Explora Journeys cruise ship review: Setting a new bar for luxury at sea

Are you looking to explore the Mediterranean or Caribbean in style? Explora I could be the answer.

The first vessel from startup line Explora Journeys is setting a new bar for luxury travel by ship in the two regions — even as it remains almost unknown to most luxury-loving cruisers.

As I saw during a recent weeklong sailing to Turkey and Greece, the 922-passenger vessel offers a sophisticated luxury experience that has more in common with what you’ll find at a swanky hotel or resort on land than on a traditional luxury cruise ship. (Think Four Seasons, not Seabourn.)

The biggest caveat to picking this ship: It’s not inexpensive. Suites on the vessel — and every cabin is a suite — often start at around $1,000 per day. The biggest accommodations on the ship can cost as much as $3,000 to $10,000 a night.

Overview of Explora I

Explora I and an almost identical sister ship, Explora II, are the new kids on the block in the world of luxury cruising. Unveiled in 2023 and 2024, respectively, they’re the first vessels from Explora Journeys, a new luxury line from the company that built MSC Cruises into one of the world’s biggest mass-market cruise brands.

Explora Journeys is, notably, aiming to reinvent the luxury cruising experience with vessels that feel more like the most sophisticated luxury hotels and resorts on land than traditional luxury ships.

As I saw during my recent sailing, Explora I has spacious, upscale accommodations that look more like those you’d find at an ultraluxury One&Only property, a Six Senses resort or a Four Seasons hotel than on a luxury cruise ship. They don’t read as cruise ship cabins.

Related: A beginners guide to picking a cruise line

For dining, the ship offers lots of intimate, elegant restaurants of the sort you find at a high-end resort — another differentiator to many luxury ships. There is no main dining room, nor is there a big central pool area on the top deck with lots of lounge chairs, a grill and a stage for live music, as is common on luxury ships. Instead, there are four intimate, stylish pool areas that look like they belong at a classy boutique hotel in St. Tropez or St. Barts.

Like at a luxury hotel or resort on land, you’re also not bombarded with announcements throughout the day on Explora I. And you won’t find a lot of traditional cruise ship entertainment. Even the signage is hotellike (and minimalist).

In all this, Explora Journeys is targeting the (very large) subset of wealthy travelers who are used to jetting around the world to the finest resorts on land but until now have never considered a cruise — in fact, they may have been disdainful of the very idea of one.

To the extent they are willing to explore the world by ship, they want it to be an experience similar to what they get on land.

It’s a subset of travelers that, notably, are younger on average than the typical customers of luxury cruise brands such as Seabourn and Silversea Cruises — brands that are the almost-exclusive domain of wealthy retirees.

In many cases, they are people who are still in their prime working years — the “working affluent,” Explora executives like to call them. As a result, they’re also looking for a cruise vessel that sails shorter itineraries than what is typical in the luxury cruise space. To that end, many of Explora’s sailings are just six or seven days long — short enough to do with just a week off from work.

Like MSC Cruises, Explora Journeys is a brand growing fast, even as it remains relatively unknown for now. Just 13 months after debuting, it’s already bigger than luxury line Crystal when measured by passenger capacity. Thanks to ambitious plans to quickly add four more ships, it will surpass luxury leaders Seabourn, Silversea and Regent Seven Seas Cruises in size over the next four years.

What I loved about Explora I

The spacious and sophisticated rooms

Explora I has some of the biggest and most sophisticated rooms of any cruise ship. Walking into my entry-level Ocean Terrace accommodations for the first time, I was truly wowed by its size. At 377 square feet, it was bigger than any other entry-level room in the cruise business. But it was its many luxury hotel touches that really set it apart from what I’ve experienced on most other ships — everything from wireless phone chargers built into the nightstands to heated floors in the bathroom. Even the balcony furnishings are next level, with $1,600 Manutti chairs, large stone-topped tables and luscious daybeds that can fit two people.

The elegant dining

The dining scene on Explora I has more in common with what you’ll find at a luxury resort than a cruise ship. There is, for instance, no main dining room where passengers eat most of their meals, nor are there “specialty restaurants.” There are just … restaurants. Lots of them, serving all sorts of menus — and all upscale with wonderful service.

