Explora Journeys Booking - First Impression

[dolphin1313]

2 hours ago, Lakers1041 said:

I booked through a TA, but the feedback I got from my TA was that their agents are very helpful. I believe they have a brand new team.

Yes, the Explora Journeys ambassador that I booked with seemed very good and knowledgeable.   Also, you can contact them directly just like NCL's PCC or Canaveral's PVP.

[java spot]

Is there a well illustrated deck plan available?  I was unable to find one a few months ago. If so, would someone please post a link?  thanks!

 

[dolphin1313]

2 hours ago, java spot said:

Is there a well illustrated deck plan available?  I was unable to find one a few months ago. If so, would someone please post a link?  thanks!

 

The best deck plan that I've found is on Explora Journey's website. 

 

The link is:

 

https://explorajourneys.com/us/en/ships/deckplans.html

 

Note that it will start at Deck 6.  When you press the Right Arrow (>) to go to the next screen.  If you continue it will show Deck 7 - Deck 10; than wrap to Deck 3 - Deck 5; Followed by Decks 11-12 and lastly Deck 14.

 

On the other hand you could press the Left Arrow (<) to go to Deck 14.  By pressing the Left Arrow it will go in the reverse order (14, 12, 11, 5, 3, 10, 9, 8, 7, 6).

 

 

 

 

 

[java spot]

Thank you!

[dolphin1313]

6 hours ago, java spot said:

Thank you!

You're welcome.

[Hlitner]

While we have yet to book Explora Journeys, we are giving it a very serious look and may soon book a 2023 cruise.   As one who has cruised for over forty years we have enough experience to be cautious about new cruise lines.  However, we are fans of MSC's Yacht Club and have been told that part of the Aponte family dream and goal is to create a luxury line built upon what they have achieved with the Yacht Club.  We think that MSC will likely avoid some of the pitfalls of a new line (and new ships) by drawing on the vast experience they have with MSC.  They also can draw upon very experienced crew that have learned their craft on the MSC ships.  I do think they will need to improve their cuisine (compared the Yacht Club) on Explora Journeys since they will be competing with other luxury cruise lines and Oceania (something less than luxury) in terms of food.  Having a steak house is fine, but the question is will the quality of steak be up to the quality found on lines like Seabourn and O ?  And consider that when we book lines like Seabourn or Silverseas we expect to get decent caviar (on demand).  Not sure that Explora J will offer caviar, but we would at least expect excellent gelato :).

 

Hank

 

 

[Ljames23]

On 7/9/2022 at 1:26 PM, Hlitner said:

While we have yet to book Explora Journeys, we are giving it a very serious look and may soon book a 2023 cruise.   As one who has cruised for over forty years we have enough experience to be cautious about new cruise lines.  However, we are fans of MSC's Yacht Club and have been told that part of the Aponte family dream and goal is to create a luxury line built upon what they have achieved with the Yacht Club.  We think that MSC will likely avoid some of the pitfalls of a new line (and new ships) by drawing on the vast experience they have with MSC.  They also can draw upon very experienced crew that have learned their craft on the MSC ships.  I do think they will need to improve their cuisine (compared the Yacht Club) on Explora Journeys since they will be competing with other luxury cruise lines and Oceania (something less than luxury) in terms of food.  Having a steak house is fine, but the question is will the quality of steak be up to the quality found on lines like Seabourn and O ?  And consider that when we book lines like Seabourn or Silverseas we expect to get decent caviar (on demand).  Not sure that Explora J will offer caviar, but we would at least expect excellent gelato :).

 

Hank

 

 

I agree wholeheartedly with you. I believe Explora will be an unstoppable force in the industry if they maintain the independence of this company (Staff, Crew, Operations, Policies, Rules and Regulations, phone agents, software). They currently have the price points, the market, the hardware, and phone agents, which are night and day compared to MSC cruises. I chatted with a few travel expert friends in the business, and they said that they would thrive provided they maintain it separately and don't have the higher-ups attempt to manage it like it's contemporary. With Crystal Cruises returning and Silverseas acquiring almost all of Crystal Cruises' customers through the recent acquisition of Endeavour and now offering deposits, refunds, etc., they have no margin for mistakes.

