KJB416

We were in 6032 and there was a high European presence on board (430 total passenger count I think, can’t remember exactly) and we did smell smoke at times from the creama cafe below but the music that came out if the creama cafe speakers was more bothersome to me. No other issues, but I have booked aft deck 7 and port deck 6 for my next two cruises. others have commented on deck 6 and most did not find an issue, but if there are smokers on board and weather is nice, you will most likely smell the smoke on starboard, midship deck 6 and possible deck 7/8.

I don’t understand why they wouldn’t have made these itinerary changes BEFORE offering a discount/sale. I mean I knew there was no way they could keep some of the ports, but why not get that all figured out before you offer a sale. I’m beyond frustrated with the corporate side of this company and I don’t see how TA’s can continue to promote them over other luxury lines with all the miscommunication and total lack of regard for the client.

I looked last night and several of the 20% discounts have increased to 30% and 40% now.

I’m looking at booking on the Explora II in late Oct 2024 due to the 20% discount, but I’m fearing delays like we had with Explora I. Anyone else concerned about this? I think mid August 2024 is the inaugural sailing.

Same for me on an April cruise we booked when on board and paid in full. Fortunately my cruise is only 20% discounted and the sale makes it only $380 less than I paid, and I will have a 15% penalty to rebook so not worth it and Explora did not budge when my agent called. I’ll be curious to see if you can get them to work with you since 40% is a significant savings. One thing I’ve been thinking about is what if I move my cruise to another booking? This appears to be a one time option with no admin/penalty fee charged if you move your current booking to another cruise, but I’m unclear on the before 180 days or after 180 days for the new booking. I’m thinking of booking a new deeply discounted cruise that is 7 months past my original booking. If I can move the April cruise to the new cruise, I can then rebook my original cruise at the 20% discounted price. I’m Just not sure all the work to do this makes sense for $380 in savings but it’s the principal of the matter. Have you thought about booking another cruise with them? You may be able to take advantage of the change your booking one time option if so, you can then rebook the December cruise at the 40%. Read the T and C and see if might work for you. Or, perhaps I’m interpreting it incorrectly and it’s not an option. I do feel your pain and I hope it works out for you.

I’m so happy you are enjoying yourself and things are starting off so well! I look forward to following along with you on the rest of your journey.

If you booked through a travel agent, I believe the travel agent has to request the reservations for you over the phone. At least, this was how it was for us. Enjoy your cruise!

I had 5 large glass bottles of water refilled every day in our room, since I let our attendant know we drink a lot of water. As for refillable water stations, they are in Crema and Emporium and I’m sure elsewhere that I’m not remembering, with bubbles and still options. I never refilled with bubbles but it is an option for you to refill your own water bottle at anytime. I’m sure it can be accommodated for you in suite as well as it seems others have had it provided.

These were on our sailing in early August. I’m glad you’re having a great time!

I was only on for 7 days however, we found their Caesar salad, made to order, to be delicious and there was plenty of additional add ons you could add to your salad from the bar area if you wanted……to be honest, there is not any high end restaurant in Orange County, CA that would offer ranch or simple dressings on their menu. It’s just not on offer, unless you are going to Red Robin or some other chain restaurant, and I don’t think EJ is trying to compete with restaurants that offer ranch and thousand island dressing. In terms of appetizers, as i said before, we went to emporium for our oysters and crab and shrimp, but why do you really need appetizers to be passed around when you have emporium to gorge your self on before a dinner and every dinner venue has an amazing offering of appetizers on their menu? Do we really need another venue for appetizers only? I agree the 2Pm cut off for lunch dining is not acceptable, and I did have to order from room service 2 days due to late arrivals from excursions and creama snacks did not cut it, but asking for ranch or thousand island is not what I care about in a luxury line. Their pizza, made by an amazing chef called Marco, is beyond fabulous and their pasta tastes is as if you are in Rome. These are the culinary delights that give EJ the edge. Salad? who cares, you can get that at home. Their pizza and pasta is as if you are in Italy eating under the Tuscan Sun.

