Explorer of the Seas September 11, 2010

Hello everyone, thanks for taking your time to read this, I truly appreciate it. Well, this is our, my dear wife Debbie, and my second cruise on this ship the first being in May. We liked this ship so much we couldn't stay away. We did all the normal preparation to an upcoming cruise; we got a few things at the store, went over the scooter, cruised Cruise Critic ad nauseam (but I do that anyway) and sent e-mails to our cruising friends. Eventually, like Friday afternoon, we packed the suitcases and van.

Saturday morning started at 4:15 with wake-up and in the road, the first time, by 5. About 5 miles down the road I remembered we didn't have the basket that hangs on the handlebars of the scooter. We got BACK on the road about 5:30. On the road again (sorry Willie) we headed east on the PA Turnpike with a quick stop at the Midway Plaza for a marginal breakfast and comfort stop. Two more stops and one re-direction in Bayonne, darn GPS, and we arrived at Cape Liberty. I made a right turn into the 911 memorial know as the Teardrop for a few moments just to pay my respects, it was 9/11 after all. Six hours down and numb-bum, I pulled into the parking spot and off loaded, with the help of a porter, the bags, scooter and Debbie. Drove around to pay the parking lot their due and found a spot in the handicapped section of the lot. Met Deb and headed for the terminal. Security checks done and we were at the counter checking in. This was a lot easier than May due to not having a delay and not having the dockside computers crashed. Got our Seapass cards and off to wait in line for the bus. Boy I hope they work on this, it's a pain to have to the bus thing. Took that two minute ride and arrived at the gangways. Since the tide was in they were a little steep but we got to the ship without a problem. The cards "dinged" and it's official: WE'RE ON THE SHIP ! ! ! OK for those who like times it took about one hour from pulling up to the porter until we heard the ding. In our opinion, this is more than reasonable. OK, here we are on deck 1, where do we go? Since they said the cabins would not be ready until 1:30 we opted to tour our favorite place, the Royal Promenade and then see what the Windjammer looked like. Since the weather was beautiful, we lingered a bit on the pool deck and hung out for the "sail-away" party. There we met Leyla from the Activities Staff. She was my worthy adversary in Giant Jenga on the May sailing. We didn't see her the rest of the cruise, Sorry Leyla we really wanted to chat a bit. Two o'clock was drawing nigh and we had a date to meet up with our friends Meg and Radio. If that last name sounds familiar ir is THE Radio from the "Live with Radio" postings on Cruise Critic. Debbie and I are honored to count him, and Meg too, among our friends. We also met Vanessa who had met up with Meg on their overnight in Bayonne, pre-cruise. After our nice little get together with our friends we went to the cabin to find our bags inside and meet Rodney our cabin steward. I asked for a few more towels and to see if he could "score" me a robe. Jumping the time-line a bit, he came through. We took a few minutes and unpacked. We just have a hard time living out of suitcase. It is just as easy for us to take a few minutes and put things in drawers and hand things up than to gripe about wrinkles and not being able to iron them out because we couldn't bring our fire-hazard travel iron onboard. Then it was off to the Windjammer for dinner. We met some old friends from the crew and had a great first night dinner. As we were finishing up who shows tableside but Radio. This very pleasant occurrence happened a few times during the cruise, Deb and I loved it Radio is just such a great guy. After dinner we hit the Promenade and did a little pre-shopping. The liquor store was a bit different than May was they actually had booze to sell. In explanation, the longshoreman would not load the shop goods in May because we sailed so late, so there were only two bottles of tequila on Saturday night May 8th. Anyway we got our usual stash for the family picnic and had our eyes filled with ideas for later. Back to the room to pick up my travel humidor and hit the Connoisseur Club for the first meeting of the EOSCSALSS (Explorer Of The Seas Cigar Smoking And Liquor Sipping Society) of which I happen to be self-appointed President (No one else wanted it nor did they care). I met Radio and provided him with a very good Rocky Patel Elite Lite cigar. For those that care it is a 52-ring gauge 6-inch light wrapper mild smoke. After smoking about half of it he informed me he was "getting high" from it, this is from a guy who smokes cigarettes, wonder if he inhaled? Didn't Clinton say HE didn't inhale? By the way Bianca, from Brazil, was the hostess (don't like to call her bar staff) at the club. She was the most attentive and kind person. More about her later. Well off to bed after that long day I was pooped. We had an inside handicapped cabin on 10 aft. It was very nice and quite roomy too. The carpet appeared to be new but the love seat and chair, yep a chair too, were showing their age, not bad but not new either. Some prior passenger had left their curling iron on the arm of the chair and scorched it. Now you know why they don't want irons on board if curling irons can char the fabric on a chair. Read more