Oldlovers

We travelled on Explorer back in March. She is very scruffy externally with rust and grime all over her, dirty windows, bent and dented fixtures and fittings which look like they’ve been oxy cut and not tidied up and layers of paint caked on various fittings and surfaces that have not been cleaned back and prepared beforehand and paint sploshed on equipment which should have been masked off to protect them. Inside, she looks generally ok bearing in mind, she is on the go constantly so it’s understandable there is a bit of wear n tear. One would assume that Carnival aka P&O are flogging it as hard as they can to make money out of it with tight control over maintenance costs.

We just completed a 14 day Adelaide/NZ/Adelaide cruise on Pacific Explorer. It is nowhere close to the standard I have previously enjoyed on trips with Princess, Celebrity and Royal Caribbean cruise ships over the last 20 years. Pacific Explorer looks lovely from a distance but is noticeably tired in so many ways once aboard. Rusty exterior superstructure with layers of crusty paint over corroded exterior and crud, dirty salt spray over external windows which don’t look like they have been cleaned in a long time , bent and dented external fittings, external timber rails need stripping and recoating. Internally generally ok other than occasional breakdowns of passenger elevators. Worn and grubby carpets in our cabin. On board costs were ridiculously overpriced…Drinks of every description including alcohol, soda’s, tea, coffee and water, Photography, Specialty services (gym, beauty services), On board shopping prices exorbitant for all forms of merchandise and limited range of products, Charge for room service, ice cream parlour, alfresco bbq both chargeable, no stocked mini-bar in the cabin or tea/coffee making facilities. The entertainment was very enjoyable, the food was generally quite good and plentiful, but outside dining area serving hours, there was nothing available anywhere for a snack and the only place to get a tea or coffee was on deck 14. A few vending machines here and there with packaged snackfoods, canned drinks, chocolate's, chips etc would do very well if prices were reasonable. Overall, ‘you only get what you pay for’ and P&O know that. The lower cost fares catch the clients but once aboard, they milk your money unashamedly, so for potential cruisers, ‘caviat-emptor’. I would class it as 3 1/2 star, so don’t have any great expectations.