Hmmn. The good - Great service by the crew who work hard to keep us all happy. Good food overall in the main restaruant, though I think Carnival do a far better job at the bistro. Chops Grill was fantastic at breakfast. No passnegrs were to be seen at Johnny Rockets. Those who went reported back on bad food. The pools were great.. This is one thing RC have all over Carnival. The pools are bigger, cleaner and the life guards ensure the kids are behaving well at all times. The not so good - The ship is looking increasingly old and tired. Quite a few rust spots on her. The cabins are worse than a 2 star hotel. The crew works hard to keep her clean, mind you. The lifts were particuarly slow and not well programmed. The evening shows were better than expected. The ice rink shows were fantastic. While the crew works hard to reinforce the message of "wash your hands," for some, the message will never get through. Time and time again we saw quite a few other passengers disregard good hygene standards, particuarly at the bistro. e.g picking up food with their bare hands instead of using the tongs. Sure enough, there was an outbreak of cold and flu on the cruise. The whole process of disembarking for shore excersions was average at best. At The first port) Penang, it took over an hour to get us off the ship once the ship was cleared. That had a negative flow on affect for the shore excersion which was cut short. Read Less

This was our first ever cruise. We were advised that embarkation would be late due to the ship arriving in the port of Singapore with norovirus. The Explorer was duly sanitized and boarding commenced for us at 2.45 pm instead of the former nominated time of 12 noon. Upon receiving advice that our cabin was ready we made our way down to deck nine only to find that our Sea Pass cards would not open the door. So it was back to Guest Relations on deck 5 to get the fault remedied. New cards were issued but we soon found out that they also would not open the cabin door. Back once again to Guest Relations where there was a long queue most of them with a similar problem to our own. Another set of cards was issued along with an apology but a few minutes we found out once again that the cards would not gain us entry to the cabin. Back we went to the Guest Relations where the queue was as long as it had been on the previous occasion. Just as we were going to be attended to, a call was made for muster drill which necessitated everyone heading to their respective stations for the drill. After the drill we went back to Guest Relations where my tolerance was beginning to run fairly thinly. Another long line greeted us and after 30 minutes I demanded that I be given a card that would work. To our utter disbelief the two new cards would not work either so we sat on our cases outside our cabin completely disillusioned. Other passengers urged us to go to Guest Relations yet again but after telling them I had been there five times they advised me to go higher up the chain. At that point our cabin steward Claude came along and after explaining to him what had taken place he took pity on us and opened our cabin door with his master card. He called security and about 10 minutes later a gentleman arrived but after many attempts he could not get the cards to work. He came back about an hour later, apologized and said they were now working. He said the problem had begun in Southampton at the start of the long cruise but had got progressively worse. We then headed for one of the bars to get rid our frustrations. After that we headed for dinner but I noticed that each time I had ordered drinks from the bar or from the dining room waiter I was asked to sign a chit. I explained that we had a premium drinks package each but the waiter pointed out that there should have been issued stickers on each of our cards. Back to Guest Relations after dinner where the missing stickers was adhered and another drink at the Tavern and we were off to bed. Breakfast the next morning in the Windjammer was like a rugby scrum as the many who were taking the day excursions into KL from Port Klang had risen early. It was our first sightings of the mountains of food that some of the people were loading onto their plates. We found it so off-putting that we gave breakfast away and went for a long walk around the decks. When we got back to our cabin we found out once again that our cards would not gain us entry. By this time I had completely had it with Guest Relations and I demanded to see the manager. Security were called and came down with us to our cabin where they ascertained that indeed the cards would not work. They took them away and said we would be called over the PA for us to collect new cards from Guest Relations once the problem had been rectified. After lunch we heard the announcement and got our new cards. These worked and did for the remainder of the trip. However, once again the premium package stickers had been left off and I was only alerted to that fact when asked to sign a chit later that evening in the Schooner Bar. Back once again to Guest Relations where I asked them pithily "do you people ever get anything right"? After that we did not encounter any further problems but it did leave a bitter taste in our mouths about our first ever cruise. As a former chef I thought the food was OK without being outstanding but that is to be expected when the brigade down below is producing about 15,000 meals a day. The staff were a delight and couldn't do enough for us. However, once again Guest Services stuffed up on our last night when I went to pay the on-board expenses. All of the chits I had signed had not been expunged from our account and two purchases from "The Shop" had been duplicated. We had also bought three bottles of Bombay Sapphire Gin when we were on Langkawi Island for the day, however, only two were returned to us. Back to Guest Services where they rang the barman but to no avail. After about three hours a new bottle was produced from the bar, so eventually we had everything sorted out. There was plenty of activities on board which was a necessity with six consecutive sea days from Phuket to Fremantle. We are thinking do we go back to playing golf at resorts or do another cruise? At the present time I'm thinking that we have had our first and last cruise but that might change in the future. We did have another cruise booked with the Golden Princess but I have instructed American Express to arrange a refund as we are in no mood for another cruise at the present time. Most of the cruise was quite enjoyable, but boy, Guest Relations need to get a lot better than they were on this cruise and as a consequence our thoughts on Royal Caribbean at this stage are not particularly complimentary. Read Less

