Looking for Canadian TA for Marella?

[shook]

Good Morning,

Looking for suggestions for any Canadian TA that books Marella? I know Sunwing does but only for the Discovery in the Caribbean. Flight Centre has given me a quote, which seems high compared to any of the sites quoting in British pounds (ie TUI), even after doing the conversion. Looking at the Fabulous Fjords from Newcastle, 25 July 2020 (7 nights) on the Marella Explorer 2. Just thought it might be easier to book this one with a Canadian company in case anything goes wrong, etc. Thanks!

[rodndonna]

From Canada - we have always booked directly with Marella on-line and phone. We have done this for both cruise only and cruise-fly (from UK airports). There are on-line travel sites that do Marella/Thomson but  we always seem to be better off just booking directly with Marella.

 

This will be our first time to book in Canada through Sunwing as we are doing the Panama itinerary. 

 

I think you are as well to book directly with Marella if you are worried about dealing with changes and such. Having another party in-between does not help, but generally makes it more difficult.

 

 

 

 

[shook]

Good Morning Rodndonna! 

Thanks very much for the info, I will definitely book Marella directly online - is it through the TUI website that Marella is direct? I couldn't find a website such as marellacruise dot com or anything - closest I found is this one - is this the correct place you use? I am hoping to be able to book excursions etc online prior to the trip so their own website (as opposed to a UK TA) would be the way to go! Thanks!  https://www.tui.co.uk/cruise/ 

[campolady]

16 hours ago, shook said:

Good Morning Rodndonna! 

Thanks very much for the info, I will definitely book Marella directly online - is it through the TUI website that Marella is direct? I couldn't find a website such as marellacruise dot com or anything - closest I found is this one - is this the correct place you use? I am hoping to be able to book excursions etc online prior to the trip so their own website (as opposed to a UK TA) would be the way to go! Thanks!  https://www.tui.co.uk/cruise/ 

Yes, that is the correct website - Marella is the cruising branch of TUI.  You may find that the website will not accept a Canadian credit card - we live in Spain but when booking have to use our UK bank card - if that is the case you can book by phone.

[shook]

Great - thanks very much for the info! Cheers.

[rodndonna]

On 7/31/2019 at 2:33 AM, campolady said:

Yes, that is the correct website - Marella is the cruising branch of TUI.  You may find that the website will not accept a Canadian credit card - we live in Spain but when booking have to use our UK bank card - if that is the case you can book by phone.

We have been able to book with a Canadian credit card, but it took a bit to get passed the part where it wants a UK address as it expects a UK code. We have just added Canada and our proper postal code in the address line and then add in a uk code in that field. It was really just a shortcoming in the booking site software check. After getting past that, we had no problems using our card with Thomson or Marella.

 

It has been a couple of years now though, so I was hoping they would have fixed that.

[shook]

I have noticed on the online booking site there is an area for a discount code - has anyone found and successfully used one? Perhaps it is given to past passengers? I have Googled looking for a Marella disount code, and while some come up, not have been accepted by the website....just thought I'd check before booking!

[Vitalsign]

The only discounts I have ever seen (after 47 Marella cruises) is at the top of the first page of the website and is entered on booking. It's usually for £100

[GOQ]

As Vitalsign has written it is usually on the top of the web page. The code will seemingly randomly appear for a week or two and then disappear, wait a while and another will pop up. They seem to vary from between £50 to £150 per booking, however you might find the base price of the cruise might have increased, but not always. A bit of a lottery the whole price thing.

Edited August 3, 2019 by GOQ
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[Blondie008]

Tui/Marella accept paypal at checkout - so even if you don't have a UK credit card -you can checkout with paypal.

I link my Amex to Paypal to pick up the avios - I was delighted to see Tui accepted Paypal when paying the balance of our cruise.