Just back from Explorer 9 day Bermuda and Bahamas

[octagonmike]

My brief review/thoughts:

 

 

• Embarkation at Bayonne was easiest ever Embarkation. Arrived at 10:30 am, checked in by 11am, on ship by 12 midday.
  
• Debarkation similarly easy. Managed to get latest debarkation possible (11:15am) and was off ship and through customs by 11:30am
  
• Ports of call: Bermuda - Done it now, no need to go back - quaint. Nassau - waste of time - Atlantis - rip off boring hotel....so what ? Cococay - loved it, far better than Labadee in our opinion
  
• Ship - lovely ship, recently refurbed (Jan 2010 dry dock for 12 days), new pools, jacuzzis, pool deck, carpets in many public areas. Noticably smaller than Freedom class in my opinion.
  
• MDR - Superb. Food was gorgeous, MTD worked superbly well. Windjammer - noticably smaller than Freedom class, food ok. Johnny Rockets - pile of crap. Portofino - lovely.
  
• Best Bar - Champagne bar
  
• Best barman - Arturro from Peru. Was in Champagne bar for last 2 cruises in Sky Bar from this week. Sugar (Casino) and Lewis (Chamber) were also superb
  
• Shows - Really good. Really enjoyed the ships version of Jersey Boys and Fast Forward 70's and 80's show.
  
• 70's part in Promenade - exactly the same as "Dancing in the Street" on Liberty last year.
  
• Cruise Director - Mike Upyerbum or something from Australia - truly terrible and cheesy. Probably the unfunniest man on earth.
  
• Belly Flop Comp - Was hilarious
  
• Accomodation - We had room 9218 outisde cabin adjacent to balcony cabin meaning we had 5 - 6 ft more room in cabin than the next door balcony cabin. We will NOT bother booking a balcony again. Outside cabin worked really well for us.
  
• Stateroom attendant - Vita. Very nice and helpful.
  
• Would I do this cruise again ? - No
  
• Would I cruise with RCI again ? - Probably but looking forward to trying NCL in September
  

So there you have it. Any questions ?

[octagonmike]

Oh and another thing. Oldest cruise demographic on a cruise so far. I would say 50% over 60 years old and 15 - 20% over 70 years old.

 

Quite a sedate ship really, lots of knitting going on. :D

[denisemac]

So very true about the age demographics on this ship!

I thought the same thing!

[octagonmike]

So very true about the age demographics on this ship!

I thought the same thing!

 

 

Gods own cruising waiting room = The Solarium on Explorer of The Seas :D

[hollon]

I was thinking about going to Bermuda, am I confused or would you recommend the island or not - for Atlantis, is that worth going, isn't that the place w/ waterslides that everyone wants to go to, why didn't you like it? Just trying to figure out if I should waste my time?

[octagonmike]

I was thinking about going to Bermuda, am I confused or would you recommend the island or not - for Atlantis, is that worth going, isn't that the place w/ waterslides that everyone wants to go to, why didn't you like it? Just trying to figure out if I should waste my time?

 

Atlantis - Giant Hotel Complex that charges $60 each to use the beach and $ 120 each to use the water slides.

 

It really is just a massive hotel and to be honest nothing special whatsoever. The beaches were actually pretty dirty.

 

Bermuda is ok but 2 days there is overkill. Especially as one day is Sunday when EVERYTHING closes. Nice beach close to port called Snorkel Beach. Hamilton is ok but to be honest it was just a bit "so what".

[cruiserhal]

I was also on the same trip and agree with most of the comments.

 

This was our third cruise on this ship with Mike the Cruise Director and he was not the same. Almost never saw him. It was an off cruise for him.

 

We found the production shows to be only fair. We never heard a worse "Moon River" by any singer.

 

If you check the Meet & Mingle board for this cruise you will see at least 7 of us got the flu.

 

I had some very frustrating experiences with constant finger pointing by the staff all trip. Can't tell you how many times I heard "I'ts not my fault" or my favoriate "They made a mistake". They who? It comes under "don't ask, don't tell" so I don't know. I won't go into more detail because you just get flamed on this board but, like you, I will never sail the Explorer again. If the rumors of changing the C&A perks/levels are true I will think very hard about going on RCI again. First time in 33 cruises I turned in a bad comment card. Except for these problems I would have rated everything just fine and moved on to the next RCI cruise.

 

Anyway, thanks for your review. I was wondering how others felt.

 

Hal

[DPurcell58]

Go to the Atlantis on your own. Book a day room at the Comfort Suites, you get wrist bands for the water park, costs you much less than ship's excursion. Also, this time of year is finals for school, you probably won't find a lot of families and therefore that's why you saw older people.

[Jimbo]

any construction going on onboard while you were on your cruise?

 

Jimbo:)

[octagonmike]

Go to the Atlantis on your own. Book a day room at the Comfort Suites, you get wrist bands for the water park, costs you much less than ship's excursion. Also, this time of year is finals for school, you probably won't find a lot of families and therefore that's why you saw older people.

 

 

I have no intention of ever returning to Atlantis to be honest and I didn't do the ship tour. Atlantis charge $60 for beach access and $120 for water park.

 

As for the age group, according to Explorer staff it's always full of older people apparently. That's why the sea day activities were as exciting as napkin folding and line dancing.

[octagonmike]

any construction going on onboard while you were on your cruise?

 

Jimbo:)

 

 

Not sure what you mean by "construction"

[marci22]

I can see the older demographic in mid-May on a longer cruise. We usually go during the summer and expect about 1000 kids onboard with their families. If you go during NJ schools break (early November) you'll also see a lot of kids as the ship goes out of Bayonne.

