A Journey from Istanbul to Athens, 19 September 2025 (7 nights)

Beautiful ship, good sevice mostly and very nice staff. Food was fairly good but apart from the Emporium Marketplace the menu's don't change and become dull. Seafood very good; fish average; meat tough and wine limited in choice and quality except for the very nice house champagne.

I had high expectations of Explora, but was disappointed. With over 30 cruises under my belt and expecting a luxury cruise this did not meet expectations. Firstly the negatives; service in restaurants was not great, having to frequently request wine and water top-ups. The food was satisfactory, but nothing outstanding. Waiting staff reached across you to serve both diners. They did not explain what the items of the day were, I had to ask. Most restaurants don't have tables cloths, nor do they have butter knives. Drinks in the bars are often served in a random selection of glass types. We had prosecco in grappe glasses, champagne in tulip glasses, martini's in coupe glasses, etc. Flowers on tables and around the ship were plastic. . The bars on the ship lacked any atmosphere and drinks only came with nibbles, no canapés. if you wanted canapés you had to go to the coffee lounge. The Head of Food and Beverages left us a message to say he would see us in the restaurant but didn't show up. The cost of excursions was ridiculously high for nothing special. On ships they are usually dear, but these were order of magnitude more. The ship has a few underutilised seating-only areas in each bookable restaurant when more dining tables would have made getting a reservation easier. On some days there were no early evening entertainment shows, instead they just had one at 22. 15, which is a long time to wait after an early dinner. Finally, a very last minute change of disembarkation port caused problems for many, myself included, with prearranged transport going to the wrong port. The 'terminal' itself amounted to a few small buildings for luggage collection and passport control. After making your way through you were then outside in a small car park built on a gradient with many vehicles vying for limited space. There were very many people trying to locate their transport. This was a dangerous environment and would never have happened if we had docked at the scheduled port. It was chaotic. With no covered space we were lucky it wasn't raining. We waited over an hour before finally getting our car to the airport. Explora only notified us of this change with a note left in the suite on the last night This was a far from ideal way to end our vacation and Explora should hang their heads in shame. On the positive side the staff were very friendly and helpful, especially Roy our suite attendant. The WiFi was excellent. The ships own singers were the best I've seen anywhere. And the seafood counter in the buffet restaurant was excellent. Overall, Explora came over as a wannabe luxury cruise company but in reality were at best 4 to 5 star. For the price, their competitors in the luxury cruise market offer better value.

Beautiful ship, excellent staff and service. The food was very good, however the requirement to make reservations was very restrictive and these had to be done well in advance to ensure a reasonable time. As such there was no flexibility. Explora promote destination experience as a key selling point. However, several ports visited were poor in terms of interest unless long excursions were booked (ie 1. 5hrs travelling +).

Athens to Istanbul itinerary visiting Mykonos, Patmos, Volos, Thessaloniki, Kavala and 1 Sea Day. Great ports of call with something for all our group of 6 (4 in their twenties, and 2 in our sixties) We were told there were 820 guests onboard but we wouldn’t have known this until the sea day as on most days no where felt crowded though the restaurants were all lovely and busy with a great atmosphere on board. It was only on the sea day when it became apparent the ship was pretty full as all the poolside beds were taken early and the Emporium was mobbed at lunchtime. So glad it wasn’t like this throughout the cruise; loved everything - it was amazing!