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Marella.

 

Has anyone been on Marella (Thompson) cruises and if so how do they compare to P&O. Their cruises leave near to home, so not such a long ride down to Southampton, but the only report I have heard about them is not good.

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We did a Thomson cruise on the celebration to the carebean

Ship was very old and had vibration.entertainment was better than p and o,crew were brilliant.food was very good in the Mdr.

I would do another cruise with them but on there newer discovery ships.

 

 

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We have cruised over 30 times with P&O and did our first Marella cruise on the Discovery 2 Caribbean- Transatlantic-Med in April this year.

 

The ship was lovely and food excellent although not Hugh big portions but more than enough for us.

Cabin was a de luxury balcony and very spacious indeed although there was not a bath in this particular grade of cabin as there is in SDL on P&O ships.

Staff extremely curtious and all very happy,cabin stewards excellent and cabin was spotlessly clean.

Entertainment was good in all venues.

I myself was a bit apprehensive about going on this cruise but so happy that I did. Afraid of changes so used to P&O. The reason for going on this cruise was due to the different itinerary flying to Jamaica cruising around the Caribbean sailing back to Spain and visiting different

Med ports but most of all the short 3hr flight back to the U.K. Will I cruise with Marella again YES if the itinerary suits us.

 

Also have to add poor quality pre service from staff when trying to get a problem sorted out before we actually went on cruise and unfortunately poor quality of service again when we tried to get an issue sorted out on returning from cruise.

 

 

Be aware that we also booked and paid for a cabin for the last day on our cruise and found out once we had moved into it that other guests had actually entered our cabin as they had joined the ship for their cruise that day

We were moved into another cabin and again the same thing happened by the time we eventually got settled into our day cabin we only had less than 2hrs to enjoy it.

Unfortunately other guests had experienced the same problem. We are still waiting to receive our money back that we paid for the day cabin and have been waiting since April. Overall yes we did enjoy the ship and the facilities.

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Not been on Thomson (Marella) but feedback from people who have seems to be positive. Definitely on my list to give them a try.

 

Big differentiator for me is that even though I am not high on the loyalty programme, the discount on top of reasonable on board prices for speciality dinning and drinks tips the balance in favour of P&O for me. Also, while Marella may have many positives, I suspect they cannot match P&O on food and wine options when you consider celebrity chef backed speciality dinning.

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Marella - or Thomson when we cruised - is different but not necessarily better or worse. It all depends what is important to you, whether you have definite ‘must haves’ or ‘will not tolerates’.

 

The two Marella cruises we have taken were both winter fly cruises from a local airport, so I can appreciate your being attracted by cruise-only from a local port. The relative ease of getting to Southampton, for us, is a major factor in using P&O.

 

Positives of Marella (for me!)

Very happy friendly atmosphere on board. Much less obvious hierarchy, all staff appear anxious to interact with passengers, senior staff do not shy away from ‘junior work’ - eg, clearing buffet tables, picking up litter

 

Entertainment in terms of evening shows or music in bars. I don’t use daytime entertainment so can’t comment, though a guest speaker on our Red Sea Cruise was an outstanding eminent Egyptologist.

 

For fly cruises, just one sea day in a seven day cruise

 

Smaller ships (I’ve only been on Celebration and Majesty, not the newer ones)

 

Attractive, uncrowded buffets with good choice of food

 

Negatives

I found the MDR a disappointment. Food was so-so and service very hurried.

 

The ships are very obviously older, less attractive with many fewer balcony cabins (again my experience on the older ships). Cabins may have odd configuration, fixed single beds etc

 

I think comparing base fares makes Marella poorer value for money than P&O. If you book early and get the free basic drink package, for water, soft drinks, tea coffee and hot chocolate, and alcohol, then I think it compares well

 

 

If you enjoy cruising, it’s more than likely you’ll enjoy Marella. It’s not P&O, it’s different but it’s still cruising. If it helps, we’re flying for a one week hotel, one week Canaries cruise, with Tui/Marella this winter

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Marella.

 

Has anyone been on Marella (Thompson) cruises and if so how do they compare to P&O. Their cruises leave near to home, so not such a long ride down to Southampton, but the only report I have heard about them is not good.

With Discovery 1 and 2 Marella have 2 ships from Royal Caribbean ( Splendour and Legend of the seas) with many balconies which has massively improved their offering because all their other ships have no or very few balconies.
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Also as from May 2019 ALL the ships are "all inclusive" and that also means no extra gratuities. Their newest ship Explorer 2 (in service May 2019) is adults only. Seriously looking at this for next year as we always have a hefty bill after our P&O cruises. The price you pay includes drinks package and tips!! There is also a good choice of cabins on the Explorer & Discovery ships. The Explorer 2 used to belong to Celebrity. Looking through their brochure they do have some good itineraries.

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Would have liked to try Marella but they have very few no fly cruises. Only ones I can see are to Norway or Baltic.

 

So I'll stick with P&O for their varied cruises, year round, and Freedom dining. Many of the other cruise lines winter cruises only offer Club dining.

 

My fault that I am so fussy!

