KWong

It is not, but expect to get surge priced. Would recommend downloading Lyft and going for the best price you can find. 

Thanks for the kind words. The flight back from Lisbon was quite smooth. Uneventful Air Canada flight which is how I like it!

Forgot to mention that Cassis is a short train ride away from Marseille and is quite picturesque. If you feel like Marseille's Vieux-Port is a little too commercial and touristy, Cassis will feel very calm and laid back (but still a little touristy) in comparison. You'd probably have to get a taxi to the port from the train station though.

11 hours ago, PhillyLady said:

I love Delos!!! It is one of my favorite archaeological sites from ancient Greece.

Yeah I think anyone who loves archaeology and/or ancient history will love going to Delos. Half day worked fine for us since it gave us time to wander around the town afterwards.

11 hours ago, PhillyLady said:

I like the cruise guarantee when we take a long, busy, full-day tour, especially if lunch is included at a local restaurant. When we were in Crete and Naples we were first off and last on with our ship excursions, as we were going to multiple places, especially including centers of famous large ruins. I would not have attempted the itineraries we had on my own, due to the distances, potential time waiting in lines to buy tickets, crowds, and no need to search for places to eat.

I can understand that. The reason I mentioned Tulum is because of the infamous Cozumel ferry. In fact, when my brother and his wife wanted to go to Chichen Itza, I straight up told him to eat the markup and book through the cruise ship. Which was a good thing because their tour got back to the ship 30 minutes after all aboard time.

I will say though, that I do have a fairly high risk threshold, so when I research potential self-excursions, I check to see if times work out etc. For example, I knew that taking TrenItalia from Messina to Taormina carried some risk if we didn't get on a return train by a certain time, but it wasn't a huge concern, many cruisers did the same trip, and we did the round trip with plenty of time to spare. End result was that we spent about 15€ each versus I don't know how much through the cruise. But that said, we probably could've gotten on a round trip coach through Viator or GYG for a little bit more money and a bit more peace of mind.

11 hours ago, PhillyLady said:

My goal is never to seek out the cheapest tours, but the most unique and interesting tours, and I budget accordingly.

That is a great approach. I am much the same way. Which is probably why I like food tours - a proper food tour will give you local foods, and maybe simplified touristy foods. And alcohol. I've now done those in Lyon, Athens, Barcelona and Seattle's Pike Place Market. But when I was in Nice last year we also did a full day tour of the French Riviera, which was amazing.

I've never actually booked through Viator as I've found their markups to be similar to the cruise lines. So there's zero incentive for me to book through them, since they can't offer the exact same guarantee that the cruise line would. That said, I haven't done an excursion in quite some time (Tulum would've been the last time in the mid-2010s) that would necessitate getting that cruise guarantee.

I've seen markups on GetYourGuide as well, but they do have a lot of excursions that appear to have zero markup. For example the Delos tour I was on, was effectively the same 65€ at the dock as it was online on GYG. And it was the exact same boat taking you to the island as the cruise excursion. And the prices for GYG's listed food tours are comparable to other independent food tours.

On 11/15/2024 at 5:41 PM, JeffH said:

How much of a gamble is making reservations for some sights in Barcelona? Allure’s itinerary shows gangway 5:30 the morning we arrive in early May. Is guesstimate 7am for actually getting off the ship? 

If you can get reservations for the Sagrada Familia, go for it. I'd recommend the guided tour because you get a lot of information.

If that's not your speed, look for a tapas food tour. We went on a nighttime tour after debarkation and it was well worth it.

Other spots in Barcelona are:
- Castell de Montjuic on the hill. There's also the Olympic stadium which, if you're lucky and a sports stadium junkie, is open for people to pop in and take a look.
- Catedral de Barcelona. If you can do the Sagrada and then take the Metro here, it provides a nice contrast. You can even head to the roof of the Cathedral which is definitely unique.
- I've been told that the Mercat Boqueria is the touristy market, while Mercat de Santa Caterina is more a local market, so that might be worthwhile to look into if you don't like huge crowds.

Off the beaten path, you can buy some high-speed train tickets and visit Girona (nice medieval city with Game of Thrones shooting locations) or Figueroa (Dali museum). But only if the times work out for you to get back to the ship in time.

