This LUXURY cruise ship completely changed my mind | Explora

I swore I would never ever go on another cruise again and yet here I am on the Explorer 2 on a seven night cruise from Athens to Venice. Let me tell you more. It was 1985, I was the breakfast announcer at Radio 8D in Darwin and I got this plum gig DJing for two cruises on the P&O Farestar. I thought this was going to be the highlight of my life. Turns out it was not. We get an hour out of Sydney Harbour and I'm vomiting and I vomit for the best part of half a day. In the end I get knocked out by the doctor. I come to and I think right, when it gets to Vanuatu I'm hot footing it back home. I'm not telling anybody. Well the crew got wind of it, convinced me to stay for that one cruise but didn't make me do the second cruise. And when I got off that ship I swore I would never get back on another one. But here I am on Explorer 2. Now look, that Farestar was a markedly different ship to the Explorer 2. Australians will know it as the fun ship but it was anything but fun for me. Of course I was in the Pacific Ocean there. Here I'm in the Adriatic Sea where it's calmer, much calmer. This vessel is also double the size of the Farestar. It's high end whereas the Farestar was, well, pretty basic. I'll give you a look around this ship shortly but I'm here to do a couple of presentations on board the ship. A ship which has some 11 bars, 6 restaurants, in room dining, a gym, a wellness spa, some sports courts upstairs here and just 960 odd passengers in the 480 or so suites. And every suite here has a balcony, there's no inside rooms. We've been blessed with some lovely weather. Only one morning of sloppy seas, about a metre and a half swell. You could barely tell it was moving. And now, as you can see, dead flat. So before I show you around the ship, which is stunning, let me tell you about the trip. Three ports in Greece. First night in Paros, second in Rhodes, an overnight cruise and then our fourth night was in Corfu. Next up, it was off to Croatia. Two ports there, Var and Rijeka, and then we finish up in Venice. Boarding at the port in Athens was quick. This was my cabin, 10034. That's a starboard cabin. In fact, all of the even number cabins are on the starboard side and the odd numbers are on the port side. When you get into the room, the first thing you'll notice is a bottle of champagne and some glasses waiting for you. Also in the room there's a number of books. There's some binoculars, which are fantastic. There's a minibar and a safe for all your valuables. There's enough storage space. Could do with a bit more. And if I stepped it up to a larger suite, I would have had more. But I was more than happy with this standard cabin. There was some chocolate on arrival for us. There's a large TV screen with lots of movies for you to flick through. Coffee and tea making facilities. What I think is a great bathroom for a cruise ship with heated floor and a walk-in wardrobe. Everything about the suite was impressive. All the art pieces were firmly attached. There was a bottle of wine as well as the champagne and two drink bottles waiting for us. And from the 10th level of the ship we had a great view from our balcony. We set sail at 7pm and that was our queue to go up to the malt whiskey bar and enjoy a drink. This is a lush looking bar and as you can see there's plenty of choice when it comes to alcohol. And yes, this is all included. You don't have to buy a drinks package which I realise a lot of cruise lines make you do. But you don't have to worry about that here. And there's no tipping either. But there are some drinks that you will have to pay extra for and there's a wine list for that. Just next door to the whiskey bar is a cigar lounge offering a range of cigars with the most expensive being these Cohibas at around 280 euros each. We've come down to Marvel & Co which is one of three restaurants on board the ship that you need to book ahead of time. This one and the Japanese restaurant are included. You don't have to pay any extra but there is Anthology where you'll pay 150 euros for your meal. I started off with the Caesar which they make at the table. It was very good. The ribeye steak was great as well. But Cree said the roast chicken was excellent. After a super meal it was back to the suite for some shut eye. When we awoke we were moored about a kilometre off the delightful town of Paros in Greece. Then it was a short tender ride to the town. This is our first stop. It's the island of Paros. Not Paris. Paros. You come back a few streets off the main drag which is filled with some colourful restaurants down there. I'm not sure how good they are. But you find this lovely shopping area back here with clothes and knick-knacks and souvenirs that you probably won't find elsewhere. And I love these alleyways. They're full of character. Lovely old buildings and plenty of blue and white of course. Well it's a very pretty little town but I can't help but think it's just mainly tourists that I'm seeing in these streets and probably a good number from our ship. Price wise some of these little dress shops have some interesting stuff in it my wife tells me. But you're not