sasejm

On 4/6/2024 at 8:36 PM, edgee said:

A little more onboard reporting on Splendor's Starlink. Ran into the contract workers from Miami installing Starlink as we cross the Atlantic. They were closing a men's room just as I arrived to make use of it..needed access through the area to run some cable. We had really crummy internet on the old system today..worst of the cruise...still do not have an answer why it will take till at least mod summer for Starlink to go live on Splendor.

I am currently on the Splendor, and today, I asked the reception desk employee when Starlink will be operational. He said workers are onboard installing cables for Starlink, which will go active sometime in December 2024. The current free internet service is extremely unstable IMO.

1 hour ago, Whipsnade said:

Come back to Crystal. Better than ever. The new larger cabins are great. We are just finishing a 68 day Symphony and have booked 45 days in Sept Oct. can’t be beat!!

We will return to Crystal after our two booked RSSC Spendor cruises. We solved our issues with the small size of the non-suite rooms by getting two standard rooms, one for each of us. However, with the new pricing, those days are gone, so we'll have to move to one of their sapphire suites.

We cruised on the Explora 1 in November and never received a survey in my regular or junk email. Also, I haven't received any other type of email from Explora Journeys. One cruise was enough for Explora 1. We used to be Crystal Cruisers before their bankruptcy and will be trying out RSSC Splendor at the end of the month. 

On 2/25/2024 at 2:58 AM, rafinmd said:

A while ago.  Could it be Royal Viking?

 

Roy

It would have been almost 30 years ago if it were Royal Viking.

3 hours ago, Henk123 said:

That must be no problem.

I see 6:30 as arriving time and let's say between 8 and 9 the first passengers can leave the ship. It is a 30min drive from port to airport.

 

Thank you, Henk123!

We will be disembarking the Splendor in Cape Town after a December cruise to South Africa. Does anyone know what the earliest time would be for us to disembark the ship?  I am trying to book a flight that departs at 12:35 PM, and I want to make sure we will have enough time to check in, go through security, and then process through immigration. 

1 hour ago, sparkles said:

Thanks sasejm! Do you happen to remember the name of the tour company?

Hi Sparkles - I found a link to the Cruise Critic "Guidelines" regarding providing information about tour companies. Here is the link: https://boards.cruisecritic.com/guidelines/#:~:text=Cruise Critic has strict guidelines,all of our message boards.

53 minutes ago, sparkles said:

Thanks sasejm! Do you happen to remember the name of the tour company?

I don't think Cruise Critic rules will allow me to provide travel company information. If anyone knows otherwise, let me know. I searched for private tours in Barbados and then looked for reviews of that tour company. What was nice about having a private tour was you could advise the driver what you wanted to see or not see, and he would fashion a tour around your interests. 

We were on a cruise from Miami to Barbados in November and were scheduled to fly out on the 4:15 PM AA flight to Miami. Rather than sit in the airport all day, we took a private island tour from the cruise terminal. The driver had a van, and all our luggage fit into his van. He dropped us off at the airport around 2:00 PM, which gave us more than enough time to check in at the airport. I believe the cost for the private tour including dropping us off at the airport was approximately $300.00.

We still have the old green totes and use them for shopping bags. They are a much better quality bag than the OC white totes.

On 12/8/2023 at 2:05 PM, danir said:

Has anyone had a cancelled cruise with Explora with the new itineraries being announced and now Explora 1 is sailing to the Caribbean instead of Dubai?

 

I am one of the bookings effected and being told bad luck and take a refund or rebook. However I know family who were cancelled by Explora a few months ago and offered a 30% voucher. I'll be honest... I wasn't sure the person I spoke to at Explora knew what they were saying.

 

Has anyone else been effected by the cancellations and what were you offered?

Our Explora cruise to Africa was canceled and we were offered 30% off a future cruise or a full refund. We selected the full refund option.

