All Things Explorer of the Seas! -- Part 2

[roscoegirl]

Does anyone have recent experience in the Explorer casino?..

 

Do they still have the Wheel of Fortune machine? .. do recall where in the casino it is?

 

 

What are they offering for poker? I know they have been running the tournaments for each cruise, is that still going? On Jewel, we had some cash games going with the dealer provided... do they do that on Explorer?

 

 

and because you all are so nice... here is another shot form my Aft Balcony cruise on Explorer.... I have long arms.. the camera has a fisheye lens which is great for shots like this, but it can be confusing to the eye if you aren't expecting it...

 

 

 

I'm sorry...this was the 'fantastic shot' I referred to in my previous post. My question was: what deck is this and if this is a public area, does it go all the way around the ship. Sorry I didn't use the quote feature before.

 

Thanks again.:)

[SNJCruisers]

JJSMaine,

 

sunset photo is beautiful! will be sailing on EOS aug,30. Cant wait!!:D

Have not seen you on the roll call for the 8/30/12 sailing...why not come over and jump into the deep end?

[JJSMaine]

This is the view from the aft Junior Suite balcony on deck six. :) you can't read the sign in this pic.. :) .. but it says to not cross over the rail .. non eof the space you can see over the rail is accessible by anyone..... oh and excuse the untidy balcony, we were on vacation and still enjoying breakfast... :)

 

Edited June 24, 2012 by JJSMaine

[roscoegirl]

This is the view from the aft Junior Suite balcony on deck six. :) you can't read the sign in this pic.. :) .. but it says to not cross over the rail .. non eof the space you can see over the rail is accessible by anyone..... oh and excuse the untidy balcony, we were on vacation and still enjoying breakfast... :)

 

 

Oh...OK. It looked like a nice place to visit and take pictures...our JS this time is the center hump on deck #9...tried an aft before but I/my arthritis grew tired of the walk...I'm convinced mid-ship is the only place for me. Very cool pictures; what did you say this type of picture effect was called?

[JJSMaine]

Oh...OK. It looked like a nice place to visit and take pictures...our JS this time is the center hump on deck #9...tried an aft before but I/my arthritis grew tired of the walk...I'm convinced mid-ship is the only place for me. Very cool pictures; what did you say this type of picture effect was called?

 

 

I used a Nikon 4500 ( old camera now) with a fisheye lens attached.. .

 

 

Here is an extreme version of apicture when zoomed all the way out... I take most picture with it zoomed in some to reduce the fish bowl effect..

 

[roscoegirl]

Thanks for the camera lens info! You don't see many pics like this...thanks for sharing:)

[luvscruising2007]

Is the pool open late into the evening? I was thinking it would be fun to take a swim after evening activities, may be after 11pm. I always loved swimming at night when I was a kid.

[MikeDaDog]

The pools are never closed. They do drain them for cleaning but there is always at least one open. Well they do close for safety reasons during rough seas.

 

Sent from my DROIDX using Tapatalk 2

[luvscruising2007]

Thanks, Mike. Maybe DH and I can get in a midnight swim on our next cruise.

[jefarl]

thsi is a copy of a posting on made this weekend on the CC message board for RCCL topics... just wanted to share with the EOS watchers..

 

Just returned from the EOS and our first experience with MTD on RCCL. We love NCL's experiences, and last year tried MTD on Celebrity Soltace. Had no issues on the Soltace for our 13 day criuise. showed up whenever we wanted or made reservations earlier that day.They had 2 lines, one for people with reservations and one for those without. Either way, we were seated within a few minutes.

NOT SO on the EOS. First they usually had two lines but were mixed so you had to wait in either until the people before you were seated even if you had a reservation or not... sometimes people seemed to wait 10 minutes for the unreserved to be seated before the reserved got to the front of the line...

