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Review Explorer of the Seas 7/17-7/26 Cabin #1690

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familycruise14

familycruise14

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Back from EOS cabin #1690

 

I'm going to do a short review of our recent trip. I'm going to try to do a little review for each day.

 

Day 1 Thursday, July 17

 

We just got back on Saturday from The Explorer of the Seas 9 night cruise and we stayed in cabin #1690. Overall we loved the room, we had a couple of rough sea days where we really felt the boat move a lot in our room. We loved the larger balcony! Hubby and I slept on the balcony a few times. I had only slept 2 hrs the night before so I took a nap that afternoon. We went with extended family, so we had a party of 13. We had hubby, 2 kids and me in our room. My sister and her family (hubby and 2 kids) had cabin #9520. My other sisters room had her, hubby and one kid, they had cabin # 6606. My dad and his wife had cabin # 6651.

We originally had 3 ocean view rooms reserved and 1 interior. But then the kids sail free promo came out so we were able to get balconies for cheaper. The 3 person room was slightly more but it evened itself out because the (2) four person rooms were cheaper. My dad only likes interior so he stayed in an interior. My dad footed the bill for everyone.

 

We spent the night before at The Hampton Inn in Staten Island. We were able to park our cars for the entire 10 days and they also included shuttle service (comes from Hilton) to the port. Breakfast is also included. I would highly recommend staying at The Hampton Inn, we had a 9 am shuttle and we arrived at the port by 9:30. My other sister did not spend the night she left the morning of coming from CT she finally made it on the ship around 1:00. The line to get in with her car took her about an hour.

 

We had MTD and made a reservation for 7:45 our first night. We made the reservation while waiting in the tent. We loved our waiters so we booked our dinner for the rest of the week at the same time and with the same waiters.

 

My hubby purchased the Royal Replenish package for $20 a day. He drinks a lot of diet coke! He also had a couple of espressos and water bottles the first day. My brother in law purchased the Ultimate Package. He definitely got his monies worth on this package. When we boarded we headed up to the Windjammer and before we even walked in he had his first drink in his hands. He probably had 3-5 drinks at dinner and whatever he had through out the day.

 

My son is 13 and my niece is 15 there were a few of the teen activities that they could do together. They took advantage of the teen free arcade the first night and they had a great time.

 

My hubby, daughter and I caught a little of the Bon Voyage Parade.

 

Coming up Day 2 Day at Sea

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HAD

HAD

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So glad you had a good cruise! We're scheduled to head out soon, and I have a couple of quick questions with which I hope you can help:

 

- I'm seeing different info on tax being charged for the drink packages, and that it probably depends on buying the package while still in port and which port. Do you know if taxes were added to the packages you bought?

 

- We also have MTD and trying to decide on a time. We would like the same waiters, but also want to make sure we don't miss the shows. Did 7:45 allow for catching the shows?

 

- Also, we're also traveling with family. Were you able to make reservations for everyone, or did you need someone from each cabin present to make the dining reservations?

 

Thanks so much! :)

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nyer

nyer

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So glad you had a good cruise! We're scheduled to head out soon, and I have a couple of quick questions with which I hope you can help:

 

- I'm seeing different info on tax being charged for the drink packages, and that it probably depends on buying the package while still in port and which port. Do you know if taxes were added to the packages you bought?

 

- We also have MTD and trying to decide on a time. We would like the same waiters, but also want to make sure we don't miss the shows. Did 7:45 allow for catching the shows?

- Also, we're also traveling with family. Were you able to make reservations for everyone, or did you need someone from each cabin present to make the dining reservations?

 

Thanks so much! :)

 

I was on this same cruise so I can answer two of your questions. Most nights the shows were scheduled for 7:15 and 9:00 pm. There were some late night shows that were scheduled for 10:45. The first night they only had one show time which was 7:15 ( I think. I can't find my cruise compass for that night and don't remember exactly.)

We were a party of six and my daughter made the MTD reservations for all of us. She did this online prior to our sailing.

Enjoy your cruise.

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familycruise14

familycruise14

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Thanks for posting! We will be on the explorer Oct 23 and I can't wait to hear all about your trip

 

Hello and welcome!