The service

From the moment I stepped on board and in every venue, I experienced friendly, intuitive and doting service. Explora Journeys has hired extremely well, bringing in staff with work experience at the very best luxury hotels in places like Dubai and on luxury ships operated by such luxury lines as Regent Seven Seas Cruises and Seabourn.

What I didn’t love about Explora I

The launderettes

You know a ship is pretty great when one of the only things you can find to gripe about is the launderettes. But when this ship next goes into dry dock for an overhaul, this is one area where a change is sorely needed. There are just two tiny laundry rooms on the ship, not nearly enough for 900-plus passengers, and both are poorly designed. Not only do they each offer just two washers and two dryers. They feature fold-out ironing boards that block the opening of their doors when in use (prompting some passengers using the boards to lock themselves into the rooms so they don’t get whacked by a swinging door).

The glass walls on top decks

Again, this is relatively a minor thing. But the top decks of Explora I are almost completely ringed by 6-foot-high walls of glass, as compared to the lower, chest-high railings found on some other ships. It looks beautiful, and it no doubt cuts down on the wind across the top decks. It’s also safe. There’s no chance of a passenger plunging overboard after leaning too far over a railing. But there’s something wonderful about standing along a chest-high railing with an unobstructed (even by glass) view of the sea — something you only can do in a small number of places on this ship.

Explora I cabins and suites

For a relatively small ship, Explora I has a wide range of accommodations, and they’re all pretty spectacular.

For starters, every cabin on the ship is a suite, and even the smallest among them are huge by cruise ship standards. They’re also beautifully designed, with high-end furnishings.

My cabin was an Ocean Terrace Suite, the smallest type of room on the ship, and it measured 377 square feet. While standard for hotel rooms on land, that’s an enormous amount of space for an entry-level room on a cruise ship. Indeed, Explora Journeys claims it’s the largest entry-level cabin in cruising, and I don’t doubt that.

By way of comparison, entry-level cabins on upscale line Viking‘s ocean vessels measure 270 square feet — more than 100 square feet smaller in size. Entry-level cabins on luxury line Seabourn’s ships start at around 295 square feet.

Thanks to its unusually large footprint, my entry-level Ocean Terrace Suite had room for a king-size bed (on some luxury ships, entry-level rooms only have queen-size beds), a generously sized adjacent seating area with a sofa and coffee table, a walk-in closet and a large bathroom — all without feeling cramped.

Still, where the extra space was most noticeable was on the room’s balcony. At 75 square feet, it was significantly larger than entry-level cabin balconies on some luxury ships — big enough to accommodate two (very high-end) Manutti chairs, a table that could be used for outdoor dining and a luscious Manutti daybed for lounging.

Decor-wise, the look of the bedroom area was sleek, contemporary and expensive, with streamlined faux-walnut cabinetry lining one wall, light gray carpeting and walls, and a minimalist gray sofa by Molteni&C — the high-end Italian furniture company where even the smallest sofas cost around $10,000. The only splash of color came from contemporary art on the walls.

The bathroom was equally sleek, modern and high-end. Its expensive white Vitra sink was inset into a black granite counter that topped glossy white cabinets. The floors were white marble tile, which carried into the large walk-in shower. The fixtures were pricey Grohe.

In short, it was a stylish space in which to live for a week at sea — as stylish as anything you’ll find at the high end of cruising.

Still, it was the little touches that really set the room apart from those on some other luxury ships. Unlike in the entry-level rooms on the new Seabourn vessel that I recently tested, there was a high-end espresso maker (an illy E.S.E.) tucked away in a cabinet, allowing me access to a perfect espresso in the morning without heading to the ship’s cafe. The floor of the bathroom was heated, keeping my toes warm during middle-of-the-night bathroom runs (I loved that there was a dial to tweak the temperature).

And, perhaps most significantly for an addicted-to-his-phone traveler like me, the nightstands next to the bed had built-in wireless chargers, such that I could keep my phone charged through the night just by placing it down on one of them. No need for cords. This was something I’d never seen before on a cruise vessel, and I’ve sailed on more than 200 of them.

