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!