Explorer of the Seas review 29th June 15, 13 nights Western Med cruise.

[cymru cruiser]

Here is our review of Explorer of the Seas. We joined her in Southampton on Monday 29th June 15. Travelling down by car the night before and staying in the Novotel. This holiday was for me, my husband and our two daughters aged 20 and 16. I don’t like to use whole names publicly so I’ve used initials to describe people.

 

Prior to travelling we had, had a time when we did not think we would be able to go due to an unexpected vet bill, for a very freak accident with our puppy. Our puppy was insured but the treatment he needed exceeded the £5k cover. It was a case of down grade from our Junior Suite to two connecting promenade view inside cabins, to reduce the balance due considerably or cancel. This was done with much trepidation as we had always had a balcony before and we were concerned about feeling claustrophobic.

 

Two days before travelling one of our horses ended up needing minor surgery. It meant he needed to be stabled for a few weeks and have meds daily and bandages changing twice daily. We very nearly didn’t go as we were very worried about him but our vet who is also a friend told us to go and she would look after him with another friend who owns her own large equestrian centre. So he moved there where he was extremely pampered and didn’t miss us at all!

 

I’m telling you this to give you an indication as to how stressed we were beforehand and in much need of a holiday and very nearly didn’t go!!

 

 

28th June

 

We left home on the Sunday morning after leaving our house and animals in the capable care of our friend who was house sitting and my in laws who live in an annexe on our property.

 

It took us just four hours to get down to Southampton which was good going. Once there, before checking in at our hotel for the night we drove down to dock gate 4 and parked in the short stay car park which was £3 for up to 2 hours. We did this to go and have a look at Queen Mary 2. It was the first time we had ever seen her and what made it more exciting was the fact that we have just booked a short break on her for next July.

 

We were hoping to watch her sail away from Weston beach but she wasn’t sailing until 530pm and it would have meant sitting there for an hour, so we decided to head over to the hotel to check in.

 

On the way back to the hotel we saw Ventura and Arcadia. I was surprised that they didn’t yet have their new signage.

 

 

Check in at the Novotel was easy and efficient and first impressions were very good.

Last year we had stayed at the Grand Harbour and were disappointed we couldn’t get in there so plumped for the Novotel as it was such a good deal.

 

The hotel was clean, comfy and adequate and the staff were helpful and friendly.

I had requested to if possible have a room that faced the port. We were very pleased to have a 4th floor room at the front of the hotel, which gave us a view of City terminal where Explorer would dock the next morning. We could also see Ventura and Queen Mary 2 in the distance.

 

Our room had a double bed and a double sofa bed. The toilet was separate from the bathroom which had a small bath with shower over. There were tea and coffee making facilities in the room, a safe, hair dryer, iron and ironing board and free WIFI.

 

The hotel had its own gym and swimming pool and there was a bar which was open until 12am.

Breakfast which was a hot and cold buffet was served from 8am-10am and check out was by 12pm.

 

We were within walking distance of TGI Fridays, Boots, John Lewis and West Quay shopping centre.

[cymru cruiser]

29th June; boarding

 

We woke up, opened the curtains to see Explorer outside, what a lovely sight.

 

We checked out of the hotel at 1030am after having breakfast. I thanked the receptionist for meeting my room request. We drove out of the hotel car park (It was £6 to park overnight at the hotel) and over to dock 8 where Explorer was docked.

 

As we drove in through the gate, our car parking pass was checked and then we were directed straight to the red zone of the car park. Here stewards were telling you where to park. We got out of the car and immediately a van pulled up behind us and porters took our luggage straight from the boot. This was so much easier and quicker than previous years when we have had to queue in the car and been taken forward to off load in stages.

 

We then walked across to the terminal building, straight through security and then straight to a check in desk, no queuing.

 

We were given boarding card 17 and told to sit in the waiting area. Complimentary tea, coffee, water and cookies were available. We sat for 5 minutes before we were called for boarding.

We were on the ship within 30 minutes of leaving the hotel!

 

Once on board we went to check our dining table. I had requested a table of 4 prior by emailing RCI. They had confirmed our request but I still wanted to see where in the dining room we would be. We had a table right next to the balcony so had great views on the dining room above and below us, with the Captains table in full view.

 

When then went and booked at table at Giovanni’s for lunch on the last sea day.

