Explorer of the Seas

Royal Caribbean International®

Ship Reviews

Overall Rating

Based on 44 reviews

Submit your review Cruise reviews reflect the opinions of travel editors and cruisers/ readers and may not represent those of our company.

Explorer of the Seas, Greek Isles Cruise

September

Pros: Very clean ship, with little wear and tear. An exceptionally friendly crew.

Cons: Very slow service in the Main Dining Room. Food quality and variety is much worse than our Royal Caribbean cruises from 2022 and early 2023.

Recommended: No

Overall we had a nice cruise. The ship was in great condition, and crew were superb. The shows were good with the Ice Show being a REAL highlight. Despite missing two of our five ports (due to weather), the ports we did visit were excellent. To make up for missed ports, a fourth port was added on day 7, which was a nice surprise. We booked two Royal Caribbean excursions, and they were both excellent. A quick shoutout to the pub… the pub layout, staff, and pub singer were all incredible. Best pub in the fleet (as far as we’re concerned)! Unfortunately, we noticed that the core experience of cruising with Royal Caribbean has changed significantly since 2022. This is our third cruise with the new MDR menus, and the lack of variety is starting to affect our dining experience. The quality of the food was noticeably worse than previous cruises (following somewhat of a trend). However, this was overshadowed by the service speed of the MDR. Nights 1, 2 and 3 took 105-120 minutes between sitting down and receiving dessert. We noticed an extreme lack of assistant waiters, and only met our assist waiter once or twice per night. Our main waiter also seemed to be stretched to cover a large section, which likely slowed the delivery of food from the kitchen. There appeared to be a reduction in staffing in the MDR. My wife and I remained patent as we enjoyed our entire basket of bread, but we noticed many angry passengers around us every night. We retreated to the Windjammer on nights 4, 5, and 6… which was surprisingly as good (food wise) as the MDR. Also, the Windjammer took 20 minutes to eat, and the bar service was immediate. Similarly, the once per day stateroom service seemed acceptable on our last 4 night cruise, but we noticed the room wasn’t as clean by the end of this 7 night cruise. Only 2 towel animals for the week, and we didn’t get replacement towels a couple nights. I called housekeeping about 6 times each of those nights to ask for towels, but no one answered. Guest Services told me to try calling again (which was unsuccessful). We had to disassemble and share the poor towel animal… The excess of staff in the bars, and lack of staff in the complementary venues indicated a change of priority for the cruise line. Unfortunately we believe the core experience has slipped to a point where the allure and value of a Royal Caribbean cruise is affected. We plan to cruise again with RC, but we are concerned this trend may continue…

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We had a great time

April

Pros: Friendly staff, great stops

Cons: Not many big shows, okay food

Recommended: Yes

We had a great time! Our staff was friendly and helpful. The pool decks were always crowded and it could be difficult to get a seat, especially if you did not camp all day at a seat. We enjoyed a lot of the smaller evening events - like karaoke and game shows, though we noticed that there was not much by way of big shows that we were interested in. We enjoyed our excursions and stops.

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Everything I hoped for in this cruise!

May

Pros: Excellent staff, great sit down dining, lots of options for activities

Cons: The itinerary was not available when I first started looking.

Recommended: Yes

Our trip required a lot of planning for my family to make it work, so I started looking 3 years in advance. I was booked on another cruise line that cancelled our trip, so I went back to Royal. I am SO GLAD that it all worked out that way! I truly enjoyed our family adventure and the staff on the Explorer added so much to our experience. I highly recommend Royal Caribbean!

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Explorer of the seas review

April

Pros: Great service

Cons:

Recommended: Yes

Great experience.

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Great Vacation

December

Pros: Food, service, shows, stops were great.

Cons: None

Recommended: Yes

Had a lovely vacation.

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8 fun nights

November

Pros: Friendly crew

Cons: Food in the main dining room. small portions

Recommended: Yes

Smooth sailing

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Food needs a little help

February

Pros: Staff was amazing!!!!

Cons: Food needs help!

Recommended: Yes

Food was not that great. Staff was amazing!!!!!

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Explorer of the Seas  |  Cruises

6-night Greece, Italy and Spain Cruise10/27/2024from $2,533

11-night Southern Caribbean Cruise01/26/2025from $8,972

5-night France & Italy Cruise05/12/2025from $592

7-night Greek Isles Cruise07/12/2025from $872

8-night Italy, France & Croatia Cruise09/13/2025from $951

4-night Bahamas & Perfect Day Cruise12/04/2025from $475

5-night Eastern Caribbean & Perfect Day01/19/2026from $573

5-night Eastern Caribbean & Perfect Day Cruise03/02/2026from $585

5-night Eastern Caribbean & Perfect Day Cruise04/13/2026from $560

View all 74 Explorer of the Seas Cruise Offers...

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