no1talks

New Aurea bookings have lost some amenities, robes being one of them. There may be variations in amenity loss, depending on the nation-of-origin for the booking.

I investigated the EJ website. EJ's current sales promotion, the Total Luxury Offer, shows only one Miami-based, closed-loop itinerary of 7-day duration and it will be on Explora I. I'm guessing your example uses the cheaper of the two listed dates, Jan. 7th, 2025. If you have based your example on a cruise date not listed on the website, please advise. However, when I created a trial reservation of a Grand Terrace suite, the category you mentioned, the price was $3185 per person, dbl occ. Furthermore, there are multiple limitations on the $400 "Journey Experience Credit." The JEC is applied against charges appearing on the guests’ folio during the booked journey and it has no redeemable cash value if unused. The JEC is not applicable towards purchases made in the luxury mono-brand shops (Rolex, Cartier, Piaget, Panerai), as casino credits or advances, cash withdrawals, gratuities, donations to the MSC Foundation, and donations to the Host lifestyle fund. The JEC full amount must be used by 18:00 on the final night of the journey and any portion remaining will be forfeited. Additional terms and conditions may apply. MSC lets me get cash for my OBC via the casino and I can put that money in tip envelopes. Turning our attention to MSC World America, the MSC website has no cruises of the same month or itinerary as the aforementioned Explora Miami-to-Miami. That alone makes the comparison an unfair one, since itinerary and time-of-year figure heavily in cruise pricing. Nonetheless, if one selects the lowest price 7-day World America itinerary, sailing on Oct. 11th, 2025, the YC price is listed as $3249 per person after fees and such are added. A great many cruisers who are not already in Florida would probably prefer an October cruise, rather than risk a January blizzard messing up their trip to Miami before the Explora cruise even begins. Finally, it should be noted the above World America price doesn't take into account the Voyagers Club discount. As you know, this is available to anyone who has been on an MSC cruise in the last few years and bothered to register with the program, or someone who gets a status transfer from another loyalty program accepted by MSC. In that case, the cruise would be $2945.87 per person for two in the cabin. Better still, savvy cruisers can book MSC YC through a "preferred" TA and recoup 10% or so, as a rebate or OBC. Just sayin' 😉.

Sooo... Test booking a one-week room for two has a YC deluxe suite going for $3,256.44 (Voyagers Club discount). That's a bargain, even taking into account the ho-hum itinerary. Driving to Galveston is much shorter than Miami. It's even slightly shorter than Port Canaveral. However, I don't think MSC Galveston is for us until the itineraries expand.

How zeroes would be "processed", if Morpheus had his way 🏴‍☠️...

In fairness, most any land-based food/beverage/hospitality worker would be very much challenged to maintain the on-duty pace of cruise ship staff. If this is the case, I'll be surprised if word of the shake-up doesn't leak into the cruise blogs. While none of the mentioned lines are luxury brands, they represent a significant span in both hard and soft cruise product. (I hope you will permit me the appropriation of airline jargon.) MSC cannot possibly steal the lunch money from that much of the cruise spectrum unless they further subdivide the MSC cruise brand. They might find their reach exceeds their grasp. (Apologies to Robert Browning.) All well-and-fine for Explora(ers), but I shall be very put out to find our 2024 cruise depleted of skilled service staff for EJ's sake.

Enjoy Seascape while it still sails from Florida. According to the Galveston post on this MSC board, that ship is going to Texas.

I'm sorry, Morpheus, but you need to extend and revise your comments on this tidbit. 😉

Speaking of "backup," I've thought of a way by which Explora could get me on this ship of theirs. They need to get the old band back together and put these three ladies on backup. "Explora Journeys is proud to present, Off The Record... An' The Roxx!"

There must be more to the place than a sauna, salt room, and thalasso pool, yes?

Not from the speakeasy "pre-gaming" elsewhere on the ship.

Those stairs plus alcohol consumption: What could possibly go wrong??

