Explorer was our first cruise, and apparently our homework paid off. It also helped that our local travel agent performed a few key moves that ensured the ideal balcony stateroom location and gave us many helpful hints (such as instilling the concept that we should always be open to changing our plans when/if such changes need to happen).

The ship has been extensively profiled by other more qualified people, but suffice to say that we were not fully prepared for the sheer size of her, and how 3,200 passengers plus 1,000+ crew manage to live onboard without constantly rubbing elbows was beyond us. Having said that, there were certain patterns exhibited by passengers that led to lineups here and there so we quickly and easily figured out how to avoid them. On a related note we tendered 2 out of 4 stops but RCI had so many tenders for our ship that we could literally get on and off at will without any lineups or delays. It was like having our very own personal water taxi service and demonstrated RCI's commitment to excellence. A nice surprise indeed.

The service throughout the ship was uniformly outstanding, even at insane hours (i.e. 4:30AM). Main dining room cuisine was consistently excellent and the casual buffet (Windjammer's) only took things down a notch or two but made up for it with a surprising variety of fresh and healthy choices (which perhaps explains our minimal weight gain during the cruise). Our waiter Everton had 15 yrs experience and it showed. He was a master of his profession, a true gentlemen who was never obtrusive but who somehow managed to anticipate our every need and answer it immediately. Even when members of our table showed up at different times Everton always managed to spend time with them to ensure they had all the info they needed to have a great meal. And then somehow he got all our food to arrive together, each and every time. If I had to single out one person on staff who never ceased to amaze us it would be Everton. But Debbie (our stateroom attendant) needs recognition too, as she was a constant source of grins, giggles and helpful info. In these days of constant stress it was a joy to be greeted in the hallway by beaming Debbie, even as she worked constantly from dawn to dusk (and beyond). A truly lovely lady. The cleaning was constant and was incredibly thorough. I caught sight of a Supervisor running a white-gloved finger up INSIDE a ceiling component near one of the elevator lobbies, so when I asked him if he did that all the time he showed me his list of over 200 picky little things he inspects every single day...and then he grinned and said "This is just the official list. The other list", he replied while pointing to his head, "is much longer". Read more