After this we went to explore the ship. It did feel very familiar having sailed on Indy twice.

Cabins were available by 1pm so we set off with a little wary to go and see our home for the next two weeks.

 

On entering our cabins we were pleasantly surprised at the size and it looked fab and clean after the refit in April. We had to leave a note for our stateroom attendant Fernando to have the connecting door opened, which was done by 3pm.

 

G and I then went off to get a quote for Harmony for next year to see if we could get a good enough to deal to make it viable to do a B2B with our cruise we’ve already booked on Norwegian Epic for October next year.

 

On board the US promotion was running with up to 30% off for 30 days of June. Julio who did our quote gave us a price £900 cheaper than we could get in the U.K. Yes you read that right £900 cheaper!! It meant not having the current U.K offer of free drinks and grats but we are not going to spend anywhere near £900 on drinks and grats in a week. There were only 3 cabins left available in the grade we wanted, so Julio held it for us, whilst we chatted to the girls and we went back and booked within the hour for just £65 deposit! What a fab started and we hadn’t even left Southampton.

 

We had all our cases and had unpacked before muster and Explorer left Southampton at 430pm.

We had agreed on our CC roll call to meet by the bar on deck 12 at sail away to say Hi before the official meet and mingle the following day.

However it was so busy that we couldn’t spot anyone wearing beads or blue nail polish for example. I found out later some of them did meet up but they used the power of FB something I don’t use. Plus i turned my phone off as soon as we boarded so I didn’t see the chat continuing on the roll call. Never mind.

We watched sail away from the top decks on a beautiful sunny day, we stayed outside until we had passed the Isle of Wight and where heading into the channel.

 

Dinner followed, our lovely waiters (more about them later) introduced themselves. We then took in more of the ship before calling it a night.

 

 

 

 

 

[cymru cruiser]

30th June; Sea Day

 

We got up in time to have breakfast in Windjammer and head to our meet and mingle at 0915am. Of the 75 who registered approximately 7 turned up. A few had sea sickness, a few missed the time change and others were just extremely tired after travelling or forgot lol.

It was nice to put faces to names and have a chat. RCI held a raffle and we pretty much all got a prize. We got a baseball cap, note pad and pen and a voucher to redeem the cost of 2 movies.

 

After the meet and mingle we basically spent the day exploring the ship, getting our bearings, sun bathing etc. She does not have the same WOW as Indy but we are not sure if that’s because she does not, or because we aren’t new cruisers anymore to get the initial wow or because anything was just going to be different to Indy being our only comparison.

We chilled out, distressed and generally sloped into the holiday mood.

The Bay of Biscay was only giving off 2 and half meter swells but the ship moved considerably; with a fair bit of vibration and creaking, especially in our cabin.

 

1st July; Sea Day

 

Same as above really; also had a lovely chat with one of our roll call members who was holidaying with her daughter.

A lady asked me if a sun bed next to me was free. When I said “Its my daughter’s but…” She cut in “but it’s been free half an hour and I’m waiting” or words to that affect. Si I replied “If you had let me finish my sentence, its my daughter’s but she has gone back to the cabin and clearly decided not to come back so of course you can” She felt a bit daft and said thank you.

 

 

[cymru cruiser]

2nd July; Gibraltar

 

We stepped off the ship in Gib knowing that we wanted to go up the rock. Our plan had been to walk through Casement Square on to Main Street and get a taxi up the rock and walk back down. However I picked up a leaflet in the terminal for a company offering rock tours. It was E22 pp including entry fees to the great siege tunnels, apes den, Pillars of Hercules and St Michael’s cave. If we had done this with the ship’s excursion it would have been double the price!

We headed out of the terminal discussing the tour and there outside was the company and their mini buses, so we hopped straight in. We shared an 8 seated mini bus with another family and our driver was very friendly and gave us loads of information as we did our tour. We took loads of photos of the view from the top of the rock and of course of the apes. As we were coming out of St Michael’s caves an ape jumped on to the counter in the shop, stole 3 kit kats and opened one and ate it as he was running back out again.

 

After our tour we asked the driver if he would drop our family off by Main Street rather than back at the port. We explained that we got married in Gib and wanted to take our daughters to Joshua Hassan House, the Registry Office on Secretary Lane. He duly obliged, we paid him, said our thanks and headed off in the direction of Secretary Lane. We found Joshua Hassan house and whilst stood in the gardens reminiscing and taking photos, a security guard came out to say a friendly hello. We explained why we were there and he asked if we would like to go inside the marriage room to show the girls. He also said that he had worked there over 20 years so would have been on duty the day we got married.

