Team K's 14 night Holiday on Explorer Review!

[Sugar*Magnolia]

Quit "going through them" and just post them all!:D

 

 

ROFLMAO!!! :D Thanks for the smiles and giggles!

 

Ok, here are some more!

[Sugar*Magnolia]

Dinner dress was casual. Most folks were still dressed beautifully. Even on casual nights, ladies had on dresses (not beach dresses), men had on dark trousers or khakis and nice shirts. We didn’t see much of the rumored shorts and tee shirts on any given evening. The baby shrimp salad and cheddar cheese sticks were very good. Mustard crusted beef and Singapore noodles were excellent. The wait staff danced and sang around the MDR.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Evening entertainment was Wild, Cool and Swinging, there was Rock Climbing under the Stars, again a singles gathering, Salsa, guitar and other music. There was Caroling on the Promenade at 10:45 and a Midnight Mass for those that observe.

[The Big Booper]

Thanks, so much!:)

 

 

9 days to go! Going through 5,000 pictures is crazy!! lol

 

And here I thought we were off the wall by taking "only" 2,200 pictures, with four cameras for the two of us.

 

Philipsburg? St. Thomas????

[Sugar*Magnolia]

Day 7 @ Sea

Christmas Day Formal tonight.

I think it was around here that we missed the Wash & fold Special by one day. Fill a laundry bag they give to you for $20 or $25 (less with a coupon from the diamond booklet). We asked our attendant if she could take 2 bags full even though we missed giving it to her the night before & she quickly asked her supervisor and was given clearance to take our 2 laundry bags full for the special. She was excellent. On the last day of the cruise we contacted her supervisor to let her know just how wonderful she was.

 

I hear Santa arrived on the pool deck around 9:00am and was then found giving gifts to the little ones at Studio B. An event I am sure was nice. There was a SNOWMAN right outside of Studio B, a great sight on board! J There was a morning Catholic Mass, 8am.

 

There were bloops and blunders throughout the cruise. Things like, on this day we noticed a huge marquis by guest relations. The top read: Bar Service Hours and Designated smoking bars and lounges, BUT – the sheet attached to it under glass read: Day 7 with a list of Activities. Nothing in relation to Bars, Hours or Services or Smoking! Lol A good time to mention that the Cruise Compass had its fair share of blunders too!

 

Here I will mention that it is $7.95 a minute to call home from the ship telephones. From the compass- other than Santa, on Christmas day there was a family Skate, body sculpt boot camp, Yoga, Walk for Wishes (Please do this it is a wonderful thing. Even if you don’t want to walk, please buy a T shirt for just $10.00 as a donation), 10am movie, It’s a wonderful life, holiday Face Painting, family table tennis. In the afternoon there was Trivia, pool games, ice skating, Poker in the casino, another movie, Line dance Lessons, win a Cruise Slot Tournament, Twelve Days of Christmas game show, more talks on ports and team trivia.

 

 

 

 

[Sugar*Magnolia]

And here I thought we were off the wall by taking "only" 2,200 pictures, with four cameras for the two of us.

 

Philipsburg? St. Thomas????

And the coordinating of the cameras takes a ton of time too. We took the Olympus indestructable water camera to the beach, but most other pictures on the Nikon.

[Sugar*Magnolia]

And here I thought we were off the wall by taking "only" 2,200 pictures, with four cameras for the two of us.

 

Philipsburg? St. Thomas????

 

 

 

LOL At Me!! I just scrolled down to reread all my posts and found MY BLOOP! Thanks, Dave! At least I know someone is reading this!

 

Correction, we drove back to towne, Charlotte Amalie from Sapphire......where we shopped for a watch for DSs 18th Birthday.

 

A "duh" moment. I wrote all day yesterday, proofread some, but not all and probably wouldnt have found this. Thanks again Dave!

[Sugar*Magnolia]

Christmas Day dinner.....

