Jump to content
Cruise Critic Community

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

BEGINNERSCRUISE
 Share

Recommended Posts

Bertie Doe

Bertie Doe

Posted
Posted
1 hour ago, Hartswood said:

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!

 

There people with positive first hand experience, this one is from sunshinegirl, she was on Discovery at Xmas at the same time as the person in Cuisign's Tripadviser post above. It's a long post, so you will need to look at it in full, as it deals with negatives about airports, visas, tuk-tuk drivers etc, hence only 3 circles out of 5 but it does mention yor excursions to Singapore and Bankok, this is an extract ;-

 

"We changed for dinner, we’d chosen the middle sitting so ate at 6, the food
was excellent and it felt christmassey to me, we had crackers and although I
chose scallops rather than turkey I had Christmas pud and enjoyed every bit
of what I ate. We visited Singapore, fabulous, waking up there was just out
of this world. We did the sea air and road trip and the Singapore flyer was
the highlight of my day, you could see everything for miles around. Also I
saw the orchid collection, not my other half’s choice but just stunningly
beautiful and even he said it was pretty. Interesting loos tho, don’t wear
trousers, too tricky. After that we visited 3 places in Thailand and more of
Malaysia, including Kuala Lumpur and a trip up the KL Tower and to visit the
Petronas Towers. Well worth seeing both. Thailand was beaches and Bangkok,
both good, chaweng beach is a trip worth making but we did a trip and I
think I’d have preferred to make our own way there and back and have longer,
my other half liked the beer and we have several pics of him in various
places in Thailand drinking different beers. Mine are good, baby octopus and
just gorgeous gorgeous food. Our final trip to Bangkok was my only
disappointment, we set of mega early and it was 2 hours away, that was fine,
when we got there we were dropped at a huge shopping center and told that it
was an hour and a half each way to see anything anyone wanted to see, not
cos it was overly far but cos it was gridlocked traffic wise. We went on the
sky train to the river and took a river boat trip for an hour and a half,
not organised just under our own steam, we saw plenty but nothing at the
same time if you know what I mean, I’m glad I went and I enjoyed the river,
it was manically busy and we saw the back of huge impressive temples and how
people lived, but there wasn’t time for more. The nature of the beast I
think, one day in that sort of traffic. We set off back as we were told
getting back may take longer than expected and found the skytrain easy
enough, not clear signs but I just asked with a map and people were helpful,
pointing which platform and which stop. We got back with two hours to kill
as the journey was not long and just wandered around quite mundane shops
killing time. Not a good trip but maybe that was down to us. That was out
last day on board and the cruise director had organised the ladyboys of
Bangkok to visit the ship and put on a show. That more than made up for a
bit of a let down in the city itself. If I were going again I’d do more
research before I went, particularly in Bangkok, a missed opportunity I
think. But not a complete flop, the boat was bonkers, a cross between a
formula one car and a tractor, driven by a maniac, loud, fast, like a
rollercoaster ride on water, good fun. And we did the sky equivalent of the
London Underground with no language skills and didn’t get lost. I had a
fabulous holiday, saw places I’ve never seen before and was entertained,
well fed and felt looked after, the cabin was comfortable and bigger than I
expected. But the thing I’ll remember most about the ship is the
friendliness of the staff, in 15 days I didn’t pass a single member of the
ships staff who didn’t make eye contact and smile, most spoke but no one,
not one of them, looked anything other than chuffed to death to smile at me.
It was lovely, not always quite me, but lovely non the less. "

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Bertie Doe

Bertie Doe

Posted
Posted
3 hours ago, BEGINNERSCRUISE said:

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

 

At the top of this page click Community Help Centre / FAQ Members Reviews/Any Ship/ Marella Discovery from drop=down menu / Find Ship / View all 446 Marella Discovery Reviews. No need to look at them all, just those from say, December. Problem is, a lot of these Cruises 'Overlap' so you need to look at Enchanting Far East, Colours of the Far East, Secrets of Asia in addition to Enchanting Far East, in order to get info on excursions. For example Lynne 1969 mentions Langkawi, Penang and Singapore. Debos likes the mangroves and bat caves of Langawi. You'll see negative and 5 star reviews. It's worth dipping in and out of members Reviews between now and departure as new members reviews come in. Also Trip Adviser mentioned by Cuisign, is a mine of information.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Bertie Doe

