My family and I just returned from a nine day Caribbean Cruise on the Explorer of the Seas. After reading mostly positive comments about this cruise, we believed it would our best cruise ever. But this was far from the truth. The food on the ship was just adequate, nothing special. My daughter and I looked for the traditional "fun" desserts, but there were none to be found on the menu. No lava cake, New York Cheesecake, or apple pie. Main entree foods were just bland. My husband ordered a steak that was tough and tasteless. Our accommodations were dreadful. We had a Deluxe Ocean view Stateroom and it was extremely dirty. The rugs were stained, pictures on the wall filthy, and the shower walls had mildew on them. The room was so small that we had to rotate clockwise to move around the room. As far as entertainment is concerned, the parades were excellent but all the other show were poor. The ensemble singers sounded like four screaming cats! Thank goodness the dancers were good. There was not much to do on the ship, so my family and I spent a great deal of time in the casino losing money. What does it tell you about the ships activities, if the library was a crowded spot on the ship! The cruise director was not funny or personable. As a special note, Royal Caribbean makes you check out your towels on the pool deck and will charge you twenty dollars for each towel not returned. It just doesn't make sense since the towels are old and dirty. We didn't know about this rule on our first tour and had to go all the way up to deck eleven to get towels. All the other cruise lines we have been on puts the towels in the room. If you are thinking about going on this cruise line, seriously think twice. Check out Princess Cruise Lines! The Caribbean Princess goes out of Brooklyn with basically the same itinerary and is a superior ship. You will not be disappointed! We spoke to many people on this cruise and they all felt the same as we did. Don't be fooled by the commercials on T.V. I hope you find this cruise review helpful because if I had read a review like this one I might have had a better vacation on another ship.