Other technological touches in the room included fast-charging USB-C outlets next to the bed and along the built-in cabinets and a button to turn on a “do not disturb” light outside the door. Both U.S.-style 110-volt outlets and European-style 220-volt outlets were also abundant, as were traditional USB-A outlets.

Another nice touch was the top-of-the-line Dyson Supersonic hair dryer, presented like a work of art in a custom-made drawer. Even if you don’t normally use a hair dryer, give it a try, if only to see the magic of what a $430 hair-styling machine can do.

The most important thing in any cabin, the bed, was luscious, with high-quality white Frette linens topping a custom-made Italian mattress that was as comfy as could be. The pillows, like the duvet atop the bed, were filled with fine down but could be swapped for memory foam pillows or special neck support pillows on request (as explained on a pillow menu).

As for flaws to the room, there really weren’t any of note. There was plenty of storage space in the walk-in closet for a week at sea, plus more storage in the built-in cabinets and nightstands in the main bedroom area. If I had to quibble about anything, it would be the large number of glued-down decorative objects on the small room divider between the bed and the sitting area. For a modern space like this, to quote the great modernist Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, “less is more.”

Other little quibbles include the water pressure in the shower, which could be a tad stronger, and the lack of a proper desk area for computer work in the main part of the room (to be fair, there is a desk area in the walk-in closet, and the table and chairs on the balcony offer a great place to work if the weather outside is pleasant).

The best suites on Explora I

Ocean Terrace Suites such as mine account for about two-thirds of accommodations on Explora 1 (301 of 461 cabins).

For those who want something even more spacious (and are willing to pay more for the privilege), Explora I has 10 more categories of even larger suites — some truly stunning in their size.

These include a variation of the Ocean Terrace Suite called the Ocean Grand Terrace Suite, which is essentially the same, except it has a noticeably bigger balcony (118 square feet versus 75 square feet). There are 70 of these.

Additionally, there are 67 bigger suites known as Ocean Penthouses that range from 463 to 732 square feet.

There are four types of Ocean Penthouses in all, each of which comes with a bigger living area than the Ocean Suites. This larger living area allows for a work desk that you won’t find in the smaller cabins, as well as a separate dining area that can seat up to four people. Balconies attached to rooms in these categories can be as big as 226 square feet — considerably large for a balcony on a cruise ship.

Even bigger than Ocean Penthouses are 22 Ocean Residences that are truly grand. At the front and back of the ship, they are like floating one-bedroom apartments — hence the name. Split into four categories, they all have bedrooms that are separated completely from large living rooms and dining areas, and they measure 753 to 1,604 square feet.

Many of these Ocean Residences have sprawling balcony spaces so big they can accommodate an outdoor hot tub, a dining area and plush lounge chairs. Several of the bigger Ocean Residences wrap around a corner of the ship, offering views in two directions.

In addition to the above, the ship has a single Owner’s Residence that is among the most spectacular accommodations at sea. Measuring 3,014 square feet, it’s bigger in size than the average American home and has a massive dining room with a dining table that seats eight people, a giant living room and a palatial primary bedroom complex.

The Owner’s Residence extends across the entire back of Deck 8 and has a balcony that stretches clear across the back of the ship, too, offering views in three directions. Among its most notable features is an improbably large infinity pool from which you look out over the ship’s wake.

Explora restaurants and bars

Explora I has six restaurants and nearly twice that many bars — an impressive array given the ship’s size. If you’re on board for a week, you’ll be hard-pressed to try them all.

Restaurants

The first dining experience you’ll likely have on Explora I will be in the Emporium Marketplace — the ship’s casual buffet restaurant. It’s the one restaurant open in the afternoon on embarkation days. If you’re like me, you’ll be wowed by it.

Open every day for breakfast, lunch and dinner, the Emporium Marketplace is about as refined and upscale as you can imagine a buffet being. It features more than a dozen beautifully designed stations where chefs will prepare elegantly plated dishes of various appetizers, mains and desserts right in front of you.

