We had been lucky enough to sail on the Explorer on the second leg of her inaugural cruise in September 2016. We thought the service and facilities could not be improved upon but how wrong could we be. There has been some fine tuning such as changing the time of the evening shows to 9.30 which allows everyone to eat before seeing them and more use of The Cafe with permanent barristas in there - including Dragan who always smiled and was always very helpful. Most importantly the internet was so much better, so that if you want to stream anything you pay extra but for general emails and web browsing it was free and worked very well, particularly in the public areas. I was even able to continue with my French lessons on Duolingo sitting in the coffee shop with my head phones on.

We stayed the first night in the Four Seasons Miami as part of the pre-cruise package - a lovely hotel but unfortunately the whole bar area and restaurant had been hired out privately which meant we had to go out. However, there were some lovely restaurants within walking distance - the concierge recommended a very good Italian. Embarkation was extremely smooth.

The standard of the entertainment has also gone up another level with outstanding singers, dancers and musicians who seemed to be able to play every instrument. Read more