Driving up to the Explorer of the Seas at Smith Cove in Seattle, you see how large this ship is. We arrived at 11:00. Which was perfect timing. Not too busy yet. Check in was smooth and well organized. Cabins were not ready until 1 pm. We went to the only restaurant open to us. Except maybe the Café Promenade? Here is where you realize what it means to have 3800 passengers on a ship. There were NO tables available to eat lunch! And it was early. I am sure it got more crowded later. We waited and stalked people like you do in the Costco parking lot trying to park. Finally someone finished eating and we were right there to grab the dirty table. Not a great first impression. The staff in the Windjammer are really good at clearing tables fast though. Sometimes too fast. One morning the gal sitting next to us was eating breakfast and turned to say something to her husband and her plate disappeared! The cabins were all ready by 1 pm. Nice little cabin. I liked the shower. No shower curtain. The loved the color scheme and everything was new looking. The bed turned out to be VERY uncomfortable. My pillows were all lumpy too. So not very good night’s sleep all week. Our cabin steward said they no longer had the egg crates, but would put an extra pad on it for us. We got an Ocean view Cabin on deck 2, by the center of the ship. I thought it would be good in rough seas.

We had dinner in the Sapphire dining room. Two other couples were at the table with us. Our waiter was good. Max. Our assistant waiter was nice and did a good job. He told us he was only there a few days and wasn’t happy. He liked working on Holland America better. Dinner was good. We got back to our cabin and the cabin steward had not made up our room for the night! I thought with all the cut backs RCCL has made, that maybe they just did it once a day now? My husband asked the cabin steward, Chris, why was it not done? He said he was just too busy with the luggage to do it. I asked our table mates and they all said their cains were cleaned. So I was not happy. Not happy to not have clean towels to take a shower the next morning. But Chris was excellent the rest of the week.

We had some really rough seas that night. Our cabin was so bouncy, I could not get to sleep for two hours after I went to bed. That and the lumpy pillows and hard bed. Read more