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Emporium Marketplace offers casual dining throughout the day. GENE SLOAN/THE POINTS GUY

There is a pasta station, for instance, where you can pick from an array of handmade pastas so lovely that you almost don’t want to eat them (and have the chef cook it to order with a homemade sauce of your choosing). Just steps away, another chef is whipping up mussels in a wine sauce to serve to you hot off the stove.

The cheese, charcuterie and bread stations in the Emporium Marketplace are works of art. There’s also a sushi bar in one corner with its own sushi chef. At night, one station turns into an oyster bar, where you can order oysters with a range of sauces, crab claws and other seafood delicacies with a glass of wine before heading off to a more formal dinner elsewhere on the ship.

To that end, the five other restaurants on Explora I offer a well-thought-out range of cuisines, with each of the eateries resembling the sort of sophisticated, high-end restaurants you find in a big city. All are relatively intimate, with even the biggest among them (French cuisine-serving Fil Rouge) designed for just 222 people when completely full.

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Fil Rouge serves French cuisine. GENE SLOAN/THE POINTS GUY

Nothing on the ship resembles a main dining room of the sort you still find on many luxury vessels.

In addition to Fil Rouge, there is a pan-Asian restaurant (Sakura), a steakhouse (Marble & Co. Grill), a Mediterranean-inspired restaurant (Med Yacht Club) and an Italian-focused fine dining venue (Anthology).

Dining at all but the last venue is included in the fare. Anthology serves an elegant seven-course tasting menu in an intimate setting (there are just 48 seats) and comes with a 140-euro (about $157) per person extra charge, plus an additional 60-euro (about $67) charge for an optional wine pairing.

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GENE SLOAN/THE POINTS GUY

I tried all the restaurants at least once, and I was impressed with them all. Explora I is a ship where the food really stands out — as does the service in the venues.

Regular readers know that I have been disappointed in some of the culinary experiences that I have had on ships of late, whether it be in the high-end eateries on luxury vessels such as Seabourn Pursuit or the pricier restaurants on mass-market vessels such as Royal Caribbean’s Symphony of the Seas. Cruise lines across the fare spectrum have been cutting back on quality and service in eateries, from what I’ve been seeing — no doubt as part of money-saving cutbacks.

Not so on Explora I. I loved my sirloin steak at Marble & Co. Grill, which was an expensive cut of Swami beef from Sweden aged for 45 days, and a Dover sole expertly boned tableside at Fil Rouge (the latter eatery, which served mostly French cuisine, also had a scrumptious handmade calamarata pasta with carbonara sauce that I could eat every day for the rest of my life).

Sakura’s dishes also were lovely, if not as Asian-inspired as I was expecting. The only real hint of Asia in a showy main course of rack of lamb that arrived in a smoke-filled dome was a yaki sauce on the side.

My waiter recommended the lamb and a sirloin steak topped with teriyaki sauce, which also gave a relatively light nod to Asian cuisine.

If you want something more traditionally Asian, sit at the sushi bar, which serves gorgeously presented sushi and sashimi (and only sushi and sashimi — you can’t order off the regular Sakura menu here).

The sushi bar has 10 seats available on a first-come, first-served basis (unlike the main part of the restaurant, where you’ll need a reservation) and, oddly to me, never seemed to be occupied. Passengers either did not know it was open for dining or were put off by its limited-to-sushi menu. Either way, it’s the perfect place for an impromptu bite if you don’t have a reservation somewhere else.

Sakura also had its own bar that, in two visits to the eatery, I never saw visited by a single passenger.

The included-in-the-fare eateries are so good that I don’t see the need to book extra-charge Anthology. While the dishes that were part of its seven-course, Italian-themed tasting menu were artfully presented and tasty, the experience wasn’t enough of a greater wow to justify its 200-euro (about $224) extra cost with the optional wine pairing.

The original concept for Anthology involved Explora rotating star chefs to create the tasting menu. (Anthology initially launched with a menu created by chef Mauro Uliassi, owner of Italy’s three-Michelin-starred Uliassi restaurant.)