It was really lovely for him to allow us to go in. He took photos of the 4 of us stood behind the table where we signed the register with the portrait of our Queen behind us.

 

We said thank you and good bye and went for a wander along Main Street before returning to Casement Square to sit and have a drink. Plus more importantly for our eldest daughter so she could get WIFI!!

 

We sat in Casement Square for approximately an hour, just relaxing, chatting and people watching before strolling back to the ship.

Once on board we hit the pool and the Jacuzzi. After then we showered and changed for dinner which was casual night and went up on to the helipad on deck 4 to watch the sail away. The views of Gib and Morocco as we left were stunning.

 

We then went to dinner and got chatting some more to our lovely waiter; Jesus Michael. He liked to be known as Michael. Michael is from India and has been on Explorer for 9 years. On his latest contract he was just coming to the end of his 6 months and was flying home to India for his vacation when we got back to Southampton. His next contract has already been confirmed and he’s looking forward to being on Explorer as she heads to Australia later this year and then on to Alaska next year.

After dinner we went back out on deck to watch Gib fade into the distance. The sea was like a mill pond and we were gliding along. I said to G that I’d be surprised if we were doing 10 knots. Checking later on the T.V in our cabin we were doing 8. So I was close haha.

 

 

[gooners1968]

Thank you for posting this review,we will be boarding Explorer on the 26th July so I will be reading with great interest!

[cymru cruiser]

Thank you for posting this review,we will be boarding Explorer on the 26th July so I will be reading with great interest!

 

You're welcome. I'll add more tomorrow. In the meantime if you have any questions please do not hesitate to ask.

My friends are on the same cruise as you and are very much looking forward to their first ever cruise.

[sky0000547]

I'm reading with great interest too. Thanks for all the little details too with the parking procedures etc at Southampton.

[finz2u]

Great photo of the ape with the ships in the background. Enjoying your review.

[cymru cruiser]

Great photo of the ape with the ships in the background. Enjoying your review.

 

He was posing for us lol. I've got loads of the apes but didn't want to overload with them. But this dude stood out. We love this photo too.

[cymru cruiser]

I'm reading with great interest too. Thanks for all the little details too with the parking procedures etc at Southampton.

 

You're welcome. It's those details I always want to know.

[Scooter girl 58]

Thanks for posting, I'm on the Explorer on the 26th, can't wait, look forward to more from you.

[tillydog]

Looking forward to reading more!

We're on Explorer of the Seas in November when she arrives in Australia.

[EvertonCJ]

Hi Cymru Cruiser

Really enjoying the review so far.

We are on the Explorer on July 26th and wondered if you could answer a couple of questions.

Most importantly, can you get draught beer on the Explorer or is it just bottles?

Also, a number of recent reviews have mentioned the lack of available sunbeds and the lack of seating in the bar areas. Is it really as bad as they are saying? Just looking for a bit of reassurance.

Many Thanks

Chris

[cymru cruiser]

Hi Cymru Cruiser

Really enjoying the review so far.

We are on the Explorer on July 26th and wondered if you could answer a couple of questions.

Most importantly, can you get draught beer on the Explorer or is it just bottles?

Also, a number of recent reviews have mentioned the lack of available sunbeds and the lack of seating in the bar areas. Is it really as bad as they are saying? Just looking for a bit of reassurance.

Many Thanks

Chris

 

Hi Chris

I don't drink beer and my husband is allergic to alcohol so its not something we looked at closely. I can't recall seeing draught beer but someone else may correct me. There was however a good choice of bottled beers and lagers.

 

During sunny days there is a lack of sun beds around the pools; both the main pool and the solarium. There are people out with their towels from early on.

However the pool attendants were enforcing the rule of removing towels from beds that had been left un attented for periods of time.

 

I sat in the shade in the solarium one afternoon for about half an hour and then moved to in the sun by the pool, when a bed became available.

 

If you don't have to be sunbathing right next to the pool, head to deck 13 forward, this is a new sunbathing area, created above the new cabins on deck 12. The sun beds are new up there, there are plenty and it was often quiet.

