POLL - you pick cabin or allow Marella?

[Bertie Doe]

Reading a thread on another cruise line, a lady's holiday was marred when her outside "guarantee cabin" was behind some lifeboat davits and her view was totally obstructed. Looking in the catalogue under the section 'Meet the fleet' none of  Marella's fleet seems to have obstructed view, so this may not be an issue.

We mostly prefer to pay the £25 pp charge and book our own cabin number. However if there's a last minute mini-break, on an inside cabin, at a giveaway price, we'll be happy to let Marella pick. Meanwhile, you may like to guess why I'd like this poll 🙂  The options are :-

 

a) Mostly I prefer to select a cabin.

 

b) Mostly I'm happy to let Marella pick the cabin.

 

 

[davecttr]

No voting buttons?

[insidecabin]

Some grades have cabins in poor locations others don't so you can take pot luck.

 

Now you have the pick a cabin option you can see which cabins fall into the grade you picked and decide if they all look OK.

 

On cheap late trips where you get under min spend for a discount code picking a cabin is one option to raise the price to trigger the discount.

 

Often late deals the code is for £50, so the cabin choice is effectively free.

[Pensioncruiser]

2 hours ago, MrSilversurf said:

Meet the fleet' none of  Marella's fleet seems to have obstructed view, so this may not be an issue.

Hi MrSilversurf if you look in the brochure all obstructed view cabins are indicated with a half filled in square. We always book early and select our cabin. 👍 

Edited March 2, 2020 by Pensioncruiser

[nancyneptune]

I have been watching the price of a cruise for a few weeks. Not only has the price of the cruise gone up and down like a yoyo but the cabin supplement has changed from day to day.  It has been anything from £25 to £125. 

Clicking on the Pay £50 to select your cabin allows you to see how many cabins are available and the location of those cabins. 

 

Now here's the thing that puzzles me.  Last week there were only 13 cabins left on deck 4 /5. 

Yesterday there were 43.

 

So have people upgraded their cabins leaving the deck 4/5 cabins free to book ? 

Have people cancelled their cruise ? 

Or is Marella deliberately  holding back cabins early on to give the impression that there are only a few cabins left to encourage people to book sooner rather than later and risk losing the deck of their choice ?

 

With all the uncertainty at the moment I'm beginning to wonder if it's better to wait a while before booking anything although there are some good deals available with several cruise lines.

 

 

[Bertie Doe]

50 minutes ago, Pensioncruiser said:

Hi MrSilversurf if you look in the brochure all obstructed view cabins are indicated with a half filled in square. We always book early and select our cabin. 👍 

 

Ah thanks PC, that's useful, I'll put you under 'select a cabin'. BTW I see we're both on Ex 2 this summer.

My brochure is May 2019 to Oct 2020. I can't see any half filled squares for Ex 2 or any other ship. However there are some fully filled circles on Ex's Deck 8, which coincide with the lifeboats below on Deck 7 but there's nothing in the Key?

A fully filled circle on the 5 other ships, indicate a fixed double bed .....  yikes  :)  

 

[Vitalsign]

As Pensioncruiser says the cabins with limited viewing have a half filled square If you look at the deck plans you need to scroll along right to the end of the icons to see it and usually these cabins are above the promenade deck where the lifeboats are

We always book a cabin as we like to be midships both vertically and horizontally 

[Bertie Doe]

14 minutes ago, nancyneptune said:

I have been watching the price of a cruise for a few weeks. Not only has the price of the cruise gone up and down like a yoyo but the cabin supplement has changed from day to day.  It has been anything from £25 to £125. 

Clicking on the Pay £50 to select your cabin allows you to see how many cabins are available and the location of those cabins. 

 

 

 

Yes spot on NancyN, that's exactly why I wanted the Poll for future bookings. For example, when we booked our cruise on Ex 2 sailing on 1st Aug 2020, we booked it on 1st Dec 2019, some 8 months in advance. For hotter climes we usually select balcony but this is Iceland/Norway so we opted for outside Deck 4.

When we booked there was 84 (outside) cabins available to book out of a total of of 142. Today there's only 32 available. Deck 4 are all 'outsides'. Looks like it's filling fast and it's during the school hols, so doubt whether there will be any price drops.

