My family took a cruise over the Thanksgiving holiday and it really was a resort at sea. It helped us visit places we’d never been before. This is an introduction to our cruise on Explora Journeys.
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We Don’t Really Cruise; It’s Not Really A Cruise
My family doesn’t really cruise, though we have another pair planned in the coming months. To this point, my nine-year-old daughter, for example, has been to 32 countries and UN territories but this was her first cruise. As many destinations in the Caribbean would require individual trips, we haven’t seen a ton of the islands and wanted to branch out.
In order to try cruises, it would have to be unique and different from the idea of what cruising was in our minds. We aren’t interested in small, crowded pools, thousands of passengers, buffets, casinos, and the nickel and diming that has become part and parcel to many of the brands.
Explora Journeys won’t even call themselves a cruise. They are all-balcony suites with walk-in closets, normal shower facilities, a low passenger count (maximum of 900 but about 400 were onboard with us), a high-level of service, and everything is included. It was more like a five-star all-inclusive resort at sea and that suited us well.
Trip Report Table Of Contents
- Overview
- Miami: Kimpton Epic
- Explora Journeys
- Key West, Florida
- Sea Days
- Spanish Town, British Virgin Islands (Virgin Gorda)
- St. John’s, Antigua and Barbuda
- Deshaies, Guadeloupe
- Gustavia, St Barth’s
- Basseterre, St. Kitt’s and Nevis
- Castries, St. Lucia
- Bridgetown, Barbados
Highlights
I’ll dig into the above sections (they won’t all warrant separate report segments) but as an overview, I wanted to provide a little look into our impressions of the journey, the hard product, soft product, and perks of the trip.
Grand Penthouse Suite
While even the lead-in suites are sufficient, we stayed in a Grand Penthouse with a separate living room, dining room, heated marble floor bathroom, bedroom, and massive balcony deck. It exceeded our expectations. Our room host, Purna, serviced the room twice daily, and he was amazing.
Dining
Unlike some all-inclusive resorts and almost every other cruise line, Explora doesn’t charge for its restaurants, room service, food, or alcoholic beverages. The only restaurant with a charge was created by a two Michelin-star chef who joins most sailings and that service paired with wine is €85/per person. Because my travel agency is a Preferred Partner, we had a credit of €150/per person so we could have dined there twice for just €20 total.
The restaurants were amazing, our favorite was Sakura (pan-Asian) and Med Yacht Club (Mediterranean), though even the marketplace upstairs features a seafood bar with mussels, oysters, shrimp, crab, and lobster to our heart’s content.
Pools
There are a number of pools and hot tubs around the ship including an infinity pool. But our favorite was on deck 11 next to the gelateria. It featured a retractable roof and tons of loungers. There were never more than four people in that pool when we were onboard.
Nautilus Club
We’re generally not fans of sending our daughter off to the kids club, but in this case, we had trouble keeping her away. The staff was great, Elsa and Fatima in particular, and made us feel ok with our daughter being there with about 20 other kids on the ship during our journey. The Nautilus Club had a ton of activities my daughter loved including karaoke, a PS5, a pool table (the adult version is self-leveling) and a number of activities like basketball and pickleball on the 14th deck outdoors.
Destinations
We haven’t seen as much of the Caribbean as we lived in Europe and Asia for the first third of our marriage. Island hopper flights can be booked of course, but it’s a different notion than traveling from Paris to Brussels to Amsterdam over a six-day period. A cruise offers a little slice of each of those destinations and helps us highlight places we may want to return with a dedicated trip.
Antigua and Barbuda wouldn’t have been on our list, but we loved the beaches on the island. St. Bart’s was great for shopping and a taste of French culture, but if you’re not looking for Prada and Dior, it might not be for you.
Conclusion
We don’t review cruises generally on Live And Let’s Fly but as outlined this year by both Matthew and I, we are spending this year branching out a bit further and being open to new experiences. Explora gave us an “ocean state of mind” and showed us that cruises don’t have to be mass-market and loud. They can be refined, limited, and luxurious and we loved our experience. I can’t wait to share more of our experiences on this trip.
How much it cost?
This particular journey is usually about $5,500 pp for a lead-in suite, but right now there’s a February reverse sailing I am taking and there are lead-in suites from $2,660. Other journeys on the west coast are sub-$2,000.
