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Live from the Explorer March 7-16 Day 1

marle7

By marle7,
in Royal Caribbean International

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marle7

marle7

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The rest of Day 4 and 5

 

Ole, Ole, Ole, Ole! Oh, hello! What day is it? I swear I’m losing track of time. I’m grateful for the signs in the elevators, otherwise I’d never know what day it was. I think I need to finish off day 4 and then yesterday. Sorry I missed you folk yesterday, but we were so busy vacationing, we forgot to turn our computers on, imagine that?

I gotta start taking notes. Posting two days after the fact, is starting to tax my memory. Not that I’ve had too much to drink or anything. Really.

I believe I left you as we were about to have our day 4 Get Out There dinner. (sorry, I’m typing this in word, before I log on, then copying and pasting, in order to conserve minutes, so I haven’t had a chance to review my previous post).

I did remember my camera, but pictures won’t get posted to my site until I get back on Sunday. The upload speed is just too slow on board.

My son once again decided to dress for dinner. Now I’m almost positive there’s a girl involved. I have noted that there is a table of young ladies right behind us. Perhaps that’s it. I’m starting to feel rather underdressed beside him though. Excuse me while I continue in mommy mode for a moment. As we were getting off the elevator, which was, as usual, full, my son stepped back and indicated the ladies should get off ahead of him. Whoo hoo! Do you know how long it’s taken me to drill the “ladies first” into his head?

For dinner, I believe Ryan had the the chilled soup as usual, and then the garlic shrimp. Hubby elected to have the top sirloin. I order the Parmesan Crusted Turkey tenderloins. Or so I thought. When my dinner arrived, the waiter presented the crusted tilapia with a flourish. Which would have been fine, if I ate fish. I don’t. So off he went and came back with......a grilled chicken breast. I was just going to eat it, but apparently the look on my face clued our waiter in that wasn’t quite right either. So off he went to get the turkey tenderloins. Well, they were ok, but really, not worth waiting for to be honest. For dessert, I had the chocolate trio, Ryan had the cheesecake and Don had nothing. Antonio has gotten into the habit of also bringing us a cheese plate every night as well. It’s nice to see that Royal Caribbean has given up on the soda crackers with cheese and have now replaced them with Carr’s water crackers.

We headed up to Dizzy’s for a nightcap as we were still in port. Don had water as he was diving the next day. Off we headed to bed.

 

Ok, just for the record, this live stuff is hard! It’s difficult to be entertaining everyday you know. Sleep well everyone and we will continue on with day 5 in a bit.

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marle7

marle7

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Day 5.

It’s getting hotter by the day, folks. We arrived bright and early in St. Thomas, a woman’s shopping paradise. The boys were diving, but hey not till noon, so that gave us a couple of hours to shop.

I rarely buy jewellery in ports anymore, but I did have to visit Louis Vuitton. Also my son apparently outgrew one of his pairs of shorts in the 4 days we’ve been gone so we had to visit footlocker to make sure he wasn’t going to go naked onboard. I also managed to snag some blue mountain jamacian coffee, one of my favourites.

 

We returned to the ship and the boys prepared for their dive. I spent a couple of hours at the pool, then went for a hair conditioning treatment. Don’t you just love when hairdressers rip your hair? Ma’am, your hair is really dry. Ma’am, you sure have a lot of hair. Ma’am, the ship may have returned to port in New Jersey by the time I can get this dried! By the time I was done, the boys were re boarding the ship. It was disappointing for my son, that he was unable to dive, as apparently he had a problem equalizing his right ear. I think he’s been fighting something since New Jersey and sure enough, this morning he woke with a cough and a slight fever. Some Tylenol took care of that and now he seems to be ok, but it would explain the ear problem. Sadly for him, we’ll have to take him on another cruise before year’s end, so he can get this year’s dive in for his records. The Dive Master did say that they are going to recertify him for fully open water as he is now 15 and is no longer a jr diver. Would he just stop that growing up already?

