KJB416

The shore excursions are full (not sure about sold out as I did not check that) but the team is very accommodating and they work with you to make sure you get what you want or will switch things around. They worked with me on my excursions and I now have a lot of onboard credit. They do not credit back my credit card. Seemed pretty complicated, but I can use the onboard credit for something else. I think on these first cruises the excursions can be booked once on board without them selling out, but it’s hard to say once the ships are sailing full and when that will be.

We found out that our ship has 407 people on board. It’s hard to find crowds anywhere and none of the dining venues are full. They are still limiting reservations to one per voyage at Marble and Sarkura. We were not impressed with the quality of meat in Marble and did not care to try for another night. We are going to try to walk in tonight to Sakura for another try for dinner. We love the Emporium, Med Yacht Club and Fil Rouge. The service is excellent with everyone going out their way to accommodate us and the crew could not be more friendly and helpful. There are a lot of deck chairs and loungers on 11 and 12 and so if the ship was full and a sunny day you may not get a chair at one of the pools, but they are all around the ship with views out to sea.

We boarded Tuesday, August 8 at 1:20pm (13:20) with ease. I printed my luggage tags and heath questionnaire beforehand, but they will do it for you, but it saves time if you have it done. There were no lines. Rooms were not ready until 3pm approximately and bags would be delivered between 3-4pm. We went to Emporium for the buffet lunch and it was crowded but not terribly so. Plenty of seating the further back you walked into the restaurant. The food was great! Prime rib, pizza and a risotto is what we sampled and all great! The ship is beautiful and our OTI room is very comfortable. Balcony is nice. We had dinner in Sakura last night with premade reservations through our travel agent made about a month ago. It was full and tables are close, but it was fine and the sushi bar was empty and anyone can walk in for dinner without reservation and order off the sushi menu only. food was excellent as was the service. They have Japanese beers in Sakura which they do not advertise so ask for a Sapporo if you like it with your sushi. The ship does not feel full and we had a hard time finding anyone is lounges before or after dinner. We do not stay up late but they do have late night dancing and DJ that start 10 or 11pm. Too late for us at this time in our lives, especially after full days of exploring. Breakfast at Emporium was easy and they have the same items as fil rouge but it’s just a buffet (you hand your plate to server and they put food on your plate and hand it back) instead of sit down service as far as I can tell. The weather has been phenomenal as we cruise the coast of Iceland and i walked the jogging track and husband was able to swim laps in the observatory pool. It’s really warm in this pool area with the glass enclosure and it was crowded but not so much that you couldn’t find a chair. Plenty of chaise lounges available all around the decks and it’s a gorgeous day. We got one of the outdoor jacuzzis to ourself although I did see several people using them as I walked the track. There are a lot of kids on the cruise, but no issues at all so far. Everyone is well behaved. The service has been excellent. They are having growing pains and finding out answers for you with follow ups, etc,, but everyone goes out of their way to accommodate us and we are enjoying the crew. It seems there are a lot of new crew, and I think it will all come together nicely as they learn their way, but everyone we have come into contact with has been wonderful. I did ask about reservations for Marble and Sakura our first day and, as has been reported, they are not offering second reservations at these venues on “this short cruise”. You are able to book anthology as many times as you like however. It also says nowhere ont he tv/menu for the restaurants that you are limited to one reservation per week of cruising. It says reservations are recommended only. I will report back at the end of our trip on how this goes for us. We are eating at Marble tonight. One thing to note that I am not happy about it that I booked my shore excursions or destination experience before our trip and paid in US dollars as it indicated was the cost. I have shipboard credit and I asked today if I could use the shipboard credit to pay for one of the tours in refund it US dollars and the ambassador I spoke to seemed like it was possible but had to check and when she called back a few hours later she informed me it’s not possible to use the shipboard credit for the already paid for excursions. It’s also showing the price listed on board in Euro and it’s less than what I paid. I’ve asked them to look into it as I feel I’m getting the short end of the stick here as I paid before I got on the cruise and now I can’t use my shipboard credit and it’s cheaper to book it while on board. This so far is the only thing I’m not happy about. I hope we can get it straightened out and they at leak at charge me the going rate they are charging those that book while on board. I’ll try and answer any questions that come up but we have two busy days ahead with those now extremely expensive destination experiences I pre booked.

We board on August 8 and I’ll definitely report back on the feel and atmosphere of the restaurants and the ease of getting multiple reservations at Marble and Sakura. You do need to book reservations through your travel agent (or direct with EJ if no TA was used) which has not been communicated well to these first cruisers and also there has been nothing communicated anywhere to say only one evening of dining is allowed in the reservation required restaurants (Sakura and Marble). I wonder if they are being as strict with allowing only one reservation in Anthology as well per booking? I heard my sailing is almost full and this was quite shocking to me since a lot of cabins were available 6 weeks before sailing. My TA asked last week how full the ship will be and the EJ advisor said it was almost full. I’m not that excited about sailing with other TA’s and influencers that are getting their trip for free and taking up my space at a dining venue. I understand it’s the first sailings, but it doesn’t seem fair to those that have paid to go on a luxury cruise line that promises all this and more to go without so those who are getting a free ride get it instead. Anyway, time will tell. I’m just looking forward to it actually sailing and reporting back a fair assessment. I’ve only sailed on Regent, so I am expecting a lot and I really hope they deliver.

