Dr. Cocktail

Gotcha! I was stressing about canceling my December Prima trip but oddly/sadly am feeling better about the decision as more pix come in...

Good Morning David! I have always enjoyed your posts and wanted to weigh in on the "new Haven" discussion. I recently canceled a booking I made in the first minute it went on sale for a Haven Penthouse with Master Bedroom and Large Balcony. As more details came out about Prima, the less interested I became. No private covered pool, a disjointed layout and most importantly, not a lot of shade. The decor is definitely minimalist and comparable to what I've been seeing in renderings for the new Explora 1 - high end, Italian design. I must disagree with you on your views on the Yacht Club. On Seaside Class ships, I have a private pool, outdoor bar and large deck, albeit with minimal shade. The indoor lounge is a two story, glassed in affair with the dining room linked to the bar and a wind protected outdoor seating area as well. It is most definitely NOT "just a part of the ship for suite guests to wander about"!

100% agreed - why they (they being the town) haven't built a second cable car is beyond me except .... from their point of view - why? Keeping people waiting in town really has no negative consequences for them. Better to keep people waiting and possibly buying more stuff. You could tender to the far side of the island but that then means more buses on the road.... ps .... thanks for the tip on the wine! Forewarned is forearmed!!! We will be charmingly Canadian in our polite insistence!

Bella: Great review so far! I will be making a long awaited return to cruising this winter and will be trying Regent for the first time so your thoughts are much appreciated! A discussion on donkey poo? How would it NOT be possible for me to weigh in?! Our last time in Santorini was 11 years ago and there were 1/2 a dozen ships in port. An entirely different poo show! After arriving in town, we did an exhausting 49 second walk, said hello to the most deserving (ok, all of the) cats and sat on a rooftop patio and killed a bottle or two of rose. The line up at the cable car was INSANE - an hour + wait in a slightly higher temperature than I would use to roast my Thanksgiving turkey. Now, at that time I was 48 years old (my partner was 46), both of us 6 feet tall and weighing about 165 pounds. Now 1) I hate animal poo. 2) hate bad smells 3) hate the heat and 4) don't particularly like donkeys or pony's or the such. Bad attitude in hand, we walked down .... I would love to say that it was the worst experience of my life but it wasn't. We chatted with a woman our age as we went down. The BIG challenge is that is extremely physically challenging - I do/did about 50 minutes of intense cardio daily and it left all of us knackered by the end. Our first thing onboard was to stand with our shoes in the pool shower - those feet were NOT marching down a carpeted corridor!

Some absolutely stunning scenes of the interiors… very “design forward “ and unlike the competition. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2aWvlaZ4H_o

Oooops.... just realized that the Press Release link was posted .... here's the actual web site. https://explorajourneys.com/us/en/life-on-explora/dining.html Just click on "Learn More" on Anthology. I think that there's a fine selection of included dining .... 4 "specialty" type restaurants. Unlike Regent, there won't be a main restaurant with a rotating menu but Seabourn and Viking have done well with limited choices. For the type of product that they're pushing, I'm just surprised by the fee. I think that Silversea charges for their chi-chi, foofiest restaurant but again - kinda' tacky for what you've paid. But then again, the size of the restaurant would make it almost impossible to offer even one complimentary meal per sailing. I am most certain that I will NOT go hungry - four options + buffet are still pretty good!

You beat me to it! I was surprised to see the 100 EUR "experience fee" for Anthology ... either you are or are not fully inclusive. The fee is also quite high ... we'll see how this plays out. Happy to see that many of the venues do have outdoor seating.

It's actually not a crap shoot .... I'm talking about the voyage, not the weather when you get there. Going on a transatlantic in February is just cray-cray. Rounding Cape Horn is NOT passing through the Drake Passage. Completely different. But ... why am I being dragged into a meaningless internet fight when the op can't be bothered to respond is ....typical... bluesea77: I'll split the difference with you - Bermuda is one of my most favourite places in the world. The colours, the smells, the people - just great. But ... you don't want to visit Toronto in February and I don't want to visit Hamilton either!!!

I have cruised to Bermuda over 20 times on a cruise - too lazy to stand up and check my travel diaries…. After the Drake Passage to Antarctica on a 4500 grt ship, the crossing from nyc to Bermuda in September remains THE roughest sailing I’ve ever been on. You may be lucky but remember - this is still the North Atlantic! Bermuda will be temperate but getting there and back? Big “No”.

Explora seems to have their first captain .... https://www.cruiseindustrynews.com/cruise-news/27630-serena-melani-named-captain-at-explora-journeys.html

Don't you love how all of the artist's impressions of the ship show a blue hulled ship and they floated out a white hulled one? MSC strikes again .....