The Holidays on the Explorer: My Diary

[maxs mom]

We noticed lots and lots of shells on the beach.....huge conch shells, sea fans, lots of beautiful shells. There had been a large churning action in the ocean there recently and caused this. There was also a lot of sand deposited on the beach as well. There was a strong rip current today and lots of broken shells right where you walk into the water. Once you got over these shells the bottom was very sandy and it was pleasant out in the water.

The beach bar here is called The Nest and is owned by Elvis. I met Elvis today. Sorry I didn't have my camera with me at the time so I couldn't get a picture. But here is a picture of The Nest. Good food and great drinks here. Getting drinks is fast, but you might have to wait a bit for your food.....but it is cooked fresh and is delicious. My favorite is the coconut shrimp......excellent!!!

I finally got to meet Tonythewop from CC.

Glenn made a beer run for us!

You can get a bucket of beer ....6 for $15....good deal.

[maxs mom]

I had a little mishap here today. I was out in the water enjoying a swim. I was ready to get out, but right at the line of shells in the water there was a huge current and this wave came along at the wrong time and knocked me off my feet. I hit the bottom right where all those broken shells were and cut my hand pretty badly on the shells. The current was so strong that I couldn't get up so I scraped my leg all along those shells. Yikes! My buddy, Louise, came to the rescue and helped me up, so all was well. I thought surely I was going to need stitches! Didn't want to go there! Another nice fellow cruiser came over and brought me a disinfectant wipe and a bandaid. So with a lot of cleaning and plenty of pressure, it turned out OK. I have a nice little scar now, and it still hurts a little. Thanks, Louise, for coming to the rescue. I think she got a little scraped up, too! We still had a very, very nice time at the beach today.

Our driver came back to get us right on time. Back to the ship. Time for a nap. John was still feeling pretty lousy and slept most of the day.

[maxs mom]

Tonight after dinner we went to the Love and Marriage Game show. Always funny, even though they haven't changed the format or questions in 25 years! It was a good show and our CC buddies David and Nancy won. They were the middle couple.

Jimmy Rhodes was our Cruise Director. He was good. We have had him before when he first started out as a CD. That was on the Empress of the Seas. He was very personable and always stopped to talk to me when he saw me. He even remembered the particular cruise that we were on with him on the Empress. Nice guy, but not the caliber of Dave Chapman, or Simeon Baker. There were many, many mistakes in the Cruise Compass, which was ultimately his responsibility. I understand that he put on a fabulous performance doing the 70's party. We didn't get there for that. He started out as a RCI dancer on the ships.

Lots of laughs at the L&M game show.

[maxs mom]

Wednesday......12-29-10

St. Maarten

Well.....our weather luck ran out today. When we look out today, we see that there is a threat of rain. John is feeling better today and we were going over to Orient Beach on our favorite and one and only excursion that we ever do through the ship. It's the Beach Rendezvous Excursion and I highly recommend it. But today, when we meet on the pier, we find out that it has been cancelled. Oh.....we docked at the pier that was built for the Oasis today. Five or six ships in port today!

Sad to see the rain in St. Maarten:

So we stay on the ship and eat lunch, then head out to visit our favorite jeweler.....Harry.....at Royal Jewelers. We've been doing business with Harry for a number of years now. He was expecting us today and was glad to see us!! Ha! He had the beer cold and we had a nice visit. I had some repairs done and John looked over some new trinkets. I left them and went to do some other shopping while they negotiated. I'm always surprised with the nicest things for Christmas, Valentine's Day, Our Anniversary and my birthday.......hmmmmm.......I've got a really BIG birthday coming up this year!

Edited January 9, 2011 by max'smom

[maxs mom]

We used the water taxi for transportation today to and from the ship.

I found some really cute bathing suit cover-ups today. The best I was able to find in all the ports.

 

Dinner was good tonight......tiger shrimp. We started out the cruise by getting the low sodium versions of the meal. We did this on the Serenade this past summer and it was wonderful. This ship just couldn't get it right, so we reverted back to the regular meals.

 

Tonight.....John was feeling bad again so he went on to bed. I went to the new Blind Date show. First time they had tried this. It was pretty lame.

Edited January 9, 2011 by max'smom

[alexkrn46]

I am loving your review, the Explorer is the only Voyager class ship I have never been on. This cruise sounds so wonderful, one day of rain isn't too bad. I love your "trinkets" your husband has great taste. Keep the review coming.

