Here we go again - Explora 2 itinerary changes

[uktog]

I have had such yuk luck with cancellations and alterations on Explora such we’ve only managed one cruise and had 3 sets of issues with cancellations 

 

Today the curse struck again. What really disappoints me is the 20 night Cruise has been reduced to an 18 night Cruise and the only sweetener offered is €750 on board credit when it is a reduction of two ports of call 10% cruise time and as the cruise starts two days later, I have non-refundable airfare that I either have to use and pay for two extra nights at the port of embarkation or lose and rebook for two days later. 
 

Explora just do not handle these situations well, and it comes over that inconveniencing, the guest doesn’t matter to them. 

 

Such a shame when the on board experience is so good, but we have two booked with them now and until they sort that act out I think that’s it  - of course, one of those two is this one affected. 

[tine-tine]

Well that’s a bummer! Rather disconcerting drip feed of negativity coming through from cancellations, poor admin, never changing menus, cheaper champagne brands now reduced number of days. Did you book your own flights, if so what do you do with the extra two unplanned land days? This is becoming increasingly disconcerting and one especially worrying for my future planned cruise as I am a solo traveller. 

[uktog]

1 hour ago, tine-tine said:

Well that’s a bummer! Rather disconcerting drip feed of negativity coming through from cancellations, poor admin, never changing menus, cheaper champagne brands now reduced number of days. Did you book your own flights, if so what do you do with the extra two unplanned land days? This is becoming increasingly disconcerting and one especially worrying for my future planned cruise as I am a solo traveller. 

Thanks

As Explora don’t do air they take a very cavalier attitude to making changes. Perhaps if they had to manage the air portion consequences they would understand our frustration. 
Onboard was lovely, we had no issue with the menus over the 17 nights but we can no longer recommend this line to others. 

[Hlitner]

After our first, and possibly our last EJ cruise, we posted that we would not book any future EJ cruises for several reasons.  #1 Was that this company seems to enjoy routinely changing itineraries (such as from Alaska to Europe) with no explanation.  #2 The attitude of the customer service folks (on the ship) who have a no-service point of view.  

 

We think the EJ folks put much of their emphasis on cuisine and do a pretty good job with this part of their operations.  But that is where it ends.  The company seems so hell bent on "not being a cruise line" that they have succeeded in that regard.   They have this weird attitude that they are an upscale resort, and forget they are a cruise line.  And the reality is that their regular suites are not even up to the standards of most of their competition.  

 

Until this line gets it act together (we think it will eventually happen) and start putting their customers ahead of their own egos we will not recommend this line to anyone.  They need to revamp their attitude of "we are not a cruise line" to "we want to be the best cruise line."  And once they market and take bookings for various itineraries, they need to follow through and deliver what they promise.

 

Hank

[cruiseerf]

Part of Travel is accepting changes.....After Covid, this happens more and more on many cruise lines.  The only thing certain these days is CHANGE.  You either have to move with it or move to another line I guess.  Safe Sails! 

[uktog]

14 hours ago, cruiseerf said:

Part of Travel is accepting changes.....After Covid, this happens more and more on many cruise lines.  The only thing certain these days is CHANGE.  You either have to move with it or move to another line I guess.  Safe Sails! 

Whilst I accept change, I also expect good planning. Itineraries shouldn't be released until the cruise line is reasonably certain they can deliver it (accept Suez is a unique issue but this change had no connection to that.

Its too easy for a provider to just say oh post Covid (lame excuse now Covid) you have to be ready for change.  Had it been a change of port, that was acceptable, change of start date but still delivering the same number of nights onboard, possibly acceptable, but change start date, drop ports and still expect the customer to pay the same price for a reduced number of nights or cancel and also lose all the airfare they have paid independently, no that is not a change any customer should be expected to take on the chin.  As it happens it was not even legal in some countries.

 

In may case, my travel agent has been working on a resolution for us.  Its not the holiday we planned but EJ have started to recognise their responsibilities.

Edited March 14 by uktog

[commodoredave]

14 hours ago, cruiseerf said:

Part of Travel is accepting changes.....After Covid, this happens more and more on many cruise lines.  The only thing certain these days is CHANGE.  You either have to move with it or move to another line I guess.  Safe Sails! 

