Any one in the US travel Marella?

[Missymssy]

Just wondering if it's possible to book, and if so, are there any American passengers?

[2BACRUISER]

On  our last 2019 cruise with Marella there were a number of passengers from the USA not sure how they booked. Hth 

[rodndonna]

Yes, it is possible to book. We've booked as Canadians but not on the last 4 years. We've always booked with the website (used my sisters UK postal code once to get past that one point in the process). We have called  in as well. We have done maybe 5 cruises with Marella/TUI and there is always a handful of American/Canadian/Australian on board. 

 

There are other sites (I guess we can't name them) you can book through if you do a bit of a search for European cruise booking sites.

[Missymssy]

Thank you! I will do some googling... lol

[Missymssy]

I messaged Marellas facebook page, and was told only with a valid UK address. Oh, well

[Britboys]

14 hours ago, Missymssy said:

I messaged Marellas facebook page, and was told only with a valid UK address. Oh, well

That is probably something brought in due to the Covid Pandemic. It may change in due course.

[Missymssy]

5 hours ago, Britboys said:

That is probably something brought in due to the Covid Pandemic. It may change in due course.

Good point. I hadnt thought of that!

[Manchester is blue]

I hope so, always enjoy chatting to our American cousins over a few beers.

 

[rodndonna]

17 hours ago, Missymssy said:

Good point. I hadnt thought of that!

 

It makes sense to me as well and would expect non  UK residents will be permitted to book again at some point.

In our experience it always was a little more of a pain to book since they don't market or sell through North American TA's. I think it makes things simpler for them to cater to a UK market exclusively. It's really much of an issue unless you really want that Trivia game prized tote bag - in which case you may have to brush up on Coronation Street, famous football(soccer) players, Freddy Mercury etc! 

[NOLAGrandma]

On 10/30/2021 at 10:59 PM, Missymssy said:

I messaged Marellas facebook page, and was told only with a valid UK address. Oh, well

 

Doesn't make sense when a recent news article in a Florida USA publication posted 

 

Passengers on the Marella Discovery cruises out of Port Canaveral are expected to be a mix of Americans and residents of the United Kingdom

 

[Missymssy]

13 hours ago, NOLAGrandma said:

 

Doesn't make sense when a recent news article in a Florida USA publication posted 

 

Passengers on the Marella Discovery cruises out of Port Canaveral are expected to be a mix of Americans and residents of the United Kingdom

 

Perhaps only US citizens it departs from the US? I found it odd too. Came right from MSC tho....

[2BACRUISER]

Marella will be selling destinations from port Canaveral as fly cruise packages from the uk much the same as they do the Caribbean. Not sure who their US subsidiary is for US sales. 

[ferretktf]

Given that all Marella Cruises can also be booked "Cruise Only" and don't mandate "FlyCruise", I don't see what would prevent any "foreign national" or Travel Agent from booking them, if they arranged their own transport to and from the Cruise Terminal (i.e. an alternate flight)

[Pensioncruiser]

Think the payment has to be on a UK card🤔

[rodndonna]

On 11/24/2021 at 11:46 AM, Pensioncruiser said:

Think the payment has to be on a UK card🤔

 

In the past (preCovid) the software for booking on the Thomson/Marella site would 'burp and fail' with a non-Uk postal code for the credit card billing. If you called in or used 3rd party, it was not an issue.  A workaround we used to book online was to just put in a UK postal code (I used my sisters) and then put in the proper postal code in the address field so they had all the correct required info.

[mainelycruising]

I suspect that the issue is that Marella controls (as far as I am aware) all sales of its cruise products, either online or through a Marella-affiliated travel agency.  That way, it retains all of the commission that it would normally have to pay to a foreign travel consortium - such as Expedia Cruises. This would be an intended business plan.  There may be also a number of other hurdles to selling abroad to foreigners: membership of CLIA, ATOL, etc etc - and the need to create a foreign company to handle all foreign tax affairs.  

