kelleherdl

On 2/15/2024 at 3:19 AM, mike@sea said:

Just noticed that EJ deployed a new website user interface version, which will allow you, once it works ( which is not yet the case as I am writing this ) , to log into your profile, then go to menu symbol on the pages upper left side ( as the bookings don’t automatically appear ), select My Explora account at the bottom, then My Trips, then open the dedicated reservation and all new menu items appear on the left side of your screen, including „Restaurant Reservations“.

Huzzah! 

Guests should definitely log into their accounts. I did this morning and noticed that one segment of one our ‘extended journeys’ disappeared. I’ve already messaged my agent to confirm that it’s still there on the booking portal.  In their haste to delete non-confirmed options they may have inadvertently deleted a confirmed reservation.

i agree. When the new guest portal is fully up it will be much better.

Dennis

9 minutes ago, BirdTravels said:

This is true if it is a US closed loop cruise (leaving and returning to the same US port) and the person is a US citizen and they have an original/certified birth certificate from your county/state. No copies. No hospital notices of birth. 

Only addition to the list of birth certificates is the Department of State or Consular Certificate of Birth Abroad. Some of the older ones and from certain consulates are very intricate with ribbons and wax stamps. Personally, if I had one I would definitely get a passport, as I would hate to be carrying it around just to go on a cruise. I would have mine framed, particularly if it was signed by the sitting Secretary of State at the time. 

2 hours ago, sammee said:

Just seeing this post now. I was on the 1/26 cruise. I had a passport, sister in law did the license & birth certificate. It was fine and when we left the ship, the following week, facial recognition worked for the birth certificate too. So we blew right through there. That made one of the workers happy who was helping us with the luggage. He said it was a 50/50 chance when leaving with it, lol.

Did your sister-in-law also have a passport, but sailed with license and birth certificate? There is no way that a driver license/birth certificate combination should have worked in the passport facial recognition line. The facial recognition system used for immigration uses the global passport biometric database. Normally, all returning birth certificate passengers must have their documents personally inspected by a CPB Officer. It is possible that a valid passport holder, NOT expired, will be recognized; even though they boarded with license and birth certificate. Lucky happenstance here I think.

42 minutes ago, alserrod said:

 

 

Get this point of view...

 

you go to an airport, you get a plane to Bahamas, you arrive Bahamas and, instead of your passport, you say you just have a driving licence....

 

What should Bahamas inmigration team say about it?

Same for the cruise

The most likely is that the individual would never have been allowed to board the plane to the Bahamas.  A driver license alone will not get you on the plane. A passport is required. The use of driver license plus birth certificate is only valid for a closed loop cruise from and back to a US port.

On 2/12/2024 at 8:33 PM, Keys Kathy said:

We just got off Seascape. While the Butler was taking us to Yacht Club she stopped by deck 7 so they could swipe our cards. We still had to watch the video and call into 811. 

 

We got on a little after 12:00.

If this has changed great to hear. If MSC fleet wide is using this procedure it is a great improvement. It makes perfect sense to do it this way. I know NCL asks you to visit your muster station as you board. It will require scarce crew on turnaround day to man those muster stations to scan, but it’s a small price to pay to alleviate the mass movement after the on-tv safety briefing.

does anyone know if this a general change or just a courtesy for Yacht Club?

On 1/8/2024 at 9:48 PM, saminina said:

Your knowledge exceeds mine.   I've lived under delusion that crew on Explora are paid flat salary when signing a contract.  The crew does not expect gratuities.    It is not a separate line item.  If a segment has ten or 900 passengers, crew are paid flat rate.

 

Of course, any passenger can do what they want to do for tipping individuals.  It is contrary to the original intent of all inclusive and why crew fund is popular to express gratitude.

I guess we do have separate understandings of what is ‘included?’  From the EJ FAQ’s…..

1 hour ago, Beamafar said:

A butler will fetch a wheelchair from the YC stock and bring it down to the terminal.  Just let them know that you need one.