Our issue was much worse. We were traveling with a party of 6 and really wanted to sit by ourselves for diner. The first night we showed up around 6 and had not problem. The second day I called around noon for a 7pm reservation and was told they could only accomondate us at 5:45-6pm, or 8pm or later. As we wanted to see the evening's show and not eat after 8pm, we had to take the earlier seating. The next day I called at 9am and was told the same thing... either by 6pm or after 8pm. I asked when should I reserve for times in I wanted in between theses and was told "we never take reservations for a party of 6 other than by 6pm or after 8pm!" The said that way they could turn the table twice for the evening... and that I should pick a time and reserve for the rest of the cruise now....

I was beyond upset...

I proceeded to guest relations and asked to be put in contact with the "Hotel Manager" ie the top person incharge of all non-engineering services. The person at guest relations said he was the office in charge of the desk and wanted to try to help me first if he could. I explained what had occured and said... I guess MY Time Dining is really YOUR Time Dining!

Why couldn't I have a table when I wanted and why would I have to reserve ahead for a full cruise? MTD was supposed to allow us to make diner plans each night when we felt like eating, depending on the day and evening plans, ports of call, etc. If we wanted to be limited to Your time Dining we would have booked traditional Early or Late seating.

While I understand turning tables in restaurants, this is a cruise ship where if you offer MTD you need to be able to handle reasonable requests... The officer told me he was going to attend a meeting that morning with the restauanat managers and would get back to me that afternoon. By 1pm we had a message that we had a reservation for a table of 6 for the 6:30 pm we wanted that evening. The person at the MTD desk that evening then came over to our table and asked if we were happy with the table and offered us that table every evening if we wanted it. Since the location was perfect, the wait staff wonderful, we accepted it and had no issues the rest of the week, even adjusting the times several days due to circumstances.

 

All in all, not sure what we will do if we travel with a friends on future RCCL cruises. I think RCCL still needs to figure a way to handle the MTD option if it wants to offer it.

 

With a bad taste we have booked our next cruise in November on NCL EPIC

Edited June 25, 2012 by jefarl

[Leezen]

Thanks for posting that here, jefarl. I had not seen it yet. I will be traveling in a party of 8 this coming Saturday on EOS, and we are in MTD because we booked too late to get the early seating (our preference). We were told that the only available options for MTD were 5:30-6 or after 8, and now I know why. It's not a big deal, as there will be two young children in our group who really need to eat early anyway, but at least now I know to hurry everyone along to insure we get there by 6 to avoid any potential problems. This is why I prefer a specific, set-time seating--less to worry about!

[mking8288]

Thanks for posting that here, jefarl. I had not seen it yet. I will be traveling in a party of 8 this coming Saturday on EOS, and we are in MTD because we booked too late to get the early seating (our preference). We were told that the only available options for MTD were 5:30-6 or after 8, and now I know why. It's not a big deal, as there will be two young children in our group who really need to eat early anyway, but at least now I know to hurry everyone along to insure we get there by 6 to avoid any potential problems. This is why I prefer a specific, set-time seating--less to worry about!

 

Traditional dining isn't so bad with fixed tablemates and same waiter/assistant (very, very few female working in the MDR ...) is that for shorter cruises on EOS, say 5 nights Bermuda like the ones we did - there was sometimes only 1 showing in the theater, sometimes it's a 7:30 PM & other times it's 8:30 PM (or whatever) - which meant that a good fraction of those booked early or late will have trouble finishing their meals & get thru the crowded lobby/promenade (deck 5) or casino deck 4 to the front to get decent seating. The SeaCompass isn't released or placed in the cabin until the evening before, while most folks are trying to figure out their dinner plans - the possibility and availability for rebooking or making changes are minimal to none.

