Trip report: Explorer of the Seas - 7 Day, Eastern Caribbean
Sailing Dates: Nov 26 - Dec 3, 2006
Ports:
San Juan, Puerto Rico
Philipsburg, St. Maarten
Charlotte Amalie, St. Thomas
Nassau, Bahamas
Cruisers: Kristy (wife) and Dean (me). We are in our early 50's.
Previous cruises: This was our 14th cruise overall, 3rd on RCI, 5 CCL,
1 NCL, 5 Celebrity.
Transportation to the cruise
We flew on Delta from Peoria, IL via Atlanta to Miami. We had no
problems with any of the flights and no issues with the security
screening. We grabbed taxis between the airport, pre-cruise hotel, port
and airport.
We got our hotel room through Priceline. A $60 bid got us the Hyatt
Regency in downtown Miami. I thought that was quite a good deal.
The Ship
We sailed on RCI's Explorer of the Seas. This is a huge ship--some
140,000 tons. This is the largest ship on which we have cruised. Even
though it is huge, I thought it was well laid out and easy to get
around. We both thought that this was one of the prettiest ships on
which we have sailed.
We had stateroom 6561 which overlooked the Royal Promenade. Having an
inside cabin with a window was a unique experience and made the room
less claustrophobic than a standard inside cabin, but at less cost than
an outside cabin. The one downside is one needs to close the curtains
when changing. That need not happen with typical inside or outside
cabins. The Royal Promenade is a novel concept. From our cabin we
could go down one flight of stairs and stroll through the Royal
Promenade on our way to dinner.
Activities on board
We ice skated twice. The first time was sailing into San Juan and the
second time was sailing into Nassau. That was fun and seeing as neither
of us had skated since high school it was successful as neither fell,
not even once--though we did come close a couple of times. The fun part
was when the ship would roll a bit one would either slow down or speed
up with no effort. That never happened on the pond back home.
I thought the production shows were quite good. The two with the Royal
Caribbean Singers and Dancers were entertaining and displayed much
energy and good voices. One night the featured entertainer was a
magician/comic. I must admit his magic was pretty lame (easily
explainable tricks), but jokes were good. The last night's show
featured a very uninspiring comic.
A big highlight was the ice show. That show was fantastic especially
considering the rather small size of the ice rink.
One disappointment was the allocation of lounges for dancing. They
scheduled the ballroom dancing mainly in Dizzy's lounge. The floor was
half of an approximately 10 foot circle. If two couples were dancing the
floor would be crowded. On the other hand Maharajas lounge had a large
(by cruise ship standards) floor. It was a (maybe) 10 ft x 20 ft
rectangle. This lounge was rarely used for dancing throughout the
cruise.
There was a Latin band playing nightly in the Aquarium lounge. They
played nice music most of the time.
There was also the piano bar (Schooners) and occasional entertainment
on the Royal Promenade.
Food & Beverage
The meals aboard were excellent. I could not have asked for better
tasting food. All our dinners were taken in the restaurant. We ate all
but two breakfasts and two lunches in the Windjammer Cafe. The two
breakfasts and one lunch was had in the restaurant and the other lunch
was at Johnny Rockets. At Johnny Rockets we had delicious hamburgers,
french fries, onion rings and shared a chocolate malt. We were too
stuffed to try any dessert. One of the breakfasts that was taken in the
restaurant was midweek and I had Eggs Benedict which were quite good.
The other breakfast that we had in the restaurant was on disembarkation
morning. That day's menu was somewhat limited--no Eggs Benedict were
available.
I think the drink prices are getting rather high. $4.85 (15% tip
included) for a Corona is high in my humble, small midwestern city,
opinion. On the other hand I realize that charging $560/pp for a cruise
is probably not making much money for Royal Caribbean International.
Ports
San Juan: 2pm - 8pm. Due to the times and that we had been there
before, we just wandered around town for a couple of hours and returned
to the ship in time for our main seating dinner.
St. Maarten: 8am - 6pm. After getting off of the ship and walking down
the pier it started to sprinkle. We paused under a Pricess ship's
gangway umbrella for a few minutes and waited for the clouds to pass.
Once we were convinced that the sun was returning we went to Orient
Beach and had a fun day swimming and sunning.
St. Thomas: 7am - 5pm. On other trips to St. Thomas we have gone
snorkling at Trunk Bay on St. Johns island. That is a beautiful beach,
but it does take about an hour to get there and an hour to return. We
had every intention of going snorkling at Megan's Bay this time, but
during breakfast, we both felt lazy and just took a taxi to downtown
Charlotte Amalie to shop a bit and then wandered back to the ship. Back
onboard, we had lunch, got into swimwear and found an empty lounger and
relaxed.
Nassau: 12pm - 5pm. Our plans were to stay on board in Nassau. We did.
We ice skated for the second time, played 9-holes of putt-putt golf, had
hamburgers at Johnny Rockets and caught more rays up on deck. One can't
ask for much more.
Disembarkation
Disembarkation went smoothly, if somewhat slowly. We had our last
breakfast in the restaurant then made our way to Maharajas lounge which
was reserved for Platinum+ Crown & Anchor members to wait for our color
to be called. Here they had Danishes and coffee set out, but since we
already had breakfast we passed on the offerings. While waiting, we did
step outside and got in one more game of shuffleboard.
Unfortunately once our color was called we had to wait for maybe 30
minutes to get through Customs. All non-US citizens now need to get two
fingerprints taken plus a photo. That was taking a long time. Even US
citizens spent more time than before to pass through Customs. We were
in front of a Customs officer for probably 1 minute where we used to
just hand the officer our declaration form as we walked by.
We left sunny and warm (80 degF) Miami at 4pm and arrived at cold (5
degF) and dark and snowy Peoria at 9:30pm. Two days earlier Peoria had
its worst snow storm in 25 years--rain--freezing rain--sleet--12 or more
inches of snow. Fortunately we have friends who live near the airport
who came over and helped dig our car out. Note to self: when you live
in a northern climate and leave on vacation in late November leave
winter coats, hats, gloves, etc. in the car! When we left home it was
in the 50's so all we took were spring jackets.
Summary
Overall this was a very nice cruise. We each put on a few pounds, got
rested up, and enjoyed the time onboard and on the islands. Life is
good!
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