Marella Enchanting Far East -any reviews or excursion recommendations please?

[BEGINNERSCRUISE]

Hi we are going on this cruise in March 🤗 and are busy booking excursions.

Normally we would do our own thing but having never been to Asia before we are feeling a bit cautious and have ended up booking the excursions with Tui.

Has anyone been on this cruise and got  advise on the Tui excursions.. which ones to book or avoid 😁? 

Or any feedback on this cruise at all would be great 

Thanks!

[andy2496]

Trip Advisor has a review - not good I'm afraid. https://www.tripadvisor.co.uk/ShowTopic-g1-i10703-k12237691-TUI_Enchanting_Far_East_Marella_Discovery_Cruise_December_26-Cruises.html

[Cristaltips]

It was a really scathing review but seems to have been taken down by Tripadvisor. Wish I’d taken a screenshot.

[BEGINNERSCRUISE]

Thanks...ive just read it ...but almost wish i hadn't !! 😮🙈

[andy2496]

Yeah, bit worrying. Though we fly out on the 14th Feb to Langkawi (different/though still small airport) and some of the points are personal to the poster (charging problems). Always think food criticism should be taken with a pinch of salt as plenty of positive comments can be found with a quick search. Tender ports are always a problem; too many people not enough boats. Charging cards are a necessary evil, TUI need to know what we’re eating/drinking to make sure they are making a profit! Gonna make sure we’ve got sun cream and hats in case we get caught in the sun/long cue!

[BEGINNERSCRUISE]

Ha Yes good idea 🤠...we are flying to Langakwi too, but in March .

I'll look forward to your thoughts on your cruise and hope you have a better experience !

We cruised on the Discovery last year and used the charging cards but didnt find that a problem to be honest and also found the food to be mostly nice, though we  chose to eat at the waiter service restaurant not the buffet.

It's mostly the excursions we are anxious about,whether to book all with Tui or not 🤔

[andy2496]

Mmmm...... excursions are definitely a tricky one. We tend to do our own thing wherever possible but this being our first time in Asia we’ve done quite a few TUI ones. Especially the ones that are a distance from the port. Traffic can be horrendous in Bangkok and Vietnam (according to internet searches anyway) so maybe a problem getting back in time. I think the TUI excursions are reasonably priced at least compared to Princess (the only other cruise ships we’ve been on, as well as the Celebration). I know we could do it cheaper ‘doing our own thing’ but prepared to pay the premium to know the ship will wait for us. 

[BEGINNERSCRUISE]

Same as us, first time in Asia so we will probably end up playing it safe and sticking with the Tui excursions !!

Its the first time we will have used the cruise ship excursions as we've only cruised twice before-once with Emerald Princess around the Med and the Discovery in the Caribbean and both were really easy itineraries to do your own thing on.

Hope you have a fab cruise...will look forward to your review when you get back....no pressure 😁

 

 

[Cristaltips]

We fly out to Langkawi on 27 February. First Marella cruise, first time to Asia. Still looking forward to it. We’re going with a very open mind and planning to enjoy ourselves. I will, however, make sure we have sun cream, hats and water in hand luggage in case of airport queues. They’ll have had two months to sort out airport problems by then, sure be fine. As far as food, entertainment etc goes, everyone has their own views. Enjoy your cruises everyone! 

[BEGINNERSCRUISE]

👍Hope you have a fab cruise Cristaltips 

[Cristaltips]

You too have a fab cruise Beginnerscruise.

We'll probably pass each other at Langkawi airport, one in, one out!!!

[BEGINNERSCRUISE]

 we dont fly out till 14th so hope not!! 🤣...enjoy 😎

[Bertie Doe]

On 1/13/2019 at 2:50 PM, andy2496 said:

Trip Advisor has a review - not good I'm afraid. https://www.tripadvisor.co.uk/ShowTopic-g1-i10703-k12237691-TUI_Enchanting_Far_East_Marella_Discovery_Cruise_December_26-Cruises.html

We've cruised with Costa, P & O and 3 Marella ships and have found the customer care, food and entertainment excellent. I would say food-wise that P & O and Mareella may hve the edge over Costa. In fact the food on Marella ship's buffet and complimentary waiter service has been so good that we haven't bothered with the posh selective restaurants in the past.

Last year on Disco2 for three weeks, we promised ourselves a visit to Surf & Turf and never got round to it. We'll be on the Discovery Secrets of Asia trip on 21st March, so will def give S & T a try.

