Annefran

These are photos I promised of Richard Spacey and Leigh X when they were CDs together on our May 2012 Explorer cruise. They were great together!

How were the C&A events onboard?

Hi, there was a welcome back function on the 2nd sea day for C&A members to meet the Captain and ask some questions. I didn't get to attend that but heard it was informative. The other Welcome Back event was the C&A party held later in the week with the Captain and the staff. This was held in Maharaja's Lounge on deck 5. Also as Diamond+ members we were given a choice of touring either the galley or the bridge. My girls decided to do the bridge tour and really enjoyed it.

We did visit the Diamond Lounge up on deck 14 once night for cocktails and treats. That was nice and a great view with all the windows.

So glad that everyone enjoyed my review and found it helpful. If you have any additional questions about the Explorer or the intinerary, please do not hesitate to ask. We have sailed on EOS 6 times and it is one of our favorite ships on RCI. She will be missed in NJ for sure. Happy Cruising!

Great review Ann.We are also going on the beach Rendezvuos tour in saint maarten.You said lunch is no longer included on this tour.Again thanks for the review and pictures.We will be sailing on the Explorer 9/25/14 on the same nine day cruise.:)

Anne: Great review and pictures. Helped me relive our cruise on Explorer back in March. So happy you had a great time and able to make some wonderful memories with your daughter and her friend.

 

 

 

Look forward to meeting you in person on Quantum in April.

I'm so happy that my review was helpful and you enjoyed it. Let me know if you have any additional questions for your upcoming cruise.

WVUGammy thanks so much, glad you enjoyed the review. Also looking forward to meeting you next April.

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Couldn't have written it better Anne, great review and a lot of great memories aboard the Explorer.

 

Smitty

Smitty we enjoyed meeting you and your wife. Thanks for great conversation while we all floated on our mats at Barefoot Beach. LOL :p

Great review Anne. We had a fabulous time on this cruise. We didn't get to a lot of the shows because I can't stay up so late but now I wish I did! Loved the ice show and Old San Juan was more beautiful than I remembered from 1991. I will think of Julie RUNNING like a flash at Quest. Hilarious. "Foot in your mouth" has a different meaning to me now. I would love to cruise with you again!

Cathy I really hope we get to cruise together again too. Julie, Ros & I all agreed this was by far one of our best cruises in a long time. And you were all part of that wonderful experience.

Great review Anne -- I finally got myself caught up today! Glad to hear you had such a wonderful final cruise on the Explorer :D Wish we could have been there.

 

I agree with you 100% about avoiding late summer cruising, btw. I realize not everyone has the luxury of avoiding the prime seasons, but I've always found the ship less crowded and the rate (sometimes significantly) less expensive when avoiding prime season. All that said, it is really nice leaving NYC or Bayonne in the summer when you have warm weather immediately!

Exactly Dave, I agree that some people can only cruise in the summer months. I can choose to cruise other times of the year and will do so. Glad you enjoyed the review. One of thaws days we will all cruise together.

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Great review! Can you tell us how the port is coming along? Thanks, Sharon and Mike Kief

Sharon & Mike the pier is professing right along and should me ready in time.

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Thanks again for the great review! We sail a week from tomorrow! SO EXCITED!!

You are very welcome enjoy your cruise!

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Great review Anne. Glad you got to go on Explorer one last time

 

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Thanks Chris, not as good as your usual "Live" reviews but I tried. ;)

Awesome review, Anne - thanks so much for sharing your experience with us! You and the girls are adorable and looked as though all were having a great time!!!

 

Barb

Thanks Barb, that was so sweet of you to say. ;)

Great review. We will be on her 10/23. Do you know who the piano player in the Schooner Bar was?

His name was Anthony, not sure of his last name. He's actually very good friends with a friend of mine. They were meeting him for lunch the day we got back on the Explorer.