Marseille I'd agree that Vieux-Port and the basilica are the top two things to see. Cathedral La Major and MUCEM are also worth checking out.

For Mallorca, there's a shuttle that takes you to and from the Basilica, which is very impressive. I've seen recommendations to take a train to Soller but we didn't go for that. Crew members apparently really like Mallorca so it may be worthwhile to ask them for recommendations when on board.

For reference, the cruise itinerary was 6 nights covering:

We used our Visa card to access the Plaza Premium Lounge at T1 international. Lounge was… fine. Very quiet and the seats were quite comfy. Food was pretty basic - pasta and a chicken dish, plus some salads and bar snacks. Well drinks were free, so that was nice. Would I go into the lounge if it wasn’t part of my Visa perks? Probably not. But it was nice to sit there and then go straight to boarding.

We got to Athens on time, and customs was very quick. Baggage took maybe half the time it takes to arrive at Pearson, and with that we were off to the Metro.

Check-in and embarkation was a breeze. I think 20 minutes from bag drop to on board. Much better than my near two-hour experience in Galvestion for Regal Princess.

The Ship
This was our first time on Explorer, and on this class of ship. Being older, there weren’t that many amenities on Explorer outside of the usual and the Perfect Storm. I don’t think it’s a great one for kids, but for a couple of 50-year olds, the vibe was pretty nice.

Lots of trivia, of course. Some of the music ones skewed British so if you’re not up to date with popular music from the UK you may not fare well. We also got roped into being the “actors” for charades and while we didn’t win, I did get an extra point for fully committing to performing “slipping on a banana peel”. So there’s that.

Shows were a mixed bag. The opening night balance artist was impressive. The other feature act was Yet Another Trio of Tenors. Royal Caribbean seems to LOVE having groups of tenors sing, and they are exactly what you think they are. So I’ll leave it to you to determine if that’s a good or bad thing. Ice show was, as is the norm, very entertaining. There were some spills and bails on a couple of triple jumps, but given the DoD on a small surface I can give them a pass. Production shows were ok, slightly better than Princess because you could see a little bit of connective tissue in the theming and transition from set to set. At the end of the day, it’s just singing and dancing and ymmv on that. But I will say that the feature ballroom duo was quite good and you could see that their skill level far exceeded that of the regular dancers.

Sea days were rather relaxed. Royal had “don’t chair hog” thingies on their deck chairs and I would say they were mildly effective. Which is better than completely ineffective but it’s about all one can hope for I suppose.

I also used the gym in the early morning on sea days. It was busy, but not “wait around for a free machine” busy. Limited weight machines, but plenty of options for cardio.

Room was a standard balcony. Kind of tight, but good for two people. We were on deck 10, just under the gym change rooms, so there really wasn’t much noise from above.

Overall, not bad. Again, not one I would recommend if you’re taking the kids, but decent enough.

Windjammer (breakfast only) – good variety as to be expected. They had congee which is always a plus in my book. Fried eggs were typically overdone, and the omelettes were tasty. 

Chops – We had an issue on the Day 1 lunch where the cooks could not seem to get the cook on my filet correct. The first was hammered, the second was blue, and the refire on the second was close enough to medium that I could eat it. Because of that issue, they gifted us a bottle of champagne for a dinner.

Overall, we had filets, ribeyes, striploins, lamb chops and salmon. All were very good, but I would say that for the starters, the beef carpaccio was better at Giovanni’s. Is it better than a Ruth’s or a NYC steakhouse? No, but you could do worse. 

Izumi – We had Izumi twice, and they have the same $40 prix fixe menu (one small plate, two large plates and a dessert) for lunch and dinner. In terms of what you get, this is more than enough food for a meal. In terms of taste… I have to be honest. Outside of the chicken kaarage and tempura appetizers and the mochi ice cream, it wasn’t very good. The fish was mediocre, and I could find better sashimi back home at a mall food court or an Asian supermarket. The ramen was mostly noodles and not much meat. And the rolls were fine but there were way too many of them that used cream cheese, which does not make for good maki imo. 

Safe to say that I won’t be visiting Izumi on my next Royal cruise, unless I really need some noodles. Sorry if you're a fan, but on this cruise, it was just not very good.