The OP asked about wheelchairs at the Yacht Club tent. I mentioned that wheelchair availability once in the terminal has not been a problem. I have never seen wheelchairs outside the terminal at the Yacht Club tent. Again most of my experience has been at US ports with some in Southern Caribbean and Northern Europe.

5 hours ago, bbrule7 said:

We have a booking for yacht club deck 16 in April 2024 and have a few questions.

Is it possible to get a wheelchair at the yacht club tent, Wife would need help getting through check in and embarcation

Is there an elevator in the yacht  club area to acess the dining room and the pool area

We usually download movies to our ipads. Is it possible to connect our ipads to the room tv to watch the movies. If yes which cables would be necessary

 

I’ve never seen wheelchairs available at the Yacht Club tents outside either Miami or Port Canaveral. I can’t remember about Barbados or Point a Pitre. I have seen them inside the terminal; also going through Immigration at disembarkation.  I would suggest you arrange either a personal wheelchair, or one from the mobility vendors supplying outside the terminal.

On 2/7/2024 at 6:53 PM, Best Cat Mom said:

From a post on 27 September in the YC personnel thread:

 

"Arthur is leaving his role as Maitre 'D of the YC restaurant in a couple of weeks this month, October and his place will be taken by Mauricio."

By Arthur’s own Facebook post he is on Meraviglia right now. He always keeps his FB friends up to date on his travel.

9 hours ago, CaroleP58 said:

As our 9 night cruise has gone on, I have been more and more impressed with the EJ entertainment. Guest artiste  Lisa Press was excellent, both as Céline Dion and a more low key performance and the ships’s resident artists and band have been great. We tripped across excellent bands playing in the smaller lounges. Overall, I don’t see the problem with the entertainment is. It’s been really good.

It’s becoming more and more clear that what the VP for Entertainment (or whatever he is at EJ) told us about the early days during the inaugural season. He said that booking entertainment for the first season was a significant challenge as the entertainers who are booked for cruises are generally committed a year or more in advance. Remember the delays in delivering EJI?  He said we would see marked improvement as the year got on as they were now getting that great talent. I hope EJ II already has their entertainment booked for her inaugural season. We have two cruises booked. 😀

9 hours ago, George C said:

We really liked food for yacht club on the island , waiter service had a really nice lobster roll 

You may not even have to miss the lobster roll at One Pool Grill. They often will have the lobster roll available there. I would ask upstairs in the morning at breakfast if they will have lobster rolls at the grill for lunch.

Just use you passport First Name and Passport Last name.  When your passport is scanned at boarding your full passport name will be put on the manifest for the cruise. What you put in the booking will be overwritten. Your cruise card will be printed with the booking name. It will not be a problem.

13 hours ago, Whipsnade said:

Neither Explora or Silversea serve real maple syrup. Crystal does. 
when booking PH on Explora be careful as many of those suites have tubs only, no separate shower. Whoever heard of building new ship with no separate shower?? . 

I distinctly recall that the bottle used to fill the pitcher at the pancake/waffle station had a Canadian flag on it when I sailed. I was always under the impression that the flag is only put on bottles of real maple syrup.

another reason to only book the OT-1’s 😀

2 hours ago, kool kruiser said:

Not only the terrific lamb chops but there are also a number of other non-seafood (meat and veggie) options for mains. Similar situation for starters, including a fantastic crispy duck dish. Sakura is definitely NOT just a seafood eaterie but rather a varied pan-asian option, which is very highly recommended.

I’ve had the steak multiple times at Sakura.  Excellent. 

1 minute ago, commodoredave said:

Thanks. Some posters mentioned that they called EJ office before the cruise to book dinnig venues. Is this for just Residence class, or all classes of cabins?

Advance reservations, two per cabin (all classes), can indeed be booked in advance through your TA or by calling EJ directly.  

Just now, commodoredave said:

We are staying in a balcony cabin. Does one have to be in a residence to call for dining reservations, or is it also available to the proletariat class?

