Marco Polo Amazon Cruise

[DaveinWhales]

Hi,

I'm looking for information from anyone who has been on this cruise particularly which shore excursions to book and which to avoid if I can do my own thing simply and at a more economic price. I have a feeling that the cruise trips will be fairly costly and as we are on a 42 night cruise I probably need to choose carefully

Never been on a cruise before, the reviews of the ship I have read look varied but I'm sure we will cope !

Thanks in anticipation

Dave

[LittleRedJohn]

We cruised the Amazon a couple years ago with Oceania; they had scheduling problems but still we had a fine trip. You might consult TripAdvisor for some side trip recommendations. Do a lot of research and you'll be fine. We were in Manaus for two days, which is a bare minimum, and used Anavilhanas Eco Turismo. Daniel Barretto was one of our guides. They were great. In Santarem we used Gil Serique. He's fabulous, you must use him. If the town is small, and we were in a couple of those, you don't need guides. We found people pretty helpful. Some of our fellow passengers who took ship-sponsored side trips told us later they wish they had done what we had. John.

[DaveinWhales]

Thanks for that, appreciated. I'll look at TA. Dave

[blue hurworth]

Hi, my wife and I are on the January-February 2014 Amazon cruise from Tilbury. We've never cruised with this cruise line before and are looking forward to the experience. The reviews seem a bit mixed but we've been on Cunard, P&O and Carnival ships and enjoyed them all but also heard complaints on them all. You can't please some people we find.....:)

[DaveinWhales]

I'm sure we will meet up at some stage, it's a fairly small boat!

So far I haven't managed to glean to much information about the individual port of call options. I'm looking forward to seeing the list of trips available through C&M. A shame no one has the list from a previous trip to give me some ideas of what might be on offer.

cheers Dave

[regbobsal]

Hi, my wife and I are on the January-February 2014 Amazon cruise from Tilbury. We've never cruised with this cruise line before and are looking forward to the experience. The reviews seem a bit mixed but we've been on Cunard, P&O and Carnival ships and enjoyed them all but also heard complaints on them all. You can't please some people we find.....:)

 

If I were you I would not bother. The ship itself is fine but the company who run it are very much not!. We had 3 days on the ship & it was a farce from start to finish. The boarding was late,the ship had a virus on the previous cruise to ours, all the none paying facilities were closed, all the paying facilities were open,despite being told that health & safety had said all 'communal' areas must be closed. They chose to close the ones they could not make money out of. The money makinf facilities were ALL open,

bars, shops, lounges, wellness centre ect. On the last day of our cruise they began to open everything. So our cruise had been used to clean the ship. They denied this & said they had to abide by health & safety rules. I find it hard to believe that the bars,lounges ect are not classed as 'communal' areas. I have since been in touch with the health & safety & they are finding it hard to locate the report. This ship has viruses on nearly all of its cruises & should be took out of service & properly deep cleaned. & then their hard working demoralised staff would be able to have a rest. We have found cruise & maritime to be a bad company to deal with, they will not admit to their failings & I feel this will ruin their business & end sadly in the scrapping of their 3 ships. They have already sacked some employees & are closing an office, seems like the rot has already set in. I hope you don't have to use the ships medical centre, the prices are astronomical, one woman was charged £85 to renew the bandage THEY put on too tight!. The original bandage & treatment cost over £600!. So please beware.

[DaveinWhales]

It seems complaints are in the minority when you read the reports. I guess much depends on expectations, the cruise taken and the time of year.Reading reviews and trying to make judgements based on the snippets you pick up is extremely worthwhile too.However, it's too late to cancel now, not that I want to.The final payment has been made.

It's not just the Marco Polo that is troubled by Norovirus, some much bigger liners are having the same problems, and to be honest, no matter how deep you clean , if someone walks on board carrying the virus you are back to square one.

It's a shame that your three day trip was ruined as a result but as we are going for a month, even if I actually suffer from the virus it won't take up too much of my holiday time.

As for the cost of the medical centre, it won't be a penny to me as I have adequate insurance, and we always go well prepared with a medical kit no matter where we travel.

[regbobsal]

It seems complaints are in the minority when you read the reports. I guess much depends on expectations, the cruise taken and the time of year.Reading reviews and trying to make judgements based on the snippets you pick up is extremely worthwhile too.However, it's too late to cancel now, not that I want to.The final payment has been made.

It's not just the Marco Polo that is troubled by Norovirus, some much bigger liners are having the same problems, and to be honest, no matter how deep you clean , if someone walks on board carrying the virus you are back to square one.

It's a shame that your three day trip was ruined as a result but as we are going for a month, even if I actually suffer from the virus it won't take up too much of my holiday time.

As for the cost of the medical centre, it won't be a penny to me as I have adequate insurance, and we always go well prepared with a medical kit no matter where we travel.

 

Hi, Dave, the medical centre on board is cash or card only, they do not care about your insurance.If you do suffer because of a virus you will be in lock-down & not allowed out of your cabin until the medical people deem you fit, & until they have emptied your wallet!. I quite like the ship & staff, it is the company that runs the ship I find abhorrent, they dismiss any queries you have as soon as they have your money. Their customer service is frankly disgusting. They promise you things & fail to keep their promises. Please keep this in mind. Anyway, I hope you have a great holiday & bon voyage!