Home
Forums
New posts
What's new
New posts
New photo/videos
New photo/video comments
Latest activity
Photo/Videos
New photo/videos
New comments
Log in
Register
What's new
New posts
Menu
Log in
Register
Install the app
Install
Forums
Cruise Lines
Royal Caribbean International
Review with photographs - Explorer leave NJ for the last time
JavaScript is disabled. For a better experience, please enable JavaScript in your browser before proceeding.
You are using an out of date browser. It may not display this or other websites correctly.
You should upgrade or use an
alternative browser
.
Reply to thread
Message
<blockquote data-quote="Cruizer" data-source="post: 1661435" data-attributes="member: 18088"><p><img src="http://i18.photobucket.com/albums/b103/ZefH/RC%20Explorer/GA_zpscfc10150.jpg" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " style="" /></p><p></p><p><strong>November 8, 2014 – Barbados</strong></p><p></p><p>I guess I am more tired than I thought. When I wake up it is light outside, even though the sun has not officially risen yet. Still I can see there are clouds on the horizon and I don’t even bother getting out of bed. However, soon I see land so I go out to see how close we are. It feels a little cooler this morning compared to yesterday morning. I can see what looks like a cruise ship in the harbor. I looks a little like a Princess ship, so I am guessing P&O. Sure enough it is the P&O Ventura. </p><p></p><p>I decide to quickly dress and go up to the helicopter pad to take some pictures. Once again we are headed directly into the sun, so I grin and bear it and do the best I can, given we are only going to approach this harbor once. Since this is a commercial dock, there is nothing worth wasting free film on once we are inside the harbor. The Ventura has the best location. We are directly across from the Ventura; however, it looks to be about a half mile walk to get to the town side of the dock (we are on the ocean side of the harbor). According to the Captain’s announcement, which I cannot hear inside the cabin with the door closed, there is a shuttle bus to take us to the edge of town. </p><p></p><p>Well, I have a 9:00 tour scheduled, so it is time to shave, shower and dress. I’ll see you later this afternoon.</p><p></p><p>There are shuttle buses to take the passengers to the passenger terminal. From there I’m on a large tour bus with 27 other passengers plus a tour guide and driver. It turns out to be a lot of driving along roads in need of some maintenance. We make three stops and I grab a few pictures at each stop. However, because of the weather, which is completely overcast, the scenic photographs don’t look so good. Also, the tour guide is more or less average. Good, but not nearly as good as Jay was yesterday.</p><p></p><p>The first stop is at a church. I’m not sure why every island likes to include a church on its tours, but I’ve been on a lot of tours hoping for good scenic photographic opportunities (according to the description of the tour) and I have ended up seeing a lot of island based churches. </p><p></p><p>I found the profile of a rock formation that might have been carved, since it looked like there was a nose sticking out. I took a picture of the rock and showed it to the guide. She agreed it did look like a nose, but was unaware of any faces carved into a rock formation.</p><p></p><p>Next we stop at a scenic beach, which would have been a lot nicer if some sunlight had been included. There is someone with a green monkey who expects a tip if you take photographs of him and the monkey. I took two pictures and was going to give him a couple of dollars; however, he wanted five dollars. Okay, lesson learned. However, I did get to pet the monkey, which mouthed my finger, but did not try to bite me. </p><p></p><p>The final stop was at another scenic point, which once again would have benefited from a little sunlight. We received a free drink. There were several options. I choose the run punch. I also bought a shot glass for my friend, so now I am all set. Then we head back to the ship. I decide to walk back to the ship so that I can take a few pictures of the two ships in port as I walk back.</p><p></p><p>Again, traveling light, I am able to head directly up to the Windjammer to get lunch and head back to my cabin to enjoy lunch on the balcony. Though with nothing happening around the ship, there is really nothing special about eating lunch on the balcony. </p><p></p><p>After lunch it is nap time again. However, I get up in time to watch the sail-away from my balcony and then listen to the Captain’s announcements. He provides the time for sunrise tomorrow and then refers to sunset tonight. Then says we cannot see the sun and doesn’t give a sunset time. We have a little over five hundred nautical miles to go to our next port, so tomorrow will be a day at sea. However, he is predicting better weather for our day at sea. After that I upload my photographs, update this and back everything up. Then at 6:30 I head down to The Palace Theatre to take in the second production show. So I’ll be back at you after dinner.