Marella Voyager - life on board

What a super week on Marella Voyager as it repositioned from Malaga to the Canary Islands after being refurbished Cadiz in dry dock.

Although we have cruised with Marella a few times this was the first time on Voyager and our first December/Christmas sea cruise.

The Sail Away party was superb, a warm evening with lots of our fellow cruisers joining in the singing and dancing with the Entertainment Director, his enthusiastic team and the brilliant show cast. What a great way to start our cruise.

We booked a standard balcony cabin for this cruise as on other previous cruises we have had a large balcony and found the cabin a bit small. We love a balcony, nice to pop out in our pjs to see the sunrise, relax after being on shore and a quiet space when at sea.

 

Our cabin stewards did a great job every morning and night. In just the time it took to go and have breakfast our room was cleaned, tidied and the bed made. Each evening after a night enjoying the bars and entertainment we'd come back to our bed covers turned down, Marella chocolates on our pillows and a very cute towel pet!

Our cruise was not a Christmas cruise but the ship had beautiful decorations everywhere. The cruise following on from us began the Christmas season but as the ship had been in dry dock the crew had used the time to get the decorations up including a super Christmas village. The first change over day was in Tenerife and from that day the crew wore Christmas hats or antlers; we were still onboard for another day and did feel a little like we had gate crashed a party. It would have been nicer if the Christmas theme and extra headgear had been from when the ship came out of dry dock as the decorations were up and one evening we all had a Christmas dinner. Just a small point we did mention in our feedback.

Dining on Voyager was the one part of our cruise we found a little disappointing. We mainly ate in Latitude 53 which is the main dining room but found less choice on the menu and some meals a little lacking. We were not keen on The Kitchens which although a buffet restaurant was still served from behind the counters, it was a little annoying to queue for one section and queue again for any items served on another.

We did eat in Vista and paid a supplement to have the delicious carbonara which is prepared in the huge parmesan at the table. It was Dad's birthday while we were away, no scampi onboard so we had calamari, with rose wine of course.

Morning coffee with beautiful blue skies is a great way to start the day.

On our first sea day we booked Musicals Afternoon Tea. It is only held once per cruise and there is an additional charge but it's so good. Served in the Silver Fork fine dining restaurant it is a real treat. The food is themed to musicals and the waiters provide silver service, although two waiters are not really waiters, they are two of the show cast. 

Throughout our tea Doria played show tunes at the grand piano and the two show cast waiters sang a couple of songs, it was lovely to hear them singing without the stage microphones. It was a lovely experience.

There are plenty of bars onboard, we loved Flutes with its Press for Bubbles buttons on the wall and a glass of Prosecco before dinner. 

The Head Barman in the ship's pub, The Squid and Anchor, was a chap we knew ftom Explorer, it was great to see him again and chat with the other bar staff who work so hard making a constant supply of a variety of drinks.

The Show Cast were amazing, the best we have seen. As well as having incredible voices their dance moves were so in sync  at times quite mesmerising. Tayah, who was lead female, was also previously on Explorer, it was great to say hello again.

The weather was ok in Spain, Gibraltar and Cadiz but it was slightly choppy travelling to Funchal and then on to Santa Cruz Tenerife. Our overnight to Gran Canaria was very rough, 6m waves with 70mph winds. I was rolling back and forth in bed, head up, head down but surprisingly I didn't feel unwell. There were noises from balcony furniture moving, our shower door swinging and the waves hitting the ship which were keeping me awake so I did take a travel sickness tablet just to get to sleep. 

The weather in Gran Canaria was wet and windy as we disembarked and the ship stayed in port another 24 hours due to the storm that was affecting all the Canary Islands. The tv in our room had a channel showing our ship's route, it clearly showed how Captain Chris sailed back and forth to either catch the sun in the day for the sunbathe and avoid the worse of the storm the following night from Tenerife to Gran Canaria.

We had a great 8 days on Voyager, cruising with Marella is certainly one of our favourite holidays. It's a complete package of good accommodation, food and drinks with entertainment everywhere and the chance to have a day out in different ports. 