Bertie Doe

Posted
Posted
3 hours ago, BEGINNERSCRUISE said:

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

 

At the top of this page click Community Help Centre / FAQ Members Reviews/Any Ship/ Marella Discovery from drop=down menu / Find Ship / View all 446 Marella Discovery Reviews. No need to look at them all, just those from say, December. Problem is, a lot of these Cruises 'Overlap' so you need to look at Enchanting Far East, Colours of the Far East, Secrets of Asia in addition to Enchanting Far East, in order to get info on excursions. For example Lynne 1969 mentions Langkawi, Penang and Singapore. Debos likes the mangroves and bat caves of Langawi. You'll see negative and 5 star reviews. It's worth dipping in and out of members Reviews between now and departure as new members reviews come in. Also Trip Adviser mentioned by Cuisign, is a mine of information.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Hartswood

Hartswood

Posted
Posted

Hi Sylvia. Welcome back. We are off next week. Glad to hear you had a great time. As often happens the reviews are mixed depending on the reviewers likes and dislikes and attitude. We have read great food/poor food, great entertainment/poor entertainment and one even complained that Ho Chi Minh City was 80 miles away from the port! Why don't some people do their research!

 

Did you take any of the excursions and which were a success and which less so? 

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Sylvia999

Sylvia999

Posted
Posted

Hi we did several trips

langkawi we did rice museum and cable car ride.thought this was an excellent trip,rice museum was very interesting and cable car was amazing.

penang we did temple and funicular railway,a very tiring and hot day But enjoyable.lots of steps to the temple but there is a lift.

as we were in bankoc overnight we got a taxi outside port,£40 each 4 of us he took us to the grand palace,very hot and crowded but well worth it,Chinatown and the night market 

Pattaya we did ships trip and were dropped off at beach which was ok,not the best beach but the shopping was good there,

kula lumpa we did tui trip on your own,loved this did Petronas Towers,markets and shopping

 

 

vietnam was an experience did tui trip on your own,did the market and a river trip up Saigon river which was very polluted traffic was horrendous loads of motorbikes.

we did chenung beach on your own trip.beach was a bit dirty but they had a big storm previously so it washed up a lot of debris on beach tender was a nightmare back but I believe they have sorted it now.

mallaca we got a very couloful tuck tuk in totown to a lovely shopping centre tenders were fine.

thought staff were friendly,food good although think p and o have the edge.only watched a couple of shows which were ok as we preferred casino

all in all we had an amazing time we were a group of 4 friends all in our 70s 

Link to comment
Share on other sites
cuisign

cuisign

Posted
Posted

Thanks Sylvia

Having been on a number of cruises in the Med and Carib. with Thomson I have always found the standards to be high so I was rather concerned about the organisation at the airport (both in and out) and the embarkation/disembarkation arrangements which seemed to be well below par according to reviews.  No-one has mentioned this issue in recent posts so it would be helpful to have your views good or bad.  Gatwick has always been brilliant (perhaps Premium seating and the No.1 Lounge helped).

My etickets have arrived and I see that there are only 2 ports on our itinerary where tender landing is used an I will certainly make up my own mind about the various tours when we get there, your experiences seem to be positive in the main and it's good to have a balanced opinion of things.

Welcome back anyway !!

 

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Sylvia999

Sylvia999

Posted
Posted (edited)

I thought flying out was fine,no problems.we had to wait for suitcases at Langkawi which is unusual for a cruise but dropped them off just after security then on to the bus.

coming back was fine until we were through security at Langkawi when we discovered there was only one very small shop just selling sweets,mags books etc. With a two hour wait we were hoping to do a bit of last minute shopping.the worst thing though was that they had taken all cold drinks out of the drinks cabinet,saying it was for security.we didn’t really understand this but felt sorry for the one guy serving as he had to put up with all the complaints.

the flight back was thirteen and a half hours.they didn’t serve food until 3 hours into flight and as we had eaten in ship at one it was 9 before we got any food,

apart from these issues it was well organised.

