Marella Dream Review
Rating by category
Additional details
We flew on a lovely Thomson Dreamliner flight direct to Jamaica to pick up the ship 'Dream' for 2 back to back cruises. Unfortunately no one had been informed that these cruises were now operating on a different itinerary to that published, and had been doing so for several months. As you can imagine this caused some problems for those passengers who had booked their own private excursions, or were meeting friends at different ports. I myself had booked trips with Thomson's online a few weeks before departure, and that itinerary was still out of date. This did not cause us too much hassle as the tickets issued on board had the correct port dates on.
The big gripe we had was the attempted docking at Cozumel after a day and night at sea. The captain knew it was going to be busy with 8 other ships in, and that we, the poor relations, would have to tender, but due to rough seas this was not possible, and we had to drift around for a day. Not acceptable, especially when according to the itinerary we should of been in Roatan! We then went to Costa Maya, here you walk through the port and get a trolley bus for $3 go three stops and walk along the lovely beach there, a taxi back is also $3 each. Next day we did the Thomson highlights tour in Belize to see the Altun Ha, we thought it was worth the money. The following day we were in Roatan we just walked round the port, other passengers got a taxi and had a tour round the island, we wished we had also done this, as they had a great time. Back to Jamaica, and on change over day we managed to fit in an express trip to Dunns River Falls, and what a great time we had, although the rep wanted to take us to a shopping mall on the way back, luckily some of our passengers spoke up and said no, this is the express trip, we don't want to go to the mall, it had already been a 6 hour 'express' trip.
Gran Cayman, we found the bus stop next to the library and jumped on a local number 1 bus, it costs $2.50 each to go to 7 mile beach, we stayed on and did the whole bus route, $5, to see some of the island, and how the locals live, and jumped off on the way back to have a walk on the famous beach.
Cabin Review
Plus size cabin a bonus when on there for 2 weeks, roughly mid ship, so relatively good for sea sickness and movement on rough seas. Larger window than some, although that was a shock when docked in Cuba next to a building. Everything in the cabin worked, but suspended ceiling creaks badly. You can hear your neighbours talking, the walls are very thin. We found the music channel on the T.V. to block them out.