Explora I Pictures

[Waltershipman]

2 hours ago, LuiK said:

How should it be resolved that for over 900 guests there are only approximately 100 seats at Sakura and Marble… and even with all other restaurants approximately 300 people have to end up in the buffet each night? It‘s a design flaw of the ship! And even if they cramp the restaurants to the last seat it is no fun, when you have to share tables at a (not so) luxury cruise.

 

On the German website of Explora there is no information about mandatory reservations for restaurants and that you are only allowed to dine once in Sakura and Marble. People were rushing to reserve seats after boarding or managed to reserve onshore – I don't know and I don't care.

 

We pay 1.000 Euro per night. You can get the buffet on MSC and waiting for seated dining in queues for less than 100 Euro per night. When we want to dine in a seated setting, we will get that and will not end up in the buffet because of Explora‘s mismanagements and misplannings – if a table looks available we will make a scene until we are seated. End of story.

 

Here are the opening hours:

 

 

Is The food excellent on board?? Thank you very much

[PaulMCO]

My TA made it clear to me -- one booking per cruise (B2B does NOT get another) in Marble and Sakura,  You can make it 60 days prior by phone or through your TA.

 

Yes and the first cruise is populated with many TA's and so called influencers..

Edited August 3, 2023 by PaulMCO

[uktog]

7 minutes ago, PaulMCO said:

My TA made it clear to me -- one booking per cruise (B2B does NOT get another) in Marble and Sakura,  You can make it 60 days prior by phone or through your TA.

 

Yes and the first cruise is populated with many TA's and so called influencers..

B2B not getting another - totally unfair (affects us in November)

Given when we booked NO limitation was indicated of this nature we will be challenging that shoddy treatment of b2b guests 

[Critically Cruising]

Sounds more and more like my upcoming Explora experience will be "one and done".

 

Plus, I was looking at that listing of activities.  Anyone care to decipher what those cryptic titles are?

 

Disillusionment grows.

 

 

[LuiK]

1 hour ago, Waltershipman said:

Is The food excellent on board?? Thank you very much

 

Crêperie, Buffet, In-Room and Sakura are magnificent. But Sakura is also very cramped, be there early or very late… Rush hour there is a nightmare. We finished fast and had just a short impression how loud and packed it is at main dining time.

 

Fil Rouge was mediocre. The Beef Wellington had the size of a coin but was ok. I compensated with three good desserts.

 

Med Yacht Club was overcrowded, too cramped and too loud – we left before ordering something. 

 

Marble Steak House was closed due to an accidental activation of the sprinkler system and then closed due to private TA meetings.

Edited August 3, 2023 by LuiK

[PaulMCO]

24 minutes ago, LuiK said:

 

Crêperie, Buffet, In-Room and Sakura are magnificent. But Sakura is also very cramped, be there early or very late… Rush hour there is a nightmare. We finished fast and had just a short impression how loud and packed it is at main dining time.

 

Fil Rouge was mediocre. The Beef Wellington had the size of a coin but was ok. I compensated with three good desserts.

 

Med Yacht Club was overcrowded, too cramped and too loud – we left before ordering something. 

 

Marble Steak House was closed due to an accidental activation of the sprinkler system and then closed due to private TA meetings.

The question will be once the initial introduction is done, do they do more flow management to keep the numbers at 70-80% filled as many cruise lines do.

 

I do not see why so many object to a buffet.  Certainly at times a welcome change after a long excursion day.  You can add to the fact that up to 10 percent of the people will do room service on a given night.   Do you happen to have a post of the Room Service menu...

[PaulMCO]

Here is the Lobby Bar menu.  Basically a Gin drinker so satisfied with the Gin included items.  However Cognac taste buds will not be satisfied with the included rock gut.  Someone mentioned the included wines shipboard amounted to 20 but have not seen a list.

 

 

[Dr. Cocktail]

3 minutes ago, PaulMCO said:

Here is the Lobby Bar menu.  Basically a Gin drinker so satisfied with the Gin included items.  However Cognac taste buds will not be satisfied with the included rock gut.  Someone mentioned the included wines shipboard amounted to 20 but have not seen a list.

 

 

 

 

Rock gut, indeed!  Canadian Club?

 

There are no words….

 

(well, actually there ARE but the moderators would become involved!)

 

Early days - let’s hope they’ll respond to constructive criticism!

