Amusing website

[lelak]

As a computer scientist, I am somewhere between amused and offended by the number of

outright bugs and terrible design issues one observes when examining and trying to check

in for a booked cruise.  It is impossible to believe that someone actually beta-tested

the site.  I won't go into the details of the over a dozen such errors I found when my TA

and I tried to check in, but perhaps the most "interesting" occurred when trying to provide

pre and post-cruise flights.  I got the error message that my arrival date had to be prior

to my departure date for my flight!  While I have occasionally had that happen when flying

from Japan or Australia to the US, it rarely occurs otherwise 🙂

[PaulMCO]

A

45 minutes ago, lelak said:

As a computer scientist, I am somewhere between amused and offended by the number of

outright bugs and terrible design issues one observes when examining and trying to check

in for a booked cruise.  It is impossible to believe that someone actually beta-tested

the site.  I won't go into the details of the over a dozen such errors I found when my TA

and I tried to check in, but perhaps the most "interesting" occurred when trying to provide

pre and post-cruise flights.  I got the error message that my arrival date had to be prior

to my departure date for my flight!  While I have occasionally had that happen when flying

from Japan or Australia to the US, it rarely occurs otherwise 🙂

Agree 100%, having cut my teeth doing assembly language code on old Data General 16 bit mini's in the 1970's...

 

One major issue is their choice for their baseline system which is the Seaware reservation system which is not the easiest to customize.  The web interface is just a small part of the package.  Explora has had big issue with their application GUI adaptations.  Azamara is also a buggy system. 

 

But using the Crystal interface never had any issues.  In fact just made specialty dining on Crystal, something you cannot yet do on Explora.

 

One thing -- at least you can see your booking.  Wait to until you experience the disappearing reservation  🙂

Edited February 21 by PaulMCO

[lelak]

Mine was SPS on an IBM 1620 (dates both of us).

 

I can see our booking (which is only true recently), however it claims I owe

money which I don't.  And while the "check-in" button is greyed out in the

booking information, there is fine print for check-in when you go to the three

horizontal lines button that is active.  

 

I agree there are problems with Seaware, but no excuse for not doing even

elementary beta-testing before exposing this to customers.

 

Crystal, Oceania, Viking, and Silversea websites work quite well (although

some minior quirks on all of them).  Regent had some serious response issues

(I think their back end was probably one of the 70's computers 🙂 ), but they

have improved a lot (their IT VP is very responsive to problems).

[frankhi]

Mine was a CDC 6400 in the mid 60's. Actually, I have never had a problem, and have been on one and booked 3 more all online.

Edited February 21 by frankhi

[Wheelhouse]

I just finished an extended Caribbean cruise - Bridgetown to Barbados.  In my Completed Journeys it is titled as "An Inaugural Journey in to the History of the Mediterranean."  

[Host Jazzbeau]

Azamara's problems were compounded by a buggy data transfer from the old Royal Caribbean software (and Royal had no reason to be helpful with that...).  But Explora is a brand-new line and wasn't importing customer histories from MSC or anywhere – therefore this is all on SeaWare.  Maybe it should be called BEware!

[lelak]

I can perfectly believe that SeaWare is both buggy and hard to program from

the point of view of its GUI.  However, even with all that true, releasing a user-

facing website without what seems like even a modicum of proper beta-testing

leaves a terrible impression upon that user base and makes for needless work

by both the poor human service agents and travel agents who have to make up

for it.  CIOs have been fired for lesser offenses.

 

The part of the website that lets one find cruises has some bugs and some

less than ideal search and presentation pathways, but at least its useable.

The much more critical part for getting information about booked cruises, entering

personal information (passports, flights, etc.), and choosing retaurant reservations

and shore excursions (excuse me, destination experiences), is, imho (and actually

expert opinion) just hopeless.  In only a cursory look I counted at least a dozen 

significant problems of which at least half I'd consider fatal in the sense that a

poor user would likely just give up on using the website and call Explora and/or

their TA, probably being seriously annoyed from having wasted a serious amount of time..

