EXPLORER semi-live May 15-19 REVIEW w/lots of photos

[Hoopster95]

That's correct.... There was a display with a very limited selection from all 3 specialty restaurants. I can say that the sushi was not good nor fresh. Our class next day was totally different

 

 

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[JHawk63]

I see you rented bikes! Did the bike rental place have maps with suggested routes for you to take or did you already know where you wanted to go?

[Hoopster95]

Hi Jayhawk.

Yea we knew where we wanted to go... The good news is the map they provide is excellent so there's no issues finding places to go.

As a first timer to Victoria I recommend

You Look At my last years ire view in my signature and then google Map the places that interest you [emoji4]

 

 

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[Hoopster95]

 

 

Hello Igh

Self debark is 6:30 - 7:15

 

 

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[Hoopster95]

SailAway from Victoria. Chilly out there so

It's the Viking Crown overflow for instead of being out on deck or the helipad this time

 

 

 

 

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[twincheryl]

That should be about 7:30

 

We are going to test Uber from the pier when we end out cruise.

 

 

We had thought of trying that as well... just don't want to end up getting a tiny car with our two suitcases.

 

Last time we booked a town car from the port and there was a horrible traffic backup and we waited out in the center area for almost an hour. Wondering since we are self assist early if maybe that will remedy that situation...?

 

 

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[riclop]

Thanks for sharing.

[Biker19]

Thanks for the tip about bike rentals in Victoria, may try that in two weeks when we are there.

[Blizzard54]

We had thought of trying that as well... just don't want to end up getting a tiny car with our two suitcases.

 

Last time we booked a town car from the port and there was a horrible traffic backup and we waited out in the center area for almost an hour. Wondering since we are self assist early if maybe that will remedy that situation...?

 

 

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Seattle traffic is always an issue. The port is on a major commuter route from Ballard to downtown. That early in the morning should not be a problem.

[twincheryl]

Off the ship at 6:50. Quick walk outside. Lots of cabs so decided to just take that option. $40 flat rate to airport.

 

 

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[Hoopster95]

Sitting at back of WJ... The final meal then a 3 hour drive home.

 

 

 

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[Hoopster95]

Seattle - Embarkation

 

Hello everyone. I returned to a firestorm at the office, and with my business partner going out of town for the long weekend I have had little time to even think about finishing this review, let alone upload photos to photobucket, etc. I'll keep this review more short & sweet. For a much more in depth photo review with what I feel are way better pics of the ship and simpler (ie. better for 1st timer) excursion DIY ideas for inner city Victoria & Nanaimo, take a look through my review from last year's sailing as everything is very close to this year's

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=2358456

 

 

Seattle Pier 91 parking cost is a joke. There's only one walk-able parking lot close by charging huge $$. This year I tried a new(er) alternative at the Armory Parking a short 5 min shuttle ride away. It's about $6 cheaper per day so it adds up, especially for a 7 day Alaska cruise. I posted a pic and a little commentary at the very front of this review while I was live... I can re-affirm here that this lot, the shuttle service, and everything about it was excellent. Great service, prompt and many shuttles, waaaaay smaller line-up than the regular shuttle to the expensive parking closer by. I fully recommend it.

 

Due to last year's fiasco with the USCG inspections causing major havoc on board on embarkation, we planned a late breakfast off-ship and also to get to the pier around the time cabins are open. I can happily report that whatever lessons RCL learned last year they fixed this year... no evidence of any inspection, delays, food issues... nothing.

 

We got to the pier around 12:15... Not many buses or people anywhere. I was surprised.

 

 

 

Just inside the front door and through security again super quick... maybe 2 minutes, and there was only one other couple in front of us in the express line. The regular line I estimate here only maybe 5 min

 

 

 

It was at the top of the escalator that I saw a problem... lines! I discovered after when talking to the check-in clerk that he was trying to train 3 others all around him, and thus there were several delays in processing the liner which kept growing. Funny enough, like the Harmony in January, the lowly Gold line was shorter than the Platinuim to D+ line. All in all, about 1/2 hour to 40min in line.

 

 

 

 

Add in a bathroom break, and from giving our luggage to the porter to seeing Explorer for the first time at the gangway it was approx an hour.... getting on board bat 1:15pm

 

[Hoopster95]

As mentioned I'm going to keep most of the ship pics to a minimum as most of us all know and love Voyager Class and have seen with our own eyes, let alone the hundreds of reviews on CC, this class of ship, however it's always nice to see a couple of familiar iconic photos in every review.