We did like the Voyager, it was like being home but with the furniture in a slightly different place, however Explorer is definitely our preferred ship although we have yet to cruise on Discovery or Discovery 2. 

Our next cruise is already booked, in fact we booked it last January as we didn't want to miss it. We are back on Explorer in early May when Marella are celebrating their 30th birthday and all five ships in the fleet have a birthday cruise the same week with extra entertainment and celebrations. 

We are looking forward to lots of fun onboard but also visiting new ports in the Mediterranean including the chance to visit Pompeii. As I write this the cruise is 130 days away .... very exciting! 

Wine tasting on Voyager

As part of our cruise on a sea day we did a wi e tasting in the fine dining Silver Fork restaurant.  We were a group of twenty with the tables set in fours with the five wines already poured and a cheese platter each.

Our wine hosts were very good, the first wine tasting since our ship came out of dry dock so a special event for them. They had great knowledge of wine and the five we tasted which were a mix of Old World and New World wines.

Our first white was Canyon Road Sauvignon Blanc from California, a 2023 vintage it was a soft sauvignon blanc but with plenty of citrus flavours. Produced in stainless steel vats this wine had a crisp cleanest and paired really well with the Brie cheese from or platter.

Our second white was Spanish, much lighter in colour made from Macabeo and Chardonnay. From Andalucia it had quite a floral nose and slightly oily in the mouth. A very easy drinking wine from the Old World.

The rosé wine in our tasting was quite dark in colour. Made by C K Mondavi this White Zinfandel from California was quite sweet and for me had an abundance of dried fruit along with a strong flavourof quince, however other tasters discovered strawberries and sweet fruits. This was paired with red Cheddar which softened the wine's sweetness.

Moving on to our red wine with Morpho Helena Pinot Noir from Chile. A grape always distinguished by its light redness this red also had the expected Pinot Noir flavours of strawberries and cherries. Our hosts suggested pairing this with the Gouda cheese and it did add to the wine's flavors.

Our final red, and final wine, was Bottega Chianti Acino d'Oro from Italy. Certainly the darkest of our wines with an intense deep red in colour, this Tuscan wine made from Sangiovese had plenty of ripe dark fruit flavours. Our final cheese was a very salty blue and paired very well with our final wine, reducing it's tannins and adding to its fruit flavour.

We really enjoyed our wine tasting, a good opportunity to learn more and chat with our fellow cruisers. However we were a little disappointed as the wines displayed next to the event advertising and sign up sheet included a Sancerre but it wasn't in the actual tasting line up. Hubby did comment this to the wine hosts: today we had a call to our cabin to say we would have a complimentary bottle of Sancerre at our table at dinner.

What a treat, the wine manager came to see us personally and yes we had a complimentary bottle of superb Sancerre, a real treat .... thank you Marella Voyager 

A weekend in Tenby

A wet November is the perfect time to look back at our holiday in Wesst Wales, although earky October it wasn't sunny when we arrived,, in fact it was a very stormy, with dy day. 

We have been to Tenby many years ago, before we were married and again when our children were young on a holiday with my Dad, so it was great to revisit. Tenby is a walled town, the medieval walls are Grade I listed and were built in the late 1200s by Llewelyn ap Gruffyydd to protect the town.

There are four gates giving access to the town and taxes charged helped maintain this impressive and important structure. The taxes provided enough income to also build a five arched entrance at the West Gate. In the late 1500s the walls were repaired with the lower sections strengthened, the walls raised by five feet and a parapet walkway added.

In the late 1700s there was less need for defences and much of the wall was dismantled leaving just the West Gate. The walls are now protected and the five way arch is an impressive entrance to the lively town that has a variety of small independent shops as well as some high street stores. 

 

Tenby has an outcrop of rock which geographically helps provide Tenby's harbour and was the perfect location for Tenby Castle. All that remains of the 12th century fortification is a tower; it's quite an exposed position with great views, the perfect position to protect the town.

In the middle of Tenby is the Merchant House, now a National Trust property this house and it's inhabitants played a key part in the  town's trading with the harbour bringing goods from all around the world. Now surrounded by other properties when built the house would have been dominant in the skyline and clearly visable from incoming boats, and with the house having a perfect view of the harbour the merchants knew exactly when a ship arrived.