 

There is an obvious option, which I thought should help, until we realized the buffet, a/k/a WindJammer is only open for dinner for 2.5 hours (from 6:30 PM to 9:00 PM only daily, regardless ...) and there's a long line outside forming by 6 PM to get in (who doesn't want to get in, find a table to seat the group, eat & finish with time to spare to rush to other evening activities)

 

As for the other quick bite option (and it's not even close to a "full" meal) - it's the Promenade Cafe, "neatly" tucked away behind Starbucks and Ben & Jerry's - with one crew member working behind the counter, even at peak time, handing out bite-sized, finger sandwiches that you are supposed to name correctly (provided that you can see from the distance & read the labels or tags ahead of time, behind 10+ other people lined up and trying to do the same) - and, getting the "looks" when you aske for more than 1 tiny slice of pizza per bread-sized mini plate on each trip to the counter.

 

Did it ruined our cruise, no - it did not, but 5 of us thought RCL could & should do better than this. Well, sorry - we don't want to pay extra for Johnny Rockets as we got them home near our weekend getaways.

 

There's the "final" option - locate the guest handbook for the Room Service Menu page, or, order by looking up the menu posted on Interactive TV screen - it's slow to click multiple times, just call them over the telephone to place the order. Delivery time "should" be 30 minutes or so later - extra time when it's busy, yada yada. Oh, tipping for room service is expected and extra, optional and not included - even if you've prepaid for MDT in advance - so ordering for 4 people in the cabin (yikes - eating in confined space) - time to find/hunt for extra $10, $5 and $1 bills ...

 

We laughed when RCL send us the "Do You Missed Us" mailing - not to mentioned those persistent emails about sails, specials & deals, etc. plus extras from our TA's - truthfully, the answer is NO as we're pinned down our next booking/reservation/sailing with a deposit back with NCL - the pioneer in MTD, better known in that circle as "Freestyle Cruising".

 

Reading these posts, it seemed that there are more than a few seasoned cruisers not totally buying the RCL's spin known as MTD. The dining room crew worked hard & do their best, it's the management & policies, and how it's being runned or implemented abroad - has anyone managed to successfully booked MTD for 6:30 PM, 7:00 PM or even 7:30 PM ? It seemed that it's either early or very late ...

[mets550]

thsi is a copy of a posting on made this weekend on the CC message board for RCCL topics... just wanted to share with the EOS watchers..

 

Just returned from the EOS and our first experience with MTD on RCCL. We love NCL's experiences, and last year tried MTD on Celebrity Soltace. Had no issues on the Soltace for our 13 day criuise. showed up whenever we wanted or made reservations earlier that day.They had 2 lines, one for people with reservations and one for those without. Either way, we were seated within a few minutes.

NOT SO on the EOS. First they usually had two lines but were mixed so you had to wait in either until the people before you were seated even if you had a reservation or not... sometimes people seemed to wait 10 minutes for the unreserved to be seated before the reserved got to the front of the line...

Our issue was much worse. We were traveling with a party of 6 and really wanted to sit by ourselves for diner. The first night we showed up around 6 and had not problem. The second day I called around noon for a 7pm reservation and was told they could only accomondate us at 5:45-6pm, or 8pm or later. As we wanted to see the evening's show and not eat after 8pm, we had to take the earlier seating. The next day I called at 9am and was told the same thing... either by 6pm or after 8pm. I asked when should I reserve for times in I wanted in between theses and was told "we never take reservations for a party of 6 other than by 6pm or after 8pm!" The said that way they could turn the table twice for the evening... and that I should pick a time and reserve for the rest of the cruise now....

I was beyond upset...

I proceeded to guest relations and asked to be put in contact with the "Hotel Manager" ie the top person incharge of all non-engineering services. The person at guest relations said he was the office in charge of the desk and wanted to try to help me first if he could. I explained what had occured and said... I guess MY Time Dining is really YOUR Time Dining!

Why couldn't I have a table when I wanted and why would I have to reserve ahead for a full cruise? MTD was supposed to allow us to make diner plans each night when we felt like eating, depending on the day and evening plans, ports of call, etc. If we wanted to be limited to Your time Dining we would have booked traditional Early or Late seating.