Giovanni’s – I think Giovanni’s had the best appetizers hands down. I would definitely order that carpaccio again. And the pasta was good, although even ordering a half portion is a LOT of food. The branzino filets were very nice, but I have to recommend avoiding the chicken piccata. The chef here went with breaded and fried medallions, which made the chicken dry. And the breading absorbed all the sauce. Desserts were really good as well. My favourite was the panna cotta as it was just set and it wasn’t as sweet as other desserts. And because of the location of Giovanni’s (deck 4 away from any other dining venues), they seemed to use a Nespresso or something for their coffee, because I had a nice crema on top of mine. Chops is adjacent to the Windjammer on Explorer so I think they may get their coffee/tea from there.

Pizza – Pizza on Explorer is at Café Promenade, and I have to say that after having the pizza on Regal Princess, Royal Caribbean pizza pales in comparison. It’s still serviceable, and you’ll certainly have a slice or two, but you’re not going to go home raving about the pizza on Explorer.

Ratings:

Overall, the games were fun, the other players and dealers were enjoyable to talk to, and I stuck to my budget, so I can’t really complain much.

The Ports of Call

The night of our arrival I’d booked a Street Food tour via GetYourGuide. It was a rather filling walk through the streets at night – a definite thumbs up from me!

Mykonos – We booked the Delos Island Tour, and while you can buy this from the cruise ship for over $100 USD per person, it only costs 65€ at the ticket office or if you prebook, plus an extra 4€ for the water taxi. Sure, you don’t get the coach transport to and from the ship, and you meet your guide at Delos Island, but if all that is worth the approx. $30 difference, have at it. Either way, this tour is worth your time to do. Delos is an impressive archeological site, and you will learn a lot of history here.

Messina – Here we traveled to Taormina, which is an old town up in the hills. We took a train, which cost 11€pp round trip, and took a bus up to the city. There are several old churches, and the ancient Greek Theatre is well worth the entry fee. Definitely try to have a cannoli while you’re in town – Many places sell them and they are quite delicious.

Palma de Mallorca – This is a somewhat tough place to get into the main town. The cruise terminal provides a shuttle with round trip for 10€, but that only drops you off near the rather impressive Santa Maria de Mallorca. If you want to get to other points of interest like Castell de Bellver or Poble Espanyol de Mallorca, you need to find other transportation. And the best one is probably the hop-on-hop-off bus. That costs 25€, and includes admission to one of the two locations, so it’s something to look into.

Barcelona – After checking into our hotel, we decided to take a trip to Girona. We probably should’ve booked in advance, as that would’ve allowed us to take the high-speed train which gets you there in 40 minutes non-stop (we did take that back to Barcelona). Alas it was booked up and we had to take the low speed regional train which took twice as long to get to Girona. It is a beautiful city, and you can see Game of Thrones locations, a bridge built by Gustav Eiffel, and have a nice lunch in the area.

At night, we did another food tour – this time a nighttime tapas tour, again via GetYourGuide. This was another great excursion, as you went to four places, had several different types of tapas, learned some history about Picasso and Gaudi… oh and could drink unlimited amounts of vermouth, wine, cava (sparkling wine) and sangria at the various locations. Expect to call a cab at the end of this one!

The next day, we went to see Sagrada Familia… and it was pretty fascinating. The Gaudi concepts are easy to see, and it was interesting to look at how each subsequent architect incorporated their style into the church.

Probably the easiest I’ve ever experienced. Since the cruise was entirely within the EU, there was no passport control required. We took our bags off the ship, but if you sent your bags out the night before, it was pretty easy to retrieve your bags from the luggage carousels.

We were staying at the W Hotel for my wife’s conference, and while you can actually see the hotel from the cruise terminal, it was still a 20 minute taxi ride over there. Fortunately, they were able to check us in at 9am so that allowed us to go to Girona as previously mentioned.

The Departure

Because we were staying in Barcelona for my wife’s conference, we didn’t leave until the following Friday. However, our departure time that Friday roughly coincided with people getting off a NCL ship that day, so there is some equivalence there.

When we got to BCN T1 at 8:15, there were already long lines for United, American and Iberia. Air Canada was rather empty, and our airline – TAP Air Portugal – had a pretty long line. Why? Well, they had a line for check in and a line for bag drop, but no one was around to direct traffic, and people that were checking in were going to either line, holding up the process. So we were stuck in a line, for an hour, waiting to drop our bags off.

