Which ship for Caribbean cruise

We are looking at taking a Caribbean cruise in January 2018 and can't decide which of the Marella ships to take. Any ideas?

Thanks for any help.

Patrick:cool:

We were on discovery this year and had a lovely time. However, our priority would be the itinerary rather than the ship.

Thanks Dronnygirl,

I have looked at the discovery and there are several itineraries I like so I shall keep an eye on the price.

We have just returned from 2 weeks on Marella Celebration to the Caribbean. The ship, food and entertainment were good and no real issues. Bad vibration at front and rear of ship, even when in port. Our main issue was the guests - it was something like "Benefits Britain" - that terrible TV programme. The number of smokers on board was huge. There were fights and reports of people stealing. Gastro illnesses also present - may have been caused by people not washing their hands. I witnessed people in the inside bars with no shirt on! Overall the cruise was spoilt by the people on board. I would advise that unless you get the cruise at a bargain price or you enjoy a "working mans club" atmosphere, I would book elsewhere.

Daveth 10 Thanks for your post - I'm horrified - Celebration is one of my favourite ships and I will be on in January with a friend who is a first time cruiser - a recently retired headmistress - it could put her off cruising forever. From what you say it sounds like Island Escape or 18/30s passengers Marella need to sort this out NOW - fighting and stealing - very worrying

My advice to avoid the vibration is to pay £45 to reserve cabin midships. Eat in Meridian Restaurant for breakfast lunch and dinner. Sunbathe on top deck towards the front. Use Horizons and Hemmingways for drinks and music. Theatre no problems. If you stick to my advice you will be ok. The low lifes never seemed to venture forward of the Liberties bar which is at the back of the ship. For the occasional entertainment to see how some people live go to the Lido pool!

P.S. I overheard one rather large lady saying that she couldn't be bothered to walk to the ladies and therefore went in the pool!

P.S. I overheard one rather large lady saying that she couldn't be bothered to walk to the ladies and therefore went in the pool!

That is totally not acceptable.... No wonder people were sick. Very worried now. I do hope this was a 1-off.

These incidents should be reported to reception so they can take some action (not sure what though) :mad:

I joined the Marbella group on Facebook as we had been interested in booking the cruise to Cuba. However, the more comments I read I am getting put off.

We really don't want to spend our holiday with unruly people, or those who don't know how to dress or behave.

I also don't like the fact you can't have set sitting dining.

At the end of the day they are not any cheaper than some other cruise lines.

Having second thoughts about booking with them now.

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Because so few experienced cruisers are booking with Marella, prices have dropped a lot in order to fill the ships, which is attracted in people who usually go to 2 and 3 star all inclusives. I agree I would look at booking with other cruise lines first.

We have travelled fairly extensively with other lines, although mainly with P&O. In the past year we were on Discovery in the Caribbean (March/April), and most recently on Discovery 2 on the 18 night TA from Tenerife to Jamaica.

Although we've been to the Caribbean several times previously I think both of Discovery voyages featured among the most enjoyable.

We do not eat in the buffet. We enjoy the excellent and stress free breakfast in the beautiful light and airy main dining room, light lunch in the MDR, Glass house, or a bite from the snack shack, and dinner in 47 Degrees or Gallery 47, Glass house, or occasionally one of the speciality restaurants. We find the buffet manic, crowded and too stressful to enjoy a meal. That goes for any ship.

We do enjoy the peace and tranquility of a balcony and our own space so we do spend a bit more to get that, and have found the junior suites on the Discovery ships to be perfect for us, in fact some of the best in many cruises on many ships.

We have found that we enjoyed the general mix of age ranges and people from all walks of life more on those 2 cruises than most others. I don't know why that is but we did feel very relaxed on board and met a lot of pleasant interesting people.

I think that TUI are going in the right direction with the 'new' ships, and I certainly don't think they are over priced. As for prices dropping I am not sure I agree with that. Our last 2 Discovery cruises had both increased several hundred pounds between booking and departure, and we have future cruises booked which have also increased.

I have sympathy with Daveth 10 for his experience on Celebration but I've seen similar on P&O Ventura so it happens elsewhere.

I've written this purely to give another view of Marella.

Good to have a view which balances up away from the negatives. I like the fact that you get people from different walks of life. I know that not everyone behaves appropriately.

I kinda know where Dave is coming from, but he may have been unlucky or more-likely he's seriously over-egged the standards of his fellow-passengers.

.

As Jake has mentioned, you do get a broader mix of folk on Thomson.

Discovery is the only Thomson ship we've not sailed, and we have always found their ships to be so much more friendly than other cruise lines - perhaps because a higher proportion of their passengers are working folk from places like Scotland, Wales and the North.