I agree with you regarding cabin availability fluctuations, which can make predicting trends difficult. Some may be caused by Travel Agent Reserved Allocations  for a fixed time period. At the end of the period, the unsold cabins are returned to Marella. Still, it's a good indicator as to how long you should delay for bargains. Paul.

 

 

 

[Bertie Doe]

41 minutes ago, Vitalsign said:

As Pensioncruiser says the cabins with limited viewing have a half filled square If you look at the deck plans you need to scroll along right to the end of the icons to see it and usually these cabins are above the promenade deck where the lifeboats are

We always book a cabin as we like to be midships both vertically and horizontally 

Ah thanks Vital, I was looking at the paper catalogue call me 'old fashioned' LOL. Yes just looked at their web site under 'Deck Plans' and it does indeed show the obstructed views,

 

I'll pop you down on the Poll under booked cabin number.

[howmuch!]

We always pre-book our cabin. Midships (inside cabin) , and away from 4 berth cabins and  'unknown white spaces'

[dronnygirl]

We usually pre book our cabin to get midship, however we booked E2 quite late for last October and there was little choice. Therefore we left it to pot luck and was allocated cabin 1130 right at the back deck 10.  Loved it!  Very quiet and very handy for the buffet and sun decks etc and saved £50.

[Vitalsign]

School holidays shouldn't affect Explorer 2 as it's Adult Only

[Bertie Doe]

35 minutes ago, Vitalsign said:

School holidays shouldn't affect Explorer 2 as it's Adult Only

Oops yes you're right. I was looking at the next column in the catalogue 'Lands of Fire & Ice" "children £1239, 27th July 2019, Explorer 1" I do have a opticians appt on Wednesday 9am. More expense :)

[Jim The Scot]

8 hours ago, nancyneptune said:

 

Or is Marella deliberately  holding back cabins early on to give the impression that there are only a few cabins left to encourage people to book sooner rather than later and risk losing the deck of their choice ?

 

 

 

I,ll go with this option Nancy

 

Instance,looking at the new cruises from America August 2021.No options for selecting outside cabins at all apart from deck 2 and whats available is limited

 

Not believing for one minute that a cruise that far in advance has limited availability.Must think I came up the Clyde in a banana skin

 

 

For the record and poll.We pay to select our cabin

Edited March 2, 2020 by Jim The Scot

[Vitalsign]

Jim I don't know what you did but I looked after your post and 1st August 2021 Port Canaveral there are loads of balcony cabins on deck 6 so didn't bother looking any further Try again 

[Bertie Doe]

19 hours ago, howmuch! said:

We always pre-book our cabin. Midships (inside cabin) , and away from 4 berth cabins and  'unknown white spaces'

 

I've also avoided a cabin away from the 4 berths. I'm a very light sleeper but we prefer prefer a cabin further aft. If you look at cabin 4126 on Deck 4 :-

 

https://www.tui.co.uk/cruise/ships/marella-explorer-2/deck-plans/

 

You'll note that very few people will be walking past the cabin. Therefore fewer door-slams (why do people do this? I guess it makes for a more positive seal, with no gap). The added plus for this room, it's behind the film studio, so no door-slams opposite.

 

Not sure what you mean by 'white spaces' are you referring to being under the 'Vista' section of the Latitude 53 MDR above? If the plan is correct, I'm very close to the partition wall, so took a chance. I may be woken by tables being dragged around in the wee hours. I'll report back on this in late August under the Roll Call.

[Jim The Scot]

13 hours ago, Vitalsign said:

Jim I don't know what you did but I looked after your post and 1st August 2021 Port Canaveral there are loads of balcony cabins on deck 6 so didn't bother looking any further Try again 

 

Hi Vitalsign

 

Dont know what your doing right or i,m doing wrong but just checked again for that date and under choose your cabin the only option for an outside cabin is deck 2/3 the other options are just inside,inside plus,delux,balcony etc 🥴

[nancyneptune]

14 hours ago, Jim The Scot said:

I,ll go with this option Nancy

 

Instance,looking at the new cruises from America August 2021.No options for selecting outside cabins at all apart from deck 2 and whats available is limited

 

Not believing for one minute that a cruise that far in advance has limited availability.Must think I came up the Clyde in a banana skin

 

 

For the record and poll.We pay to select our cabin

 

 

I was thinking the same Jim.  If people see that there are lots of cabins in all categories available they may be more likely to delay booking in the hope that the price will drop.  I'm sure Marella have thought this out and will hold back some cabins to give the impression that the cruise is selling well and it may be better to book sooner rather than later.