getting any bargains here as far as I can tell. But it is a pleasant distraction from ship life. We wandered for a couple of hours and were thrilled that English was so widely spoken. Once back on board the ship we headed up to the Emporium Marketplace which is their buffet. But it's unlike the buffet you probably have in your mind. There are a whole host of different stations and you don't serve anything yourself. It's all done by the crew. The food's exceptional and it's open for breakfast, lunch and dinner. The variety of food on offer at the Marketplace was more than sufficient for our seven days on board. I can tell you it's a far cry from what you'd be served on most budget cruise options though. And there are various areas to sit including an outdoor area at the Stern on Deck 11. Just outside the Marketplace is an ice cream bar plus it also offers waffles and crepes plus tea, coffee and more. Now technically I've only been on one cruise. That was the one I got sick on. But I've actually been on board this ship and its sister ship the Explorer One. But it was docked in Monaco Harbour so there's no movement. It's just like a hotel. It's unbelievably stable. For our second dinner on board we headed up to Sakura which is a nice looking restaurant but for me it was too noisy. So we didn't stay that long. Food was good though and plenty of seafood on the menu. I had the Miso Cod and then we headed down to the Lobby Bar for a couple of drinks. And that's an area that I tend to gravitate towards. It's a good meeting spot. And this staircase, well it's grand. And if you're wondering about the difference in the demographic of the passengers on my cruise was compared with what I've experienced in the Monaco Harbour with F1. This one's a little bit older demographic. In Monaco for Formula One it tends to be more business people, some team members and of course F1 fans. But one thing you'll find on board a ship like this is that you're never short of people to talk to and pretty much everyone's keen to chat. Day two saw us sail into our second Greek port. Well third if you count Athens. Welcome to Rhodes. About five minutes from the port we come to this lovely old part of the city. So we're going to have a wander around here. There's certainly plenty of eateries here. Of course being so close to the port this place is always going to attract lots of tourists. And just like Paris, I don't think there's too many locals here today. Well there's just laneway after laneway of lovely little shops selling a variety of stuff including souvenirs, tacky t-shirts, nice leather goods over here and a nice buzz to it. Any pickpockets here? Unsure but I'm being careful, just in case. Now for your history lesson. This is the fortification of Rhodes. Massive medieval stone walls. It stretches about four kilometres around the old town. It was built in 1309 and in parts the walls reach 12 to 14 metres in thickness. Now where I'm walking it's absolutely free but if you want to walk down there I believe you need a ticket. If you run out of chewing gum, come to these gates and just over here, look at this pole. So much chewing gum. Well we got cajoled into coming in for a Euros here. It's pretty bloody good actually for three Euros. And they serve these drinks in a glass boot which could be used as a weapon in hand-to-hand combat. I must say, it's a nice buzz. Great for people watching and the further away you get from the port the better value the meals are. We headed back to the ship to grab our swimming gear and some towels. Jase found us a platform. He's given up. That was such a lovely way to spend an hour or two. Well worth the walk. I'm down the back of the ship now, the stern as you'd say and there's a pool here, a lovely bar and the pool here is less than 0.8 of a metre high. So it's great for lolling about but you're not going to be doing laps in it. But it's very relaxing. We loved watching a number of other ships heading out to sea while we sipped a drink from one of the 11 bars on board. There are 5 Jacuzzis spread between decks 10, 11 and 12. It's about 34 degrees in this Jacuzzi and we're up on the 12th level and at the moment we're overlooking Rhodes at sunset. Is there anything better? I don't think so. Night 3 saw us dining at Men Yacht Club which is on level 4 right next to Field Rouge where we dined the other night. I like this restaurant. It has a nice warm buzz to it. Lovely decor. Food wise, plenty on offer. These were our starters. I had the Carbonara but I probably should have picked Tonya's Chicken because that was excellent. Just above the lobby bar is Crema Cafe where you can grab a coffee, a tea plus some savoury and sweet treats. Now wine drinkers, you'll be happy to know that wine is included with every meal and you can have it all day long if you want and I've had a look at some of the wines on offer tonight. I priced them around $20 to $28 US dollars but if you have a bigger wallet and you want the very best, this would be the bottle for you and it retails for €16,900. Well this is the casino. Now it's small. There's three tables behind me as you can see. There's a roulette table blackjack and a poker table but gamblers, you'll