Onboard Explora 1 (Sept 25- Oct 13) with Hank

[Whipsnade]

agree all around with Chefdi

[Waltershipman]

9 minutes ago, Whipsnade said:

agree all around with Chefdi

Agreed 

[Waltershipman]

When you are on board one must eat the wagu beef in Sakura,if you eat meat. While I am not a regular beef eater and actually eat it very rarely. I have to say that this wagu Beef was the most incredible I ever tasted. I was told straight from Japan 

 

Cudos to Hank for accurate and informative posts

[Waltershipman]

1 minute ago, Waltershipman said:

When you are on board one must eat the wagu beef in Sakura,if you eat meat. While I am not a regular beef eater and actually eat it very rarely. I have to say that this wagu Beef was the most incredible I ever tasted. I was told straight from Japan 

 

Cudos to Hank for accurate and informative posts

 

[IdRathrBCruzn]

22 hours ago, Stickman1990 said:

We disembarked around 9.30am (our designated disembarkation time) on the 25th and it couldn’t have been easier - walked off without any delay, found our bags, had a very short chat to the border official, called an Uber and met them across the road from the pier 

 

Contrast that with entering any US airport as a foreigner, waiting for luggage to be off loaded and the long lines to be processed at immigration - no comparison

 

It was raining - but I don’t hold Explora responsible for that 😉

 

Did US citizens need to have their passports for immigration? Or was it just Customs for US citizens? Wondering if on our Quebec City to Miami we embark on next week, will we need passports after Portland, ME? Thank you.

[Critically Cruising]

7 hours ago, Whipsnade said:

You are way too grumpy. Get a cane and some nice person will give you a seat!!! LOL

 

Interesting that there is no refuting the facts of the situation, just a snide snark about an observation.

 

The ship is stunning (though with some contradictions) and the food is superb.  But the misses are lots of details that collectively say this is not ready for prime time.  And a management that seems deaf to anything that isn't fawning praise.

 

 

[Stickman1990]

19 minutes ago, IdRathrBCruzn said:

Wondering if on our Quebec City to Miami we embark on next week, will we need passports after Portland, ME?

No idea as we’re not US citizens - but either way NYC was our first and only US port on our cruise 

[IdRathrBCruzn]

1 minute ago, Stickman1990 said:

No idea as we’re not US citizens - but either way NYC was our first and only US port on our cruise 

 

Oh, I see. Thanks anyway.

[Host Jazzbeau]

58 minutes ago, Critically Cruising said:

Interesting that there is no refuting the facts of the situation, just a snide snark about an observation.

 

The ship is stunning (though with some contradictions) and the food is superb.  But the misses are lots of details that collectively say this is not ready for prime time.  And a management that seems deaf to anything that isn't fawning praise.

Every post you make has your CC name and avatar on it, setting up an expectation of grumpiness.  Just sayin'

[florisdekort]

4 hours ago, IdRathrBCruzn said:

 

Did US citizens need to have their passports for immigration? Or was it just Customs for US citizens? Wondering if on our Quebec City to Miami we embark on next week, will we need passports after Portland, ME? Thank you.

 
Last year on Seabourn, Montreal to Miami, all passengers cleared US Immigration (passports required) and Customs upon arrival in Miami, despite 4 US ports incl. an overnight in New York before that. 
 

 

[Hlitner]

Morning all 😋. We are docked in NYC with the Seabourn Quest on the other side of the pier.  That is ironic since we recently spent a month on that wonderful ship.

 

The madness, we call the lack of communications, continues unabated.  Last night, when we returned to our suite we had not received any daily schedule or information on today’s events.  A late night visit to Guest Relations got me

a typical answer that, “we are still working on the schedule” which was finally delivered after 11:30.  
 

We have been given Blue wrist bands

with no information on what venues

we can use this afternoon/evening.  We also have conflicting information (from EJ  staff) about our dining options for tonight.

 Depending on who you ask we are either restricted to Emporium or possibly Emporium and the Mes Yacht Club.  Again, there is no proper communications with guests.

