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SINGAPORE TO SAFAGA - MARCH-APRIL 2012: Singapore-Langkawi-Phuket-Yangon-Port Blair- Cochin-Gao (Delhi-Agra)- Mumabi- Porbandar - Muscat - Salalah - Sharm el Sheik - Aqaba(Petra)- Safaga (Luxor) - London
Our second long cruise on MV Discovery that will negate both prior reviews but understand where these prior posters would be coming from. Discovery is all about itinerary and enrichment. You do not travel this ship for the standard cruise comforts and superficial amenities. You choose Discovery for travel depth and enjoyment of this experience with a remarkable group of like-minded fellow passengers.
Shore excursions were excellent, enrichment lectures were superb, dining was both lively and genteel, cabins are compact and basic, ship is small, intimate and well-run considering its age. Movies were recent, entertainment varied and very adequate under its limited stage capacity.
Many, many, many are returning passengers so once one find Discovery works for them, they and we keep coming back and falling more in love with her with each trip. This is a quiet low-key ship with very self-contained passengers. Most are content reading and just being out at sea and no not need, want or require artificial entertainment to substitute for the travel experience itself. Know this and be warned before choosing a trip on the MV Discovery.
Only warning is do not pay premium price for Coral Deck cabin 3102 as a "larger" cabin - not worth it, but 3106, 3104 and 3100 are worth it. 3102 should NOT be included within this same group of premium space-premium priced Coral deck cabins. We also had problems with delays on embarkation and disembarkation and Discovery needs to handle these events better, even though the problems were outside of their control, they needed to provide more frequent and timely updated information about the delays - even when there was nothing they could do to change this. But once underway- all was perfect.
NB: almost item by item we did not have the same experiences as reported in the prior two negative posts certainly on the factual reporting; but everyone's subjective reactions to the same things can be quite different. Our subjective reaction was to feel love of Discovery was even better the second time around. For sure, we will be back just like a lot of returning passengers we saw from our trip two years ago.
Community Manager's Note: 'This review was written when the ship sailed for Voyages of Discovery. As of February 2013, it is now sailing under the Cruises & Maritime banner"
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