pyramid2000
<font color=blue>Member of the DD Geek invasion of
- Joined
- Aug 19, 2005
- Messages
- 10,446
I just got back from a 5 day RCCl cruise on the Explorer of the Seas to Bermuda from Bayone, NJ. Some had asked for a comparison so here it is....
First, I did not travel with my DDs or DH. There was me, my sister, mom, and her friend. That in itself made the trip different.
My findings:
- Explorer is HUGE!! There are 14 decks with a large promande running through most decks. Here you would find the shops (about 7 or so), a few bars, and the 24hr cafe. The parade was held here also, as well as different entertainment such as singing.
- The restaurant took three levels (3,4,and 5 with each room having a differnet explorers' name) and was located aft as on DCL. The main floor had tables throughout while the upper floors were open to the lower floor. The Windjammer was the buffet and was also aft on deck 11. There were 3 seperate main buffet lines as well as beverage stations and dessert stations with 3 seperate eating areas.
- The Palace Theatre was located forward as on DCL and was two levels and wrapped around. It was a bit bigger than the WDT, but not too much.
- The Explorer was in good shape, but I did not see nearly as much cleaning and maintaining as on DCL. It was clean, but is due for a drydock. It is in need of some paint, especially in the hallways.
-The cabins were nice and the beds were comfy. We had a balcony which was a bit bigger than DCL, but the cabin was a little more narrow and maybe shorter, but you really couldn't tell. We only had two in each cabin so there was plenty of room. Plenty of storage also. Even though the ship is very long, you couldn't tell as the hallways are staggered ason DCL so you couldn't see all the way down as on a Carnival ship I was on a long time ago. I did see an inside cabin and it seemed to have ample room. The shower in our room was an upgrade from lower catagories and was circular with enclosed doors. It was very roomy and had great water pressure.
- The shows were of course, not Disney. *** EJay Day from American Idol 1 is a main singer on the ship! http://www.answers.com/topic/ejay-day-jpg*** On the 5 day we had two big production shows. They were great! The singers and dancers were awesome. I would rate them as kid friendly, although we are very conservative and some of the costumes were a bit risque. The first show was a recap of broadway numbers and the second were songs from the 60's though 90's. A lot of costume changes and great scenery. They had a live orchestra also. The other two shows were variaty type with a magician, a power acrobat (amazing, but a bit boring?) the dancers and singers, and a comedian. I can't comment much on the show the first night because they only had one showing between dinner seatings so it was SRO by the time we got there after dinner. I have no idea why they did this? The night we stayed in Bermuda they had a festival so there was no show onoard. The entertainment was outside and I saw a the juggler, but they also had the singers and dancers, comedy, etc.
-One thing that stood out was the ice show. It was fabulous!!! How they can do what they do on a moving ship in such a small arena is nothing short of amazing!! There were 4 shows total (2 on each sea day) and you had to pick up tickets at certain times, but I don't think anyone who wanted to go couldn't.
- There are four pools onboard with two (the main pools) being next to each other. Gives you an idea of how wide the ship is. The Solarium is the adults only pool with padded lounge chairs and a walk-in pool. These three were much bigger than DCL. I didn't go in so I can't comment on the saltwater. They are chloranated and everyone says you can't even tell. The jacuzzis are huge also. There is a seperate kids area in the back with two slides. One is small that goes into a shallow area (not a pool) and the other goes into an area like on DCL. There was also a very small pool. The area had kid-sized table and chairs all around a well as adult sized. There is no place for kids in swim diapers. The clubs take the children here at times.
- The service was comparable to DCL. I guess it would really depend on who you get. Our dining servers were great, although out main server seemed very business-like until the last night. He didn't like you to interupt him when he was going through his spiel. We saw our head server every night and he hekped quite a bit, cutting out the lobster, cutting up the salad, grinding the pepper, etc. Out assistant server was great! I always seem to like the assistant the best. She was gettting off the same day as us for her two months off and was hilarious. They learned what we liked and were very accomodating. Cabin service was great as well as room service.
- Room service had a lot more choices. Through dinner time you could order much of what was being offered in the dinning room. Breakfast was full service also. The rest of the time there was a very wide selection.
- There were many, many bars and lounges throughout the ship. All had smoking and non-smoking areas, even the ones in common areas. The servers here that I talked with were awesome. They do not pool there tips (the bartenders do). The casino was on deck 4 mid-ship and you did have to walk through to get aft or forward on this deck. It was huge for a ship casino.