11 night cruise Dubai to Singapore. Stayed 3 nights in Dubai at the Intercontinental Festival city pre cruise which I would highly recommend. Embarkation at the Dubai terminal seemed a crazy mixup of disorganised chaos, however I can honestly say that it all worked fine for us. I have a mobility issue & the staff checked me in quickly & I was on board the ship within about a half hour. I did hear later than some people waited for hours to check-in. The Explorer is a very nice ship & looks great thanks to a recent makeover. It is very easy to get around, plenty of sun beds (even though there were plenty of chair hogs) & great amenities. I love the big ships for all the little extras. We had one of the brand new Balcony cabins up on Deck 12 that were added earlier this year. It had a very similar look & feel of the new quantum class cabins. It was a great location just round the corner from the lifts/stairs & near the spa entrance. It was a very quiet location & the room steward did a great job. These new rooms are about a couple of feet longer than the older cabins, have a large flat screen Tv opposite the bed, heaps of wardrobe space, a nice sized balcony ( 2chairs + table) & it overhangs the sides more than the older ones & being up high has fabulous views. In the past I have not cruised Royal for it’s food, in fact I have been a little disappointed. However this cruise was the opposite. The food overall was great & the best I have come across on Royal. We had anytime dining & the Dining room food & service was great most of the time. The windjammer also had great offerings but it was chaotic at peak times. The food & service of Chops, Johnny Rockets & Giovanni’s was excellent! The cafe was ok but I think a ship of this size could do with another cafe elsewhere or at least a separate pizza station. The pizzas were pretty average. I can’t drink much alcohol so I can’t really comment too much on the bar service but it seemed ok overall, although I did notice a lack of drink waiters on the open decks. Entertainment I thought was average. I have been spoiled by the Oasis & Quantum class. If you are a fairly new cruiser you would love what was on offer. For me I wasn’t wowed other than the Ice shows which I love every time. The main production shows I found a bit boring & I didn’t catch all the Headliner shows but the ones I did see were just ok. Other entertainment around the ship was ok at best. Other than the staff at the entrance to the Dining room on deck 5, the service I personally encountered throughout the ship was great & I couldn’t have asked for anything more. For some reason there seemed to be a lot of whingy, angry, arrogant people on board this cruise (more than usual) who seemed to complain at the tiniest of things & even argue with other passengers in the process. There was a constant line at guest services as a result. I ignored the majority of it, & I’m glad I didn’t have to line up there at all. Ports of call included Goa & Cochin In India, Penang & K.L in Malaysia. For Goa we just jumped in a taxi which gave us a quick drive by the old town & dropped us off at Bogmalo beach for a while. In Cochin we hired a Tuktuk for a about a 3 hour tour & this was a great authentic experience & a quick way to see the main sights. In Penang we hired a taxi again & did a quick tour up the Peak & to some great Temples. For K.L. we did a ships shore excursion which was really just a transfer to/from the Sunway shopping centre. The organisation for the excursions that day was terrible as all groups had to meet in the Theatre at about the same time which meant there were a lot of angry passengers in long queues. We just avoided these & entered once most of the confusion died off. This whole process could have been handled better by the shore exc staff. Once we disembarked in Singapore, we stayed for 2 nights at the fabulous Hotel Fort Canning, right in the middle of a nice park in the middle of the city. All in all, we had a great time, & would not hesitate to do a similar sailing again. Read Less

from dubai to singapore was totally awesome from start to finish cleanliness we had a balcony room which was very impressive room service was outstanding food was amazing so much choice entertainment , people were so friendly ,so much choice with everything ,watching the ship pull into ports was awesome views singapore was breathtaking never seen so many ships in a harbour and the sky line all lit up worth setting the alarm to get up an view ,the food was outstanding within the restaurants an the buffet the best i have seen compared to land vacations ,we did all our own excursions was so much cheaper , the cabin was excellent lots of storage space , huge large bed so comfortable an maid service twice a day an showers cleaned twice a day they really do look after you on this ship ,the drinks selection excellent cocktails amazing was fab overall best trip so far Read Less