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Explorer Summer 2018


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Me and my husband have booked Highlights of the Mediterranean departing 1st September 2018.

I'm interested to see others reviews of this ship new to the fleet after the refurbishment. Hope they're good.

 

We are on Explorer from 30/06/18 through to 15/07/18, taking in Cosmopolitan Classics & Highlights Of The Med. Lots of planning for the Ports already done, so just need to see how she looks after the refurb now. We will certainly write a review and post photos !

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We are on Explorer from 30/06/18 through to 15/07/18, taking in Cosmopolitan Classics & Highlights Of The Med. Lots of planning for the Ports already done, so just need to see how she looks after the refurb now. We will certainly write a review and post photos !

Thanks for replying, enjoy your cruise. If at all possible can your share photos and let me know any tips about the Highlights of the Med. trips

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  • 3 months later...
Me and my husband have booked Highlights of the Mediterranean departing 1st September 2018.

I'm interested to see others reviews of this ship new to the fleet after the refurbishment. Hope they're good.

 

 

I’ll be on the ship at the same time as you. :D We’re doing Cosmopolitan Classics the week before as well. I can’t wait for the reviews to start coming in

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  • 2 weeks later...

Guys just so you know - the best place for pictures reviews and feedback from the people on the ship right now are the Facebook groups. There is a Facebook group for Marlla Explorer (the one with about 5k members). Loads of info on there and very active group :)

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  • 1 month later...

We were on the Mediterranean Secrets cruise on Explorer from 16th June.

The ship is attractive; well furnished and comfortable.

We were in the larger balcony cabin (deck 10). The cabin is fairly compact but has nice large shower with panel door. The balcony is indeed large. One sun lounger, 2 seats and a small side table. Plus the hammock which stretches across. I recommend the hammock but it does obscure the view of anyone on the lounger.

The ship has good and bad points. They are not good (yet?) at providing information. Cruise news for day 2 did not specifically say that night was the Dress to Impress Night. We only knew from the slip on our bed placed during the day to encourage early dining (it was open dining). Also, it was rather hard to find out the cost of the pay-extra dining venues. You had to go through the electronic booking to find out just before placing a booking.

Main dining room is just the same as in other Marella ships. Staff are excellent. I very much recommend Vista - the Italian themed restaurant and the food is delicious. No extra charge and you can't book. It gets very busy to arrive early!

The buffet (Market Place) is good and we never found it to be too busy. There are different counters for different items so that seems to spread things out. The ship is all inclusive. In the buffet, you can dispense your own wine or beer. I found the beer to be ok; my wife was happy with the wine, but you could always take a drink in from a nearby bar.

Main showroom is large and comfortable. View from balcony is not great unless you are tall. There are pre-poured drinks at the entrance - wines, 2 cocktails, bottles of beer. Staff keen to give you 2 drinks at a time. No waiter staff to take bar orders. We were happy with this arrangement.

We found the shows and the entertainment to be a huge disappointment as this was, for us, a big part of cruising with Tui. They have gone for modern, edgy, high decibel. Lost are the very musical sounds and shows. Might suit some but I suspect a large percentage of customers will not be happy. I thought the comedian was very third rate.

Of 5 ports of call, one was tender to shore (which I liked) and 4 required shuttle transfer from industrial ports - which I detest. In Tarragona, there was a £7 charge for return shuttle. The others were free of charge (supplied by local authority?).

We booked half say trips in each port. In the first, we were 45 min late in getting port clearance. That 45 min was curtailed from our trip as the ship had not communicated with the local firm. I complaint and had a written acknowledgement. For our last port, the literature said we would have more than 2h free time on our trip to Portovenere. In fact, this was wrong. It could never have been that long (it was 1h). I complained again and received a partial refund.

All these comments are my personal thoughts. We have been on 21 Thomson cruises. The change to the style of entertainment may well mean that will be our last.

On the subject of repeat custom, we were invited to a reception with captain and officers on the day at sea (which was actually our last day). They scheduled this for 6pm at which time we were actually entering Vista restaurant for dinner. 4pm would have been a sensible time to choose. Sort of sums up the mentality on board.