I think we had 430 onboard our Aug 8 sailing and we felt the same that you are feeling about being on a ghost ship! We had a hard time finding other passengers and finally asked one of the head Entertainment “Ambassadors” (she’s South African but I can’t remember her name) how many were on board. She told us they were having to adjust timing for shows etc., because of the numbers and she also knew the exact number of passengers on the next leg and their nationalities. Anyway, I just wanted to say that even with 430 people on board, it still felt like we had the whole ship to ourselves. The emporium was the only place we ever saw other passengers in any large numbers and that was usually at breakfast and late lunch. We made a habit of having pre dinner cocktails and oysters in emporium before we went to dinner and it was never crowded. If you haven’t already tried the Duck Salad appetizer (I think that’s what it’s called) in Sakura, you must try it on your next evening there. It, along with everything else, was delicious and I can’t wait to have it again. I love hearing about your trip with all of your cruising experience and I agree with everything your saying so far.

Well now I’m going to ask how much it is supposed to be because mine is not 5%. Thanks!

Haha, I know! I think it’s 2% onboard but when I looked at my receipt and did the math that’s what it worked out to. But, it was added on after the fact so it’s a “manual adjustment” listed on my receipt, not called onboard booking credit so who know where it came from.

For us it was 2.37% of base fare, or close to that, when we booked on board. No other incentives.

On our last night we went to floor 5 to speak to the EJ ambassador about booking another trip. She was with other cruisers so we had to wait for them to finish. There is a piano there, just as you leave the elevators on the way to creama cafe, overlooking the lobby below and a little alcove with a two chairs and a table just outside the onboard booking office. Two Explora higher ups or back office employees (wore suits but not officers) sat and enjoyed a coffee and a chat, I believe it was in Italian. At the piano, a father and his young son, maybe 6 or 8 years old, played the piano. The father played beautifully, but he was trying to have piano lessons with his son and it was really irritating after a few minutes of waiting and listening to the lessons. Once we were inside the EJ Ambassador’s office, she got up and closed the doors to block the noise, it was so irritating. The man playing would have been fine, since it sounded nice, but the piano lesson to his son was not okay and the EJ employees or whoever they were, said nothing to them and just let it go on. Anyway, I only tell this to say I’m not sure anyone would say anything to you at all if you decide to play one of the vacant pianos, especially if you know what you’re doing.

The casino is quite small and I think it has 3 tables (poker I think) and roulette. Maybe 20 slot machines. They were friendly when I went in to check it out. I think it was $25 a hand minimum. I didn’t see a table tennis anywhere that I can remember.

When we checked in, our suitcases were taken as soon as we got out of the taxi at the terminal and it was only the hand luggage/bags we wanted to keep with us that we were responsible for and had to carry ourselves on board. This included my purse a backpack, small carryon type handbag with toiletries and such and a grocery bag filled with a 6 pack of Icelandic beer and a half full bottle of gin, along with a few other perishables that we’d had on our ring road trip previous to boarding. As soon as we were on the ship they had us check these bags with the crew and they took them gave us a ticket and said they’d deliver to the room in a few hours. This was right outside one of the shops in the main lobby. We kept what we wanted and then went to lunch and waited until our room was ready and then all bags were brought by 4pm or so. There was not a lot of travelers in the terminal when we arrived to check in, but a ton of hired “ambassadors” checking people in and I’m sure you could ask one them to help too if you need help with the carry on type of bags up to the lobby. This is how they did it on our trip, but perhaps it’s changed since. In terms of the phone, I was having a hard time with the Wi-Fi connecting to my phone, but my husband had no trouble at all so I asked our room attendant (not sure what they are called on Explora) and he helped me set it up. Another time we had a hard time with the clock adjusting on our phones to the current local time and a crew member in one of the bars helped us so it would adjust automatically. You just have to ask and they will provide someone to help. Everyone we came into contact with, crew and officers alike, and there were many officers onboard our trip, went out of their way to help us and always said hello, carried my plate to my table etc. Even the captain smiled at me when I walked past her in the main lobby one afternoon, but since I couldn’t care less about having a conversation with someone I know nothing about, and has much more important things to do, I kept going and so did she. I’m sure if I had stopped her to say hi she would have indulged me and carried on for a few seconds though.