I downloaded the app last week and uploaded passport information , added Live Photos and a credit card for my husband and I. I am all checked in now and when I log into the app (you must put your name and booking number in each time to log in) it just shows our cabin number and that we are checked in with a link to our boarding pass. There’s nothing else in there at this time. Perhaps once on board it will be more interactive, but for now, unless I’m missing something, it’s purely for checking in. You can not proceed with the check in without taking a Live Photo of yourself. I was not prepared to take a pic of myself and my husband was not around so I just took a photo of a recent photo of each of us and uploaded it. It does not allow you to access your photo library. That part was frustrating because you can not move on without it. I hope more features become available as time goes on. Restaurant and shore excursion information would be great. I forgot that it also has a countdown clock: 9 days: 7 hours: 55 minutes until I sail. That’s fun!

Thank you so much for posting the menus and other pictures since I’m not on Facebook. It looks amazing and I can’t wait until we sail on August 8. We leave in just under a week and all the recent stress seems to be worth what I’m seeing. I’m super excited!

Thank you! I had my TA book Sakura and Marble and there was no issue. I understand that you can book additional nights once on board, but only one night per restaurant before the cruise. We are not interested in pre booking Anthology.

Well I’ve paid for my shore excursions (per Explora’s request) and booked our dining reservations for our Aug. 8-15 sailing. I had checked in my husband and I over a month ago, received the printable bag tags etc., but my husband is still getting emails from EJ for him to check in. This has been, and continues to be, a very stressful situation that I feel I have no control over. I truly hope the Aug. 1 cruise sails and my cruise thereafter and we can report back that once on board the service and treatment far exceeded any of our expectations. I’m looking forward to be wowed and taken care of since it’s been a pretty miserable past few weeks and until that ship has left the Monfalcone dock, I will not be resting easy.

It’ showing still in Skagen on August 14, so yes we will see if they are changing the itinerary to Kiel. I don’t really care as long as it’s a go. Some possible positive news in that my TA was contacted by EJ today and they requested that I pay for my shore excursions. I’ve been waiting to pay for them since I wanted to understand the cancellation policy better, but have had them in my cart for a few weeks ready to purchase.

Interesting. Thanks for the information.

Thank you so much for posting. It seems like it’s going to be just a wait and see approach and continue to scour the internet for any news. I’ve been looking for days for any news to no avail. Thanks again!

We are also on the Aug. 8th - 15th sailing and we have heard nothing from Explora. I am beyond stressed with trying to make contingency plans if the new inaugural cruise dates get pushed. This is very challenging to do in Iceland with hotel availability being slim to none. I really don’t know what to do about my car rental (we have 4 nights hotels with car rental pre cruise already booked) or outbound flights to get to Copenhagen as we fly out of there on Aug 17th and have non refundable hotel rooms there post cruise. It’s really a shame that they have had no communication with those cruising in August/September. It’s been a week since they’ve decided to cancel the July 17th inaugural cruise and I feel an update would go a long way with easing some of the anxiety of not knowing what’s going to happen and just waiting for some news. This is definitely not how I want to be spending the weeks before a vacation. It sure does not feel luxurious in any way at this point.

I agree we probably won’t need reservations in the restaurants, but was just emailed last week that they are working out the kinks with the reservation system and it should be up and running by mid month. I’m not too concerned if it’s not as I don’t think a reservation will be necessary on my cruise. Please do let us know how it goes on the July 17th sailing. I can’t wait to hear what everyone thinks.

I was told dining reservations should be open around July 15th for my August 8, 2023 cruise.

It’s working fine for me too. You click on details and then under experiences, on the right hand side, click on the paper with pencil icon and the excursions being offered are there.

My bookings page is just spinning and will not load, so they must be doing work on their site. I have not had an issue with it before not loading or displaying the experiences.

I was able to get the current promotion on my booking in August 2023 with Diamond status, so thank you all again for posting about the loyalty matching program on MSC.

After reading through this topic I provided my Regent status to MSC and received Diamond status with about 72 hours. I’ve just emailed my TA asking her to request the promotion for Diamond status and I’m eager to hear if Explora will apply it to our Aug 8, 2023 booking. I started looking at Explora when they offered the 10% off for pay if full and when we decided to move forward with the cruise, they had brought this discount down to 5% so I was pretty upset about just missing out on a few hundred dollars off, so I will be extremely happy if I am able to get this promo or anything extra with it. I’m really exiting to try a brand new ship and I wanted to explore Iceland. Regent has gotten so expensive I can’t justify paying their fares. Anyway, I just wanted to say thank for for posting about the MSC loyalty matching program and I will report back if I’m successful in applying the promotion to my booked cruise in 2023.