Latest news about Explora Journeys

[kool kruiser]

23 hours ago, TER777 said:

New Crystal has said it is now charging $300 per person for the Vintage Room including both the wine and food. So comparable price. 

I think that we may be at cross purposes. The Crystal Vintage Room is only available on select evenings on a cruise, has very limited capacity ( I may be wrong, but I think this may be only 12) and can be cancelled if demand is insufficient. Perhaps this can be likened to a private dining experience.

On the other hand, Anthology has a potential capacity of 70 (48 indoors and 22 outside) and I would imagine that it will be open every evening. More like an exclusive restaurant, with staggeringly high pricing for a luxury inclusive line, with high per diems to begin with. I absolutely respect and understand that some may wish to splash out but my previous comments nevertheless remain.

[bitob]

It’s an option for those who like to splurge on such things. Options are good 

 

I prefer to spend my money in the spa. I know many people who never go to the spa 

 

good to have something for everyone imo

[bitob]

Does anyone know?

 

will there be free laundry with any of the cabin categories?

 

is there a card room? Will there be duplicate bridge on cruises with sea days?

 

I’ve searched. Can’t find the info

[happy cruzin]

11 minutes ago, bitob said:

Does anyone know?

 

will there be free laundry with any of the cabin categories?

 

is there a card room? Will there be duplicate bridge on cruises with sea days?

 

I’ve searched. Can’t find the info

That kind of info should become available after they have the first revenue sailing. That is mid-July…I think? 

[Dr. Cocktail]

23 minutes ago, bitob said:

Does anyone know?

 

will there be free laundry with any of the cabin categories?

 

is there a card room? Will there be duplicate bridge on cruises with sea days?

 

I’ve searched. Can’t find the info

There is self serve laundry on board.

 

Penthouses: Complimentary pressing within the first 48 hours.

One bag of laundry per person, up to 24 hours before departure

 

Ocean Residences: Unlimited laundry, dry cleaning and pressing

 

You have to go as far as almost making a mock booking!

[bitob]

3 minutes ago, Dr. Cocktail said:

There is self serve laundry on board.

 

Penthouses: Complimentary pressing within the first 48 hours.

One bag of laundry per person, up to 24 hours before departure

 

Ocean Residences: Unlimited laundry, dry cleaning and pressing

 

You have to go as far as almost making a mock booking!

Great. Thx

[Lord Haw Haw]

16 hours ago, kool kruiser said:

I think that we may be at cross purposes. The Crystal Vintage Room is only available on select evenings on a cruise, has very limited capacity ( I may be wrong, but I think this may be only 12) and can be cancelled if demand is insufficient. Perhaps this can be likened to a private dining experience.

On the other hand, Anthology has a potential capacity of 70 (48 indoors and 22 outside) and I would imagine that it will be open every evening. More like an exclusive restaurant, with staggeringly high pricing for a luxury inclusive line, with high per diems to begin with. I absolutely respect and understand that some may wish to splash out but my previous comments nevertheless remain.

Although I agree that the price seems fairly high, it would only need each passenger to dine once in the restaurant every fourteen days to keep it full and with the chefs being rotated there will not be the same problem some other lines face with regulars finding the menu getting stale. It will be interesting to see if the concept stands the test of time.

[Dr. Cocktail]

I think that the concept, while exciting leaves a lot of questions and will need a lot more finessing to make it work.

 

For its first itineration, it's basically a pescatarian restaurant that will in itself exclude all those with shellfish/seafood allergies and those that simply don't like fish!  If you're a seafood restaurant, do you really think that someone's going to eat the Vegan smoked Tofu as a main?

 

If I'm paying the rather high service fee, will there be actual restaurant staff from Italy working in the kitchen or will it be Explora people trained in the prep?  A very different situation.Also, will all of those seafood delicacies be frozen or loaded fresh onto the ship?

 

It may become an Insta-worthy splurge (please be impressed - I'm not on ANY social media except CC!) but I think it's just too expensive.

 

In the immortal words of a professor friend of ours, people always say : "it's not the money, it's the principle while of course IT'S THE MONEY!!!"

[daleandrews]

I just noticed that on-line check-in went live today (May 12) on the Explora website.

 

[Belgian cruiser1]

@daleandrews is that only for cruises in the first few months ? 

[uktog]

It is not working.  I am on the first cruise and despite paying my agent in full over a month ago the site says payment not complete hmm

[mungojerrie]

I was able to get into the check in forms (we are also on the first cruise), but it seems a bit buggy so I did not complete it. For example, I entered the correct info for my passport issue and expiration dates, yet in the finally summary page the system shifted the dates by one day. And it kept dropping the country code for our emergency contact and telling me the entry was invalid. So I just quit and will try again in a few weeks.

[dolphin1313]

34 minutes ago, mungojerrie said:

I was able to get into the check in forms (we are also on the first cruise), but it seems a bit buggy so I did not complete it. For example, I entered the correct info for my passport issue and expiration dates, yet in the finally summary page the system shifted the dates by one day. And it kept dropping the country code for our emergency contact and telling me the entry was invalid. So I just quit and will try again in a few weeks.

Thanks for the information, I'll wait a few weeks for the IT department to get the bugs worked out.

[happy cruzin]

3 hours ago, dolphin1313 said:

Thanks for the information, I'll wait a few weeks for the IT department to get the bugs worked out.

