I was quite apprehensive about my first cruise. There were certain preconceptions I had..and they were not positive. But as it tuned out, my Explora Journeys cruise onboard the Explora I was a resoundingly positive experience and has awakened a whole new way in which I will see the world.
My First Cruise: A Surprisingly Pleasant Voyage With Explora Journeys
Kyle, who writes on Sundays here and owns the Scott & Thomas Travel Agency, suggested I give Explora Journeys a try. He did warn me that it is like starting in first class and will be impossible to ever go back to economy (i.e., on a line like Carnival), but would forever transform my rather negative opinion toward cruise ships.
Although I wanted to take my wife Heidi along, we are traveling together this spring and I chose to take my son Augustine along because of a project we are working together on (details to come). I’ll say at the outset that my time with Augustine was absolutely precious and by far the highlight of the trip. But the excellent amenities onboard made the experience extremely pleasant.
I was expecting assigned table, buffets, and huge crowds. Nope. Not on this vessel. There were less than 700 passengers onboard (capacity is about 900). Upon boarding in Bridgetown, Barbados we were escorted up to our beautiful suite, which included a separate living room and bedroom, balcony, and a large bathroom with shower.
The room was so comfortable and I slept very well during the journey.
I live my life in a fairly regimented way while at home. I get up and work, drink coffee, then I workout and sit in the sauna before consuming a late breakfast, then return to my work. While I did not work as much during this trip, I loved the routine of being able to get up from bed at dawn, head down to the café and enjoy a great cup of coffee every morning:
Then a workout in a beautiful gym with brand new equipment.
Then sauna and steam room.
I’d return t0 the room and we’d either order breakfast in the room or head up the Marketplace Emporium, which was about as close to a buffet as you could get on the ship (you pointed to what you wanted and were then served).
The amenities onboard were excellent and everything was included. High speed wi-fi worked flawlessly throughout the journey. All sorts of pools. Basketball and tennis courts. Alcohol was free. There were lounges, bars, and lovely restaurants: French, Mediterranean, Japanese, and a steakhouse.
Dinner was such a treat each night, not just because Augustine and I had some priceless conversations, but because the food was uniformly delicious.
Lovely smoked salmon and porterhouse steak:
Succulent rosemary-infused lamb chops and lamb shank with risotto:
Delicious fish:
And even up in the Marketplace Emporium, there was superb seafood, meats, fish, and poultry each night with pasta made-to-order, freshly-made Italian-style pizza, and every sort of side dish, salad, soup, and dessert you could want. This was Augustine’s favorite place to eat.
A favorite part of our day was our 4:00 pm coffee and ice cream break at the gelateria onboard.
We also went on land in St. Lucia, Guadeloupe, Antigua, and the British Virgin Islands…such fun and the transport to shore and back was included.
I even used my onboard credit (each passenger receives some) for an excellent Balinese massage.
There was live entertainment and a casino onboard, which I skipped, but I loved listening to the piano music playing in the main lobby each night.
The cost? Normally $3,600 per-person for the seven night voyage, but during “wave” seasons (January – March) it is bookable for $2,520 each. I thought that price was more than fair.
And I’m thankful that I was able to exercise a lot of self-control onboard. To be sure, I did eat more than I normally eat at home, but I never gorged myself. Never did I walk away from a meal feeling like I ate too much.
CONCLUSION
I will offer a very detailed review of the cruise ship as well as some of the adventures my son and I had on the islands we called at between Bridgetown and Miami.
But it feels like a whole new world has been opened to me. As I try to visit every country in the world (I’m up to 147 countries), it seems like doing as much as I can by boat makes a whole lot of sense.
I spoke to a number of people onboard who were shocked that I “started” with Explora. Like Kyle, they warned me that I was now spoiled. That may well be the case and I’m not really keen to find out for myself by trying a more budget cruise line. But this was truly a treat…truly a pleasure and is something that will change the way I travel going forward.
If you happen to be interested in this, Explora Journeys (and almost the whole cruise industry) is sort of old-fashioned…they sill encourage travel agent bookings over direct bookings. If you are interested in this cruise, reach out to me here and I’m happy to help you explore options.
I’m not going to be pushing cruises every day, but this is certainly something I am going to do again…
You didn’t provide any criticism, so it sounds like it must have just been a flawless journey. Cruising isn’t for me. A boat full of 700 rich people doesn’t sound like somewhere I would be very well liked. I would; however, be interested in transatlantic cruising if fast WiFi was available and dependable. I think they would be a game changer for many remote workers.