[maxs mom]

As I've said before. The CL was pretty dead most nights. There was this one couple that we noticed in there across the way a couple of times. I kept thinking that they looked British. One night we were seated in the section next to theirs and I heard them speak. Well......I immediately had to ask where they were from because the man sounded exactly like me! Turns out they were from a town about 30 miles from my hometown in South Carolina!!! We enjoyed visiting with them for the remainder of the cruise. They even helped John out with some cold medicine.

It's just amazing who you meet on a cruise ship. I always encourage people to be active on their roll call, sit at large tables, speak to people at various places. Talk to your tablemates at breakfast. We have met some wonderful people on cruises and as I've said before....made life long friends in some cases.

[maxs mom]

I am loving your review, the Explorer is the only Voyager class ship I have never been on. This cruise sounds so wonderful, one day of rain isn't too bad. I love your "trinkets" your husband has great taste. Keep the review coming.

 

He'll be glad to hear that!! This is the third time we've been on Explorer. It's a nice ship. Wish they had a Chops, though! I really prefer the Radiance Class ships. You just get more specialized attention on the "smaller" ships.

[maxs mom]

Thursday 12-19-10

At Sea

So.....all the ports of call have been made and now we have three days at sea back to Bayonne. We heard about all the snow while we were gone and rejoiced in the fact that we weren't there!

Here we are heading back north. We had three glorious days at sea......great weather all three days.

We had a leisurely breakfast in the D/D+ dining room this morning. Remember those two bottle os champagne that we won at the M&M? Well I found a use for them. We invited a number of our roll call buddies to our cabin at 11:00 for a mimosa party. Francis arranged to have some champagne flutes and orrange juice delivered to our cabin and our cabin steward iced down the champagne for us. We had a nice little soiree.

Edited January 9, 2011 by max'smom

[maxs mom]

We had quite a crowd but plenty of room for everybody.

We had a great time.

Lots of nap time and reading time today.

John is still feeling lousy.

[The Big Booper]

Tonight after dinner we went to the Love and Marriage Game show. Always funny' date=' even though they haven't changed the format or questions in 25 years! It was a good show and our CC buddies David and Nancy won. They were the middle couple. [/size']

 

 

 

 

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You have let these pictures out into the outer world:D Notice, as usual, the matching shirts.

 

We used the water taxi for transportation today to and from the ship.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Yellow Banana is the new water taxi service, supplementing the older service. Did you see the older water taxis??

Edited January 9, 2011 by The Big Booper

[maxs mom]

Friday......12-31-10.....New Year's Eve

At Sea

When we wake up this morning.....John immediately says that he needs to go to the doctor. This sinus pressure is just not getting relieved with OTC meds and he is miserable. So off we go to the doctor's office. You know he is feeling bad when he goes to the doctor on the ship......first time in 25 years of cruising. They were very nice and helpful. He got some high powered antibiotics and an antihistimine and went straight back to bed after we got some breakfast. We were afraid to look at the bill when it came, but actually it was not too bad. Whew!

Since John was sleeping.....I spent the day visiting with folks on the Promenade and doing some people watching. I found a quiet spot up at Dizzy's to do some reading. Then I went to the WJ to get a scone ( I love scones!) and do some more reading.

John felt a lot better after sleeping all day and getting those antibiotics in his system. It was formal night so we dressed and went to dinner.

[maxs mom]

Lots of merry making in the MDR this night!!

I'll have to hand it to Tory and Brian for sitting at a table of old farts for the whole cruise. They handled it very well and acted in a very mature way.......well most of the time!!!

[maxs mom]

As we left the dining room that night, I wished a Happy New Year to my boys, Joe and Tony. I just love them!

John wanted to go on to bed and take some more medicine, so I went to meet friends at Dizzy's to bring in the New Year. Last year we went down on the Promenade for the balloon drop and all the excitement. It really is quite nice, BUT......so crowded that it prevented it from being enjoyable. We were smushed. Didn't want to do that again so we spent a much more quiet time this year up at Dizzy's.

[maxs mom]

They passed around the champagne and we were soon joined by Helen and Graham, then Gary and Steph. We had a nice time visiting with them until around 2 AM!

Hey!!! I think these people are over served!!!!!

[maxs mom]

Yep.......over served all right!!! What deck is our cabin on!!?????

We have a walk in closet!!!

Happy New Year!!!!!!

[maxs mom]

Saturday......1-1-11

At Sea

Felt a little rough this morning. Slept in just a little. Went down to breakfast in the D/D+ dining room to find it closed. There was some sort of special brunch in the MDR. This is the second time that happened with no notice. They didn't tell us in the dining room and it was not mentioned in the Compass! Oh well......we went to the WJ and had a nice breakfast there.