I'm finding the trip adviser poster's comment about "chainsaw needed to cut the meat" a bit OTT. The poster also stated that due to c.card probs he/she was denied food and drink by Marella? A bit odd as food is included in the package and drink-wise, the All-Inclusive Drinks Package caters for this. The poster also mentioned that Premium Drinks Package was "frequently promoted". Last year when cruisers on Discovery 2 ordered champagne or vintage spirits or specialist lagars, they were politely told by the barman that these were not included in the 'all exclusive package' and the price was xX£s.

I surprised that nobody else on the December Enchanting Far East trip has talked about the "2.5 hours, 2 hours and 1.5 hours wait for tenders over 2 days.

I'm aware that Trip Adviser, who also sell excursions, may feel that cruise lines have an unfair advantage competition-wise but let's hope the haven't published on the evidence of just one complaint from 2000 passengers.

[cuisign]

For those who missed the Trip advisor report the text is below.  I contacted my TUI shop and received a diplomatic reply so I've emailed TUI direct today and am awaiting their response.

Unless I'm wrong we actually fly into Utapao Airport which is a small ex military one (hence the critical post I think). From there we are bussed to the ship berthed at Langkawi.

For security reasons I understand that we have to collect our own luggage from the Airport baggage hall and take it through customs after which is taken from us and transported to the ship.

Hope this helps

Happy cruising.

 

Trip Advisor post

“First of all this review has been confirmed by a number of guests whilst on the return flight back to the U.K as the points listed below are the general consensus throughout this holiday/trip.

1. A month previous to our departure date we received an email from TUI notifying us we would not be flying into Bangkok International Airport but from booking this it was described solely as “Bangkok” (no airport stated). This was disappointing especially when we found out the actual airport we were flying to. It was called U-Tapoa Airport (A Military Airport), this Airport was in the middle of no where and quite simply a third world airport un-capable of taking any commercial flights. After a lengthy flight we landed and was made wait a long period just to get off the plane onto a crowded bus to the arrival terminal. We then faced an agonizing 1.5hr wait standing in an extremely compact/claustrophobic queue which led to verbal abuse between fellow passengers, this was due to the airports inabilities to have enough staff at the immigration desks (also to note the staff at this airport are very un-friendly and do not speak English). We also had to wait for our bags to then “drag” them to a bus which was a ten minute walk to a car park in the scorching heat, this was un-usual for a cruise as you normally check them in at the airport and not see them until you get to your cabin on board the ship. We then had a hour journey to the ship which was TUI’s excuse of using this airport as “it was closer” yet Bangkok International Airport was an 1hr 45mins transfer to the ship (The General reason for this we’ve gathered is that it’s just a cheaper option for TUI to use this airport).

2. We got to the ship finally. Being very tired especially after the bad start we had, we went to do the standard check in service on board the ship. To our surprise we where checked in by a woman that couldn’t even speak English that wasn’t obviously trained to cater for check in procedures and had to be shadowed by a manager that was trying to also manage everything else, being experienced with cruises thankfully we where able to assist her in doing her job.

3. Our first day in Bangkok we opted to do a TUI excursion “Highlights of Bangkok”. We were greeted by a very nice tour guide but little did we know what we where in for. It’s just over a two hour bus journey to get into Bangkok City which we where made aware of but the quality of the tour guide was very poor, to sum it up we got no information of anything but she was keen on telling us her life story instead which was very inappropriate and also quite depressing (speaking about family members who have passed away due to cancer etc..), we were stuck on a bus for the entire day driving past everything interesting and got off at two points at very un-interesting locations. Overall worst trip, would not advise at all.