Tenby is full of history and evidence of how the town has changed over centuries. There was a super Victorian post box, a rare sight and made me think about how many postcards have been sent via this red box over the decades it has stood here.

Castle Hill outcrop is also the location of Tenby RNLI's new lifeboat station, the old station is still there too. Tenby is in the far West of Wales on the Pembrokeshire peninsula and on the north coast of the Bristol Channel with Cornwall to the south. The RNLI station's location is vital for providing sea rescue on this busy channel as it leads out to the Atlantic Ocean. 

Our second day was much brighter and certainly less windy. We had previously walked into Tenby via the road but with the tide being out we enjoyed a Sunday morning stroll along the beach into the town and then along the harbour.

There are plenty of bars and restaurants in Tenby, it's a popular place for stag and hen weekends. We visited Harbwr Brewery which is located near the Merchant House. It had stopped raining and with the brewery being in one of the old alleyways it was sheltered enough to enjoy a drink outside.

We also visited Tap and Tan, this was our favourite brewery who do have a Tap Room next to the caravan site but unfortunately closed the weekend before we arrived for the winter season. There is a Tap and Tan pub restaurant in the food quarter in the town and is where we enjoyed a flight of beer, also outside as it was still dry and in a sheltered courtyard. 

Our other Tenby experience was a pot of prawns fresh from the fishmonger by the harbour. They were so fresh and far tastier than the prawns we buy in stores at home.

We had a great stay in Tenby, very different weather as you can see from our Saturday v Sunday photo. It is a place we would visit again but being the far West of Wales it's a long journey from home, however we can always have a stopover at our daughter's on the way. 

Spanish Wine Tasting

Last week we visited our friends who live near London, they love Spanish wine and food with both their families originating from Spain. Dave loves wine, which is how we met many years ago, and on Friday hosted a wine tasting evening for a few friends. Agnes provided a lovely variety of foods to accompany our tasting, it was a lovely evening and nice to meet everyone. 

Our evening began with a Cava Gran Reserva 2021 from The Wine Society. From their Exhibition range this wine had an abundance of bubbles with a yeasty, biscuity flavour along with a lovely citrus finish. Having spent 30 months on its lees gives this bottle of bubbly a delicious complexity which was enjoyed by all. 

The three whites we tasted were all from The Wine Society but they were from different regions of Spain: Terra Alta Barcelona, Galicia and Rioja. Our first white was a Garnacha wine, Far del Sud Garnatxa Blanca 2024. This was my favourite white, not surprising as it's Grenache Blanc if grown in France. It had plenty of apply flavours and not being oaked was delicious for me. 

The history about Far del Sud on the back of the bottle was fascinating, I love learning about how wines get their names - ' The old Boda Lighthouse, located in the heart of the Elbro Delta where we find the island that gives it its name, was built in 1864 and presented at the Universal Exhibition in Paris in 1867. Known as the Eiffel Tower in the Delta, was practically destroyed during the Civil War and toppled by a storm on 24 December 1961. The new lighthouse, built in 1983, watches over the old one buried under the sea "surrounded by the opulence of the Buddha landscape where the water is smooth and the rice is green" 

Pazo do Mar Blanco Ribeiro 2024, our second white, was a blend of four grapes: Treixadura, Torrontes, Albarino and Godello. I have tasted Ribeiro wine before and really enjoy their crispness which comes from being a region on the Atlantic coast. Giving floral aromas and crisp fruity flavours that had a depth of complexity this white would be a great pairing with seafood, my thoughts were instantly of pairing this with a hot steaming bowl of mussels. 

Our final white was liked by many but not for me, I do struggle with wines both white and red from Rioja. Navajas Bianco 2021 is a Crianza, young, wine made predominantly from Viura that are harvested towards the end of September and fermented in stainless steel tanks. It spends six months in new American or French oak barrels giving a vanilla edge to its flavour. It was quite a bright wine with strong fruity flavours that produced a long finish. 

