January cruising

We've just returned from a lovely January cruise around the Canary Islands, this was our seco

nd visit to these shores. We really enjoy cruising with Marella Cruises especially on Marella Explorer, she's a lovely ship with an amazing crew.

Our cruise began in Gran Canaria and travelled to Fuerteventura, Lanzerote, Maderia, La Palma and Tenerife before returning to Gran Canaria for our flight home. Although always in a port the views of the towns and landscapes behind were beautiful.

This cruise we had a large balcony cabin, the only reason was because it was cheaper than the standard balcony, but we won't have this style again. Everything was lovely, it always is, great storage, lovely bathroom but this cabin had one door to the balcony whereas the other style cabin has two sliding doors. This made the room seem darker, especially as the larger balcony means the door is set back further. It's personal choice but a balcony for just a table and chairs suits us and will be our choice next cruise.

Our cabin stewards were great, the room was always spotless with our Cruise News and chocolates waiting on our bed each evening. We had a few towel animals too, very clever folding. 

There are plenty of bars and restaurants onboard which allows each day and night to be unplanned, it's great to just have what you want when you want. Our favourite bar was the Lounge with live music and barstaff showing off their flair cocktail skills. Our favourite restaurant was Latitude 53, a double level dining room seating 1000 people with full height aft windows. The food was amazing, delicious and beautifully presented, served with a lovely Sauvignon Blanc for me and Merlot for Hubby.

We did eat in the Vista restaurant where they do carbonara in the huge cheese, an absolute delicious meal. The trio of tiramisu dessert was amazing: lemon, chocolate and raspberry flavours.

We also ate in the Tapas restaurant with a choice of small plates, as many as you like. Our favourites were the prawns, croquette potatoes and chicken in wine.

On our final evening we had the opportunity to thank all the chefs, the restaurant staff, waiters and waitresses as they all paraded through the restaurant, it was a lovely moment with everyone waving their napkins.

Throughout our week we saw some beautiful sunsets as well as experiencing some choppy seas which meant unfortunately we could not visit the island of La Palma but did enjoy an overnight stay in Tenerife.

There is plenty to do onboard, we enjoyed a round of mini golf very late one evening, I even managed a hole-in-one ... twice!

The Showcase Lounge has amazing shows every night: we saw three, my favourite was Musicals. The theatre is huge with all seats having small tables perfect for the drinks served for the show. The performances are so good, great singers and dancers along with a professional dance couple.

The theatre was filled with representatives of every department on the ship on the last night, a superb chance to show our appreciation. The staff really are amazing, always smiling and saying hello, they work so hard to make our holiday special ... which they do so well, thank you Marella, we will be back ... in 453 days.