mike@sea

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.