Marella Spirit Review

4.0 / 5.0
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Ship Disappointing, Staff Nice

Review for the British Isles & Western Europe Cruise on Marella Spirit
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cuiser81
2-5 Cruises • Age 40s

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Sail Date: Aug 2014

We sailed on the Thomson Spirit to Amsterdam. Thankfully it was only a 3 night cruise. The ship is definitely showing its age and is in desperate need of a major refit. It reminded me of a ferry rather than a cruise ship. The swimming pool is tiny and not big enough to swim in. The communal areas are in places a bit shabby. The only saving grace is the staff who were all very nice and friendly.

Restaurants: - There are a good range of restaurants. We ate breakfast in the Lido restaurant (self service buffet), lunch in the Lido terrace grill and dinner in the Compass Rose (waiter service restaurant). We had wanted to eat in Sirocco's (a la carte restaurant) one night as they were doing lobster thermidor (which I love), but unfortunately it was fully booked and were told it had booked up quickly. So if you fancy dining there I would book early. In the Lido restaurant, breakfast consisted of full English breakfast, cereals, croissants and other pastries, toast, fruit, omelettes and pancakes. In the Lido terrace grill for lunch there were beef burgers, hot dogs, pizza, fries and salad. Dinner in the Compass Rose consisted of an appetiser, soup, salad, main course, dessert and coffee. You could tell where they had cut corners to save on money. For example the fruit cocktail was tinned and the ham in the pasta was also tinned. Overall the food was good and there was a good range to choose from.

Entertainment:- We went to one of the shows on a night in the Broadway Show Lounge and it was very good. They repeated the same show twice each night so if you miss the first showing you can always catch the second. During the day there were quizzes, bingo and demonstrations on cocktail making, towel folding and cooking. There is also a cinema, but the films were all old ones that I'd already seen.

Cabin Review

My cabin was the biggest let down. I stayed in cabin 565 on deck 3 (single, outside cabin). It pretty much looked like a cabin on a ferry. It was smaller than a standard cabin, which I had expected, but it was very small. While sitting at the dressing table I struggled to do my hair and makeup. The mirror was too high and once I'd sat down I could only see the top half of my face. I'm 5ft 8 so anyone smaller than me would really struggle. The bed was a double which I was pleased about, but it had the hardest mattress that I have ever laid on in my life. It was like laying on the floor. The first night the steward put some extra sheets on the bed for me to lie on, but it made no difference and I got no sleep at all. The second night she put a couple of extra duvets on and this made it just about tolerable to lie on. The cabin is also VERY noisy. The whole ship vibrates and this is very evident in this cabin. The engine was also very loud. The toilet stopped flushing twice. This seemed to be a problem throughout the ship as other people on other decks were also complaining and there was a not very nice smell on certain decks. They did however fix the problem very quickly. The bathroom was tiny and again a bit shabby looking, it was obvious that they had re-grouted over the same bits over and over again. When I plugged my hairdryer in it blew the fuse in my adapter. Luckily my mum and dad had a spare one so I borrowed theirs to plug my straighteners in. I didn't risk plugging my hairdryer in again so used the ships which wasn't much more effective than someone blowing on my hair. All in all I would not go back on the Thomson Spirit, but if you've already booked I'd avoid this room at all costs.

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