Sadly - MSC is famous for “buggy” IT issues. 🥺

[dolphin1313]

25 minutes ago, happy cruzin said:

Sadly - MSC is famous for “buggy” IT issues. 🥺

Yeah, I'm sure a lot of us have been frustrated with those issues.

[frankhi]

New video (with some previous views in it)

 

 

[mungojerrie]

Yay! I was able to check in this morning, and we have received our boarding passes, check in time and berth, and luggage tags. Starting to feel real, this is (for me) such a leap of faith to take the first cruise on a new line and a new ship😊. But someone's got to do it, eh? We've sailed on Regent, Silversea, and Seabourn and we are always looking for an even better fit with our preferences. Fingers crossed. It will be a lovely couple of weeks in any case! 

[CJANDH]

6 minutes ago, mungojerrie said:

Yay! I was able to check in this morning, and we have received our boarding passes, check in time and berth, and luggage tags. Starting to feel real, this is (for me) such a leap of faith to take the first cruise on a new line and a new ship😊. But someone's got to do it, eh? We've sailed on Regent, Silversea, and Seabourn and we are always looking for an even better fit with our preferences. Fingers crossed. It will be a lovely couple of weeks in any case! 

Looking forward to your reviews. I hope that the fit is perfect!

[daleandrews]

I noted that the check-in option disappeared from my Explora web page today.  When I had clicked on it previously it returned a message of "too early to check in."  Our trip begins September 2 and I suspect that the check-in option has been changed so that it only appears when check in is in fact possible.  Question for those who have successfully checked in:  when were you able to do this -- 60 days out? 90?  

[mungojerrie]

My first attempt was 65 days out, via the check in button on the home page. I was not logged in , so the site wouldn't have known my sail date. Second successful try was at 59 days out, again with the button on the home page. I've noticed now that the button is gone from the home page, perhaps they've moved it. And when I do log in to my account, 'my bookings' shows nothing. They've got a ways to go to make this a good workable site.

[theotherKennyB]

I was able to check in last week for my August 1st cruise, but since then I can't access anything on my booking page, the special requests are no longer clickable and the Destination Journeys (Shore Excursions) are also unable to click.  It's a process, but a little communication from the company might be nice to let people know what's happening.  

 

Does anyone know about dining reservations yet???

[happy cruzin]

31 minutes ago, theotherKennyB said:

I was able to check in last week for my August 1st cruise, but since then I can't access anything on my booking page, the special requests are no longer clickable and the Destination Journeys (Shore Excursions) are also unable to click.  It's a process, but a little communication from the company might be nice to let people know what's happening.  

 

Does anyone know about dining reservations yet???

I’ve been told that dining reservations prior to boarding will not be offered. That they “will not be necessary”. 🙄

[daleandrews]

FYI -- Having raised the issue of the "disappearing check-in button" I thought I should mention that I figured out what happened.  They moved on-line check-in to a menu item -- click menu on the left hand side of the home page and check-in is near the bottom of the list.

[tryber]

On 5/8/2023 at 4:16 AM, kool kruiser said:

I think that we may be at cross purposes. The Crystal Vintage Room is only available on select evenings on a cruise, has very limited capacity ( I may be wrong, but I think this may be only 12) and can be cancelled if demand is insufficient. Perhaps this can be likened to a private dining experience.

On the other hand, Anthology has a potential capacity of 70 (48 indoors and 22 outside) and I would imagine that it will be open every evening. More like an exclusive restaurant, with staggeringly high pricing for a luxury inclusive line, with high per diems to begin with. I absolutely respect and understand that some may wish to splash out but my previous comments nevertheless remain.

 

If Anthology provides a true 2/3 Michelin Star experience in terms of food and service as implicitly promised on the website, I don't think they will have a problem finding people to pay $300 a person.  I'm skeptical though that they will actually provide that.  

 

I did a few of the Vintage Room dinners.  As you point out, that's not a restaurant and it's really not comparable to what is being touted at Anthology.  If you were looking for a true 3-star Michelin dining experience, you would have been sorely disappointed.  The food was only slightly upgraded from what you could get in the main dining room.  But if you were looking to taste some fantastic wines hand-picked by the sommelier, it was worth the money (it was around $200 extra then).  Crystal did not skimp on the wines, and that's what you were paying extra for.  The feature Cabernet each night were wines that would easily be over $600 in a restaurant, and you basically were able to drink as much of it as you wanted.  I'm guessing that is not what is going to be provided for the $75 wine pairing at Anthology.

[kool kruiser]

On 5/24/2023 at 10:06 PM, tryber said:

 

If Anthology provides a true 2/3 Michelin Star experience in terms of food and service as implicitly promised on the website, I don't think they will have a problem finding people to pay $300 a person.  I'm skeptical though that they will actually provide that.  

 

I did a few of the Vintage Room dinners.  As you point out, that's not a restaurant and it's really not comparable to what is being touted at Anthology.  If you were looking for a true 3-star Michelin dining experience, you would have been sorely disappointed.  The food was only slightly upgraded from what you could get in the main dining room.  But if you were looking to taste some fantastic wines hand-picked by the sommelier, it was worth the money (it was around $200 extra then).  Crystal did not skimp on the wines, and that's what you were paying extra for.  The feature Cabernet each night were wines that would easily be over $600 in a restaurant, and you basically were able to drink as much of it as you wanted.  I'm guessing that is not what is going to be provided for the $75 wine pairing at Anthology.

The thing is, it's an EXTRA $300, over and above the already paid for luxury cruise line per diem. I do not share this optimism, although respect that this may appeal to others, just not us. Time will tell....