[LuiK]

Restaurant Menus

EXI_FIL_ROUGE_Breakfast.pdf EXI_FIL_ROUGE_Dinner.pdf EXI_IN-SUITE_DINING.pdf EXI_MARBLE-CO_Dessert_Menu.pdf EXI_MARBLE-CO_Dining_Menu.pdf EXI_MED_YACHT_CLUB_Bar_Menu.pdf EXI_MED_YACHT_CLUB_Dinner_Menu.pdf EXI_MED_YACHT_CLUB_Lunch_Menu.pdf EXI_SAKURA_Dinner_Menu.pdf EXI_SAKURA_Lunch_Menu.pdf EXI_SAKURA_SUSHI_Dinner_Menu.pdf

[LuiK]

Bar Menus

EXI_ASTERN_LOUNGE.pdf EXI_ASTERN_POOLBAR.pdf EXI_ATOLL_POOLBAR.pdf EXI_CREMA_CAFE_digital.pdf EXI_EXPLORA_LOUNGE.pdf EXI_Gelateria_Creperie_Menu.pdf EXI_HELIOS_POOLBAR.pdf EXI_JOURNEYS_LOUNGE.pdf EXI_LOBBY_BAR.pdf EXI_MALT_WHISKY.pdf EXI_SKY_BAR_ON_14.pdf EXI_THE_CONSERVATORY.pdf

[Dr. Cocktail]

8 minutes ago, LuiK said:

Bar Menus

EXI_ASTERN_LOUNGE.pdf 843.26 kB · 0 downloads EXI_ASTERN_POOLBAR.pdf 845.07 kB · 0 downloads EXI_ATOLL_POOLBAR.pdf 843.26 kB · 0 downloads EXI_CREMA_CAFE_digital.pdf 90.02 kB · 0 downloads EXI_EXPLORA_LOUNGE.pdf 845.96 kB · 0 downloads EXI_Gelateria_Creperie_Menu.pdf 80.57 kB · 1 download EXI_HELIOS_POOLBAR.pdf 843.21 kB · 0 downloads EXI_JOURNEYS_LOUNGE.pdf 846.37 kB · 0 downloads EXI_LOBBY_BAR.pdf 844.09 kB · 0 downloads EXI_MALT_WHISKY.pdf 517.82 kB · 0 downloads EXI_SKY_BAR_ON_14.pdf 842.82 kB · 0 downloads EXI_THE_CONSERVATORY.pdf 843.38 kB · 0 downloads

Thank you SO MUCH for taking time out of your vacation to do this!!!!

[Bongomeme]

Thanks luik, this is all helpful. One question, what time is early for Sakura? I booked for 6:30 for September. When they confirmed mentioned I could adjust time if I needed to. Thoughts?

[uktog]

Thanks these menus do look lovely 

[steamboats]

4 hours ago, Dr. Cocktail said:

 

Actually, your numbers and assumptions are incorrect. These are the capacity numbers ....Sakura 92,  Marble and Co 80, Yacht Club 136 and Fil Rouge 222 for a total of 530. Add in Anthology's 48 and that takes us to 578. Add in the outdoor sections for the above and that takes us to 636 - easily able to accomodate everyone with the tables being turned around once.

 

You don´t count in the opening hours which allow each table to have two turns.

 

steamboats

[parallax]

What is the old military adage that a plan does not not survive first contact with the enemy.   I have been on early cruises where there has been some chaos.  It takes time to find footing.  The key is how Explora addresses issues in the short and long term.  

[mike@sea]

Thank you for contributing all the details from the current voyage. I am truly amazed how careless and unprofessional in every aspect a company, who wanted to become the best cruise line of all, started their business. 

How can you allow so many passengers on the first cruises, when processes have not been tested yet, when it is clear that the weather limits passengers to indoors, which further restricts available space in restaurants. How can they not have a concept for the limited seats in their restaurants ?

How dare you tell a customer, who paid 1000$ a night, that he can’t get a reservation for the restaurant. How dare you ask those customers that you need reservations in the first place, but are unable to provide options to do so online. How dare you limit the number of reservations, how dare you tell b2b customers they still can only make 1 reservation despite paying two cruises. 

The current situation is exactly what I feared the other day , when I saw, how small and cramped the restaurants appear. With all the beautiful lounges on the ship, who within Explora had the stupid idea , that they needed more lounging area in one of the restaurants, instead of tables for customers ( Yacht Club )? What terribly bad planning. 
 

I turned away from the mass market cruise lines and I am willing to pay more , because I want a cruise, with no lines, no necessity for reservations and certainly no necessity to still pay extra, when the original marketing said, its all inclusive, when in reality, one finds more items with a price tag, than without. 
 

I do want to eat in restaurants, I dislike buffets, and Explora will certainly not make me dine in the cabin or at the buffet. If they cannot deliver this, and provide a restaurant atmosphere which fits the price tag, then I am out too. Hapag Lloyd has no problem in delivering exactly that, which Mr Ungerer knows very well. Maybe he did not learn from the best and did not succeed or even come near , what others offer and what they promised beforehand. 

You can only make one good impression. Boy did they fail….!

