Marella Explorer Review

SEEKING NORTHERN LIGHTS 2019

Review for the Baltic Sea Cruise on Marella Explorer
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juliecrossland
First Time Cruiser • Age 60s

Rating by category

Cabin
Value for Money
Embarkation
Dining
Public Rooms
Entertainment
Fitness & Recreation
Service

Additional details

Sail Date: Sep 2019

I chose this cruise as it was smart casual as we dont like getting dolled up every night , we paid £3500 for 14 days in a balcony cabin , the service we got on board was excellent ie cleaning cabins bars and restaurants, even though we paid £1500 more than people with an inside cabin wegot no additional perks ie premium package was £100 each for 14 days extra all trips were extra we worked it out if you went on a trip every day for your trip you would pay between £1000 and £1500 extra for your holiday . there was no advice on trips that you could do yourself without paying for the trips out , which we thought was unbelievable we asked about a tourist attraction which we thought we could walk to and was pointed in a direction 1hour walking later we asked a local and it would have been impossible only by a car to get to and would take 4 hours. as for the ship there was only 1 bar you could get a proper coffee and that was after 1pm all other bars was coffee in geezers which was absolutely awful even with breakfast we used the free sachets of nescafe that we got in our room to make a decent coffee at breakfast no sachets available in the restaurants .. food and drink was excellent there was a 4 all inclusive restaurants all fab. as for the northern lights well the captain only mentioned once that they had made an appearance and wouldnt broadcast this in the cabins as somepeople didnt want to be disturbed at all so what was the point of going on anorthern lights cruise hence i was in the shower so couldnt hear the announcement. when we did go on deck 11 there was no bar open outside no seating people were just stood outside with a member of staff serving hot chocolate out of a machine in paper cups, its as though the "northern lights" cruise was secondary to being just on a cruise to norway we were extremely disappointed with this , it was just rubbish. the ship is good creaks in the cabins abit but as a ship it is good . we cant say anything about the shows as we didnt go to any as we only got out of restaurant at 9.45 . would have been lovely to go to Stavanger at night instead of sailing off as it looked great for a night out as being on aship for 14 days can be very mononotous all in all it was good but not upto our expectations for the money we paid out , we shant be going on another cruise personal choice for us .

Cabin Review

Cabin BALCONY

mid ship nice size ,2 chairs on the balcony king size bed it had a sofa bed also very clean

Port Reviews

Southampton

The system for checking in baggage was a nightmare no one explained what to do before we arrived it was alphabetical check in to get baggage labels of course ours was the longest queue if your name began with Z you were straight in then you had to go to luggage drop off then wait in lounge for your letter to be called to check in

Flam

nothing to do unless you paid to go on the railway so we went for a long walk

Geiranger

nothing to do and weather was shocking so only stayed off ship for 5 minutes

Molde

went for a walk to mold fc stadium and back not a lot to do

Alta

some shops to browse round

Tromso

absolute horrible place just a large port with a shopping centre covered in graffiti best place here is the new police station , should have missed this stop out

Olden

gorgeous stopover stunning views nice walk

Stavanger

would have loved to have stopped here overnight a continental feel to the place lots of fab shops bars restaurants loved it would have been a lovely change to eat off the boat and have a stroll round the lovely bars

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