 

I would respectfully implore Explora to take that functionality (or non-functionality)

offline and rapidly convene a panel of current customers to properly test the 

website before re-releasing.

[Noggins]

8 hours ago, lelak said:

I can see our booking (which is only true recently), however it claims I owe

money which I don't.  And while the "check-in" button is greyed out in the

booking information,

My experience was similar in most regards to what you mention - but specifically on the 'money owed' front it turned out that whilst I had paid my TA all that was due they had not paid EJ the full amount (commission related, I believe - it seems EJ work differently to other cruise lines. Probably call it something different too!?). Once the TA paid the missing small sum the screen changed and I was able to check in. Of course it meant I had to call EJ but they just couldn't bring themselves to actually explain what the problem was - but they did efficiently book specialty restaurants whilst I was on the line.

Looking forward to a 'bug free' cruise in a few days time!

[Oh2Bcruisin]

PDP-11 and HP 21MX are where I entered the world of computer science. 
As for the website, I totally agree. We booked way back in August 2022. It took weeks to get access online. Once online there was very little I could do with it. When it came time to check-in I was, somehow able to do it with few challenges. The bad part is once you check-in you basically have no access to anything on your booking. Can’t view requests, excursions, and on board experiences. When I try, it just says to contact them or my TA. Totally useless site. Also, the dates shown for my dining reservations were wrong. I confirmed with their “Experience Center Ambassador “ that my dates were correct in the system. 
Luckily, their guest support personnel are excellent. Contacting them by mail has been great. Got my questions answered and dinner reservations made. 
The booking system Regent and Oceania use is so much better. All the information I need is readily available.

[PaulMCO]

Looks like several of us old geezers with lots of IT and testing experience..My end product was air traffic control systems for the DoD so testing was key.  If someone designs/codes it I could break it.

 

You can thank Mike Moore for the Oceania and Regent success with their systems, after leading the O team, he is doing same with RSSC. (and he is cruise critic friendly)

 

Some of the issues with Explora are lack of staff (no excuses). Due to many changes in itineraries (4 major) in one year, caused lots of back room work making those changes on the selling side of Seaware and zero work on the customer side.

 

[commodoredave]

I was not able to provide the requested information or check in via the EJ website. I had to ask my TA to do everything for me. My TA told me that the EJ website is the laughing stock of the cruise industry and that they are constanty having to intervene on behalf of clients. I spent 2 hours trying to check in before asking my TA to help, and that was extremely frustrating. 

So, at this point, my opinion of EJ before even getting on the ship is 0 out of 10. The crew will have to work overtime to make up for the useless website and incompetent shoreside management. 

At this point, I'm thinking it's one and out with EJ.

[CJANDH]

7 hours ago, Oh2Bcruisin said:

Luckily, their guest support personnel are excellent.

I agree. I contacted EJ's Experience Center when I couldn't make dining reservations. An Experience Center Ambassador, Matt Backo,  quickly booked the reservations I wanted and has since helped me with advice on booking shore excursions and other things that the web site couldn't do. Matt is a very customer focused team member who must be seriously overworked due to the failure of the IT team to get up and running. Hopefully he will stick around . . . he will be needed.

[Oh2Bcruisin]

It’s interesting that every time I contact Explora via email I get a response from Matt. He’s either a very busy person or everyone is named Matt. Whatever it is, he is always able to get the job done. 

[Sidney68]

I too am unable to access my booking. I filled in the contact form a few days ago asking for assistance but no response. I may have to resort to phoning.

 

 

[frankhi]

Have any of you having problems not made your initial booking through a travel agent?

[CJANDH]

5 hours ago, Sidney68 said:

I too am unable to access my booking. I filled in the contact form a few days ago asking for assistance but no response. I may have to resort to phoning.

 

 

Try emailing. Here is the address that Matt used to handle my questions: contact@explorajourneys.com