After a great cruise on Tui Discovery, decided to try Explorer. With it being refitted and rebranded, plus we also were thinking of a Caribbean cruise for early next year. We have cruised with many different cruise lines, including Thomsons early vessels, all round the world. Embarkation was smooth and quickly done. The staff were very helpful and we were soon in our cabin, with cabin stewards greeting us. Our luggage was delivered within 30mins. The cabin( 8103) was well outfitted and clean, the shower area was disappointing with a stained sink, corroding mirror plus an unpleasant smell, which we reported, it faded gradually and did not affect the cabin Spent millions upgrading the ship, needed another few pounds spending on the shower area to get it to the same standard as the rest of the ship.

The Market Place food was good quality as was the food in Latitude 53. Apart from the second night when the serving and kitchen staff seemed overwhelmed with an influx of a party of 250 people, the service improved tremendously. The Vista restaurant was very busy and it took 3 attempts to eat there. ( It needs to be larger) The entertainment we saw good and professionally done. The excursion to Carcassonne was disappointing, as we did not have enough free time to explore and it was not a cheap trip. The ports of call were interesting, with the exception of Porto Torres, which was a waste of time, best bet is to go on an organised trip to see the surrounding areas. The bar service and choice of drinks was excellent as was the cabin stewards work. Overall we and our friends enjoyed the experience and expect that the odd problems will be ironed out. My wife considered £39 for a wash and blow at the hairdresser to be very expensive. Disembarkation was problem free.

We have in fact booked a Caribbean cruise on Explorer for late January next year, so this cruise didn't put us off.