starvenger
DIS Veteran
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- Apr 8, 2015
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For reference, the cruise itinerary was 6 nights covering:
Day 1 – Athens/Piraeus
Day 2 – Mykonos, Greece
Day 3 – Sea Day
Day 4 – Messina, Sicily
Day 5 – Sea Day
Day 6 – Palma de Mallorca, Spain
Day 7 – Barcelona, Spain
Flight to Athens/Travel to Hotel
Flew direct from Toronto to Athens on the 24th via Air Canada. We upgraded to Premium Economy the day of and while the upgrades are not as nice as a move into Signature class, the extra legroom, recline etc was worth the extra $ for us.
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.
It is a bit of a walk to the airport Metro station in Athens. You have to go outside, cross the roadway, then up to an overhead walkway. Pretty easy to use the machines to purchase our tickets, and it was a 40 minute ride to Monastriaki station, and another 10 to find our hotel. Definitely recommend using google maps because finding your way around a new city, especially one with a lot of small streets like Athens, can be tricky.
Travel from Athens to Piraeus/Embarkation
Uber is now available in Athens, but they have a 1.2 Euro surcharge, and it’s just a regular taxi. But you have some assurances on price, so that’s good.
Uber/Taxi took about 20 minutes to travel from the hotel, and they dropped us off almost right at the bag drop area.
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
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.
The Food
We had the ultimate dining package, so we skipped the MDR altogether. But here are my reviews of the places we ate at:
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.
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:
Chops – 4.5/5
Izumi – 2/5
Giovanni’s – 4/5
Pizza – 1/5
The Casino
I only went to the Casino three times. Played Blackjack (6:5 on a natural), Roulette (American), Craps and Ultimate Hold ‘Em. Craps was in the smoking area but no one was smoking there. In fact, the table games had surprisingly few smokers, and the non-smoking area was blissfully low on the smell wafting over. There was a single zero Roulette wheel, btw, but that was in the smoking section so I didn’t bother.
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
Athens – Obviously this was pre-cruise. We stayed at the Pieranth Hotel, and it was a bit pricey but it was a very nice hotel close to Monastriaki square. Breakfast was included and it was actually quite nice. I didn’t really book it for the breakfast but it was nice to fuel up in the morning.
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!
I booked the Acropolis + other sites package for our full day in the city, and we managed to see all of them in a day, walking and using the Metro. Even in late October, the Acropolis was busy, so I do recommend booking the earliest timeslot you can to avoid crowds and heat. You can probably skip Aristotle’s School as it’s effectively just some outlines on the ground, but it’s not too hard to get to. Obviously, this is a must do in Athens so pack some good walking shoes and enjoy the views.
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.
We did have a lot of trouble finding the bus stop to go back down to the train station, but as long as you leave yourself enough time to get back down there along with the 50 minute-or-so train ride back, you won’t be in danger of missing the ship.
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.
The Disembarkation
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.
Day 1 – Athens/Piraeus
Day 2 – Mykonos, Greece
Day 3 – Sea Day
Day 4 – Messina, Sicily
Day 5 – Sea Day
Day 6 – Palma de Mallorca, Spain
Day 7 – Barcelona, Spain
Flight to Athens/Travel to Hotel
Flew direct from Toronto to Athens on the 24th via Air Canada. We upgraded to Premium Economy the day of and while the upgrades are not as nice as a move into Signature class, the extra legroom, recline etc was worth the extra $ for us.
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.
It is a bit of a walk to the airport Metro station in Athens. You have to go outside, cross the roadway, then up to an overhead walkway. Pretty easy to use the machines to purchase our tickets, and it was a 40 minute ride to Monastriaki station, and another 10 to find our hotel. Definitely recommend using google maps because finding your way around a new city, especially one with a lot of small streets like Athens, can be tricky.
Travel from Athens to Piraeus/Embarkation
Uber is now available in Athens, but they have a 1.2 Euro surcharge, and it’s just a regular taxi. But you have some assurances on price, so that’s good.
Uber/Taxi took about 20 minutes to travel from the hotel, and they dropped us off almost right at the bag drop area.
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
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.
The Food
We had the ultimate dining package, so we skipped the MDR altogether. But here are my reviews of the places we ate at:
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.
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:
Chops – 4.5/5
Izumi – 2/5
Giovanni’s – 4/5
Pizza – 1/5
The Casino
I only went to the Casino three times. Played Blackjack (6:5 on a natural), Roulette (American), Craps and Ultimate Hold ‘Em. Craps was in the smoking area but no one was smoking there. In fact, the table games had surprisingly few smokers, and the non-smoking area was blissfully low on the smell wafting over. There was a single zero Roulette wheel, btw, but that was in the smoking section so I didn’t bother.
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
Athens – Obviously this was pre-cruise. We stayed at the Pieranth Hotel, and it was a bit pricey but it was a very nice hotel close to Monastriaki square. Breakfast was included and it was actually quite nice. I didn’t really book it for the breakfast but it was nice to fuel up in the morning.
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!
I booked the Acropolis + other sites package for our full day in the city, and we managed to see all of them in a day, walking and using the Metro. Even in late October, the Acropolis was busy, so I do recommend booking the earliest timeslot you can to avoid crowds and heat. You can probably skip Aristotle’s School as it’s effectively just some outlines on the ground, but it’s not too hard to get to. Obviously, this is a must do in Athens so pack some good walking shoes and enjoy the views.
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.
We did have a lot of trouble finding the bus stop to go back down to the train station, but as long as you leave yourself enough time to get back down there along with the 50 minute-or-so train ride back, you won’t be in danger of missing the ship.
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.
The Disembarkation
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.
