Explora II Cruise - February, 2026
Disembarkation and Trip Wrap-up
Saturday, February 14
About half-way through the cruise, we were given a questionnaire about our debarkation plans, which seemed a little rude because, you know, the cruise was only half-way through, but I digress. We indicated we didn't need a transfer, were not flying out, did not want to walk our own bags off the ship and we selected 9:30AM (the latest possible slot) as our time to exit the ship. Our Brightline train back to Orlando wasn't scheduled to depart until noon, so we didn't see any reason to rush over to wait at the train station.
On Friday, we were given the above "disembarkation details" letter and our luggage tags. We were assigned zone M3 with a scheduled disembarkation time of 9:10AM. Unlike every other cruise we've been on that required you to put your bags in the hall the night before disembarkation, Explora's requirement was that you needed to put your luggage outside by 6:00AM the last morning.
We were up early, as usual, and I snapped some pictures as we sailed into PortMiami at about 5:30AM:
After going to the end of the channel and turning around in the basin, we made it back to Terminal AA/AAA next to World America about 6:15AM:
The letter indicated that the normal time to vacate your suite is 8:00AM, but we were given the opportunity to extend this until 8:30. I have no idea what triggered this. Did everyone on board get this opportunity? Was it from my Platinum status? Not sure, but we took advantage of it! We had breakfast in the Emporium Marketplace, then finished packing our carry on luggage and left the suite right before 8:30. When we got down to Deck 5, a group was just being called, which meant some empty seats at Crema Cafe. We ordered some coffee and waited briefly for M3 to be called.
While we waited, I checked on both Uber and Lyft:
By 9:00AM, our group was called, we scanned off of the ship and began our long trek down the length of the new MSC terminal to customs and baggage claim:
Right about now is when I realized mistakes may have been made waiting until 9AM to leave the ship. Baggage claim and ride share pickup for World America and its almost 7000 passengers are located in the same place we were. Yikes!
Fortunately, baggage claim for Explora II was at the very end of this mess and you needed to show your Journeys card to access the area. That's the good news. The bad news is that ride share has no such distinction. You have to ride an escalator (or elevator) back up one level to the parking garage and join the masses. By now Uber had started their surge pricing and wanted $60 for the 2.5 mile trip. I checked and we were still able to get a Lyft Black for $20, so guess which one we picked?? Even with two of the largest cruise ships in the world disembarking near us (Icon and World America), we were still able to get from the port to the Brightline station in 11 minutes.
We checked in our bags, grabbed some lunch from the food court at the station, then made our way to the Brightline lounge:
This time, our train was right on time, and after a long nap (assisted by Bose noise canceling headphones), we arrived back in Orlando.
Since it was Valentines Day, we stayed an extra night in Orlando, had a nice dinner, then headed home before sunrise on Sunday, wrapping up another adventure!
Summary:
- The ship - I'm told they were aiming for the look and feel of a 5-star hotel resort and in my opinion, they nailed it. The ship is beautiful, modern and elegant.
- The suite - I had some concerns about our suite being located on Deck 6. I generally always want guest cabins to be above and below us. In this case, 6042 was the only OT1 category still available, so we rolled the dice. As it turns out, noise was not an issue. The only time we ever heard anything was if someone was talking in the hall or was on an adjacent balcony.
- Employees - In all of our cruises, the crew have been generally very pleasant. It felt like they went above and beyond on Explora. Every single crew member smiled and greeted us every time we walked by. Once, on one of our 4AM jaunts up to the Emporium Marketplace for coffee, we saw a crew member, with EarPods in, mopping the floor. She stopped what she was doing, whipped out her EarPods and said, "Good morning!"
- Food - Absolutely no complaints. All of the food on the ship, to me, was the quality of extra-cost specialty restaurants on other ships.
- Cost - The last time we cruised Celebrity in the Retreat, the rate was $773.37/per night/per person. This cruise was $531/pn/pp. We did not have a butler, but I don't think that mattered--you couldn't walk 6 feet in any direction without running into a crew member willing to help you.
- Cons - I had read online before our cruise about poor wine selection, not great entertainment and wet balconies. While the included wine selection is indeed very limited, wifey and I both found wines we liked and stuck with them, so it wasn't an issue for us. We haven't attended a cruise ship show in like 15 years, so I won't comment on the entertainment other than the soloists they had in the evenings near Crema Cafe and the Explora Lounge seemed perfectly fine to me. And our balcony was bone-dry the entire trip. I can't really come up with anything negative, to be honest. Explora Journeys hit squarely in the sweet spot of what we are looking for in a cruise line. We will be back!
Misc. Notes:
- Ship model - I always purchase a ship model for every ship we sail on. The model for this ship is labeled "Explora" not "Explora II." If the ship model for all 5 ships all just say "Explora," I guess I'll be saving some money not needing to buy one for each ship.
- For those interested in connecting your own device to HDMI, the TV is a Samsung on an articulating arm, that makes getting to the ports fairly easy. Here's what's available:
NOTE: I did not attempt to connect a device. The remote is Explora branded and does not have an Input button.
Final step count for this trip: 154,461 (77 miles)