[Wheelhouse]

I noticed a bit of a currency discrepancy with the Explora Journeys booking engine.  For example, looking at the 18 Apr 2024 RT Vancouver Hawaiian Islands cruise the fare in dollars is 14,800, but in euros its 12,800.  These two currencies are currently at par.  US passengers appear to be taking a hit.  

[Hlitner]

4 hours ago, Wheelhouse said:

I noticed a bit of a currency discrepancy with the Explora Journeys booking engine.  For example, looking at the 18 Apr 2024 RT Vancouver Hawaiian Islands cruise the fare in dollars is 14,800, but in euros its 12,800.  These two currencies are currently at par.  US passengers appear to be taking a hit.  

Good catch.  My first thought was simply, book it in Euros.  We also were looking at a cruise priced at just over $18200 US but when I changed it to Euros by using the French web site the cost dropped to 16000 Euros which is currently about $16250.   Assuming you have a major credit card that does not charge foreign exchange fees and that MSC allows the booking all is good

 

Hank

[kool kruiser]

19 hours ago, Ljames23 said:

With Crystal Cruises returning and Silverseas acquiring almost all of Crystal Cruises' customers through the recent acquisition of Endeavour and now offering deposits, refunds, etc., they have no margin for mistakes.

Not quite !! Endeavour only accounted for a very small proportion of those who sailed Crystal. A much smaller expedition style ship at very high per diems.

Many Crystal 'refugees', including us, are migrating to other lines whilst we see how the new Crystal performs in service.

We are being very brave and have booked a cruise on Explora for late 2023 in the Caribbean. We really love the branding and offering, our concerns being the level of entertainment and enrichment/activities, particularly on sea days. Happy to take the risk.

[AtA]

On 7/19/2022 at 6:14 AM, kool kruiser said:

Not quite !! Endeavour only accounted for a very small proportion of those who sailed Crystal. A much smaller expedition style ship at very high per diems.

Many Crystal 'refugees', including us, are migrating to other lines whilst we see how the new Crystal performs in service.

We are being very brave and have booked a cruise on Explora for late 2023 in the Caribbean. We really love the branding and offering, our concerns being the level of entertainment and enrichment/activities, particularly on sea days. Happy to take the risk.

Exactly what I was about to say. 

We are guinea pigs on an Explora cruise doing Greenland/Iceland/NY next year, and also intend to be guinea pigs on the first Crystal cruise back if all the cards fall right. 

For us, a beautiful new ship is nice, but what drew us to Crystal since 2014, was the food, entertainment, lectures, and classes.

[kool kruiser]

16 hours ago, AtA said:

Exactly what I was about to say. 

We are guinea pigs on an Explora cruise doing Greenland/Iceland/NY next year, and also intend to be guinea pigs on the first Crystal cruise back if all the cards fall right. 

For us, a beautiful new ship is nice, but what drew us to Crystal since 2014, was the food, entertainment, lectures, and classes.

Wish we had met, as we obviously share the same ideals😀. Maybe one day...

For us, we will wait for the Crystal reviews next year before hopefully returning to our fave line. In the meantime, the deal offered to us on Explora for such an obviously top end excperience was simply too good to turn down.

[AtA]

11 hours ago, kool kruiser said:

Wish we had met, as we obviously share the same ideals😀. Maybe one day...

For us, we will wait for the Crystal reviews next year before hopefully returning to our fave line. In the meantime, the deal offered to us on Explora for such an obviously top end excperience was simply too good to turn down.

I look forward to meeting you someday soon. 🙂

[saminina]

On 7/9/2022 at 10:26 AM, Hlitner said:

 And consider that when we book lines like Seabourn or Silverseas we expect to get decent caviar (on demand).  Not sure that Explora J will offer caviar, but we would at least expect excellent gelato :).

 

Hank

 

 

Your likes on caviar do not match mine.   I skip the current (on demand) offerings on SB and SS.   Both are extremely pitiful.   Matched by the sevruga crap served in QG on Cunard.   They get away with it because passengers.......well, they hear caviar and how can it be bad?  It's bad.

 

Anyway, Explora is worth a try and I'm trying it.   Seabourn is off my list.  SS is making a rebound with their newest ships, so back on my list for crossings.