I can attest to their excursions, as my husband and I were on the August 8th sailing Reykjavik to Copenhagen…….we loved our cruise and booked another while on board. I think the quality of the ship, the crew and the food is outstanding and I hate that others are stating otherwise previously, but everyone has their opinion. Anyway, with recent onboard commentary, it seems like what we experienced is being communicated more. There is improvements to make, but it’s a brand new ship and I’m giving them the benefit of the doubt. As for the excursions, they are extremely expensive and overpriced for what they are. If you are able, you should absolutely book your own excursions outside of the ship. I booked two excursions that cost a total of $1500 and I know for a fact if I could have booked directly with the carrier they would have cost 1/3 of this cost, at the most. I did try to book independently, but, in Iceland there are far a few excursions to choose from and I actually had a private excursion cancelled a week before our journey so I had to book with Explora. If you are in area that you feel comfortable booking your own excursions I would absolutely do it on your own. Explora’s excursions seem to be the same but at a triple cost to you. This is one of my criticisms of the cruise line. I loved most everything else as I do not want to be coddled and catered to, I just want excellent food and great service. They have work to do, but overall, I felt it was an excellent trip for the price. If they can offer 7 day trips at 1k per two passenger, I am all in. I love the 7 day itineraries as we still work and love to combine a land trip with our cruising, so 4-5 days on land with the air travel time works perfectly for us for 2 week vacation. We are in our 50’s and 60’s out of Southern California so getting to Europe is not cheap if you want the whole trip to be luxury, which I do. We just need the business class airfare to come down in price so we can afford these luxury cruises and the airfare to get to them. The airfare is just as must as the cruise most cases these days.

Very small benefit. I think it was 2.5%

There are no comedians, thank goodness, and the performers were on the ship with us and engaged with the passengers when out and about or before and after the shows. We liked it so much we booked another cruise while onboard.

I totally agree with NRC about how excellent the food is in Emporium and it’s stuff you will find on the menus in the other restaurants a lot of the time and there’s always something new each night along with staples. The pizza and pasta were my favorites since it tasted like I was eating pizza and pasta as if I was in a restaurant in Italy and Marco was an amazing pizza chef working so hard to keep up with the demand! The raw bar had sections and the oysters and crab or shrimp were together and then next to it they would have small cups of ceviche or some type of fish salad that changed daily. In the grill area, they offered salmon, swordfish and other types of fish along with the lobster tail. I don’t remember in Emporium, but in every restaurant they asked if we had any food allergies as soon as we sat down. My only issue with the dining/alcohol is that they ran out of Lagunitas IPA on the second day and we do not drink Heineken and that is what they have on draft and promote. They also had trouble at some of the bars locating fever tree tonic and had to go in search of it. There was just regular fever tree on board that I saw. There was also no Maine lobster in Fil Rouge as they didn’t have access to get any and the muscle appetizer in Med Yacht Club was not available. The lobster and muscles have a caveat on the menu that’s says when available or something like that, so I was not completely surprised they were not available, but it was disappointing in these little things not being available. We managed just fine without them, but the one IPA on board to run out the second day was really disappointing.

The entertainment each night varies in the Journeys Lounge (4th floor) and it starts 8:30 to 9:00pm. They have a full band and they did a Billy Joel tribute one night, East End and Broadway another night and they have a violin player on board as a guest artist that did a three hour show last night. There are other lounges that offer pre dinner cocktails and live music by the piano player or saxophonist from the band. They are very good! All of the band is great. They do offer dancing as well; salsa, bachata and I think I saw an other type of Instruction offered. They also have a late night disco offered each night. We have not been able to stay up for it unfortunately. It’s very intimate.

The shore excursions are full (not sure about sold out as I did not check that) but the team is very accommodating and they work with you to make sure you get what you want or will switch things around. They worked with me on my excursions and I now have a lot of onboard credit. They do not credit back my credit card. Seemed pretty complicated, but I can use the onboard credit for something else. I think on these first cruises the excursions can be booked once on board without them selling out, but it’s hard to say once the ships are sailing full and when that will be.