After that, the security line was fairly quick, and boarding was orderly.

However, there seemed to be some issues with loading baggage onto our plane, which was a commuter jet. So there was a delay in leaving. And a further delay because that baggage issue pushed us further back in the queue for takeoff.

The flight itself was uneventful. 2 hours to Lisbon, very smooth. Getting off the flight was at an infield terminal, which required a bus to shuttle us to the main terminal, and a looooooong walk over to baggage claim. At which point we waited for our luggage. And waited. And waited. And it turns out that about 25% of the flight’s baggage did not come with us to Lisbon. So we had to hang around the airport to file a claim.

We FINALLY got the bag at 6:30pm the day after. My wife bought some stuff at the nearby Mango and H&M, and now I have to go through all the fun stuff with MBNA to try and claim back those purchases.

Final Thoughts

As far as cruising the Mediterranean goes, I think it’s well worth it, regardless of what cruise line you’re taking. Explorer of the Seas is a nice ship, but I think that it’s not the right one to take with kids. Kids like to do things, and I don’t feel as if there is enough for them here.

For travel, Air Canada gets a bad rap, but I have to say that TAP has provided the worst airline experience I have ever had. Even Ryanair, in all it’s inherent cheapness, is a better choice to fly.

And a couple of notes - I'm still in Lisbon as I post this, leaving for Toronto tomorrow morning. It's been a long and fun trip.

And I know there have been some issues on the Explorer transatlantic, and I hope that everyone is safe on the ship.

On 10/15/2024 at 1:22 PM, Matt said:

What's eye opening isn't RCL's price. It's how much lower Carnival and NCLH stock prices are. 

Yeah I find that a bit odd but they're still profitable for me so no complaints here. 

On 9/6/2024 at 2:46 PM, FOB said:

You would use it onboard for tipping and possibly for the casino if you don’t play through your seapass card. But for everything off the ship it will be EUR and when we go we just use cards (Scottish so don’t have EUR at home)

That makes sense. We're bookending our cruise with some days in Athens/Barcelona/Lisbon so I was bringing Euros regardless. But of course I wanted to be prepared for extra tips and the casino on board.

Thanks! Guess I'll have to bring some of that with me..

Like I said, quick question.

30 minutes ago, TXcruzer said:

I would be extremely curious to see a study on how many people fly in day of cruise.

I would as well. I am sure it is one of those stats that vary by country, cruise port, starting point of travellers and day of departure. So lots of data to slice through.

For example, I could see Port Everglades being around 50/50 due to it's proximity to FLL and availability of flights to both FLL and MIA. Port Canaveral? Maybe more the day before because of the time it takes to travel there. Europe might be more than a few days before because people might want to take a full day at the departure port (we're doing that in Athens).

8 hours ago, bobroo said:

Geez, I guess they didn't care for my zipline idea.

 

That's because you designed it to only go one way. 

On 5/6/2024 at 7:14 AM, BrianB said:

MSC re Ben and David…what’s the nautical term for ‘oops!’?

"Own goal"? "Unforced error"?

On 5/10/2024 at 10:50 PM, smokeybandit said:

Don't try to pre-plan every hour of your day while on board. Sure, plan stuff, but take time to relax or do things on a whim.

This. And don't feel like you need to rush anywhere. Leave the running on the jogging track or in the gym. 

Krazy Lobster is always a good option. It's not at the level of an all-inclusive beach club, but for decent eats, drinks and beach, it provides a nice experience. 

I would agree with others to do it from Progresso to avoid the variable that is the ferry from Cozumel to Playa del Carmen. But if you do decide to visit Chichen Itza or Tulum from Cozumel, book through the cruise line to ensure that they'll wait for you (as long as possible). These are just about the only excursions I'd ever say that for, as we're quite comfortable booking with 3rd parties for tours.

And for context, my brother and wife booked the Chichen Itza tour through Royal in 2018 or so, and their excursion was at least an hour late getting back. The ship stayed in port, and basically made no effort to rush departure until the group got back.

We primarily use Cruise Holidays of Scarborough but that is primarily because a) they do most of their business in Cantonese and b) my parents deal with them enough that they'll give us random perks. 
 

