daleandrews

One has to hope that Explora has all the information concerning when it will receive replacement panels and how long it will take to substitute them and that this was carefully considered when they reported on the new delivery date. The problem is, for all of us, this is unknown information. I was on a Southwest flight once where the plane was indefinitely delayed. After a few minutes a Southwest engineer came into the waiting area carrying a mechanical apparatus in his hands. He asked for everyone's attention. We all gathered round and then he explained what the apparatus did during landing and explained that if there was a problem with it a light went off in the cockpit. That had happened. He explained that the problem was likely the light, not the apparatus, but that we couldn't take off until they knew for sure. He told us what would be involved in finding this out and told us what the likely delay would be if it was the apparatus versus if it was the light. Southwest then gave repeated updates on the process and ultimately reported on the repair made and we took off an hour or so late. Nobody complained. Everyone was calm. That was because Southwest brought us into the process so we didn't sit around worrying out wild possibilities. That's transparency. For the life of me I can't figure out why companies don't generally understand that that is how to best approach a situation like this.

We are booked on the September 2 cruise out of Glasgow to NYC and had a similar assurance that no cruises other than those in July will be affected, sent by Explora after our TA sent a "what's going on" query yesterday. It is maddening that this problem occurred so late, and more than maddening for those who lost out on a July cruise. If this is the LAST problem and all will be well in the next couple weeks Explora will be correct in assuring that the other cruises will be unaffected. Nothing to do but trust them at this juncture and wait and see. Though I admit that relying on the assurances is rather like watching the box that contains Schrodinger's dead or alive cat.

So sorry. Been there and done that in the past. 😞

As of now (5:00 p.m. EDT) no July voyages show up on the website. They were there still an hour ago when I last checked. Voyages show up as beginning on August 1. Don't know how much to rely on this since the website was all over the place yesterday -- with no cruises, sold out, and all cruises. But I would guess that as of now this indicates the thinking at Explora is that July journies are off the table.

They are now displaying again for me as well. Strange -- for two hours this morning the only voyages listed were those for August and beyond.

If you search for voyages for the month of July on the Explora website as of this morning no voyages show up. According to one of the news stories they said the inaugural is still scheduled BUT this will either be confirmed or changed in the next few days.

The Emporium is supposed to be table service, not a buffet, and is open for breakfast. And if that is too buffet-like Fil Rouge is described on the Explora website as being open for breakfast.

This is a little off the most recent discussion but just curious -- some time back in one of their webinars on youtube a rep from Explora said that there would be online ability prior to embarkation to select in cabin preferences -- liquor for mini-bar, pillow type, mattress comfort (they apparently have, according to him, adjustable beds) and also restaurant reservations. We are embarking September 2 and have yet to see anything indicating that this can be done in advance. Has anyone closer to embarkation than us had a different experience. (I suspect that this is something that just isn't working yet but as sailing date approaches it has me sort of curious!)

We will be watching as well! We sail Glasgow to NYC, 23 days, departing on September 2. Optimistically expecting a great trip. Hope they have most of the kinks out by the inaugural -- I note that they cancelled the formal christening and shake down cruise for media that was supposed to take place the week before the inaugural cruise but they are still planning for a media open house of the ship the two days before the inaugural. Hoping for some videos of the actual ship interior!

Excursions were posted in mid-February for our September 2 sailing out of Glasgow.

FYI -- After contacting Explora concerning glitches in the sign-in program as of today, 2 days later, all fixed and all is well. Signed in and boarding passes received for our September 2 departure!

See you there!

Our TA and his wife are traveling with us on the same trip and he can't make the system work either! Looking forward to laughing over this on board with a drink in hand!

Nope -- it got everything wrong!

We received an email from Explora yesterday (June 3) advising us that we can now check in for our September 2 cruise from Glasgow to (eventually) NYC. I attempted to work my way through the sign in process today but encountered a maddening number of glitches. First, information that I entered and saved was then displayed incorrectly after saving. Specifically, the program kept transposing numbers entered for our passports and then changing the dates entered. These errors I eventually corrected through re-entering, and then re-checking the information. So beware -- when you are inputting information check on the next page whether the information has been stored correctly. Also I found that my wife's birthday information as stored in our booking information (and then used by the check-in program) was also wildly wrong -- wrong year, wrong month, wrong day. I went back to the booking page attempting to correct the dates and while I could enter new ones the program would not save the newly entered date and instead reverted to the erroneous one. Has anyone else experienced this and been able to successfully rectify it? Finally when I tried to save my own information (which I had managed to eventually get correct on the check in page) the program returned a message of "can't save, try again later." I'm thinking I need to call Explora on Monday since I suspect that this is all a bit complex for them to reliably handle by email. Anyone else with similar experiences?

Can't comment on all of the ports, but based on past cruises we have taken a tender will likely be used in Gustavia where piers accommodate large yachts but seldom cruise ships. Tenders will almost certainly be used in Bequia and Soufriers, which (unless things have changed) have no docking for ships larger than yachts. I think that is likely true for Spanish Town also.

We had the same issue some time back. Our TA checked and was told that OBCs cannot be used for paying for excursions prior to boarding. Sort of a maddening approach but apparently that is what it is.

Experiences clicks fine on my booking page. You should call Explora.

FYI -- Having raised the issue of the "disappearing check-in button" I thought I should mention that I figured out what happened. They moved on-line check-in to a menu item -- click menu on the left hand side of the home page and check-in is near the bottom of the list.

I noted that the check-in option disappeared from my Explora web page today. When I had clicked on it previously it returned a message of "too early to check in." Our trip begins September 2 and I suspect that the check-in option has been changed so that it only appears when check in is in fact possible. Question for those who have successfully checked in: when were you able to do this -- 60 days out? 90?

I just noticed that on-line check-in went live today (May 12) on the Explora website.

Re Crystal, just an FYI: the childrens' facility has always been shown on the ship diagrams of Symphony and Serenityand and those facilities are also shown in a lot of the on-line ship tour videos. We never got to cruise on Crystal -- 3 booked cruises but then they went under -- but I suspect that the reason no one may have noticed kids on board is just a testament to the effectiveness of the program coupled with the fact that at luxury cruise prices there simply are not going to be a lot of families travelling with kids.

I think this has always been part of their plan -- the videos emphasize "family friendly," the deck plans on line show a childrens' area and one of the pools is labeled "adults only" on the deck plans. Having said this, the absence of gimmicks like water slides would indicate that there won't be a lot of families with small tykes showing up.

I read that in a report summarizing a speech given to some TAs an official of Explora said that new itineraries filling in the gap months in the supper of 2024 should be out in about a week, i.e., third week of May.

Did everyone note that Explora has added their first resident chef (Chef Mauro Uliassi) for the sailings through September 25? https://porthole.com/explora-journeys-partners-with-chef-mauro-uliassi-aboard-explora-i/ Per the press release the price of dining from his menu in Anthology will now be $210 USD per person for the "tasting menu" and $82 USD per person for wine pairing. I don't know how this works, i.e., for the tasting menu with wine is the price $292 ($210 plus $82) per person? In any event it's a pretty steep increase from the $100 per person Anthology price previously listed on Explora's website. I wonder if they will secure enough dining patrons at that rate -- seems to be a pretty steep add-on.