_ Smoking: It is allowed in every bar and lounge, the casino, in the rooms, and on the starboard?(right) side of the outside decks. It did not seem to be prelivent nor did it seem to bother anyone. I smoke, so I can not comment on the smell too much, but I didn't notice it. I usually can if it is too much. The ship is very well venalated. The theatre, Studio B (where they had the ice show and Quest), and the dining rooms were non smoking. I believe the childrens pool area was as well.
- kids area- I did not get to go inside nor did I get the chance to speak with any of the crew, but I did speak with many children and parents. All said they loved it, didn't want to leave, etc. I peeked inside through the windows and the area seemed fairly large with 4 seperate areas for each age group. The one thing I know they did from viewing it on the last night in the theatre (I'll explain this later) was they dressed as pirates and paraded through the promonade while in Bermuda. It looked really cute. Sorry I don't know more.
- Fellow passengers - most were from the northeast. NJ, NY, PA, CT,MD. Tey were all nice and I didn't see anyone drinking excessively. There were quite a lot of kids, but there were even more teenagers. I would say there was quite a large group ranging in age from 15 - 22. They seemed to mostly hang out in the game area or the arcade. Of ocuse those over 18 frequented the clubs. I did not notice any being rowdy or rude. There was not an over abundence of older people as I have heard there can be, but this was a shorter cruise. Everyone was friendly enough.
-Staff - The cruise director, Allen Brooks, was the best I have ever seen! He was very friendly and VERY funny and entertaining (his legs didn't hurt either
) He really knew what he was doing and apparently has been around for awhile. We made friends with quite a bit of the staff, although it was mostly on the last day. A 7 day would have been better with the staff. Chris, the activities director, was a doll and was great at Bingo. Luke looked and acted a bit like Pikey. We brought pizza to two young workers (Skye and Sarah) in the general store since they can not get it themselves. Apparently most can't and we also brought some to the other staff members along with sandwiches. They were sooo grateful. Some of the staff did a stint in one of the clubs and dressed and danced as the Village People. It was very fun.
-ETC. - There was the Quest, while similar to the DQ, was definately adults only. The Love and Marriage show had everyone nearly rolling on the floor. The comedian had a late night show and was great. His name is Don Gavin and has been in a few movies including Shallow Hal and Fever Pitch. I didn't do mimiature golf, rollar blading, or rock climbing, but they weren't overly crowded when I looked.
- embarktion/disembarktion- I had a very easy time. We hit a snafu when we were checking in. They didn't have me or my mother in our room! I thought something mught be wrong when I looked it up on the website, but I had called and they said was ok. Apparently it wasn't, but it got taken care of. With out this, we would have been on in minutes of arrival. We weren't the first ones there though, but were fairly early. I think they had started boarding a little before noon and we got there somewhere around noon. They had seperate lines according to floor. Some were bunched together, ours was seperate. Of course suites had there own area. But plenty of people checking in. Getting off you have a color that you have to wait to be called. We ate breakfast late (it is open seating) because we drove and got off when we were done within minutes. No problem in luggage area, customs, or gettting the car. Very smooth for us. I have no idea how it was if you went when they called your color. They were done with this when we got off.
My comparision:
This was very differnet from my DCL cruises, but I was with different people also. I wouldn't say better or worse. My biggest complaint would be the elevators. There were only two sets of four and could get very crowded, especially after an event. I wouldn't have been too affected by them as I could have taken the steps more, but my fellow passengers have bad knees so we took them most of the time. Also, DCL is tops with its outside food. The Explorer only had the cafe which had pizza, sandwiches, fruit, and dessert. It was open 24 hrs, but there was no food anywhere near the pool except ice cream. And I guess the windjammer buffet. It didn't bother me, but I really didn't know where to get drinks. There is a charge for soda, but lemonade and Iced tea were free. I just didn't know where to get them besides at dinner or in the Windjammer. The Cafe had water, hot cocoa, coffee and tea available. Johnny Rockets was great ($3.95 charge so it isn't overly crowded at it used to be). I didn't go into their specialty restaurant.
Food quality - comparable
Service- comparable
Pools - a bit of an edge to RCCL
Food avalibility - DCL
Room service - RCCL
Family friendly - I would have to think DCL, but I didn;t have kids with me
Cleanliness - edge to DCL
Crowds - comparable, although I felt more crowded on DCL personally. Both were at capacity when I was on
Terminal - DCL hands down. They are planning on building a terminal here in the near future. Hopefully!
Kids area- can't compare, but I would say DCL mainly for the pagers and RCCL closes at times on sea days (for lunch and dinner) and has a small fee after 10 pm. They do have in room sitting.
I would reccomend it if anyone was thinking of going, especially to Bermuda. It is gorgeous!! The beach...I can't even begin to describe it except to say that there wasn't so much as a pebble to be found at the one we went to and the sand was as soft as silk.
