devonboy51

If you are upgrading to premium, there will be ten whiskys and ten gins to choose from in the gin and whisky bar inside the squid and anchor. Amongst the gins recently were, Rhubarb and ginger, Elderflower, Hendricks and Ophir to name but a few. On both the Explorer and Explorer 2 they had a good selection of fever tree mixers. Hendricks readily available in the other bars with either canned Schweppes or another brand. Enjoy we did.

Regarding U.S. Citizens being able to travel on marella discovery on her US cruises, in the small print in the A-Z guide it does say " If you are a US citizen, including duel citizenship you will not be allowed to sail on these itineraries".

Plus for those fortunate enough to be under 21 but over 18, the minimum drinking age while the ship is in US territorial waters is 21 years.

Dave cttr, many thanks looks like the same selection as on explorer. Much appreciated.

We are looking at cancelling our cruise on the azura to go on the Explorer 2, just a case of crossing the t's and dotting the i's. Both are for virtually same time period but explorer 2 has a better itinary.

So would still appreciate any feedback on Explorer 2. I have seen now that there is a gin and whisky bar in the Squid I hope they have as good a selection of gins as on the explorer.

Considering Explorer 2 for  Caribbean in November from Newcastle.

What Gins are on the premium all inclusive package and at what bars are they available. Is there a gin and whisky bar on board like the Explorer. Thanks for any help in advance.

We paid 85 pounds each for one visit to surf and turf, one visit to kora la, and one visit to the dining club on a dress to impress night when they did wine pairing.

Other combinations of restaurants were possible. 

All meals in those restaurants were amazing. We had trouble finishing some meals especially in surf and turf, so much.

There are only two choices of desert in dining club but you will be amazed by their presentation and size, save some room for them.

We sailed on the Explorer on the Transatlantic Homecoming, from Barbados across the Atlantic, and finishing up in Newcastle 21 days later. We were in 8012, and experienced no motion problems there. However we did experience a little noise late afternoon from the show cast practicing in Broadway.

We also have just come off Explorer and the Midnight sun cruise, we were in 9092 and experienced no motion or noise problems in that cabin

We have recently returned from the midnight sun voyage on the Explorer, having done the Transatlantic Homecoming as well. I think we are well placed to say that having spent 5weeks on board we never saw any drunken behaviour.

We ate in all the restaurants that were included in the AI package and also paid extra to try all the speciality restaurants. We had no complaints with the food in any restaurant. Service we found was mainly fast, with the exception of the Dining club where we did wine pairing and which we were told at the outset it would be around a three hour meal. The main dining could be a little slow between main course and desert, and on occasions we chose not to have coffee in there due to this, this may have been down to the time when we were in the i.e at the beginning of service when they would have been busy.

We were in 8012 for the Transatlantic Homecoming. We were in the cabin for three weeks. Only time we noticed any noise was late afternoon when they were carrying out rehearsals in the Broadway show lounge. We had a great girl looking after the cabin as well.

Really quiet area of the ship.

Enjoy your cruise.

Hi,

Up until I retired three years ago I worked at sea for 46 years, the final 7 years of which I was on a car carrier running back and fore from northern Spain to the Bristol Channel. We crossed Biscay twice every five days, week in week out, all year round and every single crossing was different. Weather conditions varied on each occasion. Some winters January could be flat calm every day, and some summers you could catch windy and bumpy days just like in the winter. One bad winter storm saw us heading slowly towards America for two days before we could turn towards Spain due to the height of the swells and the strength of the wind.

In essence you pays your money and takes your chance. There's no way of guaranteeing a flat calm passage. All you can say is that in summer you stand less chance of a bumpy crossing than you would in the winter.

Going on the Marella Explorer on 9th June on the cruise to the North Cape, Norway's Midnight sun.

First time for my wife heading north on holiday. Have many years of experience of sailing in and out of the Norwegian fjords, around the North cape and up to Svalbard myself on merchant ships, but first time for my wife in this area.

Looking forward to it, but first things first we are on the Discovery in just over 4 weeks on the mesmerizing Mediterranean cruise.

Ian and Karen

Previous cruise:

Azura......November 17 Caribbean

Excursions all booked up now using the travel agent. Looking forward to seeing Pompeii, and revisiting Petra. Travel agent thought TUI would be ironing out any faults with the new excursion system before it went live for Tui customers.

Hi scioncruises,

Checked on line this morning and still not possible to book any aqaba or rome or naples excursions. Popped into our local TA and was told they had become available this morning. She checked and brought up our account, and showed us. We booked petra and little petra for day 14, and wadi rhum for day 15.

She checked Civitavecchia and naples for us and excursions that were available on her computer were not the ones that we had seen on ours. So we decided to leave those and reassess when we got home. Have just checked on line and everything is as it was earlier this morning, i.e. no excursions bookable for naples or Civitavecchia.

Looks like we will have to pay another visit to the TA on Monday.

Frustrating!!!

Thanks for the heads up regarding shore excursions will pop down to see our agent tomorrow.

Just booked the "Mesmerizing Med" cruise on Discovery, the initial part of her repositioning cruise to the Far East. We join in Malaga on 8th November and will leave in Aqaba 15 days later. Is anybody else on this cruise. This is our first cruise with Tui, but not our first cruise.