10/26 Revew Explorer of the Seas

[Mademypoint]

Since it seems a lot of other people have covered how wonderful the captain was as well as the dining room staff (we were in magellen) here are some other things.

 

1. Ice Skating. Great thing to do, but not when the ships rocking! Three laps was enough for me, now I can say I went skating on a ship. Maybe I should have had more to drink first?

 

2. Trivia - Great fun, but it seems all cruise ships use a lot of the same questions. The hosts/hostesses are terrific and deserve a lot of credit for putting up with the inevitable argument over answers. I've yet to see any physical altercations break out amongst competing teams, but there were a few moments where a single answer determined the winner (and we all know how valuable those luggage tags and keychains are) and the host had to clarify for the nth time what was acceptable and what wasn't. All in all, it was a great time and we got to meet some very nice people.

 

3. Aquarium. I love looking at the fish, and get a kick out of the one's that come out of hiding to follow you around looking for food. I wondered what they do when a fish dies, they just wait for the others to eat it. They don't feed them until late in the evening so if you are a night owl, you might just get to seem them feeding.

 

4. Baggo - Something so incredibly mindless, yet fun. Who knew there was an art to folding and throwing the bean bag? Great thing to watch and if you want ship shape dollars without breaking a sweat this is the activity for you.

 

5. Karaoke. I was disappointed in the turnout. I never once heard them promoting it the entire time we were on the ship, and the lady who won deserved a huge audience. She has such an amazing voice, it's unfortunate they didn't record it either.

 

6. Elevators - Boy do they move when the ship rocks, but it's fun riding up and down in them. Maybe that's why we waited so damn long the last two days.

 

7. Elevators part 2. We failed in our mission to catch them changing the day of the week on the floor, but did find that as the cruise went on they didn't change them as promptly.

 

8. Immigration - If you see the crew get on, that's your cue to go get in line. Chances are they will be setup in less than 5 minutes from that point and you can breeze right through there. I'm not sure what part of "all passengers" confuses people, but there were some who had still not shown themselves as of 11AM.

 

9. Towel Demonstration - Maybe it was because it was near the end of the cruise, but boy were people nasty to each other. It probably would have been better if they didn't have it at schooners and folded the towels by the piano, but why people just go stand in front of others to "see better" and block other people's views is beyond me.

 

10. TV - CNN headline news does have the most recent news items scrolling across the bottom, but in general most of the stories are repeats. The same is true of CNN, CBS, ABC and Fox news. Fortunately they did put "love and marriage" on and it was funny enough to watch more than once. I kept waiting to see the Quest, but I guess after that one guy was "arrested" they didn't bother to put it on.

 

Other - They must not have any good powerpoint people on board because I could always see the hourglass on the channel that had the updates.

 

Oh and even if you are a grown adult, some of the games in the arcade are great fun! Just make sure you know how to swipe your card to get the game credits to appear.

 

The only complaints:

1. Entrees in the dining room were average most of the time, especially the duck the second or third night. The best steak I had was the last lunch - the open faced sandwich. I must be the only person to ever not like the filet from Portofinos and I adore filet so it had to have been the piece of meat.

 

2. Windjammer - It's a buffet people, and it's not necessary to pick off the toppings from a piece of pizza with the tongs. Just take the whole piece! I thought the service was okay, the only time they came over to us was when they thought we wanted an alcoholic drink. I was never asked if I wanted a refill on coffee, water or juice.

 

A comparion with Princess on entertainment because we enjoyed their activities a bit better.

 

1. We loved movies under the stars. What a fun thing it was going out on deck after dinner and/or the casino and watching a movie. Yes, they did show titanic, but the best was the Rocky Horror picture show.

 

2. Game shows. Not only did they have the requisite trivia, but they had daytime shows like Family feud, the price is right and jeopardy. Great fun, and gave young adults a chance to hang out with the grown ups. They also gave away better prizes then RCI did for almost everything.

 

3. Suite. Slightly larger cabin and had two televisions that were larger. We did not have to ask for any kind of "priority" for anything, it found it's way to us. Why should I have to go explain that I do not want to be the last one off the ship when I was told that was an automatic perk?

 

All in all we'd probably cruise on RCI again, particularly since we will now most likely only go on cruises out of bayonne.

[maggieq]

Hi,

 

Thanks for the review. Does anyone have pictures of the conditions you had weather/swells?

[dolfinmusic]

Great review!!! :D

[Sugar*Magnolia]

 

The only complaints:

 

2. Windjammer - It's a buffet people, and it's not necessary to pick off the toppings from a piece of pizza with the tongs. Just take the whole piece! I thought the service was okay, the only time they came over to us was when they thought we wanted an alcoholic drink. I was never asked if I wanted a refill on coffee, water or juice.

 

All in all we'd probably cruise on RCI again, particularly since we will now most likely only go on cruises out of bayonne.

 

thanks for the reveiw!

Okay, here is a question..... a bar waiter on EOS in WJ?

On Voyager there was a small bar right in the middle (rear) of WJ, it was great. On Explorer.......no bar and no bar-waiter to be found. Not that we wanted to drink with lunch, eye-openers before is fine and after, as well as WJ isnt condusive to cocktail drinking anyway. But, having said that- when we were on voyager we did buy drinks from the bar in the back of WJ......lol @ rci now that I think about it lol

[DPurcell58]

The only RCCL ship going out of Bayonne right now is the Explorer.

[Mademypoint]

I forgot to include the bit on the Loterie farm treetop adventure. It's much more physical then they say, it's an obstacle course through the trees and I'd do it again in a heartbeat. Not sure it's for everyone though as it doesn't quite tell you just how intense it is and if you don't like swinging ropes and suspension bridges it's not for you.

 

The ATV's (Carabali) in Puerto Rico were a blast and we loved the sailboat racing we did in St. Thomas.

[aqhacruiser]

thanks for the reveiw!

Okay, here is a question..... a bar waiter on EOS in WJ?

On Voyager there was a small bar right in the middle (rear) of WJ, it was great. On Explorer.......no bar and no bar-waiter to be found. Not that we wanted to drink with lunch, eye-openers before is fine and after, as well as WJ isnt condusive to cocktail drinking anyway. But, having said that- when we were on voyager we did buy drinks from the bar in the back of WJ......lol @ rci now that I think about it lol

 

The waiters will get you any kind of drink you want you just have to ask:)