Royal Caribbean International
Explorer of the Seas Cruise Review
Western Caribbean

Cathie
Age: 38
Occupation: Management
Number of Cruises: 2
Sailing Date: March 12th, 2006

I will start my saying that this was our first extended family cruise with 11 in our party. Grandparents, Kids and Grandchildren. The wonderful thing about this ship is that there is something for everyone.

This was our second cruise with the first being on the Carnival Victory last summer.
I will start with embarkment. This went smoothly - pleasant surprise - 11 in our party were on board within 20-30 minutes.

Our Ports were Belize, Costa Maya, Cozumel and Grand Cayman. I have to say that I was not very impressed with this itinerary with the exception of Grand Cayman. In Belize we went cave tubing booking on line instead of through RCI for $ 49.00 vrs $ 90.00 on the ship - definitely worth it - check out www.regtours.com - they were great, on time and lots of fun. The only thing with this was that it was cold in the caves and it seemed a little too long with your backside in the water.

It seems that there is not too much to do in Belize.

Costa Maya was pretty much a cruise port area with shopping. We felt that this was probally the best place to buy jewellery out of all.

Cozumel was very damaged from the huricanes and was not as I expected. We went to Paradise Beach and went Jet Skiing - $ 55.00 per 1/2 hour. Next to Caymen where we went swimming with the String Rays - brilliant and the best of all.

The ship was very beautiful overall. There were alot of extra charges everywhere so expect to spend more than anticipated. The shows were great and the food was good as well. The overall service was good - I found that the level changed at the end of the week once they were tipped they all forgot to smile@!

Disenbarkment was a long wait to go through customs. They start the roll calls at 6:00 am to get off the ship so don't expect much sleep on the last night. The one other thing to take into account on this itineray is that 3 out of 4 ports are tenders which takes much time out of your day and becomes tedious.

The ship is beautiful!

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