PaulMCO

You cannot compare pricing at the current time unless it is a specific voyage. One time Crystal would be cheaper for equivalent another time Seabourn. Then try a 50% off Black Friday sail and Explora wins. Crystal has their Upgrade Suite promotion. Seabourn 25% Sail away and Explore has 40%. Depends on your cabin with Explora as the bigger ones with her and Crystal will be cheaper on some 2024 sailings. One thing not mentioned is Butlers. Cannot get one on Explora unless you sail in a Residence. On Seabourn never. On Crystal all suites though the service level varies. I love the food is subjective comment (I use it too). But it is not subjective to ME. I like variety and Choice. You get more on Crystal and Seabourn and zero on Explora as the menus are fixed and for a 21 day for us it is tiring. Then again you get the best on Regent. Loyalty program -- non on Explora World cruise with varied itineraries -- none on explora Ability to book long b2b2b cruise -- slim to none on Explora. Check out their Med schedule, back and forth. Explora one new ship, lots more planned and ordered and being built Crystal two ships from the ancient mariner saga -- 4 planned but not orders I can throw rocks a both to see if they stick. But the real message from a CC fan "choice is good" We have cruises booked on Explora, Regent, Crystal, Silversea and Seabourn

Looks like several of us old geezers with lots of IT and testing experience..My end product was air traffic control systems for the DoD so testing was key. If someone designs/codes it I could break it. You can thank Mike Moore for the Oceania and Regent success with their systems, after leading the O team, he is doing same with RSSC. (and he is cruise critic friendly) Some of the issues with Explora are lack of staff (no excuses). Due to many changes in itineraries (4 major) in one year, caused lots of back room work making those changes on the selling side of Seaware and zero work on the customer side.

A Agree 100%, having cut my teeth doing assembly language code on old Data General 16 bit mini's in the 1970's... One major issue is their choice for their baseline system which is the Seaware reservation system which is not the easiest to customize. The web interface is just a small part of the package. Explora has had big issue with their application GUI adaptations. Azamara is also a buggy system. But using the Crystal interface never had any issues. In fact just made specialty dining on Crystal, something you cannot yet do on Explora. One thing -- at least you can see your booking. Wait to until you experience the disappearing reservation 🙂

I just responded on the Oceania forum, so I will not repeat myself. Like @bitob 15 cruises was enough for Oceania. Last cruise in 2023 was on Marina. Food was subpar. MDR inedible, late and cold. Buffet on Terrace was tiring. Only reason we did that cruise was to burn 15K of free FCC. Last Regent cruise was on Splendor -- food was great (especially in CR) and even the 5 days we were quarantined with COVID, they gave us free choice from any restaurant. Looking forward to next month on Explorer (just got our luggage forward tags).

On the air issue -- it really depends on when you book and whether their are good consolidator contract rates. For our next cruise this March our air allowance for Business class RT was $4200. Now try to price anything anywhere today for under $6500 and that was Air Canada. As far as the topic -- Regent by far. Yes I do not like buffets. I think Terrace on O is overrated, especially tiring for long cruises. If I were to rate the lines as far as food 1. Regent (lots of variety, on bigger ships and best GDR/MDR of any line 2. Old Crystal (where new Crystal is see me after June) 3. Explora Journeys (good basis but they need to rotate menus) 4. Seabourn 5. Oceania (last 2 were disappointing food wise) 6. McDonalds (I hate them -- and its better than my last SS cruise) 7. Silversea (only the caviar was decent) An yes we generally look for value. We did old Crystal in the Amazon and it was cheaper than Marina. Seabourn can have rates that are lower than Oceania. We like Seabourn for their small port itineraries. So while Seabourn may be number 4 in food -- they are higher in overall experience (probably 2 versus Regent as 1) as we are itinerary driven.

Why don't you use a guide from Tours by Locals. They can do both a tour and drop off at the port.

It does show your past booked/completed cruise too now. Then again they still are using the Seaware platform which is buggy and hard to customize.

Agree -- we did book an OT3 at $600 ($300pp) per day, only because it was an interesting way to spend 2 days in NOLA with friends. Our take was $1800 (900pp) for a COVE versus $1500 ($750 pp) on Crystal for a Sapphire Veranda.

I was a little bored on a rainy day and decided to jot down some of my new language terms on our recent Explora I cruise. Please chime in and add to the list. Butler Residence Host Suite Attendant Suite Host Attendants/Waiters Hosts Cruise Journey Shore Excursion Destination Experience and Enrichment Room Service In-suite Dining Veranda Cabin Ocean Terrace On Board Credit Experience Credit Cruise Director Entertainment Manager Enrichment Speaker Luminary Trivia Let’s Get Quizzical Destination Talk Luminary Port Talk Piano/Violin Player Resident Artiste Movie Theater Silent Sweet Cinema Enjoyment/Relaxed Ocean State of Mind Enclosed Pool Area The Conservatory Future Cruises Future Journeys Shops The Journey Crew Welfare Fund Host Lifestyle Fund

Clear your cache and web site history in your browser.

