Explorer of the Seas Review
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This was our 4th cruise with Royal Caribbean and the first three were all great!!! Now, we have experienced something a bit different from what we were expecting….. This was not the cruise vacation we had expected, but then again, maybe our expectations were overly high. Don’t get me wrong, the vacation was not horrible. But it also wasn’t spectacular. Disclaimer: this review is entirely my opinion!! Others on the same cruise may have found it to be great. The other two couples we met on the cruise were also disappointed, so I also know that my opinions are not only mine.
The Explorer of the Seas is part of Royal Caribbean’s Voyager class of ships. In my opinion, they are the workhorse of the fleet. They hold over 3,000 guests and employ a crew of hundreds. Although there are over 3,000 guests on board, I did not feel the problem of crowding that many people do. The ship is quite spacious.
The cruise departed Cape Liberty, Bayonne, NJ. This is where the trip got off on the wrong foot. Previous cruises we have taken allowed us to deposit our baggage with a porter, check-in, take the mandatory pre-cruise picture that they try to sell you, and then allow you to board. At Cape Liberty, you do all of it, except board. Upon check-in, you are given a number and you have to go to a waiting area until your number is called. The waiting area is just that and we had to wait about 45 minutes until our number was called. Then we had to cram into a shuttle bus and be driven to the boat. Once we got off the bus, it was into another line to log into the ship’s security system and then wait for an elevator to go up from the embarkation deck (deck one). The elevator line was ridiculously long, so we opted for the stairs. We were told our stateroom was ready so we headed there first to drop off our backpacks and check out our room. We had an interior cabin, nothing thrilling. We decided to do it cost-effectively and save some money. The cabin was old and the room attendant was nice, although not incredibly good at his job. I bent down to pick something up from the floor and found old sunflower seeds under the bed. Yes, you do have to bend over to vacuum under the bed!!