Anne, love your review. Did you give Denzil a hug for me? Isn't he a doll? Not only is he so very nice, helpful, dedicated, but very good looking. We've been friends for 6 years now. I didn't tell him we would be on EOS back in May, but when we got to our cabin we had a note and bottle of wine from him. He said he reads the manifest for every cruise and instead of us surprising him, he surprised us. When we first met him, he was our waiter. Later he was on the front desk, Guest Services. Then he was floating concierge filling in for vacations on EOS and Liberty. Next he became concierge on EOS. Hope he keeps moving on up; he deserves it. I know moving to Asia will keep him closer to home, but selfishly I wish he would be moved to Quantum.

 

Glad you had a good time and missed most of the rough weather. I was following along on Seatracker and saw the ship docked in St. Maarten on the port cam so I knew you made it there okay and the storm had passed.

 

We had a JS in May and love, love, loved the walk-in closet. That sure does spoil a person. We were in 9606 and our cabin was is very good condition.

 

Luvs

Thanks Luvs, we absolutely fell in love with Denzil. I know exactly where 9606 is, we always book hump cabin 9618 on past Explorer cruises. Unfortunately we coulnd't book near the hump this cruise because they are only for 2 people.

Anne,

It was nice meeting you and the girls.

Thanks for the review and bringing back the memories.

Agree this was one of the best cruises we had.

I think the Capt.and all of tbe crew deserve a big thank you for making this cruise a great cruise for evryone.

We enjoyed meeting you and your lovely wife, Beth too Tony. Thanks for making our cruise memorable. Hope we get to cruise with you both in the future.

Farewell show

El Morro castle for sail away.

View of the ship from our Labadee cabana.

Enjoying our cabana.

The girls with the rocker

Some photos as promised.

The girls did a tour of the bridge.

Ice show.

One of the things I love about a JS the walk in closet.

9 Aug – Disembarkation Day L

We had a 9:30am tag to get off the ship. Our waiting area was the Palace Theater. They had tea, coffee, water, juices and pastries while you waited. We were out of our cabin around 8:15. I had heard recently that getting off the ship was a nightmare recently. We actually didn’t have any issues at all. They called our tag right at 9:30am. We were off the ship, grabbing our luggage in 5 minutes and through immigration in less than 10 minutes. The lines moved very quickly. We had a car service picking us up. I called to tell them where we were. We were in the car around 10:15am and on our way home. Of course we hit the usual Jersey Shore traffic when we got off the turnpike and picked up the parkway. It was already backed up before the Driscoll Bridge so we opted to get off on route 9 and then route 18. It took an extra maybe 20 minutes to get home. It’s usually only a 40 minute drive.

Last Thoughts

This cruise ranked up there as one of favorites. Not sure if it was because we love the Explorer so much, the wonderful friendly new cruise friends we made the spectacular crew or just being with my daughter and her friend. Sure the Explorer is in desperate need of refurbishment which is scheduled for her soon. We probably won’t cruise in the late summer months again. I found it a bit too crowded for my tastes. Most people were courteous and friendly but you always encounter those people that just complain about every little detail of their cruise rather than enjoying it. I think you find that on every cruise though. Kudos to Leigh X and his activities crew, they go out of their way to ensure everyone is having a good time, take photos and stop to talk to you. High five to Denzil the Concierge for taking very good care of us and becoming a lifelong friend in the process. I am scheduled to sail on the Quantum next April 2015. I hope to make the same type of wonderful memories on that ship. Although the Explorer will be a hard act to follow! Happy Cruising!!!

Really terrific review Anne. I've enjoyed it immensely.:)

Awww thanks so much John. ;)

8 Aug – Last Sea Day

We made today about relaxing and packing up since we woke up to cloudy skies. Forgot to mention we went to MDR for lunch yesterday and today. If you have the opportunity to go to lunch, do it. They have this great tutu salad area. It’s all fresh veggies, meats, cheeses, breads and toppings. There is a chef there to make your salad fresh from scratch. You just tell them what you want and they whip it up for you. Very delicious!

I decided to just walk around the ship, taking some last minute photos and take it in my last glimpses of the ship. I sat up on deck over the pool area watching the line dancing lessons and enjoying a virgin Miami Vice drink (half pina colata & strawberry daiquiri), very yummy. I sat and talked to friends for a while by this time the sun came out but it wasn’t as hot as the previous day. A very relaxing afternoon.

