A lovely Autumn cruise
Marella Explorer 2 Cruise Review
Contributor Level:
Second Mate
Cruises: 7+ cruises
Reviews: 12
Helpful Votes: 161
Adriatic Affair
Sail date: October 06, 2022
Ship: Marella Explorer 2
Traveled as: Couple
Reviewed: 1 year ago
Review summary
A good cruise. What we hadn't realised going so late in the season was that we arrived earlier and usually sailed away earlier, so there was some light for manoeuvring the ship. This gave us some very early get-ups for tours.Embarkation
Good quick embarkation. A very early flight 6am, meant we got there before the crowds
Ship experiences
Food and Dining
Evening tapas area was great. MDR was fine but repetitive this late in the season. Didn't do the speciality restaurants and only a single visit to the buffet in the evening.
Onboard Activities
Did as many quizes as possible. Had the feeling that the questions were the same each week, so the fortnighters got more of the questions right!
Entertainment
The shows were excellent, even though we had seen one before. The groups were little more than background music
Service and Staff
Room stewards were amazing and kept the room immaculate. All other crew were good, but I suspect that there was a gradual change in the crew. There were usually a couple of dozen getting off in each port and replacements coming on.
Ship Quality
The ship was kept spotless. The layout was OK but different from the last ship we were on so kept going to the stern instead off the bow and vice versa.
Cabin / Stateroom
Good sized cabin as it was a suite. It was always kept spotless by the stewards. It was warm enough to use the aircon, but it didn't work! The engineer sent to fix it was excellent and also very personable. The sink was a bit too high design for me, no plug!
Ports of call
Did an excusurion to the other side of the island. Visited some interesting places and saw some incredible views
Thumbs Up
1
Didn't do an excursion, just walked into town and got on the road train. It is a lovely old city with the quirkiest Bell Tower ever.
The re-embarkation was bad, as having British passports we had to give them up for all Schengen ports and use our ship cards to enter the port. Trouble! Only one person scanning and queue around the block. The port and ship fell out big time! Left on time though, after they drafted some extra help.
This was only port we had visited before. We did a Tuk -tuk tour to the very contrasting town of Tivat and then came back over the tops with some excellent views of Kotor below. Went for a beer in the town.
Malta is an amazing place. Didn't do an excursion, but hired a taxi to take us to the highlights, of fishing villages, Mdina, and the blue grotto.
Had a walk through Valletta, and a beer, what a place. Will have to come back for more.
Short stay in this port. Had booked a dolphin watching trip, but this was cancelled due to "bad" weather.
Had to catch shuttle bus to town or you couldn't leave the port. The place left me unimpressed, until the gelato waiting for the shuttle, which definitely added a star. It was heavenly!
Disembarked here and had a 3 day hotel stay. Gave us plenty of time to explore this wonderful city
Disembarkation
Quick. We were the first group off for an 8am pick up