</p><p></p><p>The production show tonight was Wild, Cool & Swingin. It was good, but did not have as much energy as the prior show, so I did like it as much. Though I got some good pictures, when they put the spot light on the singers, they wash out because the rest of the scene is much darker. They end up looking like glowing ghosts in the photograph. </p><p></p><p>After the show I had stopped at the Aquarium Bar for a double of Baileys’ Irish Cream. Then for dinner I had the shrimp cocktail and the always available (meaning every night) free steak, which once again was very good (it is better tasting at the Chops’ steak, but not as tender). Tonight’s conversation began with the usual, what did you do today. However, the post dinner conversation was about the changes Royal Caribbean has been making on the ships. In general most of the changes have not been well received, at least by my tablemates. I have more of a wait and see attitude, but from what I know about the changes, I don’t view them as “upgradesâ€. </p><p></p><p>After dinner I returned to my cabin to check out tomorrow’s Cruise Compass. My day of rest has turned into a busier schedule than I had hoped for. I’ll see what I can do given that there are some schedule conflicts and plan my day tomorrow morning. So until tomorrow morning, goodnight.</p><p></p><p><strong>November 9, 2014 – Day at sea</strong></p><p></p><p>When I wake up we are traveling west, so the sun is rising behind us. I can also see that I forgot to put my camera outside. No, wait, I didn’t forget, I purposely did not because it had rained during dinner and I didn’t want to take a chance on my DSLR getting wet. No matter, with the camera inside and the cabin as cold as the air conditioning can make it, there is no way I can heat the camera up in time for a sunrise photograph, assuming that there might be one worth photographing. I can see there are clouds on the horizon, of course that is to the south, I don’t know what kind of cloud cover is behind me and I see no reason to get up to find out what there is.</p><p></p><p>Now it is almost 10:00 and I have shaved, showered and dressed. At 10:30am there is an “Exclusive Top Tier Event†(exclusive being all the tiers except the lowest tier). Until then, I am updating this and uploading my photographs from last night. As I look outside I see lots of clouds but it is still only partly cloudy, nice and warm and best of all, nice and bright. I wish it was like this yesterday, it would have made my scenic photographs look a lot more scenic. Nonetheless, it appears we are going to have a good calm day at sea. So until later, it is time to go out and take advantage of what Mother Nature has given us.</p><p></p><p>There are four things I am interested in today: the Exclusive Top Tier Event, the ice skating show and two lectures. The first one is Digital Living, Discovery the Possibilities – Imagine a world where digital devices are not only compatible with each other, but are compatible with your lifestyle. The second one is Aviation – How does the pilot get you safely from point A to point B?). </p><p></p><p>First was the Top Tier Event. It was nothing special. Then I went to the technology lecture. The guy starts off explaining how you can charge several USB devices at once. I already know how to do that, so I left to take some pictures around the ship. There I saw the family that was part of the roll call who has six kids on the cruise. Back down to the cabin to change lenses and grab the bag of cookies Royal Caribbean give me. Then back to deck twelve to give Mom the cookies I received on the first day. I am sure the kids will enjoy the cookies more than I would. </p><p></p><p>The Captain gave his status report at noon today. We are 274 nautical miles from our next port, which means we have to average about 15.25 knots to make it on time. Also, the Captain announces what everyone has already figured out, the weather is beautiful. A quick look at the full decks and pools will confirm that.</p><p></p><p>Next is the aviation lecture, which was interesting. Afterwards I asked the pilot if he had heard the story about the pilot on a continuing flight who offered to give the blind passenger’s dog a little exercise. The passengers see the pilot of the plane disembarking the plane with a Seeing Eye dog, which scares the passengers. The pilot laughed. In Mythbuster terms, he rated the story plausible. Finally was the ice show. It was good, but in my opinion, nothing special. </p><p></p><p>Back in the cabin I caught the end of the San Francisco verse New Orleans football game. My friend is a big 49ers fan. I can only imagine the range of emotions my friend went through at the end of the game.</p><p></p><p>Tonight is our second formal night, as I thought it would be. I could not believe it when some on the roll call argued with me and claimed the second formal night would be after we left one of the islands. Today being a sea day was a natural choice for the second formal night. At any rate, I bought a Caribbean shirt in Antigua that I am going to wear tonight. So I’ll catch up with you after dinner.</p><p></p><p>I posed for several pictures and then headed to dinner. The topic of conversation stated with the various comedians, but soon switched to funny lines from older TV shows and movies, such as my favorite line from Planes, Trains & Automobiles, “Those aren’t pillows!