Naomigruis

We are going to be on the explorer in November and was wondering what the prices of the specialty coffee was.

i don't drink coffee so i haven't looked yet but i will and get back to you :o

We have organised a stationary and sports equipment drive for a school in Suva, Fiji.

It has been amazing how much has been donated, we have four very large sports bags full of things and over 50 people going on a tour that includes a visit to a local school to donate the items. the tour is only $35 pp and goes about 3 hours. i organised it though our roll call and our Facebook page

I have organised this through Moana Tours (you can find them on Facebook or email on moanatours@yahoo.com)

We do the tour in another 3 days and are very excited to meet the kids.

Sylva,

Thanks for the information. I hope the tendering process is smooth, we have had a lot of issues with tendering in the past.

George

Hi George,

I hope all is well with you both.

the tendering was very good, we waited no longer than maybe 15minutes when getting of the ship and maybe 5-10 minutes when getting back on. On the whole a lot of people where saying how well run the tendering was

sylva

I asked this question on your roll call but have yet to get a response. Do you know if you book one of those debarkation excursions that drop you off at the airport once completed whether you luggage remains with you on the minibus? I am doing this same cruise next year and spending a few days in Coogee Beach before flying to Barcelona to do a TA. I would like to do one of the excursions and once at the airport would like to grab a cab from there to my hotel.

will find out and let you know

The four of us had our first go at the mini golf course today, what fun. There was nine holes of laughter and fun.

Needless to say that Pete and Marg (my partner and his sister) won with Susan and myself well behind, as such a rematch will be had in the morning, may the best golfer win.

i encourage everyone to give mini golf a go, i cant think of the last time i played but it was a fun sea day activity.

Thanks so much for taking the time to update and provide us with some useful information, sounds like you are having a great cruise. Enjoy the rest of your cruise and I am waiting patiently to board on Nov 2. Also what deck are you on? We have an inside cabin on Deck 6 towards the back of the ship.

we are on 7 at the front of the ship. on deck 6 you at the back you will most likely be above the mine time dinning room, this is not used most breakfast and lunches so you should be good on the noise front unless you want a super early night.

I find deck 7 great as its only a few down to all the inside public areas which is good for after shows and dinner when lifts are very busy.

We find the insides comfortable and we are the type of cruisers that spend no time in our cabin other than to sleep.

you will love this ship its has a good variety of things to do and a large amount of different public spaces

Tonight was our second formal night, and it was Lobster Night:D

Yes Lobster Night is alive and well on RCI. :p

Dresscode: i was always lead to believe that on formal nights the minimum was a dark suite with ties for the men and a cocktail dress for the Ladies.

Now it maybe that being a longer cruise (i think this is the longer RCI offers without doing a B2B) they have not enforced the dress code as much but there where many people with even a jacket at dinner and very few women where in true "formal" clothes.

Pete wears a Tux and i cocktail dress's i find hard the fun is putting on our glad rags.

The food was once again very good, i had a duck pate that was to die for and the lobster tail and a nice three cheese Ravioli. For desert i have the Baked Alaska that was ok.

It may have taken us 10 days but we won a Trivia, that highlighter is all mine :D

I am typing this as i wait for a movie on the big screen to start so i thought now would be a god time to write about them

Something to remember that the average age of this cruise is somewhat higher than the norm and there are very few kids on board.

The movies are shown at 6pm and 9pm on the big screen at the pool each night. its always the same movie but my issue so far is that its always been kids movies. things like the angry birds, the leggo movie, one of the star treks and tonight the new jungle book movie.

These are not really a great choice for the age of the cruisers and so far i haven't seen any kids at the 9pm screening, i think that a different more adult movie could be shown then.

Another minor complaint is no popcorn is offered and no drink waiters.

There is also movies shown at 10:30pm in the Palace Theatre which is a more adult movie but i have yet to stay up for one of theses.

I still have not been able to upload photos but i have been keeping the Compass's from each day.

if anyone would like them emailed please email me on sglie1 at Yahoo dot com and i will send you the ones i have so far.

We had two days here with a overnight port.

The first thing i will mention is that this is a Tender Port and THEY DID NOT RUN THE TENDERS ALL NIGHT.[/color] The last tender was about 1:30am and the first the next day was 6am. This was a issue for those with private sunrise tours and some fishing tours that wanted people to meet them at 4am. not sure what happened with this in the end but i would say that the tours would have to be cancelled.