Yes, I've seen minor examples of poor behaviour - and probably marginally poorer than on other cruise lines. But Dave paints a picture of "Benefits Britain", and that's a gross mis-representation.

For instance "there were fights" - on another thread Dave mentioned "a fight". So which was it, Dave? A one-off fight or plenty of fights. I've witnessed a fight on P&O, but that's hardly representative.

Our experience of fellow-cruisers on Thomson hasn't been ship-dependent - we've noticed no passenger differences on different ships, nor have we noticed or heard of a fight..

On anther thread (Dave has really got his teeth into this) he mentioned that "on Celebration more than 25% of people around the Lido area were smoking". It's a few years since I was last on Celebration, at that time half the deck outside the Lido was designated as a smoking area but it's extremely likely that as with other ships the number of designated areas has been reduced & probably the whole deck outside the Lido is now non-smoking.

Dave - wherever it was, it was a designated smoking area. We're just back from a Thomson Dream cruise, and not once did we see a single person, let alone 25% :rolleyes:, smoking other than in designated areas.

"I overheard one rather large lady saying that she couldn't be bothered to walk to the ladies and therefore went in the pool!"

That's total rubbish, Dave, and you know it. :rolleyes:

No passenger is going to say that, even if that was their intention.

Almost-certainly an attempt at humour that went over your head.

"Because so few experienced cruisers are booking with Marella, prices have dropped a lot in order to fill the ships".

More nonsense, Dave. :rolleyes:

Thomson have their loyal passenger-base, same as other cruise lines, and nothing has changed.

Except on rare itineraries, prices almost-always drop close to sailing date. For many years we've always found the bargains on all mainstream cruise lines close to sailing date.

LondonTowner mentioned Cuba. That's one itinerary we booked quite early with Thomson. Few ships go there, none of the US or P&O ships have gone there until very recently due to the onerous terms imposed by the US govt., and it was an itinerary we really didn't want to risk missing by hoping for a late deal..

Vitalsign - you've experienced Thomson. Things haven't changed. Don't be put off by Dave's post.

I'll agree with Dave on a few points.............

The main dining room on all Thomson ships (and pretty-well every other ship we've sailed) is waaay better than the Lido buffet for ambiance, peace, service and standard of food. I wouldn't dream of using the buffet for dinner any more than I'd use a works canteen. The buffet has it's place for a quickie breakfast and daytime snacks, but the standards are poor & the place usually over-crowded.

Yes, like her identical twin Spirit, Celebration has a vibration problem. An un-fixable design fault from birth. A gentle "shimmy" rather than a vibration, and it's intermittent - it lasts for a few minutes then it's gone for a while. It applies both at sea and in port. Quite amusing - unless it affects your cabin, because that's not something you want when trying to get to sleep..

Affected cabins are toward the stern, and you'll see from deck-plans that there are only a few and on only one deck. But experienced Thomson cruisers know about this, and select cabins elsewhere - so those cabins will be amongst the allocation-on-arrival.

Ditto outside cabins close to the bow on the bottom passenger deck - they're affected by waves crashing against the side of the ship.

The bottom two decks are usually below pier level, so in port the outside cabins on the pier side side have a view of grey concrete.

And from vague recollection, I think it's on Celebration and Spirit that some cabin designs mean that the beds are singles in an L-shape and can't be reconfigured to a double. Or mebbe I'm thinking of another cruise line???

The above only for Celebration & Spirit.

On Thomson Dream there are two sizes of ocean-view cabins. Outside-Plus are excellent, but the other ocean-view cabins are the smallest I've seen on any cruise ship.

Depending on which ship, £45 or thereabouts to select a specific cabin can be well worth the expense.

BTW, London-Towner prefers traditional (assigned) dinner seating.

We've found on all ships that any-time dining gives us the chance to meet more folk. And if we enjoy the company of those we've been thrown with, we arrange to meet-up outside the dining room next evening and go in as a foursome / sixsome or whatever. So we've often ended up the same as traditional dining but with companions of our own choice. Win-win.:)

Thomson ships are far from the best fleet in the business, but that's reflected in prices - both the cruise ticket price & the on-board costs. Plain honest value-for-money.

And they're a good choice for a first-timer. Sensible-sized ships, cater appropriately for a 99% British clientele, none of the on-board cost shocks that new cruisers find on US ships, and acceptable standards all-round.

As you become more experienced and more discerning there are certainly better cruise lines with better ships.

But we sail mainly on itinerary and price, and we're happy enough on Thomson.

