Recent reviews of Explorer of the Seas

[framboesa]

They also said that on Carnival you can have whatever you want as much as you want but on Royal if you wanted another entree that you have to pay for the extra.

 

In all my past RCI cruises, it was usual to have more than one entree, more than one salad...and sometimes we asked for a second dessert too and they never said "no" ...and no, we never ahd to pay an extra!;)

About the food...we always loved all the food...and we are used to eat excellent food because my family owns several restaurants :)

Enjoy!There will be plenty of food for you!

[jimbob98]

I just returned Sunday from the EOS...and even with the windy weather conditions our group of 54 people had a great time.

 

Is the food really THAT bad? - NO. The food was on the whole very good, and sometimes excellent. RCCL service top notch.

 

Is there brown "muck" all over the outside balconies? No

 

Peeling paint everywhere? I saw SOME peeling paint, and my balcony has seen better days but I didn't think it was as bad as some people say.

 

Bathrooms not in working order/foul smells? The ladies room outside the Windjammer was out of order practically the whole trip, but I didn't notice any others.

 

Had to wait in an hour traffic jam on the way to the pier, but once we got off the bus, I was checked through and in my stateroom in 15 minutes (a new record). About 25 minutes for disembarkation.

 

The EOS will never be mistaken for a new ship, but she's still a classy lady and I wouldn't hesitate to book another cruise on here again.

[Twinkie13]

Hi,

I was curious which bus company you used. We are from RI and are thinking about taking the bus rather than drive.

Thanks,

Kaycee

 

 

Hi Kaycee,

 

Also from RI. We book with Entertainment Tours. They pick you up at the Peter Pan Bus Stop.

[megr1125]

>snip<

Bathrooms not in working order/foul smells? The ladies room outside the Windjammer was out of order practically the whole trip, but I didn't notice any others.

 

>snip<

The EOS will never be mistaken for a new ship, but she's still a classy lady and I wouldn't hesitate to book another cruise on here again.

 

actually i didn't smell anything foul this time.......on our last b2b last year sometimes there was a little odor, but only in one area, and i think they fixed whatever the problem was....

 

we were on the same cruise as jimbob.....and we had a really great time....and as you can see, we "hated" our trip sooo much that we have to go again just to verify that we had a "bad' time!!!:D:p;)

[mein18]

Me and some friends are looking to sail July 2011 possibly on Royal out of NJ. I have heard from a few people that the food is not that great :( compared to Carnival. They also said that on Carnival you can have whatever you want as much as you want but on Royal if you wanted another entree that you have to pay for the extra. Could anyone clear this up for me. I know I shouldn't listen to all the bad reviews but the food thing was from my sister who sailed on Freedom of the Seas and the other was from a friend.

So is the food good and is it all inclusive (whatever you want as much as you want). Believe me I am not looking to eat 2 entrees, hmm I sound like that is all I am worried about :p. I am the one responsible for finding a decent cruise for all of us (6) girls.

thanks for any help

 

I will be the first to say that very few order more food than I do. On our most recent cruise on the AOS, I enjoyed 2 entrees at every meal, 2 apetizers and on lobster night, the waitress graciously brought a 3rd lobster tail without even asking. No extra charge whatsoever.

 

Learned this habit from our cruise on Carnival 5 years back when we shared a table with a former pro lineman. When he ordered, he just said, "one of each please". After the second night, they stopped asking and just brought it out.

 

No charge on Carnival, no charge on RCCL.

[Kaycee1]

Hi Kaycee,

 

Also from RI. We book with Entertainment Tours. They pick you up at the Peter Pan Bus Stop.

Hi Twinkie13,

Thank you for the info. :)

[aimers41]

Heatherscooby, The food is great. At dinner, we ordered one dinner for each of us and would order one extra dinner to share or if we did not like the appetizer, we ordered a dinner instead. Our waiter never had an issue,maybe it depends on what waiter you have. The food is excellent in our eyes. We love the windjammer! Do not listen to other people, make your opinions.

[MaryZ]

We like sailing from Bayonne, but won't until they replace the Explorer.

From someone we met, who works for rccl, supposedly they are putting the independence here in 2011. I have no idea if this is true but I certainly hope it is.

We last sailed the explorer in feb 2009 for 12 nights. I never posted many comments nor a review on it because my viewpoint was slightly tainted against the ship.

The crew was fine. In fact, we found with the problems, the people who attempted to correct them were quite wonderful.

We had an aft cabin and yes we felt sad that the ship's maintenance had been neglected. We have our own large boat that we are out in the ocean all the time with and my husband is meticulous with varnishing our rails. So for us, it was disappointing that royal does not take care of those things. But that aside, we did notice rust and that it needed painting. They also power washed the aft balconies while on our cruise and it took a lot of paint off which landed onto the rubber coating on the balcony which was rather disgusting. We had to have our cabin steward call down to get them to bring a vacuum to get it up. Whatever kind of regular vacuum they use was not getting it done.

 

We had other issues with food that were actually hazardous. In most instances, the food was mediocre but the coconut cookies were good ;)

 

I suppose I should have come home and sent off an overnight letter to rccl but honestly, I decided not to bother. I'm quite sure I would have received a nice letter and some type of compensation for the things that happened.

Instead we just decided to not sail on the explorer again and pretty much put rccl to the bottom of our list.

 

And then, we had the opportunity to go on the bud light cruise in october on the Majesty of the Seas. We decided to go because it would be fun and it was only 3 days and we figured we could put up with rccl again for that small amount of time.

 

Now, we had an outside cabin on the Majesty. But what we did have was a great time. We immediately noticed the ship was in ship-shape shape ;) The food didn't nearly kill me. And all the coffee pots that showed up in our cabin for room service had real lids on them, so no chance of 3rd degree burns.

But, it reminded us that each ship can be a totally different experience and even tho the Majesty is one of the oldest ships in the fleet, it was the one that made us decide not to keep royal at the bottom of our list.

 

So, when our college aged kids were going off to Florida right after Christmas, we gave them a cruise with their bf/gf on the Grandeur as their gift. They had a fun time.

 

Now, I still would be hesitant to sail on the Explorer again so I really hope what my friend told me is true.

If not, we'll just jet down to sunny fla in the winter which we prefer anyway.

 

The thing is, I'm sure many of the people who sailed the explorer when we did, did not experience the same things we did. So they have a different view. I read some people saying they hate the Majesty. And I think, wow we really enjoyed it. Not only did we have fun but we thought the ship was kept very clean and the food was certainly way better than the Explorer.

 

You should read everyone's perception of their cruise and take it as their experience. Your experience might be totally different. But you won't know until you take the cruise. And sometimes that is really the whole adventure of it all. Finding out for yourself.

 

Even with all the issues we had on our Explorer cruise, overall we had a good time. But we are people who will have a good time anywhere. Even tho the railings should be varnished and the paint was yucky we loved the balcony (1690). Fabulously large. We loved the itinerary.

The other issues we had were pretty serious, but they probably won't happen to you.

So go and enjoy.

[Twice_a_year]

Never lost weight!

 

All of these people who have “problems” with the RCI food should try NCL.

 

“You’ll be back!”

 

It is true that the ship has lost of its’ luster due to age. But so have I and I hope my wife still loves me.

 

John of the team of Pam & John