It was time to get ready to go to the Ice Show, Spirits of the Seasons. Now, if you haven’t seen the ice show, go. Go now. It’s totally amazing what they are able to accomplish on such small ice space. People were going in telling me I was crazy for wearing a sleeveless shirt, that it was freezing in there. I can’t say it was a problem for me though. Perhaps that has something to do with a woman at a certain time of life, when Alaska probably isn’t cold enough, but truly, I was not cold at all.

Dinner last night was the Crown and Anchor dinner. There was a family style salad of tomatoes, fresh boccachini, baby spinach and focaccia croutons, so Don and I had that as an appetizer, while Ryan had the chilled soup.

For dinner Ryan had the tortellini in a light blue cheese sauce, I had the sirloin steak and Don had the pork chop. I was a little leary of the pork chop as in the past, it’s only had a passing resemblance to a pork chop, but I was pleasantly surprised when it arrived. It was actually quite thick and not overly dried out although it was a little tiny bit. By the way for those who don’t know, I cook. A lot. Which means I can be pretty picky about food and ingredients. So far I’d say there have been some very good things, some things that are just ok, and nothing yet that I’d say stay far far away from. No one is going to starve, that’s for sure.

It was time for our nightly casino visit, where my first favourite machine offered up 750 coins which is just under $200, on a quarter slot. My second favourite machine offered up 800 coins, or $200 which meant for me, it was time to quit. I have been very very lucky so far in the casino this trip, which is making up for the dismal showing I had on the Enchantment a few weeks ago. Although I still have ample time to give it all back! The blackjack tables have not been so forthcoming. My husband says he’s never seen dealers pull as many 21’s in their hands as they have on this trip.

That’s it for now folks. We set sail from Casa Del Campo a while ago. More on that port in tomorrow’s report. There is a cocktail party we’ve been invited to this evening, although it’s not clear whether this is a Crown and Anchor party for which we normally receive an invitation in our cabin (this invitation came via voicemail from the concierge), but we’ll go and see what it’s all about. Portofino’s for dinner tonight. For those who are keeping track of such things, the Crown and Anchor gift in our cabin last night was 2 baseball caps and an over the door bag of some sort. Makeup thingy maybe?

Anyway, time to go get ready for dinner and the evening’s festivities. Tomorrow is Labadee and the zip line. Um, for the boys not me.

 

Oh and Christine? Your parents say hi!

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marle7

marle7

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I think I neglected to mention our cabin along the way. We are in an OS on deck 10, more or less midship. It's quite spacious with more closet and drawer space than you'll ever need on a cruise. Unless you shop a lot of course, in which case, there's never enough space.:) The pull out couch does pull out to a full queen bed which is good for my giant son. The balcony is smaller than a Grand Suite's balcony, but the space where the balcony should be juts out to accomodate the dressing table complete with lighted make up mirror and a lovely picture window with a view of the ocean as you're putting your make up on. Of course, if you are as blind as I am without glasses, while putting your make up on, the view is sort of irrelevant, but I'm sure it's nice just the same.

 

The bathroom has a whirlpool tub and a separate small shower. Lots of vanity room and two sinks.

 

Now about that bed. It's a queen size bed, with a lovely footboard at the bottom of it. Just a small problem is that the corners of the footboard are sharp! I have identical bruises on each leg because I've managed to bang into that footboard coming and going at least once a day. So be aware. Footboards can be dangerous to your leg's health!

