Sales Volume Very Low?

[Waltershipman]

42 minutes ago, JanR said:

Wow.  Just ran across this thread and was surprised at the comments.  We absolutely loved our time on the Explora.  Is it the perfect ship?  No.  But I would suggest after sailing Regent, Oceania, Viking, Atlas, and suite-level on the four largest cruise lines that no ship gets it right all the time.  

 

However, we thought there were many, many things that Explora gets right.  

1.  The huge number of pools and hot tubs are almost comical.  I get the point of limited shade at some of the pools, but there seemed to be more than enough shaded areas in other pool areas.

2.  The Food.  Superior than our cruise on the Regent Splendor and the Oceania Marina by a mile. The Emporium Market place also is easily the very best buffet at sea compared to the ships we've sailed.  

3.  Cabins.  When the basic veranda is the nicer than of the Concierge Suite on the Splendor (which is also nice), what's to complain about?

 

I'll also note that the Captain was probably the best captain I've ever sailed with .  DW and I are both retired Army Officers and were on-board during the ship's safety drill.  We watched as she (the Captain) went by each station talking to the crew members and getting their feedback then giving selected crew members praise in here public announcement address closing the drill.  That and other things we saw made it clear that she is one of the coveted terms in the military:  A Leader. 

 

As a result, crew on the ship are happy.  In one-on-one conversations they confessed to us they loved the leadership on the ship as well as the perks (like free wifi) that they get.  We always believe that a happy crew makes for a happy ship which translates to a great cruise--which is what we had.

 

I would imagine that the reason why their itinerary has so many 7-day sailings is due to only having one ship and trying to get more passengers to try the line.  I would imagine that there are more people who would give a cruise line at this price point a try for 7 days than committing to a 3-week or more journey.  As the additional ships join the fleet, I would expect for the itineraries to become more diverse in location and duration.

 

May two cents...

Your mileage may vary...

 

 

Love you 2 cents actually right on

[mnocket]

On 5/4/2024 at 11:58 AM, JanR said:

As the additional ships join the fleet, I would expect for the itineraries to become more diverse in location and duration

I hope you are right about this.  It's the main reason I haven't yet booked EJ.

[Whipsnade]

All the luxury lines are creating shorter cruises. Many times you can get a diversity of ports by stringing two or more together. 

[Nashna]

It appears that Explora Journeys is targeting the upscale working luxury market. This market is not likely to take 14- to 21-day sailings. I've had difficulty finding MSC YC and Explora itineraries that fit my needs. Perhaps they will have one ship dedicated to longer itineraries when they get more than three ships.

[Waltershipman]

16 minutes ago, Nashna said:

It appears that Explora Journeys is targeting the upscale working luxury market. This market is not likely to take 14- to 21-day sailings. I've had difficulty finding MSC YC and Explora itineraries that fit my needs. Perhaps they will have one ship dedicated to longer itineraries when they get more than three ships.

Great Nancy 

 

We booked an 8 night 2025 cruise and will spend a few nights in Miami

 

All the best to you let us know about your EJ further thoughts

[Waltershipman]

19 minutes ago, Nashna said:

It appears that Explora Journeys is targeting the upscale working luxury market. This market is not likely to take 14- to 21-day sailings. I've had difficulty finding MSC YC and Explora itineraries that fit my needs. Perhaps they will have one ship dedicated to longer itineraries when they get more than three ships.

Will also attract a younger group of passegers 

[Whipsnade]

A younger group of clients at lower prices and lower expectations. 

[Waltershipman]

5 minutes ago, Whipsnade said:

A younger group of clients at lower prices and lower expectations. 

Or younger with higher expectations 

[Nashna]

We are active 76 and 78-year-olds.  If we are lucky, we have another five years of cruising.  We are a short-term target for the cruise lines. Explora is wise to anticipate the next generation of luxury cruisers.  The cruisers who want the 7–10-night cruise today will be sailing on the 14-day plus cruises in ten years.  It will be interesting to see if all the new luxury cruise lines will have enough clientele to be successful. 

[Waltershipman]

7 minutes ago, Nashna said:

We are active 76 and 78-year-olds.  If we are lucky, we have another five years of cruising.  We are a short-term target for the cruise lines. Explora is wise to anticipate the next generation of luxury cruisers.  The cruisers who want the 7–10-night cruise today will be sailing on the 14-day plus cruises in ten years.  It will be interesting to see if all the new luxury cruise lines will have enough clientele to be successful. 

All I can say as a former passenger it's pretty darn great

[Whipsnade]

We are active 85 and 88 year olds and fully anticipate another five years of cruising. That would make about 60 years at sea. 
Every  cruise line I have ever known has wanted to attract “younger” pax because the fossils are “dieing” off. But there seem to always be another larger cohort of fossils who appreciate and can afford luxury. 

