On 9/25 My wife and I made the short trip to Bayonne on the Thursday before the remnants of Hurricane Kyle hit the east coast. Our wonderful son dropped us off at the pier at 1:00 PM. The lines to get on board the boat were minimal and about half hour later we were aboard a bus head to the Explorer of the Seas and our 9 day trip to Canada, specifically Quebec.

We went to the our room dropped off our carry on baggage. The room was very clean and decent size for a inside cruise ship room. Our cabin steward did a great job through out the course of the cruise. Coming to clean in the morning while we ate breakfast, doing the turn down at night while we were at the show and always leaving a towel animals to make us laugh. At our request the cabin steward pushed the beds together. Then we headed to the buffet for lunch.

The Explorer of the Seas is one of the largest cruise ships afloat. The Explorer has such modern amenities as an ice rink, miniature golf, roller blade area, basketball court, rock climbing, gym, multiple pools and hot tubs, etc. I was glad we were aboard one of the larger cruise ships rather than one of the smaller ships for this our 12th cruise and 4th aboard Royal Caribbean. The remnants of Hurricane Kyle left the seas extremely rough. 18-24 foot swells. The Captain made announcement telling female passengers that it was advisable for them to keep to flats and avoid wearing high heels. The seas made walking a little difficult aboard the ship. Once the Explorer got under way the outside doors were locked to keep curious passengers from going outside in the rough seas and getting into trouble. Lol. We had an inside statement room but people who had balcony rooms were complaining that they could never use the balcony while ate sea because the water was so rough. Read more