daleandrews

That was also the practice when we were on Azamara a few years back.

Some years back we did the island tour with eventual drop off at the airport. It worked out well. As I remember we bargained for the tour with a driver who was lined up at the terminal. Sometimes cruise companies will offer a transfer to the airport that includes some form of island tour. I don't know if Crystal plans to do this but would not be surprised. Incidentally, we are booked on that Quebec City to Barbados cruise next fall.

Don't know if this has already been covered -- on board now and falling behind on reading messages -- but another interesting restroom innovation -- the sinks have what appears to be three identical brass spigots. At first I thought "huh??" But if you hold your hand under the first one on the right it dispenses soap. Move on to the middle one and it turns on with water. Then place your hand under the third one on the left and it shoots out hot air to dry your hands. (There are also rolled up cloth towels for anyone not interested in an "air dry"!}

Just a little possible reality check here. The vast majority of the comments on other media sites are overwhelmingly positive. I get the problems (very real) relating to cancelled cruises and withheld reimbursement -- but the product currently being delivered is being praised by on board customers on websites other than this one. Anyway, I board on September 2. So I will see for myself.

Just for the sake of clarity, there is no restaurant listed in post #17 that opens for dinner at 9:00. All of the restaurants listed according to that post open at either 6:30 or 7:00 p.m. (For me, the only way I can decipher 24 hour clocks is by counting on my fingers!) 🙂

It's the second day out -- the Isle of Lewis. It's been listed on the itinerary correctly for quite a while but back when we first booked and tours were first available the second day out was a port on the Isle of Skye. I had booked a tour there but then cancelled it when they changed the itinerary and booked the new tour for Isle of Lewis.

I added a tour the other week for a substituted port on our Glasgow to NYC trip and also found that there was absolutely no payment button that would "click" to enter payment information. I sent Explora an email asking about this and they sent back an email letter with a link at the bottom for payment. When I clicked the link to pay, however, and after selecting "credit card" and providing my card information, the site returned a page asking if I wanted to proceed to payment BUT the amount shown on that page was the total price of the whole cruise (which I had long since paid), not the cost of just the newly added excursion. I wasn't going to click that (!!) so I emailed Explora again and was told that I had to delete the erroneous total cruise price on the page and insert the amount for the newly added excursion. That worked but . . . the experience indicates that all of this is still pretty much a work in progress. 🙂

Oops. Left the 70 bouy in the wake a few years back. They will have to take me as I am when we board on September 2! 🙂

We will watch you from the deck. 🙂 (Boarding in Glasgow on the 2nd.)

I have no idea. Just quoting someone who is on the ship. Ask me in 3 weeks when I am on the ship! 🙂

Curious also. (We board on September 2 for the 23 day sail from Glasgow to NYC.) On one of the Facebook Explora fan pages a current passenger posted within the last day "pretty easy to get reservations, the venues are of good size to accommodate the amount of people. Med & Fil Rouge were walk in for us no reservation needed."

Yep. Explora made a big deal of it when the they hired him.

Great compilation of pictures!

We board on September 2 also!

We will be on board for that as well!

Hope you have a great trip! (Maybe a shot of vodka in that lemonade?)

One has to hope that Explora has all the information concerning when it will receive replacement panels and how long it will take to substitute them and that this was carefully considered when they reported on the new delivery date. The problem is, for all of us, this is unknown information. I was on a Southwest flight once where the plane was indefinitely delayed. After a few minutes a Southwest engineer came into the waiting area carrying a mechanical apparatus in his hands. He asked for everyone's attention. We all gathered round and then he explained what the apparatus did during landing and explained that if there was a problem with it a light went off in the cockpit. That had happened. He explained that the problem was likely the light, not the apparatus, but that we couldn't take off until they knew for sure. He told us what would be involved in finding this out and told us what the likely delay would be if it was the apparatus versus if it was the light. Southwest then gave repeated updates on the process and ultimately reported on the repair made and we took off an hour or so late. Nobody complained. Everyone was calm. That was because Southwest brought us into the process so we didn't sit around worrying out wild possibilities. That's transparency. For the life of me I can't figure out why companies don't generally understand that that is how to best approach a situation like this.

We are booked on the September 2 cruise out of Glasgow to NYC and had a similar assurance that no cruises other than those in July will be affected, sent by Explora after our TA sent a "what's going on" query yesterday. It is maddening that this problem occurred so late, and more than maddening for those who lost out on a July cruise. If this is the LAST problem and all will be well in the next couple weeks Explora will be correct in assuring that the other cruises will be unaffected. Nothing to do but trust them at this juncture and wait and see. Though I admit that relying on the assurances is rather like watching the box that contains Schrodinger's dead or alive cat.

So sorry. Been there and done that in the past. 😞

As of now (5:00 p.m. EDT) no July voyages show up on the website. They were there still an hour ago when I last checked. Voyages show up as beginning on August 1. Don't know how much to rely on this since the website was all over the place yesterday -- with no cruises, sold out, and all cruises. But I would guess that as of now this indicates the thinking at Explora is that July journies are off the table.

They are now displaying again for me as well. Strange -- for two hours this morning the only voyages listed were those for August and beyond.

If you search for voyages for the month of July on the Explora website as of this morning no voyages show up. According to one of the news stories they said the inaugural is still scheduled BUT this will either be confirmed or changed in the next few days.

The Emporium is supposed to be table service, not a buffet, and is open for breakfast. And if that is too buffet-like Fil Rouge is described on the Explora website as being open for breakfast.

This is a little off the most recent discussion but just curious -- some time back in one of their webinars on youtube a rep from Explora said that there would be online ability prior to embarkation to select in cabin preferences -- liquor for mini-bar, pillow type, mattress comfort (they apparently have, according to him, adjustable beds) and also restaurant reservations. We are embarking September 2 and have yet to see anything indicating that this can be done in advance. Has anyone closer to embarkation than us had a different experience. (I suspect that this is something that just isn't working yet but as sailing date approaches it has me sort of curious!)

We will be watching as well! We sail Glasgow to NYC, 23 days, departing on September 2. Optimistically expecting a great trip. Hope they have most of the kinks out by the inaugural -- I note that they cancelled the formal christening and shake down cruise for media that was supposed to take place the week before the inaugural cruise but they are still planning for a media open house of the ship the two days before the inaugural. Hoping for some videos of the actual ship interior!