We live in Texas and have previously cruised on Royal Caribbean's Monarch of the seas and Splendour of the seas so, we were very excited about cruising on the Explorer of the seas. We departed Houston on 5/14 & arrived at London-LHR in the morning of embarkation day on May 15th. Everything going as scheduled was extremely important since we planned to go straight to the pier upon arrival. We purchased airport to pier transfers through Royal Caribbean because we knew they would wait for us if there were any delays. They were at the airport waiting for us once we got through customs. Our luggage was quickly loaded on the bus and we were on our way. Everything went quite well.

We arrived at the pier and got checked in and boarded within 30-45 min. Our staterooms were ready and our excursion tickets were already delivered upon our arrival. All we needed to do was get familiar with the ship prior to the muster drill. Off we went. The ship was nicely upgraded during the recent dry dock. Our cabins appeared to have new furniture and carpet. The bedding was very good quality also. We opted to have dinner in the Windjammer on our 1st night where the food was good with many options. Later on that night, we enjoyed the welcome aboard parade on the promenade deck 5. It was a great way to meet the crew.

We had not visited any of the ports before so we booked and enjoyed the excursions being offered by Royal Caribbean. Our first port was Brugge, Belgium where we took a sightseeing and canal tour. It rained during the walking portion of the tour but the rain stopped by the time we sailed along the canal. We still enjoyed the entire tour though. Lots of history there. Read more