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Some background/context first. I last cruised with P&O 12 months ago and went on 2 P&O cruises last year aboard Aurora and Oriana. I have only sailed with Marella once, in January this year for one week aboard Discovery 2 to the Caribbean & Cuba.

 

Personally I feel the cruise experience aboard P&O's smaller ships (which are the same size as Marella's Discovery ships) is infinitely superior to that on Marella. I felt the food on Discovery 2 was poor in comparison to P&O. Dinner was three courses which on most nights were very small. On one night I was hungry by 10.00pm and had to go find a snack - and I am not a big eater! Service at dinner was okay but our waiter didn't respond at all to any negative comments about the food. A table mate mentioned to him one night that her steak was very tough but he totally ignored her and just carried on round the table asking everyone else how their dinner was... I found breakfast very disappointing with poor quality ingredients. The buffet had a varied selection of foods but the room itself was more crowded than any buffet I have been in on a ship. The scones with jam & cream each afternoon were outstanding and there was always a selection of Gluten Free foods available for those that need them.

 

Entertainment was varied. The in-house show team were fine, producing similar entertainment to P&O's Headliners. Some of the shows (the play especially) were a bit Hi-de-Hi. Evening musicians were fine but very, very loud in all venues. I had to leave the Live Lounge on three nights as I just couldn't stand the high volume level. The other - larger - entertainment lounge (called Venue) only seemed to have TV Game show-style entertainment.

 

The ship is generally in good shape but the Islands Buffet is really in need of refurbishment.

 

I found a lot of the staff were lovely but bar staff very hit & miss. Great in Bar Eleven, hit & miss in the Live Lounge and dreadful at the pool bars.

 

My inside cabin had a very comfortable bed and was very quiet but service from the steward hit & miss.

 

By way of further comparison, I have just returned from a cruise on CMV's Marco Polo and whilst they too are a 'budget' cruise line, I found everything on Marco Polo to be better despite the fact that she is an older and smaller ship.

 

If you get an exceptional price, Marella may be worth a go or if you want to sail in suite, they are probably very good value. Otherwise, I personally will be sticking to P&O - or CMV!

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Thank you for all your replies, a good mixture of views. A relative went on their first and only cruise with them and weren't impressed and it put them off cruises. I am struggling to get past that as we have had a brilliant time on the few cruises we have been on.

As mentioned the attraction was for the port near to home. Having said that,we have found the travel to Southampton by coach fine so far (going again Sunday).

Another one to consider is CMV, they also go from North Shields. I think we will just see what itinerary we fancy next and take it from there.

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Thank you for all your replies, a good mixture of views. A relative went on their first and only cruise with them and weren't impressed and it put them off cruises. I am struggling to get past that as we have had a brilliant time on the few cruises we have been on.

As mentioned the attraction was for the port near to home. Having said that,we have found the travel to Southampton by coach fine so far (going again Sunday).

Another one to consider is CMV, they also go from North Shields. I think we will just see what itinerary we fancy next and take it from there.

 

We've cruised recently with Fred Olsen because they offer cruises from Rosyth. I can't tell you exactly why it was not a patch on P&O but we just didn't enjoy it nearly as much. We had a lovely cabin, the food was fine and the itinerary was different - but it just wasn't much fun. I'm not a youngster by any means but I think the atmosphere on the ships is just very dull and sleepy. I've cruised with various lines but my favourite and the line I always come back to is P&O. Like you. we've considered CMV but we prefer a balcony cabin and a range of dining / entertainment venues and I don't think they offer that. The ships are quite old too

 

Would have liked to try Marella but they have very few no fly cruises. Only ones I can see are to Norway or Baltic.

 

So I'll stick with P&O for their varied cruises, year round, and Freedom dining. Many of the other cruise lines winter cruises only offer Club dining.

 

My fault that I am so fussy!

 

I don't think you're too fussy. Like you, P&O offers us options in the Winter that no other line does and we also prefer freedom. We've tried Fred and Cunard but they only do a very limited number of cruises from the UK off-season. We've also tried other lines in the Summer Princess and Celebrity which we liked and RCI less so - but they all disappear in October.

 

So why do we prefer P&O? It's hard to qualify other than the range of cruises all year round and Freedom dining, but I think also it's the wider range of dining and entertainment venues on the P&O ships and the general atmosphere. Don't ask me why but we never has as much fun on other lines and believe it or not the entertainment is better.

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We've cruised recently with Fred Olsen because they offer cruises from Rosyth. I can't tell you exactly why it was not a patch on P&O but we just didn't enjoy it nearly as much. We had a lovely cabin, the food was fine and the itinerary was different - but it just wasn't much fun. I'm not a youngster by any means but I think the atmosphere on the ships is just very dull and sleepy. I've cruised with various lines but my favourite and the line I always come back to is P&O. Like you. we've considered CMV but we prefer a balcony cabin and a range of dining / entertainment venues and I don't think they offer that. The ships are quite old too

 

 

So why do we prefer P&O? It's hard to qualify other than the range of cruises all year round and Freedom dining, but I think also it's the wider range of dining and entertainment venues on the P&O ships and the general atmosphere. Don't ask me why but we never has as much fun on other lines and believe it or not the entertainment is better.

