Just returned from a short 3 night cruise from Sydney staying in a Balcony cabin Deck 9. Firstly would like to say the ship is lovely and the entertainment was great. However...if you are intending on purchasing a drink package on this ship I would think again. We purchased the Ultimate drink package which included top shelf liquor and premium coffees and juices. We spend a fair bit of time at the Solarium bar (adults only pool area) where there were always very long queues to get a drink. I noticed a drink waiter coming around for a couple of hours on one of the days but he was no where to be seen by the 2nd day. Many people I observed were very annoyed at having to queue up constantly to get a drink. The bar service was very slow and they didn't have enough people on duty. Someone mentioned that this is common on short cruises from Sydney as they allow some of their staff to take leave during this time which results in minimal staff on duty. If you decide to purchase the drink package I would go inside and down in the lifts to the schooner bar, order drinks and bring them back up in the lift. This is much quicker than standing in line. I have cruised many times and have found the service on the RC ships through the Caribbean to be much better than what I have experienced cruising from Sydney. Perhaps it has something to do with the 'tipping' in America. I even had trouble trying to get a freshly squeezed orange juice, the wait time was very long. The water went off the first morning of the cruise so we couldn't get coffee from the cafe. We found the first night at dinner in the restaurant they were very unorganised and we seemed to have trouble ordering drinks from our drink package. The staff on the Explorer did not look happy, and the service was average. The best service I encountered was on the morning we docked. We were having breakfast in the Windjammer and the service was exceptional but I think it was because they were trying to get us to have breakfast and move on fairly quickly to disembark. Very disappointed with the service on this cruise and for that reason would not cruise on this ship again.
Our cabin on deck 9 was close to the lifts which was extremely handy.
We did not visit any ports