I went through Costco travel for my October cruise and this far they've been decent. But there is a bit more DIY with them than with other TAs. No cruise credit, although I'll get a cash card after the cruise is complete. 

40 minutes ago, tonyfsu21 said:

I live in Fort Lauderdale so we probably see things differently. I don’t really care much about the beach and prefer the abundance of things to do on Oasis class/Icon and others while visiting some nice Caribbean islands at the same time. I am not a fan of spending too much time in one place so cruising satisfies that need pretty well. We have certainly tried all inclusive resorts in many exotic (and some local) destinations and find them to be more of a hassle than a relaxing vacation. Also important to note, close proximity to the 3 major cruise ports & D+ crown and anchor plays a major role in the decisions we make for vacations as well. Maybe one day when the kids get a bit older we will do Europe again but it will 100% be on a cruise ship. 

I'm in the Toronto area so def see things a little bit differently.

FWIW we always figured we'd take the kids on a Euro cruise. Instead we went land-based instead and are ditching them for a Mediterranean cruise on Explorer this October.

18 hours ago, tonyfsu21 said:

We have recently tried some land based vacations that were horrible regarding the lines and crowds of people all fighting to get a spot at the pool. There’s so much more to see and do in a cruise which offers a higher overall value for my family. 

I take it that resorts are not your jam. I get it.

When it comes to land-based vacations, I'd much rather take the time to really explore a place rather than relax on the beach/at a pool the entire time - something that is much easier now that my girls are teens. For example we spent two weeks in France last year. Did 4 cities (Lyon, Marseille, Nice and Paris) and traveled by train. A great trip, but so very different from that cruise life. 

5 hours ago, RCVoyager said:

I have done Carnival as much or more than RCCL.  I really liked the Magic, and I was so looking forward to the Mardi Gras.  I was badly disappointed by the poor layout, the wasted space, the poor service, and the overcrowding of the Mardi Gras, but again as mentioned, it was almost as if the designers wanted passengers to forget they were on a ship.  Double width 5ft high glass rails everywhere is just terrible.  No connection to the Sea.

I hear you. To me, cruise ship layout is a key part in making your cruise enjoyable. I can see it just by reading your comments about the Mardi Gras. On these megaships, making them not feel crowded is such an important element, and I thought that Royal really nailed it with their Megaship layouts. And I thought that a ship like Regal Princess was laid out nicely as well. But then you go on something like DCL Fantasy, and you kind of see where design choices really constrict everyone.

And yeah, I do like something that gives you that feeling you're at sea, although I think my standards for that are lower than yours. For example, I love breakfast at Johnny Rockets on Oasis class ships. It's not a "true" connection to the sea, but it gives me a waterfront restaurant vibe, and I think that's what they were going for there.

We like the hotel cluster around Hwy 1/SE 17th street. It's near the north end of Port Everglades, and has all the restaurants, wine shops and "oh @#$# I forgot something" stores you'll need. And a LA Fitness, if you're into that sort of thing. We prefer Hyatt Place - really big rooms (you could probably sleep 8 to a room), breakfast, and even a "cruise luggage tag station" (a stand with staplers and pens). I think Matt reviewed a couple of other hotels in the area way back when.

13 hours ago, WAAAYTOOO said:

Your gratuities will be switched from the MDR to the specialty restaurants.  You don’t have to do anything.

According to the cruise planner gratuities were included in the cost of the UDP.

Anyway, I will probably end up not touching the gratuities, but I have time to sort everything out.

So the wife and I decided to the UDP for our 6 night on Explorer. Obviously, that means that we are unlikely to eat in the MDR.

So the question then is - how should we deal with the server gratuities that are automatically added to the onboard account? I'm not sure if we should be giving a tip to servers that we'll never see in the MDR?

17 hours ago, FionaMG said:

You would be surprised. October in the Med is like the tropics to peeps from more northerly climes.

Guess we'll see. Not particularly concerned either way - wife and I will find chairs if we need them.

16 hours ago, cruisingfever said:

Glad they are starting to enforce it, I hope it's across the fleet. It's really out of control 

Same. Although my next cruise is in the Mediterranean in late October, so I'm not anticipating too many chair issues at that time.