While I understand turning tables in restaurants, this is a cruise ship where if you offer MTD you need to be able to handle reasonable requests... The officer told me he was going to attend a meeting that morning with the restauanat managers and would get back to me that afternoon. By 1pm we had a message that we had a reservation for a table of 6 for the 6:30 pm we wanted that evening. The person at the MTD desk that evening then came over to our table and asked if we were happy with the table and offered us that table every evening if we wanted it. Since the location was perfect, the wait staff wonderful, we accepted it and had no issues the rest of the week, even adjusting the times several days due to circumstances.

 

All in all, not sure what we will do if we travel with a friends on future RCCL cruises. I think RCCL still needs to figure a way to handle the MTD option if it wants to offer it.

 

With a bad taste we have booked our next cruise in November on NCL EPIC

 

Thanks for posting. We had late dining but wanted to move from a table for eight to a table for two. We were given a very hard time and had to make several visits to guest relations to get it resolved. In the end, it seemed like your experience turned out to be okay, but you shouldn't have to go through that aggravation on vacation, especially when they were obviously able to ultimately accommodate you.

[smeck]

We just cruised on the Explorer late April and hadno issues with MTD.

[jeffreyg63]

Does anyone know the opening and closing time of the gym on EOS?

[Heidils]

Do the pools have a chance to warm up with all that draining or are they pretty chilly? Any heaters?

[NJcruisenewbie]

[quote name='jeffreyg63']Does anyone know the opening and closing time of the gym on EOS?[/quote]

It's open from 6am-11pm. I found it didn't get crowded until 10am or so. The spinning class is really good if you're into that.

[beachbuddy]

MTD worked great for us too on the Explorer! We loved it!!! Ate between 7:30 and 7:45 most nights.

[mets550]

[quote name='jeffreyg63']Does anyone know the opening and closing time of the gym on EOS?[/quote]

I think 7 a.m. - 10/11 p.m.?

[CruiseDancer]

[quote name='Heidils']Do the pools have a chance to warm up with all that draining or are they pretty chilly? Any heaters?[/QUOTE]

When we were on the Explorer two weeks ago, the TV stated every day that the pool temperature was 77 degrees. I only felt that to be chilly directly after getting out of the hot tub.

[drclaws]

[quote name='CruiseDancer']When we were on the Explorer two weeks ago, the TV stated every day that the pool temperature was 77 degrees. I only felt that to be chilly directly after getting out of the hot tub.[/quote]

Yep, even the last day when the pools were drained due to the rougher seas!

[jefarl]

[quote name='jefarl']Just wanted to confirm after reading some of these posts.
1. You CANNOT bring wine on board at all????

2. You CAN bring a case of water on board and just put a luggage tag on it and should not be an issue?

leaving on the EOS on June 7th

thanks for any responses..[/quote]
just wanted to confirm that we each took a full case of 30 bottles of water on board... taped the packaging better and put on a luggage tag... NO PROBLEMS OR QUESTIONS.... DELIVERED TO OUR CABINS WITH THE LUGGAGE...

[Heidils]

[quote name='CruiseDancer']When we were on the Explorer two weeks ago, the TV stated every day that the pool temperature was 77 degrees. I only felt that to be chilly directly after getting out of the hot tub.[/QUOTE]


Thank you that sounds great!

[family cruisers]

Did you find the MDR to be crowded at the time you ate? We most likely will do the same time frame. [quote name='beachbuddy']MTD worked great for us too on the Explorer! We loved it!!! Ate between 7:30 and 7:45 most nights.[/quote]

[family cruisers]

This is good to know, thanks. We have brought water on carnival, NCL and Holland without incident. Will be doing the same for explorer.
[quote name='jefarl']just wanted to confirm that we each took a full case of 30 bottles of water on board... taped the packaging better and put on a luggage tag... NO PROBLEMS OR QUESTIONS.... DELIVERED TO OUR CABINS WITH THE LUGGAGE...[/quote]