Cabin 1045 is centrally placed on deck 10. The area is about 500 sq ft and I don't think that includes the very large balcony. Marella may have formally been Thomson, but Explorer 2 was formally Celebrity Century (Celebrity's co-flagship) and although perhaps a little dated now, the class of this accommodation with its dark wood, frosted glass and polished hardwood floor is still very evident.
The short entrance hallway, with cupboards to the left and large mirror and ledge to the right:
The bedroom. Next to the bathroom is a very large walk-in wardrobe with tons of storage space, an electronic safe, and a dressing table with escape hatch below!
The double doors either side of the bedroom TV were opened fully during the day to create a fuller sense of space.
At first we thought there weren't many power sockets in the cabin for all our USB adaptors, but we discovered USB sockets in the bedside lamps which served nicely.
The bathroom was different to any we'd seen before and a little quirky. My first photo is from the toilet cubicle - the unusual wash basins have mixer taps where the flow is controlled by twisting the 'spout ends'. Perhaps this was an example of Celebrity's style over function because I never did get the hang of them!
You might just be able to see that the bath, toilet and shower are each in their own compartment...
The living area has a large interactive TV and enough comfy seating for seven people. Some may think that excessive, but it meant we could each stretch out on a sofa in the evenings while watching Tipping Point (a quiz show we discovered on ITV Choice!). One of the sofas could convert into a double bed but since Explorer 2 is adult-only it probably doesn't get used for that purpose very often.
I liked the glass ornaments in the wall compartments. We only used the glass dining table for putting things on. Behind me, and not in any of my photos, is an area with a kettle, coffee machine (always kept supplied without extra charge), fridge, glasses and such like.
The balcony was quite huge and we made good use of it. At some point in the ship's past, balconies were added to outside cabins and existing balconies were extended outwards - this can clearly be seen in the photos from the different decking. The sun-loungers, chairs and table were all of excellent quality.
In conclusion... we absolutely loved this cabin and rate it as probably - on balance -the best accommodation we've had so far. Some have bettered it in some respects, but this one did everything extremely well and we couldn't fault it. I should also mention our cabin steward Lubaib, who was excellent. He was unobtrusive to the point of being almost invisible, yet we always returned to an immaculate cabin no matter how quickly we returned to it. And on the final day, he looked after our hand luggage while we went to the beach, and put it in the 'late checkout cabin' we'd reserved for our return.