 

Hank

[Hlitner]

Lets talk about Anthology,  We had to work hard at getting reservations after our confirmed reservation for Oct 7 was abruptly cancelled without any real explanation.  But last night, after several requests (and screwed up signals) we finally did get into Anthology at 7:30.  You would think that with all the times we were told, "you cannot have a reservation because it is full" that the restaurant would be crowded.  But alas, last evening there were only 3 couples and 1 single in the restaurant that holds at least 10 times that amount.  Yes folks, 7 diners.  There were about 2 waiters for every table and about half a dozen working in the viewable galley, including the Michelin 2* Chef, Emma Bengstsson.  In fact, we could look through the glass and see Chef Emma preparing our dinner!  

 

The dinner was 7 courses (the menu is online at the EJ web site) and the cost, with the wine paring, was $530 Euros (per couple).  While the meal was perfectly prepared and of very high quality, there is no way we would have paid that kind of money (on top of what we have already paid for the cruise) except that we had the OBC.  

 

While EJ advertises that Anthology has Guest Chefs, the reality is something different.  The Guest Chef (such as Chef Emma) does curate the menu, but they are only on the ship for a short time (in this case Chef Emma will depart today to return to her NYC restaurant.  But EJ will continue serving her menu (prepared by EJ staff) into April and still charge 195 Euros per person (for food) even though the actual Guest Chef is long gone.  Our issue is that since the food on the ship is so good, it is very difficult to justify paying all that money for a slightly more gourmet menu.  We think EJ will need to rethink the concept and consider a much lower price point.  Otherwise, there will be many nights with few diners.

 

By the way, Chef Emma did come over to our table (during dessert) and we had a nice chat with the star Chef.  For those who don't know, she is the only female 2* chef in North America!  Her NYC restaurant is called Aquavit, and one generally needs to book reservations (at that venue) about 30 days in advance.  We thought the Chef was charming and thought it crazy that EJ would spend lots of money to have her aboard and fail to promote her presence or encourage passengers to go to that venue.  Very strange.

 

Hank

[Waltershipman]

14 minutes ago, Hlitner said:

Morning all 😋. We are docked in NYC with the Seabourn Quest on the other side of the pier.  That is ironic since we recently spent a month on that wonderful ship.

 

The madness, we call the lack of communications, continues unabated.  Last night, when we returned to our suite we had not received any daily schedule or information on today’s events.  A late night visit to Guest Relations got me

a typical answer that, “we are still working on the schedule” which was finally delivered after 11:30.  
 

We have been given Blue wrist bands

with no information on what venues

we can use this afternoon/evening.  We also have conflicting information (from EJ  staff) about our dining options for tonight.

 Depending on who you ask we are either restricted to Emporium or possibly Emporium and the Mes Yacht Club.  Again, there is no proper communications with guests.

 

Hank

We are in a cab on way to JFK airport because our names were not on the list for a shared car even though we were charged 135 each by E J

 

I will report more once settled in. Great ship great food great crew however the business parts o the EJ experience are not very good. I hope they reverse the car charge on their own or i will dispute the charge. I have always been very complimentary to EJ but this last bit of screw up is unacceptable 

 

All the best

[IdRathrBCruzn]

7 hours ago, florisdekort said:

 
Last year on Seabourn, Montreal to Miami, all passengers cleared US Immigration (passports required) and Customs upon arrival in Miami, despite 4 US ports incl. an overnight in New York before that. 
 

 

That's good to know and helpful. Thank you!

We are excited about trying the new ship. We will also overnight in New York. It's been very interesting reading the comments from those who have been on board.

[Waltershipman]

47 minutes ago, Waltershipman said:

We are in a cab on way to JFK airport because our names were not on the list for a shared car even though we were charged 135 each by E J

 

I will report more once settled in. Great ship great food great crew however the business parts o the EJ experience are not very good. I hope they reverse the car charge on their own or i will dispute the charge. I have always been very complimentary to EJ but this last bit of screw up is unacceptable 

 

All the best

Finally sitting in airport waiting unfortunately for me and EJ they made disembarkation difficult and left a bad taste after a fantastic cruise  and i am not a complainer EJ did not get our getting off easy and added stress 

[Whipsnade]

These problems with communication are continuing and chronic. Every little thing must be cleared with Geneva. Seems no one on board is authorized to make common sense on the spot decisions. Where is the GR mgr?  Where is the hotel mgr?  When we were on board GR mgr refused to come out from secret Ofc. Hotel mgr is clueless and also in hiding. We spoke to several mid level mgrs on their first contracts who said their protestations went unheeded and they will be going back from whence they came. 
Pity. These are all simple issues to resolve by top management. To have such a great ship and cruise concept and see it jeopardized by stupidity is a real shame. 