This Port day was great with so many options for things to do. The ship tenders right at Front Street a great area for local tourist shops and restaurants. We enjoyed Bubba Gumps the first day and stopped in for a drink at Mick Fleatwoods Bar the Second day in the afternoon.

There is a coffee shop called Mr W(something) just a little way down on front street on the left hand side that has what my sister says (i don't drink coffee) the best coffee since they left Australia. The ship has a starbucks which she won't drink as they only use long life milk not fresh.

There is a shuttle service offered by a Hawaiian shop that will take you to the far end of the shopping area where the outlet mall is and then its a easy walk back to the ship or you can take the shuttle back. we got some great buys :D

The second day we decided to hire a taxi for a few hours (there is four of us) and have them do a mini tour around. It cost us US$150 for the two hours and ended at Whalers Village. Our Taxi drive was very good and had bottle water on board for us and took us to some great places with amazing views.

After a beautiful lunch in Whalers Village of local fish we had a swim and a relax on the beach for a few hours (i wish i had taken my snorkel) then a short taxi ride ($16) back Front street.

All up a relative inexpensive way to see and do lots in maximum comfort.

What a beautiful Beach. although very crowded.

As i said we got a taxi for ease of use from the Ship to Waikiki Beach and had a bit of a sit and people watch.

I also did a little bit of shopping but not much as we had already done a lot and i had been told our next port was a better place to shop. My sisters who are also on this cruise spent the day here having a wonder around and a nice lunch overlooking the water.

This was a good port if you didn't want to do a lot but i do know quite a few people ventured but further than us and had a great day. For us the combo of Pearl Harbour and a look around Waikiki was a busy enough day.

We had one day in Honolulu are i really wanted to visit the Pearl Harbour Memorial. I am not one to book Shore excursions with the Cruise Lines but i was confused over the ticketing for Perl Harbour and due to a tight time frame (we had the one day here only) i decided to go with the ships do it yourself guided tour that included the USS Missouri.

We were docked and it took no time to disembark, we meet our group in the terminal area and was on the bus on our way within about 10 minutes. The Company was Grey Lines and they where great.

Our tour guide gave us a running commentary about the area on the drive there which was nice. Once we where at the Visitors Centre he went right to the Booth for the tickets for the USS Arizona Memorial and got ticket for that as well for the whole bus, he timed it so that we could go our Missouri tour, come back have a look around for about an hour then go to the Arizona tour with everyone in the same group so getting everyone back on the bus at the end was easy and on time.

We asked him about going into Waikiki after and he recommended to go back to the ship and get either one of the free shuttles offered by the shopping centres or a taxi (we went with he taxi it was about $20 each way)

Although not the cheapest option for seeing Perl Harbour (about Au$100 each) it was time effective and easy to use. would highly recommend.

Hi everyone

Well is been a very busy few day with three port days in Hawaii.

I will be doing my review on these tomorrow when I have a bit of down time

Sylva

This is the first day that the sun was out although he wind was as well it was still nice enough to enjoy the great outdoors.

I went up and back of the ship to see the Flow Ridder, Wow that thing looks fun, i may work up the courage to have a go but being at the beginning of the cruise its still pretty busy.

There are two main pool areas, the Adult only Solarium (no roof on this one) and the main Pool area (this is the only pool that the kids can use as the kids pool was removed it fit in the flow rider).

There are also six hot tubs between them and another large indoor one in the gym - this is great for bad weather days.

There was only one pool open today and it could have been the flow rider the waves where moving the water so much but i still managed to spend a good hour in there, the water was warm (about 26 degree so it must be heated).

Saving of chairs was not really a issue as there were a large amount vacant around the pool, i found one next to the pool in the shade in less the 30 seconds. Im sure this will change as more people realise that the weather has warmed up.

This is a very large area at the back of the ship that does all the buffet style dinning.

We have had breakfest her most days (although the last two i have missed as i have enjoyed a few sleep ins :D). The food on the whole is ok for this style of dinning, the usual options and mostly hot and fresh.

Something i did notice is that they now have a Gluten Free Section, i have sailed with Gluten intolerant friends before so i know this can be a problem for them.

The lunch is good with lots of different foods each day, i have enjoyed the salads and fruits on offer and i have to say the chicken wings where good.

Compared to other Cruise lines this Windjammer has been above the average.

The only issue is during the peak times finding a seat despite how big it is.

