aururab

2 hours ago, sita said:

Twin for 701; Queen for 7002

I know the website says that - but the photos really look the same. Just curious if anyone had experience with it. 

Odd very specific question. 

Does the owner's Suite 701 have a Queen pull-out or a twin pull out? 

I know next to nothing about Dominica, and I am vaguely obsessed with visiting! Looking forward to hearing your report!

On 11/24/2023 at 10:06 AM, moofster85 said:

Great to hear, we are taking our boys, 12 and 13, for Christmas and they are looking forward to it!

There will be a lot of kids on that sailing! They will have a wonderful time! 

6 hours ago, travelwide said:

Would love to hear an update on how things are going. Happy Thanksgiving.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Everything is going great, we are enjoying a beach day in St Barth’s, and my kids are bargaining regarding how much time they can spend in the kids club today! 

20 hours ago, commodoredave said:

Our policy is that he who pays the piper calls the tune. If our kids are paying their own way, they can choose whatever cruise line they want. If we are paying for them, it’s a mass market line. You must have very wealthy or persuasive children!

Well, my kids are little so if I want to do anything longer than 3-4 days they are along for what we decide! Ha

3 hours ago, commodoredave said:

Kid-friendly luxury was not what I had in mind when booking our Explora cruise, but as long as the kids are well-behaved, I'm okay with it. Having said that, it's not where I would take our grandchildren. I prefer NCL, RCL and Princess for multi-generational cruises. As for my wife and I, it's usually Regent, Silversea or Seabourn. And I'm not sure a kid-friendly Explora will make it into that group in future.

I am not sure my kids would want to go back to another line after this!

Other than Disney of course!! But that is far from relaxing. 🙂

My kids are onboard now, as I posted about separately.

They are absolutely loving every moment. The kids club is small, but they have been absolutely fantastic with the kids, and really talking to them about what they want to do being, instead of the typical - now it is craft time, now it is free time, etc they get on some larger ships.

The staff has been doing all sorts of things with the kids around the ship (with parents permission), including a scavenger hunt, playing basketball and pickleball. They have offered to take them to the pool several times, but the kids are having too much fun doing other things and have declined!

I am impressed with how child led it is. There is a range from about 6 to probably 16, with the older ones and coming and going more. In the evening they were playing games that somehow managed to incorporate them all, and we didn't have the heart to pull our kids out and put them to bed at a normal time. 

The hours are also entirely flexible, as all you have to do is ask the day before and they can extend them however you need. 

They also have plethora of high end VR, and video game consoles, but managed to offer enough other fun things to do that my electronics obsessed 11 year old is busy doing other things as well. 

I was of course a bit nervous about what this sailing would be like with kids along, but it is beyond perfect and we are looking at summer 2024 European itineraries with friends. 

Of course I wouldn't expect many children for mine to interact with if we weren't on a Caribbean sailing over an American school holiday, but it would be amazing to plan with friends with similarly aged kids. Even if there were less kids, then the staff is truly fantastic and I think the kids would be fine. 

On top of that, my kids are trying all sorts of foods they have never had before (my oldest now likes caviar, not sure this is a good thing or not ha!) and the restaurants have been great at slight modifications for their palettes (the salmon without the sauce for example at Sakura).

I am currently onboard Explora I with my kids, ages 11 and 7, and we have been beyond impressed with everything 24 hours in! 
 

There has been a lot of discussion on here regarding luxury cruise lines and kids, and this sailing is probably the first time the Nautwith 22 kids onboard.

All the hosts have been so sweet with them, and the Nautilus Club is small but amazing, taking them all over the ship, swimming, basketball etc. They currently ditched us to go hang out with their!

We are in connecting suites, as the max occupancy is 3 per suite, and of course it is an amazing amount of space for the 4 of us. The connecting suite had beds thar converted to twins, and a bathtub instead of a shower, which is perfect for them! 
 

Today we had lunch at Sakura, and the chef modified the salmon a bit to make it perfect for the kids palettes. 

On 11/15/2023 at 10:53 AM, happy cruzin 2 said:

Safe travels. It will be interesting to see how everything goes we heard there are going to be around 700 passengers next week. The two weeks we’ve had about 450

I have heard the current number is much lower, someone told me 480, will inquire further!

On 11/12/2023 at 12:15 PM, Hlitner said:

Like most cruise lines, EJ lists the port times in the local time applicable to each port. 

 

Hank

Explora told me it would stay on Pacific time, which is why I was asking for clarification. 

Question regarding listed port times 

Are the listed times in Miami time or Atlantic Time?

I am curious to hear how your port times line up with what is listed. I was told the ship stays on Miami time, which is standard, but some of the timings don't quite make sense to me if that is the case and I'm curious to see how it plays out. 

2 hours ago, saminina said:

Thanks to Hlitner, I knew packing certain items would cut angst. 

I missed this - what did you pack to cut the angst? 🙂

4 hours ago, Whipsnade said:

My own experience in disembarking on 9/25 was exactly the opposite. We waited patiently in La Crema until our color code was called. Proceeded off ship and directly to CBE agent who cleared us in 60 seconds. Identified our bags which immediately were transported to street side which was chaos   Plenty of yellow cabs waiting for passengers. Gone in 60 seconds. 

What time did you end up disembarking?

How accommodating have the restaurants outside of anthology) been at accommodating picky eaters? 

2 hours ago, Hlitner said:

While I am in a negative mood from lack of communication, I thought it might be fun to test my theory of inflexibility.  They make good pizza in the Emporium, but the toppings have stabilized to the same o same o.  Near the pizza station they have a sandwich station which has a bin of pepperoni.  So, DW dared to ask the excellent pizza chef if he would make us a margarita with pepperoni?  He looked shocked and said NO.  Apparently that is not authorized by Geneva or the executive chef.  A bit like programmed robots.  Again comparing to Seabourn, such a request would quickly get a yes response.  
 

Hank

My Italian friends would likely say, it isn’t so much bad customer service as very Italian customer service.

The waiter at a small restaurant on Ischia once went and go the chef when my mom ordered Ameretto before dinner, who then proceeded  to give her a stern talking to regarding how things are supposed to be done! 

@Waltershipman - Thanks so much! My husband is very particular about his butter, and has been known to bring his own when on vacation! ha ha

Paul Gauguin has President's unsalted butter which met his tastes, but otherwise this is our first luxury cruiseline 😉

Question - do they have unsalted European butter? 

This is a long shot, but does anyone have a photo of a stardard cabin that has an interior connecting door? Just wondering how it changes the room set up 🙂

I saw Moet on the included wine list and didn’t recognize the others, but assumed they would all come in around a similar price point.

That said, looking into it more, they are all $10-$15/bottle wines… not that price is everything when it comes to wine, but I find that odd given everything else available from the bar.

3 minutes ago, Hlitner said:

keeping the burger area open(on port days) until 3:30.  

Wouldn't the opposite be needed, to have it open longer during sea days?

@The German Guys and @Stickman1990

They are advertising all day dining, and marketing as a product for multi-generational cruising, I don't think it is a tall order to expect more afternoon dining options. 

I am guessing that when the ship is more fully booked, or there are more children on board during school holiday sailing that there will be more options. 

I am not one to complain, but I think it will be a large problem if there is no place to eat after 2pm on two sea days on a holiday sailing on a ship that is advertising itself to families.

Repaired as other posts on here have shared that it has been inoperable.