Brilliant week on Royal Caribbean’s Explorer of the Seas
I picked the departure based on the ship and the itinerary combined. Ideally I wanted to sail on one of the bigger ships but they were all doing itineraries that covered places I had largely visited and so Explorer ticked more boxes.
The itinerary was perfect – we flew into Italy (loved the short flight) and the weather was hot all week, even when sailing with the breeze.
Split, Croatia – having driven through Split earlier in the year and got straight on a ferry to another island, I was keen to explore the city. The Old Town was smaller than I expected but in the heat meant we could see a lot of it before wanting to go back to the ship. We just wondered around ourselves rather than doing an organised excursion and the port was within easy walking distance of the town.
Mykonos Town, Greece – this exceeded my expectations. I book a lot of customers to the island and it’s one of the more expensive Greek destinations and known to be one for Instagram. I absolutely loved all the windy paths and how the shops were spread out among them. The painted tiles on the floor made it look so pretty with the buildings and I certainly can see the charm of this island even though we only visited Mykonos Town where the ship docked. We had a tender boat for this stop which we all loved. It was very windy that day and a bit choppy so the journey was a little bumpy but a great experience!
Pireaus (for Athens) – this was a bucket-list tick for me being able to visit the Acropolis. We went for the early morning departure so it was the only day we set an alarm! Great day out, long enough to see the Acropolis and find out a little bit about it and take some photos. We did have half an hour to explore Plaka area of the city but it wasn’t long enough and so didn’t get to see much!
Katakolon (for Olympia) – we weren;t going to get off the ship here but it was tender boat again and so we decided to go ashore almost just for that reason but what a lovely little town, full of nick-nacky shops and great value – we actually did most of our holiday shopping here in the end! We stayed a couple of hours before heading back to the boat and making the most of it being quite whilst a lot of passengers had taken trips to Olympia.
As for the ship itself…
I took a risk with the cabin to keep the cost down and booked a guaranteed balcony cabin but we got lucky and got a fairly mid-ship cabin with a clear view! The cabin worked better for us than the one we’d had on Iona but that may be down to personal preference. We had an upper berth this time which gave us a bit more floor space and meant we had a sofa to use. We also could keep our cases under the bed which made a huge difference with the wardrobe space!
For breakfast we had the option of the buffet restaurant (very busy and hard to find a spare table at peak times) or a la carte. To my surprise the kids enjoyed the a la carte, and I much preferred it too as it was so much quieter and always tables available! It meant I probably ate a bit less too, compared with eating at the buffet!
For lunch, we did mostly eat at the buffet but we tried to go early or late to avoid the mad rush and inevitable hunt for a free table. The choice in the buffet at all times was excellent and standard very high.
For dinners, we opted for set dining at 6pm – this worked for us and meant we had the same table and staff every evening. We enjoyed the choice and changing menus and it was brilliant that my two children (10 and 13 years) could pick from the kids or adult menu.
But what we loved most about our holiday was the on board activities, Flowrider (the surf machine) was all of our favourites and we had a go nearly every session! I didn’t manage to stand up for long but being on the boogie board was brilliant fun! I’ll be trying again next time I go on board a Royal Caribbean ship! We also loved the rock-climbing wall (much harder than I was expecting!), crazy golf and the table tennis.
We found ourselves wanting to get back to the ship each time we got off! And we’ll definitely be cruising with Royal Caribbean again.