[no1talks]

1 hour ago, Whipsnade said:

"But there seem to always be another larger cohort of fossils who appreciate and can afford luxury."

 

The upcoming cohort is Gen-X and there are far fewer of them than the cohorts that supported luxury cruising these many years.

 

Also, if the financial projections are even somewhat accurate, Gen-X will have significantly less disposable income in their golden years than their predecessors.

[Whipsnade]

They should have significantly more disposable income if they have taken the wonderful opportunity to put aside $$$ in their early years. When I started an IRA the limit was $1500 per year and I have fine very well. The newer cohorts should be in fat city by the time they are 60. Unless, of course they decided to invest in Crypto and tattoos. 

[peder]

Top quartile of millennials are probably doing better than any generation's top quartile before them. Many have been invested in the stock market since '08/'09 and have basically enjoyed an uninterrupted bull market for 15 years. Many in that group consider $QQQ to be as safe as treasuries 😅

 

So that's a pretty big group of consumers that is still largely untapped by the cruise industry.

 

I think these folks on the YouTube "Live a Little" channel are Explora's target: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZPBe3LRPhZw

 

[no1talks]

24 minutes ago, peder said:

"Top quartile of millennials are probably doing better than any generation's top quartile before them."

But are they? Or, are they putting on a bougie lifestyle as the Potemkin village of their generation?

https://www.cnbc.com/2024/01/25/affluent-millennials-more-likely-to-exaggerate-finances-to-appear-wealthy.html

[peder]

39 minutes ago, no1talks said:

But are they? Or, are they putting on a bougie lifestyle as the Potemkin village of their generation?

https://www.cnbc.com/2024/01/25/affluent-millennials-more-likely-to-exaggerate-finances-to-appear-wealthy.html

 

 

This tweet is just looking at median. Top quartile I think would be even more exaggerated. Incomes for top millennial earners have been very high.

[no1talks]

37 minutes ago, peder said:

"Incomes for top millennial earners have been very high."

Their student loan debt is also very high. Their retirement savings is also rather low when compared to the traditional bench marks of 1x annual income by age 30 and 3x by age 40.

I see too little black ink to offset the red in the overall cohort. Millenials are unlikely to keep luxury cruising from undergoing some amount of contraction (fewer lines and/or fewer ships) once too many of the Boomers have disembarked for last time. 

[2SailingNomads]

2 hours ago, no1talks said:

Their student loan debt is also very high. Their retirement savings is also rather low when compared to the traditional bench marks of 1x annual income by age 30 and 3x by age 40.

I see too little black ink to offset the red in the overall cohort. Millenials are unlikely to keep luxury cruising from undergoing some amount of contraction (fewer lines and/or fewer ships) once too many of the Boomers have disembarked for last time. 

I agree but the cruise lines keep practicing the "if you build it they will come" mentality.  For MSC they can build 6 ships that sail basically empty with how much the parent company makes per day on the super profitable cargo business but other lines will likely be in trouble with all the new product coming online.  (See expedition ships now a saturated market).Anyone else getting daily offers from Atlas??? Too cheap to understand how they can be profitable.

[frankhi]

To me low occupancy is a plus, and I think their prices are the same as just a room at a resort hotel and often less.

Edited May 9 by frankhi

[Whipsnade]

Frank is of course correct. All cruises are cheaper at every level than comparable hotels for room only. That’s why cruise industry is booming on every level. 
Every few years we hear gloom and doom about overbuilding cruise ships. Hasn’t turned out so bad so far. However expedition ships exploding at prices three times ordinary cruise will come down dramatically in the next few years. Good for us. Those of us who still look at the bottom line can travel a little more exotically. 

[ksmcali]

This has been a very interesting thread.  We (my husband and I) are Gen-X and have never sailed a luxury line....yet!  We started on Carnival long ago for our honeymoon, tried Holland America and Royal Caribbean, before migrating to Norwegian for many cruises in The Haven there.  It provided a level of luxury for us that still presented lots of kid friendly activities for our daughter.  Most recently, as our daughter is now older and about to graduate high school, we've moved over to Celebrity in upper level suites in The Retreat.  Again, it provides an overall family fit for us at this point in our life.  But, daughter is about to head off to college and we will be empty nesters able to travel anytime of the year, although as mentioned earlier, likely not for more than 10ish days, since hubby still does have a job.  We're mid-40s looking for a luxury line that we can enjoy, but don't want to be the "youngsters" onboard.  I certainly don't mind an older demographic, but prefer not to be the anomaly, which was the case for us when we sailed Holland America.