We are My Time Dinning as we find the first sitting to early to eat and the end way to late.

We are in the dinning room for dinner at about 6:30 and up to now it takes about 45 minutes to compete the meal (sometimes a little longer if we are chatting with our table mates)

Lunch is 11:30 to 1pm and takes about 30 minutes but service can be a bit slow due to larger numbers arriving all at once.

The food has been very good, i have not had anything i would send back because it was not cooked well (i have tried a few dishes i would not order again but it was about my personal taste not he quality of the meal)

The wait staff has been great, so far i cant fault them. There is a new menu being rolled out so lots of dishes i have not seen before. Another positive that unlike some other Cruise Lines the lunch menu does change day to day.

The bread rolls are really good, actually the bread on a whole has been very tasty, this may seem like a minor thing but i don't like american bread as a rule i find it very sweet so after no eating bread or toast for the last five weeks a bread roll with butter (and vegemite in the mornings) has been bliss.

Thanks very much for the posts! Do you have any idea of the price and or availability of the "buckets of beer" ? We are trying to weigh up options for DH, who only drinks beer.

Continue having a wonderful relaxing cruise and thanks again!

 

Cheers Kris :D

A bucket of beer is the price of the 4 beers with the 5th free. So different for different beers. I hope this helps.

If you like Trivia this is the cruise for you.

There is about 6 different Trivia's throughout the day and night. They are fun, not to serious with a large range of topics.

Hint have a girl in their twenties on your team for the Disney Trivia. :D

Highest we have got is 12 out of 15 so far but no win's :(

The Lady that organised the Slot Pull for our roll call had to cancel her cruise two days before sailing so i volunteered to take over for her. Never having even done one before this was a adventure :eek:

We had 65 people so we used two machines or i think we would still be going :D

cost $21 each and we got back $15 each and had a great time. it took about 2 hours in the end but everyone had a great time. if you are thinking of joining one do.

The Casino Host gave us the two dinners for two at Giovanni's and some casino packs as prizes so that was a bonus.

There is no self serve laundry on this ship and unlike some other lines you cant ask for a iron and ironing board to do it yourself.

We had 3 shirts, one suite, two polo shirts and a dress pressed the first day and it cost about $US33.

Today there was a "special" in our room for a fold and wash bag of $US35, fill the bag with t-shirts, underwear, socks ect.

I have brought along with me a "scrubber Bag" this is a laundry bag made in Australia and sold at mountain designs or online for $AU65 and you can hand wash your clothes in this, works great.

The cabin is very comfortable.

The bed is on the firm side (but i like that) and the pillows are not to thick that they hurt my neck so winning on the beds. The only thing about the bed was that when they where together there was no room to walk beside then as the couch on one side and the tv on the other almost touch it. As a result we asked for them to bed moved apart, much more room but does mean any fun time will need a crossing of the divide ;)

There is a good amount of draws and hanging room and all our bags fix under the the bed.

The bathroom has the round shower screen and although compact does not feel to small.

For the ladies there is a hair dryer that will do job in a pinch but if you have long or thick hair i would think you will struggle. I have short fine curly hair so mostly let it air dry, but do have my hair straightener (also doubles as a iron for my clothes)

If you like a bathroom robe ask for one on the first day, they will be delivered to your room

Hi,

 

Glad you are having a good time and thank you for doing this Q&A. Do you know if the crew are changing for the Australia season or have they already changed? I am going on the 29th November sailing and counting the days to being onboard

 

I was glad to hear the crew did the dance in Johnny Rockets, I had heard that they didn't do it anymore.

 

Gail

Its a mix, some are staying, some have extended a few months so that they can visit Australia and some finish up when we get to Sydney.

If i know what cruise i want to do next i alway book on board

We are planning a 13 night NZ cruise from Sydney next on Radiance OTS in jan 18.

If you book on a current cruise it is a reduced deposit (US$150) for the 13 night one and that money can be taken either as on board credit on the cruise your on or the one you are booking for.

we always take it on the current cruise so that if we need to cancel for any reason we haven't really paid anything

Booking desk was easy, Mark the next cruise guy was very helpful and it only took about 15 minutes.

We have sailed on her sister ship Voyager twice so far and will be boarding Explorer for our cruise once you guys get off in Sydney, enjoy your cruise we are following your posts with interest [emoji846]

 

 

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We will try not to break her :D