For that, I would gladly pay the upcharge. But Explora ditched that idea relatively early in favor of a tasting menu created by its in-house head chef Franck Garanger.

Garanger, who for years was the head chef for food-focused Oceania Cruises, knows what he’s doing. But if you want to sample his creativity, you can do it for free in Fils Rouge or the Med Yacht Club.

Whichever restaurant you pick on Explora I, you’ll find the experience intimate and the service outstanding. One thing Explora did really well with the design of the eateries is to break them up into cozy seating areas that, in some cases, make it feel like you’re in a small New York bistro with just a few tables. When I dined in Marble & Co. Grill, which has 92 seats, I was in a room with just half a dozen or so tables.

All of the main eateries are open for dinner, and some are open for breakfast or lunch, too. Fil Rouge, for instance, is the place for a classy sit-down breakfast. Some, such as Sakura, have outdoor and indoor seating.

Other venues where you can grab a light bite include Crema Cafe, a European-style cafe, and the Gelateria & Creperie at The Conservatory.

The former serves croissants and other pastries in the morning along with espresso drinks, while the latter offers lovely handmade gelati and made-to-order crepes.

Additionally, healthy food bowls, club sandwiches and other light fare are available in the top-of-the-ship Explora Lounge during the day. Room service is also offered around the clock.

Bars

If you’re heading out for a drink in the evening on Explora I, you’re probably venturing to one of three places: the Explora Lounge, the Astern Lounge or the Lobby Bar.

At the front of the ship overlooking the bow, the Explora Lounge is by far the biggest of the three venues by size, with seating for 149 people in its interior area, plus an outdoor seating area that fits dozens more. But it’s not necessarily the busiest.

In the early evening, I found it almost empty at times, perhaps because it lacked live music. The only music in this venue in the early evening came from a mechanical piano at its center — no human in sight. It wasn’t until 9 p.m. that live music got going (typically a pianist or a strings player), and even then, the room didn’t draw all that much of a crowd.

Indeed, the venue only really seemed to be occupied in the late afternoon when the Explora Lounge hosted the ship’s afternoon tea — a classy event with servers wheeling around a trolley with finger sandwiches, tarts, cupcakes and cookies, and a pianist playing Frank Sinatra and Billy Joel tunes in the background.

Designed with a residential feel, with comfortable seating areas, the Explora Lounge is a classic observation lounge featuring stunning views of the ocean available in three directions through floor-to-ceiling windows that wrap around its front. The front part of the lounge is not only all glass from floor to ceiling but has a glass roof, too — a design that allows for truly spectacular views but, unfortunately, creates a greenhouse effect that can make it stifling hot on a sunny day.

The Explora Lounge has a traditional bar counter at its center but also a smaller secondary bar dedicated specifically to whisky. Dubbed the Malt Whisky Bar, it’s tucked away in a corner and only open for limited hours (typically from 5 p.m. onward). It is, notably, the only bar on Explora I with its own signature drinks menu (and a modest one at that) — something that surprised me. Signature drink menus with ever-more creative concoctions are a mainstay of higher-end cocktail bars on land.

Just behind the Malt Whisky Bar is the Cigar Lounge, another affiliated venue that is the only place in the interior of the ship where you can smoke (and only if you’re smoking a cigar). It has its own walk-in humidor with cigars for sale.

About half the size of the Explora Lounge, with seating for 70 people, the Astern Lounge is part-lounge, part-miniature showroom — about half of its space is devoted to a stage and dance floor ringed with chairs facing the stage. During the day into the early evening, it’s the site of dance classes, trivia sessions and other activities that, on my sailing, didn’t draw much of a crowd.

The Astern Lounge then morphs into the ship’s nightclub in the evening. A DJ spins dance tunes starting around midnight, sometimes earlier, and presides over silent disco parties on some nights. Again, these weren’t well attended.

The smallest but most visually stunning of Explora I’s bars is the Lobby Bar. At the base of the ship’s soaring lobby, its long marble-topped bar backed by a wall of liquor bottles is a design triumph — the sort of architectural wow that you’ll find in the finest New York hotels. Indeed, when you’re in the lobby area, you feel like you’re in a high-end city hotel, not a cruise ship — and that’s the point.