â€</p><p></p><p>After dinner I returned to my cabin to find out my favorite team, the Green Bay Packers were playing. A few minutes into the second quarter I started to feel bad for Chicago (it was 28 to nothing in Green Bay’s favor). At any rate it is now 10:30 and I have a 9:15am shore excursion tomorrow morning. So for now, goodnight all. </p><p></p><p>Oops, now it is 35 to nothing. I think I’ll turn off the TV at halftime and go to sleep.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Cruizer, post: 1661435, member: 18088"] [IMG]http://i18.photobucket.com/albums/b103/ZefH/RC%20Explorer/GA_zpscfc10150.jpg[/IMG] [B]November 8, 2014 – Barbados[/B] I guess I am more tired than I thought. When I wake up it is light outside, even though the sun has not officially risen yet. Still I can see there are clouds on the horizon and I don’t even bother getting out of bed. However, soon I see land so I go out to see how close we are. It feels a little cooler this morning compared to yesterday morning. I can see what looks like a cruise ship in the harbor. I looks a little like a Princess ship, so I am guessing P&O. Sure enough it is the P&O Ventura. I decide to quickly dress and go up to the helicopter pad to take some pictures. Once again we are headed directly into the sun, so I grin and bear it and do the best I can, given we are only going to approach this harbor once. Since this is a commercial dock, there is nothing worth wasting free film on once we are inside the harbor. The Ventura has the best location. We are directly across from the Ventura; however, it looks to be about a half mile walk to get to the town side of the dock (we are on the ocean side of the harbor). According to the Captain’s announcement, which I cannot hear inside the cabin with the door closed, there is a shuttle bus to take us to the edge of town. Well, I have a 9:00 tour scheduled, so it is time to shave, shower and dress. I’ll see you later this afternoon. There are shuttle buses to take the passengers to the passenger terminal. From there I’m on a large tour bus with 27 other passengers plus a tour guide and driver. It turns out to be a lot of driving along roads in need of some maintenance. We make three stops and I grab a few pictures at each stop. However, because of the weather, which is completely overcast, the scenic photographs don’t look so good. Also, the tour guide is more or less average. Good, but not nearly as good as Jay was yesterday. The first stop is at a church. I’m not sure why every island likes to include a church on its tours, but I’ve been on a lot of tours hoping for good scenic photographic opportunities (according to the description of the tour) and I have ended up seeing a lot of island based churches. I found the profile of a rock formation that might have been carved, since it looked like there was a nose sticking out. I took a picture of the rock and showed it to the guide. She agreed it did look like a nose, but was unaware of any faces carved into a rock formation. Next we stop at a scenic beach, which would have been a lot nicer if some sunlight had been included. There is someone with a green monkey who expects a tip if you take photographs of him and the monkey. I took two pictures and was going to give him a couple of dollars; however, he wanted five dollars. Okay, lesson learned. However, I did get to pet the monkey, which mouthed my finger, but did not try to bite me. The final stop was at another scenic point, which once again would have benefited from a little sunlight. We received a free drink. There were several options. I choose the run punch. I also bought a shot glass for my friend, so now I am all set. Then we head back to the ship. I decide to walk back to the ship so that I can take a few pictures of the two ships in port as I walk back. Again, traveling light, I am able to head directly up to the Windjammer to get lunch and head back to my cabin to enjoy lunch on the balcony. Though with nothing happening around the ship, there is really nothing special about eating lunch on the balcony. After lunch it is nap time again. However, I get up in time to watch the sail-away from my balcony and then listen to the Captain’s announcements. He provides the time for sunrise tomorrow and then refers to sunset tonight. Then says we cannot see the sun and doesn’t give a sunset time. We have a little over five hundred nautical miles to go to our next port, so tomorrow will be a day at sea. However, he is predicting better weather for our day at sea. After that I upload my photographs, update this and back everything up. Then at 6:30 I head down to The Palace Theatre to take in the second production show. So I’ll be back at you after dinner. The production show tonight was Wild, Cool & Swingin. It was good, but did not have as much energy as the prior show, so I did like it as much. Though I got some good pictures, when they put the spot light on the singers, they wash out because the rest of the scene is much darker. They end up looking like glowing ghosts in the photograph. After the show I had stopped at the Aquarium Bar for a double of Baileys’ Irish Cream. Then for dinner I had the shrimp cocktail and the always available (meaning every night) free steak, which once again was very good (it is better tasting at the Chops’ steak, but not as tender). Tonight’s conversation began with the usual, what did you do