Please fell free to ask any questions! I'm sure I didn't cover everything! Sorry it was so long....
First, I did not travel with my DDs or DH. There was me, my sister, mom, and her friend. That in itself made the trip different.
My findings:
- Explorer is HUGE!! There are 14 decks with a large promande running through most decks. Here you would find the shops (about 7 or so), a few bars, and the 24hr cafe. The parade was held here also, as well as different entertainment such as singing.
- The restaurant took three levels (3,4,and 5 with each room having a differnet explorers' name) and was located aft as on DCL. The main floor had tables throughout while the upper floors were open to the lower floor. The Windjammer was the buffet and was also aft on deck 11. There were 3 seperate main buffet lines as well as beverage stations and dessert stations with 3 seperate eating areas.
- The Palace Theatre was located forward as on DCL and was two levels and wrapped around. It was a bit bigger than the WDT, but not too much.
- The Explorer was in good shape, but I did not see nearly as much cleaning and maintaining as on DCL. It was clean, but is due for a drydock. It is in need of some paint, especially in the hallways.
-The cabins were nice and the beds were comfy. We had a balcony which was a bit bigger than DCL, but the cabin was a little more narrow and maybe shorter, but you really couldn't tell. We only had two in each cabin so there was plenty of room. Plenty of storage also. Even though the ship is very long, you couldn't tell as the hallways are staggered ason DCL so you couldn't see all the way down as on a Carnival ship I was on a long time ago. I did see an inside cabin and it seemed to have ample room. The shower in our room was an upgrade from lower catagories and was circular with enclosed doors. It was very roomy and had great water pressure.
- The shows were of course, not Disney. *** EJay Day from American Idol 1 is a main singer on the ship! http://www.answers.com/topic/ejay-day-jpg*** On the 5 day we had two big production shows. They were great! The singers and dancers were awesome. I would rate them as kid friendly, although we are very conservative and some of the costumes were a bit risque. The first show was a recap of broadway numbers and the second were songs from the 60's though 90's. A lot of costume changes and great scenery. They had a live orchestra also. The other two shows were variaty type with a magician, a power acrobat (amazing, but a bit boring?) the dancers and singers, and a comedian. I can't comment much on the show the first night because they only had one showing between dinner seatings so it was SRO by the time we got there after dinner. I have no idea why they did this? The night we stayed in Bermuda they had a festival so there was no show onoard. The entertainment was outside and I saw a the juggler, but they also had the singers and dancers, comedy, etc.
-One thing that stood out was the ice show. It was fabulous!!! How they can do what they do on a moving ship in such a small arena is nothing short of amazing!! There were 4 shows total (2 on each sea day) and you had to pick up tickets at certain times, but I don't think anyone who wanted to go couldn't.
- There are four pools onboard with two (the main pools) being next to each other. Gives you an idea of how wide the ship is. The Solarium is the adults only pool with padded lounge chairs and a walk-in pool. These three were much bigger than DCL. I didn't go in so I can't comment on the saltwater. They are chloranated and everyone says you can't even tell. The jacuzzis are huge also. There is a seperate kids area in the back with two slides. One is small that goes into a shallow area (not a pool) and the other goes into an area like on DCL. There was also a very small pool. The area had kid-sized table and chairs all around a well as adult sized. There is no place for kids in swim diapers. The clubs take the children here at times.
- The service was comparable to DCL. I guess it would really depend on who you get. Our dining servers were great, although out main server seemed very business-like until the last night. He didn't like you to interupt him when he was going through his spiel. We saw our head server every night and he hekped quite a bit, cutting out the lobster, cutting up the salad, grinding the pepper, etc. Out assistant server was great! I always seem to like the assistant the best. She was gettting off the same day as us for her two months off and was hilarious. They learned what we liked and were very accomodating. Cabin service was great as well as room service.
- Room service had a lot more choices. Through dinner time you could order much of what was being offered in the dinning room. Breakfast was full service also. The rest of the time there was a very wide selection.
- There were many, many bars and lounges throughout the ship. All had smoking and non-smoking areas, even the ones in common areas. The servers here that I talked with were awesome. They do not pool there tips (the bartenders do). The casino was on deck 4 mid-ship and you did have to walk through to get aft or forward on this deck. It was huge for a ship casino.
_ Smoking: It is allowed in every bar and lounge, the casino, in the rooms, and on the starboard?(right) side of the outside decks. It did not seem to be prelivent nor did it seem to bother anyone. I smoke, so I can not comment on the smell too much, but I didn't notice it. I usually can if it is too much. The ship is very well venalated. The theatre, Studio B (where they had the ice show and Quest), and the dining rooms were non smoking. I believe the childrens pool area was as well.