 

I forgot to mention Singapore one of my favourite place,so much to do.as I have been to singapore many times we did the zoo and marina sands hotel.wonderful views there,you pay 20 dollars to go to floor 57 but you get that back in a voucher for a drink.

of course you can do river trip,Chinatown.botanical gardens and so much more.

we had a fantastic holiday but I think people need to remember this is a Far East cruise and there standards are not always up to ours so go with it and have fun.

we certainly did.

 

Edited by Sylvia999
Link to comment
Share on other sites
BEGINNERSCRUISE

BEGINNERSCRUISE

Posted
  • Author
Posted

Thanks very much for all the info..i will now be packing food for the journey home!..Sylvia re"  Kuala Lumpa on your own "we have booked the Tui Petronas Towers tour but hubby now wants to go up the towers plus also visit the Batu Caves and as no Tui trip offers both he is thinking of doing the Tui " K.L on your own" so we can fit both in ..but do you think, with the time you had, that we would manage a cab to and from the caves and then a trip up the Towers (we would pre book the Towers for the afternoon) ? ...also what time where you dropped and picked up?.

Also thanks jaxw17 for the advice about Facebook !there is sooooo much feedback on their page ! it's fab....really looking forward to going after seeing all the pics 🤗...Singapore looks amazing ! ...wish we had an overnight there too!

Link to comment
Share on other sites
cuisign

cuisign

Posted
Posted

Thanks for the info Sylvia. 

It’s about what I expected and seems to support some of the adverse comments on various posts. I take the view that I’m on holiday so what the heck! However if TUI are aware of the problems I think they should take some remedial action where they are in a position to solve matters. My concern is that they have transferred operations to Utapao airport to save money which is not a problem in itself unless it impacts adversely on passengers .  I should get their response soon (hopefully)!

Link to comment
Share on other sites
redsails9

redsails9

Posted
Posted

Hi sylvia,

we fly out on the 27th feb for the cruise from langkawi, could you answer a few questions about the trip please,

1, at langkawi are there plenty of taxis outside the port so you can do your own trips,

2, Kuala Lumper where abouts do they drop you off, we are also doing the K.L on your own,

3, singapore, is the bay of gardens near where the ship docks,

4, Koh Sumui, are there plenty of taxis outside the port for DIY trips,

5, sihanoukville, are there plenty of tuk tuks outside the port gates,

6, saigon, is the boat trip what you did worth doing,

thank you for any info you can give me 

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Sylvia999

Sylvia999

Posted
Posted

Hi redsail

we did a tui trip from Langkawi so got a coach outside port.

i believe there is a shuttle bus that takes you to town where you can get a taxi.also you can walk to a jetty where they do boat trips,the view from the ship is one of the prettiest lots of islands everywhere,

kl we got dropped off at the Petronas Towers and then got taxis everywhere which were very cheap.

it will cost about 10 sd to get to gardens by the bay,about 10 mins in taxi.

yes taxi outside koh sumi

we missed Cambodia unfortunately did Singapore twice but I believe there are plenty of tuk Turks around

saigon river is very dirty and polluted but it was certainly an experience.traffic there was horrendous,market is good

hope this helps

Link to comment
Share on other sites
cuisign

cuisign

Posted
Posted
3 hours ago, Cristaltips said:

Thanks for posting the info, Sylvia. Just as a matter of interest, are the coaches Tui use modern ones? 

Redsails9, we are also flying out on 27 Feb. Can’t wait. First Marella, first Asia, all new experiences!! 

Not too long for you now then?

We fly out on 6 March so will be joining you after your first week aboard!!

Anyone else going from Gatwick on 6 March?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Please sign in to comment

You will be able to leave a comment after signing in



Sign In Now
 Share
Go to topic listing
  • Forum Jump
    • Categories
      • Welcome to Cruise Critic
      • ANNOUNCEMENT: Set Sail Beyond the Ordinary with Oceania Cruises
      • ANNOUNCEMENT: The Widest View in the Whole Wide World
      • New Cruisers
      • Cruise Lines “A – O”
      • Cruise Lines “P – Z”
      • River Cruising
      • ROLL CALLS
      • Cruise Critic News & Features
      • Digital Photography & Cruise Technology
      • Special Interest Cruising
      • Cruise Discussion Topics
      • UK Cruising
      • Australia & New Zealand Cruisers
      • Canadian Cruisers
      • North American Homeports
      • Ports of Call
      • Cruise Conversations
×
×
  • Create New...