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marle7

marle7

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One small correction. On the Get Out There dinner, my husband actually ordered the shoulder of filet of beef. He just reminded me. And said, don't do it. Shoulder of beef is meant to be braised, for a long time. This wasn't and it was tough. Almost, but not quite inedible. Just a postscript folks.:D

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peggyg

peggyg

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Marie - Sounds like you are having a great time - Have you seen the girl yet?? or is your son keeping her hidden still LOL. I can't wait until Sat. to find out about that slot machine. :D

 

Peggy

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GSuitesailing

GSuitesailing

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I think I neglected to mention our cabin along the way. We are in an OS on deck 10, more or less midship. It's quite spacious with more closet and drawer space than you'll ever need on a cruise. Unless you shop a lot of course, in which case, there's never enough space.:) The pull out couch does pull out to a full queen bed which is good for my giant son. The balcony is smaller than a Grand Suite's balcony, but the space where the balcony should be juts out to accomodate the dressing table complete with lighted make up mirror and a lovely picture window with a view of the ocean as you're putting your make up on. Of course, if you are as blind as I am without glasses, while putting your make up on, the view is sort of irrelevant, but I'm sure it's nice just the same.

 

The bathroom has a whirlpool tub and a separate small shower. Lots of vanity room and two sinks.

 

Now about that bed. It's a queen size bed, with a lovely footboard at the bottom of it. Just a small problem is that the corners of the footboard are sharp! I have identical bruises on each leg because I've managed to bang into that footboard coming and going at least once a day. So be aware. Footboards can be dangerous to your leg's health!

 

 

Which OS are you in? It's a great room!

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marle7

marle7

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Technology is not my friend. Really. I've spent the last two days fighting with my computer. We've also been dealing with the "incident" which I will get to in due course.

 

To answer a few questions. We are in suite 1298. Gerald has been a great stateroom attendent, particularly in the face of some recent controversy.

 

As far as I can tell, we are on time for getting back into port. Nothing in today's report from the bridge indicated we'd be late, although it is getting rockier and cooler by the minute.

 

the slots I've been playing are: The Stampede, located just behind the quarterama slots, and the red hot 7's located just near the ladies washroom. The Wheel of Fortune, which is a dollar slot machine is located in a small circle of machines as you walk into the casino.

 

I'm going to log off and try to get this report finished and posted. However, if my machine will not cooperate, I'll have to wait until Sunday when I am back home. Do my best folks. And of course, we have the "incident" to discuss.

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marle7

marle7

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Technology is not my friend. Really. I've spent the last two days fighting with my computer. We've also been dealing with the "incident" which I will get to in due course.

 

To answer a few questions. We are in suite 1298. Gerald has been a great stateroom attendent, particularly in the face of some recent controversy.

 

As far as I can tell, we are on time for getting back into port. Nothing in today's report from the bridge indicated we'd be late, although it is getting rockier and cooler by the minute.

 

the slots I've been playing are: The Stampede, located just behind the quarterama slots, and the red hot 7's located just near the ladies washroom. The Wheel of Fortune, which is a dollar slot machine is located in a small circle of machines as you walk into the casino.

 

I'm going to log off and try to get this report finished and posted. However, if my machine will not cooperate, I'll have to wait until Sunday when I am back home. Do my best folks. And of course, we have the "incident" to discuss.

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marle7

marle7

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My computer is not being a willing companion at the moment. I have so much more to tell you, but my battery is running low. There's a galley tour, a couple of more ports, Portofino's for dinner, and slots and blackjack tournaments, plus the incident. I need to take my time to type this all up, so it will be tomorrow before I'm done and able to post. Sorry folks! We'll get to it all, plus lots of photos of food and the galley.

 

Thanks for following along thus far, and I'm sorry I can't finish it till I get home!

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ontheopenseas

ontheopenseas

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My computer is not being a willing companion at the moment. I have so much more to tell you, but my battery is running low. There's a galley tour, a couple of more ports, Portofino's for dinner, and slots and blackjack tournaments, plus the incident. I need to take my time to type this all up, so it will be tomorrow before I'm done and able to post. Sorry folks! We'll get to it all, plus lots of photos of food and the galley.

 

Thanks for following along thus far, and I'm sorry I can't finish it till I get home!

You sure have me in suspense! Thanks for sharing your trip so far! Hope you had a wonderful vacation and can't wait to hear about the rest of it!

