My Wonderful trip report on EXPLORER 4-12-12 to 4-21-12 - WITH PICS!

[hansolosmom]

[quote name='sept10dsm']Well if you are thinking to go you really should check out the prices now. We just booked the 7 day for 789 pp plus there is a savings cert from RC out there for an addl 125 off all but inside. Many other EOS have great prices and cert as well. Esp good if one is over 55. The sr discount saved us 250pp. Just so you know!:)[/QUOTE]

Wow thanks for that info

[sept10dsm]

I love your review! Is room service still no addl cost? We will have a balcony for the first time this cruise and I was thinking of ordering for the morning since I love coffee when I awake and the balcony will be neat I think! we are on our anniversary for the curise and I think the balcony will be a loyt of fun! Thanks and I look forward to more !!

[Loralie]

[quote name='hansolosmom']What a great review. Dh & I went on a 5 day to Bermuda for our anniversary a few years ago. I'm thinking about taking my mom and my sister toward the end of the summer so it's nice to see how everything is now.

BTW congrats on the weight loss.
Also your sons sound wonderful![/QUOTE]

Thanks, I loved Bermuda and would love to take a cruise with a few days in Bermuda one day. Have fun with your Mom and your Sister. Sounds like a great family trip.

[quote name='hansolosmom']Forgot to ask. Do they have umbrella rentals on the beach? My mom had a couple bouts of skin cancer but still loves to sit out - but only under an umbrella now[/QUOTE]

I believe they did have umbrellas for rent. Since it was not that hot out we did not rent one. I don't remember how much the umbrella cost but I do think they had it. for rent.

[quote name='sept10dsm']I love your review! Is room service still no addl cost? We will have a balcony for the first time this cruise and I was thinking of ordering for the morning since I love coffee when I awake and the balcony will be neat I think! we are on our anniversary for the curise and I think the balcony will be a loyt of fun! Thanks and I look forward to more !![/QUOTE]

Thanks for the kind words. yes, room service is free during the day. I think the free time is from 5:00 am to midnight. I could be a little wrong about the times but I know it is close. There is a charge if you order after midnight. Even though it is free it is customary to give a tip. Have fun on the balcony.


Thanks for reading along,

Loralie

[royal girl]

Great trip report!!

We love this cruise and we are going again in August!! Seeing your pic's makes me more excited!! :D:D

[sept10dsm]

Thanks! Looking for more of your trip. We did a similar one lasT may on Princess with Bermuda being our last stop. Yes I know about tips but just was unsure if still included. Thanks again!!!

[las313]

Really enjoying your report and all the pictures.
Question - suggestion on a quiet place to read while at sea? Both indoors and outdoors???
Louise

[Heidils]

[quote name='Nessa1dc']Very nice...7 of us will be doing the 10 day in December....[/QUOTE]

Us Tooo!

[Stratus22]

Great Pics. Going on her in 2014. Our first cruise ever.

[Sunny Mom]

Enjoying your trip report so far. We will be traveling in July. Glad to hear about asking for a robe as our last cruise was on a different line and they supplied them to all balcony guests. Not a huge deal, but I did enjoy having one in the room. I will certainly ask the room attendant if there are any 'extra' robes.

[xtremegk]

[quote name='Wdwfanatic']Great trip report can't wait to read more. My husband and I are going with two other couples no kids. This is our first vacation without our kids my one daughter will be getting married in May and the other will be leaving to do the Disney college program. We are going out of Bayonne on July 19th looking forward to a much needed vacation after the wedding. It's nice to read your report because I heard there was a bad smell on the 8th and 9th floor and we are on the 9th floor but as you said it wasn't that bad. We really wanted to go on one of the newer ships but we didn't want to fly as we don't live far from Bayonne plus we wanted a 10 day cruise. So keep posting! Thanks :D[/QUOTE]
Wdwfanatic, Be sure to join our roll call for 7/19!

[url]http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=1469495[/url]

[bearchele2]

[quote name='Wdwfanatic']Great trip report can't wait to read more. My husband and I are going with two other couples no kids. This is our first vacation without our kids my one daughter will be getting married in May and the other will be leaving to do the Disney college program. We are going out of Bayonne on July 19th looking forward to a much needed vacation after the wedding. It's nice to read your report because I heard there was a bad smell on the 8th and 9th floor and we are on the 9th floor but as you said it wasn't that bad. We really wanted to go on one of the newer ships but we didn't want to fly as we don't live far from Bayonne plus we wanted a 10 day cruise. So keep posting! Thanks :D[/QUOTE]

I'm on the same sailing with you guys. You should go to the meet and mingle board. There is a thread started for this sailing.

[Wdwfanatic]

[quote name='xtremegk']Wdwfanatic, Be sure to join our roll call for 7/19!