Next we went down to pick out pictures that we wanted and used our coupons. I had been putting all our pictures together in one place all cruise so we could easily find them and decide which ones we wanted. Then we went to the casino to use our "Spin to Win" Ha ha...coupons. I won 3 plastic key chains....woo hoo!

The remainder of the morning was spent packing.....Ugh!! I hate that chore. We brought way too much stuff!!! We will not do this again! Except for my shoes! I brought 17 pairs of shoes and I wore every one of them!!!

At 3:00 we scheduled a last meeting with our roll call group at Dizzy's. We had a nice turn out once again and had a nice time visiting and saying good-bye. :(

[maxs mom]

Here's one more picture of our get together.

We rested, read, and napped the rest of the afternoon.

In the CL tonight.....Nan and her family came in all dressed up and made everyone smile!!

We said good-bye to Francis.

And the great bar servers in there, Moose and Hugo!

[maxs mom]

Then it was time to go to our last dinner with our wonderful tablemates. :(

It was a busy day and we had to get up pretty early in the morning so we went right to bed after dinner.

[sharonlacey]

Thank you for your great TR, really enjoyed it. We will be on this cruise in March can't wait and thanks again!!!!!

 

Sharon

[The Big Booper]

As far as New Years Eve, we spent 2008 and 2009 getting crammed beyond a NY subway car in the Promenade so we hung out in the Schooner Bar listening to Steve this trip.

 

The pop-up flash on your Nikon is powerful and appears to give you coverage 20-25 feet away; not the case with most of the smaller P & Ss, even high end ones like ours which is ng past 10-12 feet.

 

We had different habit patterns on the ship so most of the pictures in our album will be different then yours, except for beach scenes and the M & Ms.

 

The bad weather at St. Martin was a downer but I had a contingency plan, rent a car and spend most of the day at Maho and the crazy airport and landing strip.

Edited January 9, 2011 by The Big Booper

[maxs mom]

Sunday.....1-2-11

Bayonne

Up early this morning and breakfast in the WJ. We were hoping to be off pretty early this morning so that we could get on the road! Last year we were on the road by 8:30. Not so this time. Not sure what the delay was. Our waiting area was in the Palace Theater and really, we didn't have to wait that long, but we weren't called to get off the ship until 8:45. We had a private elevator to use to get down to Deck One. That was nice. There were further delays when we got to the luggage area. But we finally got our luggage and trudged out to the taxi area. Before, we were able to get a taxi right away, but not today. We waited a good bit and finally were assigned to a van that was going to the airport area. It was Ok and cheaper.....$30 plus tip.

We finally got to our car around 10:00. Getting on the road that late made a big difference and it was a long trip home......11 hours. As soon as we got home, we just fell into bed.....I had to work the next day!

It took all week to get unpacked and the laundry done, but that's finally over. Now if somebody would just put away this Christmas stuff.

Once again we had a great cruise, met some wonderful people, and made a lot of memories. I so love cruising at this time of year! Unfortunately RCI doesn't have any decent holiday sailings next year that encompass Christmas and New Year's. I can't believe what they are offering on the Explorer out of Bayonne next year! Yuk!

Well.......maybe it's time to branch out and try Celebrity! We did book a B2B on the Serenade for this summer. That's a great trip.

We thoroughly enjoyed meeting everyone on our roll call thread. You guys are the best!

Here are a few parting shots that I forgot to include:

Cheers to all our cruise buddies! Hope to sail with you again some time!

Thanks for reading!

[weliketocruise86]

Jane, that's a great review, we loved it and it made us laugh !

I think inside cabins should be advertised as having a walk in closet :D

Sent a link to my mum for her to read this (before I got to New Years Eve - hope we didn't keep you up too late !!) :eek:

 

Such happy memories of a great cruise and great buddies. Cheers

[maxs mom]

Helen.....Great to hear from you. So glad to finally meet you. That was sooooo funny when those elevator doors opened and there you were on that first day!!!! Funny how we immediately knew each other! Great times!

[wallis7219]

Jane

Thank you so much for your cruise review! We just love the way you put it together!

 

Some great pics and lots of wonderful memories!

 

I think you maybe right, some of us may have been a little over served on new years eve! But it was a fun night!!

 

Thanks once again Jane! We look forward to be able to cruise with you guys again!

 

All the best

Gary & Stef