 

The dinner menu tonight was red with pretty snowflakes. I thought it was interesting and odd, but yet with good intention but lacking little effort that they included Hanukkah on the Christmas dinner menu. To this I say, “Adam Goldstein, your mother would NOT be proud….” If she knew you served this so-called chicken consommé with “matzo balls”. Honestly, it isn’t tough to put out banquet matzo balls, believe me. And, this leads me to the poor display of Brisket. Again, Mr Goldstein, if your mother only knew how bad it was. Epic Fail. Maybe it was our entire table that had high expectations when we read the offerings of matzo balls, brisket and noodle kugel . Our wonderful waiter looked oddly at us when we asked him to bring the noodle kugel out with the meal, as we’re accustomed. Then we all gasped in unison & in fright when he did and it was a cold dessert. [note: we all should have realized this considering it was on the dessert menu?] Okay, so we all ordered other meals because the brisket was that bad and the filet my smart son ordered looked amazing to the rest of us now.

We enjoyed after dinner drinks every night, tonight was a Blue-eyed Blonde. [i need color contacts [/font]J]

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Sugar*Magnolia]

 

 

 

 

Since it was formal night, it was No smoking night at the Casino. Music was around the same tonight, 10pm-10:45 was Big Band Christmas orchestra music on the promenade. Music! Music! Music! And, at midnight, a holiday bonanza grand prize drawing in the casino. I don’t know what this was, but our friend had to be there and couldn’t miss the drawing!

[tonythewop]

GREAT JOB on your review so far !!

 

It's great reliving this cruise over again...my whole family loved the 14 days and are depressed we can't book it for next year.:(

 

RCCL...wake up...trying to make more money by splitting it into two 7 day cruises is a total blunder. NCL already has 2 ships doing the same thing out of Manhattan for less $$.:confused:

 

End of rant...please continue with your review !! :D

[Mary Ellen]

Thank you for sharing your experience with us.

[foxesden1]

Great review!

[Sugar*Magnolia]

Day 8 Country & Western Night!

Barbados - -

You mean “Security” got us in trouble? Ok, not as bad as it sounds, but this was our second time to Barbados and why does getting taxi-van service seem to be troublesome? We asked security if there was any where specific to get transport to Accra/Rockley. He got on his walkie talkie and had an empty van right to us where we were standing w/ him in seconds. I don’t know what happened from there, but the driver, security person and 2 others got into an argument and OUT of the van we went. We continued walking towards the line of taxi vans waiting when someone asked where we wanted to go- we told them and they motioned us to a single car waiting to take just 4 to a beach. Off we went. We arranged when he should return and he was there at least 30 minutes before our arranged time (as it started to rain heavily and DH had just been up towards the pkg area to look for food and saw the driver already waiting). I wish getting a simple ride to the beach wasn’t so competitive!

 

 

This is the area I would suggest. My friend and fellow roll call buddy Amalia and her family hung in this area and the report was the sand into the ocean was soft sans the rock-thing that was evident at the other end towards the Bar K.nei area.

 

 

 

 

 

We decided on Accra/Rockley beach after hearing about it and reading reviews and looking at maps. We got there around 10:30ish. I hadn’t realized this was a public beach. It might be fine for some, but when on holiday, we much prefer private beaches. Now, in retrospect I should have realized there was no entrance fee, so it was public. We walked the entire beach, entrance to Rockley down to the bar K.nai area.

 

[we shouldnt have walked down the beach, it was nicer at the entrance area]

 

We rented chairs midway on the beach. We thought the rum punch at Bar K’Nai were not so good and masked with too much angostura. The kids ate chicken fingers (nuggets) there, waited 45 minutes for them and they were basic crap. The beach itself is nice, but I think Carlisle bay is definitely nicer. If you enjoy hanging out in the water, make sure you are at the opposite end of the beach from the Bar K’Nei area. Our friends who were at this part of this beach said the sand was nicer and there was NO huge rock formation to have to get over to get somewhere where there is soft sand bottom. As the day moved along this beach got more and more crowded with local folks staying on the island for their holiday. Folks put down towels next to us, then rented a lounge chair and umbrella. Then came out the half dozen coolers and 2 dozen more family. I really couldn’t wait to leave. Having to navigate over “the rock”, to find a place to get your footing to enjoy the ocean really put a damper on the day. As DS said, it got better when we blew up our floats and were able to float over the rock.

