This was my first time on an Explora cruise, and I AM A FAN! Here’s my review of our ship, Explora II.
Boarding Explora II
After we spent a day in Rome, we traveled to the port city of Civitavecchia, Italy to board our 7-night cruise! Explora is owned by MSC, and it’s advertised as “an exquisite, modern luxury cruise experience.” Explora II is their second boat, and there are two more being built! They sail all around the world, including the Caribbean and Europe.
Explora II has 461 suites, all with ocean terraces, 5 heated pools (+ hot tubs), 6 restaurants, 12 bars/lounges, a beautiful wellness/spa area, sports deck, fitness center, and more.
This is definitely not a party boat with loud music and buffets. Dining is restaurant-style (or stations at the Marketplace) and all drinks are included! The drinks were incredible too – they didn’t skimp on anything.
While children are welcome, we didn’t see a ton of them. I’d say most of the other guests were ages 45-65, and mostly couples with some larger groups and families. I couldn’t tell you what percentage of our cruise were American vs. international, but if I had to guess I’d say 25% international.
Everything about Explora II was beautifully done. I loved the furniture, the tablewear (how I judge a restaurant!), the spaciousness, the lounge chairs and pools, and especially our room. It exceeded my expectations in terms of how nice it was.
Our Room
We were in an Ocean Grande Terrace, which is one step up from the base room because it has a bigger balcony (I think we got this step up in a promo?). Honestly, we didn’t use our terrace that much, so the base room would be totally lovely!
Our bathroom was HUGE for cruise ship standards, and we had a rain shower!
I also loved the dressing area with plenty of storage and a separate makeup mirror area.
There are two laundry rooms on the ship, and we did our own laundry in them twice. And then in your last 48 hours, the ship does your laundry FOR YOU!
Wellness
We absolutely loved the wellness area of the spa, which had a Finnish sauna (that was perfectly hot), a salt room, experience showers, a salt water hot tub, and a steam room. All of this was complimentary to use at any time, and there were hardly any people there.
The Spa
I used some of our on-board credits to get a massage at the spa, and it was wonderful! More on that when I recap that day : )
Fitness
We also loved the fitness room and the walking track! I walked the track everyday, and Thomas used the fitness room.
They also had a few exercise bikes outside in the open air along with rowing machines and some weight benches. I loved biking outside when I could catch the shade!
The Pools
Could you imagine a more beautiful infinity pool!? It was dreamy! Pool chairs were plentiful, but shade was sometimes hard to find.
The interior pool had a roof that opens and closes in case of bad weather.
The infinity hot tubs were great too!! Nice and long so you didn’t feel like you were on top of other people.
The Food
Perhaps most importantly, the food! I thought it was very good. I’d give it a 9/10! We had 1-2 dishes that we thought were so-so, but overall, the food was excellent! Stay tuned for more of my upcoming blog posts for recaps of each of the restaurants.
I had lots of fruit, muesli, chia pudding, and green juice for breakfast most days.
The food was very healthy and fresh! LOVED the juice bar!
We had most of our lunches off the ship, but the Marketplace was fabulous when we ate there the first day and the day at sea. There were so many offerings: tapas, pizza, pre-made salads, DIY salads, sushi, caviar and champagne, paninis, cheeses of all kinds, all-you-can-eat-crab-legs, and more!
Lunch snack plate!
Sakura
Several of the restaurants you could walk into, several asked for reservations, but I think you could probably make them same-day. Our favorite of the restaurants was Sakura because we got to eat out on the deck, and the food was SO good there!
We had sushi plus tempura soft shell crab, pork dumplings, and a delicious kale salad.
I loved this chocolate matcha ice cream dessert too!
There was one restaurant that had a fee that served a seven-course “journey through Italy” called Anthology (stay tuned for our recap of that). I believe it was 150 Euros each plus more for an exclusive wine pairing. We had almost 1,000 Euros of on-board credit that my sister had gotten us, so we used that to pay for it, but I’m not sure we would have gone otherwise.
Nightlife
There was a show of sorts every night on the ship, usually involving singing! There were house singers and also guests. The shows were at 8:30 and 10:30, so we usually went to the early one if we finished dinner in time.
After the show, I raced to Name That Tune that was held every night!! I made some friends there who were from Virginia, which was funny, and they went every night, too! Explora doesn’t over-do it with nightlife, but since we aren’t huge party people, we didn’t really need much more. I could have used a comedian night though! I do love going to those on cruises. There was also regular trivia held at 5pm, but we were usually still at port or showering then, so I never made it to that.
Overall Review of Explora II
If you love cruises, you will love Explora II! I was really happy with all of the levels of service and luxury. It felt more like a floating hotel than a tacky, crowded ship.
Favorite Parts:
- The wellness center was amazing
- The food was excellent with lots of healthy options
- Amazing drinks, quality wine, mocktails – LOVED that these were all included not because we drank that much (because we didn’t) but because it took all the cost debate out of it and we didn’t have to mess with signing tabs.
- Wifi was included and great speed
- All tips were included
- The rooms were very nice, spacious, with a stocked mini fridge and robes
- Getting on and off the ship was fast and easy
- Towels were provided for excursions
Room for improvement:
- More shade / umbrellas
- The gelato cafe closed at 5pm (I wanted it for dessert!)
- Anthology was the restaurant with an extra fee, and I would rather they have just limited us to going once and included the fee in our cruise fare than had us pay for that separately.
I would 10/10 do another Explora cruise! I would love to do the Greek Isles or one that goes through the Caribbean and stops at tiny islands that are hard to fly into.
