We are a family of 4 (travelling with kids aged 10 & 12) and this was our first cruise. After reading reviews of the Explorer I was very nervous about the cruise and would have cancelled if I could..... However there was no need to be at all to be worried.
We had the most fantastic time. The ship is amazing, the staff were happy, courteous and could not do enough to help, the food was superb (both choice and quality) and the facilities on board are extensive.
Our kids did not use kids club a lot, however when they did they enjoyed it. The only down side was that the kids club older group is aged 12-17, which is a wide range over. As as our son is only 12 he felt a little bit shy with there being lots of 16 & 17 year olds there. Next time we will travel in the main school holiday weeks so that there are more children of their ages around. The kids however were constantly entertained with mini golf, big screen movies by the pool, ice skating and flowrider.
Enough time at both places to have a good look around. KNowledgeable tour guide.
As Villefranche is a tendered port it was an advantage to be on a Royal Caribbean excursion as you could choose what time you wanted to get off & on the ship.
Lots of options for looking around Lisbon independetly - we choose an open top bus tour - ok but very hot and traffic very busy for fairly boring for the kids.
Next time I would get one of the TUC TUC type vehicles!
It is very easy to pick up a tour of the highlights of Gibraltar in the town - however the cable car is very very busy at peak times - therefore we opted for a minibus tour which was available in the town centre - This was great and saved alot of walking up steep hills in the very hot temperatures!