[Hlitner]

19 minutes ago, saminina said:

Your likes on caviar do not match mine.   I skip the current (on demand) offerings on SB and SS.   Both are extremely pitiful.   Matched by the sevruga crap served in QG on Cunard.   They get away with it because passengers.......well, they hear caviar and how can it be bad?  It's bad.

 

Anyway, Explora is worth a try and I'm trying it.   Seabourn is off my list.  SS is making a rebound with their newest ships, so back on my list for crossings.

Guess we could get into a good discussion on Caviar.  But I do not expect Beluga, Kaluga, or even a decent Osetra on any of these luxury lines.  Expecting these lines to pay $100+ for an ounce of really good stuff is just not realistic when they dish out pounds per day.   But the west coast stuff they have on SB does satisfy my craving and is quite eatable.   I understand that there are caviar snobs (my mother would have fallen into that category) and plenty of wine snobs who will never be satisfied.  But many of us make do with what is offered :).

 

Hank

[saminina]

SB had very good caviar up until......you named it.    Caviar covered in whatever they put on the dish is not something I understand as a method of consumption.   But, that is what I see most doing.   Anyway, it's hardly a dietary requirement and I'd rather not see it on Explora.   I've done nearly zero research prior to booking and just have a gut feeling this line will be a pretty good product.  A safer bet perhaps than the reformed Crystal.

[Hlitner]

On 7/18/2022 at 12:30 PM, Wheelhouse said:

I noticed a bit of a currency discrepancy with the Explora Journeys booking engine.  For example, looking at the 18 Apr 2024 RT Vancouver Hawaiian Islands cruise the fare in dollars is 14,800, but in euros its 12,800.  These two currencies are currently at par.  US passengers appear to be taking a hit.  

This currency discrepancy is glaring.  We looked at at 2023 cruise which is priced at $18,200 for the lowest priced suite (this is the total price for 2).  But if we switch our settings to show that we are in France is prices the exact same suite category at 16,000 Euros which is about $16,400 at current exchange rates.   So we called Explora Journeys (here in the USA) and asked if we could book a cruise in Euros (no problem with our credit cards).  They told me NO, you must use the currency of the country where you live.  But why should North Americans pay a 10%+ penalty just because they live in North America?

 

These kind of pricing discrepancies exist with some other cruise lines.  We have an Aussie friend who is a very frequent cruiser with HAL.  But booking HAL in Australia always costs a lot more than booking the same cruise/category in North America.  So this old friend simply uses a Canadian address (that belongs to one of his cruising friends) and has booked all of his HAL cruises (more than 150 days a year) at North American prices.   

 

Hank

[kool kruiser]

On 8/10/2022 at 1:52 PM, Hlitner said:

This currency discrepancy is glaring.  We looked at at 2023 cruise which is priced at $18,200 for the lowest priced suite (this is the total price for 2).  But if we switch our settings to show that we are in France is prices the exact same suite category at 16,000 Euros which is about $16,400 at current exchange rates.   So we called Explora Journeys (here in the USA) and asked if we could book a cruise in Euros (no problem with our credit cards).  They told me NO, you must use the currency of the country where you live.  But why should North Americans pay a 10%+ penalty just because they live in North America?

 

These kind of pricing discrepancies exist with some other cruise lines.  We have an Aussie friend who is a very frequent cruiser with HAL.  But booking HAL in Australia always costs a lot more than booking the same cruise/category in North America.  So this old friend simply uses a Canadian address (that belongs to one of his cruising friends) and has booked all of his HAL cruises (more than 150 days a year) at North American prices.   

 

Hank

Have you also considered speaking to a European TA (or UK one, if the £ sterling price works similarly) to see if they can accept your booking with a US address ? We did this for many years with Princess, using a US TA to secure a much more favourable $ price, when Princess forbode this process. 

[Hlitner]

33 minutes ago, kool kruiser said:

Have you also considered speaking to a European TA (or UK one, if the £ sterling price works similarly) to see if they can accept your booking with a US address ? We did this for many years with Princess, using a US TA to secure a much more favourable $ price, when Princess forbode this process. 