today. However, the post dinner conversation was about the changes Royal Caribbean has been making on the ships. In general most of the changes have not been well received, at least by my tablemates. I have more of a wait and see attitude, but from what I know about the changes, I don’t view them as “upgradesâ€. After dinner I returned to my cabin to check out tomorrow’s Cruise Compass. My day of rest has turned into a busier schedule than I had hoped for. I’ll see what I can do given that there are some schedule conflicts and plan my day tomorrow morning. So until tomorrow morning, goodnight. [B]November 9, 2014 – Day at sea[/B] When I wake up we are traveling west, so the sun is rising behind us. I can also see that I forgot to put my camera outside. No, wait, I didn’t forget, I purposely did not because it had rained during dinner and I didn’t want to take a chance on my DSLR getting wet. No matter, with the camera inside and the cabin as cold as the air conditioning can make it, there is no way I can heat the camera up in time for a sunrise photograph, assuming that there might be one worth photographing. I can see there are clouds on the horizon, of course that is to the south, I don’t know what kind of cloud cover is behind me and I see no reason to get up to find out what there is. Now it is almost 10:00 and I have shaved, showered and dressed. At 10:30am there is an “Exclusive Top Tier Event†(exclusive being all the tiers except the lowest tier). Until then, I am updating this and uploading my photographs from last night. As I look outside I see lots of clouds but it is still only partly cloudy, nice and warm and best of all, nice and bright. I wish it was like this yesterday, it would have made my scenic photographs look a lot more scenic. Nonetheless, it appears we are going to have a good calm day at sea. So until later, it is time to go out and take advantage of what Mother Nature has given us. There are four things I am interested in today: the Exclusive Top Tier Event, the ice skating show and two lectures. The first one is Digital Living, Discovery the Possibilities – Imagine a world where digital devices are not only compatible with each other, but are compatible with your lifestyle. The second one is Aviation – How does the pilot get you safely from point A to point B?). First was the Top Tier Event. It was nothing special. Then I went to the technology lecture. The guy starts off explaining how you can charge several USB devices at once. I already know how to do that, so I left to take some pictures around the ship. There I saw the family that was part of the roll call who has six kids on the cruise. Back down to the cabin to change lenses and grab the bag of cookies Royal Caribbean give me. Then back to deck twelve to give Mom the cookies I received on the first day. I am sure the kids will enjoy the cookies more than I would. The Captain gave his status report at noon today. We are 274 nautical miles from our next port, which means we have to average about 15.25 knots to make it on time. Also, the Captain announces what everyone has already figured out, the weather is beautiful. A quick look at the full decks and pools will confirm that. Next is the aviation lecture, which was interesting. Afterwards I asked the pilot if he had heard the story about the pilot on a continuing flight who offered to give the blind passenger’s dog a little exercise. The passengers see the pilot of the plane disembarking the plane with a Seeing Eye dog, which scares the passengers. The pilot laughed. In Mythbuster terms, he rated the story plausible. Finally was the ice show. It was good, but in my opinion, nothing special. Back in the cabin I caught the end of the San Francisco verse New Orleans football game. My friend is a big 49ers fan. I can only imagine the range of emotions my friend went through at the end of the game. Tonight is our second formal night, as I thought it would be. I could not believe it when some on the roll call argued with me and claimed the second formal night would be after we left one of the islands. Today being a sea day was a natural choice for the second formal night. At any rate, I bought a Caribbean shirt in Antigua that I am going to wear tonight. So I’ll catch up with you after dinner. I posed for several pictures and then headed to dinner. The topic of conversation stated with the various comedians, but soon switched to funny lines from older TV shows and movies, such as my favorite line from Planes, Trains & Automobiles, “Those aren’t pillows!†After dinner I returned to my cabin to find out my favorite team, the Green Bay Packers were playing. A few minutes into the second quarter I started to feel bad for Chicago (it was 28 to nothing in Green Bay’s favor). At any rate it is now 10:30 and I have a 9:15am shore excursion tomorrow morning. So for now, goodnight all. Oops, now it is 35 to nothing. I think I’ll turn off the TV at halftime and go to sleep. [/QUOTE]
Verification
Post reply
Forums
Cruise Lines
Royal Caribbean International
Review with photographs - Explorer leave NJ for the last time
This site uses cookies to help personalise content, tailor your experience and to keep you logged in if you register.
By continuing to use this site, you are consenting to our use of cookies.
Accept
Learn more…
Top