This article can be summed up as “you tend to get what you pay for when you drop $40k.” And oh yeah, they charged for drinks and dining, just up front.
@Babblespeak – I definitely got what I paid for, but to be clear, Explora still has some trips on its Exclusive Sale (Black Friday) available until tomorrow starting from $1,850 pp for a six-day journey. I am on a similar one later in the year (7-days) available at the moment from $2,660 pp. I agree, paying for it upfront, but not nearly the $40,000 price point you assume.
Grammar police here. Proper written use of English is important . There is no possessive contraction of “I” as you use in this sentence – “We haven’t seen as much of the Caribbean as we lived in Europe and Asia for the first third of my wife and I’s marriage.” Not good.
I stopped reading once I realized that this was a promotional piece but came back to read comments to see if anyone else thought the same and I wasn’t disappointed.
“…of my wife and I’s marriage” is an absolute atrocity. I wasn’t born in the USA (came here when I was 18) but I would never ever make such an abhorrent mistake. This is nails on a chalkboard for me. Just so Kyle gets something out of this, the correct way to write that would be “… of my wife’s and my marriage.” You are welcome.
@Lukas/worltrvlr – Full disclosure, I didn’t like it either but forgot to come back and fix it. We’re all human. Rest easy though, I’ve changed the sentence.
@Lukas. I’m guessing you’ve never made a mistake. Also guessing by how self centered your comment is that you think you’re amazing? Humility my friend. It’s healthy.
The disclaimer/disclosure paragraph at the top does not mention if this trip was paid for, or was it a travel agent Familiarization trip, or otherwise discounted? Did the author pay the going price for the suite? Airline trip reports generally mention how the trip was paid for: cash or FF points. I believe free or discounted trips can create a “halo effect” that prejudices a writer, consciously or not.
Clearly promotional content.
I guess Kyle didn’t pay a cent, and certainly not anywhere near the retail price, or he’d give a straight answer to “how much did you pay?”
@Uri – Sorry I didn’t reply fast enough. It doesn’t make speculation true or false. I have replied in full above.
@Tom – There’s certainly no harm in asking and it seems to come from a genuine place. To date, I have purchased (6) tickets on Explora (we have an upcoming trip in a few months and children under two are free.) They were not TA rates but they were part of the sale I mentioned – because we see value.
To be clear, if there is a TA rate offered to us because of our travel agency, I am happy to take it but often don’t and here is why: they usually aren’t a heavy discount and they exclude the earning of points or status. I don’t see a TA rate on any travel expense as anything more than a corporate code that an IBM employee might benefit from when booking personal travel as opposed to solely business.
While I can understand that any discount might affect our ability to be honest with reviews, we have an entire hotel chain that won’t so much as send either writer from this site so much as a press release because they dislike our site so much. We try to be honest and open. I’m sure it’s imperfect, but this is part of the human condition. In fairness, you’ll never read a bad review in a magazine or see one on TV – we try to be better than that.
I did take a TA rate on the last hotel stay on this trip and while you’ll have to wait for that review, I think you’ll find your assumption to be incorrect. Offering me a discounted rate doesn’t cover for guests waiting until 7:30 pm to be checked in, or any of the myriad other shortcomings.
Come on, that’s not a straight answer.
You review a specific product at a specific date, and must have paid a specific sum on it. And this specific amount was, maybe, discounted x% below market price. Due disclosure means that you’d reveal these numbers.
There’s no shame in taking the best price you’re offered. Just put the facts on the table.
Without this, I can only read this review as an ad.
Yeah, I can’t tell from this explanation what Kyle’s family paid for the trip in this review. It’s not wrong to take a discounted rate, it’s just my expectation that any reputable review would disclose it.
In regards to the whole “what did Kyle pay?” debate, I just want to say that while I have issues with this site sometimes (not really Kyle, though–obviously I am opposite of some readers!), TPG is the worst of all with this junk. Kyle is flat out answering questions and pricing. TPG seems to have 1-2 “reviews” a day where “_____ offered TPG a complimentary _____ at ____. This in no way affected our view.” Or some such drivel. It affects us. Period. In fact, I won’t read a single TPG piece where they got the review room/cruise, etc. free.
I am not a high end luxury cruiser type (or a cruiser at all), but back off the people who actually pay for theirs and go after the real freeloaders who pretend they need free stuff to write their fake unbiased reviews.