I have some nitpicks that I will provide in the full review (limited breakfast and gelato hours), but all minor stuff.
I used to think just like you. But I’ve now changed my mind. I bet you would to if you tried it.
This line does transatlantic crossings too. They do West coast – Hawaii as well.
Are there verifiable reviews of the WiFi quality on transatlantic crossings?
Maybe Kyle can answer? I’ve never even read a cruise review. I went into this totally without doing any research, partially so that I could form my own opinion. I half expected to have to do my work whilst in port, but that was certainly not the case.
Uploads were certainly slower than at home, but overall the wi-fi worked very well.
I haven’t read any of them, but I did notice a while back TPG started doing reviews of cruises, maybe they have some that can be checked out.
Jerry, if you are interested in trying a cruise but not with a boat full of “rich” people, you should look at cruising by freighter. I knew a family friend who only cruised that way and loved it. But if you want the casinos and/or Broadway type shows, going by freighter likely not for you. Just a suggestion…
Freighter might be a little too far in the opposite direction!
Have taken the Queen Mary 2 crossing the Atlantic a couple times, very recommended. Pre covid Cunard ran a “shuttle” service Brooklyn to Southampton and back, now more seasonal. On one trip met a fellow passenger who ran an oil company with offices in Houston and Aberdeen. He would fly Houston (main office and home with family) to NY, take the QM2 across, fly Southampton to Aberdeen (field operations) few weeks in Scotland, then back via the ship. Said it worked out great, in constant contact with the office with less of the airplane disadvantages (TSA, jet lag, trying to sleep at 30k feet, dry air, depressurization issues, noise, claustrophobia, immigration, customs…..). As a bonus he got a ‘vacation’ while at sea…..
@PlaneSailing … +1 .
I have done the QM2 transatlantic too, and really enjoyed it, though it has been more than 10 years, and the internet back then was not good enough for communicating with work. I was able to check email once or twice.
Here are my tips on a transatlantic cruise: If you are in a situation to choose which direction to go, I’d go westbound– meaning from Europe to the US. Why? because each night you roll the clock back an hour to manage the time change. It’s like the fall clock change every night, so you can stay up a bit late, but still get plenty of sleep. Go the other direction and you lose an hour every night.
Don’t look at a lot of pics of the cruise ship’s outdoor amenities and think you’ll be using them on the ocean crossing. The ocean crossing happens at 30-35mph, so it’s windy like putting your head outside the car window. No one is playing basketball or practicing a golf swing in that wind, and the indoor pool is much more useful than the outdoor one. Just by luck our cabin was near the indoor pool, and that was great.
Wow, much nicer than Princess Cruises which my family grew up on in the late-2000s! Still, a good amount of fun memories for me on the Princess ships which I’m glad for, despite moving on from ‘em
Was great to chat with you on Saturday!
It’s good to hear that it worked well for you. I was on a boat a few weeks ago (in Antigua actually) and it had starlink. It worked great. I’d love to hear of a cruise line adopting it
I do not understand why this posted right here; should have been further up thread. Sorry.
Thanks, likewise to you!
I look forward to the report.
Did you take Augustine to the Baths while in port?
I certainly did! Amazing time.
This is the type of cruise I would take. You cannot pay me enough to join that new Royal Caribbean ship that looks like a Disney in water mixed with Spring break. That sounds like a nightmare.
“He did warn me that it is like starting in first class and will be impossible to ever go back to economy (i.e., on a line like Carnival), but would forever transform my rather negative opinion toward cruise ships.”
You can say that about any form of transportation lol
Also:
“But the excellent amenities onboard made the experience extremely peasant.”
Kind of goes against your review 😉
That’s hilarious!
“…but I never gouged myself.”
Good thing, that could have led to blood loss.
gorge*
I have never taken a cruise due to motion sickness. Do you know if the ship rocks a lot?
Fair question which I was going to address in a separate post. I got a bit of motion sickness the first night, just hours after we set sail. But after dinner it calmed down and for the rest of the week I had no issues at all. It was a remarkably smooth journey, though. We ran into a couple storms, but the boat never really rocked much.
Thank you Matthew!
Awesome. The stateroom looks so spacious. My last cruise was with Windstar (on the Wind Star) only 70 staterooms but those are relatively small and prices top out at about $600 a day not all-inclusive. While cruising might not be my favorite thing, these smaller ships can get into interesting ports. If I do it again, it will be through the Suez and Egyptian ports. Explora appears to be an excellent value.