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marle7

marle7

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Sorry, I wasn't able to continue with the live postings, but the internet connection on the ship is brutal! I have started uploading the pictures to my site, but it's a time consuming process, so I'll come back and post a link when I am done, probably tomorrow sometime.

I'll try to wrap this up with some thoughts and observations and yes, I'll get to the incident.:D

We thought, and apparently most of the staff and 80% of the people on board agreed, that Casa De Campo was a wasted stop. I'd say very few people actually got off the ship at this port and we were leaving at 2, not really enough time to do anything, that is, if there was anything to do.

Portofino's was outstanding and I will have pictures of the food and menu up as well from there. In fact, it was so outstanding that we did it twice.

Labadee was just a perfect day. It was hot and sunny, but there was a nice breeze on the beach which helped. The water temperature was very pleasant. The boys did the zip line which they thought was great. We were sitting on the beach (barefoot beach?) so I could watch them go past.

The casino generally paid out pretty well on the slots, but my husband was not happy with the black jack tables at all.

The second to last sea day was still quite pleasant out on deck, but by overnight, we started to rock again, and it got cool and windy. By the last sea day, you couldn't really sit outside.

When we got our seapass account, sure enough, it had been converted to Canadian dollars which we had specifically asked them not to do. One should not have to end their vacation at 7 in the morning standing in line with a bunch of other angry Canadians to rectify this.

We arrived back at port on time. We waited in the Concierge's lounge for our colour to be called. The walk off program was in effect and it seemed to take a very long time, almost an hour. After that, we were called, and the bags were very easy to find once we got to the terminal. We made it to the airport with an hour to spare to make our flight. I had started to wonder if we were going to miss it!

And now, the incident. On Wednesday, after we left Casa Del Campo, my husband and I visited the casino, where my two favourite machines paid off again. Happily, we returned to the cabin to get dressed for dinner to go to Portofino's.

My son greeted me at the door. The stateroom supervisor had been by and had lectured Ryan on his parents smoking in the cabin and gave him a warning letter to give to us. Let me make this perfectly clear before I go on. I NEVER smoked in the cabin, and I always made sure the balcony door was closed.

I was rather upset to say the least, and took the letter down to guest services. Guest Services, tried to laugh it off by saying it was just a form letter and it didn't mean anything. Well it meant something to me. They could tell I was very upset, but I also had to get to Portofino's, so I said I would pursue the matter further in the morning.

We spoke to our stateroom attendent in the morning, and this was the first he'd heard of it. I asked him if his supervisor had checked with him before delivering this letter and he said no, and he wasn't aware that there were any problems. I asked him to have his supervisor, Shelly, stop by and see us.

She did stop by just as we were getting dressed for dinner. She said she had smelled a bit of smoke when she was inspecting the room, and had left the letter with our son. I asked her if she had checked with Gerald, our stateroom attendent and she admitted she had not. The letter states that "there was evidence found of smoking in the cabin" and that the letter should be considered our first warning. The language in the letter is very strong. I asked what evidence she had "found" and all she could say was that she had smelled a bit of smoke. Really? Do you suppose maybe our clothes smell like smoke? This went on for a bit. I told her I was offended and insulted. That I knew very well what the policy was and that I had taken great care to follow it and to ensure the balcony door was closed. I told her that Gerald, who is in the cabin everyday, could easily have verified that we were not smoking in the room, that she had not even bothered to contact us and even ask us, and I told her she had no business lecturing a 15 year old boy on his parents conduct or lack thereof. I felt I had been tried, judged and condemned without even getting a trial.

It was not until I told her that I would be writing to both the hotel director and to Royal Caribbean that I got even the glimmer of an apology.

After she left, I did sit down and wrote a letter to the hotel director.

The next day, I got a call from the Chief Housekeeper, Terrence, who asked to meet with us. We met him in the evening just before dinner on Friday night.

He had spoken with Gerald who verified that at no time had we smoked in the cabin, and he had spoken to Shelly who also admitted she had not tried to contact us and had made an assumption.

