The Crazie Explorers-Explorer of the Seas

By sailingrose

• October 4, 2011

After 18 months of planning it was finally time to head out to Bayonne for our long awaited cruise. We stayed pre-cruise at the Wyndam Gardens Hotel in Newark, nothing fancy but fine for an overnight stay.

We arrived at the pier in Bayonne around 11:30. The lines were long but moved fairly quickly. You have to take a bus to the ship, because it's a commercial area. This is definitely not one of my favorite embarkation ports. We headed to the Windjammer for a bite to eat and then we walked around a bit until the cabins opened at 1:30.

Our cabin aft 9392 was wonderful. We had a large balcony and had great views but unfortunately it is not covered and couldn't enjoy it too often because of rain and cold weather.

Overview of a few things:

Howie and I did not like My Time Dining previously and we still feel the same way. As hard as they try RCI doesn't do this dining well. The service was lacking and the attention to detail just isn't there. We won't be doing this again if we can help it. The food was fairly good in the Main Dining Room. Hector, Maureen, Howie and I ate in Portofino twice and enjoyed it each time. The windjammer food was the usual fare. All the Crazie Explorers had lunch together in the Main Dining Room the last day and it was enjoyed by all.

The food was definitely lacking in the taste department compared to our previous cruise on the Freedom last month. The windjammer food seemed to be the same thing every day with very little variety. Portofino's food was excellent but cost $20 per person for the food we used to eat in the dining room.

Ports of Call were great. We enjoyed all of them and I had lobster in every port! In Portland we took and Land and Sea tour with Portland Discovery. Bar Harbour was a wonderful quaint little town, walked around there and people watched a bit. Saint John New Brunswick, we walked all over town and did a bit of shopping. Halifax we took a group tour with Your Cab. It was excellent! Boston it rained so we took the ships shuttle into downtown to Fanueil Hall area and did some shopping as well. It was fun going to ports we haven't been to.

The service (with the exception of MTD) was excellent. We enjoyed going to the pub almost every afternoon and people watching and enjoying the company of our new Crazie friends Maureen and Hector. The service in Portofino was excellent as well. The captain was very visible and I enjoyed meeting him as did Crazie.

It was wonderful to get together for drinks at sail away and meet Toni, Lester, Maureen and Hector. The Crazie Explorers enjoyed the slot pull......We won $5.00 each, thanks to Hector. It was wonderful to put names and faces together.

The ship is definitely taking a beating up in Bayonne. She had lots of rust including around the door in our cabin. She is worn and definitely needs some TLC. Of course none of that mattered, we had a wonderful voyage, made new friends and great memories!