Jackamama

I think that if you keep your expectations realistic, you could have a great time with Marella, but in my experience of 12 cruises with Royal Caribbean (on 5 ships) and 2 with Thomson (now Marella), if RCI is 4 star, Marella is 3 star in terms of what you get for your money.

We sailed on what was the Splendour of the Seas twice when it belonged to RCI, then again when it was bought by Tui and became the Discovery. Same ship, and to be honest not much difference in price. When RCI had the ship, the standard of food, service and entertainment was much higher, in my opinion. I think people often assume that the big ships will be much more expensive, but Marella cruises aren't cheap, so it can be worth looking at other options. RCI were also better at enforcing rules such as hogging loungers and hand sanitising etc. We have had some great times on Marella, but our expectations are lowered when we go, so we aren't disappointed. If you expect the same high standards as RCI or Celebrity, you might be.

If it is TUI 2, it is currently RCI's Legend of the Seas.

Both ships are very nice. The problem to date has mostly been the way Thomson are operating the Discovery, rather than issues with the ship itself.

Both ships are lovely. They are quite old, but they have been well looked after. Recent Discovery reviews from the last few weeks have been much better than the earlier ones, so hopefully by the time you sail, they will be performing well.

Thank you all for your informative replies.

They have given us food for thought :)

Looking at options for our family to cruise next year. We are big fans of Royal Caribbean, but considering trying Celebrity for this one. I know they have the same owners.

Celebrity looks more expensive, but I read that it is a step up in terms of quality? Please could anyone tell me what the main differences are between the two cruise lines, in their opinion. I realise this is subjective :)

Also, does having Diamond member status with Royal give access to any offers with Celebrity?

Thank you :)

It has been mentioned elsewhere that passengers staying aboard for 2 weeks can essentially fully book the speciality restaurants for the second week leaving no chance for new cruisers.

 

Any simple solutions?

If they made a rule that restaurant bookings could not be made any more than 5 days in advance it might help? :confused:

keeping off the FB Page for Discovery as there are some good pics and info

however they have started arguing again......so sad:confused:

leave em to it ;)

 

Stevie

I know what you mean. I can't be bothered with all the conflict and sniping. It just erupts from nowhere, which is a pity.

It's a good job they're not all going on the same date! :D

Every time I went in the indoor pool area, it was very peaceful - lovely place to have lunch too!

 

Just checking in the Cruise News & there was Karaoke in The Venue (Deck 5) so they obviously do offer it.

Thank you very much! :)

You're welcome, Stevie & thanks for copying it here!

 

Any questions, feel free to ask - I will try to answer.

 

For anyone on FB, there is an unofficial Tui Discovery FB Group with lots of photos including bar menus with lots more appearing daily.

 

AI drinks package is a lot more comprehensive than previously too & the food choices & quality is very good.

 

A really lovely ship - I'm very excited to find out the itineraries for Discovery 2 now!!!

 

:):)

Hi Jules,

Do you know if they do Karaoke in the evenings, and if so, in which venue?

Also, was the indoor pool area quite peaceful, or is it busy on the sea day.

Thanks :)

Pricing for cruises are always fluid. There's no guarantee of cheap rates at any time. They go up and down, based on interest, website activity etc. You just have a take a chance.

Our American friends get a better deal. They can cancel and re-book without penalty with RCI. They do it all the time and get great rates!

Apart from me?

Yes, just booked this week for the July 16th sailing :)

Really looking forward to seeing what Thomson have done to the ship as I have sailed on her when she was With Royal Caribbean.

We have two cruises booked for next year, Cuban Fusion in Feb and Baltic Discovery in June. Our friends fancied the Baltic one but they have booked for this July on Celebrity Eclipse. They have upgraded to the Concierge class on deck 10 and apart from sailing out of Southampton it is a very similar cruise. They have free parking at Southampton and 500dollars on board spend. Thomson charge £150 for parking at Newcastle. Celebrity also have a loyalty scheme, and the ship is only 6 years old. We have done 11 cruises with Thomson and never been with any other line as we don't particularly like the look of the bigger ships. But it makes you wonder if you should consider a change when they haven't paid much more than us.