 

Entering the ship on deck 4, you have the option of going forward or aft. On this rare occasion for this sailing, we have a forward interior (Guarantee), see we turned and went in the forward doors. We immediately walked the stairs up to our deck 7 cabin as rooms had been ready at 1pm so that we can dump our carry-ons. As always I first have to get my first view every time I get on a Voyager/Freedom Class ship by looking down and taking a photo of the Royal Promenade. Here it is looking aft from deck 7 forward elevator centrum

 

 

 

 

 

I booked this short getaway about 5 days before final payment for a very low price (about 50% less than first roll-out) and also with a total of $125obc through a online TA I use which still had group space.... per diem about $40 (this incl all taxes!).

Nothing different or exceptional about this N interior 7237 other than it was the first cabin around the corner from the stairs so super convenient for us. I'd still rather be aft.

 

In the cabin was were my D+benefits, welcome letter, etc.... note something new I had never seen personally.... the clear plastic RCL emblem wine bag for the white wine. I've normally had red and had not had any other gift, just recently changed to white, so I had never seen that wine bag before.

 

 

 

Oh yeah.... the covered plate? 4 regular choc chip cookies you can get in WJ, DL/CL, Cafe promenade etc, so nothing extraordinary there either. On the 2nd day we did get a plate of sweets incl choc covered strawberry and a few other goodies

[Hoopster95]

After drop[ping off some of our stuff, we went for a short(er) tour around the ship. Here's a few random pics to share

 

 

I love the classic vehicles on every promenade... this is a rare 1936 "Knucklehead" Harley

 

 

 

 

And my second favorite piece of artwork on this ship is in the aft centrum

 

 

[Hoopster95]

A few more ship pics.... Sapphire Dining Room

 

 

 

 

 

We headed back to our room quickly and found our luggage already down the hall, so we were able to bring the bags in. It was getting to be around 2:30 and we were getting hungry. As planned we headed for the WJ for our late lunch expecting the food problems that happened last year to re-occur. We decided to head up to the pool deck and make our way across. We've had the worst winter in at least 230 years here in Vancouver (and likely the entire Pacific Northwest) with spring also bringing in record amounts of rain and dismal weather.... mother nature was not doing us any favors on this sailing either.

 

 

[Hoopster95]

I mentioned earlier in the live portion of the review that the 3 specialty restaurants had a section of the WJ set up with samples for lunch....

 

 

 

 

 

The options were not up to par... if they were trying to entice cruisers to book specialty with these freebies I believe they failed... no where close to the quality/taste/food temp/etc of actually going to the specialty and having the food prepared fresh. I think if I was a brand new cruiser and tried these options, I would think anyone would be nuts to want to spend money on specialty. It was a great idea by RCL to promote, just not executed imho.

 

One of my fave places to sit on all Voyager Class ships is at the very back of the WJ against the windows... today no exception. Note how little traffic and zero turmoil down below at the pier. I'd be willing to bet that anyone who showed up at 2:30pm tp get on the ship would get from porter to gangway in 10 minutes tops.

 

 

 

For those of you with soda packages, there are two freestyle machines on both sides of the WJ, plus another two in the Promenade right next door to Ben & Jerry's/Cafe Promenade

 

[Hoopster95]

Back to touring the ship.... only indoors in this inclement weather! Can anyone quickly guess what venue I am in with this pic below?

 

 

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If you haven't guessed yet, this next pic will give it away

 

 

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Yep, Dizzy's (aka the Viking Crown Lounge). I think anyone in the know was up here as there were no chairs available anywhere, including the DL being totally full. No one was hanging around outside. We enjoyed sailaway up here with a pre-show & dinner drink

 

 

 

Every bar, all the interior venues, both levels of the library, extra seating on each deck looking out over the promenade, the WJ... packed solid with people waiting to sit down. This re-affirmed to me my strong opinion that Voyager Class is not a ship for the Alaska runs. Other than our walk at pool deck to get to the WJ and our WJ lunch, this was our only outside view we had these first 3 hrs or so on the ship. If you sat in the middle of the WJ away from the windows, this would've been our very first view in 3 hours.

 

 

 

Dizzy's on Explorer does have my favorite piece of art on the ship, and one of my faves on any ship.

