Stickman1990

I’ll bite - so why would you have to do that? Why would you have assumed that Explora Journeys offering would be the same as MSCs Yacht Club? Why would they replicate what they already offer?

Room Service…. Plus Crema and Afternoon Tea I certainly didn’t spot anyone starving on our recent Explora cruise Eat at 2pm and then again at 6.30pm if those options for in between times don’t appeal

Yes the Māori were invaders and killed off the previous inhabitants whereas the Aboriginals in Australia date back a very long time I see Symphony will tender in Auckland - that’s unusual. The Auckland War Memorial Museum is pretty good but the national museum Te Papa is in Wellington - as you say not a port they’ll visit If they like gardens there are several I can recommend in the ports - your memory serves you well with both Wellington and Sydney have impressive botanic gardens Let’s see if Daisy comes back asking for suggestions - it really depends on what she’s interested in

Whilst the European history is recent - the history of the indigenous people and natural history is not so much - very ancient

Simple - be at Emporium at 1.45pm and order from the grill or choose from the various food stations - surely 15 minutes is not going to materially impact them We found they didn’t actually close on the dot of 2pm anyway - so maybe get there at 1.55pm….

Look forward to it - you’re in for a treat Many of those negative posts are coming from people who have never set foot on Explora (and possibly never will) - some are annoyed about cancellations and itinerary changes - but that has nothing to do with the onboard experience. Some just like to pick and find fault - must be a sad life for them but I guess it takes all sorts Most who have actually sailed on Explora are very happy with the experience - could some things improve - sure - but that’s true of every luxury line I’ve sailed Go with an open mind, and empty belly - judge for yourself - I think you’ll be pleasantly surprised

Here’s a video from last NYE - much clearer - those barges scattered around the harbour pack a punch IMG_8175.mov

Yes the fireworks themselves were great - and being on the water we had a great view of one of the fireworks barges as well as the bridge - the reverberations from the fireworks were amazing Heres a video I took on the night from the tender - interesting how technology and video quality has moved on in those 6 years but you’ll get the idea IMG_5790.mov

Good choice for a land based evening and a very nice restaurant too - right on Circular Quay - you’re going to have a great view on the terrace out the front as it’s elevated We did Sydney 2000 last NYE in the mid deck and it was amazing Definitely do a harbour cruise while here and we can absolutely recommend Captain Cook line The other “must do” on the water is to take the Many Ferry out to Manly and walk to the ocean beach - lots of pubs and cafes there as well as a nice beach esplanade - the ferry is a public ferry and runs regularly - cheap as chips as we say

If it were me I’d try the other social media platform and the Crystal Society group on it - Ms Levis is a regular participant in that forum and from her responses it’s very clear she is keen to assist when service levels aren’t what they should be

You’ll have a ball as Sydney does NYE so well Let me know if you want help planning your 4 days in Sydney - selecting the right NYE cruise is important and as you’ve probably found out hotels get very expensive and busy around NYE

We were on that excursion and I certainly wouldn’t call it awesome I’m afraid - but it’s certainly something we’ll never forget! That particular NYE excursion was very memorable - sadly for all the wrong reasons - it was poorly executed by Crystal who ended up compensating guests $1000 each We witnessed an actual fight between two guests over a seat on one of the two excursion tenders. They ran out of champagne on one. Basically they chose a local provider for the tenders who was certainly not up to Crystal's standards. Hopefully that never occurs again. I do stress this was old Crystal so there’s no reason to believe it would happen again We did a NYE cruise on another providers boat (Captain Cook Line - Sydney 2000) last year and there was no comparison - food and atmosphere was 10x better. If the OP is organising a private NYE cruise to enjoy the fireworks let me know and I’d be happy to give you details (ironically I put Crystal friends who were here in 2017 onto that option and they loved it - while we floated around on subpar crowded Crystal excursion boats with inadequate seating, toilet and catering facilities Re cruising and land in Australia and New Zealand - particularly on Crystal we’ve done several itineraries in the area and Sydney to Bali or reverse on multiple lines including Crystal, we live in Sydney and are from NZ. It’s a great easy way to see a variety of ports - but do try and spend sometime pre cruise to do one or two areas in depth. It’s unfortunate that the cruise you’re looking at doesn’t appear to include cruising the other fjords in Fiordland except Milford Sound - Crystal’s cartographers need a lesson as they’ve com0etely missed that detour off their map! I can see the 30 days is a combo cruise - Sydney to Sydney cruise around NZ - https://crystalcruises.com/cruises/none-csy-017-240104 - with the one after, on 21 Jan I wouldn’t bother with it if your objective is to see Australia and NZ although an overnight in Cairns is good. The rest of the itinerary is good though if you want to experience some different places like Aloutau and Komodo and ending in Bali gets you close to Singapore to head home (I’d recommend looking at Singapore Airlines Business class for an air option - they are great and the service superb) - https://crystalcruises.com/cruises/none-csy-013-240121 An alternative would be to finish in Sydney and consider a land tour to include the Indian Pacific or Ghan trains (if you can get on at short notice) or explore parts of Australia like Adelaide or South East Queensland - you could easily spend 2 weeks doing that You have a lot of options depending on your interests and ability to understand land based touring - happy to help with itinerary suggestions

Not sure how old they are but they’ll probably love the facilities in the Nautilus Club - huge space with lots of games and activities to keep them occupied

Euros - all pricing we saw is in Euros

Here’s the menu for the Yacht Club - it may help you work out the dish and sauce I've included the full menu as I’m sure others may be interested on what’s on offer We enjoyed all the dining options around the ship - and never tired of the menus and the options available

