This was the inaugural cruise for fare paying passengers and was for three days visiting Dover and Portland and due to COVID when not sitting eating or drinking all passengers and staff had to wear a mask when moving about the Ship and had to undertake a daily temperature check.

Any way we were given a boarding time of 12 o'clock on the day of departure and when we arrived were shocked to find that apparently so had almost every other passenger as the queue was half way around the QEII terminal drop off zone. However after dropping off our luggage and visiting three differing desks for paper work and registration and having a COVID test we were still on board in about an hour.

Our Cabin was available straight away (being the first cruise) so we headed up to drop off our carry on bags, the cabin, a Junior Suite on Deck 10 starboard Forward, was a good size and spotlessly clean and this was maintained throughout this little cruise, a big thanks to the cabin staff who were always pleasant and worked extremely hard. We then went on a tour of the Ship, Explorer is an older Ship (25 Years Old) but has plenty of space in the public areas and is well maintained. The first evening we went to the main show called Rockology, we both thoroughly enjoyed the show with the cast putting lots of enthusiasm and energy into their performance, if you like Rock music I would definitely recommend this show. After the show we wandered around a few of the bars and ended up in the Lounge Bar, where we were to be found each evening, we found the Squid and Anchor a bit cramped and very noisy, never visited Indigo as casinos and discos not our scene. The wait staff in the Lounge were good and soon got to know what you wanted, the entertainment was ok with nightly man and piano sessions. Read more