[octagonmike]

I can see the older demographic in mid-May on a longer cruise. We usually go during the summer and expect about 1000 kids onboard with their families. If you go during NJ schools break (early November) you'll also see a lot of kids as the ship goes out of Bayonne.

 

 

 

1000 kids onboard !!!!!!

 

*shudder*

[Jimbo]

Not sure what you mean by "construction"

 

Like loud noises onboard , like sanding and scraping going on. Plumbing pipes being replaced, Read on another thread that alot of things that should have been done during dry dock in January 2010 were not done and are now being done.

 

Just wondered if you saw or heard any of that. Also what deck were you on? Maybe it wasn't being done in your area of the ship.

[marci22]

1000 kids onboard !!!!!!

 

*shudder*

 

They're older kids, so it really isn't so bad. I have more problem with toddlers-7yos on Disney screaming "Mom, look!" every 2 seconds.

 

And I would add that the younger people are often more polite than the cursing, pushing, rude adults I have encountered. Just my experience.

[marci22]

Like loud noises onboard , like sanding and scraping going on. Plumbing pipes being replaced, Read on another thread that alor of things that should have been done during dry dock in January 2010 were not done and are now be done.

 

Just wondered if you saw or heard any of that. Also just what deck were you on? Maybe it wasn't being done in your area of the ship.

 

I really wouldn't have booked this ship (for July) if I had known about these events taking place. I am past final so at this point, I'll just have to get lucky.

[octagonmike]

Like loud noises onboard , like sanding and scraping going on. Plumbing pipes being replaced, Read on another thread that alot of things that should have been done during dry dock in January 2010 were not done and are now being done.

 

Just wondered if you saw or heard any of that. Also what deck were you on? Maybe it wasn't being done in your area of the ship.

 

 

Only time I recall such work was on Debarkation day. We were on Deck 9 Forward (very forward - 4 cabins from front).

 

I saw the maintenance team cleaning down some stainless steel architectural steelwork on deck 12 after returning to ship whilst anchored off Coco Cay. Didn't affect me whatsoever.

[cruisebunnies]

Oh and another thing. Oldest cruise demographic on a cruise so far. I would say 50% over 60 years old and 15 - 20% over 70 years old.

 

Quite a sedate ship really, lots of knitting going on. :D

 

Every ship I have ever cruised on was a Gods waiting room full of fussy old people who do nothing but complain and have no idea how to have fun.

FYI iam almost 70 and find the demographic too old for me!

[octagonmike]

Every ship I have ever cruised on was a Gods waiting room full of fussy old people who do nothing but complain and have no idea how to have fun.

FYI iam almost 70 and find the demographic too old for me!

 

 

Liberty out of Miami this time last year was much much younger crowd.

[Jimbo]

Only time I recall such work was on Debarkation day. We were on Deck 9 Forward (very forward - 4 cabins from front).

 

I saw the maintenance team cleaning down some stainless steel architectural steelwork on deck 12 after returning to ship whilst anchored off Coco Cay. Didn't affect me whatsoever.

 

Must not being a bad as some are making it out to be then. The other thread was that Thread called "All Things Explorers of The Seas"

 

Was kind of worried since my sister and brother-in-Law are scheduled on her mid June and my wife and I are scheduled the end of November.

 

Jimbo

[octagonmike]

Must not being a bad as some are making it out to be then. The other thread was that Thread called "All Things Explorers of The Seas"

 

Was kind of worried since my Sisiter and Brother-in-Law are scheduled on her mid June and my wife and I are scheduled the end of November.

 

Jimbo

 

 

As I said there were a LOT of older passengers on board and you know how they can exaggerate and love a moan ;):D

[denisemac]

I was told by another passenger on this cruise who apparently was upset that there were maybe 45 kids between the ages of 3-5, that "there are other cruise lines for families, RCCL is not one of them".

 

Imagine how she must have felt when right after she told me this my whole family, including my 5 year old walked up to us..;)

 

As far as the construction, I did not witness any of it, but I guess that there were passengers affected by it, and I do feel sorry that this happened to them during their vacation.

 

My experience with Bermuda was that if I was to go again, I would certainly plan my time there better. We had nothing planned and just decided to explore. MISTAKE!!! We had no clue what we were doing and found ourselves spending a lot of time on the buses trying to figure out to get from one place to another.....The bus rides.....well, that is a whole different story. I wish I picked up one of those t-shirts I saw proclaiming that I did, in fact, "survive the bus ride"

[marci22]

Must not being a bad as some are making it out to be then. The other thread was that Thread called "All Things Explorers of The Seas"

 

Was kind of worried since my sister and brother-in-Law are scheduled on her mid June and my wife and I are scheduled the end of November.

 

Jimbo

 

As mentioned on that thread, some people were not affected at all; it depended on the location of your cabin. If your cabin is in the vicinity of where the work is being done, I'm sure it is not very pleasant.

[bamelin]

Eek, I'm doing the exact same cruise in 2 weeks!

 

Wife and I are only in our early late 20's and early 30's, I hope it's not too sedate on board!

[octagonmike]

Eek, I'm doing the exact same cruise in 2 weeks!

 

Wife and I are only in our early 30's, I hope it's not too sedate on board!

 

 

Around the pool is fairly lively by day (you will however be sick to death of hearing the one or two CDs played on deck and the repetetive sound of the "house band" Caribbean Force).

 

By night was a bit dull for us. Most of the bars seemed to be targeting the older generation with piano music, "romantic strings" etc.

 

The Chamber nightclub is open every night until late but it is a pretty dead and gloomy place to be.

 

I ended up losing in the casino most nights and then sitting in the Champagne bar and chatting to the barman.