Background- We have sailed with Royal Caribbean since the late 1980's, however not recently though, so we were not aware of how much the line has changed.

Embarkation- Cape Liberty does not operate as efficiently as say Miami or Fort Lauderdale or the many other better known cruise ports. Bayonne is known as a container shipping facility for which they are better suited. Royal Caribbean homeports one or two of its ships here and the staff does try to make it easy. However, it can get very confusing and frustrating under the system that they have.

Ship- Explorer of the Seas is an older ship of the Voyager class ships and it does seem to be showing signs of wear. It is due for a refit I believe in 2014 but it still does not have all the amenities of the Freedom class ships. The decor throughout is very muted, quite frankly bare and the staterooms are fairly small as well. We booked a junior suite not knowing the actual size of the room but were pleasantly surprised, roughly 300 foot. The room made up for all the other inconveniences that we had.Activities- Activities were minimal at best. Everyday a different form of trivia and spa lectures and demonstrations seemed to dominate the day. At night there was always a show although not very good and plenty of varied music for listening and dancing pleasure. Poolside games were non existent although the children's activities were a full agenda all week. Read more