Explorer OTS Live review and Q&A

[Naomigruis]

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.

[Naomigruis]

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.

Edited October 18, 2016 by Naomigruis

[Naomigruis]

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

[Naomigruis]

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.

[Paulena]

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.

[Naomigruis]

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

[Naomigruis]

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.

[MaritimeR&R]

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.

[summernz]

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

[David1951]

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 also boarding November the 2nd, and have an inside cabin on deck 9 at the stern also.[emoji846]

 

 

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[4774Papa]

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.

 

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

[Naomigruis]

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

[Naomigruis]

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

[cincicruisers]

Enjoying your review. More please..

[easyboy]

Following your live update.

[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

[Naomigruis]

Its a warm 27 degrees and a little humid (about 80 in US terms) and although overcast unlike yesterday its not raining.

 

There are two pool areas on the explorer, today we are in the main area there are lots of free loungers some "saved" but as there are so many both in the shade and the sun no one seems to care. the same for the adults only when i walked through. One thing i have notices overt he last week is that not once have i seen anyone sitting in the roped of "suites and pinnacle" areas, and there area a lot of Pinnacles on board they have even given them their own bar and dinning area.

 

The water is on the cooler side today but still nice. It amazes me that on a ship with so many people the pools and spa's always seem on the empty side. Again may have something to do with the lack of kids on this cruise. In fact right this minute i cant see one, and will often go a full day with only spotting one or two in passing.

 

There is easy listening music playing (at a nice level) and sports on the big screen and it looks like a Buffet is being set up for lunch, i have also noticed they have had a fe BBQ days up here as well.

 

Thee is always drink waiters around to get your orders and bar service has been very fast in our experience.

 

All in All the pool area is a winner in my books.

[Naomigruis]

The shows on board have overall been good, some to my tastes some not.

 

There has been a different one each night with mostly "guest" performers. So far we have had a latin singer, a mentalist, some comedians, a hawanii school dancing group, the in-house entertainers once and the ice spectaculars have started their shows (there is only 4 on this cruise).

 

We tend to go to the 9am performance and seating has been good, no need to get there more than maybe 10 minutes before.

 

There has also been a few matinees.

[Naomigruis]

Pete has the Drink Package, we ordered the Premium before it was discontinued at the 20% off. This was later upgraded to the deluxe onboard (at first i wasn't sure about this at the sticker on his card still had the old one but he has been able to get coffee and fresh OJ with it)

 

The bar service on the whole has been very good, in is favourite bar they know his name and know what he likes to drink which can be a trick as he will often change from one night to the next.

 

I don't think he has waited for a drink once even when the room had over 150 people in it.

 

This is the first time we have got him the package and its been worth every cent. On such a long cruise with so many sea days i would hate to think what the drink bill would be without it.

 

Would we get it on a shore intensive cruise, most likely no.

[Naomigruis]

I waited until we had gone to all three to write this.

We have the 5 night dinning package purchased before the cruise at the discount, US$100, great value.

 

Chops - this was very good, the seafood and steak where beautifully cooked and the sides where tasty. We all enjoyed our meal here, the service was very good with no obvious wait times between courses. i would give it a 4.5/5

 

Giovani - after this being my favourite on the Brilliance Last year i though it would be better. The dinning room was full and as such we waited and waited for service, i think it was about 30 minutes after we where seated until our orders where taken and then after we had finished each course the plates sat in front of us for well over 10 minutes. All up the meal took over 2 hours :(

the food was of a ok level, i do have hight expectation of Italian food but i found the pasta as just ok although the sauce was nice. for the main i had the Lamb chops and asked them to cook it as medium rear as i found they tend to overcook meat for my taste on this cruise. they came out well done :( i didn't send them back as they where tasty anyway and we had waited a very long time for our meals and i was hungry. My sister prawns where also overcooked but the other two mains where fine. i would only give this a 2/5

 

Izumi's (Japanese's) - this was the best meal i have had on this holiday:D The dumplings where to die for (and i am a dumpling lover and had some bloody good ones in my time) and the Pork broth soup i had was amazing, Every single thing severed to us from the Sushi to the Tampuri Vegetables was amazing. Our waiter was funny and very helpful and everything was done in a nice relaxed way. Izumi's gets 5/5 from me.

 

We will be going back to Chops and Izumi's as our last two meals in our package for sure.

[hitcharide]

Thank you for this, I'm loving it!

 

We are on Explorer in Feb and I can't wait! It will be my first time cruising with RCI.

 

A quick question about Izumi. Did you notice if they do any Teriyaki Chicken dishes?

[BEENSAILING]

Naomi - following...hope the rest of the cruise goes great...

DH is feeling better:)

(for all of you following - we are the ones who had to cancel - I was the slot pull organizer - my husband became ill few days before we were to fly to Seattle to begin the cruise. And yes we had trip insurance. Never cruise without...)

[ronpes]

Following your live thread.

 

Thank you for taking the time and trouble to do this. It is very much appreciated.

 

We too hope to this sailing in 2018.

 

Regards

Ron.

[David1951]

Great following your live thread. We board when you guys get to Sydney [emoji846]

 

 

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[yogibeardog]

Following along and enjoying your reports. Thanks so much. We will be boarding Explorer next Spring and returning her back to Seattle. Making notes as we will be making most of the same port calls going the opposite direction!!