Explorer 11/29/14 - Mini Review

[IHateSnow!]

I have a longer review in the works, but I thought I'd post here and give a few initial thoughts.

 

I have a family of 5 that travelled and we met our friend and her daughter at the pier. My DH is 40, I'm 35. We are from Chicago and my friend is from NYC. Also traveling with us were our friend (F) 43, my MIL - 64, my DD, 9, my DD 4 and my friends DD 9. This is my 13th cruise - closing in on Diamond!!

 

We had stateroom 8394 and attendant Rayborn Henry (who was amazing and awesome. The stateroom was an Aft, 2br suite that we booked back when the 3rd and up were free.

 

The stateroom had more than enough closet space - my family had spent 5 nights in Orlando prior to cruising, so we had enough luggage for all of us to be gone for 10 nights and a variety of weather.

 

There was also more than enough space to accommodate 4 adults and 3 kids. My MIL took the sofa bed in the living room and our friend and the 3 kids took the beds in the 2nd bedroom. My MIL thought the sofa bed was probably the most comfortable bed there was.

 

This is the first cruise I've been on where the time changed mid cruise - and I must say I'm not a fan. It also seemed like embarkation / disembarkation took a while longer than it should. I'm not sure if some of the lateness in the disembarkation process was due to the projected shuttle launch (which was scrubbed - boo) or if the ship was just running later than usual.

 

The kids activities were great - I didn't go to any of the shows other than the ice show, which was amazing as always. My 9 yr old is a competitive figure skater, and one of the girls from our rink skates on a different RCI ship, so she was enthralled. She even got to talk to some of the skaters one day during the ice skating activity - which she was not a fan of (didn't like the helmet, the skates etc. but it's still cool to skate on a ship!).

 

We used Tiffany's Towncar in Orlando - and I would highly recommend them for anyone looking for a large family transport - or even a better experience than a shuttle. We went from Disney- Port-airport for about 370 total with tips for a SUV that sat all 5 of us + our luggage. It's comparable to what we pay in the Chicago area.

 

Any questions? Please feel free to ask!

[A Pisces]

Thanks for the review. I am looking forward to reading more!

[FlamingJune1967]

 

 

 

This is the first cruise I've been on where the time changed mid cruise - and I must say I'm not a fan.

.

 

Any questions? Please feel free to ask!

 

So, was the change so that the ship would be on the same time as Cozumel? Last time I was in Cozumel, I was constantly worrying about the time, afraid that I was subtracting when I should have been adding - lol!