[url]http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=1469495[/url][/QUOTE]

Thanks I will :D

[Wdwfanatic]

[quote name='bearchele2']I'm on the same sailing with you guys. You should go to the meet and mingle board. There is a thread started for this sailing.[/QUOTE]

Ok I will. I'm new to this site I'm still learning haha but I'll go check it out thanks :)

[Loralie]

[quote name='royal girl']Great trip report!!

We love this cruise and we are going again in August!! Seeing your pic's makes me more excited!! :D:D[/QUOTE]

Have fun in August. I wish I had another trip planned.
[quote name='las313']Really enjoying your report and all the pictures.
Question - suggestion on a quiet place to read while at sea? Both indoors and outdoors???
Louise[/QUOTE]

We were on the same floor as the library and that seemed like a good indoor place to read. As far as reading outside I would think Deck 4 would be a good place. Not too busy and it's close to the water and shaded. Enjoy your cruise.

[quote name='Stratus22']Great Pics. Going on her in 2014. Our first cruise ever.[/QUOTE]

Thanks, We booked our trip back in 2010 but waiting that long gave us something to look forward to . I liked knowing I had a trip planned. 2014 will be here before you know it. Happy planning! :)

Loralie

[Loralie]

[quote name='Sunny Mom']Enjoying your trip report so far. We will be traveling in July. Glad to hear about asking for a robe as our last cruise was on a different line and they supplied them to all balcony guests. Not a huge deal, but I did enjoy having one in the room. I will certainly ask the room attendant if there are any 'extra' robes.[/QUOTE]

Thanks, I loved having the robe. It was nice to put on when they delivered room service in the morning.

Thanks for reading along.

Loralie

[sarahc78]

Great review & pictures!

[boo214]

[FONT=Comic Sans MS][SIZE=4][COLOR=red]i have read all your reviews and enjoyed them all. now i am waiting for you to go on carnival and review that. that should be a very entertaining review :rolleyes:[/COLOR][/SIZE][/FONT]

[Sun 4-ever]

Loralie - loving your review of the Explorer and Bermuda. I will be cruising the Explorer to Bermuda this Oct. and I can't wait. Just a tip for you for your next cruise, go to the dollar store and buy a pop up hamper for your boys so their dirty clothes are not all over the place. It's a lot easier then tossing them in a suitcase.

You mentioned something about standing in line for tickets to the ice show. Do you have to pay for these tickets? Is there more then one show?

[Loralie]

[quote name='Sun 4-ever']Loralie - loving your review of the Explorer and Bermuda. I will be cruising the Explorer to Bermuda this Oct. and I can't wait. Just a tip for you for your next cruise, go to the dollar store and buy a pop up hamper for your boys so their dirty clothes are not all over the place. It's a lot easier then tossing them in a suitcase.

You mentioned something about standing in line for tickets to the ice show. Do you have to pay for these tickets? Is there more then one show?[/QUOTE]

A pop up hamper would have been perfect. Thanks for the idea.

The ice show is free. They give out tickets because the same ice show was done 3 different times during the 10 day cruise. Studio B, where the ice show is held, is not that big so the tickets are mainly for crowd control.

Thanks for reading along. I will post more today.

Loralie

[Loralie]

Hi Everyone,

Sorry I have been MIA, real life kinda got in the way. When we last left off we came back to the ship from shopping in Beautiful Bermuda.

After coming back to the ship, I went to the pool deck to exchange my sandy towels for clean fresh ones. Here is another issue I read about on these boards. I kept hearing 3 bad things about the towels.

#1 that it was a pain to have to go and exchange them.

#2 people got charged for them after returning them.

#3 that they were old and ugly looking.

I did not have a problem exchanging them at all and I did not get charged, nor did anyone else in our party get charged for towels after giving them back at the end. I can see if someone has mobility issues that they might complain about having to go and exchange them but it was not an issue for us. I don't know if they got new towels or not but they are light blue and they looked nice and not old or disgusting at all. Another thing I was a little concerned about before I went that turned out to be nothing.

After exchanging the towels, they had a line dancing class on the pool deck. I LOVE to dance and I was front and center and I had a lot of fun. Nobody else in my party was around but I did not care, I was having fun on my vacation.

My DH and I were the only people in our party who have been on a RC cruise before so we got an invitation to the welcome back party. DH did not want to go so I went by myself. It was in the Palace theater where they show the main shows and it was really nice. I got there a few min. late but they were serving free drinks. I forgot the name of the drink I had but it was really good. It had pineapple juice in it and the word "yellow" was in the name. They had singers and dancers and they had someone speak about how they appreciate that we chose to cruise on RC and we keep coming back. They even had a couple come up on stage, and if I remember correctly I think they said the couple have been on 100 cruises with RC!!! I think they gave them a bottle of champagne. 100 cruises is amazing! This is only my 2nd cruise with RC. I hope I am lucky enough to go on a 3rd one day.