 

I really agree with all you say here tartanexile81 .... my sentiments entirely.:)

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We have sailed with both p&o and marrella and enjoyed them both....it would probably be better if you go on either discovery or explorer as they are bigger than the older smaller ships....we thought that the marrella entertainment just beat p&o's and the food was slightly better on marrella.we have 2 marrella cruises booked for next year having done 2 p&o cruises this year.....read into that what you will.

 

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We are on Discovery 2 in September,if good we will book another.We have researched fjords and Iceland with Marella being about £2000 cheaper than both Princess and P&O .Only problem is the Newcastle departure,but still worth it for us.Nothing wrong with Newcastle by the way,just a mission from Essex.Will get there a day early and make a minibreak of it,if we book it,cheers,Brian.

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We are on Discovery 2 in September,if good we will book another.We have researched fjords and Iceland with Marella being about £2000 cheaper than both Princess and P&O .Only problem is the Newcastle departure,but still worth it for us.Nothing wrong with Newcastle by the way,just a mission from Essex.Will get there a day early and make a minibreak of it,if we book it,cheers,Brian.
The Premier Inn at Royal Quays is walking distance to the terminal as well as minutes walking to the outlet mall for shopping.
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We have been on many Marella/Thomson cruises over the years as they are the only ones to offer regular and a choice of fly cruises from Scotland in the winter time.

 

We have always had an excellent holiday with them because when we go on holiday that is the plan, to enjoy it. There have been odd hiccups along the way, Noro on one cruise but then that can and does happen on any ship in the wintertime,

 

No the ships are not as plush, the food not quite as good, (though P&O MDR is not brilliant now either imo) the choice of select dining much more limited etc but you won’t starve, you will be entertained and they take you to some interesting ports.

 

Personally I think that Marella has the edge when it comes to entertainment, there is much more to do through the sea day (usually only one). I actually really enjoy the plays they put on and as it is something different from just singing and dancing. It is usually a farce and we have seen some really well acted plays - just the luck of the draw which entertainment team you get I suppose. The entertainment teams try hard and they interact more with the guests, as do the other staff and officers.

 

The staff on board are lovely, the customer service team on land dire. We had an issue on one cruise and they are unhelpful and unresponsive. That said I have read threads on here that say the same about P&O!

 

Every cruise line you travel with has different highs and lows. If you accept that it won’t all be the same, you will enjoy the cruise.

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The Premier Inn at Royal Quays is walking distance to the terminal as well as minutes walking to the outlet mall for shopping.
That's what we've been researching also.If there was such thing,we'd be elite at the Premier Inn,lol.
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Thank you for all your replies, a good mixture of views. A relative went on their first and only cruise with them and weren't impressed and it put them off cruises. I am struggling to get past that as we have had a brilliant time on the few cruises we have been on. As mentioned the attraction was for the port near to home. .

If you are sailing from Newcastle it will be Discovery (or Explorer next year). Discovery is a lovely ship, not sure whether your relative was on one of the older ships? We found Discovery was very similar to P&O in many ways, there are some things better and some not so good but overall they are very comparable. We have found them to be much cheaper than P&O for most cruises - you need to take into account all additions with P&O as Discovery is AI including tips. I would advise to give Marella a go and make your own opinion. We are sailing from Newcastle in 2 weeks and really looking forward to the no-fly experience.

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If you are sailing from Newcastle it will be Discovery (or Explorer next year). Discovery is a lovely ship, not sure whether your relative was on one of the older ships? We found Discovery was very similar to P&O in many ways, there are some things better and some not so good but overall they are very comparable. We have found them to be much cheaper than P&O for most cruises - you need to take into account all additions with P&O as Discovery is AI including tips. I would advise to give Marella a go and make your own opinion. We are sailing from Newcastle in 2 weeks and really looking forward to the no-fly experience.
Discovery was previously Royal Caribbean Splendour of the Seas a vision class ship and a favourite of ours.

It is far bigger and better than any of the other Marella ships plus she has numerous balcony cabins.

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I have completed 21 P&O cruises and 20 Marella and basically there are more similarities than differences. The obvious differences are that a good drinks package (really good in the Discoveries and Explorer) is included in the fare and there is no need to tip. You can of course tip if you want but there is no pressure to do so and in the daily cruise news they place reminders of this. Formality is another difference. There are no formal nights as such but a dress to impress night where you can get dressed up to the nines if you wish, otherwise evening casual is just fine. There are no 'formal night' restrictions on public venues which there are on P&O. The latest Marella ships IMO have more facilities than the mid sized P&O ones, for example the discoveries have 5 free eateries and 4 cover charge ones.

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I would certainly agree with you that the Marella Discovery ships have more choice of restaurants but in terms of other facilities such as bars, lounges, showrooms, cinemas and theatres, P&O mid-sized ships have more - and imho - a better choice.

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Saw a YouTube video yesterday of TUI entertainment staff doing the Full Monty in front of lucky ladies from the audience. Groan. Now I am not a prude but I want more from a cruise .. and expect more.. than this sort of Blackpool Hen Party entertainment. It's put us off even considering TUI now ....

 

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