director). FYI - the AO staff was expecting 500 kids for the current 9-night sailing, so I don't know if the low number of kids will be consistent for future 12-nighters or if it was a fluke.

We previously signed our kids up for the new children's C&A program...but Explorer does not seem to have the children's coupon books...so we received 4 regular diamond/diamond-plus cuopon books.

As for the ship's condition...there is definitley visible wear and tear since our last sailing on Explorer in June '06. For example, in almost every public lounge I had to feel the seat before I sat down to determine if it was wet or stained. In our kids' cabin, the closet door was hanging on by only the top hinge and carpet was peeling from the wall and between the adjoing cabin doors. Our group had balcony cabins on decks 6 & 7 and all had peeling paint on the walls and ceilings. In fact, one member of our party lost use of their balcony for 3 days while crew painted it in port...they even re-did the floor which required moving the deck furniture into their cabin for 24 hours!!

There is mandatory US immigration in St. Thomas. The times weren't too bad...Deck 7 wasn't until 9:00am. We went earlier and breezed through because, as our waiter explained to us the night before, there were over 2,000 non-US Citizens on the ship!!! Based on those we met, most were from England and Scotland. (There sure were a lot of kilts on formal nights!)

FYI - There were a lot of errors in the Compasses throughout the week. I would expect this to remain a problem for a few more 12-night sailings until they get all the kinks worked out.

There were over 200 guests with concierge lounge privleges during our sailing so they opened the Chamer nightclub on Deck 3 as a second lounge. One odd "privelege" was the departure lounge...we always take advantage of the lounge, but what was odd is that for our sailing the departure lounge was on Deck 5 forward and the only exit was on Deck 1 aft. Needless to say, it was a trek to actually get off the ship.

We arived back at Cape Liberty 1 hour early, but they stuck to what we were told was the standard disembark timeline. The first color (pink - priority disembark for diamond/diamond plus) was called about 9:10am. It was a slow disembark process because in addition to the long walk from forward to aft, they only had one card reader machine checking people off the ship. By 9:50am we had located our luggage, found a porter, and were sitting a taxi headed to Newark airport. We were fully checked in for our flight (Delta) and had cleared TSA security with 2 hours to spare before our 1:00pm flight.

As for port-of-call...we booked 3 excursions in advance. Which brings me to one of the problemes we experienced with the Explorations desk staff. Upon arrival, we were shorted one ticket. I had my receipt, but when I approached the desk they charged me for another ticket until they could "sort things out with Miami." Additionally, when we arrived in Barbados, no one knew where to go to meet the tours (FYI: go to end of pier, through the shopping complex and out to the front). We actually walked with one of theExplorations staff members who was stopping to ask locals along the way where to go (and it was already 5 minutes past the time when tour groups were supposed to meet). Our other issue with Explorations staff was that one couple traveling with us decided after boarding that they would like to join us on a tour. Explorations put them on a wait list (fine, no problem)...and then called them on the day of the tour 15 minutes before it was supposed to meet to tell them they could go.

Our tours were River Tubing & Emerald Pool Adventure in Dominica (5-star experience for kids and those who like a little adventure...definitely need to be in decent physical condition), Kayaking and Sea Turtle Encounter in Barbados (again, 5-star even though it poured on our return to the ship...I was so gald we weren't still in the kayaks when that storm whipped up!!); and Panoramic St. Kitts (3-star...it was a van tour to a botanical garden and a look-out point where you can see the Caribbean Sea and the Atlantic Ocean...the tour did provide a nice basic overview of the island for first-time visitors and only lasted about 2 hours...I did see some vans on the same tour that had people packed in so tightly they looked like they were sitting on each other's laps; fortunately, we got a little bit of a late start so our van was not at capacity. St. Thomas was a rainy day and we stayed on the ship, but some of our group took a taxi to Sapphire Beach Club - they said it was the perfect resort setting to spend a day at the beach...if only the rain hadn't chased them back only an hour after they got there! In Antigua, we had lunch at Hemingway's on the verandah overlooking the street...it was nice, but not as much "local flavor" as I was hoping for. Other than conch fritters and lobster it was basic lunch fare (salads, burgers, wraps, etc). We did not do anything in St. Maarten or San Juan due to the short port calls and the fact we've been to both many times before.

If you have any questions, feel free to ask!

Great review - thanks for taking the time to post it

I am thinking of taking this sailing next thanksgiving - how was the weather leaving and returning to NJ? Is the pool open? Is the adult pool covered? If it is and it is cold do they open it for a few hours so kids can swim?