After the party we all went to dinner and I ate the chicken that is on the everyday menu. It was better than I expected and I ordered it more than once on this trip. Desert was just OK, some sort of berry mousse thing. I only ate 2 bites. I did not want to waste calories on things that I did not really like.

After dinner we all went to the 50's music trivia in the Schooner Bar. It was a lot of fun. We did not win but it was great hearing the old music. Our little group broke up into boys against the girls and at one point my BIL had his cell phone out and my MIL says loudly "He's cheating" and the person in charge of the trivia game got into it and the whole bar was booing and saying "cheater". Of course he was not cheating and it was all in good fun and everyone was laughing. His own mother turned him in! LOL

After dinner my DH and BIL went back to the casino and my boys went to the teen club and me, MIL and DH's aunt went to the main show in the Palace theater. Tonights main event was the guy who sang the theme song from the show "Happy Days". I did not think this show was going to be good but figured I would go with my MIL and DH's aunt. I have to say, I was pleasantly surprised. It was much better than I expected. I won't say it was the best show of the cruise but the guy had a great voice and he had a lot of energy on stage. He was funny and he played the piano beautifully.

After the main show, me, MIL and DH's Aunt went to the 50's and 60's dance party in Studio B. Studio B is where they have the ice show but they put a floor over it for shows some nights. My wonderful DH surprised me and showed up at the party and he danced with me on the dance floor with about 60 other people. I loved it. DH knows how much I love dancing but it's not really his thing. He did it for me and we had a great time. definitely a highlight of the trip for me.

We came back to the room and waited for my younger son to come back from his party and my older son was tired and wound up skipping his party so we went to bed. it was a very long but extremely fun day.

Since I don't have pics of the things we did on this day, I will post some random pics here.

pool deck
[IMG]http://www.jmadigan.com/jmadigan/Photos/Pages/Cruise_2012_Part_1_2_files/Media/IMG_2612/IMG_2612.jpg?disposition=download[/IMG]

[IMG]http://www.jmadigan.com/jmadigan/Photos/Pages/Cruise_2012_Part_1_2_files/Media/IMG_2613/IMG_2613.jpg?disposition=download[/IMG]

The atrium
[IMG]http://www.jmadigan.com/jmadigan/Photos/Pages/Cruise_2012_Part_1_2_files/Media/IMG_2615/IMG_2615.jpg?disposition=download[/IMG]

[IMG]http://www.jmadigan.com/jmadigan/Photos/Pages/Cruise_2012_Part_1_2_files/Media/IMG_2622/IMG_2622.jpg?disposition=download[/IMG]

The teen club
[IMG]http://www.jmadigan.com/jmadigan/Photos/Pages/Cruise_2012_Part_1_2_files/Media/IMG_2626/IMG_2626.jpg?disposition=download[/IMG]

[IMG]http://www.jmadigan.com/jmadigan/Photos/Pages/Cruise_2012_Part_1_2_files/Media/IMG_2623/IMG_2623.jpg?disposition=download[/IMG]

Up next, day 4 - sea day,

Thanks for reading along,

Loralie

[RazorbackIslandGirl]

What a wonderful family! Congrats on the weight loss!!! I'm jealous!;) The story about your son & the gift brought a tear to my eye!:) I'm LOVING your review! Can't wait for more! Thank you for taking the time to do all of this!:D

[debandbruce]

Enjoying your review. We were on the Silhouette at the same time and I have pictures of the Explorer coming into and in port. We were doing the America's Cup race and had to get out of your way! LOL we were happy to, the biggest guy wins.

[nyLi2]

tttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttttt

[Loralie]

[quote name='RazorbackIslandGirl']What a wonderful family! Congrats on the weight loss!!! I'm jealous!;) The story about your son & the gift brought a tear to my eye!:) I'm LOVING your review! Can't wait for more! Thank you for taking the time to do all of this!:D[/QUOTE]

Thank you so much for the kind words. The weight loss is a constant struggle and I am not at my goal weight yet. Just take it one day at a time and eventually you will make it to your goal. I am enjoying writing the trip report. It helps with the post vacation blues. :)

[quote name='debandbruce']Enjoying your review. We were on the Silhouette at the same time and I have pictures of the Explorer coming into and in port. We were doing the America's Cup race and had to get out of your way! LOL we were happy to, the biggest guy wins.[/QUOTE]

I loved seeing the other ships in port with us. One day while we were in port, We saw some police men come to the balcony on the Silhouette and put the yellow tape outside the balcony. I wish I took a picture of it. I hope everyone was OK. Do you know anything about that? DH and I were curious. The Silhouette looked like a nice ship, how did you like it? It was fun waving to the people on your ship as we were leaving. :)

Loralie

[Poorplaya]

Keep it coming, great review