Discovery revisited

[mufi]

We cruised with Discovery last year to the Baltic and found quite a few minus points in the overall cruise experience. At that time there was a feeling of amateurism about the cruise that we had not had on cruises with other cruise lines. The ship is old and it was looking its age, and the food was at times nothing short of disgusting.

 

So why did we return? Well it was a very last minute decision to take a late booking offer and they were going to Norway where we had not been before, and we hoped to escape the hot hot weather conditions in the UK.

 

Overall there was a big improvment from last year. The cruise director seemed to know what he was doing unlike the Ausie girl previously. All the tours were well organised and mostly the food was greatly improved, though certainly not up to Cunard standards.

 

However we still had a number of meals that were so poor it did pose the question as to why, when they can serve passable food most of the time, they can get it so wrong on others.

 

Would we go again? Maybe, with the hope that things will continue to improve. With Swan Helenic closing down next year there is an opening for a quality cultural cruise line to get many new passengers. A couple of million spent on upgrading cabins which are a bit tired and worn and generally bringing the ship up to modern standards would be money well spent.

 

David.

[dougnewmanatsea]

If you are looking for a Swan Hellenic replacement, surely SPIRIT OF ADVENTURE would be the best?

 

I have not yet heard from a single person who's been aboard (!) but I have complete confidence in Saga to provide a quality product.

 

I am eager to try DISCOVERY partly because of all the mixed reviews; I know some people who love her and others who hate her! But her cousin MARCO POLO is more appealing to me, being a "real liner" etc...

[mufi]

Doug - you are correct, Spirit Of Adventure is the one most likely to take over the classic cultural market which Carnival seem not interested in.

 

There are so many beautiful older ships around - we saw Mona Lisa in a Nowegian port and she looked classy in a way the larger, newer ships don't. Also we were overtaken by Minerva 2 during our captain's farewell reception party heading south in the north sea. The windows in the lounge were packed with fizz imbibing passengers.

 

But I think the market is wide open for the more "cultural" quality cruise market. Discovery has the expertise in this field, and the ship refurbished near to the standard of Minerva 2 would attract a wide following.

 

We were 90% + Brits on this cruise, which gave us a magical look at Norway with the high level of quality in the tours. Surely many Americans would buy this concept, or is this only of interest to Europeans. Got to be better any day than the Carribean conga.

 

David.

[Geordieboy]

Discovery is dry docking in November 2006