 

When I first started to look at the cruise there were  no adjoining cabins available at all then all of a sudden almost all adjoining cabins became available. There were a few outside cabins available but some had restricted views.  Once these cabins were sold several more outside cabins became available with unrestricted views. So trying to sell off the cabins with restricted views first by giving the impression that that was all that was left ? 

 

Like you Jim I didn't come up the Clyde in a banana skin.  They need to be up early to catch us, lol !

 

 

[Vitalsign]

Sorry Jim but when you said outside cabin I thought you meant a balcony cabin Are there any outside cabins without a balcony on Disco2 on the other decks? I don't think so only decks 2 and 3 

[Vitalsign]

Sorry meant Disco1 and there are 6 outside cabins on deck 8 and 8 outside cabins on deck 7 all midships above the coffee port and near the atrium and that's all apart from decks 2/3

[Broughton]

Up until last year we were happy for Marella to pick. Been in some ones on the Celebration that rattled a lot but that didn't bother us too much. However on Disco 2 last year our outside cabin on Deck 3 was located right under the smoking area on Deck 4. Nothing against smokers but a party of passengers used that area until  well after 1am  on the first two nights of the cruise creating a considerable noise and scraping of chairs making it impossible to sleep. Although we got that addressed would now pay the extra to pick a cabin.

[Bertie Doe]

51 minutes ago, Vitalsign said:

Sorry meant Disco1 and there are 6 outside cabins on deck 8 and 8 outside cabins on deck 7 all midships above the coffee port and near the atrium and that's all apart from decks 2/3

Yes this is most weird. There is indeed a scarcity of outside cabins available. I thought maybe these had been allocated to agents but a quick look at Cruisenation and Iglu confirms decks 2/3 only.

As you say, this is in stark contrast to the Balconies on Deck 6. Both sailings from Canaveral on the 1st and 22nd August show only 8 sold with 89 available (Marella direct sales). Maybe it's a glitch in their mainframe 😁

[Jim The Scot]

3 hours ago, nancyneptune said:

 

 

I was thinking the same Jim. If people see that there are lots of cabins in all categories available they may be more likely to delay booking in the hope that the price will drop.  I'm sure Marella have thought this out and will hold back some cabins to give the impression that the cruise is selling well and it may be better to book sooner rather than later.

 

When I first started to look at the cruise there were  no adjoining cabins available at all then all of a sudden almost all adjoining cabins became available. There were a few outside cabins available but some had restricted views.  Once these cabins were sold several more outside cabins became available with unrestricted views. So trying to sell off the cabins with restricted views first by giving the impression that that was all that was left ? 

 

Like you Jim I didn't come up the Clyde in a banana skin.  They need to be up early to catch us, lol !

 

 

 

Exactly this Nancy

 

2 hours ago, Vitalsign said:

Sorry meant Disco1 and there are 6 outside cabins on deck 8 and 8 outside cabins on deck 7 all midships above the coffee port and near the atrium and that's all apart from decks 2/3

 

Hi V,

 

These cabins are delux cabins though,Thinking more along the lines of standard outside or outside plus cabins like the Dream.Theres only 19 outside cabins available for selection on deck 2 and none available for selection on deck 3

 

Been on the Dream too often so foolishly thought(without looking at deck plan) outside cabin set up on Discovery was same/similar where its nothing like it eg no cabins at all on Deck 5 and delux on deck 6 where outside plus available on Deck 5 and 6 on the Dream

 

Excuse my density

Edited March 3, 2020 by Jim The Scot

[Jim The Scot]

Wont let me edit previous post for a 2nd time so just to clarify V that delux outside cabins are deck 7/8 and not 2/3

Edited March 3, 2020 by Jim The Scot

[Vitalsign]

Yes Jim lots on Celebration and Dream but afraid not many on the newer Discoveries and Explorers