Explorer of Seas 7/10 Review

First of all, thank you to everyone on the boards. What a tremendous help it was to read all the posts over the last six or seven months. I'm going to try to post a review similar to what I've read others. In spite of a few weather issues, we had a great time. DW, DD(13), DS(9).

DW and I had cruised NCL 15 yrs ago, first time for the kids. The kids never got around to going to Adventure Ocean. We did pretty much everything together, and I didn't want to push them over there. I know they would have enjoyed it, but they are kinda shy, I guess.

As for the ship, I thought it was in very good shape. Oh yeah, there were some things in our room that could have used a little maintenaince, but nothing that really bothered me. Our attendant, was excellent. Very friendly and always ready to provide anything we needed. We had a balcony room, which i highly recommend. Throughout the ship, i cannot recall a time when I saw a location that needed cleaning.

I thought the food was very good. I don't eat at five star restaurants every night, so maybe my standards aren't as high as some. Service in the Windjammer was excellent, and the service at the dining room was even better. The first night or two, it seemed like the waiter and asst. waiter were struggling to keep up. However, by the third night we had our usual drinks waiting at our table. My dd was very impressed that she got her diet coke w/slice of lime w/out asking for it. Our waiter (Ms. Lale Becu) was very candid about the selection of entrees. My son ate pasta w/marinara sauce almost every night. The last night he decided to try the featured entree, when it was clear he didn't care for it, Lale already had the pasta on standby and brought it right to the table.

My thoughts are running together now, so i'm just going to give you some random comments.

We had to skip St. Thomas b/c of storm which was big disappointment, but better than being seasick the rest of the week, or worse. I changed the excursions to snorkel in Nassau since we were supposed to do that in st. Thomas. We did the SeaTrek Sail and Snorkel. i was not really impressed with it. the area we snorkeled was not protected from the waves, so it was exhausting. We did see alot of fish, but the waves made it very difficult to stay in one place. My advice is to ask if the site is open water or protected (if that is the right term).

I was shocked at the ice show. Fantastic. the other performers were quite good as well. My experience is that unless the show is labeled as an adult show, you can take your kids, content wise. we actually didn't make it to an adult show, too tired.

On occasion I saw some very ill behaved children, without parent supervision. I will say that those situations were only such that i shook my head, nothing that i felt needed to be reported or stopped immediately. You can go to any restaurant in any city and find the same thing.

Embarkation and Debarkation was a piece of cake. The embarkation took a little longer, but we only stood in line a total of about 30 or 40 minutes maybe getting on the ship. Our color had us getting off the ship between 9 and 9:30. We were in the cab headed to airport before 9. I recommend getting a porter and tipping him well. Ours took us right to the street and into a cab, while folks were standing around on the curb looking and waiting. We just followed the porter. I didn't know it was happening until we got in the cab and looked back.

Please let me know if I can answer a question. I know i didn't cover everything, but I can't think of anything else. I will say the we all had an excellent experience. DW and DD are now looking for another RCI cruise.

etexfam:

thanks for the review I was curious how your cruise went because we were booked for the July 10th explorer too- but had to cancel 1 week prior to leaving because of a ruptured disk in my back - major bummer (aboutt the back and about the cruise!!). My boys and I ( I am a single dad - fulltime) have cruised before - including on Navigator - Western. Like you we really liked the icee shows, etc. - and like you my kids (11 and 8) really never have done the kids programs on any cruise we have been on. We prefer to hang out together - some people really like the kids programs, to each his own!!! I was curious - besides St Thomas - did Emily give any problems, rough seas or anything??

J,

The seas were actually fine. i was really bummed about missing St. Thomas, but if we stayed the storm would have been w/in 150 miles of us. That would likely have been a problem. Leaving St. Maarten, we seemed to rock a little, but we took some bonine and no one got sick. for me, the meds were more mental than anything. I think it rained twice during the week, and both times it was late in the day.

sorry about your back. hope you get well.

Thanks for posting your review. I have a couple of questions.

Did the ship depart Miami on time? Dennis was still in the Gulf of Mexico and causing airline delays so I wondered if the ship waited on passengers that were effected. Also, what did you do in St. Martin?