4. The quality of the ports of call are poor to say the least for example Malacca in Malaysia, this port was a disgrace we had to tender to a dock from the ship (jump on smaller boats which take you into the dock due the water being to low for the TUI discovery ship). First off TUI treats anyone who has an excursion booked like royalty you will quite frankly feel like Jack & Rose trying to get off the ship (Titantic reference) when you see TUI getting everyone on an excursion off first not caring about anyone else. The procedure to get everyone off the ship was appalling everyone had to go and grab a raffle ticket which you also had to queue 20-30min for, in our case our number was 810. Once we had our ticket we then had to wait another 2 hours for the crew to announce our ticket to allow us get the smaller boat to get off the ship the numbers where been called out for example like “ could guests holding tickets 1-50 please proceed to the gangway to exit the ship”. It was very clear TUI had no clue how to manage this even though they had been in this location the week previous to our arrival and from speaking with guests from that week it was the same chaos. In total we waited nearly three hours to get off the ship which in turn gave us less time off the ship but unfortunately it gets worse. The scheduled time for the last boat/tender to get back to the ship was at three o’ clock which is the one we decided to get since we didn’t have much time but when we got back to the dock the queue was enormous due the lack of boats and un-organization by TUI (photo attached). We queued 1.5hrs in the scorching heat with no shade just to get back to the ship. Sun burn, exhaustion and total disappointment was an understatement not to mention that night being ruined due the day we had. Our second last day one of our last ports of call was Koh Samaui unfortunately this was the same case as Malacca with getting on and off the ship only we queued for 2hrs to get back on again with no shade or refreshments and also suffered sun stroke/sickness due being left queue in the sun at 31 degrees just to get a boat back to the ship, total disgrace two days of our holiday ruined!

5. When on board the ship we had ID cards which gives us access to our room/cabin but this is also needed to order drinks and access restaurants even though we’ve paid for an all inclusive holiday (all drinks/food paid for). Why are these cards needed if we’ve already paid ! ? On a certain day we played bingo which was £5.00 each so £10 in total but we had to scan our TUI cards to pay which then they go ahead and take it from your bank which is linked to your account but unfortunately we forgot to inform our bank that we where abroad so they declined the payment but this payment was still outstanding on our TUI cards/account on board the ship so this led to us not being able to order drinks nor access any restaurants because they block these cards until they get there money! We tried to explain to the reception on board that our bank wasn’t contactable over the phone as it’s a prepaid travel card they are only contactable via the App which we needed WIFI for but this was £8 an hour on the ship which we weren’t paying for so we needed to wait for the following day to get WIFI elsewhere off the ship but we did not see why they can block the cards on board the ship for food and drink we have already paid for just so they ensure they get £10 for bingo or whatever this is a total disgrace. We asked the reception and she simply had no information to why this is a policy on board! To sum all the above up TUI stops you from eating & drinking on board if they can’t get the money from your bank linked to your onboard TUI cards.

6. The quality and professionalism of the reception team on board the ship was horrendous. The lack of knowledge and capability to deal with any situation or query is null & void. Prepare to spend quite a while trying to explain anything as some of the staff do not have the English language as there first tongue and only reply frankly like there reading from an instruction manual.

7. The food quality & variation on board the ship was shocking unless you pay extra for the retardants on the upper decks which we weren’t keen on since we’ve paid for all inclusive. Let me start by saying you will never want to see chips ever again once you get back from your holiday not to mention a curry since this was the common dish on board especially if your peckish after 9:30pm as a curry or a burger is your only options. We couldn’t wait to get off the ship to go have a nice wholesome meal. The 47 restaurant on board was a waiter serviced restaurant covered by the all inclusive package but you will be waiting 10-20mins when your glass is empty and you need a chainsaw to cut any of the meat served (pre made otherwise its like eating plastic, very chewy).

8. All the extras on board are frequently promoted for example the premium drinks package, the shops on board, the pay extra restaurants and also the excursions. Be prepared to be on board one big sale pitch.

9. The excursions, before we departed for this holiday we had a number of TUI excursions booked & paid for but we later learnt by passengers who had already been on board the ship a week to cancel most of them which we did. It turned out it works out better and much cheaper to do everything on your own for example Vietnam, the TUI excursion team told everyone on board that from there research it would cost $200-250 to get a taxi to/from Vietnam but yet we got a private taxi/chauffeur for the day for $60 which included seeing all there is to see in Vietnam with our driver waiting for us everywhere and also showing us everything best about Ho Chi Minh. So it’s best to get off the ship and grab a bargain with the drivers and don’t fall for the TUI excursions which they will lead you to believe is best.

10. The entertainment on board the ship was ok but the shows in the Broadway Theatre where embarrassing. The standard was very poor which was disappointing because from past cruisers we’ve done we really look forward to the shows but unfortunately our evenings where always dull from these shows on board by the Entertainment team.

11. On our final day when departing the ship would you believe we had a problem with one our payments again with the bank which wasn’t our fault. They didn’t allow us to leave the ship and made us stand aside which was totally embarrassing! It turned out this was there fault that they didn’t even try to charge it in the first place which led jointing the back of yet another queue, frustrating.

