Greetings from my new home – Explora 1 Journeys

I’ll limit this blog to describing my first impressions of my new environment, the  good, the weird and the bad.

First, Explora 1 Journey is a brand new ship about the same size as Viking Sky. It has a capacity of 922 passengers and 700 crewmembers, although we are only half full. Restaurants and lounges are not crowded just like the last few days on the Sky

The opulence and glitzy atmosphere is over the top. For instance, all cabin bathroom floors are heated marble and feel wonderful on one’s feet. All public bathroom door handles are electronic and doors open with a push of a button. Cabins have a make-up vanity equipped with a Dyson hair dryer. More importantly for me, each cabin is equipped with its own router, so download internet speeds exceed 130 mbps. Although this ship is several years newer than the Sky, technology must have taken stabilizers to a new  level. Even at 20-30 ft waves, this ship was rock steady.

 They have 4 free specialty restaurants where one can make reservations, and one paid fixed price and menu restaurant, similar to Chef’s Table on the Sky but it costs 190 Euros/person and an additional 90 Euros for wines. Naturally they have few takers because the food in the other restaurants is exquisite. It’s weird but they eliminated a general restaurant, to set themselves apart from other cruise ships.

In addition, in  their effort to establish their “brand” , they have implemented several other superficial and silly ideas primarily dealing with words. For instance Cruise Director is Entertainment Manager, Guest Lecturers are Luminaries, Excursions are Destination Experiences, and the Buffet is Emporium Marketplace.

In an attempt to be more upscale than other cruise ships, they increased the number  of lectures but eliminated other activities such as arts and crafts, bridge and others, but there is a casino which is not utilized much. I venture to guess the changes will not last long.

All that glitz is only skin deep, because my bathroom had a  sticky film on the counter tops and upper surfaces and had to be scrubbed. The marble shower floor is slippery when wet, so requires a tub mat for safety. My first request yielded a yellowish old one before my chamber maid found a new one. Similarly, no one cleans my spacious balcony so I hardly use it. This contrasts with the Sky’s staff who cleaned all clean surfaces constantly.

The nightly entertainment also does not measure up, we had a Billy Joel and Whitney Huston imitators and watched a couple of movies on other nights. The staff is new and inexperienced but trying hard to make us feel welcome. In my opinion, they lack the genuiness and sincerity of the viking staff.

For me, its not even close to the Viking experience…….maybe its because It’s a segmented cruise with passengers hopping on and off at various ports or maybe its because Viking WC passengers are a breed apart.

I can’t even practice my water colors because there is no cabin desk and no restaurant tables to use when needed, but I plan to catch up with my reading and make the best of the next month or so. In spite of the difficulties mentioned, I met a few interesting people one of whom is 102 years old and as sharp as anyone

I don’t plan on leaving the ship to go on many excursions but will continue to write updates as required.