A Journey of Infinite Enchantment
in the Lesser Antilles on the Explora 2
12/5/2025 to 12/14/2025

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Page 1 – Embarkation, Ship
Page 2 – Ship (Continued), Cabin
Page 3 – Entertainment, Activies, Ports of Call: Charlotte Amalie, St. Thomas; Pointe-a-Pitre, Guadalupe; Saint Pierre, Martinique
Page 4 – Ports of Call: Castries, St Lucia; St. George's, Grenada; Kingstown, St Vincent & Grenadines; Bridgetown Barbados

Ship (Continued)

Pools -

We normally don’t go to the pools and lay out in the sun. Living in south Florida, we get more sun than we need. However, on this cruise, I swam in every one of the four pools. Besides being very inviting and gorgeous pools, they had cabanas around them that allowed us to lay out in shade, which we enjoyed a lot.

Atol Pool and Bar – This pool is at the back of the ship on deck 10. Like three of the pools, it is small, but it was most enjoyable to get in and cool down. The bar staff walked around frequently to see if anyone needed drinks. The cabanas were very popular, but we did luck out one day.

The illuminated pool looked lovely at night.

Astern Pool & Bar –

This pool is located at the back of the ship on deck 5. We liked the infinity pool look. It is a small pool that was good to sit in since it was shallow with steps and other places to sit.

The pool looked very cool when I took a photo from the water level looking out the back of the ship. I was surprised what a difference the angle made.

There was a bar to service the people lounging around the pool.

When I was at this pool, I couldn't figure out what pool was above us. I knew it couldn't be the Atol pool on deck 12, since it didn't have a window to the outside. When I looked at the deck plan, I saw that it was the pool that is in the Owner's Residence cabin on deck 8. Now that is a special cabin.

Helios Pool & Bar – This pool is at the front of the ship on deck 12. It is an attractive pool, but being on the front, it was very windy. This meant they couldn’t have cabanas, so we weren’t interested in hanging out there. I did go in on a cloudier day to experience it. The pools were so enjoyable to just sit in and cool off. We really enjoyed them.

As with the other pools, there was a bar area nearby to service the sun bathers.

The Conservatory Pool & Bar – This is the largest pool on the ship. It does have a retractable roof for bad weather. It was always closed at night. There was lots of seating around the pool, much of it in the shade.

They also had a large bar to service cruisers enjoying the pool.

At night they would show movies on the large screen.

They had whirlpool tubs on both sides of the conservatory that looked out to the ocean.

For the first 4 days of the cruise we had a camera crew on the ship with drones taking photos of the ship. They were all around the ship with models taking photos for some new marketing material. They did shut down some areas for a while, but it was fun to watch.

Ocean Wellness Spa - The spa is located at the front of deck 5. It is a very attractive facility with all the required elements to be a first-class spa. At the front there was a waiting area and shop for the various products they sold.

There was a beauty salon area.

At the entrance to the hydrotherapy pool, there was a very cool artistic piece that looked like flames.

Close by were two different relaxation rooms.

They had nice steam rooms and saunas also.

Ocean Wellness Fitness Center - The ship's gym is located on the starboard side of deck 10 near the back of the ship.

Ocean Wellness Open Air Fitness – This was something I hadn’t seen before. They have a selection of exercise equipment at the back of deck 14 on the port side out on the open deck. I prefer to exercise in air conditioning, but some people did use the equipment. I would think it would be better on a sea day where there was a nice breeze rather than a port day with the sun beating down.

They also had a nice whirlpool close by.

Running Track - The track on deck 12 is 250 meters long or .15 miles. It takes 7 laps to go a mile.

Outer Decks - Most of the outdoor seating and lounging is on deck 12, with some on deck 14. They also had many cabanas available.

There is a very nice sitting/lounging area on deck 11 in front of the Explora Lounge.

There are whirlpools on both sides of the deck 12 running track.

Sports Court - In front of the open air fitness area on deck 14 is a netted in court to play pickleball, basketball or any other outside sports the activities people think up to do there.

Galleria d'Arte - On deck 5 midship, there is a nice gallery containing works of art. It is enjoyable to walk through while heading to one of the restaurants, lounges or pools on that deck. Unlike many ships that have art auctions, Explora has salespeople that you can discuss any of the art you are interested in purchasing. It is much less intrusive than having to walk through an art auction to get to somewhere on the ship. Although I did see a few people talking to the salespeople, I don’t know if they get that many sales. It is, however a nice way to decorate a long hallway.

Nautilus Club - This is the kids club. Since there weren’t any children on the ship for this cruise, I was able to get in to take photos.

MSC Foundation - Just past the art gallery on deck 5 is a desk with a representative of the MSC Foundation that supports environmental initiatives.