I love this and always walk by when I'm up there. Also when seated, you can look over from a distance and move a bit from side to side in your seat.... that works too

 

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[Hoopster95]

Besides embarkation being so smooth with no USCG inspection, the evening schedule was also very different from last year.... maybe because we had sea day right away. CD Graham Seymour booked a regular early & late show for this evening rather than the normal one "Welcome Aboard" show. Also, instead of a short speech, the band playing for 10 minutes, singers/dancers doing a couple of songs (you know the routine), it was a full on production show. Turned out to be the best show of the cruise.

 

 

 

Great set, really good dancing crew... the male singers could be way better. Good show all around. Part of the show features the professional dancers on board. We did not get offered any ballroom lessons on this 4 day sailing, however I really hope those of you doing the Alaska runs are because these guys are great!

 

 

 

They were on my Adventure sailing last fall out of San Juan.... I forget their names. Do enjoy one of their lessons if you are interested. On Adventure we had the pleasure of using the Crypt for one of the final times until AoS had her drydock, I suspect these dancers will likely use the Star Lounge on Deck 5

 

 

 

Graham Seymour is retiring in a few months. He will be missed as one of the best CD's RCL has ever had in my humble opinion.

 

 

 

From the show we raced up to the Schooner Bar for trivia. We teamed up with a super nice Ozzy couple that was also on the 24 day TP right before.... we ended up teaming up with them every night. This night was not good.... "general" trivia didn't suit us we're really good with music. We weren't in the top 3 tonight, and maybe worse every night after we came 2nd, 3rd and lost in a tie break

 

[Hoopster95]

I had booked the "First Night Done Right" specialty dining promo on-line pre cruise for $15 per person... mega bargain,

Like on HOTS, RCL did not assign me a venue for the first night. We went to Giovanni's right after dropping our stuff in our room and booked for that first night.

 

 

 

While I love Giovanni's in general, I hate this venue being stuck in an interior non-window space where the nightclub used to be. Nonetheless, dinner was once again excellent. GF had antipasti & her favorite Ossobucco. I started with the prosciutto wrapped mozza and veal (with crab ravioli on the side....

 

 

 

 

polished of with a bottle of red (one of two bottles of J. Lohr carried on board) and then finished with a cannoli plus a "healthy" scoop of phenomenal tiramisu!!! YUUUUM!.... ok ok, I confess, we both had yet another extra scoop of the tiramisu, way to good to pass up

 

[Hoopster95]

We attended Kivi Roger's late night comedy, he was great! A couple very funny moments, better than most I've seen lately. If you happen to have him booked on your cruise, do make the effort to go see him. Don't bring kids.... it was suggestive for sure.

We did our regular bar hopping,/checking out venues around the ship for a little while after Kivi's show, however we opted for an early night.

Here is the Compass for Day 1

 

 

 

 

 

 

[poppypobble]

"The options were not up to par... if they were trying to entice cruisers to book specialty with these freebies I believe they failed... no where close to the quality/taste/food temp/etc of actually going to the specialty and having the food prepared fresh. I think if I was a brand new cruiser and tried these options, I would think anyone would be nuts to want to spend money on specialty. It was a great idea by RCL to promote, just not executed imho."

 

Thanks Hoopster for explaining about the food samplers from the specialty restaurants-I had no idea that was what they were trying to accomplish. My kids had some of the pasta and I tried the cheesy one. It was good but not worth paying extra for. The sushi really didn't look appetizing. The curries were very good. However they really shouldn't put Roti in a buffet - gets way to dry- should put naan instead.

 

Poppy

[lgh34609]

That should be about 7:30

 

We are going to test Uber from the pier when we end out cruise.

 

 

Let me know how that goes, was looking at that also but now that uber wants tipping it seems to be about the same as towncar.

[lgh34609]

Thank you so much.

 

 

 

Hello Igh

Self debark is 6:30 - 7:15

 

 

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[lgh34609]

Was this last week? Still trying to figure the best way to airport for a 11:45 flight. We will be getting off with luggage by 7am.

Thanks

 

 

Off the ship at 6:50. Quick walk outside. Lots of cabs so decided to just take that option. $40 flat rate to airport.

 

 

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[lgh34609]

Was this last week? We are still figuring out the best way to airport for a 11:45 flight. Will be getting off at 7am with our own luggage.

 

Thanks

 

Off the ship at 6:50. Quick walk outside. Lots of cabs so decided to just take that option. $40 flat rate to airport.

 

 

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