kelleherdl

I’m looking forward to our arrival in New York on September 25. That better be full-on or I will be big time disappointed. I sincerely hopes she doesn’t sneak in in the early hours of the morning.

Another point. When you check in at the Terminal do not expect that the agents at the desk can do anything further. There job is to get you on the ship. In my experience either the Yacht Club Director or the Head Butler will be in the Yacht Club area of the terminal. If everything has not been resolved before hand you can begin speaking with them. They can even call the Concierge Desk to alert them that there may need to be some cabin adjustments. I can assure you they will do everything they can to make your voyage as wonderful as you hoped.

I’m willing to bet that the inventory is pretty close. I understand that YC (at least for US sailings) is sailing completely full for all cruises. If you used a travel advisor they may be able to confirm.

An very trivial interesting observation. Cruise Mapper labels Explora I as MSC Explora I, Marine Traffic labels it as Explora I. Explora Journeys has never used MSC Explora I so I would think Cruise Mapper need to change. Good news is she is underway in the Adriatic.

Totally refreshing. Very straightforward answers. Don’t know why I didn’t Google this before. https://explorajourneys.com/us/en/faq an example of the unambiguous answers I’ve found there. Should I tip onboard? Gratuities are included in your journey fare; however, should you wish to recognise one of our hosts for service beyond your expectations then this is at your discretion.

That’s new. Thanks for sharing.

There are lockers in the shops area of Ocean Cay, adjacent to the docks for excursions. But nothing on North Island (YC area). We have never used them, so I have no details.

It’s a good thing they found out about this issue. There is a minor volcano eruption in the Reykjavik Iceland region. We are scheduled to embark on 9 September. 😀

We did find one advantage of speaking with the future cruise consultant on board. We had a weird situation on a future cruise we already had booked of having to book a back-to-back Baltic/Norway cruise, as the YC allocation in the US for the 14-day collector option was used up. The consultant was able to go directly back-office and get us rebooked, and added additional OBC and slightly reduced fare for the collector option; and still transferred all that to our US agent. Now I know that may have been a one off. We did book another cruise with her. I perish the thought of trying to pull that off by speaking with an MSC US customer service agent.

From what I recall the signs are fairly large, at least at Port Canaveral and Miami. To be honest it sounds like the agent was doing roughly the right thing. Without a ‘gatekeeper’ at the head of the line that special checkin line would soon not be very special. I personally am okay that I need to ask and present my eTicket. I do know early after the COVID restart they were not there, but I’m sure that had more to do with the COVID procedures and those infernal vaccine card lines.

I don’t know if that can be true. I have actually gained weight since the chocolate ships disappeared. I attribute that to the anxiety of not knowing what my Diamond gift will be that cruise. It was so comforting I could rely on receiving two chocolate ships in my stateroom. 😀

Keel hauled!!!! 😀😀😀😀

There is some kind of sale on right now for new bookings on Explora 1. I just saw a post on a ‘social media’ page. I went to explorajourneys.com and there wasn’t anything there. I didn’t try a test booking to see if there are any deals. I’m booked out so I won’t be adding anything. 😀

As one would expect, no one told MSC Cruises USA website. Ocean Cay remains on the itineraries for April and May 2024.

In America that dessert is called a Baked Alaska.

At the One Pool you don’t have to wait for the YC Restaurant to close. I’ve been able to order pancakes or waffles on all ships. Remember the Restaurant on the Seaside is right below the One Pool. On Divina and Preziosa I think they had a waffle iron in the One Pool kitchen. The YC Restaurant was aft, so big distance away from One Pool.

😀. It sometimes takes two mornings to convince YC Restaurant and Pool One Grill ‘that yes, I want my pancakes or waffles fresh and hot, I want butter to actually melt.’ 😀. This is one time when the buffet can outshine YC. You can generally have the cooks make them fresh right while you are standing there.

And it’s not necessarily an either/or for us. We have 4 additional bookings in MSC Yacht Club along with the Explora Journey 3; including one of the World America inaugurals. I am not trying to be boastful, just saying one can choose to have either or both with preferences depending on other considerations. When we feel like a 5-day short getaway it’s obviously MSC YC so we can enjoy the big-ship amenities out of Port Canaveral, short 45-minute drive. If it’s a family or group cruise, MSC YC wins again.

I understand hyperbole is an effective rhetorical tool, but let’s be a little more reasonable. I have 3 EJ cruises during the inaugural seasons for Explora 1 and Explora II, all unique itineraries. The $ per person per day, double occupancy, are 403 (15 days) 555 (18 days), and 376 (17 days). All cabins are Ocean Terrace 1 or 3, so not upper class, but still larger staterooms that Deluxe Balcony Yacht Club. The current fare for the 15 day World America inaugural Caribbean East/West run-of-the-mill Caribbean cruise is a Deluxe YC Balcony is $406 per person per day. So prices are very comparable, and not anything close to 25 or 30 % premium, much less triple the cost.

This only started about a month or so ago. It was a zoo before. There are no NCL sailings this summer so parking at Terminal 10 is ample. Two 4,500+ ships sailing from Terminal 10 is a no bueno for parking. NCL has a lot of included airfare and bus transfers to Orlando International. That is the only thing that makes this possible. Port Canaveral needs another ‘big ship’ terminal like Terminal 3.

You are paying a premium per day fare for the Yacht Club. One way to measure your cruise value is $/pp/day. Why not use that full embarkation day, or at least as much of it as you can. You won’t be able to recapture any time on disembarkation day. You will be politely asked to ‘remove yourself.’ 😀

YC is sailing completely booked these days.

Ah, the lamb chops. If they ever go missing from embarkation day I will be so disappointed.

It will actually be interesting to try the other food venues and bars without crowds. Besides the Ocean House we’ve only had a drink at the Lighthouse Bar. I would assume the menu at the buffet will be a different with an Explora visit as well. As long as we get a reasonable shot at reserving a table at the onboard Explora restaurants I’m not bothered. Instead of our walk to Ocean House we will walk to the helipad. I personally was never under the illusion that that there would not be ‘unequals among equals.’ We are in an OT-1 for our first cruise, absolute ‘steerage.’ 😀

You will not miss the white tent on your way into the terminal. There is only one way in and you walk right by the tent.