I would always try something different and see what else is out there. No harm in trying. Sometimes Loyalty programmes offer very little in real terms, but people can be scared to move out of their comfort zone if something works for them. We are Diamond on Royal Caribbean, because we like them and have cruised with them quite a few times, but the perks alone aren't enough to keep us. Going with Thomson in July. Variety is the spice of life, as they say :)

Totally agree about the pricing and perks with the Grand Suites. We've given them a swerve this time and opted for a Junior Aft Suite, which seems to have the same benefits. I did read somewhere (can't remember where) that they are keeping the Concierge Lounge, so presumably that will be for Grand and above. However, as Discovery is going to be AI from next year, I don't know that I would use the Concierge Lounge much anyway. It can be a bit of a pain when you get stuck in there with RCI's Pinnacle passengers every night who insist on recounting their entire cruising history, LOL!

Just booked a Junior Suite today, for the July 16th sailing :) Just couldn't see anything at all that would make me want to shell out another £800 for a Grand Suite. Really no perks to speak of.

Hopefully they will soon realise when hardly anyone books them, that they need to make them much more attractive in terms of benefits, or lower the price significantly. I see they even charge for a safe in the Grand Suite! :eek:

The comment about the Pinnacle members made me laugh. We have met quite a few in the Suite Lounge. Most very nice, but yes, we have come across the bores too! :D

we have booked on the discovery in october so ive been on the thomson website quite a bit and tea & coffee making facilities are definitely available in all cabins, I would however be interested in knowing if anyone knows (having sailed on the spelendor) whether fridges are included? we'll be in a Junior suite and plan on taking a few bottles of bubbly to have on the balcony.

When it was Splendour, there were definitely fridges in Junior and full suites when we stayed in them, so hopefully will be the same with Thomson.

Having said that, we have been looking at July cruises on Discovery and are really disappointed in the pricing for Grand Suites. With RCI, the huge difference in the price gave you several perks that, while not essentials, were very nice extras (drinks, reserved seating, full restaurant menu for room service etc), and for us they really added to the experience, so we didn't mind paying more.

Thomson are charging many hundreds of £££s for what appears to be little more than the extra floor space. I think we will give the Grand Suite a miss with Thomson, unless they offer better value for money.

Currently booked on Oasis of the Seas for April, was lucky enough to get one of the new suites overlooking the Aqua theatre, question I have is, my wife and I will have gold cards, my 78 year old mother is also cruising with us in an inside cabin as a single, will RCCL allow her to join us as we are gold cards and allow her access the same as we have.

I wouldn't expect that she will be allowed to join you. It may depend on the time of year, of course, but on our summer cruise on Allure, several suite guests were told that they were not allowed to bring guests to Coastal Kitchen who were not also in a suite. It was a very busy sailing however, so they may be more lenient if they aren't busy. If not, you might have to leave her to dine by herself, or you may have to give up your perks to be with her.

I would consider upgrading your mother's accommodation to allow her to use the facilities that you will have, and that have been paid for.

Hello I am sailing on the Liberty of the Seas May 8,2016. I have booked a GS

for my family. My wife and daughter who is 12. We would like to meet fellow cruise mates who are also Suites guest. :)

I would post on the Roll Call, as others have said.

You will also find that most Suite guests will be in the Lounge on the first couple of nights and perhaps less so after that. We spend less time there as time goes on usually. The fun is usually elsewhere on the ship, in our opinion.

I wouldn't focus too much on seeking fellow Suite guests to be honest. We stay in suites, more for the space and dining and seating perks than for the drinks in the Lounge. Most of the fun we have had, the memories, and the friends we have made weren't with people be staying in Suites. Just go and enjoy meeting a whole range of nice people in a range of accommodation.

There's not much of interest in the Suite Lounge for a 12 year old, so perhaps the kids club would be a good starting point?

Have a great trip, and enjoy your suite! :)

We have experienced this twice, and it has taken ages to resolve.

We prefer to fly to one of the European ports and really don't like sailing from Southampton. The problem is that RCI will always choose the cheapest flights, regardless of how inconvenient they may be.

We were once allocated flights (without being consulted) that involved a five hour stop off, which was ridiculous, as the direct flights which were available on the airline's websites, were only 3 hours.

The first time it happened we had booked through a travel agent. We soon learned that RCI will not deal directly with the customer unless they have booked direct. It was quite an ordeal, and took weeks of trying to move things forward. We eventually got it changed to direct flights, but then had to pay an additional £600, which was much more expensive than it would have been to book the flights ourselves. Their flight booking service is, in my opinion, totally shambolic!

The second time, and for all of our subsequent cruises, we book direct with RCI (we never will use a travel agent again) and insist on direct flights (where they are available on the airlines website). If they are unable to do this as a package at a reasonable price, we book the flights ourselves - same times, flight numbers etc as they are offering, and usually much cheaper.