be happy to know that blackjack plays 3-2. They deal from a shoe with 8 decks and roulette, minimum €5 bet and only 1-0. That's pretty good odds. I must say that my son Jase did spend some time in here and left with more than he came with but note that it's only open when you're at sea. If you're wanting to be entertained, the Journey's Lounge offers a range of shows throughout the week. Calling all art lovers. There's a whole gallery here on the 5th level. Worth a look and if you like something, you can buy it and I'll ship it to you. Retail wise there are some boutiques on level 4 that open for a few hours each night and on Explorer 1, there's even a Rolex store. Head up to the top of the ship where you'll find courts for pickleball, basketball and I wonder how many balls they lose over that netting. If you don't want to work out in the inside, Jim, you can come up here and use these machines and have a beautiful view. Well, at the moment we've got another ship in front of us because we're at a port. But in 10 hours time we'll have nothing but Adriatic Sea and maybe some coastline in the distance. If you like getting wet or just lying by a pool there are 5 outdoor options to choose from. With the largest being the main pool on deck 11 and it has a retractable roof. You can also walk or jog a dedicated track around deck 12. Of course by night these pools look even more impressive and then day 4 saw us docking at our final Greek port of Corfu. Well, we've been here a few hours now so I thought I'd get off the ship, come and have a look around Corfu and take you with me. That's our ship on the left, the Explorer 2 but over here, Explorer 2 by the way is owned by MSC Cruises and there's one of their other ships. It's warm outside so I'm happy to sit inside this shuttle bus here and wait for 5 or so minutes before it takes us into the city and that's all included if you're an Explorer 2 passenger. Well the bus drops you off right in the heart here of Corfu and it's very busy like the other towns. I think a few more locals perhaps than the two previously we visited but everyone's got smiles on their faces, some lovely old architecture here, plenty of character and at some point we'll have a bite to eat. Corfu is very good, it's very quiet, for your rehab it's perfect. Well given it's 23 minutes past 12, Jase has decreed that we need to have a gyros. Lunch is chicken souvlaki, 10 euro. Well um, I don't know what the fuss is all about, I found it to be quite bland I wouldn't be queuing up for this, nothing wrong with it but it's nothing great. Although Corfu was full of character and an enjoyable walk, I did like the convenience of being able to head back to the ship when I'd had enough. Day 5 saw us in Croatia and after a 10 minute tender ride we were in Var. Well we're here on a Saturday and the mood here in Var is very chill, much quieter than the streets of the three Greek towns that we visited. Still the same shops selling dresses, trinkets, shoes and plenty of places to eat but the bay was fantastic and there was beautiful clear water, quite lovely. These are beautiful streets, thankfully in the shade now, lovely restaurants all the way along here and everybody's pretty happy. We pulled in and moored at about noon and our ship will leave at 8pm but we have to be back by 7.30. In the meantime we can wander this place to our hearts content there is a castle up the very top but I don't need to see that I'm not a good tourist. We travelled overnight and the next morning around 10 we disembarked. We're walking along the jetty to the beautiful town of Rijeka this is not the most pleasant part of town, there is a strong smell of fish and it's not pretty but another couple of hundred metres and we'll be rid of it. We've arrived on a Sunday so it's a lot quieter than a weekday I imagine but there's a McDonald's here, some lovely streets behind, plenty of places to eat and the town's set back just a couple of streets from the water. This stop saw us spend just a couple of hours off the ship but there are some nice beaches not far from the town which locals said we should have visited. I was happy to go back to one of the pools on board for a dip. This ship is only three years old in fact it celebrated it's third anniversary while we were on board. Weather wise we had one day of sloppy seas and went through an impressive storm for about 90 minutes which reduced visibility to just a few hundred metres but the weather on the remainder of the trip was glorious I don't often slow down but this type of holiday pretty much demands it and I met some nice people on board and lapped up the sights. I'm so glad Explorer Journeys asked me to come on this cruise because I would not have otherwise gone on a cruise. Now before you go could you please hit the like button and there's a lot of you who think you might be subscribed but aren't. So a click on this button will remedy that situation and in closing I'll say thanks for watching and stay passionate! There's a whole lot of interesting artwork for sale here now. What is this? Hang on a second, he's telling me no photos or video I wonder how many basketballs they lose over the edge Drop it