There are normally beds to be found at deck 12 aft also. You can find beds if you look, its just that they won't be right next to the pools unless you are out very early.

 

When we were boarding in Southampton they were loading hundreds more sun beds on board.

 

If you are on first sitting or an earlish MTD for dinner then you will be okay getting seats in the bars. If however you are on late sitting, by the time you are out of the MDR at 10pm-103pm you will find it tricky to get a seat in the bars. The weather was so gorgeous for us that we got our drinks and went and sat out on deck 4 or up to the pool decks.

 

I hope that helps. Please feel free to ask anything else. I'll hopefully be able to load some more this afternoon.

[2time_cruiser]

I wonder do you happen to have any pictures of the area where the new cabin are on deck 12. We are on the ship in September and have a balcony cabin on that deck. And are wondering how the new area on that deck looks like.

 

Especially we are wondering how they worked he new balconies around the running track. ??

 

Sendt fra min GT-I9295 med Tapatalk

Edited July 17, 2015 by 2time_cruiser

[cymru cruiser]

I wonder do you happen to have any pictures of the area where the new cabin are on deck 12. We are on the ship in September and have a balcony cabin on that deck. And are wondering how the new area on that deck looks like.

 

Especially we are wondering how they worked he new balconies around the running track. ??

 

Sendt fra min GT-I9295 med Tapatalk

 

Hiya

I don't have a close up photo of the balcony cabins because when you walk out on to the peak a boo bridge you are directly underneath them. I did however take this of the new panoramic ocean views on the same deck. This was taken from the peak a boo bridge viewing area looking up above the gym at the new cabins.

I'm sorry the photo is on its side. They take so long to upload that by the time I'd realised I'd not turned it, it was too later.

 

The deck is lovely and if you keep reading along I've described it more on one of the last sea days.

 

[EvertonCJ]

Hi Chris

I don't drink beer and my husband is allergic to alcohol so its not something we looked at closely. I can't recall seeing draught beer but someone else may correct me. There was however a good choice of bottled beers and lagers.

 

During sunny days there is a lack of sun beds around the pools; both the main pool and the solarium. There are people out with their towels from early on.

However the pool attendants were enforcing the rule of removing towels from beds that had been left un attented for periods of time.

 

I sat in the shade in the solarium one afternoon for about half an hour and then moved to in the sun by the pool, when a bed became available.

 

If you don't have to be sunbathing right next to the pool, head to deck 13 forward, this is a new sunbathing area, created above the new cabins on deck 12. The sun beds are new up there, there are plenty and it was often quiet.

There are normally beds to be found at deck 12 aft also. You can find beds if you look, its just that they won't be right next to the pools unless you are out very early.

 

When we were boarding in Southampton they were loading hundreds more sun beds on board.

 

If you are on first sitting or an earlish MTD for dinner then you will be okay getting seats in the bars. If however you are on late sitting, by the time you are out of the MDR at 10pm-103pm you will find it tricky to get a seat in the bars. The weather was so gorgeous for us that we got our drinks and went and sat out on deck 4 or up to the pool decks.

 

I hope that helps. Please feel free to ask anything else. I'll hopefully be able to load some more this afternoon.

 

Thanks for the quick reply CC.

We are on the traditional dining at 8.30pm so getting a seat afterwards may be an issue.

Our stateroom is on deck 8, but we are travelling with friends who are on deck 12 so the sunbeds on deck 13 sound ideal.

[saffikins]

Hi ,

 

we are on the Sept 2nd sailing and just wondering if you found that a lot of the crew were the same crew who were on Indy lady year or are there a lot of new people? Particularly do you happen to know who the Mixologist was in the R bar?

 

I read in another post for example that Bogdan from Romania is in main dining room..... He was our drinks waiter on MTD on Indy and was fantastic and by the sounds of things is still doing a fab job.

 

Thanks

Karen

[cymru cruiser]

Hi ,

 

we are on the Sept 2nd sailing and just wondering if you found that a lot of the crew were the same crew who were on Indy lady year or are there a lot of new people? Particularly do you happen to know who the Mixologist was in the R bar?

 

I read in another post for example that Bogdan from Romania is in main dining room..... He was our drinks waiter on MTD on Indy and was fantastic and by the sounds of things is still doing a fab job.

 

Thanks

Karen

 

Hiya

I've no idea on the mixologist sorry. The only person we recognised from Indy was Mike Cooke who's head of security.

