Just back from Explorer! Wow, what a great ship!

:D It was our first experience with voyager class. We had a great time and I'll write a trip report soon. Any questions while my memory is still fresh?

BTW: our family consisted of DH 48, Moi 45, ds 16 and dd 12 (had her bday on the cruise!). We travelled with another couple our age and their 18 yr old daughter.

Our excursions were: Cave-tubing in Belize (GREAT), Mayan ruins in Costa Maya and Cha Chi resort and ship Atlantis sub tour in Grand Cayman.

I am glad you had a great time! We are sailing in a few weeks and I wanted to ask you if you heard of any cases of the Norwalk virus? I have been reading that it is still lingering on the ship...

Glad to hear it, sailing on her in Aug. Could you tell me if your 12 yr old participated in kids club. Wondering about the 12-14 yr old group and how structured or non-structured it is.

We sail on the Explorer on Sunday :) Glad you had a great cruise! Aren't the Voyager class ship amazing?

I too am curious to know if anyone was sick on the cruise. I hope the "bug" is gone by the time we sail.

How was the entertainment? They said our entertainers will be :

SAL RICHARDS COMEDIAN

RICHIE MINERVINI COMEDIAN

DARRELL JOYCE COMEDIAN

KYM & LES ACRO & AIRIEL SILK

VIOLETTA & PETER ICE ACT - HULA HOOP

MARTIN JENKINS COCKTAIL PIANIST

BILLY GLADES PUB ENTERTAINER

LATIN ILLUSION LATIN TRIO

THE CASTAWAYS SHOWBAND

Did you have the same ones?

Thanks :)

Bobbie

I'm curious about the AO for the 12-14 age group as well. Our 12 year old daughter makes friends very easily and isn't really shy, so I'm hoping there are enough kids she can make friends with early on. Just wonder if, the older the kids are, the AO becomes a ghost town or not. Also have a 16 year old daughter who I was hoping could meet some kids her age, too. Not as worried though, because at her age, she's happy hanging at the pool with her ipod. 12 year old loves to always be doing something.

Your trip sounds wonderful. I was checking out someone else's cruise pictures yesterday, and the cave tubing in Belize looked like something our entire family would love. We won't be doing Belize at all on our cruise next month -- it's our first and we're doing eastern Caribbean. What port did you sail out of to do the itinerary that includes Belize?

I am glad you had a great time! We are sailing in a few weeks and I wanted to ask you if you heard of any cases of the Norwalk virus? I have been reading that it is still lingering on the ship...

Sorry for not responding sooner. Here is what I posted on another thread:

Hi,

We just sailed on the Explorer last week (April 23-30).

Is Explorer still on "Code Red status" -- you can't serve yourself at Windjammer, Midnight Buffet cancelled, employees force you to use sanitizer before eating (which I don't mind), can't board before 2 or 3 because of intensive cleaning etc. ...or is this all a thing of the past...? Can any recent cruisers on EOS chime in?

We began boarding process (in the cruise terminal at 11-11:30).

At the beginning of the week there was visible sanitizing going on and employee at windjammer requesting/reminding you to use sanitizing stations (which most did). By midweek, windjammer was no longer serve yourself, sanitizers were set up going into the dining room and stepped up sanitizing being done around the ship. The midnight buffet went on as scheduled. The windjammer even had caution tape up around the beverage centers. We called it the quarantine line!

My family was affected in various ways; Dh-mild mid week, ds-severe-mild Fri to Sun, dd-sick when we returned home M-W. I was spared probably because I turned into a handwashing machine!

Just be sure to wash your hands frequently and try to avoid hand railing, etc. My ds touches his face constantly. That's probably why he was affected the worse.

ETA: Dh has been sick since 5/3 until today! He 's on the upswing though. Kids seem to be ok.

We sail on the Explorer on Sunday :) Glad you had a great cruise! Aren't the Voyager class ship amazing?

 

I too am curious to know if anyone was sick on the cruise. I hope the "bug" is gone by the time we sail.

 

How was the entertainment? They said our entertainers will be :

 

SAL RICHARDS COMEDIAN

RICHIE MINERVINI COMEDIAN

DARRELL JOYCE COMEDIAN

KYM & LES ACRO & AIRIEL SILK

VIOLETTA & PETER ICE ACT - HULA HOOP

MARTIN JENKINS COCKTAIL PIANIST

BILLY GLADES PUB ENTERTAINER

LATIN ILLUSION LATIN TRIO

THE CASTAWAYS SHOWBAND

 

Did you have the same ones?

