Explorer of the Seas Review

4.5 / 5.0
2,038 reviews

Explorer of the Seas - Southern Caribbean

Review for the Southern Caribbean Cruise on Explorer of the Seas
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lukes
First Time Cruiser • Age 60s

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Sail Date: Dec 2009

A little background. As you may have guessed, we (myself, DW, & DD's 22 & 20) have sailed NCL five times over the last 3 years. Our first cruise 3 years ago was a 12 day double holiday - Christmas & New Years and we fell in love with cruising. The last 2 years we have sailed only the New Years week as the double sailing was not offered by NCL. We love sailing out of the NYC area as it is easy for us from the Canadian side of the border in southern Ontario to get to NYC without flying. Love you Amtrak, at least you don't have competition. Friends put us onto Royal sailing out of NJ. The 14 day double holiday cruise fit into our schedule and price range (2 inside cabins), so goodbye NCL hello Royal. This review will be lengthy (you have been warned) and will tell not only of our experience on this cruise but will be a bit of a comparison between the two cruise lines.

Travel to NYC was easy, we came in the day before the big storm. It was amazing to see snow in Times Square and Rockefeller area. We had arranged a car service (excellent job Black Executive Car) to pick us up at the hotel in midtown at 11:00 and take us to the pier in Bayonne NJ. They stated it would take I hour. They lied. It took 35 minutes to get from the Hotel to the one lane road leading to the pier. From there it took almost an hour to get to the tent/terminal. We were told this extremely slow drive up was due to the snow, that other times it is not like this. Once we were able to unload the luggage, we joined the lines into the terminal. Getting sail & sign cards, photos, registering etc was relatively quick, painless. The terminal was half tent, half empty warehouse. Nothing lavish, but we never stopped moving in the various lines. From luggage drop-off to short bus ride to the ship the process took less than an hour. NCL sailing out of Manhattan offers the same quick registration process, with a nicer terminal, no need for a bus ride and quick unloading of luggage, never spent more than a few minutes in lines waiting for taxi to pull up. Score: 1 for NCL.

Once on board we were able to go directly to the cabins, this was approx 1:15 p.m. That was pleasant as we could unload carry-ons earlier than expected. We were not welcomed aboard by anyone, there was no welcome aboard Champagne or OJ as we have experience on NCL. Lunch at the Windjammer was nice, it was busy but not impossible to find a seat. In fact we never had to hunt that hard to find a seat here all cruise long. (NCL buffet was often packed and finding a seat was very difficult especially at sail away). Maybe the number of people who missed this cruise due to flights cancellation had something to so with this. We did not have to take life jackets to the life boat drill. We received all of our pieces of luggage before the life boat drill at 3:15. Score: Even.

Cabin Review

2 inside cabins on deck 7. They were mid to aft location. It was relatively quiet and peaceful. We could hear crew annoucements as a crew service area was to far from our cabins.

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