12. When we returned to Tapoa Airport (Third World Military Airport we arrived at in Bangkok). We where shocked to see that there was a massive queue outside the airport just to get in the front door! Again we had to queue 2hrs just go get in! Everyone including us was tired fed up and yet again being burned from being left out in the sun with no shade to queue! We later found that this wait was due to there only being one machine to scan bags at the entrance. When we finally got in the chaos was far from over. Everyone from both the Gatwick & Birmingham flights where piled into a small waiting area with no information boards to show flights gates/information. After 15mins a woman shouting for all Birmingham passengers told everyone start queuing by this door. Everyone was literally compacted into this line it was very tense and unsafe to be honest, it even led to two men throwing verbal abuse at one another. When the two lady’s starting letting people threw the gate to get onto a bus which takes you to the plane it was like a free for all everyone starting pushing and screaming it was insane! Just to note how backwards this airport was they didn’t even have a machine to scan boarding passes they had ripped pieces of paper which they wrote down your seat number. When we all got packed onto the very congested bus it was a rough 5min journey to the plane. Sweaty, tired and overall fed up, we where all glad to see that plane trust me.

We spent a lot of money on this trip and by no means did we get any value for our money.

We don’t write reviews often but we had to share this one for the sake of anyone else being affected. This is one of many trips we’ve booked with TUI, we always trusted the company and there standards but on this occasion I’m afraid it was a poorly managed/organized attempt and we where totally let down and left with bad memories.”

 

 

[BEGINNERSCRUISE]

Thanks for the update,hope you get a response soon ...by the way has anyone had any vaccinations for this cruise?

I can't even get an appointment with the nurse at the GP surgery to discuss it!

I know its dependant on your medical history, but if you're on no meds and in "normal health "would vaccinations be needed  with just visiting these ports on a cruise? 

I'm going to try again for an appointment at the doc's but am interested to know what other cruisers going on this cruise have vaccinated against?

 

 

[andy2496]

We’ve had Typhoid and a combined injection that covers Tetnas, Diptheria and Polio. The nurse we spoke to at our surgery consulted a web site and most were just recommendations not compulsory. We decided to do it as I think we will be covered for the rest of life’s  for most of them and it was also free. She said that we would probably be ok without as we were going to ‘civilised’ areas - not back packing through the jungle. More chance of getting Nora virus on the boat!

[BEGINNERSCRUISE]

Ha yes probably!

Thanks very much for the info ,i'll try again  for an appointment but may be ok then if i can't get one in time ...im not planning on going near any jungles!

 

[Bertie Doe]

3 hours ago, BEGINNERSCRUISE said:

Thanks for the update,hope you get a response soon ...by the way has anyone had any vaccinations for this cruise?

I can't even get an appointment with the nurse at the GP surgery to discuss it!

 

The closest information in my TUI catalogue regarding immunisation, simply states "speak to your doctor at least 2 months before you're due to go away ..." Somewhere else it mentions making sure your insurance covers medical care and repatriation. Here's an NHS handy link, you'll need to disable cookies to get it to function properly :-

https://www.fitfortravel.nhs.uk/destinations#asia-east

 

 

[BEGINNERSCRUISE]

Thank you very much for the info.

[Hartswood]

Just to let people know, we have just had an e mail from Shore Excursions cancelling the hotel day at the Peace Resort on Koh Samui for our cruise starting on 30th January because of, in their own words, "customer feedback". Clearly not the piece of paradise we were all hoping for!

[BEGINNERSCRUISE]

Thanks for for the update,we have that one booked as well for March.

Maybe it will be replaced with a different hotel ....wonder what the "customer feedback" was ?!!!

 

[cuisign]

I doubt if it was as a result of an overwhelming accolade 😏

[BEGINNERSCRUISE]

🤣wish we could get a bit of positive feedback for this cruise! 😁 

 

[cuisign]

It’s there first go at Asia so I expected some teething problems (see my previous post), hence booking for March. Fingers crossed 🤞 !!

[Hartswood]

Yes, we have now had three completed cruises since the first one started on 20th December so it is frustrating not to hear from someone with some positive first hand experiences. Maybe they just haven't discovered Cruise Critic!

Life on board I am sure will be great as always. As for the area, we are just going to take it as one big adventure.

 

As for the replacement excursion in Koh Samui BeginnersCruise, we have now gone for the other hotel day already on offer, the W Resort. Rather more expensive and looks rather more exclusive than the Peace Resort, but it sounds as if you get what you pay for.