A lot of the staff we spoke to had come over on Explorer from the U.S and had been on board during the dry dock in Cadiz.

Our waiter had been on Explorer for 9 years and he said a lot of the mdr staff were loyal to Explorer.

[cymru cruiser]

3rd July; Malaga

 

We were up early and off the ship by 0745am as the plan was to get the train to Fuengirola and back with a taxi from there to Mijas return.

As a teenager my family holidayed in Fuengirola a lot. After our Gib registry office wedding, we had our marriage blessed in the grotto chapel in Mijas by a retired Church of England Vicar, followed by a reception in a friend’s bar in Fuengirola. So this day was all about a trip down memory lane.

 

Outside the terminal a taxi company was offering tours. I had in mind that if I could get a deal with a taxi driver, we would go for it.

The taxi drivers were offering set tours but I said what I wanted and they came up with this:

 

Taxi to Fuengirola with one and half hour free time there before heading up to Mijas. An hour in Mijas and then return to Malaga E140. We were happy with this so we said yes and off we went.

Our taxi driver Jonathon was lovely. I would say he was in his mid 20’s. His English was very good and he chatted most of the way there and back.

We had a fabulous time and when we where heading back to Malaga he asked if we were interested in a tour of his city. We agreed on a price of E30 and for that he took us up to Gibralfino Castle. The views from up there down onto Malaga where fabulous. We could see the ship in the distance plus the beach, cathedral, bull ring etc.

We then went to the Cathedral and to the main square where there is a statue on Picasso sat on a bench outside of the house he was born in. We then drove through the pedestrian shopping area (taxi’s are allowed) before heading back to the port.

Jonathon was clearly passionate about his city and very informative.

I’ve always thought of Malaga as an airport and train station; gateway to the Costa del Sol. But I was presently surprised. It’s a smart, friendly city with a cracking beach, ideal for a short break.

 

I gave him E180 to include a tip and he was over the moon. Such a lovely chap. He has given me his business card with email address on. Please feel free to ask for it, should you fancy a taxi tour from Malaga.

 

So far the day had been overcast. So we went back on the ship changed and had lunch and then told the girls we were going for a walk. They didn’t want to come so stayed in the terminal for the free WIFI.

We had a lovely walk along the beach, paddled in the sea, the sun came out and we bought ice creams and wandered back to the ship to go for a swim as it had gotten very hot.

 

Before dinner tonight G and I went to the theatre to see Paul Zerdin the ventriloquist. The girls weren’t interested and G wasn’t bothered but I’d seen him on the T.V so wanted to go.

He was absolutely hilarious and had the whole theatre laughing from start to finish.

 

At dinner our head waiter came over and made a fuss of me. He wanted to check I was doing okay for food choices at breakfast and dinner (I’m celiac). I assured him that I was fine. I think they realised that they cocked up on the first night. I never made a fuss but on ordering the Salmon which had a gluten free option, I was presented with a piece of Salmon and a jacket potato. That’s it nothing else. My daughter had the same and she had loads of veg but there was a sauce. I asked for some veg, which I waited less than 2 minutes for. The chef came out of the kitchen glanced over to our table. Patted the waiter on the back and went back in.

 

Sand sculptures on Fuengirola beach

 

 

The grotto chapel in Mijas where G and I had our wedding blessed 17 years ago.

 

 

Malaga beach

 

[cymru cruiser]

I've more photos of Malaga and some fab shots from the castle looking down over the city. But I can't get them off my husbands phone for some reason. I'll keep trying.

 

 

 

4th July; Sea Day

 

Today was spent sunbathing, swimming, relaxing, you get the idea? It was very warm.

 

I met Paul Zerdin in Café Promenade. I told him I’d really enjoyed his show. He was genuinely thankful for the comment, such a nice guy. I asked him how long he was on board for and he replied “My work is done, I get off tomorrow”

 

We sailed passed Ibiza and Majorca and had a laugh watching the Men’s belly flop competition.

 

We had already calculated that our Royal Replenish and Royal Refreshment drink packages were very good value for money. On hot days it was easy to drink 7-9 soft drinks/bottles of water.

 

At lunch on entering the Windjammer, we met the washy washy lady. I’d heard about her on CC. Basically she’s stood wearing colourful Caribbean accessories and says as she points out the hand sanitiser “Washy washy, no sicky sicky, on the big shippy shippy” Funny, cheesy but very effective.