 

IMHO Marella's strong point is that it is a British product for a British community, and does not try to be international in its appeal (unlike MSC).   Frankly, I cannot see its appeal for Floridians sailing from Cape Canaveral; the ships are (let's be honest) a generation old, and Carnival, RCCL, Norwegian et all have newer products in huge numbers sailing from Floridian ports.  Does Marella have its own private Bahamian island?  I doubt many Americans would be excited by a former RCCL ship built in 1995!

 

There may be a few Americans or Canadians who want to book a Marella cruise, and one poster here has found a way around the roadblocks, although I would be careful about this. If ICE agents at Cape Canaveral discover the real address does not match the one used in booking, it could cause issues. 

 

Good luck!

 

 

Edited November 27, 2021 by mainelycruising

[rodndonna]

11 hours ago, mainelycruising said:

 

There may be a few Americans or Canadians who want to book a Marella cruise, and one poster here has found a way around the roadblocks, although I would be careful about this. If ICE agents at Cape Canaveral discover the real address does not match the one used in booking, it could cause issues. 

 

Good luck!

 

 

 

In our experience booking as Canadians, it was purely the postal code against the on-line credit card check for "BILLING" purposes that fails as it is trying to say "is this a valid postal code" - for "billing".  The booking has our full "REAL" complete address as passengers and they always have known we were non-UK residents before boarding (our passports must be validated at each port in a Euro cruise and they keep them at the desk/checkin, so our checkin/out is slightly different in Europe being non-UK passport holders). 

 

Caribbean cruises they are actually sold through Canadian agents, so we are definitely  'allowed' to book and travel  on Marella and will not get into any trouble for doing so.

[CoasterGuy]

I was hoping there would be some Americans on this forum who have sailed Marella. What's drawn me to them is they have child-free sailings, in addition to a good amount of drinks being included as standard. Unfortunately it doesn't look like any of the childfree sailings will be on the upcoming Port Canaveral itineraries however. Looks like I would have to fly to Barbados or somewhere in Europe to go on those (for now). 

[idh2019]

We met several Canadians on a Jamaica/Cuba/Mexico Marella cruise in 2019. They had flown into Montego Bay from Canada on a Sunwings flight. They did not realise it was a UK cruise ship with mainly UK passengers and hence got a nasty surprise when they realised the prices were UK pounds.

 

Hence 3 years ago, Canadians could book Marella cruises, probably via travel agents.

Edited March 2, 2022 by idh2019

[mickey89]

Why would they, the ships are so inferior to the modern ones.  All Marella’s ship are ex RCL / Celebrity past their sell by date.

[davecttr]

9 hours ago, mickey89 said:

Why would they, the ships are so inferior to the modern ones.  All Marella’s ship are ex RCL / Celebrity past their sell by date.

Been on many Marella cruises Mickey? How about P&O's older ships?, inferior to Marella's old ships IMO

[mickey89]

I have not cruised on any Marella cruises, but did go on Celebrity Century over 20 years ago which is now reborn as Explorer2. I think Marella maybe a good intro to cruising but not for me. Tried P&O Britannia, never to be repeated, not good at all. Will stick with Celebrity, enjoy your choice……..

[idh2019]

We've done 5 Marella cruises (Mediterranean, Caribbean,  Far East, Canaries, UK) with 2 more planned for 2022.

 

We've done 1 Celebrity to Alaska, 1 cancelled to Hawaii because of Covid, and 1 coming up in June to Eastern Med.

 

Food on Celebrity is better which is why my wife will happily let me book another cruise with them, and they go to places Marella does not.

 

However if you want fewer sea days (= more ports visited), Marella takes some beating. On a 14 day cruise, there are typically just 2 sea days. Compare to Celebrity and other cruise lines.

 

Ultimately we choose our cruises by the itinerary. We are running out of Marella options until they get the Far East up and running again (or reduce the number of Adriatic sailings covering the same ports).

 

Let's see what 2023 brings and who we cruise with 😁