 

In retrospect, a fair to decent day, but that’s about it. If you’re spoiled, go to Harbor lights at Carlisle Bay, everyone was raving about their time spent there.

[Sugar*Magnolia]

GREAT JOB on your review so far !!

 

It's great reliving this cruise over again...my whole family loved the 14 days and are depressed we can't book it for next year.:(

 

RCCL...wake up...trying to make more money by splitting it into two 7 day cruises is a total blunder. NCL already has 2 ships doing the same thing out of Manhattan for less $$.:confused:

 

End of rant...please continue with your review !! :D

 

No problem. Rant away regarding next years,,,, or lack of next years (This year!!) 2011 holiday cruise. RCI has upset a lot of folks who have gone on this cruise year after year. Now they're (we're) all going to scatter across different ships...and yes some to different cruise lines.

[Sugar*Magnolia]

Thank you for sharing your experience with us.

 

Great review!

 

Thank you very much.

Stay tuned for more....

 

:D:)

[metgame24]

Really enjoying this review and the photos. We will be sailing on Explorer for the first time at the end of Feb. (Actually our 1st Royal Caribbean cruise!) Nice to see first hand the places we are visiting, although our itinerary is slightly different as we are going on a 12 day voyage. Looking forward to the rest of the "trip"! Thanks again!!

[CruisinKat]

Hi Stacey!

Great review....I love it! I particularly enjoyed one picture you took while at Sapphire Beach where your gang is in the water and in the background is a peninsula jutting out into the ocean; that is where Larry and I got married!!!!

Anyway.....keep the fun comin'......now I can't wait for our cruise in February!:D

[millercat]

Who knows where this is on Explorer?

 

 

we have been on the Explorer at least 5 times and I can't believe that I have no idea.

Laine

[Sugar*Magnolia]

*Disclaimer- thiswindow was opened in a browser, so I am going to stick it n here with pictures of the ice show... but Id have to go back and check what day we saw it.

 

Today we saw Spirits of the Seasons for the about 7th time in total of all cruises on Ex. It never disappoints. There were a few falls, but the skaters got up with grace and continued with smiles. Don’t miss it.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Okay! the show we saw was on Day 8 - Barbados, so Im at the right day!

[Sugar*Magnolia]

we have been on the Explorer at least 5 times and I can't believe that I have no idea.

Laine

Im going to keep the suspense going...

[Sugar*Magnolia]

Hi Stacey!

 

Great review....I love it! I particularly enjoyed one picture you took while at Sapphire Beach where your gang is in the water and in the background is a peninsula jutting out into the ocean; that is where Larry and I got married!!!!

 

Anyway.....keep the fun comin'......now I can't wait for our cruise in February!:D

 

Thanks Kath!!!

[silvercrikhix]

I'm enjoying your review, as I look forward to sailing Explorer in April! Thank you for the considerable time and consideration you are putting into it :D. Your new camera works great!!

[millercat]

Im going to keep the suspense going...

 

DH said it was by the Aquarium bar but I still don't remember it so he might have been drinking just a tad:D

[Puffinater]

Great review. Thanks for all your time and effort.

[Sugar*Magnolia]

I'm enjoying your review, as I look forward to sailing Explorer in April! Thank you for the considerable time and consideration you are putting into it :D. Your new camera works great!!

 

Thanks! You will definitely love Explorer!

 

DH said it was by the Aquarium bar but I still don't remember it so he might have been drinking just a tad:D

 

Your DH is absolutly right!!

It is located at the opposite side from the bar area where the couches and tables are-I think it is port side!

[The Big Booper]

The background looked somewhat like the Aquarium but I wasn't sure. Since the green thingee was lit by flash there was a sharp dropoff in light to the wall and window area.

 

More pictures coming?

 

I sit here setting up my webshots pictures, answering E-Mails from clients and getting ready for Tax Season. Luckily I have three computers in a semi circle.