Yep, have given that some thought :).  The thing about this issue is that, after further reflection, I do not think Explora is pricing differently but rather they priced out their cruises in Euros (which makes sense) and than converted to other currencies at the time they did the original pricing.  But in the past year the US Dollar has soared in value against the Euro (actually got to par for a few days) and MSC has not adjusted pricing  While we do not normally play currency games, in this case we are talking some real money (nearly$2000 difference).  

 

My other problem is that never having booked a cruise with a European travel agency I need to do some homework on which agency to contact about the matter.  

 

Hank

 

 

 

[PaulMCO]

On 8/10/2022 at 8:52 AM, Hlitner said:

This currency discrepancy is glaring.  We looked at at 2023 cruise which is priced at $18,200 for the lowest priced suite (this is the total price for 2).  But if we switch our settings to show that we are in France is prices the exact same suite category at 16,000 Euros which is about $16,400 at current exchange rates.   So we called Explora Journeys (here in the USA) and asked if we could book a cruise in Euros (no problem with our credit cards).  They told me NO, you must use the currency of the country where you live.  But why should North Americans pay a 10%+ penalty just because they live in North America?

 

These kind of pricing discrepancies exist with some other cruise lines.  We have an Aussie friend who is a very frequent cruiser with HAL.  But booking HAL in Australia always costs a lot more than booking the same cruise/category in North America.  So this old friend simply uses a Canadian address (that belongs to one of his cruising friends) and has booked all of his HAL cruises (more than 150 days a year) at North American prices.   

 

Hank

Why ??  Because their cost account and real costs are all in Euro.  Euro line = Euro pricing.  Conversion to Euro from USD is always a risk and the are hedging that Euro could change as much as 10% in the years time.  I work for a Euro firm and our USD prices (> than 6 months) are always +10% higher than the current rate.  You could complain close to final payment date, but not now.

[Hlitner]

2 hours ago, PaulMCO said:

Why ??  Because their cost account and real costs are all in Euro.  Euro line = Euro pricing.  Conversion to Euro from USD is always a risk and the are hedging that Euro could change as much as 10% in the years time.  I work for a Euro firm and our USD prices (> than 6 months) are always +10% higher than the current rate.  You could complain close to final payment date, but not now.

But what if I simply want to pay for the entire cruise now, in Euros.  If I was resident in France, Italy or the other countries that use the Euro that would not be a problem.  As an American it would also be easy for me to to charge a cruise in Euros (or any other currency) but MSC says, No, you must do it in Dollars for the sole reason that you are a resident of the USA.   So I must certainly can complain now because it is now when I want to pay :).

 

Hank

[PaulMCO]

I understand and symp

15 hours ago, Hlitner said:

But what if I simply want to pay for the entire cruise now, in Euros.  If I was resident in France, Italy or the other countries that use the Euro that would not be a problem.  As an American it would also be easy for me to to charge a cruise in Euros (or any other currency) but MSC says, No, you must do it in Dollars for the sole reason that you are a resident of the USA.   So I must certainly can complain now because it is now when I want to pay :).

 

Hank

Hank -- Understand and sympathize 100%.  You have a valid complaint. But the same can be said with all lines. Living overseas in past, I always booked my US cruise lines with my US address, it was always cheaper. The "representative offices" in the foreign countries always taxed hidden admin and currency fees to the prices.  Oceania was a good example.

 

But yes the amount is significant.  You can expect the delta to increase as the USD get stronger with higher US interest rates -- unless Explora reprices using current market trends.

 

Just tried a dummy EU booking from France and the delta was 13% over the current spot.

On one cruise (Oct 2023) the Euro PH price was almost the same as USD OT4 cabin.

[Wheelhouse]

The website now determines your precise location ( it didn't previously) and prices you accordingly.   I am euro citizen, but living at a US address and can only pay in US dollars.   

[FlyerTalker]

21 hours ago, Wheelhouse said:

The website now determines your precise location ( it didn't previously) and prices you accordingly.   I am euro citizen, but living at a US address and can only pay in US dollars.   

 

Three letters.  VPN.

[sasejm]

I used a VPN and changed the location to Singapore from the USA and somehow it used the USD for the price, which didn't change anything.