Explorer of the Seas - Review - South Pacific - Nov

[Ima Seaworthy]

Great review! We just got off the Explorer yesterday, and I have to say that things are not as good as when we cruised on Voyager in 2013. The entertainment was disappointing, too much of the ships singers/dancers, which got a little boring. Our Seapass cards were problematic too.. didn't work the first time we tried to get in, and were replaced 5 times in all - which involved some lengthy queuing - we had to have the engineer come to the room twice to reprogram the lock. Our Lifou port stop was cancelled also, replaced by Mare, but I prefer Lifou. I guess that's why we didn't get any OBC for it being cancelled.

I think I would also avoid the late November time next time I cruise with RC - too many children and teens. The last two cruises we've done have been on Celebrity Solstice and kids weren't an issue there. I'm not keen on children singing karaoke in a bar at 10pm. Not entertaining for anyone but their parents! However, the staff were fab, the ports were great, no complaints about the food (loved Izumi!) , embarkation and debarkation were a breeze - we had a great time, our biggest issue was the SeaPass card problems. We had a Promenade room on deck 6, which I wouldn't do again, a little noisy and being low down was a bit exposed if you opened the curtains. Appreciated the review on the VB room, may try that next time!

[MicCanberra]

Thanks for the review, I agree kids should not be in adult areas. I do love seeing the kids playing up by the pool or on the slides and such but they are better off being in bed after 9pm.

IMO, RCI and Celebrity are very different experiences and while I enjoy RCI, I prefer Celebrity.

[OzKiwiJJ]

I should mention that I checked my on board charges later in the evening. I had only been charged $15 USD for the hoho bus so all good.

 

When we were in Noumea about ten days ago on Carnival Legend the HoHo was US $12 or AU $15. We paid in cash.

 

It sounds like RCI made a nice little profit by offering to allow you to charge it on your Seapass card. :rolleyes:

[Bethers12]

When we were in Noumea about ten days ago on Carnival Legend the HoHo was US $12 or AU $15. We paid in cash.

 

 

 

It sounds like RCI made a nice little profit by offering to allow you to charge it on your Seapass card. :rolleyes:

 

 

 

I just got off explorer yesterday.

We went to the ticket counter that said aud$10 for the bus in noumea.

We paid with card so including their 5% fee, with exchange rate, we paid $25.50 for 2 tickets.

 

Much cheaper than the counter next to us offering to put on seapass for usd $15.

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Edited November 30, 2016 by Bethers12

[MicCanberra]

When we were in Noumea about ten days ago on Carnival Legend the HoHo was US $12 or AU $15. We paid in cash.

 

It sounds like RCI made a nice little profit by offering to allow you to charge it on your Seapass card. :rolleyes:

 

Paying for the convenience I suppose. It was $15 AUD however, I paid in Francs on the card which worked out closer to $11 AUD for us.:D

Edited November 30, 2016 by MicCanberra

[aussielozzie18]

Great review! We just got off the Explorer yesterday, and I have to say that things are not as good as when we cruised on Voyager in 2013. The entertainment was disappointing, too much of the ships singers/dancers, which got a little boring. Our Seapass cards were problematic too.. didn't work the first time we tried to get in, and were replaced 5 times in all - which involved some lengthy queuing - we had to have the engineer come to the room twice to reprogram the lock. Our Lifou port stop was cancelled also, replaced by Mare, but I prefer Lifou. I guess that's why we didn't get any OBC for it being cancelled.

I think I would also avoid the late November time next time I cruise with RC - too many children and teens. The last two cruises we've done have been on Celebrity Solstice and kids weren't an issue there. I'm not keen on children singing karaoke in a bar at 10pm. Not entertaining for anyone but their parents! However, the staff were fab, the ports were great, no complaints about the food (loved Izumi!) , embarkation and debarkation were a breeze - we had a great time, our biggest issue was the SeaPass card problems. We had a Promenade room on deck 6, which I wouldn't do again, a little noisy and being low down was a bit exposed if you opened the curtains. Appreciated the review on the VB room, may try that next time!

 

Glad you had a great cruise despite the issues. Appreciate your review. I had originally planned to book a PR room but there were none available so interesting to read your thoughts on that type of room. Geez, having to replace your card 5 times would have done my head in. Note to self must do Izumi next cruise.

[aussielozzie18]

When we were in Noumea about ten days ago on Carnival Legend the HoHo was US $12 or AU $15. We paid in cash.

 

It sounds like RCI made a nice little profit by offering to allow you to charge it on your Seapass card. :rolleyes:

 

I had a considerable amount of OBC (supplied by RCI) so the benefit of charging it to my seapass card was that the amount was just deducted off that so I could use my own cash for other things. So, RCI didnt make any profit off me!