I also saw her several times turn away kids who were trying to walk in dripping wet from the pool deck. Well done washy washy lady!

 

I had my first taste of gluten free pizza in Café promenade; it was very good and tasted “real”

 

As we were sat having our snack the guests on first sitting started walking passed in their formal wear. It was lovely to see the number of Scottish men wearing their kilts, looking very smart.

 

As we were people watching a family walked passed with 2 little girls wearing beautiful navy blue matching dresses. We were just commenting on how cute they looked, when we saw that the smaller of the two, had her dress tucked into her knickers so her little bottom was on view.

I said to my husband should I say something, but he said it was too late as they were already walking away. I know the little mite wasn’t old enough to be embarrassed but I just had to do something, so I ran. ¾ of the way along Royal Promenade and caught up with her father and said “excuse me, I’m sorry I’ve just chased after you but your daughter….” And pointed. He laughed, thanked me very much and on they went. I returned to my husband and then a lady came over and thanked me for doing it. She said she too had seen but hadn’t liked to get involved. So she thanked me and wished me a good evening.

 

Tonight was our second formal evening. There had been a bit of a cock up with the daily cruise compass. The front page announced casual night. Yet the inside page suggested that ladies head to the spa for a treatment or hair do ahead of formal night.

Announcements were made on the large TV screens and a note was left on our bed by our cabin steward Fernando, saying it was indeed formal night.

 

I had quite bad pain that night, the pain I get when I eat gluten. Nothing I couldn’t cope with but I’d obviously consumed some by accident somewhere via cross contamination maybe. I’ll just have to be more careful.

 

We had an early night, after dinner, because we wanted to get up early to queue for tender tickets to be one of the first off to head to Monaco.

 

I popped to Café Promenade for a hot chocolate to take back to the cabin. Joe asked me if I wanted whipped cream and before I could answer he said “Oh no no you’ve already had one with whipped cream today AFTER the gym hahaha”

 

As I was going to sleep it came to me who our assistant waiter looked like. Pasha from Strictly Come Dancing. He’s his double!! ( The U.K original version of Dancing with the Stars)

[cymru cruiser]

5th July; Villefranche

 

Today we are heading to Monaco; our first time using a train at a cruise port to do our own excursion. I had downloaded Tom’s port guides on Villefranche and Monaco so knew it was easy to find the station in Villefranche. Simply get off the tender at the terminal, turn right out of the building and walk along the sea front, following everyone else doing the same; up the stairs and into the train station. Easy!

 

The cruise compass said that tender tickets would be available from 0830am. I had read on CC that it was advisable to go and start to queue about 30 – 45 minutes earlier if you wanted to get off sharp.

So alarm was set and down I went to the star lounge, deck 5 forward at 0745am armed with a coffee and the book I was reading (James Corden’s Autobiography; May I have your attention please - hilarious)

I got there and there were 20 people in front of me. All sat patiently, quietly chatting, drinking tea/coffee and reading books. The cruise director staff had made a line so to speak out of chairs. The staff were there by 8am said good morning to the early arrivals and advised tickets would be given out at 0830am. No problem. A few from our roll call came in and I had a chat with them.

By 0830am the queue was out of the door and around the sides of the lounge.

As the staff stood up to start handing out the tickets there was a mass push forward. It was like feeding time at the zoo!! Chaos!!! The 30/40 people who had patiently queued early were pushed out of the way by folk climbing over chairs and literally surging from the back of the room. How a fight didn’t break out I do not know but it did come close. There were lots of raised voices.

The staff didn’t seem to see the problem that they were handing out tickets to folk who had not queued as long. It certainly was not first come first serve. Baring in mind that I was 20th in the queue and each tender boat can take 120 passengers I was allocated tender boat number 3.

It was a complete and utter shambles.

One staff member said “Don’t worry you will all get a ticket” But she seemed to miss the point. Some folk got there for 8am and had boat number 7 or 8 allocated. A lot of people were upset, I was quietly disappointed but knowing that it doesn’t take much to be removed from a cruise ship I certainly wasn’t going to voice my opinion publicly.

 

A young man in his early 20’s said to me “You go in front of me I know you where here before I was” Lovely manners thankyou!