We found out that our ship has 407 people on board. It’s hard to find crowds anywhere and none of the dining venues are full. They are still limiting reservations to one per voyage at Marble and Sarkura. We were not impressed with the quality of meat in Marble and did not care to try for another night. We are going to try to walk in tonight to Sakura for another try for dinner. We love the Emporium, Med Yacht Club and Fil Rouge. The service is excellent with everyone going out their way to accommodate us and the crew could not be more friendly and helpful. There are a lot of deck chairs and loungers on 11 and 12 and so if the ship was full and a sunny day you may not get a chair at one of the pools, but they are all around the ship with views out to sea.

We boarded Tuesday, August 8 at 1:20pm (13:20) with ease. I printed my luggage tags and heath questionnaire beforehand, but they will do it for you, but it saves time if you have it done. There were no lines. Rooms were not ready until 3pm approximately and bags would be delivered between 3-4pm. We went to Emporium for the buffet lunch and it was crowded but not terribly so. Plenty of seating the further back you walked into the restaurant. The food was great! Prime rib, pizza and a risotto is what we sampled and all great! The ship is beautiful and our OTI room is very comfortable. Balcony is nice. We had dinner in Sakura last night with premade reservations through our travel agent made about a month ago. It was full and tables are close, but it was fine and the sushi bar was empty and anyone can walk in for dinner without reservation and order off the sushi menu only. food was excellent as was the service. They have Japanese beers in Sakura which they do not advertise so ask for a Sapporo if you like it with your sushi. The ship does not feel full and we had a hard time finding anyone is lounges before or after dinner. We do not stay up late but they do have late night dancing and DJ that start 10 or 11pm. Too late for us at this time in our lives, especially after full days of exploring. Breakfast at Emporium was easy and they have the same items as fil rouge but it’s just a buffet (you hand your plate to server and they put food on your plate and hand it back) instead of sit down service as far as I can tell. The weather has been phenomenal as we cruise the coast of Iceland and i walked the jogging track and husband was able to swim laps in the observatory pool. It’s really warm in this pool area with the glass enclosure and it was crowded but not so much that you couldn’t find a chair. Plenty of chaise lounges available all around the decks and it’s a gorgeous day. We got one of the outdoor jacuzzis to ourself although I did see several people using them as I walked the track. There are a lot of kids on the cruise, but no issues at all so far. Everyone is well behaved. The service has been excellent. They are having growing pains and finding out answers for you with follow ups, etc,, but everyone goes out of their way to accommodate us and we are enjoying the crew. It seems there are a lot of new crew, and I think it will all come together nicely as they learn their way, but everyone we have come into contact with has been wonderful. I did ask about reservations for Marble and Sakura our first day and, as has been reported, they are not offering second reservations at these venues on “this short cruise”. You are able to book anthology as many times as you like however. It also says nowhere ont he tv/menu for the restaurants that you are limited to one reservation per week of cruising. It says reservations are recommended only. I will report back at the end of our trip on how this goes for us. We are eating at Marble tonight. One thing to note that I am not happy about it that I booked my shore excursions or destination experience before our trip and paid in US dollars as it indicated was the cost. I have shipboard credit and I asked today if I could use the shipboard credit to pay for one of the tours in refund it US dollars and the ambassador I spoke to seemed like it was possible but had to check and when she called back a few hours later she informed me it’s not possible to use the shipboard credit for the already paid for excursions. It’s also showing the price listed on board in Euro and it’s less than what I paid. I’ve asked them to look into it as I feel I’m getting the short end of the stick here as I paid before I got on the cruise and now I can’t use my shipboard credit and it’s cheaper to book it while on board. This so far is the only thing I’m not happy about. I hope we can get it straightened out and they at leak at charge me the going rate they are charging those that book while on board. I’ll try and answer any questions that come up but we have two busy days ahead with those now extremely expensive destination experiences I pre booked.