We were on the Explorer from June 3 to June 14th and had a wonderful time. The ship is stunning and the itinerary was very good. We loved our Penthouse Cabin 948 with its' fabulous bathroom! The beds are so comfortable, the room beautifully furnished, and we really liked the big balcony with sectional sofa and a table with chairs.
Besides Compass Rose, where we had some trouble getting our meal and/or a server to pay attention to us (to the point where we had to leave the restaurant and find coffee and tea at another venue) we found all the restaurants truly wonderful, both with food and service. We really liked the entertainment and the Cruise Director was fabulous with a fun personality.
The Ports were great; unfortunately we had some really bad weather at one tender port, Edinburgh, and had a very rough and uncomfortable tender ride. One of our last ports in Ireland - Cork/Cobh was cancelled because we could not get a tug boat escort out of Liverpool until late in the evening not leaving enough time at Cork/Cobh to allow for time at that port- we were very disappointed when that occurred. However, we enjoyed all of our excursions, but especially the Giants Causeway and Dartmouth River Cruise/Steam Train round robin. On all of our tours, the bus drivers and tour guides were helpful and informative. I especially liked the fact that we were not "jammed" into full coaches on any of our excursions making our travels more comfortable and enjoyable.
Beautiful, well appointed cabin. Very comfortable. We were next to the elevators, but we had no problems with noise. Having a Butler is a real treat and he quickly and efficiently took care of our requests and answered our many questions.