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Onboard Explora 1 (Sept 25- Oct 13) with Hank

Hlitner

By Hlitner,
in Explora Journeys

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Waltershipman Holiday Sharing Rare

Waltershipman

Posted
Posted
1 hour ago, morpheusofthesea said:

My guess is because there are more 'real' paying guests on board now. Time for them 'to step up to the plate'. (On MSC the concierges know how much each cabin guest payed). Perhaps this reflects the differing responses to guests requests?

I was told that there are between 300 to 350 on board

 

I love it

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Waltershipman Holiday Sharing Rare

Waltershipman

Posted
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13 hours ago, Hlitner said:

We now have it on good authority that there will be no more than 300 on this 10 day sailing back to NYC.  
 

Hank

Tried to find Hank tonight at the lobby bar but missed him

 

Had an amazing dinner at Sakura. Service was 5 star excellent. Food was lovejy. Loved the lamb outstanding.  Daniella the host and person in charge came to our table introduced herself and welcomed us warmly. She previously worked at Regent. 

 

We will be back

 

DW had lovely salmon and we had a variety of sushi All excellent and deserve praise

 

 

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kelleherdl

kelleherdl

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Posted (edited)
48 minutes ago, Waltershipman said:

 

Had an amazing dinner at Sakura. Service was 5 star excellent. Food was lovejy. Loved the lamb outstanding.  Daniella the host and person in charge came to our table introduced herself and welcomed us warmly. She previously worked at Regent. 

 

 

Agree with you on Daniella and Sakura.  Our first evening at Sakura was very much less than satisfactory. Food was great, but service was slow and confused.  I really think our experience that night was an unfortunate confusion over some of the orders. Daniella was right on it when we voiced our concern. She graciously requested we come back and she assured us our next experience would be top notch. She even saw us at breakfast at the Emporium and repeated her commitment to us having a superior dinner at Sakura. We dined at Sakura two more nights. Both evenings were outstanding. 
 

edited after seeing the recent posts.  All four in our party were very much paying passengers. 

Edited by kelleherdl
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Hlitner Excellent Advice! Rare

Hlitner

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Sorry you missed us, but we were sitting in the middle bar seats from about 6 to 8 enjoying some adult libations.  Sakura does remain our favorite, but tonight we went back to Marble.  I finally tried the prime rib, which was trashed by a previous poster.  The menu says “grilled” which is a lot different than the roast expected by we Americans.  I thought it was fine, but we are used to European style cooking.

 

Still looking forward to getting together.

 

Hank

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florisdekort

florisdekort

Posted
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5 minutes ago, Hlitner said:

Sorry you missed us, but we were sitting in the middle bar seats from about 6 to 8 enjoying some adult libations.  Sakura does remain our favorite, but tonight we went back to Marble.  I finally tried the prime rib, which was trashed by a previous poster.  The menu says “grilled” which is a lot different than the roast expected by we Americans.  I thought it was fine, but we are used to European style cooking.

 

Still looking forward to getting together.

 

Hank


I am European but much prefer American steakhouses (USDA and ideally cooked Pittsburgh style). I hope there’s something for us on Marble’s menu 🙂 

 

 

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Waltershipman Holiday Sharing Rare

Waltershipman

Posted
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9 hours ago, kelleherdl said:

Agree with you on Daniella and Sakura.  Our first evening at Sakura was very much less than satisfactory. Food was great, but service was slow and confused.  I really think our experience that night was an unfortunate confusion over some of the orders. Daniella was right on it when we voiced our concern. She graciously requested we come back and she assured us our next experience would be top notch. She even saw us at breakfast at the Emporium and repeated her commitment to us having a superior dinner at Sakura. We dined at Sakura two more nights. Both evenings were outstanding. 
 

edited after seeing the recent posts.  All four in our party were very much paying passengers. 

Yes indeed plus we found the service comparable to any high end restauran

in everyway.

 

The entire service team was professional attentive and superior experience.

Off topic

Towels in suites are wonderfully soft and luxurious rated A toilet paper in suites rated B lol

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Waltershipman Holiday Sharing Rare

Waltershipman

Posted
Posted
9 hours ago, Hlitner said:

Sorry you missed us, but we were sitting in the middle bar seats from about 6 to 8 enjoying some adult libations.  Sakura does remain our favorite, but tonight we went back to Marble.  I finally tried the prime rib, which was trashed by a previous poster.  The menu says “grilled” which is a lot different than the roast expected by we Americans.  I thought it was fine, but we are used to European style cooking.

 

Still looking forward to getting together.

 

Hank

I keot looking fir the woman with the purple streak in hair will look harder today

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Hlitner Excellent Advice! Rare

Hlitner

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37 minutes ago, Waltershipman said:

I keot looking fir the woman with the purple streak in hair will look harder today

Lol,  very subtle streak :).  A shame the QM2 took our docking location.   2nd port that we have lost out to bigger ships.

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Waltershipman Holiday Sharing Rare

Waltershipman

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Ate breakfast at Emporium Marketplace  and it definitely competes with other high end lines

 

I use the word high end to avoid confusion with the word luxury which may be defined by ones tastes

 

Excellent service helpful attentive staff 

Great wonderful food options

 

FANTASTIC Bagels 

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Hlitner Excellent Advice! Rare

Hlitner

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1 minute ago, aururab said:

Question - do they have unsalted European butter? 

Not sure.  DW thinks the Normandy butter is salted.  But I would bet if one asked for unsalted they would grant your wish.  Since they do lots of baking onboard, they would surely be using unsalted.  When you get butter in the Emporium or other venues it is provided in individual ramekins.

 

Hank

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Waltershipman Holiday Sharing Rare

Waltershipman

Posted
Posted
2 minutes ago, Hlitner said:

Not sure.  DW thinks the Normandy butter is salted.  But I would bet if one asked for unsalted they would grant your wish.  Since they do lots of baking onboard, they would surely be using unsalted.  When you get butter in the Emporium or other venues it is provided in individual ramekins.

 

Hank

I can say this the ship staff and food are REALLY ENJOYABLE  AND HIGH QUA

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