This is our third time with CMV, and the second time we’ve been on the Magellan. The value for money is outstanding, and we thoroughly enjoyed it. Some of our fellow passengers obviously went on the cruise simply to find fault with anything they could, some of the best entertainment was listening to the moaning! Too many sea days and it was too cold in the Canaries were amongst our favourites - along with "the trouble with cruise ships is that they can't fly"... If you’re unhappy with life, then a cruise isn’t going to put it right, however hard they try. And the ship staff do try!
Our last cruise was on the Regal Princess – with over 4000 passengers. Throughout the cruise, I kept asking myself if there was anything I missed from the Regal that wasn’t available on Magellan and really couldn’t think of anything. In fact, the smaller ship had many advantages over the larger ship – it was friendlier (you saw people twice!) and much easier to find your way around.
We were delighted to find ourselves on the same table – with the same waiter – as last time on the Magellan. Zay Yar, hailing from Myanmar is still by far the best waiter we’ve had on any ship. Eating on the second sitting let him advise on dishes – if we chose something that didn’t go down too well on the first sitting, then he’d let us know. I can’t think that there was anything I didn’t like during the whole cruise. I’m not keen on desserts, so he’d always bring a cold starter or salad instead – and dealt with my allergy to cheese superbly – especially on Italian night, where he went through the menu the night before. Overall, we found the food to be excellent in the restaurants.
Simple with very strange locations for the electric sockets. Wonderful shower. However, there's a very bad banging noise when it's rough weather. A known complaint, apparently, so the cabin steward told us. We were given a "sleeping cabin" when we made our feelings known.
Cruise terminal is an easy 10 minute walk from Centraal Station and the beginning of town. Amsterdam has so much to see and do, but if you want to go to the Anne Frank Museum, either buy tickets in advance (with the danger of not docking), or go on a pre-booked tour, as the queues can be massive.
If you’ve done the rock tour, then there’s not that much else to do. The walk into town is an easy 10-20 minutes, no need for a taxi if you’re able bodied. The biggest disappointment for some was that M&S was closed as it was Boxing Day!
First time I’d been, we weren't fussed for any of the excursions, although fellow passengers enjoyed their excursion to Maspalomas. The ship docked very near a shopping mall and the new part of town. We simply had a wander around and a nice lunch on the square near the ship after nearly being ripped off at a beach café on the other side of the bay. We were lucky that the Science Museum had an open day - it was very interesting. Apparently there's an old town, but it's not in walkable distance from the ship.