Wheelhouse

We docked yesterday on the Oceania Vista at Quebec City and walked right into town. Mein Schiff was right near us. The place was wall to wall people on a Sunday. I was hoping to see Explora1 go by.

I went out to the pool yesterday afternoon to read and noticed very few empty chairs in shaded areas. This might be a significant problem on warm weather itineraries.

Currently three days into our Vista cruise. Have heard no one coughing and see very few masks other than the crew. Scuttlebutt is that theirs will come off in a few days if things continue as is.

We are also currently on Vista and I just want to comment that our room is very quiet. We have seen comments in other threads to the contrary.

We are sitting in the airport at Newark waiting for our flight to Montreal to get on the Oceania Vista. No this is not the wrong thread. Being an Islay Whisky snob I will say the Ardbeg is OK, though An Oa is the least expensive and weakest choice in the line. Would have preferred a Lagavulin or Laphroaig.

My back to back to Hawaii has 10 sea days. It could get pretty dull with nothing to do other than work on a sunburn.

I applied for my Irish passport renewal online on May 20th. On May 24th tracking showed it to already be in NYC. Of course since it was registered it took the USPS until June 8th to get it to my home.

Not sure which thread to put this in. https://porthole.com/two-new-hydrogen-powered-ships-to-join-the-fleet-for-explora-journeys/

I noticed the influencer who runs the pages Explora Journeys by MSC Group will be back on Oct 3-13. Do you think that she will be asked to leave on the 12th?

hewordrobe.com/aquavits-two-michelin-starred-chef-emma-bengtsson-announces-partnership-with-explora-i/?fbclid=IwAR2zZb54NkJO9C5WpvLUTubOt63IbOtS50C_JSxbj4clKICj6Rjwrpnw34w

When your in your twenties and impecunious that's what you can buy. It was a bit of a joke.

In 1984 a traveling partner and I each bought a couple of those fake Rolexes in St Thomas while traveling on the old Cunard Countess. I remember bringing my wife her jewel encrusted model and she burst out laughing as she realized right away that they were fake. I do recall that the stem on mine failed very quickly.

We are also on the Oceania Vista both at the end of this month and again in January.

I am paraphrasing this spa information from somewhat currently onboard who was told this by the wellness manager. On sea days, if you have a treatment scheduled you can use the wellness area at any time that day. Without a treatment you can only use the spa between 8am and 10am or between 6pm and 8pm. On port days anyone can use the spa up to a maximum of 25 people.

Thanks sasejm, I don't really think that is a particularly strong booking, but there is still better than 7 months before embarkation. The cruise can be booked as two separate segments. I don't know how that might affect the tabulation. We booked early with a fare considerably lower than that presently quoted, but I still feel that we will most likely cancel. The hardware looks great, but the management to date appears substandard and the company is presently not very interested in longer cruises. It also doesn't look like they are returning to Hawaii in 2025, so this could be a one off occurring only because they have a few more cabins sold than many of the itineraries they have already cancelled. And if they don't sell a bunch more cabins MSC may still cut it.

We are also booked on that 18 night Hawaii itinerary. I was told months ago by an Explorer representative that the Hawaii cruise was their second best selling cruise after the initial TA. Whether he was just blowing hot air I have no idea, but looking at the schedule I would think the Pacific cruises would have all been cancelled when they dropped Alaska if Hawaii hadn't been selling well. We have some time yet to see what is going on before we lose more than the "administration fee" by cancelling. I personally am wondering what there will be to do for 10 sea days on Explora I. There is only so much time I want to spend at the many pools and bars. I've done R/T Hawaii before and numerous TA's, but Explora seems to be lacking in interesting onboard entertainment. I guess I can spend my time waiting in line to get into the restaurants or maybe perusing the watch shops.

The Hawaii extended in Apr/May 2024 still shows for me on the website, though I sort of wish that it didn't.

Plucked this comment off the net. “Complimentary transfer to Zeebrugge” So the daily says. Nothing like that in the reality though. We disembarked 1.5 hours after the ship docked in port. Nothing outside (no gazebo, no one from Explora staff), just one bus with a driver who could not speak English. This bus took us to the cruise terminal, where again no one from Explora was present. Only people from Aida and security stuff. We asked to security only to find out that we had to go back to the ship and take another bus (which one?). We waited again, and finally someone from Explora staff came, only to realize that there is no shuttle service to city of Bruges, instead this shuttle takes you to the local small town, where you have to take a train (not free) in order to go to Bruges.

For me, my current balance and ability to pay said balance on my booking has disappeared from "My Account" at the Explora website. I assume this adjustment has to do with the fact that I used a travel agent and must now go only through him.

A TA on board says there are about 750 passengers, which is a little less than 200 below full capacity.

Somebody on the inaugural wrote this elsewhere. The drinks menu is basically the same at all bars. There are two bars that offer a couple more cocktails. As for now, there aren’t any extra wine menus at the restaurants that I’ve visited so far.

I initially had that same thought when I looked at the main pool, but the ship does have four pools which is a lot for the passenger load. We will find out in April as we have a warm weather cruise booked.

Some specialty Scotch whisky's are only released for the travel market, that is you can only buy them at "duty free."

There is now a "My Explora Journey" App for Apple available. But like the ship its a bit operationally delayed. I am presently unable to login.

Found this floating around "Reservations are only required for the following restaurants: - Sakura: dinner only, lunch is open seating; - Marbel & Co. Grill and Anthology: dinner only, lunch is open seating Anthology comes with an experience fee applicable to be paid on board. 190€p.p. Our Emporium Marketplace, Med Yacht Club and Fil Rouge restaurants are open seating, no reservation required. Emporium is buffet style only. It might happen that we will have shared tables. When on board you will surely be able to amend your restaurant bookings via dedicated concierge or costumer service line. Prior departure you are able to make only one reservation per restaurant. Then when on board you will be able to make more reservations for the same restaurant if you desire."