Explorer of the Seas Review
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We took this cruise to celebrate Dad’s 90th Birthday. What a blast! Dad had always wanted to take a cruise, but seemed impossible. First Mom never wanted to go. Then he had dialysis. We investigated dialysis at sea, and found it too expensive, but realized we could take a 3 day cruise between treatments, so that’s what we did.
It was still challenging to make it all work. In addition to dialysis, dad has mobility issues and recently started on an oxygen concentrator. He loves to travel, but it isn’t easy!
We had 7 people in four cabins, but I’m going to concentrate on how we dealt with dad’s mobility issues, what worked, and what didn’t. I haven’t seen many reviews that cover this in any depth.
Cabin Review
Interior
Since Dad has mobility issues, we chose an accessible cabin. I highly recommend it for those with issues. It is much larger, has a roll in shower with a seat, and emergency call buttons. Most important, the standard cabin door is too narrow for a wheelchair. This one is big enough.
That said, a couple gotchas: the entry door is very heavy and Dad was unable to open it himself. (the bathroom door did not have this issue) Second, the only outlets are on the desk and require an extension cord for a CPAP or O2 concentrator. The extension cord provided by RCI barely made it to the right side of the bed. It would not have made it to the left side. If you need more than one plug, you'll need to bring a power strip.
Port Reviews
Seattle
Seattle is a beautiful city and the cruise port has a great view of the sound. If you can manage the time, take a couple days to look around.
Victoria
We walked off the ship and followed a well marked sidewalk to town. It was a great walk and took us through fisherman's wharf and up to the inner harbor. There's great architecture and volunteers to tell you all of the great things to do.
I wanted to walk to Beacon Hill Park, but pushing Dad on hi wheelchair wore both of us out, so that didn't happen.