Finally, and I may have gotten Dave wrong on this, but mentions of the standards of fellow-passengers and "Butlins" etc, do make me wonder whether there's a touch of snobbery involved. Too many northern accents for you, Dave? ;)

All JMHO as always,

JB :)

Well said John Bull and no Daveth 10 has definitely not put me off I've 6 cruises already booked for 2018

Merry Christmas to you and all loyal Marella cruisers and bah humbug to the others

It is luck of the draw sometimes, we have know similar sorts on P&O before, never spoilt a cruise but you do wonder sometimes!

Keith (Southend)

John Bull

Thanks for an informative report. Still haven't made any decisions yet re Marella.

However, I have read on the FB page about passengers having lots of itinerary changes and flight changes. Yes, I know this can happen anytime, but generally last minute due to weather.

The changes seem to be not stopping at all in Havana, but having two days in Cozumel instead. One of the main complaints has been the bad customer services of the handling of the change. I

I don't think I'd be too pleased in missing out Havana.

Marella do seem to have itineraries that are more varied and different to a lot of other lines. They also seem to spend longer in ports. I don't think they are a lot cheaper than some other lines.

Still not convinced they are our cup of tea, but I suppose the best way to find out is to go on one.

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Well said John Bull and no Daveth 10 has definitely not put me off I've 6 cruises already booked for 2018

Merry Christmas to you and all loyal Marella cruisers and bah humbug to the others

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John Bull

 

Thanks for an informative report. Still haven't made any decisions yet re Marella.

 

However, I have read on the FB page about passengers having lots of itinerary changes and flight changes. Yes, I know this can happen anytime, but generally last minute due to weather.

 

The changes seem to be not stopping at all in Havana, but having two days in Cozumel instead. One of the main complaints has been the bad customer services of the handling of the change. I

 

I don't think I'd be too pleased in missing out Havana.

 

Marella do seem to have itineraries that are more varied and different to a lot of other lines. They also seem to spend longer in ports. I don't think they are a lot cheaper than some other lines.

 

Still not convinced they are our cup of tea, but I suppose the best way to find out is to go on one.

 

 

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Yes, changes do happen, more on some Thomson itineraries than others, or with other cruise lines. I'm guessing that this, in part at least, is due to their more off-beat ports-of-call.

We're just back from their Canaries cruise - very simple, very standard ports-of-call, & no changes other than earlier departures than advertised in a couple of ports.(early evening rather than late evening).

But our Caribbean cruise on the same ship a couple of years back had cancellations for San Blas Islands (Panama) and Puerto Limon (Costa Rica). The weather was more rough (or more accurately "less calm") than we'd previously experienced in the Caribbean but we later found that San Blas, a tender port, was missed on the vast majority of Thomson cruises.

Havana is a well-sheltered berthed port and shouldn't be weather-affected. It's the jewel in Thomson's "Cuban Fusion", I'm sure Thomson wouldn't cancel the port lightly, and I'd be hopping mad if it were cancelled. :mad: :mad: :mad:.

BTW, their 14-day Caribbean cruises are actually two back-to-back seven-day cruises, with the turnaround port (usually Mo' Bay) as a mid-cruise port-of-call. A rare opportunity to experience a turnaround port on a flight-included cruise because first day and last day all you see of that port is the road between airport and ship.

Add Thomson's cruise-and-stay / stay-and-cruise options and the flexibility is great.

The big price advantages we've seen have been Thomson's on-board costs, out-of-peak-season cruises, and late-late bookings - and on chartered aircraft those late-booked savings aren't blown on late-booked air-fares..

We booked the Canaries cruise a week out & got an absolute bargain. Two days later folk were booking for even less!!!

But we've experienced the same with other cruise lines.

When business dictated the dates we could take a holiday we had to book in good time & pay thro' the nose. Now that we're retired we can go pretty-well any time & at a moment's notice.

You should try retirement, I can thoroughly recommend it :D

JB :)

I can't wait JB, but for me it's another 8 years, assuming they don't move the goal posts again.

Keith (Southend)

John Bull

Yes, OH retired about 2 months ago, so will be looking at last minute bookings now. Still can't get out saying ' we'll have to go there one weekend'. Well, we can go on a weekday now when often cheaper and certainly less crowded.

Yes, I know the Marella cruises are b2b. Not particularly interested in cruise and stay in the Caribbean. Have had hols in Barbados and Jamaica and would be interested in Cuba, but they don't offer it. We are not bothered about beaches, so would be limited as to what to see.

TBH I think we'll probably go on another Baltic cruise. There are varied itineraries and would love to revisit SPB.

Have a Merry Christmas and hope 2018 is a good one.

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