I have been with marella a few times. Never glamorous but used to be functional and efficient. Not now. The food in the main restaurants would appear to have come from a 1970’s prison ship and we had mild food poisoning after 2 nights. I know they are cost cutting but the cooking was amazingly bad. Maybe the worst I have ever seen in a commercial setting. The deep fried long hair in the calamari ...
Our first cruise and it wont be our last, well organised at Birmingham Airport greeted by the Tui rep given our flight boarding pass suitcases taken from us and not to be seen again until outside our cabin door onboard ship in Barbados, we upgraded from an inside cabin to a Junior Suite with balcony No 8520 we were well pleased, very impressed with the ship it had undergone a major revamp 2022 ...
We realize that: "You-pay-for-what-you-get" and the total package price of an inclusive cruise (incl drinks & tips) may not be compared to other cruise lines where you pay double or triple cruise fares, excluding drinks or tips. So the overall experience we felt was: very friendly staff (and do anything to make you comfortable) and the ship looks clean and well kept.
Than what did we miss ...
Party:
2 adults from England, aged 29 and 63, previously cruised with Marella on the Dream, with NCL 4 times, and 3 other cruises in the early 00s on now defunct lines. We don't have any disabilities and we didn't use the casino, so we can't comment on these aspects, and this was an adults only ship.
Summary:
- Faultless service from absolutely everybody
- Food surprisingly good ...
My husband and I decided to go away for Christmas,our travel agent recommended this ship,as she had just had a good holiday on it,we decided to make it for two weeks over the new year as well.From stepping on the ship I was emmediately impressed,not only by the fabulous Xmas decorations,but the friendliness of staff,it was plain sailing to our cabin on the 9th floor,with a lovely welcome from ...
This review is an honest account of our recent experience on Marella Explorer 2. Completed 10+ cruises to date this being our fourth with Marella and first on Explorer 2.
Outbound flight delayed
Luggage arrived badly damaged
Had to be moved from cabin 8214 (balcony) due to loud noise / vibration from the engine, it was obvious that they were aware of this problem as talking to other ...
Went with Marella to the Caribbean because they included Xmas day and New Years Eve which other cruise lines did not. There was chaos at Birmingham Airport as there were two Tui flights flying to Barbados within twenty five minutes of each other, queued over one and half hours to check bags in. Poorly organised. This then caused queues at Security and on top of that flight nearly two hours delay ...
We have been with TUI many times before but this last trip has been the worst.
From the start the Covid pass checking process was a shambles, you couldnt here the safety video and the whole thing took to long.
The standard of food on offer in the buffet has gone down in my opinion, from the meat selection to the standard of cooking, even the vegetables were not cooked properly, the selection ...
We have previously sailed on Discovery 2 and had a great time so we were really shocked to see how much the standards had dropped.
During our week onboard we never had a hot meal served to us in the 47 restaurant and the only really hot food was at the Snack Shack however when sitting on deck 9 at night there were cockroaches running around most nights
There is no policing of the pools, ...
This was our 16th cruise with Thomsom/TUI/Marella and we have been left absolutely disgusted with many aspects of the cruise from start to finish. Our overall summary is that the standard of the Marella cruise has plummeted dramatically in terms of service, cleanliness, food, entertainment and friendliness of staff. We do not intend to travel on a Marella cruise again.
The problems we ...