What Does $60,000,000 Get You These Days?

Explorer of the Seas has just come out of a five week dry dock after having $60,000,000 spent on her in a major refurbishment.

It’s not common knowledge (but obviously we’re happy to share with you) that whenever Royal Caribbean release a new ship (Quantum and Anthem of the Seas in this case) they take the best features of those ships and introduce them to some of the older ships in their fleet.

That’s what’s just happened to Explorer; she’s been Quantum-ised!

The refurbishment started just over five weeks ago in Port Canaveral when the ship was literally gutted. Eighty containers of rubbish and rubble was removed from the ship before the crew and contractors set sail for Europe.

You might think the crew would have got a bit of a holiday on the ten day crossing but they were on six hour shifts doing something called ‘fire watch’.

A lot of the tools the contractors used either got very hot or produced a lot of sparks. Any time one was used a crew member would be keeping a very close eye – Royal; Caribbean wanted the ship refurbished, not burnt down!

As well as having specific features added the entire ship was given a general ‘refreshing’ with new carpets and TV’s being added and the pools and the area around them being refurbed.

As well as the general refreshing there were several specific aspects that have been added to Explorer of the Seas…

She’s had eighty one virtual balconies added, replacing inside cabins
The popular Izumi speciality restaurant from both Oasis and Quantum classes has been added
A sea screen with anti-glare technology has been added for a movies under the stars style experience
A Tavern Bar has been added to show all major sporting events
And as well as Izumi the popular Chops and Giovanni restaurants have also been added.

You can take a full tour of the ship with our specialist cruise consultant Edward in the video below…