I don't mind accepting changes, especially free upgrades to a penthouse cabin or to business class air! But if a cruise line is making a negative change to my travel plans that will cause me  inconvenience and money, I expect to be generously compensated for it. 

Edited March 14 by commodoredave

[GlenG]

Not sailed with EJ yet, but our late 2025 sailing has just had a schedule change, however this has gone from an 11- to a 12-night sailing. Luckily we have not booked air or hotels yet, so apart from the extra PTO day needed, we cannot complain over an extra night onboard.

Would have been a different story if our other travel arrangements had been in place.

[uktog]

My travel agent has worked hard to get an acceptable resolution and we thought we had it yesterday!  However we have now found that in moving us to the cruuse two days later, they have changed our cabin. They have not upgraded us. It’s the same category but they have moved us from our carefully selected mid ships to one at the aft on a higher deck, which is a no go for us on a transatlantic. We feel sorry for our agent she’s going to have to do even more work tomorrow. Can’t understand given it was a “new cruise” why bookings weren’t lifted wholesale to their existing rooms 

[JYDCruise]

8 hours ago, uktog said:

My travel agent has worked hard to get an acceptable resolution and we thought we had it yesterday!  However we have now found that in moving us to the cruuse two days later, they have changed our cabin. They have not upgraded us. It’s the same category but they have moved us from our carefully selected mid ships to one at the aft on a higher deck, which is a no go for us on a transatlantic. We feel sorry for our agent she’s going to have to do even more work tomorrow. Can’t understand given it was a “new cruise” why bookings weren’t lifted wholesale to their existing rooms 

EJ's goal in handling this should be leaving you, the customer, feeling good about the resolution. I worked briefly helping a sizable company create and roll out a loyalty program. As a new program, there were some issues but management made it clear that the customers were to be taken care of, to the point were they were more than satisfied. In your case, were I EJ, as an absolute minimum I would have offered you a 10% refund (as the cruise was shortened by 10%) and your choice of either a couple of nights hotel stay pre-cruise (if you stay with your original flights) or compensation for changing your flights. That's the make-whole part, but I'd also offer you something else, OBC or FCC, to leave you feeling "hey, this all worked out well".

[uktog]

My poor travel agent is tearing her hair out - and she is a very competent well informed agent.

We reached a resolution (or so we thought) on the shortening of the cruise which did involve modest reduction in price (not the per day equivalent) and an agreement to cover the two hotel nights bed and breakfast which we though was fair.  

 

Then they came back and said sorry we are only able to book room not b and b in the hotel.  My agent pushed back (as she had independently booked us two other nights in the hotel as we were arriving a few days early on a b and b basis no problem).  Eventually although not ideal we accepted a small additional amount of OBC (not sure having been onboard and experienced their rate of cancellation of excursions what we will use it for!).

 

But now we have this allocation of a different less good location room for the shortened version cruise - EJ did not give everyone the rooms they previously had.  They cannot give her any logical reason why we were given a different room in the same category but on a different side, floor and moved to the back from midships.  They are now trying to get a "fix" - its disgraceful that the response to my agent was not an :oh goodness yes we need to sort that but rather a feeble set of excuses all of which my agent has had to push back on and now is waiting to hear back on a "possible resolution".  Its not that the cruise was one that was already open for bookings, it is one that they created as a result  of changing the original one, so all guests should automatically have been allocated their existing rooms on the new voyage.

 

To add to her woes, our other EJ cruise which is a b2b has had one leg drop off the system - though EJ are assuring her the other leg is there, neither she or I can see it.  They are looking to get a IT fix.......

 

Obviously, we will not be booking any more with EJ.  Their systems are not to be trusted and their "ambassadors" seem to give experienced travel agents answers that cannot be correct in the hope they do not realise that and go away.  Its a shame because despite some limitations (is there actually a perfect line out there? -  I doubt it) we did feel EJ had a place in our vacation plans.

[Noggins]

6 hours ago, uktog said:

My poor travel agent is tearing her hair out - and she is a very competent well informed agent.

We reached a resolution (or so we thought) on the shortening of the cruise which did involve modest reduction in price (not the per day equivalent) and an agreement to cover the two hotel nights bed and breakfast which we though was fair.  

