mike@sea

I agree with most of your observations and I believe we mostly think the same in regards to EJ. However, this round of cancellations and they way EJ dealt with it by NOT (!! ) notifying any German nor UK agents ( and probably other EU countries ) with booked passengers on those cruises, is an absolute shame. And inexcusable! That’s besides other missing information in the past and ignoring already booked passengers along the way in the past 2 years. Not sure how this is dealt with internally within EJ, but I sincerely do hope that some heads who clearly do not belong in their positions are being axed over this. That is not how you build trust with clients and agents. The new routings do also no longer reflect , what they promote and what the initial thought was. Longer journeys, new ports etc. The new routings do not substitute in any way, what people had booked before the cancellations. You cannot compare an India to Africa routing to the same old Dubai to Dubai or Miami to Barbados. So EJ disappointed many , some even twice ! That’s why people are angry, not having meltdowns , but feel they do neither get the respect nor the thanks they deserve for booking early, believing in a brand and promoting the brand, ever since they booked.

Single supplement went up on most cruises and appears now at 150 % for regular suites and 200 % on PH and higher, on 2025 cruises to the Caribbean. That eats up the 30% FCC unfortunately. I am almost certain they will adjust and lower it again during the upcoming months, but for now, that’s what it is. That of course is still way better than what other cruise lines offer for single cabin occupancy ( except for those lines which offer one of those super tiny single cabins ).

Wow, these are obscene prices ! NOT(!) ok, given what their customer already paid for the journey.

Interesting. How and when were you notified regarding the cancellation ? I am affected with 2 reservations made with 2 different travel agents in Germany. None has been informed from Explora whatsoever in regards to a) ANY changes of their routings, b) as to why not a single cruise after mid May appears online for 2 weeks already, c) if, when and how their booked guests, some even paid in full, will be notified/ contacted about losing their reservations. Not a word yet. I contacted my agents myself of Friday afternoon, asking what was going on. They had no idea and were surprised, now they are waiting for reply from EX after contacting them. Meanwhile, others, mainly from US, have been notified, cancellations and apparently refunds were already initiated. Probably some are even already rebooked to the still not released new journeys. Shocking! They will have a lot explaining to do next week, followed by a bigger offer than the 30% on top, if they have the audacity to bring new replacement future bookings into the game. I really want to like them, I still believe in many aspects of the experience with EX, but this behavior is so unbelievably unprofessional, that I am not sure, they can lure me in again. I guess my „Ocean State of Mind“ got somewhat lost along the way….

Just speculation of course, but my best guess is a redeployment to the Caribbean, Barbados, probably Miami. Or both, allowing guests to embark in either port. Hoping for South America, but doubt it, after they already cancelled one season there. So maybe there will be at least one longer transatlantic cruise each way. We will see.

New itineraries equals a cancellation to me, as the new itineraries come with new sailing start dates, which no longer match the original booking. Clearly a cancellation. I am affected twice, on both EX 1 and EX 2, not a word whatsoever yet from Explora to the travel agents involved. Nada. Bookings still appear in profile, one with all new ports , no longer matching, the other as originally booked but clearly no longer operating as booked. It seems that the US market is much much better informed from Explora, than their very own EU market agents and clients. This was also the case before, when they came up with special offers. Non were distributed in EU, only if you specifically asked for the promotion ( if by chance you heard of it ) , whereas US agencies and US customer were informed about promotions apparently pro actively. No wonder they could not fill the ships, how could they without proper promotions. Instead of promotions and special cruise fare teaser, 2for1, referal promotions or whatnot, they raised the fares twice. Something I did not understand. I wonder how long it will take for Explora in EU to inform the agents and clients about their booking cancellations. They cannot load the new voyages, before affected clients were given a choice to rebook their selected cabin again. Well one would think this is how it should go. I hope someone here is able to post the new Explora 2 cruises as well soon. My hope still lies in Explora 2 doing longer cruises, outside the usual 7 day back to back mass market offer.

As mentioned earlier in the post, Explora 1 cruises should be released soon, Explora 2 cruises in about 1-2 weeks, according to the first post. My October 24 cruise, although originally leaving from Quebec enroute to Miami now lists ports in the Med, followed by Suez Canal on Nov 6th. Looks like Explora 1 will be heading towards Middle East, which was originally the plan for Explora 2. I can see the new ports in my reservation, but they no longer match the reservation title , nor the original route of the booked b2b. Strange, but I guess it already reflects what is there to come the following days. Whether or not Explora 2 will still do Africa in 25 ( which I doubt ) or head across the North Atlantic in fall of 24 remains to be seen. …expect the unexpected with Explora. 🙃😀

No information regarding booking yet, but I did not expect that. I am sure it will take a couple of days. I do not believe that agents in Europe have been contacted yet. I only learned about it here and kept checking my res as well as the overall availability, which still shows zero results after mid May. My guess is , that Explora 2 Africa season also goes down the drain. Unless Explora 1 picks it up, but I have a feeling Dubai is more lucrative for them, especially given the fact, that they could welcome Russians from there. ….Rolex…..😉 I would be losing my upgrade then for my Jan 25 reservation as well, so my intention to book a new cruise for an even higher price with no upgrade tends to zero. But let’s see, what the next days will bring. Maybe Explora 2 will be redeployed to US/CA or Caribbean instead. 2 more weeks and we know that as well.

