Stickman1990

They only changed them yesterday - have you checked with your TA to see if they have been notified - I suspect they’ll be getting notifications out to those impacted over the next few days If your cruise is next Oct will a 24-48 hour delay in getting the notification of a port change really impact you?

Are there still guest entertainers who can do feature shows scheduled - what standard are they at? When we were on they were quite good and in fact we had Brett Cave appear on regent Explorer and month or so after we saw him on Explora It seems the issue is getting some good and reliable lead singers who stick around and working out just what the Entertainment Managers role and duties are - that’s part of the General Managers job

Certainly wouldn’t be the first time a “Manager” didn’t manage I guess that role reports to the General Manager? If so it’s something they need to be addressing. Have you talked to them?

That role seems so confused as to its purpose - is it an active entertainer as Tanya was or more of a cruise director style as Monique is as I don’t think she sings? (I can’t recall the Explora speak for what they call that role) They definitely need someone to undertake the Cruise Director type duties of the guest relations and managing the entertainment and activities and covering off essentials such as safety procedures

Wow you’re right - I just checked our planned trans Atlantic in April 2025 on Explora II and it’s disappeared! Replaced by a shortened crossing in March 2025 albeit now with a 40% discount as opposed to the previous 30% discount and there’s a slightly better option (but shorter) on Explora I in April I’ve asked our TA to find out what is going on but this is pretty disappointing if it’s correct, although this far out it’s not like any associated plans/commitments have been made

Correct - extended to 11 December - now there’s a surprise… Book by 11 December 2023 and enjoy up to 50% Value Savings* on select journeys.

The sale ends at the end of 4 December - you still have time to book. I have a friend booking today

That increased discounts a bad thing?

A word of warning We’ve booked a group (6+ suites) on one of the on sale sailings - 5 couples new to Explora Journeys and us (they trust us and our opinion it seems) - one thing we’ve learnt is that any “group benefits” don’t apply to any of the sale voyages - that’s a trap for those using the offer to book groups Normally a group that size would qualify for 1 free fare and euros 500 per cabin obc - so quite sizeable but it seems they’ve discounted quite deep already and won’t provide anything further to the group The terms and conditions of the offer do cover this exclusion but it’s one we hadn’t noticed until requesting group booking discounts So watch out as the exclusions lists several other discounts that are excluded from the offer Terms and conditions are https://explorajourneys.com/au/en/info/terms-conditions/the-exclusive-sale

Any inaugural or early sailing for any new ship is always a risk as delays can occur - of course you can book it but just be cognisant of those rules and delays A couple of months later should be fine

Glad to hear you are using a TA - now to the question of are they the right ones - a good one will save you $$$ and put money in your pocket but equally importantly they will have your back and be independent when advocating for you with the cruise line and other operators like air or land excursions

A bird in the hand…. Ive booked now for April,2025 - low deposit and locked in - what’s not to like?

Do yourself a favour and use a Travel Agent to work with you on the booking - you have nothing to lose and everything to gain in using a professional to assist you

Only Serenity at this stage

That is certainly not our experience on RSSC Explorer for the last 2 weeks - there are excellent lecturers (and next week one of the Crystal regular lecturers is onboard covering his topics) and a very full programme of activities and things like Culinary Arts classes - we’ve found that there simply isn’t enough time to fit everything Sone of the guest entertainers are the same as on Crystal including one who was on Symphony last week. There’s music in three lounges each night and multiple productions shows across the voyage The included wines and spirits onboard are better than we’ve experienced on any of the lines we’ve sailed - including Crystal. Foods subjective but we have 10 friends cruising with us and all are very happy with the quality and variety of foods - having specialty restaurants open for lunch is an excellent initiative. There were some service leases but after a bit of counselling and a very open to suggestions executive team (I have never seen an Exec Chef so visible and accessible as on here) these were quickly corrected I’m really struggling to understand how our Regent experience could be so different than yours?

C’mon - welcome to the real world where cruise companies make offers all the time to repackage cruises and offer inclusions and attract customers We’ve certainly booked a future cruise on Explora 2 and can’t wait to get back onboard

I’m pleased to report that once I raised this with the Food & Beverage team they credited the full cost of $169 for the lunch without any debate I will do a longer write up on our food and wine experiences as I want to cover that area off - overall we’ve been very happy with the dishes and restaurants we’ve enjoyed onboard

Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon) tomorrow and unfortunately one more person from our group of 12 has been diagnosed so they’re up for 5 days cabin fever time which will lock them away until we arrive in Bangkok

I agree there is a lot to enjoy on the cruise but unfortunately the “misses” on several things keep coming - and I’m getting to the point where I’m resigned to them happening as opposed to expecting them not to occur. I’m over being told they would have been ok if they knew of requirements like diet restrictions in advance when they knew months ago and and when we’d specifically raised things earlier on in the day and been assured it was under control Here's one example where we attended the paired wine lunch yesterday and my wife’s first two courses were fried chicken and nachos - clearly obtained in a hurry, after we pointed out that she couldn’t have the menu items, from the pool grill when we pointed out she couldn’t eat sesame and shellfish (we’d done that well in advance as well) - hardly a degustation experience that we paid $169 a head for The replacement for the seared scallop (one was served) was nachos… I’ve also reached the point where I don’t want to raise them with managers as it just brings back reminders of the bad experience. If I did they’d apologise profusely and say it would never happen again - but when it occurs frequently that comment does little to take away the spoilt experience So I’m just going with the flow now and accepting the somewhat inevitable misses and moving on

