2SailingNomads

Let me say there is a lot to like about Explora but at the same time... Lots of up charges for certain spirits, not a single decent rum on board even if you wanted to pay for it (and one of the head bartenders agreed and said they have gotten a lot of negative feedback about the limited non-upsell spirits. And totally agreed about rum selections.) Excursion prices absolutely ridiculous, in Kauai where we were only there for 4 hours between ship clearance and all onboard they wanted over 200 Euros to go for a less than 10 minute ride to Gaylords for a rum tasting (Kohola rum, not bad stuff) and train ride and some food. I have had great dinners there multiple times and with a good bottle of wine nowhere 400 Euros for 2. Departure documents claimed a taxi to airport was 80 Euros. Ours cost with tip $42 US.

Menu looks great, looking forward to experiencing it on Encore come August.

And no where capable of going to the same destinations..

Phillipe is my favorite. Knows his stuff, takes great care of us, and also always have a good time just chatting with him.

Back in the day crew had to learn a certain number of passengers name. I recall more than once seeing a new crew member studying a book of pictures and names. No longer the case now it is people mostly who we have sailed with before who address us by name. On Explora and Ponant crew asked your name if you engaged with them, but first names as opposed to Mr. Or Mrs. which was old Seabourn. On Regent only a handful knew us by name, no one on old Crystal. Scenic since so many ex-Seabourn we are well known.

Agree with you especially as regards Regent & Seabourn. Explora Journey is very good in a lot of aspects but I don't think it is the absolute best, and found it to have a lot of really good and some things lacking. Interesting how some folks after 2 days on board claimed it is the best ever. To each their own.

Le Commandant Charcot was an amazing ship and experience, but as a PC2 ice breaker IS nothing like Explora 3+ will be.

I agree but the cruise lines keep practicing the "if you build it they will come" mentality. For MSC they can build 6 ships that sail basically empty with how much the parent company makes per day on the super profitable cargo business but other lines will likely be in trouble with all the new product coming online. (See expedition ships now a saturated market).Anyone else getting daily offers from Atlas??? Too cheap to understand how they can be profitable.

Problem with B2B coming back to FL is you have to go thru the face to face zero count US immigration exercise, with the always present pax who think they are exempt. 7 days does not work for us at this stage of life.

Only saw 2 children on the prior segment and like Maggie saw none on the one we disembarked from yesterday. I know some posts had mentioned a lot of children over the holidays, I liked our 18 days on Explora but have no desire to sail with a bunch of children especially at this price point.

You can usually stay on until 9:30. If the ship arrives at 7 due to needing clearance from the local authorities typically, but varies from port to port and depends on how many other ships are in port, you will not be able to disembark before 8 or so.

We just disembarked Explora yesterday. I wrote some first impressions on the Explora board and will post more in a few days. It's a good product and a nice ship (great outside areas) with very good food and crew but with some quirks in the overall experience. Also suffers from mostly 7 day itineraries, we did 2 9 day B2B segments.

Hopefully they don't cancel all the Turkish ports like they did to our August sailing.

No idea why you quoted me, my comments were 90% positive but I do notice things different here than on other luxury lines. Yet to meet the F&B or Hotel Manager or whatever they call themselves here, no on-deck activities, etc. (Regent, Crystal, Seabourn, Scenic all have those) Food and service has been very good, but definitely some quirks I am glad you love it and have found your ideal ship. BTW the correct spelling is Seabourn, or maybe you were on a different line..

Not yet decided, have another 7 days on-board. Problem is with 290 and now 325 pax hard to know how it works for 800. As always needs to be the itinerary we are interested in, the timing etc. Have 6 future cruises booked for end of this year and 2025 plus multiple land-based vacations and nothing I have seen yet for Explora excites me in the future. But overall we really like the product. As to the move up ratio, probably equal to higher enders like us trying it out. Obviously you like it if coming back. So much potential, maybe EJ III can rectify the shade issues and better bathroom design.

Us too. No how, no way. We now sail also on Regent and Scenic that do not make you pay (OK Laundry is not included on Scenic but they have more choices for dining on a small 250 pax ship than Seabourn has on the 600 pax E-class ships) for what Seabourn currently includes. The reason we chose Seabourn for our FIRST and next 16 cruises was the all inclusive aspect of it. Yes we did not get laundry until we got to a certain level and had to pay for internet but as a Diamond member (and not far from Diamond Elite) I totally resent the idea of taking those away and offering me drink / tour / airfare packages. I don't want your "free" tours, we book our own - have taken a few Regent ones and a very mixed bag. 1 was amazing; 2 were decent and 2 were "why did we do this" bad. I really hope this goes NOWHERE and if it does I think a lot of long time Seabourn folks will vote to go else where.