Looks like Explora 1 stays in the Med for fall 24. I can see different ports in my October 24 booking from Quebec to Miami now, when I pull the reservation up in my profile. When I click on the dates, new ports appear such as Athens, Paphos, Haifa, Port Said, Suez Canal So, Explora 1 will not return to the US and Canada in fall 24 but will most likely deploy to Dubai, maybe Asia, but my feeling says Dubai. Expecting more negative surprises for Explora 2 then in about 2 weeks. Yeah…

Hi Ajouni, I am not on the cruise. It was my reaction to the reports of those on the cruise who confirmed my initial worries. My wording was a bit harsh. Apologies for that. I was really frustrated after reading the initial reports. My agent and best friend warned me about Explora being MSC and spending so much money on a product which has to prove itself first. Men never listen, so I booked a few cruises meanwhile, taking advantage, so I thought, of early prices, before the product becomes even more expensive. I was convinced it would be awesome and in the same league as MS Europa 2/MS Europa. Then over the course of the past months I lost my confidence a bit. Canceled cruises, unimpressive and quite pricey excursions ( Caribbean ), some with silly and never before heard of age restrictions. Despite being only months away from the cruise, no information whatsoever on available pre/after cruise hotels/ transfers ( Journey Enrichments ) , still no excursions loaded ( for Q1 24 ) despite sailing to the exact same ports as in Q4 23, which is around the corner. If I had not made my own flight arrangements, I would have a problem now, as apparently Explora has not sorted much at all yet. They still , after over two years don’t have a decent website to fill in the manifest, book excursions, look at restaurants, book restaurants. I would have expected more from Explora after everything, they promote. Then finally the first cruise started , the first reports came in and I was extremely shocked to read about the restaurants, the unavailability of reservations ( despite not telling guests beforehand how and where they should pre reserve ), to learn how they apparently treat b2b cruisers in regards to reservations ( although I do think that it is incorrect information that they only allow 1 reservation despite paying two cruise ). So my apologies I raised so many eyebrows here. My impulsiveness is my weakness. Besides that I promise I am quite a nice person and easy to be around. I definitely praise out loud what can be praised, always appreciate those who work so hard to make things special. Now I sit back and wait for the next reviews to come in, before I react.

Like I said, you can only make one good first impression. And they definitely did not make one in my opinion, not to me. And the restaurant situation also does not fall into the category „issues“ either. Yes I expect issues of course, but I also expect the availability of basic things right from the beginning. Being able to dine in a nice and quiet, non hectic atmosphere, in accordance with the price tag definitely is one of those requirements. Not being able to get a table at all certainly reflects an epic fail, not an „issue“. This is not Princess or NCL. In this category, you cannot and should not leave such a bad first impression. There are many ways to avoid that, as there are many ways to deal with customers, which you let down and disappointed by canceling cruises, both long and short term. Yes, one has to wait and see how they improve. However. They specifically decided not to have a main restaurant, but apparently they were not clever enough to do the maths and create enough restaurant seats, not counting the buffet in. How they want to fix that seems impossible to me. Customers will always want to try their restaurants, especially given the fact, that apparently the food seems delicious. Who pays 10000$ and then wants to pick up food at a food stall/food counter due to lack of restaurant seating. I don’t. That’s all I am saying. They needed to consider the warm weather in contrary to cold weather cruises, where outside dining is impossible. This situation was discussed here before, and we hoped that it would work out. Well, apparently it does not. Also how can it not be clear, which restaurants are reservation only ? It seems that you need reservations for all restaurants now. And how can you mislead future passengers by saying you can easily book additional visits once onboard, when in reality this is never possible due to lack of tables? Well, let’s see how the next cruises go and how they improve the restaurant situation.