Definitely still use them - and size matters - I like ‘em long! Now what do I use them for? - well that would be telling

They gave us a photocopy of our passport page which we were required to show to Taiwan immigration as we exited - it was a very cursory inspection. They were however super vigilant for any food products being taken ashore - they insisted the only thing that could be bought ashore was water After leaving Okinawa and Japan Regent retained our passports to enable bulk clearance into Taiwan, Vietnam and Thailand

Theres an umbrella standard in every suite Its a lovely sunny day - about 20 degrees in Taipei today

We are on Explorer at the moment too and thanks for creating this thread for discussion on our experience We are a largish group of 9 couples from around the world, many experienced cruises, the minority past Regent cruisers (some with multiple cruises under their belt and we were on Explorer last December) and even 1 virgin cruising couple who are enjoying their first ever cruise. Personally we’ve cruised Crystal, Regent, Silversea, Explora Journeys, Viking and Seabourn so have a feel for luxury cruising and what it is reasonable to expect. We like the variety across lines and would never want a standard cookie cutter approach the various lines I’m pleased to say we are enjoying our cruise and also the standard included shore excursions so far in Japan as we have been lucky enough to have good guides who spoke English well Sure I would enjoy faster internet - by comparison we were on the new Explora Journeys Explora 1 in Iceland and Greenland recently and they had Starlink - we were getting 140kbps down and 40 up consistently and could have 3 devices each connected simultaneously - by comparison here we can have 1 device per suite and the service is slow and does drop out periodically OK so now to the elephant in the room - dining service on the first couple of days - this was definitely an issue on the first 2 days - lunches and breakfast in particular. The restaurants were crowded as people prepared to go on early tours and came back for late lunches - they weren’t prepared for the numbers trying to dine add that resulted in congestion and delays of over an hour or in several cases just complete non delivery of meals. I just couldn’t bare to see the type of service experience my friends and other guests were getting so did raise these issues on social media and was preparing to meet with the Food & Beverage management as I never blame individual crew but look to management who set and implement standards and resources to deliver service levels to the requirement standard However the Restaurant Manager sought me out and asked to meet to get feedback. That meeting occurred yesterday and I met with the Exec Chef, Restaurant Manager and F&B manager. I can say that I felt they genuinely listened and wanted to hear what we had experienced and discuss their solutions to the issues. They had already extended opening hours on both La Veranda and Compass Rose at breakfast times and added a small buffet at CR in addition to the a la carte options. They certainly improved things in CR but i can’t comment on how La Veranda was for breakfast yesterday, certainly it was fine for lunch where we enjoyed items from Greece as they featured them yesterday We have had no issues with the quality of the many dishes we’ve enjoyed across the ship - many very impressive and the occasional miss eg lamb chops - but overall very good and what we had expected Andy Heath, our cruise director, continues to lead a good entertainment team and we’re enjoying the shows, trivia and various games and activities around the ship If the service level stay as they’ve been in the last 24 hours we’ll be very happy Happy to answer any questions about things onboard

Same for us - we’re currently on Explorer and the included tours have been good - well structured, good guides including their English skills We’re dealing with our “other issues” which are service related and hopefully they will improve. They have already made changes to the breakfast hours in La Veranda and Compass Rose to give more time for people to dine there in the mornings - hopefully that reduces the congestion and delays we’ve experienced in the first couple of days

We’re currently on Explorer in Japan and sadly the service on restaurants is sub standard - that assessment being based on multiple services misses across multiple groups dining in various restaurants. We’ll be arranging a meeting with the Food & Beverage Manager to outline the issues as I can’t believe that any manager would be happy with the service that guests are experiencing I’m not talking the likes or dislikes for particular items on the menu - that comes down to personal preference although I guess they can be messed up but that doesn’t seem to be the issue so far - it’s about the service standards What we are experiencing is different than what we experienced on Explorer this time last year Examples are poor speed of initial service on being seated including drinks orders, tables setup with utensils and taking of orders in La Veranda and then poor delivery of meals - over hour long waits for breakfast items in Compass Rose today for at least 4 groups of friends Thankfully our experience in Pacific Rim last night was pretty good - both food and service I just wanted to post about this as it has been a surprise and a disappointment to us and our many friends onboard - enough to start impacting the overall enjoyment - and I’m sure Regent don’t intend that to be the case This isn’t a case of comparing/ranking performance with other lines we’ve sailed on in the last year which are Regent, Silversea, Viking and Explora Journeys - sadly (or I guess fortunately) we’ve never experienced this level of service misses on any of those lines - this is about what is an acceptable level of delivery on any luxury line