Where Luxury Finds You: Onboard Explora Journeys

What is luxury travel?

One thing seems abundantly clear: however you define it, every travel advisor worth their salt wants a piece of it. But what exactly is it?

Luxury is an incredibly subjective and personal thing. For some, it’s how something looks, marble walls, perfectly pressed linens, thread count. For others, it’s how things feel and taste: the texture of the leather on the chair you’re sitting in, or whether there’s just the right amount of pepper in your carbonara. And for some, quite frankly, luxury is determined by brand or price. Which raises a fair question: is a $26 Hendrick’s and tonic with Fever-Tree at The Ritz somehow less luxurious if you’re drinking it at Kelseys?

This week, I had the pleasure of being hosted by Explora Journeys aboard Explora 1 for a portion of an eleven-night cruise. It forced me to think about how I define luxury. I’ll admit, I struggle with it. I love playing great golf courses. I appreciate vintage cars. I’ll spend what’s required for a quality ribeye from a good butcher. And yet, I’ll still ask for a price-match on a portable battery pack at Best Buy without hesitation. After just a few short days onboard Explora I, I think I finally figured it out. For me, luxury is simple: I want what I want, when I want it, where I want it, and exactly how I want it. Not too much to ask right?

Onboard Explora 1, you don’t go looking for luxury, it finds you. You won’t be able to put your finger on it, but it’s everywhere. It’s subtle enough that you won’t even know how it found you nor how much you’re enjoying it. The experience is not in your face. It doesn’t try to impress you with excess. It just quietly works. What the family behind Explora Journeys has created is genuinely remarkable, and one of the most immediate standouts is the service. There is one crew member for every 1.25 guests onboard, and that ratio becomes obvious the moment you step onto the ship. If, like me, you live in that “I want what I want, when I want it” world, you very quickly realize you’ve landed in your sweet spot.

The dining onboard is exceptional. The Emporium Marketplace offers an impressive range of culinary options. Think of it as having 18 carefully curated à la carte bistros at your disposal at any given moment. There are six distinct restaurants onboard including Fil Rouge, Marble & Co. Grill, and Sakura — all of which I experienced — delivered without a single element of disappointment. It genuinely feels like having your favourite restaurants from around the world gathered together in your own floating utopia. And perhaps just as importantly, there’s no constant sense of being upsold. Higher-end food and beverage aren’t treated as add-ons; they’re simply part of the experience.

The public spaces onboard are equally impressive, but not in an intimidating way. This isn’t over-the-top, gold-trimmed luxury designed to make you feel like you don’t belong. The finishes have a refined, almost six-star hotel feel, subtle, warm, and welcoming. It doesn’t posture. It invites. It’s like getting a hug from your Grandmother coming in from the cold when you were a kid. The Lobby Bar is a particular standout and feels exactly like what the name suggests: a grand hotel lobby bar, not a cruise ship venue. Comfortable, social, and effortless.

The spa is another space designed with that mindset. Access to the hot tubs and steam rooms is included, without any upcharge, which in today’s cruising world feels refreshingly intentional. There are some space limitations at peak times, but the message is clear: wellness is meant to be enjoyed, not monetized at every turn.

Something else worth noting, and increasingly important, is the parent company’s longer-term commitment to sustainability. As part of the MSC Group, Explora Journeys isn’t treating environmental responsibility as a talking point; it’s being engineered directly into the fleet. Explora III, IV, and V are being built to run on LNG, significantly reducing emissions compared to traditional marine fuels, with the flexibility to transition to bio-LNG as it becomes more widely available. Even more forward-looking is the plan for hydrogen fuel-cell technology to power onboard systems as the technology matures.

This isn’t about greenwashing or future promises; it’s about designing ships today which are capable of adapting to where responsible cruising is headed tomorrow. What stands out is how quietly this is done. There’s no lecture, no constant reminder. Sustainability is simply baked into how these ships are meant to operate. This was evident during our discussion with Captain Diego Michelozzi.

That same attention to detail carries through to the quality of finishes and products onboard. Materials are substantial without being flashy, refined without giving up quality. Even the in-suite touches reflect that mindset, including Dyson hair dryers in every room, which might seem like a small thing, ( particularly to me as I’m bald(ing) ) but perfectly sums up the experience. Nothing is there by accident, and nothing feels like an afterthought. It’s luxury that doesn’t need to announce itself, because it’s already exactly where you expect it to be.

So what is luxury travel? For me, after Explora 1, it’s about feeling understood without having to explain yourself. It’s about everything being exactly how you want it, without ever needing to ask. When that happens, that’s luxury, from my perspective. If your clients are looking for quality and luxury in the cruise space, Explora Journeys will give them what they are looking for. Now, you need to find the luxury client. That’s another story for another day. It wouldn’t hurt to reach out to a luxury product BDM and ask them what you need to do in order to get into the space.

Watch for my on camera interview with Patricia Di Benedetto in the coming days.