 

I had to take a double take when I saw your user name. My daughters name is Samantha and we call her Sam for short. On another board my user name is samandmom. :)

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familycruise14

familycruise14

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So glad you had a good cruise! We're scheduled to head out soon, and I have a couple of quick questions with which I hope you can help:

 

- I'm seeing different info on tax being charged for the drink packages, and that it probably depends on buying the package while still in port and which port. Do you know if taxes were added to the packages you bought?

 

- We also have MTD and trying to decide on a time. We would like the same waiters, but also want to make sure we don't miss the shows. Did 7:45 allow for catching the shows?

 

- Also, we're also traveling with family. Were you able to make reservations for everyone, or did you need someone from each cabin present to make the dining reservations?

 

Thanks so much! :)

 

I didn't notice any additional taxes added to the packages. They both purchased their packages in advance online.

 

As for the dinning we did change after the the 3rd night. My dad and his wife hated eating so late so we changed to 5:45 for the rest of the week. As the previous poster did mention they had two shows a day. The first night it was one show for all guests called The Welcome Aboard Show starring the comedy of Ross Bennett and it started at 7:45 so we missed that. They also had a late night adult comedy with the same guy that started at 10:45. Most nights shows were 7 and 9. So another reason we changed our 7:45 to 5:45. I didn't realize that we could make advance reservations so when you can I recommend that you do. Because it was slim pickings since we had the party of 13.

 

We made the reservation for everyone all at once they had it under our cabin number #1690

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familycruise14

familycruise14

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cant wait to see how your 13 year old liked it. we are doing the same ship/itinerary in October with a 12 yr old

 

My 13 year old (turned 14 today :) ) loved the whole trip! He and my niece never really did much afterwards with the teen clubs. When they did go to any pre arranged teen activity they both felt uncomfortable. They both felt that they were the odd balls since it seemed like everyone knew each other already. They found plenty to do without going to the pre arranged activities.

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familycruise14

familycruise14

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We are staying in 9520 in september... any pics or insight would be great

 

Haha what I can tell you is if you have family in 1690 (our room) to 9520 (sis room) it was a very long walk. We were in the aft and they were forward. They had the very last balcony after their room they had another ocean view room. They had no complaints about the room. You do see the bridge from the balcony.

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familycruise14

familycruise14

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Day 2 Friday , July 18

 

Today was an at sea day. Everyone did various activities on this day. After breakfast the other 3 kids went to try Adventure Ocean. My niece is 9, nephew 10 and my daughter 11, so they were all in the same group. They stayed for a couple hours and had a great time. Later that afternoon the three went swimming and used the slide and had a wonderful time.

 

That afternoon I went to a bingo session, I only purchased a $32 package. Aside from bingo hubby and I mostly had a relaxing on the deck kinda of day.

 

On this 2nd night the MDR dress was formal. We still had the 7:45 reservation on this night. Great attention from our waiters. It's great how quickly they get to know your likes and dislikes. Our waiter brought out my hubby 3 glasses of diet coke to start off with.

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sammom

sammom

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Hello and welcome!

 

I had to take a double take when I saw your user name. My daughters name is Samantha and we call her Sam for short. On another board my user name is samandmom. :)

 

that's funny

I have 3 kids - Sean, Amanda and Michelle - so sammom :D

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familycruise14

familycruise14

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Day 3 Saturday , July 19

 

Bermuda

 

Today's stop was the Beautiful Island of Bermuda! We had to change the clocks forward the night before, so we unfortunately lost an hour. We had no plans for today, we were just going to get off for a little and walk around. We made it off around 11. We walked around and took lots of pictures and browsed in all the shops. We didn't find much to our liking, but my daughter purchased a collectible spoon. While I was looking around hubby purchased some Wi Fi time. WiFi cost around $10 for 24 hours and about $3 for an hour. I planned on buying some time when we got back on the ship.

 

We were ready to head back to the ship around 1:30. We were about to walk back but we saw my BIL and nephew waiting for the train trolley. He told us it was free so we decided to wait also. My BIL, sister, niece and nephew had just gotten back from Horseshoe bay, they took a taxi there. BIL and nephew wanted to head back so my niece and sister finished off their afternoon doing a little shopping. My other sister and her family also went to Horseshoe Bay but she didn't see my other sister. My dad and his wife don't usually get off on the Islands, they stay back and enjoy the empty ship.