Well, I don't have a machete and my rapier is too unwieldy in safari-related foliage. (Besides, I'd never get it through security. 😆) However, I have hoofed it part-way up St. Peter Mountain for a rather disappointing, yet de rigueur banana daiquiri.

Were there many "untamed landscapes" on your cruise, @morpheusofthesea? Good thing Explora issues machetes for all applicable excursions.

Well, a Q4 suite on Queen Victoria with butler service and Queens Grill dining would hardly be steerage. Unfortunately, you go for florida-to-florida itineraries and many of the 2025 world cruises would be off the table, like the Cunard suite I mentioned.

$70k? That will get you a 2025 world cruise and I don't mean just a Costa world cruise.

Ice cream instead of gelato? Quelle horreur!

As for myself, I have Hungadunga, Hungadunga, Hungadunda, Hungadunga, & McCormick on retainer.

Thank you, kind sir, for the endorsement. In recent years, as the nature of Explora Journeys was being hinted at and contemplated, I expected it would be a cruise line for which I would have keen interest. Now that reviews, pictures, and video are circulating, I am disinclined to have a go. The color scheme appears to be so muted, the most rested part of my post-cruise body would likely be the cone cells of my retinas. Of course, the Aponte family can't go down the Swarovski path again, but would some vivacity in the color palette have been so bad? Some people cruise Virgin Voyages for a wee bit of "50 Shades of Gray" during their cruise. It would seem Explora Journeys is offering an esthetic experience akin to 50 shades of beige. I'm more than willing to stipulate the food is magnificent. Many have said so with conviction. As it happens, we live a hop, skip, and jump from a metropolitan area of 9.5 million people. There are a lifetime's worth of excellent restaurants serving cuisine of all stripes. Getting such food on a cruise really doesn't add to the value proposition for us. Accordingly, the Yacht Club's fare does very nicely for our vacation. I'm also willing to accept Explora does port calls, especially tendered ports, better than what one experiences while sailing YC. However, any smaller ship can get to the closer and prettier docking spaces and we really avoid tendered ports anyway. So, nothing on this topic screams, "Book Explora." And what of Ocean Cay? Has there been any demonstration that an Explora day at OC is worthy of the cost when compared to a YC day? Ultimately, there may be enough cruisers who pick up the less-is-more-so-I'll-pay-more vibe, which I think Explora is laying down. For the foreseeable future, I won't be one of them. Besides, if I want to ditch YC for a bit, Cunard is putting a year-round ship in the US in '25 or '26. I can jump to a Princess or Queens Grill booking for way less than Explora charges. Cunard serves scones with afternoon tea, too, which are lacking on Explora, so I'm told.

Mauritius must be a great place for sourcing butlers, because Renuka is from there as well. She took excellent care of us back in March. (I seem to remember you mentioning her as your butler on a prior cruise.) MSC has an itinerary out of South Africa that stops at Mauritius. It's on our short list, once we switch to flying for a cruise.

"We have met the enemy and he is us." - Walt Kelly in Pogo.

Based on YC reports from World Europa, I'm hesitant to book World America's YC. A great many more rooms without a proportionate increase in dining room and lounge size is not a plus.

Then it's a good thing you stick to the walk-in showers.

So, @morpheusofthesea, are you telling us your cruise is turning into a John Hughes film?

Do the food trucks serve the same burgers and such, as with regular MSC ships' days at the island? As I understand it, MSC days still include a buffet, in addition to the food trucks. Was the island buffet available for Explora? Thank you very much for your observations.

Not just Italians. European cultures that patiently queue are the minority. My wife is from Europe (non-Italian) and on our first MSC cruise some years ago. she was appalled at all her fellow Europeans skipping queues. Whenever she encountered line-jumpers who were speaking her native language, she read them the Riot Act. It was quite amusing to see their stunned faces as an imposing six-foot tall blonde gave them a proper earful, out of the blue.