Thanks -

Kathy

Thanks so much for the review - we on the 12/2 were dying to hear your info!

I am thinking of taking this sailing next thanksgiving - how was the weather leaving and returning to NJ? Is the pool open? Is the adult pool covered? If it is and it is cold do they open it for a few hours so kids can swim?

 

Thanks -

 

Kathy

Can't say how the weather will be, since this is the Atlantic and in November. We were lucky on this cruise that the weather cooperated and the seas were calm. The solarium pool is not covered.

OHHHHHH! Thanks so much for posting this great review. I am on this ship and similar Itinerary over Christmas. It sounds wonderful. I am sorry to hear about the wear and tear of the ship, maybe it will be taken care of a little better by the time I sail but I doubt it. My question is you said you did the River Tubing and Emerald Pool through the ship and that you had to be in good physical shape, why such good shape? My husband had shoulder surgery in Sept and my daughter had ACL surgery in Aug. They are both still on the mend and can walk and use their limbs but are not back at full strength as of yet. My daughter can walk no problem and my husband just can't lift his arm over his head yet. Would you think this would be a problem. I am concerned. How about mosquitoes? They say Dominica has this Dengue fever and to be careful and use bug spray...Did you have any issue or see a lot of Mosquitoes? Thanks again for all you help.

GREAT overview review and thank you for taking the time to post it. We leave on the 12/2 so love reading the reviews from your roll call. Thanks again! :)

Suzanne

PAGA - thanks for a great review. We have all been waiting for one such as this! Thanks for telling us the formal nights, this can be helpful to know.

I wondered about the immigration in St Thomas.. Do they do it in decks? We will be in a G Suite. I have been concerned about the time we will be off the ship as many private tours go early. I would be grateful to hear your input on this. Am I right in thinking that the docking time of 8am was actutally island time of 9am? Again, this has been well discussed on the boards. I will be on 16th March 12 nighter and apparently after spring time changes in US (9th March), the times will match as 8am ship and island time. Thanks. Hollyanna

PAGA - thanks for a great review. We have all been waiting for one such as this! Thanks for telling us the formal nights, this can be helpful to know.

I wondered about the immigration in St Thomas.. Do they do it in decks? We will be in a G Suite. I have been concerned about the time we will be off the ship as many private tours go early. I would be grateful to hear your input on this. Am I right in thinking that the docking time of 8am was actutally island time of 9am? Again, this has been well discussed on the boards. I will be on 16th March 12 nighter and apparently after spring time changes in US (9th March), the times will match as 8am ship and island time. Thanks. Hollyanna

I am thinking of taking this sailing next thanksgiving - how was the weather leaving and returning to NJ? Is the pool open? Is the adult pool covered? If it is and it is cold do they open it for a few hours so kids can swim?

 

Thanks -

 

Kathy

The solarium pool is not covered, but it was comfortable sitting in there on all sea days.

I had on a medium-weight sweater during the muster drill and was comfortable (and I live in the southeastern US, so i am quick to be cold!!).

It was definitely cold when we returned to Port Liberty for disembark, but we were outside for only a few minutes.

The pools were filled and open on both of the first 2 sea days (heading south). On the 2 sea days heading north there were some "rough" waters and winds which caused the water to slosh out of the pools, but I believe the pools were open at least parts of both of the last 2 sea days.

PAGA:

Thanks so much for the detailed review. DH/I will be on the 12/2 sailing and looking forward to it.

I do have a few questions if you don't mind answering them.

What time were you allowed to get off the ship in Antigua? I know that that ship arrives at 9am but due to having a private tour I'm trying to figure out the proper meeting time with our tour guide.

Same questions above but in Dominica.

Thanks and welcome home!

Sea ya!

OHHHHHH! Thanks so much for posting this great review. I am on this ship and similar Itinerary over Christmas. It sounds wonderful. I am sorry to hear about the wear and tear of the ship, maybe it will be taken care of a little better by the time I sail but I doubt it. My question is you said you did the River Tubing and Emerald Pool through the ship and that you had to be in good physical shape, why such good shape? My husband had shoulder surgery in Sept and my daughter had ACL surgery in Aug. They are both still on the mend and can walk and use their limbs but are not back at full strength as of yet. My daughter can walk no problem and my husband just can't lift his arm over his head yet. Would you think this would be a problem. I am concerned. How about mosquitoes? They say Dominica has this Dengue fever and to be careful and use bug spray...Did you have any issue or see a lot of Mosquitoes? Thanks again for all you help.

