dress codes

[sagaris]

I am thinking of booking a cruise on Marella discovery to the Caribbean next year.

Do they have a formal dress code i.e black tie/evening dress?

 

Molly

[dronnygirl]

No, Discovery and the Explorer have 'Dress To Impress' nights where you can wear anything smart. Many do wear formal wear but nowadays most wear smart wear.  The rest of the evenings are smart casual. I usually find the ladies make more of an effort and wear sparkly dresses and tops, some of the men really don't seen to make any effort at all.  

Apologies to the men who do dress well before I get shot down in flames🙄

[sagaris]

Thanks dronnygirl. We have only cruised with P&O before mainly to the Caribbean, but we have visited all the islands on their itineries a few times, and although we have done the Panama Canal on a cruise, it was over 10 years ago.

Are there any noticeable differences between Marella and P&O?

[dronnygirl]

Personally I find them  quite similar. Discovery is a lovely ship, not new but in good shape.  The food is good, again similar to P&O but the speciality restaurants are more expensive on Marella.  The Italian restaurant, Vista, is good and the afternoon tea is very good.  IMO the entertainment is much better on Marella, something for all. But the one thing that stands out is the very friendly staff.  Give it a go and keep an open mind, I'm sure you will have a great time.

[sagaris]

Thanks for taking the time to reply to my queries. I am sure we will have a great cruise.

 

Thanks

Molly

[hammers]

On 1/7/2020 at 2:34 PM, sagaris said:

Thanks dronnygirl. We have only cruised with P&O before mainly to the Caribbean, but we have visited all the islands on their itineries a few times, and although we have done the Panama Canal on a cruise, it was over 10 years ago.

Are there any noticeable differences between Marella and P&O?

Hi, I mainly cruise with P&O and Marella. Since Marella have been buying 'newer' ships and have gone all inclusive as standard, I tend to steer towards Marella. I find the cruise experience to be very similar. Another factor to consider is that in the Caribbean, Marella only have 2 sea days as opposed to P&O which as 4 sea days. Also P&O go to Dominica and St Vincent on a regular basis, which I hate. 

I am off to Caribbean next week on Marella Explorer 2. I was considering the Azura but even though the Marella cruise was two hundred pounds per person more expensive, the P&O drink package would have made the Azura eight hundred pounds more!

[sagaris]

Thanks Hammers,

 

The thing that swung it for us was the itinerary, we have been on P&O about 6 times to the Caribbean and so have visited the ports quite a few times. although we did do the Panama canal in 2010 the ports on the Marella cruise are mostly new to us.

I agree about St Vincent, but we loved Dominica as we booked a private tour with Bumping tours and it was a brilliant trip.

The cruise didn't cost anymore than P&O as we have booked an outside cabin, we usually have a balcony on P&O.

We are really looking forward to having a change.

 

Molly

[hammers]

49 minutes ago, sagaris said:

Thanks Hammers,

 

The thing that swung it for us was the itinerary, we have been on P&O about 6 times to the Caribbean and so have visited the ports quite a few times. although we did do the Panama canal in 2010 the ports on the Marella cruise are mostly new to us.

I agree about St Vincent, but we loved Dominica as we booked a private tour with Bumping tours and it was a brilliant trip.

The cruise didn't cost anymore than P&O as we have booked an outside cabin, we usually have a balcony on P&O.

We are really looking forward to having a change.

 

Molly

Hi Molly, I'm sure you will enjoy your Marella cruise. Regarding Dominica, we greatly enjoyed our first three trips there. The rain forest+waterfall and the whale watching trips were wonderful. We also done snorkeling at Champagne Bay. The problem was, what do you do on subsequent visits there? There are no beaches and the main town Roseau is not up to much. Now every time the ship docks there, we stay on board. If anything, St Vincent is worst. The local Villa beach is very narrow and poorly equipped with sunbeds etc. We have done the Pirates of the Caribbean tour and the botanical gardens. That's it! I honestly don't know why the cruise lines still stop at these two ports. Our favourite ports are the ABC islands, Barbados, Grand Turk, St Marteen and Antigua. 

Unfortunately St Vincent is on our next itinerary, last year the ship stopped at Bequia, now this is a beautiful island and beats the larger St Vincent hands down. 

Terry

[sagaris]

Hi Terry, I agree about St Vincent, the last time we were there we booked a catamaran trip, what a disaster, we sat on the catamaran for half hour only to be told that it was broken and could not sail, not P&Os fault, but there was no back-up vessel so we spent the day on-board!!

 

Molly

[Bazrat]

After doing both last year P&O and marella we enjoyed both the only thing onboard explorer 2 was the lack of music in the lounges they would play for half an hour than disappear,would we use either company again yes and yes.

we had the premium drinks package on marella and would have it again

[hammers]

1 hour ago, Bazrat said:

After doing both last year P&O and marella we enjoyed both the only thing onboard explorer 2 was the lack of music in the lounges they would play for half an hour than disappear,would we use either company again yes and yes.

we had the premium drinks package on marella and would have it again

11 hours ago, sagaris said:

Thanks Hammers,

 

The thing that swung it for us was the itinerary, we have been on P&O about 6 times to the Caribbean and so have visited the ports quite a few times. although we did do the Panama canal in 2010 the ports on the Marella cruise are mostly new to us.

I agree about St Vincent, but we loved Dominica as we booked a private tour with Bumping tours and it was a brilliant trip.

The cruise didn't cost anymore than P&O as we have booked an outside cabin, we usually have a balcony on P&O.

We are really looking forward to having a change.

 

Molly

Hi Molly, I'm sure you will enjoy your Marella cruise. Regarding Dominica, we greatly enjoyed our first three trips there. The rain forest+waterfall and the whale watching trips were wonderful. We also done snorkeling at Champagne Bay. The problem was, what do you do on subsequent visits there? There are no beaches and the main town Roseau is not up to much. Now every time the ship docks there, we stay on board. If anything, St Vincent is worst. The local Villa beach is very narrow and poorly equipped with sunbeds etc. We have done the Pirates of the Caribbean tour and the botanical gardens. That's it! I honestly don't know why the cruise lines still stop at these two ports. Our favourite ports are the ABC islands, Barbados, Grand Turk, St Marteen and Antigua. 

Unfortunately St Vincent is on our next itinerary, last year the ship stopped at Bequia, now this is a beautiful island and beats the larger St Vincent hands down. 

Terry

[hammers]

My wife and I prefer to eat late, then we run to catch the late show at 10:15pm. We then usually go to bar 11 for the late night disco.