 

On the way back to the cabin I stopped at guest relations to give them my opinion of what had just happened.. His response was “I’m sorry but it’s not my problem” mmm great customer service and interaction – not!

 

The cruise compass had said that the first tender would leave at approximately 0920am. Having picked up a tender 3 ticket we guessed we’d have plenty of time to get breakfast. That was a mistake. We got half way along the promenade and they called boat number 1 at 0845am ish.

 

We hurried down to deck 1 aft. We were not asked for our ticket, nor do we have any idea what number boat it was. It wasn’t displayed and the security and staff working the tenders just wanted the tenders full in an orderly and safe manner.

 

So my question is what on earth was the point of the ticket allocation?

 

Shame on you RCI. It’s clearly not your first tender port. It was very poorly organised from a cruise director staff point of view. This was the firs time I had ever really been disappointed in RCI. It was the first time on any cruise that we’ve had a “What the hell was that about” moment.

 

I planned to tell the cruise director Rob McNally if I saw him. Mmmm does he actually exist though?

 

The tendering process itself was easy. It took 5 minutes. We docked at the terminal and within minutes we were walking outside into Villefranche and heading to the train station.

 

First impression of Villefranche – stunning!

 

A Canadian couple D&H from our roll call were on the same tender as us. H showed us a photo of their wedding that she’d just received via email from home. Absolutely gorgeous. And D had been very quiet about the fact that he’s in the Canadian Navy – he looked very dapper in his uniform.

 

Once at the train station it was an easy process to buy tickets. Four return tickets cost us E24 which is less than £20. RCI were asking £240 for the 4 of us to do an organised “Monaco on your own” tour. Wow what a difference.

 

On the platform there are little yellow machines, were you have to validate your ticket. I remember reading this somewhere on the forum so thank you to whoever told me this. It’s not very obvious and several people copied me after asking why I was doing it.

 

We got the 0956 train and were in Monaco by 1007. Very quick and efficient and the train was clean. Each stop was announced and there was digital signage in each carriage announcing the next stop also.

 

Now to the fun part; we knew that the station in Monaco was underground and we had researched and found out all about the public lifts and stairs. Thanks again to Tom’s port guides! We had just picked up a map at the tourist info stall when we saw D&H walking back towards us. The queue for the lifts was huge so they were looking for an alternative exit. G isn’t a fan off lifts so we set off in search of some stairs. I found some set back in the corner so up we climbed, a few others followed us but I think they gave up and turned back. B&M on our roll call joined us also. 14 flights of stairs we walked up until we finally found day light and came out of a door to the right of the main entrance of the train station.

Our first view was down to the marina and across to the palace, there was a collective wow and we all stood taking in the surroundings in the baking heat.

We had decided to head to the palace first so we had time to get there and look around before the changing of the guard at noon. Firstly we had to get there so we turned right and walked down and down and down, meandering through the streets until we got to a roundabout where there was an outdoor and indoor market to the left and a steep slope up towards the palace on the right.

After stopping for toilets and to get a bottle of water each at the market, we crossed the road and started the climb up the slope towards the palace, as we moved above the tree line the views everywhere we looked were even more gorgeous. The Holland America ship, Neiw Amsterdam was docked in the harbour.

 

We finally reached the top and after a quick glance around B&M decided to leave us and head back down to the shops. The heat was immense, in the high 30’s. My youngest daughter was struggling to get her breath it was so hot. So we headed towards the palace. We hadn’t intended to go inside but did so simply to have a break from the heat.

I have never ever complained that it is too hot ever. But when the sweat is literally pouring down you as the sun bakes down it was tricky to cope.

 

The palace tour was E8 per person and took approximately 30 minutes. The interior of the palace was gorgeous and the commentary was very interesting.

The bonus was inside was very cooling!

After the tour we headed back outside to mass crowds waiting to watch the changing of the guard. We had lost D&H by this point so we headed to get more bottles of water and ice cream. We then had a walk about the little side streets opposite the palace and did some shopping.

 

After this we headed back down to the marina, walked along the front gauping at the beautiful yachts before ascending the hill the other side to head up to the Casino and Hotel de Paris and Café de Paris.

To be perfectly honest by this point we were just too hot to be bothered. The Casino looked lovely but the area was very busy. We managed to take a look at some of the expensive cars parked outside. But the heat was really getting to us. Our younger daughter was wheezing slightly and our older daughter was in the foulest mood ever because her Iphone had overheated and turned itself off. So we decided to head back towards the station.