Wait until you have a 2 person synchronized balinese massage with stones and acupressure.
Actually looks quite good! Like a club lounge at the hotel.
Augustine going to provide a review for us? 😉
He will!
Dear Matt,
I guess the one excuse that can count here is, that you have zero knowledge of the product you tried and zero knowledge about cruising in general.
The suite you occupied runs at about a minimum of 1000Usd per person per day. And no, even with a special offer, which there is none for suites on Explora, never was and most likely never will be, you can cruise on Explora or a similar luxury cruise for the amount you stated. In the base cabin you might, but not in a Penthouse suite you stayed in.
Also customers do not all receive an onboard credit. That is rather the exception, certainly not the rule.
My point is, before vlogging about something, please do your homework. Thanks
Hi Michael,
The current Total Luxury Offer includes €200/person, or €400 per suite (they are all suites) on many sailings. Booking through Kyle’s agency adds another €150 per person on every sailing for a total in this example of €700 per double booked suite. I looked at a West Coast sailing next month from my home in Los Angeles to Vancouver. Entry level suites start at $2585 for the six-night journey. Penthouses start at $4400. And you’re right (now that I am looking) that my particular Penthouse was more than a base suite, but Ocean Terrace Suites all have balconies, walk-in closets, full-sized showers, and heated marble floors as a minimum.
I would pay good money to read a Matthew Klint review of a Carnival Cruise out of Miami during Spring Break.
My sister whose a travel agent told me horror stories about the Carnival cruise she took out of Florida. It sounded quite affordable, about $400 total per person for 5 days but the folks on it made Spirit sound snobby by comparison including people changing diapers on the tables.
Matt has traveled economy before so a Carnival cruise would be quite an adventure for him.
I suppose, in theory, cruising can be quite affordable by comparison with people who pay for 1st class airline tickets and resorts with cash.
We have done some Disney cruises at the concierge level with our kids, and they have been great trips. I wouldn’t do it without the concierge level services/amenities though.
Adults without young children would probably much more enjoy the type of cruise you have just reviewed, but the younger kids do seem to really like the nightly shows and various daytime opportunities (many 8 year olds enjoy meeting someone dressed up like Captain Hook or a princess in the middle of the day).
With concierge level you can get a good suite and a nice dedicated lounge and deck space (some boats have a dedicated pool and/or hot tubs) that gives you the feeling of being on a much less crowded ship– pricing seems at least in the same realm as the cruise you have described. Service is typically excellent. Food probably not as good as what you have shown above, but it’s still good, as is wine selection and pricing.
Do not get drunk with cold water. Everything is done for them to win. I saw how the chef, bringing the seafood cart to Sakura restaurant, at the entrance to the galley spilled all the seafood on the floor. One of the colleagues came to help him pick up the seafood from the floor, put it back in the boxes and then started to cook it on the stove. This is how the company respects its customers. The employees do not wash their hands when they come to the table to eat, when they leave the toilet not so much, then they come to serve the customers at the table. Stop praising the company so much.
Frankly, I’m surprised…but I do this at home too.
I’m not going to “defend” the company if that is what you saw happen, but doesn’t cooking it eliminate the germs…?
Delta operates a far more premium experience throughout their cabins. There is no need to cruise when you can fly Delta.
Thanks Tim.
Had a long response ready to go on my phone yesterday that Siri ate. So, quickly, glad you went and had a great time with your son. But having this as a first cruise would be akin to having a first flight come in First Class on a Lufthansa 747 from FRA. You paid a great (greatly discounted) rate. Cruising is phenomenal and a whole lot more relaxing than air travel — sorry, but it’s true. I’ve been on 22 cruises since my teens, on Carnival, Celebrity, Disney, Norwegian, Princess and Royal Caribbean. Shortest was five nights, longest was 15 (once on a Disney Wonder through the Panama Canal in 2014 and last fall on a RCCL Odyssey of the Seas voyage from Rome to Fort Lauderdale). My wife and I love cruising as does my close family. Before the pandemic air travel was becoming so tedious and uncomfortable that I toyed with the idea of taking a cheap TA cruise once a year between my homes in Florida and Germany to avoid flying. Anyway, not sure how you’d enjoy one of the mid market lines I’ve been on (I bet your kids would love them all), but it’s nice that you branched out and tried something new and loved it! Congrats!