Thank you for contributing all the details from the current voyage. I am truly amazed how careless and unprofessional in every aspect a company, who wanted to become the best cruise line of all, started their business. How can you allow so many passengers on the first cruises, when processes have not been tested yet, when it is clear that the weather limits passengers to indoors, which further restricts available space in restaurants. How can they not have a concept for the limited seats in their restaurants ? How dare you tell a customer, who paid 1000$ a night, that he can’t get a reservation for the restaurant. How dare you ask those customers that you need reservations in the first place, but are unable to provide options to do so online. How dare you limit the number of reservations, how dare you tell b2b customers they still can only make 1 reservation despite paying two cruises. The current situation is exactly what I feared the other day , when I saw, how small and cramped the restaurants appear. With all the beautiful lounges on the ship, who within Explora had the stupid idea , that they needed more lounging area in one of the restaurants, instead of tables for customers ( Yacht Club )? What terribly bad planning. I turned away from the mass market cruise lines and I am willing to pay more , because I want a cruise, with no lines, no necessity for reservations and certainly no necessity to still pay extra, when the original marketing said, its all inclusive, when in reality, one finds more items with a price tag, than without. I do want to eat in restaurants, I dislike buffets, and Explora will certainly not make me dine in the cabin or at the buffet. If they cannot deliver this, and provide a restaurant atmosphere which fits the price tag, then I am out too. Hapag Lloyd has no problem in delivering exactly that, which Mr Ungerer knows very well. Maybe he did not learn from the best and did not succeed or even come near , what others offer and what they promised beforehand. You can only make one good impression. Boy did they fail….!

Really had to laugh about your comment. I watched the video twice, only for the pictures. I found it torturing to listen to him. So little overall product knowledge there, I cannot believe he was invited to the sailing. But he does a lot of MSC, TUI, AIDA ( in a similar questionable way) coverage, so that explains it. I am grateful for the pictures/ ship tour though, as it gives me an early indication of the ship. I e.g. found it interesting to hear and see, that the regular suites are rather basic ( although stylish ) in material used, from the cheap Chinese bedside clock to the shelves, to the showerheads. That bigger balcony suites still only have one short looking daybed. I am still skeptical in regards to enough sun loungers in warm weather cruises. And I am very skeptical in regards to the restaurant situation. Why on earth did they make the buffet restaurant the biggest restaurant, and squeezed all other restaurants into small spaces. File Rouge, apparently the restaurant most passenger will use as their main restaurant, looks so cramped, it reminds me of the dining room on Radiance of the Seas, just posher, but with tables so close together, that I already feel sorry for the waiters. Hopefully this impression is wrong though, can’t wait for the first reviews to come in. Other than that, the ship sure looks gorgeous and I am looking forward to joining a cruise in March. just my 2 cents….

Agree with you Ivi, I also find BGI not ideal. Hotels like Hilton are crazy expensive to an extent, that I wonder wonder, who pays >1000 USD per night , basic room, for such a mediocre hotel. But people apparently do as pricing did not come down, vice versa. Still waiting for Explora to finally come out with Pre departure hotel offers for my March 2024 cruise from BGI. I am almost sure it will also be the Hilton with their over the top pricing, so I will then stick to my Courtyard Bridgetown (Marriott) reservation. Their prices have also increased since I booked and I do not expect much, but it is somewhat reasonable for a pre departure overnight stay. Flying MIA to BGI and back is also crazy expensive too. My AA Ticket was quite costly and I am not the biggest fan of AA, but there was no alternative. Condor recently added flights from DE/ FRA though, on the new A330neo with a great Business Class. So that’s good, but came too late for my planning, as I already purchased MIA tickets. There are also nonstop flights from London daily on BA and Virgin, as well as Amsterdam and Manchester 2 -3 times a week. Cartagena on the other hand is much easier and cheaper to reach from Germany. Eurowings Discover flies into Cartagena directly and LH has 3-4 flights a week to Bogota on the fabulous A340-600, offering all four classes , incl First Class. with onward connection to Cartagena on Avianca ( which is rubbish , but it’s only a short flight ). Its a very good flight to BOG, I flew it right before the pandemic and caught one of the last flights back out again, before Columbia was shut down because of Covid. Unbelievable this was only 3 years ago. Crazy times.

Cruises until April 25 have been released for months now. Q1 Season 2025 starts in Dubai , goes via India , then across to Kenya and down to South Africa, back up again, then via Saudi Arabia an Egypt to Greece, getting ready for summer 25 in the Med.

One other thing that puzzles me is the complete absence of „special offers“ of any sorts from Explora. Even the Status Match promotion was not really promoted. Well at least not in Germany. I only learned about it here and had a hard time getting it. Why didn’t they bring on special offers for the South American journeys or those down US west coast, before canceling the whole season and disappointing customers who trusted them with their money. The Westcoast journeys were not the best, not in regards to the ports, which were great, but in regards to the season. It’s actually bad planning for a cruise line. No surprise there were only a few bookings. I loved the routing at first, but then I double checked the weather at the destinations at that time of the year. August and September have high temps and quite some rain down that coast in Mexcio. Occasionally even heavy storms. More rain and little sun October in Middle America , Costa Rica. Still hurricane season with often heavy hurricanes towards the end of hurricane season in October/ November in the Caribbean. if the price is right, this is worth the risk. But with Explora pricing, one thinks twice and rather books something else. So why did they offer this routing in the first place , why didn’t they wait till November to leave California for the journey towards the Caribbean? And the cancellation of South America seems strange. Oceania for example fills their ships easily , as do other lines. Why can’t Explora ? It must be the high price combined with Barbados as a starting point , which isn’t easy to reach and which is very expensive to reach. But why no special offers to boost those sailings ? Just my thoughts….