In addition to the above, Explora I offers four outdoor bars — one each around the ship’s three outdoor pools (more on those in a moment) and a fourth at the highest point of the ship.

The latter, called the Sky Bar, stays open late and is a great place to watch the sun set.

There’s also a bar at the ship’s semi-indoor Conservancy Pool (more on this in a moment, too) and at the Journeys Lounge, which is the ship’s showroom.

Explora I activities

Like a lot of luxury ships, Explora I is a vessel where the big daytime activity for passengers — when they’re not out exploring on land — is to lounge in the sun, generally around a pool.

For that, Explora I has been designed better than just about any luxury ship at sea.

Explora I’s exterior decks are home to four distinct pool areas — a large number for a vessel of its size. All are elegant and inviting, with lovely pools as focal points, plush lounge chairs and daybeds and lots of seating areas, and an always-present army of attendants standing by to cater to your every whim.

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The Astern Pool and Bar is at the back of the ship overlooking its wake. GENE SLOAN/THE POINTS GUY

All four pool areas also have their own bars, each a stylish venue that can be a destination in its own right (sitting at one of these bars at sunset can be particularly alluring).

Perhaps the most alluring of the four pool areas is the Astern Pool and Bar at the very back of the ship. On a low deck near the waterline, its focal point is a lovely half-circle infinity pool facing the ship’s wake. Soak in the pool facing away from the ship, and all you’ll see is the light blue water of the pool merging into the darker blue water of the ocean.

For lounging around the Astern Pool, you can pick from one of the 16 two-person sunbeds that arc around its curving edge — all facing the water. Should you get peckish, you can order a bento box to your sunbed from the adjacent Sakura eatery.

Just be warned that the sunbeds are in hot demand. Get there early on sea days.

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The Atoll Pool and Bar is also at the back of the ship overlooking its wake. GENE SLOAN/THE POINTS GUY

Also overlooking the ship’s wake, five decks higher, is the bigger Atoll Pool and Bar. Here, a centrally located, rectangular pool is enveloped by 13 two-person sunbeds (all facing the pool), with additional one-person loungers facing out to the ocean. The sunbeds fill up first, then the loungers, but you can usually find a spot here any time of day.

The Atoll Pool also has a shaded area with daybeds, and there are seating areas (in both sun and shade) near its bar.

Should the weather turn iffy, the best bet for a pool day is The Conservatory Pool and Bar, toward the middle of the ship. Featuring a long rectangular pool in its center surrounded by sunbeds and lounge chairs, it’s topped with a magrodome — a sliding glass roof that can be opened or closed at the push of a button, depending on the weather.

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A third pool area on Explora I is The Conservatory Pool and Bar. GENE SLOAN/THE POINTS GUY

The Conservatory Pool also is home to two long, infinity pool-style hot tubs on each side that offer views of the ocean.

At night, The Conservancy Pool turns into a cinema under the stars, with movies projected onto the large screen at its forward end.

The fourth pool area, the Helios Pool and Bar, is at the very front of the vessel and is adults-only. It offers an abundance of sunbeds, lounge chairs and seating areas surrounding a curving pool that looks out over the ship’s bow.

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A fourth pool area, the Helios Pool and Bar, is at the top front of the ship. GENE SLOAN/THE POINTS GUY

During my sailing, the Helios Pool often was nearly empty — the place to go if you’re looking to avoid other people.

More lounge chairs and a couple more infinity pool-style hot tubs line the sides of the ship’s top deck. There are so many lounge chairs, in fact, that you never will have trouble finding a place to lounge in the sun.

Other than pool areas, Explora I’s only deck-top amusements are a small sports court where you can play pickleball or basketball and a small outdoor gym area with free weights and a few cardio machines. Both are at the very top of the ship behind the Sky Bar.

There’s also a running track that circles the top deck above The Conservancy Pool.

This isn’t a ship where you’ll find family-friendly deck-top amusements such as waterslides and kiddie splash zones. That’s in keeping with the ship’s positioning in the luxury market, where customers typically crave a relatively quiet, relaxing deck-top experience.