Agree they’re huge and fast lifts - the only strange thing we found was the placement of the couch seats in the middle of the waiting area for the lifts that delayed getting to lifts arriving on the other side - you have to walk around them - this may introduce a delay for someone with a disability The lifts do tend to arrive very quietly so you need to keep an eye on the indicator lights to spot your lift

We too are coffee snobs and I can report that we never had a miss when ordering barista coffees in Crema and the Explorer lounge and Fil Rouge They have good coffee, I like the Ily blend they use, and machines - and most importantly they appear to have trained the baristas in maintaining the machines and making the coffee’s - good result on expresso’s, latte’s, cappuccino’s, Irish coffee’s and espresso martini’s They have a penchant for lovely art on the crema of our latte’s as well No comments on the liquid that comes out of the automatic machines - masquerading as coffee as we don’t drink it nor do we drink the filter coffee they offer in Emporium

Our favourite restaurant as well - we need T Shirts printed with “I Love Sakura” on them My benchmark is the Nobu based Umi Uma on Crystal and the variety and quality of dishes at Sakura is ahead of that - plus Sakura is open for lunch They are onto a winner with Sakura

It doesn’t need the person to use the same credit card for payment - as long as they’re on the same cruise as the holder of the EI credit then they can use 1 EI certificate each

The cooking classes they run certainly do and you get to eat the dish you prepare - but I didn’t think of that as a restaurant I never saw any promotion or advertising of Chefs Kitchen for dining We just forgot about Anthology once we saw the price and what was on offer at the included restaurants As I’m sure you know some other luxury lines do charge for speciality restaurants - one from the first visit and another for those after an initial entitlement - supposedly to govern demand and restaurant hogging

Depends what your interests are but here are some of the sea day activities we had (working from memory so there may have been others) Trivia Dance classes Photography classes - very popular Lectures - a variety of topics including Destination, World Affairs and Music eg we had an Astro Physicist who also lectured on the Atlantic Provinces, an ex Rolling Stone journalist who spoke on the music scene, a TV producer who spoke on covering wars and political events. We also had a great session with the Danish pilots who were onboard for Greenland helping with navigation (bet that Aussie ship wishers they’d opted to engage them as well!) The quality of these speakers was the equal of those we’ve heard on other lines I never managed to get to everything I might potentially have done on sea data as we were busy socialising and eating 😂 I wouldn’t want to have a lot more as you want some relax time for socialising or relaxing by or in the pool don’t you?

Which two? Anthology certainly has but not sure what the other one is Re the number of reservations at Sakura and Marble we were allowed two at each on our 16 night cruise over the last few weeks but more importantly we dined there many nights by simply turning up and being flexible with timing (although I think it only required flexibility one night So rules and reality often vary - if you’re flexible

Thanks for posting - we were onboard for the last cruise but I never got around to posting as regularly as I usually do as we were flat out relaxing. We’re currently ensconced in a Singapore Airlines A350 for almost 19 hours from NYC to Singapore so I have the chance to reflect and contribute some comments Your initial feedback very much mirrors our experience and first impressions - elegant and spacious with many public areas. Re the pool capacity - remember there are other pools dotted around the ship although the main one is the largest Crema is great and very popular - and the Ily coffee is great. Re low chairs - I’m afraid it’s not just Crema - lots of seating is quite low - must have been selected by young designers - but there are usually one or two options for slightly higher seats that you can find in lounges You’re going to love the caviar options - I think available in most of the restaurants - the scallops and caviar in Sakura were amongst our favourites. Sakura was our favourite restaurant for lunch and dinner and the maître d there is super attentive - in face the whole team of servers and bar staff were - but to be fair we found service around the ship to be excellent If your wife likes lamb chops she’s in for many treats of New Zealand lamb (as opposed to the French ones in Marble) - Sakura does a wonderful smoked chops and the lamb chops in the other restaurants always met with my wife’s approval. It’s hard to believe anyone could eat a double order of those lamb chops in Marble. I agree with you on the sides - the signature Brussel Sprouts were served very crisp - a lost opportunity to showcase a delicious vegetable (that will get the crowd on its feet! 😂😂😂) I'm usually a San Pelligrino snob but I just settled for the standard sparkling water and it was fine - a friend had them provide her with small bottles of San Pelligrino so she was satisfied. I suspect it’s like Cokegate - experiences varied between guests We enjoyed the entertainment and the format of sets in the open theatre which is a very relaxed and comfortable setting. Monique and Tanya will look after you on the entertainment and activities front - if you like Trivia I hope they manage to fit some sessions in - not sure how many sea days you have I can’t comment on shore excursions as we did our own thing and used providers like Viator. We did talk to some friends who had misses on the quality with one of their excursions and Explora offered a partial refund in recognition of the miss Re them not being flexible - I think you’ll find once you start to identify some of the senior staff you will find there is flexibility - the Food & Beverage Manager is always around and available to chat - I believe he wants to get feedback and is open to making improvements. The junior staff won’t make variations as I suspect they are under orders to maintain certain standards - so if you feel something could be improved have a chat to the maître d or other senior staff who are very visible in restaurants and lounges Enjoy your back to back - I’ll certainly enjoy following along as we get used to feeding ourselves and picking up our own towels Glad the New York christening arrangements are sorted - sadly they seem to be lacking in their shoreside office communications and they have created angst which could have been largely avoided if they outlined the choices more clearly

Talk to your TA - there are all sorts of incentives available to them to offer to clients - well worth putting them to the test and you may be pleasantly surprised just what they can come up with even before you cruise (many are subject to time limits/periods)

No one knows how much you will get back from Moecker - they’re educated guesstimates at the moment until the court approves payments and the way they are calculated. It’s likely to be less than $4000 though If you have used the EI credits (spread across 5 seperate uses) then you will receive the full $4000