- kids area- I did not get to go inside nor did I get the chance to speak with any of the crew, but I did speak with many children and parents. All said they loved it, didn't want to leave, etc. I peeked inside through the windows and the area seemed fairly large with 4 seperate areas for each age group. The one thing I know they did from viewing it on the last night in the theatre (I'll explain this later) was they dressed as pirates and paraded through the promonade while in Bermuda. It looked really cute. Sorry I don't know more.
- Fellow passengers - most were from the northeast. NJ, NY, PA, CT,MD. Tey were all nice and I didn't see anyone drinking excessively. There were quite a lot of kids, but there were even more teenagers. I would say there was quite a large group ranging in age from 15 - 22. They seemed to mostly hang out in the game area or the arcade. Of ocuse those over 18 frequented the clubs. I did not notice any being rowdy or rude. There was not an over abundence of older people as I have heard there can be, but this was a shorter cruise. Everyone was friendly enough.
-Staff - The cruise director, Allen Brooks, was the best I have ever seen! He was very friendly and VERY funny and entertaining (his legs didn't hurt either
) He really knew what he was doing and apparently has been around for awhile. We made friends with quite a bit of the staff, although it was mostly on the last day. A 7 day would have been better with the staff. Chris, the activities director, was a doll and was great at Bingo. Luke looked and acted a bit like Pikey. We brought pizza to two young workers (Skye and Sarah) in the general store since they can not get it themselves. Apparently most can't and we also brought some to the other staff members along with sandwiches. They were sooo grateful. Some of the staff did a stint in one of the clubs and dressed and danced as the Village People. It was very fun. -ETC. - There was the Quest, while similar to the DQ, was definately adults only. The Love and Marriage show had everyone nearly rolling on the floor. The comedian had a late night show and was great. His name is Don Gavin and has been in a few movies including Shallow Hal and Fever Pitch. I didn't do mimiature golf, rollar blading, or rock climbing, but they weren't overly crowded when I looked.
- embarktion/disembarktion- I had a very easy time. We hit a snafu when we were checking in. They didn't have me or my mother in our room! I thought something mught be wrong when I looked it up on the website, but I had called and they said was ok. Apparently it wasn't, but it got taken care of. With out this, we would have been on in minutes of arrival. We weren't the first ones there though, but were fairly early. I think they had started boarding a little before noon and we got there somewhere around noon. They had seperate lines according to floor. Some were bunched together, ours was seperate. Of course suites had there own area. But plenty of people checking in. Getting off you have a color that you have to wait to be called. We ate breakfast late (it is open seating) because we drove and got off when we were done within minutes. No problem in luggage area, customs, or gettting the car. Very smooth for us. I have no idea how it was if you went when they called your color. They were done with this when we got off.
My comparision:
This was very differnet from my DCL cruises, but I was with different people also. I wouldn't say better or worse. My biggest complaint would be the elevators. There were only two sets of four and could get very crowded, especially after an event. I wouldn't have been too affected by them as I could have taken the steps more, but my fellow passengers have bad knees so we took them most of the time. Also, DCL is tops with its outside food. The Explorer only had the cafe which had pizza, sandwiches, fruit, and dessert. It was open 24 hrs, but there was no food anywhere near the pool except ice cream. And I guess the windjammer buffet. It didn't bother me, but I really didn't know where to get drinks. There is a charge for soda, but lemonade and Iced tea were free. I just didn't know where to get them besides at dinner or in the Windjammer. The Cafe had water, hot cocoa, coffee and tea available. Johnny Rockets was great ($3.95 charge so it isn't overly crowded at it used to be). I didn't go into their specialty restaurant.
Food quality - comparable
Service- comparable
Pools - a bit of an edge to RCCL
Food avalibility - DCL
Room service - RCCL
Family friendly - I would have to think DCL, but I didn;t have kids with me
Cleanliness - edge to DCL
Crowds - comparable, although I felt more crowded on DCL personally. Both were at capacity when I was on
Terminal - DCL hands down. They are planning on building a terminal here in the near future. Hopefully!
Kids area- can't compare, but I would say DCL mainly for the pagers and RCCL closes at times on sea days (for lunch and dinner) and has a small fee after 10 pm. They do have in room sitting.
I would reccomend it if anyone was thinking of going, especially to Bermuda. It is gorgeous!! The beach...I can't even begin to describe it except to say that there wasn't so much as a pebble to be found at the one we went to and the sand was as soft as silk.
Please fell free to ask any questions! I'm sure I didn't cover everything! Sorry it was so long....