We did not encouter any mosquitos (and I am usually the first one to be bitten if there are any around!) and we did not use any bug spray.

As for my comment about physical condition...there is about a 10-15 minute walk on a hiking path to the Emerald Pool. Once at the pool, you must climb a few rocks to access the main viewing point for the waterfall/pool and must climb down slippery rocks to access the pool for swimming. FYI - when returning from the pool, you can either backtrack and follow the entry path back to the entrance (easier route) or complete the loop (which affords you 2 great vantage points overlooking Domicica - including a view of the Atlantic in the distance - but it is a much less groomed path than the entry trail).

On the river tubing portion, I would think you would definitley want use of arm/shoulder for paddling (occasionally necessary as there are some spots without current if you get over to the side of the river or get stuck on a rock....which happens fairly often!). There are definitely some "baby-rapids" (maybe about three 20-30 second stretches spread out along a 30 minute tube ride) along the river and it can get rough. I saw at least 2 people get dumped out of their tubes, so it's not all "lazy river." And they warn that if you get dumped the rocks are very slippery and you should wait to be "rescued" instead of trying to stand up and risk falling.

We had a great experience all around - our 9 year old did it all with no problem, as did my 57 year old MIL (the only thing she didn't do was climb down to access swimming in the pool)...but you may want to solicit some additional opinions over on the Dominica boards to see what others think about your family's injuries.

PAGA - thanks for a great review. We have all been waiting for one such as this! Thanks for telling us the formal nights, this can be helpful to know.

 

I wondered about the immigration in St Thomas.. Do they do it in decks? We will be in a G Suite. I have been concerned about the time we will be off the ship as many private tours go early. I would be grateful to hear your input on this. Am I right in thinking that the docking time of 8am was actutally island time of 9am? Again, this has been well discussed on the boards. I will be on 16th March 12 nighter and apparently after spring time changes in US (9th March), the times will match as 8am ship and island time. Thanks. Hollyanna

The time changes is one thing I forgot to mention in my review. At bed time on Day 2 (Monday) we set our clocks forward 1 hour (which had us in-sync with island-time for all ports of call). We got the hour back at bed time on Day (Wednesday) 11. You are correct that there may not be any time changes after DST resumes in the Spring.

The immigration schedule for St. Thomas was:

8:00am - all non-US citizens, guests with special needs, guests with shore excursions, and guests on Deck 10

8:30am - Decks 8 & 9

9:00am - Deck 7

9:30am - Decks 2,3,6

They did indicate, however, that you were free to go earlier than your deck's designated time.

As soon as you personally cleared immigration you were free to go ashore...they did not hold things up until everyone was cleared.

On other thing that I just remembered that happeend in St. Thomas...there was a surprise health inspection and the Explorer scored a 97.

PAGA:

Thanks so much for the detailed review. DH/I will be on the 12/2 sailing and looking forward to it.

I do have a few questions if you don't mind answering them.

What time were you allowed to get off the ship in Antigua? I know that that ship arrives at 9am but due to having a private tour I'm trying to figure out the proper meeting time with our tour guide.

Same questions above but in Dominica.

 

Thanks and welcome home!

Sea ya!

I can say with certainty that in Dominica we had a 9:00am ship-booked excursion and we were on the pier and with our group at 8:45am.

We only did lunch in Antigua, so we did not get off the ship until around 10:30am...so I was not paying very close attention to the announcements about being cleared to go ashore since we weren't in a hurry. I recommend you check out the RCCL shore excursions to see what time the first one starts...all of our excursions had us meeting on the pier 15 minutes prior to the start of the tour, so I'd use RCCL's tour schedule as a guideline.

We did not encouter any mosquitos (and I am usually the first one to be bitten if there are any around!) and we did not use any bug spray.

 

As for my comment about physical condition...there is about a 10-15 minute walk on a hiking path to the Emerald Pool. Once at the pool, you must climb a few rocks to access the main viewing point for the waterfall/pool and must climb down slippery rocks to access the pool for swimming. FYI - when returning from the pool, you can either backtrack and follow the entry path back to the entrance (easier route) or complete the loop (which affords you 2 great vantage points overlooking Domicica - including a view of the Atlantic in the distance - but it is a much less groomed path than the entry trail).

