PaulMCO

As new CEO, I promised to make the following changes....

Reshuffle the itineraries for the 5th time.  Move Explora 1 where 2 was 2 where 1 was.

Do away with Explora speak..... no more host nonsensa

Everyone will be equal -- no butlers for anybody

Make the Emporium a true buffet lika that of Royal Caribbean, because everyone should toucha their food

Replace the Baristas at Crema, because only an Italian can make a Illy coffee

Ciao

Francesco

Ivi... some uses for a butler...

1. Fruit and replenishment.  Butler can make sure you get what you want daily without wasting those you don't need/like.

2.  My wife is a diabetic so our butler makes sure she gets a cheese plate each evening for the late night sugar dips.

3. Ever need a garment mended, lose a button, the butler can get it repaired

4. Of course there is the room service.  We do not use this much but after a long day of excursion - maybe.  Canapes in the afternoon sometimes.

5. Extra Reservations for Umi -- the butler can do it.

6. They do keep the refrigerator stocked with the drinks you want.

7. Special needs.  My DW forgot her cane at home -- the butler found one that she used during the trip.

8. They handle your laundry and pressing requests.

9. Birthdays and special events -- the butler arranged for the cake and the decorations with the suite attendant.

10.  Gossip -- yes the butler would be the person to ask  🙂

2 hours ago, ak1004 said:

 

You are correct in general.

 

However, our daily limit is $500 USD per day. Why? We are very satisfied with Oceania (although I know it's not considered in the same category, but it's good enough for us), and we pay $350-400 USD for a typical European cruise on O. We are willing to pay slightly more for a "luxury" line, but I just cannot justify paying more than $500.

 

So, on SB, there are plenty of sailings under $500. On Crystal or Explora? NONE. Not even close. To charge 30-50% more, they have to be in a different league compared to SB. Are they? 

Seabourn is the best bargain for a Med cruise. They do alot of the less traveled ports.  On Encore we visited Ephesus and Riviera was in port at the same day.  Riviera was gone at 530pm.  Encore stayed til 11pm and we had a excellent closed  concert in the evening  at the Library.

Was looking at 2024 sailings and many O cruises are creeping up to the $500 level (without air)

8 minutes ago, No Gut No Glory said:

Their website is not great.

That is the understatement of the year  🙂

Bring back the Dom....

New update to the web site....   promises removed.. (before and after)

You cannot compare pricing at the current time unless it is a specific voyage.  One time Crystal would be cheaper for equivalent another time Seabourn.  Then try a 50% off Black Friday sail and Explora wins.    Crystal has their Upgrade Suite promotion.  Seabourn 25% Sail away and Explore has 40%.   Depends on your cabin with Explora as the bigger ones with her and Crystal will be cheaper on some 2024 sailings.

One thing not mentioned is Butlers.  Cannot get one on Explora unless you sail in a Residence.  On Seabourn never. On Crystal all suites though the service level varies.

I love the food is subjective comment (I use it too).  But it is not subjective to ME.  I like variety and Choice.   You get more on Crystal and Seabourn and zero on Explora as the menus are fixed and for a 21 day for us it is tiring.   Then again you get the best on Regent.

Loyalty program -- non on Explora

World cruise with varied itineraries -- none on explora

Ability to book long b2b2b cruise -- slim to none on Explora.  Check out their Med schedule, back and forth.

Explora one new ship, lots more planned and ordered and being built

Crystal two ships from the ancient mariner saga -- 4 planned but not orders

I can throw rocks a both to see if they stick.  But the real  message from a CC fan "choice is good"

We have cruises booked on Explora, Regent, Crystal, Silversea and Seabourn

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.

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  🙂

I just responded on the Oceania forum, so I will not repeat myself.

Like @bitob 15 cruises was enough for Oceania.  Last cruise in 2023 was on Marina.  Food was subpar.  MDR inedible, late and cold.  Buffet on Terrace was tiring.  Only reason we did that cruise was to burn 15K of free FCC. 

Last Regent cruise was on Splendor -- food was great (especially in CR) and even the 5 days we were quarantined with COVID, they gave us free choice from any restaurant.  Looking forward to next month on Explorer (just got our luggage forward tags).

On the air issue -- it really depends on when you book and whether their are good consolidator contract rates.  For our next cruise this March our air allowance for Business class RT was $4200.  Now try to price anything anywhere today for under $6500 and that was Air Canada.

As far as the topic --  Regent by far.  Yes I do not like buffets.  I think Terrace on O is overrated, especially tiring for long cruises.

If I were to rate the lines as far as food

1. Regent (lots of variety, on bigger ships and best GDR/MDR of any line

2. Old Crystal (where new Crystal is see me after June)

3. Explora Journeys  (good basis but they need to rotate menus)

4. Seabourn

5. Oceania (last 2 were disappointing food wise)

6. McDonalds (I hate them -- and its better than my last SS cruise)

7. Silversea (only the caviar was decent)

An yes we generally look for value.  We did old Crystal in the Amazon and it was cheaper than Marina.  Seabourn can have rates that are lower than Oceania.

We like Seabourn for their small port itineraries.  So while Seabourn may be number 4 in food -- they are higher in overall experience (probably 2 versus Regent as 1) as we are itinerary driven.

On 2/3/2024 at 6:46 PM, PutnamNY said:

Can anyone share their embarkation experience on Explora 1 at Colon? We will be staying overnight at Panama City and heading to Colon on embarkation day. Hopefully we can find a good car service or agency that can give us a tour of the locks before taking us to the cruise terminal. 

(The reason for this question, I read somewhere else that Colon is a bit on the seedy side and need to be careful)

Why don't you use a guide from Tours by Locals.  They can do both a tour and drop off at the port.