[parallax]

I think this is overkill.  I don't know how one can have such a strong opinion at this stage.  If you have ever been on a maiden voyage or an early cruise, issues are going to pop up.  This happens to all cruise lines.  Things are not going to be seemless.  My hope is all the passengers are having a good time even though there have been missteps that need to be corrected.  

[maggie.1008]

Thanks for taking time out to post menus. 
I wonder if they will have California wine’s when they come to the US? 

[mike@sea]

Like I said, you can only make one good first impression. And they definitely did not make one in my opinion, not to me. 

And the restaurant situation also does not fall into the category „issues“ either. Yes I expect issues of course, but I also expect the availability of basic things right from the beginning. Being able to dine in a nice and quiet, non hectic atmosphere, in accordance with the price tag definitely is one of those requirements. Not being able to get a table at all certainly reflects an epic fail, not an „issue“. This is not Princess or NCL. 

In this category, you cannot and should not leave such a bad first impression. There are many ways to avoid that, as there are many ways to deal with customers, which you let down and disappointed by canceling cruises, both long and short term. 

Yes, one has to wait and see how they improve. However. They specifically decided not to have a main restaurant, but apparently they were not clever enough to do the maths and create enough restaurant seats, not counting the buffet in. How they want to fix that seems impossible to me. Customers will always want to try their restaurants, especially given the fact, that apparently the food seems delicious. 
Who pays 10000$ and then wants to pick up food at a food stall/food counter due to lack of restaurant seating. I don’t. That’s all I am saying. 

They needed to consider the warm weather in contrary to cold weather cruises, where outside dining is impossible. This situation was discussed here before, and we hoped that it would work out. Well, apparently it does not. 

Also how can it not be clear, which restaurants are reservation only ?  It seems that you need reservations for all restaurants now. And how can you mislead future passengers by saying you can easily book additional visits once onboard, when in reality this is never possible due to lack of tables?

 

Well, let’s see how the next cruises go and how they improve the restaurant situation.

 

[vistaman]

Several drinks - brands -  inclusive at MSC  Yacht Club are NOT  free on Explora ??? 

 

 

[Limonadier]

3 hours ago, LuiK said:

Restaurant Menus

EXI_FIL_ROUGE_Breakfast.pdf 900.48 kB · 23 downloads EXI_FIL_ROUGE_Dinner.pdf 217.93 kB · 24 downloads EXI_IN-SUITE_DINING.pdf 77.2 kB · 17 downloads EXI_MARBLE-CO_Dessert_Menu.pdf 1.21 MB · 8 downloads EXI_MARBLE-CO_Dining_Menu.pdf 1.29 MB · 20 downloads EXI_MED_YACHT_CLUB_Bar_Menu.pdf 120.3 kB · 10 downloads EXI_MED_YACHT_CLUB_Dinner_Menu.pdf 158.83 kB · 16 downloads EXI_MED_YACHT_CLUB_Lunch_Menu.pdf 152.46 kB · 17 downloads EXI_SAKURA_Dinner_Menu.pdf 1.44 MB · 14 downloads EXI_SAKURA_Lunch_Menu.pdf 851.65 kB · 13 downloads EXI_SAKURA_SUSHI_Dinner_Menu.pdf 846.76 kB · 13 downloads

Thanks so munch for all the work involved in getting these. The food looks very appetizing and plenty of options for all palates !   

[LuiK]

4 hours ago, Bongomeme said:

Thanks luik, this is all helpful. One question, what time is early for Sakura? I booked for 6:30 for September. When they confirmed mentioned I could adjust time if I needed to. Thoughts?

Perfect time. They open at 6:30. Also at the left side there is more space than on the right side. Sakura has the best duck I had in my life (duck leg confit). You should also try the black angus teriyaki steak and the 72 hour panang beef – both are magnificent… Just perfect! 

[Bongomeme]

Oh Luik you’re singing my song! I love duck!  Many thanks and enjoy your trip.

[Tyler919]

Hi all,

 

Anyone on board care to comment on a couple of questions?

 

What was the Muster Drill process? Virtual or all standing around in Life jackets or..?

Are they making cruise director announcements? Most higher end ships limit these, just curious if they feel helpful or annoying.

Does smoking seem to be contained and non intrusive?

 

Thanks in advance. We sail in November. 

 

 

[kelleherdl]

10 hours ago, Dr. Cocktail said:

Rock gut, indeed!  Canadian Club?

 

There are no words….

 

(well, actually there ARE but the moderators would become involved!)

 

Early days - let’s hope they’ll respond to constructive criticism!

I chuckle when folks scoff at Canadian Club and other presumed ‘lessor’ liquors. What liquors were the base for the great COCKTAILS served worldwide today? They were the wonderful liquors from Canada and Europe that survived their arduous journeys to America during our failed attempt to mandate sobriety.