 

Then they came back and said sorry we are only able to book room not b and b in the hotel.  My agent pushed back (as she had independently booked us two other nights in the hotel as we were arriving a few days early on a b and b basis no problem).  Eventually although not ideal we accepted a small additional amount of OBC (not sure having been onboard and experienced their rate of cancellation of excursions what we will use it for!).

 

But now we have this allocation of a different less good location room for the shortened version cruise - EJ did not give everyone the rooms they previously had.  They cannot give her any logical reason why we were given a different room in the same category but on a different side, floor and moved to the back from midships.  They are now trying to get a "fix" - its disgraceful that the response to my agent was not an :oh goodness yes we need to sort that but rather a feeble set of excuses all of which my agent has had to push back on and now is waiting to hear back on a "possible resolution".  Its not that the cruise was one that was already open for bookings, it is one that they created as a result  of changing the original one, so all guests should automatically have been allocated their existing rooms on the new voyage.

 

To add to her woes, our other EJ cruise which is a b2b has had one leg drop off the system - though EJ are assuring her the other leg is there, neither she or I can see it.  They are looking to get a IT fix.......

 

Obviously, we will not be booking any more with EJ.  Their systems are not to be trusted and their "ambassadors" seem to give experienced travel agents answers that cannot be correct in the hope they do not realise that and go away.  Its a shame because despite some limitations (is there actually a perfect line out there? -  I doubt it) we did feel EJ had a place in our vacation plans.

Having read your experiences with EJ over the inaugural voyage it seems amazing that you are having such a bad time again. One wonders why you would even consider giving them a further chance - except that it is a very nice ship and they do do a lot of things very well.....

 

As the days pass following our own experience onboard I am increasingly conflicted over my views and am still processing how the experience matches up against that on other ships. It is certainly a different experience and mostly a very positive one but I am held back in my enthusiasm partly over the 'management feel' of the operation. I know you are a Azamara enthusiast and, to a degree, like Crystal, I feel that is another line where the managememnt 'feel' is markedly different. It's not an overiding issue - but could easily become so if the EJ back office were to continue in the vein you have experienced extensively. 

I hope they sort out your room satisfactorily - and don't accept one under the deck 11 jaquzzis!

Adrian

 

[travelberlin]

6 hours ago, uktog said:

My poor travel agent is tearing her hair out - and she is a very competent well informed agent.

We reached a resolution (or so we thought) on the shortening of the cruise which did involve modest reduction in price (not the per day equivalent) and an agreement to cover the two hotel nights bed and breakfast which we though was fair.  

 

Then they came back and said sorry we are only able to book room not b and b in the hotel.  My agent pushed back (as she had independently booked us two other nights in the hotel as we were arriving a few days early on a b and b basis no problem).  Eventually although not ideal we accepted a small additional amount of OBC (not sure having been onboard and experienced their rate of cancellation of excursions what we will use it for!).

 

But now we have this allocation of a different less good location room for the shortened version cruise - EJ did not give everyone the rooms they previously had.  They cannot give her any logical reason why we were given a different room in the same category but on a different side, floor and moved to the back from midships.  They are now trying to get a "fix" - its disgraceful that the response to my agent was not an :oh goodness yes we need to sort that but rather a feeble set of excuses all of which my agent has had to push back on and now is waiting to hear back on a "possible resolution".  Its not that the cruise was one that was already open for bookings, it is one that they created as a result  of changing the original one, so all guests should automatically have been allocated their existing rooms on the new voyage.

 

To add to her woes, our other EJ cruise which is a b2b has had one leg drop off the system - though EJ are assuring her the other leg is there, neither she or I can see it.  They are looking to get a IT fix.......

 

Obviously, we will not be booking any more with EJ.  Their systems are not to be trusted and their "ambassadors" seem to give experienced travel agents answers that cannot be correct in the hope they do not realise that and go away.  Its a shame because despite some limitations (is there actually a perfect line out there? -  I doubt it) we did feel EJ had a place in our vacation plans.

Sorry to read you are facing cancellations and rebooking problems again. The cancellations were the reason why I have left Explora without booking another cruise with them independently of how generous their compensation seemed to be. I hope Explora will improve this. On the mean time we are happily booking other cruise lines including MSC. Today we are just finalizing our booking for Spring 2025 with the MSC Seaview.