We told him that we had no problems with RC wanting to enforce their policy, but we didn't expect to be accused of something we hadn't done, particularly when there was no evidence to back it up.

We felt there had been several steps omitted before any letter should ever have been issued.

1. Shelly should have contacted us first. Maybe asked if we had forgotten to close the balcony door or something. Certainly, when people are coming in and out of the balcony, it is possible for some smoke to drift in.

2. Shelly should never have discussed this with my son at any time. He was put in the position of either having to defend his parents, and thereby arguing with an officer of the ship, or say nothing and let an officer make false accusations against his parents.

3. Shelly should have consulted with our stateroom attendant as the very first step.


We suggested to Terrence that a nice letter in the cabin on day one reminding people not only about the policy, but also asking them to keep the balcony door closed when smoking should be considered. No where in the smoking policy, does it say to keep the balcony door closed while smoking. We're experienced cruisers and we knew this, but god help the next new cruiser who doesn't know and leaves their door open while thinking they are following the policy. We also suggested some sort of training for their staff in terms of how these things are handled might not be a bad idea.

Terrance acknowledged that Shelly had made several errors in procedure and had made a mistake. He assured us he did not think we were smoking in the stateroom. In the end, we got a formal apology from Terrence and from Royal Caribbean.

While it didn't ruin our vacation, it certainly marred it. It will be a long time before I consider sailing with Royal Caribbean again, although I don't like to say never. We had intended on booking another cruise with them in December as my son still needs to get a dive in this year. That cruise will go to Celebrity. We had two other cruises booked with Royal Caribbean that we have instructed our TA to cancel.
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marle7

marle7

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I forgot to mention a few things! The cocktail party I mentioned earlier, was in fact for Suite guests. Apparently it is something new they are trying. I don't know if that means just the Explorer, or fleet wide. It was only about half an hour, but you could have anything you wanted to drink, and they had some nibbles for us. Most of the ship's officer's attended as well.

It was there I found out about the galley tour. Apparently, they were conducting a galley tour just for suite guests! Ricky, the concierge was keeping the list of people who wanted to attend. Well, of course I did. I got lots of pictures of that too and will post them along with all the other ones.

The tour took place on Friday, a sea day, at 11 a.m. Unfortunately, the black jack tournament and the platinum/diamond welcome back party was scheduled at the same time. Hubby went to the tournament and I went to the galley tour. They could work on scheduling a bit, as they crammed a bunch of things into the second last sea day, and nothing on the last sea day.

We also played in the slot tournament on Friday at 1:30 where we didn't even come close.:D
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marle7

marle7

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It wasn't just this one incident that has put us off RC. It was the one that pushed us over the edge. It was still a great vacation and we enjoyed ourselves immensely. I highly recommend the Explorer, the ship and the bulk of their crew, although I think we prefer sailing out of warm ports in the winter.:D
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PhoenixCruiser

PhoenixCruiser

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[quote name='cruisingagentone']Marle7
I have a question, why in the world was she even in your cabin without you there? I would have been very upset if a member of the crew was in my cabin with my 15 year old be it boy or girl without you being there![/QUOTE]

I was thinking the same thing!! She crossed the line when she involved your child.

###
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marle7

marle7

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[quote name='cruisingagentone']Marle7
I have a question, why in the world was she even in your cabin without you there? I would have been very upset if a member of the crew was in my cabin with my 15 year old be it boy or girl without you being there![/QUOTE]

Apparently, it is her job to inspect the cleaning done by the stateroom attendants. I don't think she was in the cabin doing the inspection when Ryan was there, although that would leave her a very short window of time to inspect as Ryan was mostly in the cabin.:D It never occurred to me that Ryan might have been there when she came in, although he wouldn't have thought much of it probably. We almost always came back from breakfast just as Gerald was finishing up the room, and then Ryan was pretty much there the rest of the afternoons, unless she did it while we were in port in St. Thomas.

He was however, the only person in the cabin when she came by to deliver the letter and proceeded to lecture him, and that she had no business doing.
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