Hope this has been of value. Let me know of you have any other specific questions.

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  • 2 weeks later...
Just found this Explorer to Homebase in Newcastle May 17th 2019 arriving in So,ton first 21 nights Transatlantic with various ports on route :cool:

 

Hi Saint, is there any chance that you could give me a link for the above please, we are doing the repositioning cruise going out to the Caribbean in October and if we enjoy it the one you mentioned would be of interest to us.;)

Thanks.

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I am on that cruise leaving Barbados on the 28th april. It is called Transatlantic homecoming. My 19 night cruise terminates at Southampton which is OK for me. The Marella site does not seem to list the longer option to Newcastle but according to the brochure talk yo your TA about it. The extra 2 nights to Newcastle include a day at sea so no additional ports. The cruise is adult only

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I am on that cruise leaving Barbados on the 28th april. It is called Transatlantic homecoming. My 19 night cruise terminates at Southampton which is OK for me. The Marella site does not seem to list the longer option to Newcastle but according to the brochure talk yo your TA about it. The extra 2 nights to Newcastle include a day at sea so no additional ports. The cruise is adult only

 

Thanks for the reply Dave. I had look on the marella site and couldn't find any thing about that cruise. Perhaps its me not looking hard enough. :rolleyes: Will try again a bit later.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Found the Atlantic homecoming cruise,it looks like a decent itinerary we will see how the outward trip goes

Off topic the wife and ma in law are on the explorer August and she wants to know if a travel iron can be used on board, any info appreciated.

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Found the Atlantic homecoming cruise,it looks like a decent itinerary we will see how the outward trip goes ��

Off topic the wife and ma in law are on the explorer August and she wants to know if a travel iron can be used on board, any info appreciated.

 

Travel irons are now allowed as long as in good condition.

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Here is the above-mentioned article.

https://www.cruisecritic.co.uk/news/news.cfm?ID=8654

Hi all

have just jumped ship from Discovery to Explorer for my winter cruise sailing from Barbados in stead of Jamaica have managed to get stern balc cabin 10160 it is a family suit have any one cruised in this cabin,i have had stern balc,s on Discovery looking at it seems very big and help would be appreciated thank you.

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Hi Howard you probably know I can't help with the cabin but would like to know why you jumped & if you don't mind me asking how much did they charge you. I suspect we may be looking at doing the same from D1 to Explorer 2 for Sep 19 probably for the same reason. Your cabin choice does look good.

 

Sent from my VF-895N using Forums mobile app

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Hi Howard you probably know I can't help with the cabin but would like to know why you jumped & if you don't mind me asking how much did they charge you. I suspect we may be looking at doing the same from D1 to Explorer 2 for Sep 19 probably for the same reason. Your cabin choice does look good.

 

Sent from my VF-895N using Forums mobile app

Hi Roger

after hearing about the unrest in Jamaica we decided to go back to Barbados, but as you know you can get trouble any were ,we were going to stay in montego bay and cruise second, so after a chat with the girls at TUI shop decided to transfer across to Explorer with a charge of amendment fee of £150 -£50 A/F- override so it was a new booking with the shops discount , have been on discovery twice so looking forward to Explorer, as for the cabin it looks huge sleeps 5.

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  • 4 weeks later...

Hi all.

The wife and Ma in law are currently on the Explorer doing the Highlights of the Mediterranean cruise and she called me today and gave her opinions on the ship so far.

 

The main dining room is fantastic and tables for two,four,six and upwards are freely available. The food is a good standard and the waiters are are very good drinks are freely available and topped up frequently (water and wine)

 

The cabin is quite large and has enough storage (wardrobe space and drawers) for both of them. They are in a large balcony cabin deck 10.

 

She said the ship was very large compared to the other marella ships we have been on.

 

The entertainment is to a very good standard but very loud.

 

The squid and anchor venue has good entertainment on but gets very busy,she still managed to get seats.

 

So it’s so far so good.

 

Point of interest She asked at reception if travel irons were allowed to be brought onto the ship and was told no, the cases are scanned and the irons are confiscated.

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