It would be nice if the answers are True.... (and I just went through 10 FAQs). These have never been updated since the web site was created.... A key highlight is this brilliant answer. Where can I find the menu offered onboard? Once finalised we will have sample menus available on our website. I guess they have not finalized the menus yet??? What is the earliest time I can have breakfast, can I get a cup of coffee at 4am? In-Suite Dining is available 24 hours a day and our Crema Café operates throughout the day from approximately 6:00 in the morning. I wonder what time zone they are referring to,,, earliest was 6:30am Will the restaurants be open for lunch during the embarkation day? Lunch will be available in several different dining venues on the embarkation day. Only one on our two embarkation days (Emporium).

A few containers??? This not a cosmetic drydock. At lot of the work that will be done to Whisper is structural and not just cosmetic. It will be Shadowized with the deck 5 atrium area completely gutted.

Contractors with material... How would that work???

Which flows into the Silversea port to port fares which are all deposit non refundable, and not just a special. But they have significant savings, brings in cash for the cruise line, and discourages the looky loos, who will cancel before final payment.

If you had one booked in the past, you still had to complete a guest registration form prior (even if never sailed). that info was in the Old Crystal database which new Crystal purchased. Now I get one call per week on my mobile from their "consultant".

Seems like all cruise companies are doing the same.. (Seabourn extended the 25% and RSSC came out with a new special). We did take advantage of the Crystal offer yesterday sneaking it in between several others. The way it is going we are going to be away more than home.

Luggage yes or no. Because checkin with luggage will close first. If Eva did change the flight, they might give you some consideration to change the next day. See you onboard...

Agree with @Whipsnade chose one that does a large volume of business. When things go wrong they can have influence and get things corrected from the top. Finding a good one is always an issue, our first TA was from one of the larger internet brokers. After doing some substantial business we were given one their top TA's. When he retired we looked for another TA and used a recommendation from our friends and we now deal with the owner of one of the larger TA groups. There are lots of good ones out there, also some bad ones that provide little service. I would not use social media to find a good one. I would ask your fellow cruise friends on board who they use. I always carry a few biz cards of my travel agent.

He is quite right. There is nothing that says 60 days prior you can make reservations in advance. If you are micro organized, you can go through the poorly designed web site and find in the facts that you can make advance reservations (when it does not say). If you do not and look at the specific restaurant it might say reservations are recommended.

There was always a coffee get together at 10 or 10:30 at Crema also.

I just reread your review. I tended to agree with many items especially the wine. I called it Faux wine, we had mucho OBC and had a hard time spending it - until I wanted some wine. I like cognac and what was available as complementary was a joke. Some of the items they did improve on were the embarkation and disembarkation process (you can pick a time). I though Emporium was a decent choice for breakfast/lunch (my eggs were properly cooked as requested), but was really lacking for dinner. We were in a residence so the room service did come with a table cloth and set up for dinner. We had to ask for fruit daily which again I ask why?? I did get a full size bottle of Henricks and one of Balleys, but neither was on the "list" and had to special request them. I still think Regent is far superior to Explora, especially for a longer cruise. The fixed menu concept is hard to stomach. I can generally find complementary wines on Regent and other lines that I like.

I think they were providing 5% discount early on for on board bookings. What usurped it was the poor future bookings and the need for the current 40% off sale which in many cases would supersede the discount. The had planned to announce a loyalty program in 2024 but ??? They did give OBC (Experience Credits) for those in competitor loyalty programs in May/June 23...

I was surprised at the pillow issue. Was eventually solved. The Champagne was a different story. There was no shortage, it was available in the bar at extra charge $320. The issue was an advertised promise broke. Wine is subjective -- but really found the choice of reds poor, there was not even a Chianti Reserva on the list and the Gruner was horrible.

Just remember if your are an American, the sale of any of the $$ watches will be reported to CBP and you will be on a POI list and will be pulled over and ashed to make a declaration. These are not duty free watches. (experience dictates this)

The whole port area is busy with thousands of people on a pedestrian mall with a 10 foot wall separating the people from the ships. The port terminal is UNDERGROUND. To get to it via taxi you access through the underground garage and the luggage is dropped off at the bus and taxi area, where it is sniffed by dogs and scanned. The other way is to enter the port area and the terminal is located in Block D (the port is divided into blocks A through L (L is where the hotels are) It is on Google do a search for Galataport Yolcu Terminali The entrance for peds is a small door next to the ramp to garage.