Thanks :)

Bobbie

Let's see we had:

In the Palace Theater:

Majestic (very Cirque du Soleil-ish, VERY cool)

Comedian Max Dolcelli

Headliner act "The Temptations" Excellent show

Comedian Eric Lyden: OK. Our cruise director "Allan Brooks" was hillarious whenever he was on stage! I wonder if he was ever a standup comic!!

"Music and Dancing":

Vybes

Piotr Sawicki

Wayne Bayhon

Peter's string Quartet

Castaways Showband

Vijtek Quartet

Billy Glades

Bill GladesLatin Illusion

Martin Jenkins

I'm curious about the AO for the 12-14 age group as well. Our 12 year old daughter makes friends very easily and isn't really shy, so I'm hoping there are enough kids she can make friends with early on. 12 year old loves to always be doing something.

 

Your trip sounds wonderful. I was checking out someone else's cruise pictures yesterday, and the cave tubing in Belize looked like something our entire family would love. We won't be doing Belize at all on our cruise next month -- it's our first and we're doing eastern Caribbean. What port did you sail out of to do the itinerary that includes Belize?

Your 12 year old sounds exactly like mine! My dd actually met her buddies at the pool the first day. I would also strongly suggest you go to the teen club "Optix" on day one. They'll have a couple of open house and welcome party activites.The evening meet & greet will probably have the best attendance. If you don't receive a "Navigators ages 12-14" in your daughters stateroom you can get one in or near Optix. Kids over 12 are allowed to come and go as they please. Most activites take place after 5pm though the hang out place "the Living Room" is open but not staffed from noon-4:00.

Activities through out the week:

Day one:

8-8:30pm-Meet and Greet

9:15- get to know other teens activity

9:45-Raffle Draw

9:45-11pm welcome party in Optix

11-11:30: playstation mania

11:30pm-midnight: late night basketball

Day four:

10:30 am Shuffle board tourney

noon-5:00 pm living room, a place to chill

5:15 kid for a bit, come check out the playstations

8:00 pm Teen rock climbing challenge.

9:00pm movie/entertainment trivia

9:-11:15pm Movie night (All movies are pg or pg13 and edited content)

11:30pm dancing under the stars

Day six:

10:30 am Ping pong

noon-5pm The living room

5:15 In line skating

8:00pm Teen dinner in the windjammer

9:00-11:30pm Prom night

11:45 Late night ravel draw

Midnight Late nigh blackjack tournament

My dd actually turned 12 on the cruise. At home I make her go to bed at 9:00pm so she wasn't allowed to do anything past 10pm except once.

At the beginning of the week she proved that she could follow our rules about where to be and when. So she was allowed a bit more freedom throughout the cruise. Plus the girl she buddied up with seemed like a good kid. One day her and her friend went to Johnny Rockets for lunch then they swam. Another day, they participated in the Navigators mini golf tournement at 5pm. My dd always had supper with us and she always had to tell us what her plans were. Of course, being 12 sometimes we had to scale back her plans a little :p. Hope this wasn't TMI! If you have any other questions let me know. I have some age 15-17 activity guides too. Hoping to post everything on the web soon!

We sailed out of Miami. If you want my Cave-tubing info let me know. It was wonderful!

We sail on the Explorer on Sunday :) Glad you had a great cruise! Aren't the Voyager class ship amazing?

 

I too am curious to know if anyone was sick on the cruise. I hope the "bug" is gone by the time we sail.

 

How was the entertainment? They said our entertainers will be :

 

SAL RICHARDS COMEDIAN

RICHIE MINERVINI COMEDIAN

DARRELL JOYCE COMEDIAN

KYM & LES ACRO & AIRIEL SILK

VIOLETTA & PETER ICE ACT - HULA HOOP

MARTIN JENKINS COCKTAIL PIANIST

BILLY GLADES PUB ENTERTAINER

LATIN ILLUSION LATIN TRIO

THE CASTAWAYS SHOWBAND

 

Did you have the same ones?

 

 

Thanks :)

Bobbie

That's a bit odd - the Explorer never set sail on Sunday, May 7th. Either your counter is off, or it's a week late, because it sails for Bermuda a week later.