Black Friday Sale with 30 to 50% off

[mike@sea]

Every change to existing bookings requires an immediate notification. They must have known and planned those changes for the past weeks. Of course I do want to know proactively, not days after the release, if at all, about any change. 
The recent changes have again not been communicated to the booked guests. 
 

I am personally affected for the third time now. Indian Ocean, cancelled. North America East Coast, cancelled. My Middle America/ Caribbean booking for 2025, completely altered.
No more Middle America ( they canceled that for the 2nd time now over the past 12 months ) , ports like Costa Rica, Panama are gone. Now the ship is instead redeployed to New Orleans overnight and Progreso Mexico overnight, followed by Cozumel, which I can then enjoy with the other 12.000 cruise ship passengers from other lines.

 

Something I can „enjoy“ with every other cruise line there is, for a lot less money. 
What are they thinking ? 
I am not flying half around the globe to visit Cozumel again, or stay overnight in a container port in New Orleans in February, then float the Gulf of Mexico to yet another port, which so many other cruise lines visit too, where I am then able to see Flamingos or salt for an increased excursion price. 
 

How on earth are they going to keep 3 or 4 ships afloat in the future, if they cannot sell anything else than the usual Caribbean and Med ?

 

[CaroleP58]

On 11/23/2023 at 4:12 PM, CruiseCrew123 said:

I’m sure Explorer said they wouldn’t be doing ‘sales’ bet there’s a lot of unhappy people who booked at full price 

Yes, I am one of them! I had only booked 10 days prior to this. I have asked my TA to take it up with them, but have had no response as yet.

[Stickman1990]

Has anyone successfully moved their booking from one of the cruises cancelled this week to a new cruise?

 

We’re trying to but it’s a very painful process just getting Explora to tell our TA what’s possible and the terms of the change 

 

We have 6 cabins involved with our group - I had hoped that size of booking would be of sufficient interest to Explora to get them to be responsive, but it seems not. So I hope others are having more luck than we are 

 

 

[cruiserchuck]

On 11/23/2023 at 8:23 AM, PaulMCO said:

Yes especially those that have fully paid.  Otherwise your TA can request a refare.

 

So if you pay in full early to get the 5% discount, you are not entitled to request a refare?  Or only after the final payment date?

 

I was looking at the standard terms and conditions and noticed that Explora reserves the right to raise prices before final payment if the cost of oil goes up, among other reasons.  

 

Specifically the T&C provide:

 

"3.1 No change to the Journey Fare will be made once full payment has been received by the Company.

3.2 The Company reserves the right to modify the Contract price at all times to allow variations for:

        a) air transportation costs;

        b) fuel costs for the propulsion of the vessel;

        c) dues, taxes or fees chargeable for services such as embarkation or disembarkation fees at ports or airports.

        d) the exchange rates relevant to the Journey Fare.

Variations may be upwards or downwards. For paragraph a) any variation of the Journey Fare will be equal to the extra amount charged by the airline. For paragraph b) any variation of the Journey Fare will be equal to 0.33% of the price of the Journey for every dollar of increase of the fuel per barrel (NYMEX Index). For paragraph c) any variation of the Journey Fare will be equal to the full amount of the fees."

 

I was hit with this type of charge years ago by Holland America, and am still annoyed by it, since oil prices tanked by the time I took the cruise.

[frankhi]

6 hours ago, Stickman1990 said:

Has anyone successfully moved their booking from one of the cruises cancelled this week to a new cruise?

 

We’re trying to but it’s a very painful process just getting Explora to tell our TA what’s possible and the terms of the change 

 

We have 6 cabins involved with our group - I had hoped that size of booking would be of sufficient interest to Explora to get them to be responsive, but it seems not. So I hope others are having more luck than we are 

 

 

I have, I just cancelled and rebooked, but I don't use a TA.

[PaulMCO]

10 hours ago, cruiserchuck said:

 

So if you pay in full early to get the 5% discount, you are not entitled to request a refare?  Or only after the final payment date?

 

I was looking at the standard terms and conditions and noticed that Explora reserves the right to raise prices before final payment if the cost of oil goes up, among other reasons.  

 

Specifically the T&C provide:

 

"3.1 No change to the Journey Fare will be made once full payment has been received by the Company.

3.2 The Company reserves the right to modify the Contract price at all times to allow variations for:

        a) air transportation costs;

        b) fuel costs for the propulsion of the vessel;

        c) dues, taxes or fees chargeable for services such as embarkation or disembarkation fees at ports or airports.

        d) the exchange rates relevant to the Journey Fare.

Variations may be upwards or downwards. For paragraph a) any variation of the Journey Fare will be equal to the extra amount charged by the airline. For paragraph b) any variation of the Journey Fare will be equal to 0.33% of the price of the Journey for every dollar of increase of the fuel per barrel (NYMEX Index). For paragraph c) any variation of the Journey Fare will be equal to the full amount of the fees."

 

I was hit with this type of charge years ago by Holland America, and am still annoyed by it, since oil prices tanked by the time I took the cruise.

 

After final payment date -- no refare is possible.   All lines have this in their terms.  Some may at their own discretion offer some OBC.  Some will allow refare only if cabin class is still available (Oceania and Regent are two that come to mind)

 

Fuel surcharge -- all lines reserve the right to add a surcharge if the price oil goes over a certain price per barrel.  Very seldom it is done as it would raise the hackles of both passengers and travel professionals.   Had this happen once also when oil approached $150 per barrel and amounted to several hundred $$ additional charge.

[kidless]

DH and I did two weeks in early November. There was much to love about EJ1, such as the food!!!! Some stuff left us wanting, like the entertainment.  Overall, it was terrific, and we left ship saying if we found a great price or itinerary, we’d book again. This sale got us couldn't pass it up so we booked for January 2025 on EJ II.