After hearing pax count on this leg would be 310, 600+ or 450 or... I got what I believe is true since the person I got it from would definitely know: 325. Great day in Kona today and hit up one of my favorite brew pubs, Kona Brewery, after a few miles walking in the heat for a much needed liquid refreshment. Lack of shade is a BIG issue for us, sitting on my deck with a nice couch and shade as I type this. At dinner @ Marble last night they gave us the wine list that included all the complimentary ones, more than we knew. Some of the revenue wines are outrageous but others actually not that bad, But dinner, 2nd at Marble was a big disappointment again: apps, soup and veggies / potatoes all fine but steak chewy and full of gristle, will not be going back and the other restaurants have much better steaks, I don't get it.

We are currently on Explora Journeys 1 and spoke to a TA who is sailing with us the other night, and who books a lot of SB cruises, about this and she basically said it is HAL trying to get feedback on the options they are considering as they are taking over more control of Seabourn. Is that her opinion or does she know something I can not say but found her take interesting. What happened to the refreshed Seabourn Nataly promised, undoing the Rick Meadows and Josh cheapening of the product?

I think they missed not just in the residences but also the PH. Closet is not big, bathroom w/ a single sink and the DUMBEST thing, the switch to turn on the light on the outside of the bathroom. Having been on-board for the last 10 days I think from people I have spoken to there are some like us who sail on SB, Regent, Scenic, etc. who were interested in trying out the brand, from the initial hype, high end champagne - no longer the case, a "different" approach to cruising, well I don't see that except in the terminology they use, hosts vs. crew, etc. Then there are the people who sailed on MSC or Celebrity / Carnival who we spoke to who saw this as a step up. There are a LOT of really good things about this ship: the crew, food, outdoor spaces, 5 pools, 10+ plus bars, but a LOT IMO of things that could be much better. Limited choice of included spirits, 1 bag of laundry per segment, poor included wines, lack of shaded outside spaces and the list goes on. I find it surprising with the amount of money being put into this line they didn't do a better analysis of the existing luxury lines offerings and take the best of them.

We boarded in Vancouver and had 290 fellow pax to Honolulu. Have gotten multiple answers as to how many are going back to Vancouver. Will find out more later. Have found the food, which is subjective, to be some of the best we have had with over 600 nights of sailing on luxury lines. Love all the bar options. Crew are extremely friendly. Dislike limited included spirits options although vodka choices are 2 of the 3 I normally drink. Included wines certainly could be better. Lack of shade on outside decks is a big problem as been noted by others. Stupid design of switch to turn on the bathroom light outside the bathroom. No option of course by course room service from one of the restaurants for dinner.

Too crowded already, also requires getting an experienced expedition team, right ship design (most are PC6 so all can go exactly the same places) to be able to offer something novel (See Ponant Charcot a truly advanced PC2 ship that offers unique itineraries and I've been on it, but has it's issues). I think Regent is wise to avoid that market so many ships going to Antarctica and once people have been there once how many want to spent $2000 or more per diem to return.

so agree I REALLY don't want to hear your inane conversation, why can't people realize that??. WORST is people on a phone call on speaker yelling at their phone with the other side on 10. Pool on Grandeur multiple times from some Brit couple talking to their grandkids - who also needed chairs in the shade and in the sun, and a couple in the Veranda at lunch telling everyone their financial advisors advice.

Seabourn is the name of the cruise line on this board 🙂 Have sailed on Seabourn for over 440 days with more booked and on Regent for over 50 days. Regent entertainment is better IMO, shows and at least on the Grandeur and Splendor - which are the only Regent ships we have sailed on the entertainment in the bars is, in most cases, superior to Seabourn.

Having been on both... main difference on II vs. I is the outside area on Deck 10 forward. On I there a little outside bar that rarely was used, due to staffing and just 2 hot tubs. On II the bar is enclosed including bathrooms and seats. There is a small pool outside the bar area in addition to the hot tubs. The pool does block the forward views from inside the bar, but there is a raised platform in front of the pool for viewing where the ship is heading.

We join in Vancouver