That night we stopped by the Concierge to have a drink and say our goodbyes. Dinner was wonderful as usual. Our wait staff went over and above for us. We went to the Farewell Show and then to the Battle of the Sexes in the Maharaja’s lounge area. This is a game where they pit women against men to do different tasks for team points. They would call up about 6 people at a time and give them a task. One task was running around the room to collect as many ladies shoes as possible in a 2 minute timeframe and then build a pyramid with them. Each team had to do that. They counted the number of shoes and whoever had the most shoes won. The place was packed with standing room only. I was back in my cabin by 1130pm to put out our luggage for midnight pick-up. Disembarkation Day tomorrow!

Thanks! It included chairs and umbrella too?

No it does not. You have to pay to rent chairs and umbrellas. You're mostly paying for the comfortable/easy transportation. They will stop along the way to show different landmarks too. You have to have cash to rent the chairs and umbrellas. Keep your receipt when you return the items, to get your deposit back.

7 Aug – Sea Day

Today we woke up to a sunny bright day and mostly calm seas. I have to say we were very lucky with the weather this cruise. I have never cruised in the summer and was a little leery with a possible tropical storm or hurricane. Thank goodness we dodged that bullet. I’m not a big breakfast person, so I was very happy to stop by the Concierge for a light breakfast before starting my day. I was up on deck 12 in my lounge chair enjoying the great weather by 9:30. My cruise friends joined me and the girls slept in but eventually joined us.

We opted to go see the ice show at 2pm. I think it was called Seasons on Ice. It is always a spectacular show on such a small area. The guest ice skater was a young lady from Las Vegas that could hula-hoop with 100s of hula-hoops. It was really something to see. We weren’t scheduled to see the show that day but it wasn’t crowded and got right in. Leigh, the CD skated out on the ice after the show to tell us what was scheduled for later that night. He is one of my favorite CDs, up there with Richard Spacey. He actually was the assistant CD with Richard on our May 2012 Explorer cruise. They were so in synch together. Will try to find a photo I have of them with me from that cruise and post it too.

After the show, I was in desperate need of a power nap. All the late nights were getting to me, lol. Plus tonight was “The Quest” and I wanted to be wide awake for that. If you have never seen the Quest, think of it as a scavenger hunt for adults and a reason for grown men to dress as females. They break up the audience up into maybe 12 teams and ask for 4 team captains to do all the running. All our new cruise friends came and we sat in the same area of Studio B to form our own team. My daughter, Ros and their 2 brother friends were team captains. You have to experience the Quest at least once. There were a few new requests this game but the concept is usually the same. We ended up getting second place with only a 5 point difference from the winning team. The girls went to the Chamber to dance and mom went to bed. Last sea day tomorrow.

Thanks, any reason why you chose that over doing it on your own? Debating what we should do. We are doing the 5 nt Bermuda so we have 2 days there.

The first time we went to Horseshoe we took the local bus. That was fine for getting there but the buses get very crowded as it gets later in the day. We haven't taken a taxi there though, that may be a better idea. You get dropped off at the top of the hill and have to walk down to Horseshoe beach. I'm not sure if the taxi will drop you off at the top of the hill or will take you to the bottom. The excursion through the ship drops you off at the bottom of the hill and will pick you up there too. I just prefer the timeframe they give us too.

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Will finish the review tomorrow and upload more photos from my album. In the mean time if anyone has any questions, please ask away.

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Thanks for the great review! We are sailing on EOS in 9 days!

 

When you were in Bermuda, did you do the Horseshoe Bay beach trip through the ship? Was your cabana in Labadee at Barefoot beach or nellies? TIA!

Yes we did Horseshoe beach through the ship. We did the 9am time. I liked the early time because it got us back to the pier area around 1pm and time to walk around, ship and have some lunch.

Our cabana was on Barefoot Beach.

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One of the views from our cabana in Labadee.

70s night, Leigh and crew with my girls.

Orient Beach.

This guy was amazing. He walked around with all these cups on his head. He would pour you a cup of coffee and not drop anything.

A photo of the bakery in Old San Juan we love.

A couple photos of Horseshoe Beach.