Before leaving for this trip I did a lot of research on the ship and how food allergies are handled, as I have both gluten and dairy allergies. There wasn't a ton trip reports or anything like that for the Explorer, and even more so on the Alaska cruise, and really wanted to share with the hopes that it will be helpful to others!
Friday morning we arrived at the port around 10:15am. I'm glad we planned on getting there early, as the pier was packed with people both arriving and departing, which meant we spent a bit of time in stop and go traffic as we got to the drop off area. Security was fast and easy then we checked in, got our SeaPass cards, and got to board immediately. Before we knew it we were actually on the Explorer!
After taking the obligatory embarkation photo we were directed to the Sapphire Dinning Room for a buffet lunch. I had watched a several video walkthroughs on YouTube before hand, which made actually being on the ship kinda surreal. It didn't feel like I was really there that first day! More like it was a dream or something. Anyways, for lunch I loaded up my plate with salad, fruit, and deli meats.
Somehow my Royal Caribbean information got entered wrong, as my first name was spelled wrong (Serena instead of Sereina). When I looked back at the info I printed to board, it was indeed spelled incorrectly, so who knows when in the reservation process it got messed up. After lunch I went to guest services and got that fixed and my parents when swapped some people around in their staterooms. Then we went wandering the ship until we made it to the top deck. While the ship is at Pier 91 there's a pretty sweet view of the Seattle skyline. We hung out there until our rooms were ready, then we dropped of our carry-on luggage and were pack at the pool deck for departure.
Bonus points for doing the Cha Cha Slide with a giant camera on my side, right?!
Before we knew it we were sailing away and dancing on deck with the cruise director staff. We were doing a bunch of line dances, which are always a blast! After the party, it was really windy on deck, which in my book is perfect for portraits with that windblown hair look. We spent a bit of time out, until my hair was a mess and looked like I hadn't washed it in days from all the salty air. Haha!
Once back inside I happened to run across the Bon Voyage Parade in the Royal Promenade. Then it was off to dinner at the Sapphire Dinning Room.
That first night we had a bit of a table fiasco. We had a total of three staterooms, two booked by one person and one by another. Earlier in the day a couple of people from our group when to the dinning room and they supposedly set us up to all dine at one table, but it didn't work out that way once we were there. We ended up waiting a while while they sorted things out and figured out where we were going to eat that night, but after that first night we were all good and had the same table for the rest of the trip.
I had some kind of beef. I can never remember what cuts of meat things are, but I can tell you it was good!
Sometimes you have to run out to the deck and snap some sunset photos.
Gluten and dairy free chocolate cake for dessert! Can't complain about that!
In my family there are three of us with both gluten and dairy allergies and one with just dairy allergies. Thankfully none of them are super serious or life threatining allergies, so for us eating at the buffets wasn't a huge concern for us. But at the main dinning rooms they take care of you well. Our head waiter, Gionni (sp?) always made sure we had more than enough to eat. At the end of each dinner we'd get the next nights menu and he'd take our orders. Desserts were always a surprise each night, which I liked as when it comes to sweet stuff I always have a hard time deciding what to get!
The rest of the night was more wandering around the ship and getting a feel for it. For me it took me a couple days before I had a good feel of the layout, mostly as it's so different from the Disney Wonder, the only other ship I'd been on.
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