Additional activity areas in the interior of the ship include a small casino called, simply enough, The Casino. It has just three tables for poker, blackjack and baccarat and 18 slot machines.

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The Casino is a small space with just three tables for gaming. GENE SLOAN/THE POINTS GUY

Much bigger is the ship’s spa, called — you guessed it — The Spa. It has 12 treatment rooms for massages, facials and other spa treatments and is attached to the Beauty Studio, which offers a full array of hair and nail services.

The Spa is also home to a thermal area that’s open to all passengers on most days at no extra charge (on sea days, access is limited to passengers getting treatments). While relatively small, the thermal area packs in a lot, including a hydrotherapy pool, a steam room, a Finnish sauna, a salt cave, an experience shower, an ice fall and heated marble loungers.

Other interior activity areas include a well-equipped fitness center (I love the high-end Technogym equipment); a wellness room for yoga, Pilates and other classes; and a cooking classroom.

The latter venue, called The Chef’s Kitchen, can accommodate up to 12 passengers at a time for immersive, extra-charge classes in things like pasta-making.

Explora I shows

Explora I doesn’t have a lot of cruise ship-style entertainment, and that’s on purpose. But it does have one relatively large lounge with a stage and a dance floor — the Journeys Lounge — that serves as a venue for a single show nightly at 10 p.m.

The show is typically a musical performance by one or two performers, in some cases more.

With plush stand-alone chairs and coffee tables spread out in a semicircle facing the stage and a stylish bar along one of its side walls, the Journeys Lounge feels more like a cabaret lounge than a traditional cruise ship showroom.

Explora’s intent was that it wouldn’t have the feel of a traditional showroom, with passengers able to walk in and out and have a drink at the bar while performances were underway.

Seating up to 210 passengers at once, the Journeys Lounge is also used for lectures by guest speakers on some days and other events.

Explora I itineraries and pricing

Explora I currently spends about seven months of the year — from mid-April to mid-November — sailing in the Mediterranean. The rest of the year it sails the Caribbean.

The ship’s Mediterranean voyages range from seven to 10 nights and can be combined to create longer trips of up to 19 nights that feature few repeating ports.

For 2025, most of these Mediterranean sailings will focus on the Eastern half of the region, typically beginning in Istanbul; Piraeus, Greece (the port for Athens); or Fusina, Italy (one of the ports for Venice). But Explora I sometimes will sail in the Western Mediterranean, too.

Explora I’s Caribbean sailings range from six to nine nights and also can be combined to create longer trips of up to 17 nights.

The ship offers a wide mix of itineraries in the Caribbean with an ever-changing array of ports. Many of these sailings begin and end in Miami, but there are also one-way trips between Miami and Barbados or Miami and San Juan, Puerto Rico.

Prices for Mediterranean sailings start around $3,760 per person, based on double occupancy, for a seven-night sailing between Piraeus and Istanbul. That works out to just over $500 per person, per day.

Prices for Caribbean sailings start at slightly lower rates — around $3,160 per person, based on double occupancy, for a seven-night trip out of Miami. That works out to about $450 per person, per day.

Given that pricing is based on two people per room, the above rates mean that you’ll pay around $900 to $1,000 a day or more for an entry-level room on the ship.

The above rates include all taxes and fees.

Note that you’ll pay a significant premium to stay in the ship’s bigger suites. A seven-night voyage where an entry-level Ocean Terrace Suite starts around $4,000 per person might cost closer to $6,000 per person if you upgrade to a bigger Ocean Penthouse suite.

On the same voyage, the much-bigger Ocean Residences might start around $12,000 per person with the sprawling Owner’s Residence starting around an astounding $42,000.

What to know before you go

Required documents

Explora I sails global itineraries for which passengers always need a valid passport. For some itineraries, passengers also need visas to enter countries on the schedule. Be sure to research visa requirements far in advance of your sailing so you have time to get everything in order before you go. Visa processing can be a time-consuming process. Note that you will very likely be denied boarding if you arrive for your cruise without the proper travel documentation. In such cases, you are not eligible for a refund.