 

On the river tubing portion, I would think you would definitley want use of arm/shoulder for paddling (occasionally necessary as there are some spots without current if you get over to the side of the river or get stuck on a rock....which happens fairly often!). There are definitely some "baby-rapids" (maybe about three 20-30 second stretches spread out along a 30 minute tube ride) along the river and it can get rough. I saw at least 2 people get dumped out of their tubes, so it's not all "lazy river." And they warn that if you get dumped the rocks are very slippery and you should wait to be "rescued" instead of trying to stand up and risk falling.

 

We had a great experience all around - our 9 year old did it all with no problem, as did my 57 year old MIL (the only thing she didn't do was climb down to access swimming in the pool)...but you may want to solicit some additional opinions over on the Dominica boards to see what others think about your family's injuries.

Thanks for taking so much time to answer my questions....One last question. What about wearing water shoes or sandals such as Teva's would they help if you fell in on the slippery rocks?

"Invitation to Dance" (RCCL's version of Dancing with the Stars) is a great production show by the RCCL singers and dancers. A couple traveling with us was selected as one of the 4 couples to participate in the competition portion of the show. The try-outs are Tuesday night (Day 3 - at sea) in Studio B. Competitors wear numbers and dance to live music from the orchestra. There are 4 ballroom dancers on staff and they select 4 couples to move on in the competition (i.e., dance in the production show on Day 11; 2 couples dance in the 9pm show and 2 in the later show...a "winner" is slected from each show by audience applause). Some insight from the couple with us who was selected: they were told they would get to pick a costume, but when they showed up for costuming they were simply handed a costume and had no say in the matter; they were assigned a dance/song immediately upon being selected as a finalist in Studio B; practices were about 1 hour per day (our couple's were at 4pm, but were canceled a few times); the morning of Day 11 (at sea) was consumed by hair (10:30am - free in the salon) and dress rehearsal (11am...lasted about 1 hour). They also had to rush through formal night dinner (lobster night) to make curtain call. All in all, I think they enjoyed the experience and the behind the scenes look, but if you are selected, be prepared to lose some free time. QUOTE]

 

That sounds exciting--so I guess the ballroom dancers pick a dance that the couple seemed to be able to do well. Can't wait to see that one--our group has several ballroom dancers in it.

Thanks for taking so much time to answer my questions....One last question. What about wearing water shoes or sandals such as Teva's would they help if you fell in on the slippery rocks?

I definitely recommend water shoes for the river tubing excursion in Dominica. There are rocks/gravel at the entry and exit point to the river. As for providing traction on the slippery underwater river rocks, I don't think the shoes would make much of a difference.

PAGA:

I can say with certainty that in Dominica we had a 9:00am ship-booked excursion and we were on the pier and with our group at 8:45am.We only did lunch in Antigua, so we did not get off the ship until around 10:30am...so I was not paying very close attention to the announcements about being cleared to go ashore since we weren't in a hurry. I recommend you check out the RCCL shore excursions to see what time the first one starts...all of our excursions had us meeting on the pier 15 minutes prior to the start of the tour, so I'd use RCCL's tour schedule as a guideline.

Thanks for getting back to me. We have two private tours booked that are not affiliated with RCI. Was trying to figure out what time you were allowed to get off the ship so I can let the tour guides know what time we can meet them at. Thank you again!!!

Sea ya!

We will be on the Jan 13 sailing....Can you tell me what you did for sailway? Was everyone still on the pool deck . Where there bartenders walking around with frozen drinks? or did they have hot drinks. Oh and did you have a lobster night (or fishermans platter as they call it now). which night was that?

"Invitation to Dance" (RCCL's version of Dancing with the Stars) is a great production show by the RCCL singers and dancers. A couple traveling with us was selected as one of the 4 couples to participate in the competition portion of the show. The try-outs are Tuesday night (Day 3 - at sea) in Studio B. Competitors wear numbers and dance to live music from the orchestra. There are 4 ballroom dancers on staff and they select 4 couples to move on in the competition (i.e., dance in the production show on Day 11; 2 couples dance in the 9pm show and 2 in the later show...a "winner" is slected from each show by audience applause). Some insight from the couple with us who was selected: they were told they would get to pick a costume, but when they showed up for costuming they were simply handed a costume and had no say in the matter; they were assigned a dance/song immediately upon being selected as a finalist in Studio B; practices were about 1 hour per day (our couple's were at 4pm, but were canceled a few times); the morning of Day 11 (at sea) was consumed by hair (10:30am - free in the salon) and dress rehearsal (11am...lasted about 1 hour). They also had to rush through formal night dinner (lobster night) to make curtain call. All in all, I think they enjoyed the experience and the behind the scenes look, but if you are selected, be prepared to lose some free time. QUOTE]

 

That sounds exciting--so I guess the ballroom dancers pick a dance that the couple seemed to be able to do well. Can't wait to see that one--our group has several ballroom dancers in it.

