Pre Cruise -- This was the first cruise for my husband, myself (both 49) and our 18 year old son. I tried hard to find a ship which would cater to all of us and feel immensely satisfied with our choice. The ship was definitely everything I had hoped for and more. Explorer of the Seas has been reviewed many times, this is more a review of our cruise than of the ship. We flew into Fort Lauderdale a day and a half early. We figured if we didn't have weather delays it would give us some extra time in Florida. The new car rental center in the airport is handy and very nice. We rented a car, which, for three of us was cheaper than a shuttle and gave us some independence. Our hotel was the Fairfield Inn and Suites Miami Beach. It was an easy hotel to get to. It is an older redo, very well kept and I would recommend it. Miami Beach was a nice area, not much night life, but we didn't mind that. South Beach was close and an easy drive. I loved getting up the next morning, and walking on the beach. My vacation had officially begun! We spent our extra day in the Everglades and had a really wonderful sunset sail on Florida Bay.

Embarkation, Day One, room, ship etc. -- We drove to the airport car rental and had Alamo shuttle us to the pier. That was a hassle, I'm not sure we would do it that way again. We arrived about noon, there were no lines, and before we knew it we were walking across the gangway onto the ship. It was a wonderful moment for me. I had agonized so much over the choices and decisions I had, learned so much about what a cruise was and now, here I was, on board the Explorer of the Seas. It was real, not just a plan anymore. We entered on deck 4 and decided to check out our room first, so went up to deck eight on the elevator. On the floor of the elevator was a reminder, it was "Sunday". This was changed everyday to reflect our current date and was very helpful,,,it was also a sad reminder of the passage of our week.

Our room was at the very front of the ship, the first port room. It was open and clean and we looked around. The window we had was larger than I expected and was actually very nice. I was glad to have it. The bathroom was big enough for one at a time. Our room steward was Rene. He introduced himself and explained what he did. He was nice and very good. Every night we had a little animal to greet us on our beds. Our room was always clean, towels replaced, and a smile on his face every time we saw him. There was room for all of our clothes and luggage. I put up a little shoe bag over the door which helped a lot with all the odds and ends. That was the one thing I had learned about on Cruise Critic that I actually used. Our son slept on the sofa pull out. It was plenty big, though when it was out there was less room to move. I had heard that the front of the ship rocks more than the back, but I couldn't tell any difference and was not bothered by it. Read more