Got an email from my TA: Itinerary changes for 2024 coming up. Your itinerary may be canceled.

[sasejm]

I have a February 2025 cruise booked on the Explora II from Durban, South Africa to Cape Town, South Africa. When I logged into my account the cruise was in the account and showed booked. When I do a search on Explora's website, the February 2025 cruise doesn't exist. So, I don't know what's going on and I guess I'll have to contact Explora during their business hours. You may want to check and see if your booked cruise has been changed or canceled.

[bitob]

On 8/26/2023 at 9:26 AM, Mr Luxury said:

From what I'm reading about the on board experience, it's not doing it for me so far.

I’m cancelling instead of booking alternative cruise. This is beyond awful 

[Host Jazzbeau]

2 hours ago, travelberlin said:

Explora was supposed to be different than MSC. By the way all our MSC cruises have been long. The so called Grand Voyages on average 20 days.

Ivi

I think of MSC ships as doing endless 7-day loops in the Med (or the Caribbean, although there they alternate between the eastern and western loops like most mega-ships).  Those 7-day Med itineraries also allow people to start/end their loop at most of the ports along the way, making sure that every night suffers from the 'unjelled' feeling of the first night.

[bitob]

2 minutes ago, Host Jazzbeau said:

I think of MSC ships as doing endless 7-day loops in the Med (or the Caribbean, although there they alternate between the eastern and western loops like most mega-ships).  Those 7-day Med itineraries also allow people to start/end their loop at most of the ports along the way, making sure that every night suffers from the 'unjelled' feeling of the first night.

Sounds awful to me

like a ferry

[Mr Luxury]

4 hours ago, bitob said:

I’m cancelling instead of booking alternative cruise. This is beyond awful 

It's just not ready for the luxury that experienced cruisers expect.

They poached so many good staff from other lines too.

[travelberlin]

7 hours ago, Host Jazzbeau said:

I think of MSC ships as doing endless 7-day loops in the Med (or the Caribbean, although there they alternate between the eastern and western loops like most mega-ships).  Those 7-day Med itineraries also allow people to start/end their loop at most of the ports along the way, making sure that every night suffers from the 'unjelled' feeling of the first night.

MSC has the so called Grand Voyages. They are not the 7 day itineraries. Our favorites are from Santos to Hamburg or from Buenos Aires to Venice and Viceversa. For example Santos to Hamburg about 22 days.

Ivi

[travelberlin]

7 hours ago, bitob said:

Sounds awful to me

like a ferry

Those are certainly awful. We do not take those not even in Yacht Club.

Ivi

[travelberlin]

9 hours ago, peder said:

And my comments are coming from someone that will now be more likely to book with Explora. 10+ day cruises hold limited appeal for us, but 7-9 days means it'd be a toss-up for us to book YC or Explora for similar itineraries.

Good for you if those shorter itineraries work for you. For us, it is not worth the effort to fly to a port (with all the inconvenience that this means) to take a seven days cruise, which is going to attract a crowd of people who might use the week as an all inclusive resort and behave similarly. The “I am on vacation and I don’t care” attitude supported by drinks being included. 
 

We are travelers and not just vacationers doing a cruise. Explora was attracting us because of being better than MSC. After reading first experiences from paying guests, we are not sure Explora is for us. It sounds too similar to MSC in terms of service. Besides that, cancellations, changing itineraries, etc are providing mistrust. We will see the prices attached to those shorter itineraries and decide. A beautiful ship is not enough.

 

Ivi

 

 

Edited August 30, 2023 by travelberlin

[uktog]

I did one of those hop on hop off cruises on MSC. It was awful guests arriving and departing every day so disruptive. 
I thought Explora was to be high end, they are certainly charging high end, this change is a disaster. I’ve vouchers to use if I ever get them their back office customer service absolutely sucks and I feel like I’m seen as a cash cow. 
So as soon as I can unless things change I’m moooving 🐄 out

[florisdekort]

8 hours ago, sasejm said:

I have a February 2025 cruise booked on the Explora II from Durban, South Africa to Cape Town, South Africa. When I logged into my account the cruise was in the account and showed booked. When I do a search on Explora's website, the February 2025 cruise doesn't exist. So, I don't know what's going on and I guess I'll have to contact Explora during their business hours. You may want to check and see if your booked cruise has been changed or canceled.

All Explora 2 itineraries from mid 2024 onwards are cancelled. New itineraries will be announced in 2-3 weeks. 
 

[sasejm]

2 minutes ago, florisdekort said:

All Explora 2 itineraries from mid 2024 onwards are cancelled. New itineraries will be announced in 2-3 weeks. 
 

