Youth will be served on Explora Journeys

[nigelc]

13 hours ago, stan01 said:

 

Some internet tough love, please don't take this the wrong way.  How would your kids behave in the pool area and on the pool deck?  There will be up to 900 others who want to sunbathe, take a dip, sit in the jacuzzi for a bit, and enjoy the ocean air.  If a group of kids is making a lot of noise, splashing water, and running around the pool deck that detracts from other people's vacation that they have paid a lot of money for.  Explora does not have adults only spaces nor do they have kids pools.  If your kids would take a dip in the pool and sit in a deck chair reading a book or playing a video game with earphones on while you are nearby then I'm sure they'd be welcome.  If on the other hand they are going to be left alone for hours with squirt guns expecting the ships crew to watch them and terrorize the ship ... well you can see why the other 900 people might not be happy.  I'm being a little dramatic I know, but I'm sure this post will get a few likes and at least one person will reply that "this is exactly what happened to us" when a small group of kids took over pool area with no other place for adults to go.

Spot on - I was on EJ 1 a few weeks ago with a large number of kids onboard and they were at times a pain in the pool and even in restaurants - EJ costs too much money not to fully enjoy your holiday.

[Host Jazzbeau]

Remember the theme of this thread:  Explora is courting families with kids.  Don't blame the families.

 

"On other luxury cruise brands, four or five children might be a lot, said Gowland, who has worked on cruise ships for two decades and spent five years at Seabourn. The Explora I, as of early October, had 51 children booked on its New Year's cruise."

[parallax]

We did a holiday cruise and our daughter (16) came along with us.  There must have been 50-60 kids on the cruise but one couldn't tell.  Our daughter did spend some time at the club but she also attended some of the shows, enjoyed the pool, had great dinners, etc.   They have pool tables, foosball tables and board games.  There are always going to be naysayers when it comes to kids on luxury cruise lines.  Ignore it.  Some kids, and it sounds like it is the case with yours, thrive on these sorts of cruises. 

[saratogamomof3]

1 hour ago, parallax said:

We did a holiday cruise and our daughter (16) came along with us.  There must have been 50-60 kids on the cruise but one couldn't tell.  Our daughter did spend some time at the club but she also attended some of the shows, enjoyed the pool, had great dinners, etc.   They have pool tables, foosball tables and board games.  There are always going to be naysayers when it comes to kids on luxury cruise lines.  Ignore it.  Some kids, and it sounds like it is the case with yours, thrive on these sorts of cruises. 

Thank you so much. I agree. And for what it's worth, I myself have a very low tolerance for badly behaved kids 😆. I am happy to hear there were that many kids on board. Most of the threads I have read said 3-4 kids, which made me nervous. 

[saratogamomof3]

2 hours ago, Host Jazzbeau said:

Remember the theme of this thread:  Explora is courting families with kids.  Don't blame the families.

 

"On other luxury cruise brands, four or five children might be a lot, said Gowland, who has worked on cruise ships for two decades and spent five years at Seabourn. The Explora I, as of early October, had 51 children booked on its New Year's cruise."

Exactly. I totally understand the appeal of a kids-free cruise (although drunk adults aren't my favorite either), and would probably choose that when I am an empty nester. It seems some people are choosing cruises that allow children, and then are annoyed there are children on board. There are other options.

[saratogamomof3]

A $1,000-a-Night Cruise Line Is Built for Bringing the Kids - BNN Bloomberg 

 

Another article about Explora, published by Bloomberg two days ago

[PrivateIdaho]

33 minutes ago, saratogamomof3 said:

Another article about Explora, published by Bloomberg two days ago.

What a pretentious article. Makes it sound like the ship has free flowing caviar and a bunch of rich yuppie families. Not at all the case on our three cruises. And to Saratogamoof3, from your description of your children, I think they would have a good time. 

[nigelc]

On 3/3/2024 at 9:47 PM, saratogamomof3 said:

Exactly. I totally understand the appeal of a kids-free cruise (although drunk adults aren't my favorite either), and would probably choose that when I am an empty nester. It seems some people are choosing cruises that allow children, and then are annoyed there are children on board. There are other options.

No - more annoyed at the parents and EJ staff who allow the poor behaviour of of the children- in the case of the main pool, totally unacceptable behaviour- I was surprised no one was injured.

[commodoredave]

1 hour ago, nigelc said:

No - more annoyed at the parents and EJ staff who allow the poor behaviour of of the children- in the case of the main pool, totally unacceptable behaviour- I was surprised no one was injured.

Exactly. Well behaved children who are properly supervised by their parents are not the issue. It is the unsupervised ones that behave badly and ruin the experience of adults. It is up to ship staff to step in when parents won’t so that all have a safe and enjoyable experience.