no1talks

There must be more to the place than a sauna, salt room, and thalasso pool, yes?

Not from the speakeasy "pre-gaming" elsewhere on the ship.

Those stairs plus alcohol consumption: What could possibly go wrong??

Well, I don't have a machete and my rapier is too unwieldy in safari-related foliage. (Besides, I'd never get it through security. 😆) However, I have hoofed it part-way up St. Peter Mountain for a rather disappointing, yet de rigueur banana daiquiri.

Were there many "untamed landscapes" on your cruise, @morpheusofthesea? Good thing Explora issues machetes for all applicable excursions.

Well, a Q4 suite on Queen Victoria with butler service and Queens Grill dining would hardly be steerage. Unfortunately, you go for florida-to-florida itineraries and many of the 2025 world cruises would be off the table, like the Cunard suite I mentioned.

$70k? That will get you a 2025 world cruise and I don't mean just a Costa world cruise.

Ice cream instead of gelato? Quelle horreur!

As for myself, I have Hungadunga, Hungadunga, Hungadunda, Hungadunga, & McCormick on retainer.

Thank you, kind sir, for the endorsement. In recent years, as the nature of Explora Journeys was being hinted at and contemplated, I expected it would be a cruise line for which I would have keen interest. Now that reviews, pictures, and video are circulating, I am disinclined to have a go. The color scheme appears to be so muted, the most rested part of my post-cruise body would likely be the cone cells of my retinas. Of course, the Aponte family can't go down the Swarovski path again, but would some vivacity in the color palette have been so bad? Some people cruise Virgin Voyages for a wee bit of "50 Shades of Gray" during their cruise. It would seem Explora Journeys is offering an esthetic experience akin to 50 shades of beige. I'm more than willing to stipulate the food is magnificent. Many have said so with conviction. As it happens, we live a hop, skip, and jump from a metropolitan area of 9.5 million people. There are a lifetime's worth of excellent restaurants serving cuisine of all stripes. Getting such food on a cruise really doesn't add to the value proposition for us. Accordingly, the Yacht Club's fare does very nicely for our vacation. I'm also willing to accept Explora does port calls, especially tendered ports, better than what one experiences while sailing YC. However, any smaller ship can get to the closer and prettier docking spaces and we really avoid tendered ports anyway. So, nothing on this topic screams, "Book Explora." And what of Ocean Cay? Has there been any demonstration that an Explora day at OC is worthy of the cost when compared to a YC day? Ultimately, there may be enough cruisers who pick up the less-is-more-so-I'll-pay-more vibe, which I think Explora is laying down. For the foreseeable future, I won't be one of them. Besides, if I want to ditch YC for a bit, Cunard is putting a year-round ship in the US in '25 or '26. I can jump to a Princess or Queens Grill booking for way less than Explora charges. Cunard serves scones with afternoon tea, too, which are lacking on Explora, so I'm told.

Mauritius must be a great place for sourcing butlers, because Renuka is from there as well. She took excellent care of us back in March. (I seem to remember you mentioning her as your butler on a prior cruise.) MSC has an itinerary out of South Africa that stops at Mauritius. It's on our short list, once we switch to flying for a cruise.

"We have met the enemy and he is us." - Walt Kelly in Pogo.

Based on YC reports from World Europa, I'm hesitant to book World America's YC. A great many more rooms without a proportionate increase in dining room and lounge size is not a plus.

Then it's a good thing you stick to the walk-in showers.

So, @morpheusofthesea, are you telling us your cruise is turning into a John Hughes film?

Do the food trucks serve the same burgers and such, as with regular MSC ships' days at the island? As I understand it, MSC days still include a buffet, in addition to the food trucks. Was the island buffet available for Explora? Thank you very much for your observations.

Not just Italians. European cultures that patiently queue are the minority. My wife is from Europe (non-Italian) and on our first MSC cruise some years ago. she was appalled at all her fellow Europeans skipping queues. Whenever she encountered line-jumpers who were speaking her native language, she read them the Riot Act. It was quite amusing to see their stunned faces as an imposing six-foot tall blonde gave them a proper earful, out of the blue.

We skip lunch on port days, so we hasten back to the ship to freshen up for tea and suitable accompaniments. A few hours later, it is time to dress for dinner.

With winter approaching, it's a good thing you live in Florida. Prosecco corks are notorious for their lousy traction in snow.

Of course, MSC can (and may) change Top Sail snack policy seventeen times before we are next in YC. However, I do hope other snack categories are ready in the kitchen and butlers are cleared to bring them out, by individual request. If not, our customary afternoon tea will very much fall short with only "Assorted nuts, chips & marinated olives." If such becomes standard operating procedure in YC, Cunard will have a ship in North America year-round, starting in '26. I'm quite sure they can do better than nuts, chips, and olives for their tea service. 😉

Well, if there is only one roulette table now, the other was replaced with craps. A pair of roulette tables were at the front end of the blackjack tables.

I know the cuisine on Explora I is being touted as stellar, but this is where I draw the line.

Do you know what was removed to accommodate the table?

It is not unheard of for MSC to do things differently between European and North American cruises. Booking an Aurea experience for World Europa could possibly be different. It wouldn't surprise me a bit.