Armed with my map I managed to find an entrance to the station nearer than we had come out of originally.

We recognised some people from the ship who were looking confused at the boards trying to work out how to get which train. They recognised us too, it was the lady from the sun bed the first sea day. They said they were trying to get the train to Nice. We said we were heading back to the ship and they said so were they. I explained that the ship wasn’t in Nice it was in Villefranche. An easy mistake to make caused by the cruise itinerary saying the port was Nice with Villefranche in brackets) Why do cruise companies doe this? Its like docking at Le Harve and the itinerary saying Paris lol.

They had gotten a taxi to Monaco which had cost them E70 so had decided to try the train back.

We showed them where to buy tickets and how to get them validated.

 

We headed up to platform C and had a 30 minute wait for the train as we had just missed one. There wasn’t much seating on the platform but we were happy to sit on the floor. We were in the cool shade underground – lovely.

 

The train was an easy few stops back to Villefranche. Our original plan had been to spend a few hours exploring Villefranche. But M was struggling big time with the heat and J was just in a foul mood over her phone so we headed straight back to the ship.

I popped into a shop next to the terminal to buy my god daughter a present and get my Nan a postcard.

 

We waited 5 minutes for a tender back to the ship. The officer driving the tender managed to break a light as he bumped into the platform. Oh dear.

We were pleased to see Mike Cooke, Head of Security, as he was on both our Indy cruises the last few years. He said Hi in recognition of the Welsh family (his son in law is Welsh so we’d stuck in his mind following previous conversations)

 

Back to the cabin, quick change, Windjammer for lunch and then all into the pool. Ahhh refreshing and lovely.

We spent the rest of the afternoon and evening sat in the shade on a chair in the solarium looking across to Villefranche drinking virgin frozen cocktails; watching the tender boats bob back and forth and the yachts glistening in the sunlight.

After showering and changing for dinner we went back up to the helipad to watch the sail away. We hope to return to Villefranche one day to properly get to see it. Such a little slice of heaven on the French Riveria.

Planes were taking off and landing from Nice airport and trains zipping along the coast line as we gazed out across the bay.

The Captain gave 3 blasts of the horn and it echoed around the hillside.

It was still 28 degrees when we went back inside for dinner at 830pm.

 

At dinner Olex our assistant waiter from The Ukraine, asked us about Monaco as he had not been. We got chatting and he told us that he had been with RCI for a year. He had been with Costa previously but made the move as there are more opportunities with RCI and the pay is better. He returns from his vacation in September to join Anthem.

 

Whilst we were at dinner, I commented that we didn’t appear to be moving. The hillside to one side of us was not changing and the water only seemed to be lapping by. We found out later that we were indeed stopped for 30 minutes as there was a medical emergency on board and they were waiting to make a decision on returning to port or not. Hopefully everything turned out well because we didn’t return to port.

 

We had a chat with the ladies on the next table to us. J had not come to dinner as she was still sulking over her phone!

 

After dinner we went up to the pool deck to watch Into the Woods on the big screen. James Corden was in it and I’d just finished reading his book. We left after half an hour because the part of the big screen were the pixels have broken down was rather annoying, when you are trying to concentrate on a film and we were tired after a long day.

 

 

We stopped at Café promenade on the way back to our cabin for bottles of water. As I leant on the counter whilst talking to Joe he had a complete panic because he hadn’t wiped spilled ice cream off the counter and he thought he’d spoiled my clothes. Bless him, it hadn’t and it was fine.

 

 

 

 

This photo is our first view of Monaco as we stepped out of the train station

 

[cymru cruiser]

 

 

 

[madmedic]

Thanks so much for the reviews, really enjoying reading them as we are going on 23 August. Like you we nearly cancelled (due to my father being diagnosed with cancer) so things have been a bit fraught. Happily he's recovered well from his surgery and god willing we will all be able to enjoy a much anticipated holiday. We are in Promenade View Cabins on decks 7 & 8 having thought them good value on Voyager a few years ago, glad you enjoyed them too.

[karen armstrong]

Thank you so much for your review so far. I'm on explorer on 26th. It's our first cruise. Just hope it lives up to expectation. Thanks for info re validating tickets on train at villefranche.