 

The final competition is performed live to the orchestra and RCCL singers' accompaniment...so I suspect the music/dances are the same week after week. Perhaps someone who was on the Bermuda/Boston 7-night could chime in to determine whether it was the same songs/styles of dance...I know 3 of the 4: Toxic (Brittany Spears), You Light Up My Life, and a Beyonce Knowles song (the name of which is escaping me right now).

 

One couple in each show did a latin-style dance (it was supposed to be one tango and one cha-cha, but the professional for the couple traveling with us decided to change the tango to cha-cha instead...so there were 2 cha-chas...one in each show. She did not, however, change the music selection when she changed the dance style), one couple did a waltz and the final couple did swing.

 

FYI - music for all of these dance styles were performed during the audition in Studio B. And 2 of the couples selected were traveling together, so there is some possibility that more than one couple from your group will be selected.

 

Another hint...sign-ups for the audition are held twice. To beat the rush, watch your Compass for the sign-up hour that is held in the Royal Promenade on the morning of the audition. You can also sign-up as you come into Studio B, but there are a limited number of audition spots, so show up early if it's important to you to participate.

When we did the New England/Canada itinerary in September, the carpet in our cabin and a couple of cabins around ours was replaced. We hadn't noticed any particular wear. They must be doing this routinely. I'm sure it's not easy keeping things looking new with a full ship.

We will be on the Jan 13 sailing....Can you tell me what you did for sailway? Was everyone still on the pool deck . Where there bartenders walking around with frozen drinks? or did they have hot drinks. Oh and did you have a lobster night (or fishermans platter as they call it now). which night was that?

For sail-away, we went to Dizzy's Jazz Lounge (Deck 14...I think they used to call it the Crown Viking Lounge...) and sat by the window overlooking the pool. Yes, there was a sail-away party on the pool deck and drinks were being served. At no point during our sailing did I see the previously rumored hot chocolate or other adult hot beverage concotions being served.

The Fisherman's platter was served on the final formal night (Day 11 - the first sea day on the return to Cape Liberty). Our waiter rounded up an extra platter (1 tail, 5 or 6 shrimp) for everyone at our table who requested extras). FYI - if you get the seafood skewer at Portofinos, there is a 1/2 tail on the skewer...someone in our party requested the other 1/2 be added to their skewer and was served it without a problem.

Likewise, our waiter always seemed to be able to find us meats (lamb, beef) cooked to our liking...even though our preferences tend toward the "less cooked" end of the spectrum.

The first formal night was the traditional welcome dinner...escargot, beef tenderloin, etc. The second formal night was NOT a new menu...it was one of the menus that we've experienced in the past on 7-night cruises (unfortunately, I can't remember the food items).

There were a few new menus and I found all of them to be very appealing to my tastes.

If you've sailed on Freedom, you are famiiar with the "Get Out There" menu (shoulder of beef???who ever heard of that???). Anyway, the "Get Out There" menu has replaced the "Caribbean Night" menu on Explorer. It was served on Day 3 (at sea) and is definitely a good night to go to Portofinos. We actually chose to eat in the Windjammer that night.

Speaking of the Windjammer dinners, if you have ever eaten in the Windjammer on Jewel in the evening you will find Explorer's evening meal to be a disappointment. Of our 20 cruises, we ate in the Windjammer for dinner for the first time on Jewel this past March. We loved it -- steak, chix, salmon cooked to order; make your own pizza bar; and a very non-Windjammer-like ambiance. On Explorer, it was basic buffet, nothing cooked to order, bright lights, no special table set-ups, and when we asked to be served wine from our Wine & Dine package they looked at us like we had lost our minds (although they did eventually come thru...but the wine came near the end of our meals even though we ordered prior to going to the buffet).

Yes, many of our small group will participate in the dance contest I'm sure.

Thanks for all the info and I'll pass it on! Dancing to an orchestra is much better than dancing to a record. Thanks for all the hints. I would be interested in hearing about any other experiences with Invitation to Dance.

Great Review. . . Thanks for posting ! :)

I am thinking about Explorer on this Itinerary in Jan or Feb 08. . .

Thanks again

Radio

:rolleyes: :rolleyes: