Marella

[Bazrat]

9 minutes ago, oxygenbanditnot said:

We were in Explorer 1 Jan just gone. Muster drill was done correctly and everyone's cruise/id/door card was "scanned". No one could avoid it.

We had exactly the same happen to us they would not start till every one was present,you of course get the couple who turn up late.

[oxygenbanditnot]

Our Captain had a secondary muster the following night partly for the those who didn't turn up but also for new arrivals. We joined at Tenerife and more the next day at Gran Canaria. 

[msk1955]

Can't see much point.  Only a small percentage of cruise passengers are on this website, so any responses won't give a true reflection of the situation.  Up to you though.

[brian1]

I can't comment on the Dream,it's one of the small older ships.IMO the "newer" larger ships offer a lot more.

Edited February 24, 2020 by brian1

[Bazrat]

37 minutes ago, msk1955 said:

Can't see much point.  Only a small percentage of cruise passengers are on this website, so any responses won't give a true reflection of the situation.  Up to you though.

Actually I would not like to cruise on a ship that does not take safety as a matter of great importance, like you say they disregarded the muster drill did not swipe your cards so people obviously could have missed a safety critical drill.

[Adawn47]

On 2/12/2020 at 3:39 PM, AndyMichelle said:

Yeah, how come women can do that? 

You don't often see posts about the lady on the next table being scruffy, it's always a man.. 

Andy 

We have class and style Andy. Just ask Michelle, she'll agree with me. 😉

[2BACRUISER]

On 2/12/2020 at 3:39 PM, AndyMichelle said:

Yeah, how come women can do that? 

You don't often see posts about the lady on the next table being scruffy, it's always a man.. 

Andy 

Have to say with Marella it depends on the ship on Ex2 (adult oly) very few who didn't do their form of formal Dress to Impress think i only saw one couple in trackies & shorts thewhole night but on Discovery 2 it was more like 50% just didn't bother there were some right sights (imho) and that was the women lol!! 

i should add this is one of the reasons we are (corona virus permiting lol) trying to get booked with P&O!

Edited February 25, 2020 by 2BACRUISER

[Adawn47]

And the reason we stay with them.

[vwgolf]

We started our cruising life with Thomsons before it came Marella. Having been with several cruise lines now I think it's safe to say that Marella is pretty much on a par with P&O, or at least when P&O has become. The ships tend to be older and a little rougher round the edges and the food and entertainment is about the same quality as P&O. Where Marella wins hands down is the friendliness of their crew; perhaps over-friendly for some tastes but it suits us.

[Britboys]

3 hours ago, vwgolf said:

We started our cruising life with Thomsons before it came Marella. Having been with several cruise lines now I think it's safe to say that Marella is pretty much on a par with P&O, or at least when P&O has become. The ships tend to be older and a little rougher round the edges and the food and entertainment is about the same quality as P&O. Where Marella wins hands down is the friendliness of their crew; perhaps over-friendly for some tastes but it suits us.

I guess like any cruise and cruise line, it depends when you sail and on what ship.  I've only done one Marella cruise (on D2) and thought the quality and/or condition of the furniture and fittings was poor in comparison to Oriana & Aurora, which are a similar age.  Likewise, the food.  The crew were certainly not rude in any way but our table waiter (had the same table every night with other solos), most bar staff, cabin steward and the reception staff could certainly not be described as friendly. It really isn't down to me either - I am always friendly and smiley to all crew.  I do fully appreciate however that one particular cruise is not necessarily representative of the overall experience of a line.

[davecttr]

I find that Marella Explorer is certainly not rough around the edges. It looks modern and there are extensive facilities, more so then P&O Oceana. As for food it is very subjective and I am no expert as I tend to graze, more so nowadays as a side effect of medication I seldom feel hungry. Explorer has 5 'free' food venues, 6 if you include the snack shack on the pool deck. there are also 4 cover charge venues. The Dining Club, Surf and Turf, Kora La (eastern fusion) and Umi Sushi.

[AchileLauro]

4 hours ago, vwgolf said:

We started our cruising life with Thomsons before it came Marella. Having been with several cruise lines now I think it's safe to say that Marella is pretty much on a par with P&O, or at least when P&O has become. The ships tend to be older and a little rougher round the edges and the food and entertainment is about the same quality as P&O. Where Marella wins hands down is the friendliness of their crew; perhaps over-friendly for some tastes but it suits us.

 

We cruised with Marella just prior to Christmas. It was our first cruise with that company though we have sailed with other companies many times before. The only complaint that we had was that the swimming pool on Marella Dream was unheated.

While we have never had any complaints about any of the staff on P&O (other than reception staff which seem to operate entirely different to all other crew members) we found the staff on the Marella Dream exceptional. The standard of the food in the main dinning room where we took most of our meals was particularly good also. Rather strangely we did notice though that a significant number of passengers appeared to avoid the main dinning room and just used one of the two excellent self-service restaurants for all their meals. 

We considered both the food and the general ambiance of the self-service restaurants on Dream to be better than on any of the P&O ships that we have sailed, even Aurora which is our favourite P&O ship. We would definitely consider sailing on Dream again at some time in the future.

Edited February 26, 2020 by AchileLauro

[Bazrat]

I cruised we both last year they are really not after the same type of cruisers, on both cruises the food booze entertainment was similar and good both were adult only ships, what the difference to us was  P&O formal nights and just the general way people dressed, some of the bars on explorer 2 was very quite were as on Arcadia there was always some entertainment, the ships conditions Arcadia looked in better shape would we cruise with marella again yes.