 

We got back to the ship and had some lunch, after lunch we decided to take a swim. I had my son, daughter and my 9 year old niece with me at the pool. I wanted to get some Wi Fi time in before we left Bermuda so I tried to get online from the pool deck, I had no luck so I gave up. So if you plan on purchasing WiFi time be sure to do it while on the Island. My sister came back from shopping so I gave her my phone so I could join the kids in the pool. Not long after my 15 year old niece joined us. I have one complaint about the pools, the two main pools are all in the 5' range so its over my daughter and 9 yr old nieces head. They both can swim, I just think it makes it more enjoyable for them to stand. They do have a 3' pool in the kids area near the slide which I did take them to also. I think the pools should be 3-4' on one side and 5' on the other so everyone can enjoy. We had a great afternoon of swimming!

 

After swimming we all headed to our rooms to get ready for dinner. This was going to be our last night of the 7:45 dinner reservation. That afternoon my hubby and dad had made arrangements to change our dinner time to 5:45 for the rest of our trip. My dad and his wife hated eating so late! Since we changed our dinning time that meant we also had to change waiters. Which made me really sad since I liked them a lot. They got to know us very quickly and they were funny. We explained to them that we were changing time but it had nothing to do with them we just wanted an earlier eating time. Since we had MTD we tipped in advance. But since the waiters did an awesome job my dad gave them both an extra tip that night.

 

After dinner we all went to family karaoke, my daughter wanted to sing. She loves to sing! Afterwards my son and 15 yr old niece went to that nights movie which was Pitch Perfect. The rest of us stayed in the lounge to watch the game show Finish That Lyric. Erky from Turkey is a riot at these shows! We finished off the night listening to some adult karaoke which my BIL sang at.

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bcsfd279

bcsfd279

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Back from EOS cabin #1690

 

I'm going to do a short review of our recent trip. I'm going to try to do a little review for each day.

 

Day 1 Thursday, July 17

 

We just got back on Saturday from The Explorer of the Seas 9 night cruise and we stayed in cabin #1690. Overall we loved the room, we had a couple of rough sea days where we really felt the boat move a lot in our room. We loved the larger balcony! Hubby and I slept on the balcony a few times. I had only slept 2 hrs the night before so I took a nap that afternoon. We went with extended family, so we had a party of 13. We had hubby, 2 kids and me in our room. My sister and her family (hubby and 2 kids) had cabin #9520. My other sisters room had her, hubby and one kid, they had cabin # 6606. My dad and his wife had cabin # 6651.

We originally had 3 ocean view rooms reserved and 1 interior. But then the kids sail free promo came out so we were able to get balconies for cheaper. The 3 person room was slightly more but it evened itself out because the (2) four person rooms were cheaper. My dad only likes interior so he stayed in an interior. My dad footed the bill for everyone.

 

We spent the night before at The Hampton Inn in Staten Island. We were able to park our cars for the entire 10 days and they also included shuttle service (comes from Hilton) to the port. Breakfast is also included. I would highly recommend staying at The Hampton Inn, we had a 9 am shuttle and we arrived at the port by 9:30. My other sister did not spend the night she left the morning of coming from CT she finally made it on the ship around 1:00. The line to get in with her car took her about an hour.

 

We had MTD and made a reservation for 7:45 our first night. We made the reservation while waiting in the tent. We loved our waiters so we booked our dinner for the rest of the week at the same time and with the same waiters.

 

My hubby purchased the Royal Replenish package for $20 a day. He drinks a lot of diet coke! He also had a couple of espressos and water bottles the first day. My brother in law purchased the Ultimate Package. He definitely got his monies worth on this package. When we boarded we headed up to the Windjammer and before we even walked in he had his first drink in his hands. He probably had 3-5 drinks at dinner and whatever he had through out the day.

 

My son is 13 and my niece is 15 there were a few of the teen activities that they could do together. They took advantage of the teen free arcade the first night and they had a great time.

 

My hubby, daughter and I caught a little of the Bon Voyage Parade.

 

Coming up Day 2 Day at Sea

 

 

 

 

When you had to get a ride back to the hotel. How did that process go? About how long did they take to pick you up.. any issues?

 

Thanks,

 

Ryan

 

Sent from my SM-G900V using Forums mobile app

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