5 hours ago, joseph123 said:

I have a booking for a 7 night cruise Feb 2025 on Explora II and see that there is an option leaving in Jan 2025 at essentially the same price for 9 nights. Same itinerary but leaves and returns to Miami vs leaving from Miami and returning to San Juan. Wondering if Explora would let me transfer the booking vs having to cancel and loose my deposit? I tried calling them but they do not have weekend hours and I see the sale is ending tomorrow. Anyone have any similar experiences with them?

I changed from a 14-day Caribbean cruise booking to a 10-day Caribbean booking without any penalties. However, this was done last year so I don't know what the current policy is regarding  this issue.

A couple of days ago I checked a website that shows current stateroom/suite availability on Explora 1, and there were 206 staterooms/suites available to book for the departure on 11/17 for 10 days.

27 minutes ago, java spot said:

All "co-ed".  Like college dorms in the 70's. 

Thank you!

Are the steam/sauna rooms on Explora 1, separate, or are they CoEd?

2 minutes ago, Keith1010 said:

At this time no plans to do this.

Keith

Thanks, Keith!

Ed

I was in the Classic in 2019 and it had a bathtub and a separate walk-in shower. The shower was not huge but it was fine for us.

26 minutes ago, dolls123 said:

It was open today 

Thank you, dolls123!

3 minutes ago, florisdekort said:

I think it’s operational but it was *never* open during our 14 night cruise from Quebec to Miami and I was told it’s unlikely to be opened a lot in the Caribbean as “it rains too often” and “we already have 3 outdoor pools”. 

Interesting, and thank you. 

2 minutes ago, Hlitner said:

It was fully operational when we debarked in NYC on Oct 13.  In fact, they had opened it a couple of times (when it was too darn chilly) to do some minor maintenance (or so we were told).

 

Hank

Thank you, Hank!

On one of these threads, I read that the retractable glass roof was non-operational. This may have already been asked and answered. Does anyone know if the retractable glass roof has been fixed and is operational?

Ed

28 minutes ago, InsGuy3 said:

We embarked from Terminal C. Our boarding time was 12:00 noon but we were in our Suite about 11:50 am. We left Miami at 6:00 pm. I cannot be sure but I would presume you should be safe if you on board by 3:00 pm. Sorry couldn’t help with an exact window time frame. Hope you enjoy your cruise. The ship, the crew and the food is absolutely fantastic.

I appreciate the update; thank you.

On 11/4/2023 at 2:20 PM, InsGuy3 said:

Well, after reading all the reviews and posts about Explora, we finally embarked yesterday full of excitement and bated breadth. The ground crew in Miami was disorganized and sorta lost control of the check-in process. After passing thru security we were asked to take a seat in a designated area. Then some people noticed that people were being called to check-in and so everyone started getting in line no matter when they arrived inside the terminal. Communication was lost and people refused to sit back down until their turn. A couple next to us, also in a Residence Suite, spoke to someone in charge and was told we were to all checkin based on when we entered the terminal. Five minutes later we being escorted to checkin. At checkin, Residence Suite guests were to be escorted to the gangplank where a butler was to take us up to our suite. Went well after that initial hiccup. Our Suite is absolutely superb. Lunch at the Emporium was delicious and included Tandoori chicken, vegetable curry and basmati rice, and grilled lobster tails. The hosts across the ship are very friendly and overachievers, wanting to do anything to please you. 

We will be on the next cruise out of Miami and would like to know what terminal you boarded the ship in Miami on 11-03-23. Also, what was the window of time boarding the ship in Miami? I believe it starts at 1:00 PM, but I don't know when it ends. Thanks!

42 minutes ago, Keith1010 said:

Hopefully the third time will be a charm.

 

$2,225.00 per person is the the maximum amount times 2 people equals $4,450.00.  

 

Keith

Hi Keith,

No problem, all is good.

Ed

4 minutes ago, FlyerTalker said:

 

No one ever said that this payment was going to make people whole.  And it was never going to be a differing amount, based on what you had filed.  It was a uniform X per claimant, irrespective of your claim - as long as you had at least that amount outstanding, NET any other repayments, such as from credit cards.

 

 

I really never expected anything let alone being made whole, so the amount we received was a huge surprise and no complaints from me.