Our first red was also from the Rioja region, Cune Rioja Crianza, purchased from Sainsbury's. CVNE, Compania Vinicola del Norte de Espana, is a wine brand we have tasted at a few wine events with Heather Dougherty DipWSET. I have enjoyed their sparkling wines but still struggle with the Rioja reds. 

Cune brand came about simply due to a typo in the late 1800s, the acronym C.V.N.E. being mis-read and the V change to make the word Cune, a name the Bodegas have stayed with ever since. This young red wine made from Tempranillo, Granacha and Mazuelo grapes is matured in American and French oak barrels for a minimum of 12 months. It is Spain's top seller with plenty of flavours of dark berries, a touch of liquorice and vanilla notes leading to a hint of spice on its finish. I will always take a sip of a wine, even if I think it's not for me: this wine had great flavours but still not my style of red. 

The Wine Society's Parcelas Ecologico Monestrall 2023 was next in our red tasting, I really enjoyed this wine made from the Monastrell grape known as Mourvedre in France. This wine was produced in the warmer climate of Southern Spain, inland and at a higher altitude to benefit from the Mediterranean warm breezes. A rich dark red in colour with aromas of dark fruit this wine had plenty of texture with its berry flavour and peppery notes, a really delicious red that paired really well with the Red Fox cheese provided by Agnes. 

Our final red was one Hubby and I have enjoyed many times, Papa Luna 2022 from The Wine Society. From Calatayud Zaragoza region, inland from Barcelona, this Garancha, Syrah, Mazuelo wine is made from old vines and was the full-bodied wine of the evening with many layers of dark fruits giving a mouth full of deep flavours. It is a wine that calls out for a cosy winter night, a roaring fire and comfy sofa, although I have previously enjoyed it in the summer with the rich flavours of a bbq. 

After three great whites and three super red wines our evening finished with two sherry tastings: Palo Cortado produced exclusively for Waitrose and a small bottle of Very Rare Oloroso.

I know very little about sherry, a trip to Jerez is on our to visit list. A light orange colour the Palo Cortado sherry had plenty of flavours of orange with a nutty background whereas the Oloroso was much darker in colour and had more of a spirit finish probably due to it being blended with brandy. 

It was a really good evening hosted by Dave and Agnes, great to meet new wine appreciative friends and try a variety of wines from Spain - thanks to everyone for a great night. 

Our Welsh journeys

It was quite a journey from home to West Wales sop it was lovely to breakfast our journey with an overnight stay at our daughter and son-in-law's in South Waales. Our journey took us through the lower part of the Brecon Beacons, beautiful scenery including this waterfall at the roadside.

We haven't driven the Brecon to Llandovery road before, it was beautiful. Our reason for taking this route was to visit Dinefwr, a National Trust property near Llandeilo. 

For over 2000 years this area of Wales has been important for many reasons; an Iron Age hillfort, a Roman military fort, a monastery at St Teilo's and part of the Bishop of St David's estate.

In the 1100s Dinefwr Castle was part of the kingdom of Deheubarth; The Lord Rhys fought against the Norman Conquest. In Tudor times the first mansion on the site was built by Sir Rhys ap Thomas who fought along side Henry Tudor at the Battle of Bosworth. Newton House, named this as it was the new town built by the English, became the home of the Lord Dynevors who were significant families in South Wales. 

After hundreds of years being passed down through the family the huge park became owned by the National Trust in the late 1980s and Newton House a few years later. Dinefwr Castle is a ruined castle which stands high above the house, it is owned and looked after by Cadw. 

Because of time and the very wet weather we only visited the house which was very interesting although the furniture was not original to the property, only the blue clock belonged to the family.

  

After a super weekend in Tenby we journeyed on to New Quay on the west coast of Wales. Our journey took us through Narbeth where we had a coffee stop along side the river, it was so peaceful.

Narbeth castle is also now a ruin with the history of being the place where the last dragon in Wales was killed. There was a very impressive dragon above the gateway.

We had a lovely time exploring the west of Wales including a trip to Cardigan where there was a cardigan hanging in the market hall. It was made by local people in 2010 with support from the Heritage Fund. 

 

We had a great time travelling through Wales as well as our two short breaks: Tenby and West Quay. I'll be blogging about our times in each location soon.