Elevators – This ship had two banks of elevators. The four larger elevators are closer to the front of the ship with the other four closer to the back. The elevators were fast and came quickly after a button was punched. We were quite surprised and pleased with their promptness. We were also pleased that each elevator had floor buttons on both sides of the elevator, so that when you walked in to select a floor, they were easy to find.

For some reason the buttons to access the elevators in the front bank weren’t synched. If you pushed a button between the two elevators on one side, it didn’t call the elevators for the other side. With there being a large couch between the two sides, you would need to walk around it to get to the other button.

A regular complaint from passengers was that the rear elevators did not go to deck 4 where the Med Yacht Club and Fil Rouge restaurants are located. It meant that you would have to walk forward to a staircase to go down a deck. I understand why it had to be done, since they didn’t want an elevator to open up in the middle of a restaurant. But it is inconvenient. It did give us the opportunity us to look at the gorgeous chandalier above the stairs.

Restrooms – This is a subject I normally don’t discuss in a review, but I do want to for this ship. Until you have been on the ship for a few days, it is difficult to find the restrooms. There is no signage for them, and they just blend in with the walls. The male or female designation on the door is the only marking for them. Also, there are no handles for the doors, just a round sensor, so the room blends in with the walls even more. Waving your hand close to the sensor opens the door, but it seemed like most people just touched it, since it didn’t always work fast enough.

Internet – The ship has very fast Wi-Fi through Starlink, which was greatly appreciated. We were allowed to have 3 devices hooked up at a time, which was just what we needed. They also had plenty of routers where there didn’t seem to be any dead zones throughout the ship.

Laundromat - There are laundromats on floors 9 & 10 midship. They are small rooms with not a lot of room to move around in, but we were happy they were there. There were only 3 washers and dryers in each room. Soap pods were provided.

Shops

On deck 4 on both sides of the lobby are retail shops. The Journey, which is the ship's shop with logo stuff and other goods is on the port side. The other 4 high end watch/jewelry shops are smaller and on the starboard side.

The Journey - This is by far the largest shop. There are four entrances to the different sections. In addition to logo gear, they have clothes, perfume, handbags, etc.

Piaget -

Buccelatti -

Cartier -

Panerai -

Cabin

We booked Ocean Terrace Suite 7060. It is the lowest category cabin, but we did get an OT2 category for the midship location on deck 7. With it being a 300 sq. ft. cabin with a 75 sq. ft. balcony, it was a very nice size. It was nicely laid out with couch and lots of storage space. We were very pleased with the amount of room, conveniences and comfort of the cabin. The large TV was easy to see anywhere in the room. There was so much interesting artwork and accessories on the shelves. Cathy found a book on the shelf near the bed to read while on the cruise. She was lucky, since some of the books weren't in English. Above the couch is a picture of books, not the real thing.

The bed was very comfortable. It also was high enough from the floor for us to easily stuff our large suitcases under.

When we entered the cabin, there was a form on the desk that allowed us to request a bottle of liquor for the room. We ordered Crown Royal, but the cabin attendant brought us a bottle of Buffalo Trace Bourbon that night. We told him about the mistake and the next day we now had both the Crown Royal and Buffalo Trace in our cabin. We usually don't drink in our cabin, but we did have a couple drinks over the 9 days since the cabin attendant had gone to the trouble of getting it for us. We also had bottle of champagne and wine in the room when we checked in. I assume our TA gave us the wine. They later brought us another bottle of champagne. They did overload us with booze. This is what we had to leave in the cabin, since we didin't drink it and weren't going to fly home with it.

In one corner of the cabin next to the TV, there was what looked like a closet. The top shelves contained a coffee maker and the bottom had a refrigerator with some drinks.

Under the TV were drawers for storage and a drawer containing a safe. I love this type of safe, since it is easy to get into and is a good size. They had containers for jewelery that were out when I took the photo. It also had a small light in it which was a nice feature.

We appreciated the many power plugs around the cabin. By the bed there were USB-A and C plugs along with US and European power plugs.

Under the bedside tables they had motion sensor nightlights. They were great at night when you got out of the bed.

We were very impressed with the closet/dressing area. There was plenty of room for hanging clothes, shoes and clothes in drawers. Cathy liked the makeup table area too. It even had an expensive Dyson hair dryer.

The bathroom wasn’t particularly large, but it was very well arranged where there was plenty of room to move around. The shower was a good size with rainfall and handheld heads. There was plenty of counter space and storage too. It worked out great for us.

There was a control for the heated floor as well as a small USB night light.

We really liked the balcony. It was deeper than we are used to. It also had a very comfortable lounge area.

The views fore, aft and down were all unobstructed.

Our cabin steward named Kuda was very pleasant and helpful.