Have a great first cruise. It will be wonderful :)

You don't have to book your entertainment in advance, but if you want to go to the comedy show you will have to book it.

The Gold Card seating often isn't in the best part of the theatre, so my advice would be to go along early, show your Gold Card and then choose your own seats before the doors open to everyone else.

On smaller ships we were always able to find a favorite bartender. I thought the Allure bartenders were less personable. It ma have been because the drink package was a factor on Allure but not on the other ships we sailed. That being said, we did have fun with the bartenders in the solarium bar by the end of our week.

I agree with you. We found the bartenders to be less friendly on Allure than on any other ship we have sailed on. I'm not saying they were unpleasant. They went through the motions, but no more than that in our experience.

The smaller ships seem to us to have a better level of service generally. We thought on both of our Allure trips that while Allure has the bells and whistles, and we still enjoyed our trips, it lacks the friendliness that we are used to. Just an opinion :)

I was wondering if Jr Suite guests on Allure can dine at Coastal Kitchen?

They couldn't when we were on Allure in June. Coastal Kitchen was only available to Suite guests. I know that several people who were in JS asked, and were refused, on that particular cruise.

I don't know if this was specific to Allure, or to Med cruises, or even just down to the individual managers, so you if you aren't staying in a Suite, but would like to eat in Coastal Kitchen, you should probably ask when on board anyway. You might get a different answer, and be pleasantly surprised :)

We were above the basketball court. Loved the location. We could see part of the Aquatheatre too.

Didn't experience any problems at all with noise, and we enjoyed people watching. The sea views were wonderful too. We enjoyed the Loft suite very much and would book one again without hesitation if we decide to go on Oasis class :)

It's not like you are seated with others like in the main dining room. The only probable instance is if they allow JS guests that might be a challenge which they do sometimes. On 4 cruises that we have been on since CK has been around on 2 of them they allowed JS in CK for dinner.

Like some other things, it seems to be inconsistent. I wonder if they wait until the last minute to see if Suite guests have booked for dinner before offering any available tables to those in a Junior as a kind of standby booking? Seems unfair otherwise.

On Allure recently they were very strict about the Suite guests only rule. Several people asked and were not allowed to bring anyone who wasn't in a suite. There were, as far as I'm aware, no exceptions on that sailing.

One party had 2 Suites and 2 Junior Suites between them. Only those in the full suites were allowed entry. I think the ship was almost at full capacity on that trip, and when we hadn't booked for dinner in advance one evening, we couldn't get a table, so perhaps it was only because it was so busy, but I'm not sure. We were OK with that because it was our fault that we hadn't booked that night.

To be honest, if the reason we couldn't get a table was because people who weren't staying in a suite were there as guests of someone who was a suite guest, we wouldn't have been very happy.

John, is there a charge for guests?

I don't know if Allure and Oasis differ in this, but no guests who were not staying in a suite were allowed to dine in Coastal Kitchen on our European cruise in June. Several people had asked, but were told it wasn't possible.

We thought the food in CK was as good as, or better than the specialty restaurants. The menus were a bit limited, but the quality and service was outstanding. The waiting staff were exceptional and nothing was too much trouble.

The lunch menu was disappointing, but we were ashore most days anyway, so didn't have lunch on board often. As others have said, the lamb and the beef were amazing, as were the flatbreads (which was pretty much all my son ate! :D ) The peaceful breakfasts, and especially the eggs Benedict, was great.

For us, being able to avoid having to stand in a long line for the windjammer (and we usually enjoy the Windjammer) and avoiding all the chaos was one of the best things about having the Suite Lounge and Coastal Kitchen. We felt that the size of the Windjammer wasn't in proportion to the number of passengers on Oasis class and it appeared to just be packed at busy times. Coastal Kitchen was a lovely oasis of calm, and we really appreciated that on such a large ship. Enjoy the experience :)

I think it depends on how much you drink.

We were recently in a suite on Allure. We're not big drinkers but like a few in a day, and we didn't buy a drink package. We enjoyed our complimentary drinks in the Suite lounge, pool deck, and drinks at events. We bought our drinks at other times and venues.

At the end of the trip we calculated that buying the drink package would have cost us over $300 more than our actual drinks bill, so we were right not to purchase drinks packages. I wouldn't consider it when in a suite, especially when we spend most days in port. Maybe on a Transatlantic though :)