Explorer of the Seas Review
Fantastic FamilyCruise - 9 night - Bermuda and Easter Carib
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Hi all - I loved all the reviews I read here getting ready for our cruise, and picked up tons of great advice along the way. I thought I'd put one together in day-by-day style (with a few diversions and OT's along the way) - maybe it'll help somebody else. It'll be long and have some pictures too - hopefully you'll enjoy it as much as I enjoyed everyone else's. We were booked on the Explorer departing July 22nd, 9 nights, to Bermuda, St. Maarten, St. Thomas, San Juan and 4 wonderful sea days There's 4 of us - myself 48, my lovely bride 47, DD 17 and DS 14. Our last cruise was 5 years ago on Grandeur (where we hit the dock in Costa Maya and got to stay 3 extra days!). My wife and I have done a few cruises over the years, but this is only our kid's second and collectively our longest ever.
Embarkation We live outside of Philly so we'd be driving Cape Liberty, loving the fact that we don't have to fly. Our M&M thread the week before we left mentioned lots of nasty construction delays on 78 East and as well as the usual backup on 440 making the left into the port. At a CC recommendation, we took the NJ turnpike from the south instead, hopped over on 278 to Staten Island, over the Bayonne bridge and picking up 440 from the south. What a great decision! Literally NO stops till we pulled into the port itself, and even then we pulled up to within 3 cars of the dropoff. We ended up being early - about 11:15 - and it was still busy with departures, but we were soon directed to a numbered space to park the car while we dropped the luggage. Once there, it took us a few more minutes to find a porter and hand over the luggage - then go park the car and meet up with the family.
Parking was very close, and we paid in advance (required), breezed through security and check-in with virtually no wait, and we were sitting in the boarding lounge with seapasses in hand, photo taken, and coffee and cookies eaten before noon. I've read a ton of posts criticizing Cape Liberty, and yes, maybe visually it's not the most visually appealing place as you're driving through the unused section or while you're outside, but overall I found it just fine, no problems. Maybe we were lucky. Boarding started a little after noon, and our number was called shortly thereafter. At that point it was only moments and we were on the ship! Zero hassles - a great approach. OnBoard Once aboard, we bypassed the line at the elevators took the steps to explore deck by deck since it was our first time on the ship. Starting with deck 4, the Schooner, Casino, then up to the promenade - which turned out to be another good idea as it was empty. We took a few pictures, bought our soda passes and wine package on the promenade with no lines. We practically had the place to ourselves to explore - highly recommended. Later, we stopped by the dining room to check out 2nd seating table. We were seated on the middle level - table 405 - a table for 10 which we really wanted, as we were hoping to have the kids connect with new friends (and the adults too!).
Cabin Review
Superior Oceanview Stateroom with Balcony
From what I'd heard on here, particularly early this year, I had some concerns about the state of the ship. For anyone worried (or complaining) about the state of repair of the ship, I can only say that's certainly not that we saw. The ship was gorgeous pretty much anywhere that counted. Yes, if you looked at the floor of a table in the windjammer, or along a hallway baseboard, you're going to see a paint chip, or fingerprints on a railing here and there. But seriously, relax. The public areas of the ship were, in my opinion, beautiful, well maintained and cleaner than most high-end hotels I've stayed at. As for the rooms, our 2 D3 cabins - 6546 and 6548 - were in amazing shape. Honestly, I really saw nothing. I had to look (hard) for issues inside and found only a bit of rust in the bathroom trim. Outside, yes the handrail needed varnish, and from the outside of the ship looking UP you could see rust UNDER the railings. But in our rooms anyway, no peeling paint, no furniture-so-soiled-I-had-to-put-a-towel-down, no broken drawers, no plumbing issues, no broken switches, no soiled rugs, nothing. Everything worked, everything was clean. The deck 6 balconies do have the solid wall at the bottom (rather than the glass of the upper decks), but that didn't phase me. From my point of view, as long as you can see the water from the chairs and the bed, which you could easily, I was happy.
Our kid's balcony had a smoked glass divider on one side, but our cabin had solid walls floor to ceiling on each side which made it very private! ;)
The room's location was also fantastic. We were somewhat forward, portside, right behind the elevators, but never heard a noise. The location was also very near the staircase, which put the promenade just a flight down and a few steps away - very convenient for getting coffee or heading to the pub to pick up a glass of wine before dinner. It was also close to the Maharajah lounge for shows and had great access to the elevators for everywhere else. For anything aft, we simply walked the promenade. Highly recommended location.