It’s rare that discovering your hotel room is bigger than your London flat feels more like a holiday triumph rather than a depressing comment on the property market (or, indeed, your salary).
And yet, it was hard to feel anything but total delight when I stepped into mine – the stately 50sqm Cove Residence – aboard Explora III, the latest addition to Explora Journey’s luxury fleet.
It was, truthfully, hard to distinguish it from a suite at a lakeside hotel on Como: walk-in wardrobe, floor-to-ceiling windows, Frette linens, balcony with a Manutti daybed, marble bathroom with twin sinks, Dyson hairdrier.
I was due to spend the next week there, on the ship’s inaugural Mediterranean voyage, calling at Portofino and Barcelona. I wondered whether it was too late to make it two.
This is, of course, no happy accident. It’s very much what Explora is going for – the idea being that, in their words, “maybe the best hotel in the world isn’t a hotel at all”.
There are limits to “forgetting you’re on a cruise” – the brand (upmarket sister of mass-market MSC Cruises) also prefers to refer to cruising as having “an ocean state of mind”, which may be pushing it – but when it comes to reframing the experience, they may be onto something.
There are plenty of people (me included) who love the idea of waking up somewhere new each day, but who also regard queues, crowded buffets and packed pool decks with as much enthusiasm as a trip to the dentist.
Plenty of cruise companies have attempted to solve this conundrum simply by being small – and while this might up the staff-to-guest ratio, being stuck on a very small ship often makes it harder to forget you’re on one, not easier.
Explora has done the opposite. Explora III (Explora IV, V and VI are already in the works) has 461 oceanfront suites, room for 922 passengers, seven restaurants, 12 bars and lounges, five pools, a spa, gym and padel court.
If you know your cruise ships, none of this is especially revolutionary. What’s different is the way this ship uses its space. Square footage which might usually have been given over to cramming in more cabins has, instead, been used to create huge public areas – the sprawling Cellar restaurant, for example, and the Lobby Bar with its sweeping marble staircase and hand-blown Venini chandeliers.
The result is a ship that is unusually spacious and, crucially, never feels crowded – which matters, given that sharing your holiday with 900-plus strangers is most people’s first complaint about cruising.
You feel this space everywhere – in the calm, quiet Crema Café, in the adults-only Helios Pool, at the ritzy Sky Bar – but it is especially prevalent (and welcome) in the ship’s restaurants.
Unsurprisingly, the food is excellent (French at Le Fil Rouge, pan-Asian at Sakura, casual, Mediterranean goodness at Shore Club on Deck 11 – plus the food-hall-style Emporium Marketplace and seven-course tasting menu at Anthology), but it’s the fact that there are so many places to eat (most included in the fare) and yet no scrum for the buffet or the best table each night, which really makes a difference.
Strolling around on board – between the Cartier, Rolex and Chopard boutiques, the Clarendon Fine Art gallery, the magnificent Ocean Wellness spa, the full-size padel court – did feel like walking through one of the world’s great hotels, a Parisian Palace property, perhaps, a Peninsula, a Raffles.
There are spectacular, incredibly luxurious boutique hotels all over the world of course, but can any of them hold a candle to these grand dames, with their sprawling suites, double-height ceilings and unapologetic grandeur?
This is what Explora III is going for when it eschews small in favour of space. This is a great hotel which happens to be moving. It hasn’t reinvented cruising. There are still 922 passengers, and yes, occasionally you have to wait for a tender ashore. But Explora has identified many of the things that make people dislike cruising and quietly taken them to task – smoothing down the edges, removing the fuss, taking away any sense of that dreaded conveyor-belt feeling.
Explora III didn’t make me forget I was on a cruise. It reminded me why I like them so much.
Essentials
Kaye Holland was a guest of Explora Journeys. A seven-night “A Journey through a Caribbean Tapestry of Serenity & Splendour” cruise costs from £3,200pp for an ocean terrace suite, including drinks, meals, Wi-Fi and gratuities, but excludes flights. Departs Nov 29, 2026.