Dr. Cocktail

Without insulting you, have you checked on TripAdvisor (Cruise Critic's parent!) for the Lamanai Ruins under tours? Viator is also a TripAdvisor company. There may be some available that are already "prepackaged" as such.

You really should bring this up with the General Manager. It's not particularly acceptable....

If you call EJ, they will send you a PDF of all of the available excursions. Much easier to browse through.

So funny .... I don't eat cereal or granola, yogurt or drink OJ (except as a matrix for vodka) so my eyes wouldn't catch those as being missing! Now as to the bread selection, I will defer to uktog and say that they were spectacular! I like the poached egg/avocado toast/egg specialty station and there actually were omelette stations. I particularly liked the smoked fish station along with the assorted charcuterie and cheeses. But - we'll never convince each other!

I’m rather surprised by your comments re luxury standards breakfast. I’m curious to hear who you feel does it better?

My guess is that there are a lot of new staff as the more experienced ones have left for/are on vacation before they board E 2. I've seen this sort of thing on other cruise lines when they launch a new ship.

It’s all good … until it isn’t! We’ve had sooooooo many delayed arrivals over the years in Fll, Mia, NYC and Cape Liberty with reasons ranging from medical emergencies to port traffic to 🌫️ fog….. People on the other boards blithely dispense (lack of) wisdom and say “I’ve never had a problem” but they’re not the ones paying for your new flight if you’re late! They also haven’t witnessed people FREAKING OUT because they’ve missed their flight. And it’s just not a matter of coughing up a thousand dollars 💵 to get back to Alabama - with flights being overbooked, you could be stuck for a day or two. The answer ALWAYS lies in 🍷🍸🍹and 🥟🥠🫒. As I tell my friends, if you can afford the cruise, you can afford the lounge pass!

On our arrival in Miami in March, US Customs sent TWO agents for 600+ passengers and crew…. and MANY were from Europe whose clearance was EACH 5 MINUTES. It literally took hours to get off the ship….

Np! I would try to book a cabin on the port side of the ship or more specifically, the side OPPOSITE from the Crema Cafe. The cafe allows smoking on its outside seating.

We sailed in a PH on deck 7 aft with no noise issues whatsoever.

Antholo-Gino’s? Antony-gy? Pastology?

Honest - that wasn’t a feature when we were on!

You have to ask at reception.

True, true….🤔

Did you lose a bet?

You mean it’s NOT A Small World After All?!

I have agreed with many of your posts and statements but these two? I dunno….. There’s really no way of knowing why Explora was launched ….. I would be more suspicious of MSC’s seeing the incredible success of Viking and thinking that they could do better AND have a product that they could sell globally. The Yacht Club formula was basically to revive the old First and Second Class system with a twist - common entertainment facilities but with a private hotel component. As for the marketing - I’ve stated this before and can’t state this enough - Explora is NOT just an “All Yacht Club Ship” just as Regent is not an all “Haven” ship and Silversea is not an all “Retreat” ship. They are extremely different animals catering to clients with very different needs and expectations.

I was literally chatting with my agent last week about this same issue. She has seen an uptick in interest in Regent because of their "all-inclusive" nature. Many of her clients literally want to make one booking and have someone else handle the rest. We have friends who are long-time Regent cruisers and again, they like Concierge and above cabins so that the pre-departure hotel is included. They were shocked at our Recent Celebrity Apex sailing that involved individual bookings for: 3 flights, three private transfers, one hotel, 7 theater tickets, three museums, one Norwegian State Railway ticket, one Geiranger bus tour and one shore excursion!

We are (were?) frequent Haven cruisers and have no immediate plans to return. We do, however, have three more Explora sailings booked! As I've stated on these boards, I'm just off Celebrity Apex which was 8 weeks after my second Explora. The eye twitching is abating but I still have PCSD!

Absolutely .... but, um, it's been only 9 months! I know that I'm a cheerleader for Explora - but - there are a LOT of industry interviews in print and video with statements from the Vago family. They point blankly state that they don't have to care about pleasing shareholders. As a wholly owned family business that has been around for over 50 years, they take the long view on most everything. Again, they have stated (and people can scoff) that they plan on dominating the luxury segment. Back to your initial quote - I think that a "reasonable time" for a start-up cruise line would be 5 years to see where you stand. Celebrity didn't make any money for their first 8 years until they were bought out by RCI.

Loving your review! My new shaver actually recharges on a usb port - 🤷‍♂️. For our second sailing on E1, I brought a usb nightlight! But …. an outlet would have been better!

Hey - we still talk about entering the Grand Dining room on Celebrity Century almost 30 years (!!!!) ago on the upper level and walking past the orchestra as you descended the grand staircase!!! Our memories play tricks on us but it was remarkable how 900 people could be served a SUPERB dinner simultaneously with no need of specialty restaurants. But .... I've hijacked this topic enough...

I am a cruising addict and my partner enjoys it but not to my level. He's much more rational but after about 5 days of hearing people say "Celebrity is my FAVOURITE line", he was "um, could you please tell me why?" Pictures can NOT show how these ships ultimately don't work. Not a single "enclosed" lounge to have a quiet drink or chat, practically no live music but pumped in aggressive prerecorded music everywhere, dining areas far too small for the number of passengers and a constant din because of the numbers of people. It's been 13 years so my memory may not be serving me well but the Solstice Class ships were far superior.

We have sailed on Celebrity 33 times with over 250 days onboard but had a civilized separation almost a decade ago. It was becoming apparent that the product had become Royal Caribbean with a bit of rouge applied. We tried again 5 years ago and had a terrible experience but yet returned as their Norwegian Fjords itinerary was perfect for us. As I always tell friends, itinerary is always number #1 and you can usually suck it up for a week or two! (ie get over yourself!) But .... after having read soooooo much about the Edge Class ships (pro and con) I was unprepared for how it all just didn't work! It really was like someone had floated a high-end mall to sea with a capacity of 2000 but loaded it up with 3000 instead for ... just because. I know some people go between Carnival and Seabourn or the like but it just didn't work for us. The noise! The crowds! The lines! I have yet to try Seabourn or Crystal (and will be on Seabourn later this year) but Explora is a good fit for me at this stage of my life.

Gary: I have really enjoyed your previous posts and your definitive Haven reviews. As a long time and frequent Haven cruise - don't worry. You're going to have a fabulous time! I've been on two Explora sailings, have three more booked and am likely going to book a 4th in the next week! As I found on my Celebrity sailing last week, there's no going back!