[uktog]

Thank you Adrian, you sum up why we booked again spot on - there were elements of the onboard experience that were spot on perfect for us.  My enthusiasm for Azamara has waned - the limitations of older boats and lower quality (though still broadly acceptable) have impacted on how happy we are onboard.  

Azamara certainly wins on their itineraries particularly their country intensive ones.

Both are plagued by back office issues and neither seem to be cracking it.  The room issue is not resolved, they are still not accepting the owed the customer any duty to put them in a room in a broadly similar location on the move.  Their updated offer is a room on the original deck but not near midships and on the different side (and yes a jacuzzi risk one).  We have declined!

Based on the current experience, I can't see us booking EJ again unless they really sort out their back office

 

[Hlitner]

On 3/14/2024 at 1:34 AM, cruiseerf said:

Part of Travel is accepting changes.....After Covid, this happens more and more on many cruise lines.  The only thing certain these days is CHANGE.  You either have to move with it or move to another line I guess.  Safe Sails! 

We can agree to disagree.  Changes due to COVID or to avoid a war zone do make sense and are part of travel.  However, cancelling an entire season in Alaska and itinerary changes for the sake of changes have never been part of travel with reputable companies.  And we do agree about your "move to another line" but since we already cruise on many different lines it is not a matter of "moving" but simply a matter of choices.  In our case we have reluctantly decided not to even consider booking any more EJ cruises until they get their act together and show more respect for their customers.   We have also advised some of our friends (who often ask us for cruise advice) to avoid EJ (for the moment) in favor of other better established luxury lines.  For 2024 we are cruising with Oceania, Silversea, and Seabourn.  In 2025 we have already booked an Asian cruise on Seabourn.  Although we still see ourselves cruising about 100 days a year, we have no future EJ bookings.

 

EJ will eventually be a solid and reliable cruise line (the Aponte family has a good track record) but one cannot help but wonder how many years it will take them to find their way in the luxury cruise market.  Consider that within the next few years, EJ will need to fill 5 additional ships.  

 

 

[Noggins]

15 hours ago, uktog said:

Thank you Adrian, you sum up why we booked again spot on - there were elements of the onboard experience that were spot on perfect for us.  My enthusiasm for Azamara has waned - the limitations of older boats and lower quality (though still broadly acceptable) have impacted on how happy we are onboard.  

Azamara certainly wins on their itineraries particularly their country intensive ones.

Both are plagued by back office issues and neither seem to be cracking it.  The room issue is not resolved, they are still not accepting the owed the customer any duty to put them in a room in a broadly similar location on the move.  Their updated offer is a room on the original deck but not near midships and on the different side (and yes a jacuzzi risk one).  We have declined!

Based on the current experience, I can't see us booking EJ again unless they really sort out their back office

 

Oh, sorry, I hadn't realised you had become disenchanted with Azamara. Our own experience, plus that of friends and brother has been very positive - particularly in regard to early Onward problems that were resolved very generously. But, I guess we all draw our own conclusions based on our own specifics! We have a soft spot for the old R7's since our early Oceania days - even though they are very dated in some ways (think shower!). Obviously the Azamara product is not in the luxury sector but for the price we thought the value was terrific.

As for EJ - if I'm right in thinking your unresolved trip is a TA then absolutely avoid a jacuzzi risk room as there'll be plenty more ship movement than we had in the Caribbean....

[uktog]

10 minutes ago, Noggins said:

Oh, sorry, I hadn't realised you had become disenchanted with Azamara. Our own experience, plus that of friends and brother has been very positive - particularly in regard to early Onward problems that were resolved very generously. But, I guess we all draw our own conclusions based on our own specifics! We have a soft spot for the old R7's since our early Oceania days - even though they are very dated in some ways (think shower!). Obviously the Azamara product is not in the luxury sector but for the price we thought the value was terrific.

As for EJ - if I'm right in thinking your unresolved trip is a TA then absolutely avoid a jacuzzi risk room as there'll be plenty more ship movement than we had in the Caribbean....

Our experience of Azamara is post pandemic they were still cracking it but since last year they are struggling to deliver consistency across the four ships. They remain a good deal if you can spot the right offer - before the next offer bus comes along.
 

I suppose we got very jaded after a poor cruise on Onward that had zero attempt to recognise what was bad (we are very easy on food but had to send back at least one dish in most evening meals either for being undercooked or cold; it took 4 days to repair furniture that had doors literally falling off etc). EJ was a breath of fresh air in the catering department both in terms of quality and service.