Thanks, florisdekort! I guess I’ll be looking at another cruise line to take an African cruise.

 

[bitob]

5 hours ago, Mr Luxury said:

It's just not ready for the luxury that experienced cruisers expect.

They poached so many good staff from other lines too.

Doesn’t sound like they will ever be ready. They don’t understand the luxury cruise market. 

[Tapi]

13 hours ago, Host Jazzbeau said:

Those 7-day Med itineraries also allow people to start/end their loop at most of the ports along the way, making sure that every night suffers from the 'unjelled' feeling of the first night.

 

13 hours ago, bitob said:

Sounds awful to me

like a ferry

 

4 hours ago, uktog said:

I did one of those hop on hop off cruises on MSC. It was awful guests arriving and departing every day so disruptive. 
 

We did one of those roundtrip itineraries. Personally, I liked it a lot, and preferred it to having just one port of embarkation/disembarkation on these closed loop itineraries.  

 

- Having less people embarking and disembarking at each port meant that the chaos (usually associated with the first/last day on mass market mega ships) was greatly diminished.
 

- With less people, check- in lines were super short.
 

- Since most “in transit” passengers were ashore exploring, the ship was deserted when we boarded and there was no mad dash at the buffet for embarkation lunch.

 

- They didn’t shut everything down around the ship during the lifeboat drill for embarking passengers.

 

- Our debarkation on the last day was an absolute breeze, with no lines and only a handful of passengers finishing their trip. 

 

I didn’t love everything about it though. Since the itinerary didn’t have an oficial beginning/ending port, it felt a bit weird because every day was “welcome aboard” or “farewell” for somebody, so activities felt a bit disjointed.

Walking down the hallways and seeing luggage outside people’s staterooms every single night was a bit off putting, since it was a recurring, daily reminder that the cruise was coming to an end for someone. 
 

But the positives outweighed the negatives. I do agree that it’s not for everybody. 

[Critically Cruising]

IIRC, Silversea tried that kind of "board when you want" type of cruise a number of years back.  Although they had official start and stop ports, you could board whenever and leave whenever.  Even across multiple sailings.

 

Notice they aren't doing that anymore.  Or at least not promoting it.

 

 

[sasejm]

7 hours ago, florisdekort said:

All Explora 2 itineraries from mid 2024 onwards are cancelled. New itineraries will be announced in 2-3 weeks. 
 

I got information through the Explora 1 onboard future cruise consultant that not only are the cancellations from mid-2024, but it is now all 2024 & 2025 Explora 2 cruises have been canceled. 

[CruiseCrew123]

Cancelled completely or brand new itineries coming out for Explorer 2 

[Tapi]

2 hours ago, CruiseCrew123 said:

Cancelled completely, or brand new itineraries coming out for Explora 2?

New. Those new itineraries for Explora 2 have not been finalized though. According to my TA, they should be ready and loaded to the website within the next two weeks. 

[travelberlin]

4 hours ago, Critically Cruising said:

IIRC, Silversea tried that kind of "board when you want" type of cruise a number of years back.  Although they had official start and stop ports, you could board whenever and leave whenever.  Even across multiple sailings.

 

Notice they aren't doing that anymore.  Or at least not promoting it.

 

 

I remember that on Silversea. We had booked Miami to Bridgetown because we could disembark there optional. They cancelled our cruise because others wanted Miami to Miami and gave them our cabin. This was before Silversea came under Royal Caribbean.

Afterwards, I am glad they cancelled our cruise because we were just going to sail with Silversea but after this cancellation we booked with other cruise lines also.

 

Ivi

[sasejm]

4 hours ago, CruiseCrew123 said:

Cancelled completely or brand new itineries coming out for Explorer 2 

It's my understanding that the 2024 & 2025 Explora 2 cruises have been canceled, including mine per a direct phone conversation today with Explora customer service. The service rep said the itineraries that were posted on their website would be changed and that my travel advisor would contact me soon with new itineraries. So, it looks like there are both cancellations and new itineraries.

[mike@sea]

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.  

[bitob]

I am told the Explora 2 itineraries will also be in the 7-9 day range.

 

 

[CruiseCrew123]

Any idea where ? Hoping not UK !!!’

[bitob]

27 minutes ago, CruiseCrew123 said:

Any idea where ? Hoping not UK !!!’

No idea.

They may not have figured it out yet LOL

[mike@sea]

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. 

Edited August 31, 2023 by mike@sea

[travelberlin]

1 hour ago, mike@sea said:

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. 

There will be longer transatlantic at least out of Miami. The brochure lists one. The question is to which price. Are you ready to pay high perdiems for a ship, which apparently is not delivering what it has promised?

Ivi