When assembling your documents, be sure your passport will be valid for six months beyond the end of your cruise, as that’s a requirement to enter many countries.

You will also need to fill out preboarding documents online before your cruise.

Gratuities

Explora Journeys’ all-inclusive fares cover all crew gratuities, and passengers thus aren’t expected to tip when on board Explora Journeys ships. The only time you might be expected to tip while on an Explora Journeys cruise is during an off-the-ship excursion, as gratuities for tour guides and drivers on shore tours are not included in fares.

Related: Tipping on a cruise: What to know about cruise ship gratuities

Wi-Fi

Explora Journeys offers complimentary Wi-Fi service on its ships, and it’s one of the best free Wi-Fi offerings at sea. Every passenger can have up to three devices logged onto the Wi-Fi system at a time, which is an unusually large number. The Wi-Fi is provided via a relatively fast (for a cruise ship) connection through Starlink satellites.

Carry-on drinks policy

All drinks are complimentary on Explora I, with the exception of premium wines and the most expensive liquors. However, if you are particular to certain brands, you can bring on board your own wine and liquor, both on embarkation day and in ports of call, and you do not have to pay a corkage fee.

Smoking policy

Cigarette smoking (including e-cigarette smoking) is allowed only in designated outdoor areas. This includes the outdoor seating area of the Crema Cafe on Deck 5 and a section of the Sky Bar area on Deck 14.

Smoking of any kind is forbidden in cabins, including on cabin balconies, and in all other indoor areas of the ship, with one exception: You can smoke cigars only in the Cigar Lounge on Deck 11. There’s also a cigar-smoking section at the outdoor Helios Bar on Deck 12.

Unlike on some cruise ships, smoking is not allowed in Explora I’s casino.

Laundry

Explora I has two very small self-serve launderettes that each have just two washers, two dryers and a fold-out ironing board for use at no extra charge. There’s free detergent, too. Alas, the number of machines is far too small for the number of passengers on board seeking to use them, and that can make it difficult to find an open machine.

The ship also offers extra-charge laundry, pressing and eco-friendly dry cleaning services at what some cruisers will consider exorbitantly high prices. Sending out a button-down men’s shirt or women’s blouse for cleaning will cost you 12 euros (about $13.40). Cleaning a single T-shirt, polo shirt, shorts or skirt costs 10 euros (about $11.17).

Related: Everything you need to know about cruise ship laundry services

Electrical outlets

You’ll find North American-style 110-volt outlets and European-style 220-volt outlets in cabins, along with USB ports.

Currency

The onboard currency is the euro, but you won’t need cash while on board. Explora I operates on a “cashless system,” with any onboard purchases you make posting automatically to your onboard account. You’ll receive a keycard that you can use to make charges, and Explora Journeys will charge your credit card at the end of the sailing to settle the balance.

While on board, you can check your balance at the guest services desk or via your in-cabin TV.

Drinking age

You must be 18 to consume alcohol on Explora I in most parts of the world. When the ship sails from North American ports, Explora Journeys enforces the U.S. drinking age limit of 21.

Dress code

There is no official dress code on Explora I, but the line suggests passengers dress in an “elegant resort casual” style, and it does have a few minimum standards:

• Swimwear and bathrobes are not allowed in restaurants, indoor bars and lounges.
• Shorts and sleeveless T-shirts are not allowed in the evening at the Anthology and Fil Rouge restaurants but are allowed at other venues.
• Baseball caps and sportswear are not allowed in the evening at the following restaurants: Anthology, Fil Rouge, Sakura, Marble & Co. Grill and Med Yacht Club.

On my sailing, most passengers were dressed casually but elegantly, just like the line suggested.

Related: Cruise packing list: The ultimate guide to what to pack for a cruise

Bottom line

Explora I is an elegant and upscale vessel that sets a new bar for luxury cruising. Designed for luxury travelers who aren’t necessarily cruisers, it feels more like a resort on land than a traditional cruise ship, with unusually large rooms, lots of intimate and upscale restaurants and boutique hotellike pool areas.

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