I am sorry to hear about your lost reservation. I fully understand your frustration. I can also honestly not understand, what on earth they are doing. Prices raise almost every 2 months now, but apparently they have a hard time filling the ship(s) at markets outside US and Europe. One would think, prices adjust according to demand and every new line, like every new restaurant, first has to prove to the audience, how good they are. What better way to attract new clientele first through an acceptable price as well as through great service and routings, which attract customer around the globe. But apparently, Explora rather tries to become one of the most expensive cruise lines, even without a single review and way before the first vessel even started its first journey. With the same mostly boring routings like every other cruise line. Unless they finally prove to be as good as they want to be ( in August) , thinking Hapag Lloyd MS Europa 2 as a benchmark, and unless they start to get their act together in regards to reliability, they will soon end up and be known as yet another but very expensive MSC cruise line, something they try to avoid at all cost. Time will tell - soon. It puzzles me, how they want to fill their ships, once Explora 3 is on sale, as not too many parts of the world remain for Explora, after obviously only concentrating on Med, Northern Europe, US East and Caribbean. I wonder what will happen with Explora 2 routings DXB-BOM- MBA- DUR- CPT in 2025. This probably represents the next season to be cancelled due to low demand ( and high prices ). Again, time will tell. I still hope it’s going to be great, but I am less sure recently. No longer sure which market and clientele they are actually looking for. I have a feeling , that they also aim at wealthy Russians in the long run. That would represent the end of my „love story“ with Explora.

Go to „Destination Experience“ on their website. Then go to „ Journey Enrichments“. Hotels for the first cruises are announced. I did contact them this week for my 2024 cruise from BGI (Barbados), hoping they can already name a pre journey hotel, but the reply was that it will only be available later this year. So I agree, they are still somewhat struggling and probably happy to have at least their excursions and hotels ready for the first cruises till October.

Thank‘s for sharing. I must say I really do like it ! Looks quite classy to me. From my perspective very well done. Regarding loyalty program, there is a remark somewhere on the website, that they are currently finalizing the details, so no worries, there will be one. But I would not be surprised at all, if it would differ again from other loyalty programs. So far I must say I am more than positively surprised by all the latest news. Suites look great, shops will be awesome and different from other cruise lines, restaurants look good and the little menu teaser one can find sound great too, I am also very happy with the way they think about and present any form of entertainment. I am very much looking forward to my first cruise March 2024 and can’t wait for the first reviews in summer.

There was an announcement in the German press, that the ship would spend summer in the Med instead of going to Alaska. Immediately after the announcement, May- Sep was greyed out in the online booking process. One reason could be that Alaska did not sell well, which does not surprise me, because Explora pricing was way over the top and there are so many, I dare to say too many other ships up there to choose from. The ports are so full, maybe Explora could not even secure port time. But what I find strange is, to first send the ship to the west coast and Hawaii, then all the way back transatlantic to the Med, instead of sending it over right after the Caribbean season. But I guess the Hawaii cruises sold well, hence the „little“ detour. I hope that the affected guests receive a generous new offer to chose from instead.

Meanwhile...Let´s change topic. How about today´s announced Explora 1 re-routing to the Med (instead Alaska) as off May or Jun 24... Wonder what this means for the Westcoast (Hawaii) sailings prior and whether or not it is being caused by a possible delay of Explora 2 ( thinking, that it hardly makes sense to cancel a full season abroad to have 2 ships simultaneously in the Med)....

Looks almost like a Celebrity 2.0 ship to me. Not so sure I like the white bow. But maybe one just has to get used to it and see it for oneself. In the end, it’s the content that counts….

Are you saying, it has been added to an already existing and confirmed reservation ? I have been told by Explora, the promotion only applies to new bookings, not to existing ones.

Thank you for sharing those videos. Very interesting, I even noticed something I had not before, that there will be sunbeds at the bow. That would be an awesome addition. I am still a bit skeptical in regards to deck space, since a lot seems to be assigned to bars which come with a wide array of seating options. Don’t want “my” sunbed in front of a bar, I prefer a quiet and more secluded place for that. The bow would definitely suit that.

Itineraries are available until Sep 2024 on their website. The last one displayed is the one from Miami to Quebec 18-28 Sep.