Marella Explorer Review
Excellent Value for Money and a really caring cruise line
Rating by category
Additional details
Wanted to go to different places in the Western Med (as been to all the main sites).
Embarkation was excellent all the way from off the plane to arriving at our cabin (comments on cabin below). Everything was easy and smooth. There was only one person trying to sell extras as we embarked (premium drinks), which was also nice and the photographers weren't pushy either. We didn't need the extra drinks as the inclusive package had enough decent drinks to easily satisfy us and the quality of the house wines was plenty good enough.
All the staff were absolutely excellent and caring. they were always helpful and polite, with a genuine smile (and the number of staff who said good morning to me at 06:00 was truly impressive). The reception staff were always polite and attentive, even during our issue with the cabin.The waiters in the main restaurant and Vista (table 118) were absolutely brilliant, for breakfast and dinner - with no complaints whatsoever.
Cabin Review
4122 was our first cabin - this was noisy as soon as we entered when it was docked (had asked Iglu for a quiet cabin when booking). We asked for maintenance to look at the air conditioning as that is where we thought the noise was coming from (it wasn't). When we got underway this annoying rattle became like being on a building site, with significant vibrations/noise and it was unbearable. Very early in the morning we asked for a change of cabin and were told it would have to be dealt with later that day. The problem was it was a full cruise and the 1st cabin offered was 4127 which was in more or less the same location but on the other side of the ship -so we refused. We then spoke with the supervisor who allocated us cabin 5049 (which we found out later was a crew cabin - but as they were full it was all they could do). Cabin 5049 was excellent and exactly what we wanted. The noise difference was massive and we had no noise issues at all.
The cabin was clean with an excellent amount of hanging space. The shower was a great size.