[java spot]

41 minutes ago, Waltershipman said:

Finally sitting in airport waiting unfortunately for me and EJ they made disembarkation difficult and left a bad taste after a fantastic cruise  and i am not a complainer EJ did not get our getting off easy and added stress 

Really sorry to hear that. I was hoping your experience would be more like Stickman's than mine. I'm thankful, however, that you did not miss your flight! 

[Waltershipman]

5 minutes ago, java spot said:

Really sorry to hear that. I was hoping your experience would be more like Stickman's than mine. I'm thankful, however, that you did not miss your flight! 

Yes we are onboard flight thank you 

[jsea]

I’d like to note that EJ got it right and ALL pools were open yesterday during our wonderful, mostly sunny time at sea. And they were all used by happy guests.

 

My transfer to The Edition was flawless and via private black SUV. Room ready at 10am. 
 

EJ certainly has issues, and I had my doubts about this amended day with early departure from the ship, but for me, Explora came through (I will assume I got lucky).

[Waltershipman]

1 hour ago, Waltershipman said:

Yes we are onboard flight thank you 

Sitting on flight now reflecting on a most beautiful and lovely cruise while also reflecting on what might have been and expectations from a cruise at the EJ price point.  I am already in contact with a rep in Geneva via email to make sure to reverse the charge for the not delivered ride share.  EJ needs to figure out how to make pax experiences easy and for example having to spend any of my time or energy to deal with an undelivered service is not good. If we had waited longer we would have missed our flight sovwe took matters into our own hands to get to airport

 

I would have much preferred to have had E J do what they so far have charged

 

Oh well still happy we went so many lovely memories

 

All the best

[Whipsnade]

To all. 
I have lived in Manhattan for 70 years so know something about ground transportation in NYC. When a ship comes in there are always dozens of yellow cabs at Manhattan Marine Terminal. They are all hoping for a gig to EWR or JFK. It is a flat fare. I think now $70. 
Never a need to book a ride through any ship or call Uber ir Lyft. 
The more you save the more cruises in your future!!

[Hlitner]

We had a delight Manhattan morning.  After a relaxing breakfast in Emporium we left the ship around 9:40, breezes through immigration in less than a minute and strolled up 53rd street to the Museum of Modern Art ( known as MOMA).  After a couple of hours enjoying the collection, we Wales back to

the port where our cruise cards got us aboard in about 5 minutes.

 

We decided to return to Sakura (5 dinners and 2 lunches) for lunch for a final meal in our favorite restaurant.  It was crowded with guests, but service and our sushi lunch was terrific.

 

We toured an Ocean Grand Suite, Penthouse, and a Grand Penthouse and did not think any would have been worth the premium over our OT Suite.  The better suites are not open for viewing.

 

The Naming Ceremony is at 7:30pm and none of the venues open for dinner until 8:30 - 10:30  We are still not sure if we will be restricted to the Emporium, for dinner, but that is the most likely scenario.

 

The frivolities will go on late until after midnight.  

We have chatted with a couple of higher ups (from both Geneva and the US Office) who are all aware of the communications issues.  Whether “awareness” becomes a solution is questionable.  While folks from outside the ship seem interested in passenger views, onboard management is somewhat like the three monkeys with enough hands to cover ears, eyes and mouths at the same time.  This is a terrific ship. But could easily become the best, if only management would make a few tweaks to how they operate.

 

Hank

[Whipsnade]

Agree with Hilt 100%. 
If you are looking for an excellent meal this evening try;

https://www.jean-georgesrestaurant.com/mobile/nougatine-and-terrace-at-jean-georges/
You will not spend an arm and a leg. But it will be an excellent meal under the supervision of another Michelin chef. 
JG Nougatine is barely a ten minute cab ride from the ship. You could easily walk there in 20 min. 
One of our long time favorites. 

[florisdekort]

Heike Berdos is coming back soon. If she’s as good as she was on Azamara, and if Geneva hasn’t tied her hands, that should make a real difference. 
 

Edited October 12, 2023 by florisdekort

[Hlitner]

7 minutes ago, florisdekort said:

Heike Berdos is coming back soon. If she’s as good as she was on Azamara, and if Geneva hasn’t tied her hands, that should make a real difference. 
 

Heike on this ship for the first month and we have not heard anyone talking about a better communication system

in the early cruises.