I am the type of person who rarely complains ... but....... We've been on the Dream and Celebration, and mostly not a great deal to complain about, except the food could be a little hotter. The Explorer 2 however is another thing altogether. The food in the Marketplace on floor 11, even when put out fresh in front of you, is luke warm at best. By the time you are at your table it's getting cold, and when you've almost finished it, it's stone cold. That was virtually every meal I had except maybe one or two. Being in the pub food trade, I know from experience that it's not rocket science to serve hot food, even to large numbers of people. One day we had ham pie which turned out to be preformed pieces of 'so called' ham, which disolved into your mouth like jelly. I can eat anything, but that was the exeception to the rule! The meal at Latitude was hot, but the smallest portions of food I have ever had, which resulted in me going to the Marketplace for a luke warm top up. Scoops Ice Cream bar on deck 12 was £3.99 for a knickerbocker glory with virtually tasteless Ice cream.

The all inclusive spirit drinks are - how shall I say this - watered down! Being a regular spirits drinker, and a pub landlord for 18 years, I know how a Smirnoff and Gordons Gin are supposed to taste like - and the genuine, unopened article would be twice as strong as the version I was served daily on the ship. I had a few 50 ml sealed bottled from the cabin fridge and they hit the spot within minutes, whereas I could drink all night in the bars and remain very sober.

The Broadway show lounge 'Rockolgy' show was brilliant and very proffesional, with great music skills and brilliany harmonies.. The bar entertainments however, was very poor as compared to the Dream and Celebration offerings that I have seen over the last 18 months. The age group on the ship were virtually all 50 plus, yet the pub quizzes were aimed at teens and a little insulting, in my opinion. Considering the age group onboard, I found it puzzling that all of the contestants were in their late teens or twenties? (crew members perhaps?) Karaoke was good. All staff were very polite except one woman security member who was related to Hitler as she was straight faced and abrupt?