The dining reservations desk is conveniently located at the top of the stairs in the atrium. You can of course use the app or call, but you will pass the podium multiple times a day. In the evening for walkups go to the individual restaurant. We never had a problem dining early.

5 hours ago, Essiesmom said:

You can ask the porters for luggage tags if you are checking bags.  No one is asking for the health thingy anymore.  EM

Our last Seashore out of Port Canaveral (last week)  did ask for our health questionnaires.

7 minutes ago, Host Jazzbeau said:

How do they get fresh French oysters?  Or were you sailing near France?  [I'm truly asking – always wondered how ships get fresh fish for sushi etc.  Especially in light of many reports that all fish on ships is frozen.]

When I spoke to Franck one evening at a reception he assured me that their oysters were from Brittany. So they were in fact only serving French oysters. We sailed both the Iceland/Canada crossing and in the Caribbean, same oysters. They were fabulous. EJ is MSC, they know how to manage a supply chain. Well, most of the time. 😏

5 minutes ago, morpheusofthesea said:

The top brass was on with family.

I think the top-top brass were on the cruise just prior to the 2-night.  That said there were a lot of senior officer families on board over the holiday as I understand.

6 hours ago, morpheusofthesea said:

They make great gifts.

Never drink Jack Daniels myself, but it comes in handy for Christmas Day, when my brother is over. 😀

3 hours ago, morpheusofthesea said:

  That World of America will be christened the same day as the new terminal in Miami maybe 4/12/25 ?

We’re on that inaugural World America sailing 4/12/25.  I hope we get treated a little more thoughtfully than the Explora 1 naming in New York.

2 hours ago, saminina said:

That is a no-no.  Host lifestyle fund is a yes-yes.  No way you would know about it unless asking guest services.

Why is it a NO-NO?  I’m okay to know that there is an option to spread additional tips crew-wide if that is your preference, but why should I be restricted from individual host thank you’s. Particularly since the ‘gratuities’ or ‘hotel service charge’ , which is the crew-wide distribution is already included.

5 hours ago, KennyFla said:

We are sailing on the 18th.  Has anyone parked in the garage recently?   If we use GoPort, what is the earliest they will bring you to the terminal?

The existing parking garage at Terminal 10 is still open. Almost all of the surface parking to the east side is torn up. Passenger parking has been extended to what used to be employee surface parking on the west side of the garage. When I was there two weeks ago there appeared to still be available parking, just a longer walk to the terminal.

12 hours ago, lukeca said:

I think I know the answer to this because I can't find any reference to it on their website... but does anyone know if MSC offers any room decoration services? For example, on Carnival, you can purchase things like a Birthday package and then the room will be decorated for a Birthday before you even board the ship. Thanks for any information!

If you are sailing in Yacht Club you can certainly arrange it through your Butler or the Concierge. For us it has been gratis every time. Just recently on Seashore they even used decorations that are more ‘service friendly’ using reusable lighting instead of things like confetti. 

On 1/3/2024 at 4:26 AM, morpheusofthesea said:

Thank you for all your kind words on this thread and on the Explora CC Forum which I have abandoned. We learned a unique way to toast. The Captain proposed a toast with raised glasses that involved a 'wave' instead of the traditional clinking of glasses across the table. We raised our glass of spirit/water and she began by clinking the glass to her left, the person on the left to her left and so on until the person on her right clinked the Captain's glass. Each of us had only two clinks, from the left to the right in a wave.  We asked Heike , general manager, why we were picked and her answer "For many reasons". I believe this is where there is a solid link between MSC and Explora Journeys on their computers. When on board the Seascape we went to the the Top Sail Lounge to book a couple of cruises with Ms. Buse and booked 5 for 2024 in the YC. After signing our lives away to MSC she produced a print out of ALL our bookings for 2024 and 2025 in the YC which filled the page ("The many reasons"). 

EJ and MSC Yacht Club are all over Cruise Critic. Your humility in wondering what the ‘many reasons’ might be rivals Mark Twain  😀. Senior Management definitely knows who is on board. I’m willing to bet they are even aware who our TAs are.  (Just kidding)