 

We are just back from an Azamara cruise where I’d say the food was 60% acceptable so that’s an improvement from Onward though the lunch time offerings were dire and the specialities nothing special. Due to having to move things around we board a different Azamara ship a week today so another immediate comparison - as last time an itinerary driven decision - this will be a defining cruise for Azamara dining experience vs future bookings. 
 

As food is more important than entertainment and pools for us EJ stays in the booking frame. 

Add to that the per day price for our September cruise in an OT1 will be less than Azamara equivalent in a club continental and that shocked us. 

 

We are under 1000 passenger cruisers so intend to look at O and other options for 2025. 

 

We can’t though consider EJ sadly until they sort their back office and itinerary reliability out. 
 

Yes I don’t want the complimentary waterfall (or aft rollercoaster) on a TA I want my original room or one close by back!   

[uktog]

I am pleased to say that as of last night our amazing travel agent finally got resolution with Explora. It shouldn’t have been that difficult and this is an area of Explora really need to look at when they are making changes. How does it look to the customer?  It’s surprised us, but they seem to think there was no problem in moving our booked rooms without our agreement, and our agent was very much left with the impression that she was the problem not Explora. 

For us, we could not get original room back someone else had it and despite the fact, it was previously sold to us five months ago, Explora felt unable to ask that second booker to move however, they did come up with a room on a higher up deck midships. It is an OT2, but after a lot of negotiation Explora agreed that we could have it at the same price as our original OT1.  I do feel that negotiation was unnecessary and that Explora should have just waived the £180 difference right from the get go once that issue came to light. Especially as we already had problems with them, curtailing the cruise by two days.

 

We are happy with the overall resolution from Explora, but we do feel if we have not had an agent who was robustly challenging them at every step of the way and spending a lot of time trying to negotiate we would not have had such a good outcome for something that was completely beyond our control.  
 

Explora need to look at that because I think if I asked our agent to book us another cruise with them, her eyes withdrawal and she might even ask me to go elsewhere!!!

Edited March 29 by uktog

[tine-tine]

Well done, persistence wins in the end. There is a worrying lack of customer focus and a slight arrogance to their attitude that I hope they get counselling for going forward if they wish to have a successful business!!!

[reposado]

We are booked on the Jan 5 24 Caribbean cruise and noticed they "downgraded" one of the ports from Road Town/Tortola to San Juan/Puerto Rico. I only saw it when I searched the cruise on their website after reading this thread. There were no notifications from Explora at all of the itinerary change. 

 

We are well travelled and been to some of the best beaches like Bora Bora/Maldives so overall its not a huge deal but would be nice if they at least e-mailed booked guest of the change as people may already be planning their excursions and could cause inconvenience.  

[vistaman]

On 3/30/2024 at 9:37 AM, tine-tine said:

Well done, persistence wins in the end. There is a worrying lack of customer focus and a slight arrogance to their attitude that I hope they get counselling for going forward if they wish to have a successful business!!!

i cannot qualify the arrogance as slight rather "extremely high" 😝

[Boatdrill]

On 3/2/2024 at 1:47 AM, uktog said:

As Explora don’t do air they take a very cavalier attitude to making changes. Perhaps if they had to manage the air portion consequences they would understand our frustration.

Just curious as to how much notice they gave you about the itinerary change ?

[uktog]

5 hours ago, Boatdrill said:

Just curious as to how much notice they gave you about the itinerary change ?

March for a November cruise this time, 10 days notice last time 

[Waltershipman]

On 4/3/2024 at 9:09 AM, reposado said:

We are booked on the Jan 5 24 Caribbean cruise and noticed they "downgraded" one of the ports from Road Town/Tortola to San Juan/Puerto Rico. I only saw it when I searched the cruise on their website after reading this thread. There were no notifications from Explora at all of the itinerary change. 

 

We are well travelled and been to some of the best beaches like Bora Bora/Maldives so overall its not a huge deal but would be nice if they at least e-mailed booked guest of the change as people may already be planning their excursions and could cause inconvenience.  

I might be on that cruise too but not sure just yet and liked the idea of Tortola as it's beautiful.  San Juan has some fun stuff too but generally less nature we have found