 

I had originally planned for Oceania to be our first "Just You and Me Again" luxury cruise, as it seems to fit our profile most.  But, Explora Journey has piqued my interest.  Certainly after reading through this thread, I do feel like we may be their target demographic.  The cabins certainly look attractive and shorter 7-day itineraries (few and far between on other luxury brands) fits our needs, as it allows for us to better squeeze it into his work schedule.  I've been following along with reviews since the ship set sail and was a little put off by the negative comments, but was hesitantly optimistic that the kinks would get worked out.  I popped over here today specifically because some else posted on the Celebrity boards how much they enjoyed their Explora Journey cruise.  Thank you all for the advisement!  I think I'll keep a close watch on EJ 2025 itineraries!

[Waltershipman]

58 minutes ago, ksmcali said:

This has been a very interesting thread.  We (my husband and I) are Gen-X and have never sailed a luxury line....yet!  We started on Carnival long ago for our honeymoon, tried Holland America and Royal Caribbean, before migrating to Norwegian for many cruises in The Haven there.  It provided a level of luxury for us that still presented lots of kid friendly activities for our daughter.  Most recently, as our daughter is now older and about to graduate high school, we've moved over to Celebrity in upper level suites in The Retreat.  Again, it provides an overall family fit for us at this point in our life.  But, daughter is about to head off to college and we will be empty nesters able to travel anytime of the year, although as mentioned earlier, likely not for more than 10ish days, since hubby still does have a job.  We're mid-40s looking for a luxury line that we can enjoy, but don't want to be the "youngsters" onboard.  I certainly don't mind an older demographic, but prefer not to be the anomaly, which was the case for us when we sailed Holland America.

 

I had originally planned for Oceania to be our first "Just You and Me Again" luxury cruise, as it seems to fit our profile most.  But, Explora Journey has piqued my interest.  Certainly after reading through this thread, I do feel like we may be their target demographic.  The cabins certainly look attractive and shorter 7-day itineraries (few and far between on other luxury brands) fits our needs, as it allows for us to better squeeze it into his work schedule.  I've been following along with reviews since the ship set sail and was a little put off by the negative comments, but was hesitantly optimistic that the kinks would get worked out.  I popped over here today specifically because some else posted on the Celebrity boards how much they enjoyed their Explora Journey cruise.  Thank you all for the advisement!  I think I'll keep a close watch on EJ 2025 itineraries!

Having sailed on both Explora Journeys and recently on Oceania Vista I am able to report that at least on our cruises there was a different passenger demographic. On EJ there were generally older passengers me included in 70s however very active. On O there were a significant larger number of older  passegers some with mobility issues which is not a judgement nor problem just true. One of our table mates on O was a 90 year old man who still worked was very active and an absolute gem. Age is relative.  I prefer nice kind folks of any age.

[Waltershipman]

1 hour ago, ksmcali said:

This has been a very interesting thread.  We (my husband and I) are Gen-X and have never sailed a luxury line....yet!  We started on Carnival long ago for our honeymoon, tried Holland America and Royal Caribbean, before migrating to Norwegian for many cruises in The Haven there.  It provided a level of luxury for us that still presented lots of kid friendly activities for our daughter.  Most recently, as our daughter is now older and about to graduate high school, we've moved over to Celebrity in upper level suites in The Retreat.  Again, it provides an overall family fit for us at this point in our life.  But, daughter is about to head off to college and we will be empty nesters able to travel anytime of the year, although as mentioned earlier, likely not for more than 10ish days, since hubby still does have a job.  We're mid-40s looking for a luxury line that we can enjoy, but don't want to be the "youngsters" onboard.  I certainly don't mind an older demographic, but prefer not to be the anomaly, which was the case for us when we sailed Holland America.

 

I had originally planned for Oceania to be our first "Just You and Me Again" luxury cruise, as it seems to fit our profile most.  But, Explora Journey has piqued my interest.  Certainly after reading through this thread, I do feel like we may be their target demographic.  The cabins certainly look attractive and shorter 7-day itineraries (few and far between on other luxury brands) fits our needs, as it allows for us to better squeeze it into his work schedule.  I've been following along with reviews since the ship set sail and was a little put off by the negative comments, but was hesitantly optimistic that the kinks would get worked out.  I popped over here today specifically because some else posted on the Celebrity boards how much they enjoyed their Explora Journey cruise.  Thank you all for the advisement!  I think I'll keep a close watch on EJ 2025 itineraries!

Forgot to mention that Explora journeys is much more luxurious 

[Whipsnade]

Even though I have been a critic of Explora (we are mid 80s)we did enjoy our month on Explora. What you have said about yourselves I think you will be very happy on Explora. Give it  a shot!!

[Waltershipman]

5 minutes ago, Whipsnade said:

Even though I have been a critic of Explora (we are mid 80s)we did enjoy our month on Explora. What you have said about yourselves I think you will be very happy on Explora. Give it  a shot!!

Good to hear and agree We booked again for next year