Dubai to Barcelona April 23..May07

This was part of a 3 leg repositioning cruise from Australia to Europe ... with hardly any stops on the 13 day leg from Dubai, we transited the Suez Canal without proper narration as to what we are seeing starting at 4 am.

The only other port calls were Athens and Valletta... both stops if you haven't been before were guessing games as the cruise line did not give port information for those wanting to explore on their own.. it's all geared to those taking shore excursions

This cruise had a lot of sick people on board .. it was difficult not to catch whatever was going around. The captain withheld much information about what was going on on the ship and of course sugar coated what little information he gave... of course with 3,000 people you don't want to cause alarm but intelligent people are not sheep..

Although the Explorer OTS is my favorite class of ship in the RCI fleet, the ship is very tired.. obviously in need of maintenance and refurbishment..it will be limping into the shipyard..

Our last cabin was a disgrace.. so many items broken or not working.. (our reward for Royaling Up) ..

Dining room service for breakfast and lunch..? How about waiting for 40 minutes for a menu item that they don't have... grapefruit! Lunches were only good on sea days when you could help yourself to the salad bar buffet style... I don't understand if the wait staff is short handed or something else..

The entertainment is never the best on repositioning cruises but this was probably the worst.. Some of the dancers were sent home at selected ports as they also got sick..The ventriloquist stayed healthy but...! The ice show is always good, but at one point the lead female ice dancer got sick and was also sent home..

The ports from Australia to Dubai were selected for the convenience of RCI .. not enough hours in any port except Darwin and Dubai where the ship stayed overnight..

The inconvenience of having to pack up everything and move to another cabin defeated the purpose of unpacking once and enjoying a relaxing cruise ... totally for the convenience of the cruise line ...this cruise, not even offering to move your closet of hanging clothes for you to lessen the blow.. imagine being sick and having to pack your bags and move to another cabin ...

Would i take this particular cruise again...? probably not!