It does show your past booked/completed cruise too now.  Then again they still are using the Seaware platform which is buggy and hard to customize.

On 2/16/2024 at 12:37 AM, Whipsnade said:

You are certainly right. For us in a PH it was $2300 per day. Bye bye Explora! Hello Crystal. $1700 per day. 

Agree -- we did book an OT3 at $600 ($300pp) per day, only because it was an interesting way to spend 2 days in NOLA with friends.

Our take was $1800 (900pp) for a COVE versus $1500 ($750 pp) on Crystal for a Sapphire Veranda.

I was a little bored on a rainy day and decided to jot down some of my new language terms on our recent Explora I cruise.

Please chime in and add to the list. 

Butler                                Residence Host

Suite Attendant                 Suite Host

Attendants/Waiters           Hosts

Cruise                               Journey

Shore Excursion               Destination Experience and Enrichment

Room Service                   In-suite Dining

Veranda Cabin                  Ocean Terrace

On Board Credit                Experience Credit

Cruise Director                  Entertainment Manager

Enrichment Speaker          Luminary

Trivia                                  Let’s Get Quizzical

Destination Talk                 Luminary Port Talk

Piano/Violin Player            Resident Artiste

Movie Theater                   Silent Sweet Cinema

Enjoyment/Relaxed           Ocean State of Mind

Enclosed Pool Area           The Conservatory

Future Cruises                   Future Journeys

Shops                                The Journey       

Crew Welfare Fund           Host Lifestyle Fund         

On 2/10/2024 at 1:28 PM, CliffLWR said:

I've tried multiple time to search out Explora cruises, but whenever I enter the info (destination, month, #pax) it says I can't connect to the server. Why's doesn't their website work?

Clear your cache and web site history in your browser.

On 7/19/2023 at 12:03 PM, kelleherdl said:

Totally refreshing. Very straightforward answers. Don’t know why I didn’t Google this before.

 

https://explorajourneys.com/us/en/faq

 

an example of the unambiguous answers I’ve found there.

Should I tip onboard?

Gratuities are included in your journey fare; however, should you wish to recognise one of our hosts for service beyond your expectations then this is at your discretion.

It would be nice if the answers are True....  (and I just went through 10 FAQs).  These have never been updated since the web site was created.... A key highlight is this brilliant answer.

3 hours ago, david63 said:

There are several options. One is that the contractors strip out everything that needs to be stripped out so that when at dry dock it is just a question of putting the new stuff in. Another is to ship a few containers out to some convenient point and then load them on board to continue the work.

 

Heard the saying "where there is a will there is a way"?

A few containers???   This not a cosmetic drydock.   At lot of the work that will be done to Whisper is structural and not just cosmetic. It will be Shadowized with the deck 5 atrium area completely gutted. 

1 hour ago, david63 said:

Yes but the actual time needed in dry dock is comparability short in comparison to the length of time that Whisper was in for refit. Half of the refit could have been done on the way round by flying the contractors out to say Mumbai and then finishing the work off in dry dock.

 

Anyway that does not explain why other ships in the fleet have had cruises cancelled when they were in that general area if it is not for safety reasons.

Contractors with material...  How would that work???

9 hours ago, Roland4 said:

Royal Caribbean/Celebrity have been doing this for a year or so now. The base fare is non-refundable, but if you want a refundable fare, there is a sometimes very significant premium. When they also start adding in various promotions, you almost need a cryptologist to decipher the fare table!!! 😮 😮 

Which flows into the Silversea port to port fares which are all deposit non refundable, and not just a special.  But they have significant savings, brings in cash for the cruise line, and discourages the looky loos, who will cancel before final payment.

If you had one booked in the past, you still had to complete a guest registration form prior (even if never sailed). that info was in the Old Crystal database which new Crystal purchased.  Now I get one call per week on my mobile from their "consultant".

Seems like all cruise companies are doing the same..  (Seabourn extended the 25% and RSSC came out with a new special).

We did take advantage of the Crystal offer yesterday sneaking it in between several others.  The way it is going we are going to be away more than home.

23 minutes ago, Paulbud said:

Thanks to all of you for the helpful advice.  I can't change to a later flight because I am traveling on an EVA Air award ticket that doesn't allow changes.  Since I don't have a choice, I'll ask to be among the first off and grab a taxi, per tubeamps suggestion. Back in the day when I traveled extensively on business, I liked getting to the airport just in time to be the last person boarding.  I may have a chance to relive the past.  Of course, I can't jog as fast as I used to...

Luggage yes or no.  Because checkin with luggage will close first.

If Eva did change the flight, they might give you some consideration to change the next day.

See you onboard...

Agree with @Whipsnade chose one that does a large volume of business.  When things go wrong they can have influence and get things corrected from the top. 

Finding a good one is always an issue, our first TA was from one of the larger internet brokers.  After doing some substantial business we were given one their top TA's.  When he retired we looked for another TA and used a recommendation from our friends and we now deal with the owner of one of the larger TA groups.

There are lots of good ones out there, also some bad ones that provide little service.  I would not use social media to find a good one.  I would ask your fellow cruise friends on board who they use.   I always carry a few biz cards of my travel agent.

3 hours ago, frankhi said:

Well that's good news, but I don't understand what being on cc has to do with who makes advanced dining reservations. Please elaborate. Thanks 

He is quite right.  There is nothing that says 60 days prior you can make reservations in advance.  If you are micro organized, you can go through the poorly designed web site and find in the facts that you can make advance reservations (when it does not say).   If you do not and look at the specific restaurant it might say reservations are recommended.

There was always a coffee get together at 10 or 10:30 at Crema also.